Watch The Usual Suspects Online

On the deck of a ship in San Pedro, California, a figure identified as "Keyser" speaks with an injured man called Keaton (Byrne). Keaton attempts to destroy the ship by dropping his cigarette onto some spilled fuel, but his efforts are thwarted by Keyser. The two talk briefly before Keyser appears to shoot Keaton twice. Keyser then uses his own cigarette to set the ship ablaze as he makes his escape. The next day, FBI Agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) and U.S. Customs special agent Dave Kujan arrive in San Pedro separately to investigate what happened on the boat. Dozens of men on the pier/boat are dead, and there appear to be only two survivors, a crippled man named Verbal Kint (Spacey), and a hospitalized Hungarian man identified as Arkosh Kovash, a known criminal. Baer visits the hospital and interrogates the Hungarian, who claims that Keyser Soze, a criminal mastermind with a nearly mythical reputation, was in the harbor "killing many men." Intrigued, Baer tells the police to call in Dan Metzheiser, a Department of Justice agent, who has pursued Soze. Metzheiser is at first dismissive until the Hungarian shouts out Soze's name in anger and fear. Metzheiser has the Hungarian describe Soze while a translator interprets and a police sketch artist draws a rendering of Soze's face. Verbal Kint tells the authorities everything he knows in exchange for immunity. After making his statement to the district attorney, Verbal is placed in a police station office where Kujan requests to hear the story again, from the beginning. Verbal's tale starts six weeks earlier:

Five crooks are brought together in a police lineup on trumped-up charges. They are a diverse group; Keaton is a corrupt ex-cop who appears to have given up his life of crime, McManus (Baldwin) is a crack shot with a temper and a wild streak, Fenster (del Toro) is McManus' partner who speaks in mangled English, Hockney (Pollak) is a tough, amoral hijacker who forms an instant rivalry with McManus, and Verbal himself is a mild-mannered con artist with cerebral palsy. Incensed at their arrests, McManus convinces the others to join forces to commit a high-stakes robbery that targets corrupt police officers in the NYPD, who escort smugglers to their destinations around the city. Keaton wants nothing to do with it, but Verbal manages to tempt him in, by meeting him alone and challenging him over Keaton's girlfriend, high-powered defense attorney Edie Finneran. Verbal goads Keaton into striking him so that Keaton will be remorseful and hear him out. Thanks to Verbal's intricate plan, the robbery is a success. Not only do the criminals come away with money and jewels, but no one is killed and the corrupt cops are arrested. Kint, Keaton, McManus, Fenster, and Hockney travel to California to sell the stolen gems to McManus' long-time fence named "Redfoot" (Peter Greene).

Redfoot tells them that he has "a ton of work and no good people" and talks them into partaking in another job: the robbery of Saul Berg, a purported jewel smuggler. The robbery goes wrong, and the crew is forced to kill Saul's bodyguards as well as Saul himself. Berg's attache case turns out to hold, not money and jewels as promised, but "a lot of China [heroin]" as Fenster puts it. An angry confrontation between the thieves and Redfoot and his posse reveals that the job came from a lawyer named Kobayashi (Postlethwaite). The men then meet with the lawyer and at the meeting, Kobayashi reveals that he works for "Keyser Soze", whose name evokes both skepticism and fear from the criminals, except for Verbal, who hadn't heard of him. Because Kobayashi has detailed and lengthy knowledge of the five's individual criminal doings, he blackmails them into performing a dangerous job for Soze ,“ the destruction of the cargo of a ship coming to the San Pedro harbor. The ship, which will have $91 million worth of cocaine aboard it, is part of a drug deal that will revitalize Soze's competitors. "Competing with Mr. Soze has taken its toll," Kobayashi says.

In the present, Verbal describes to Kujan who Soze is, according to the explanations of his fellow criminals. Keyser Soze, as Verbal relates, is organized crime's answer to the bogeyman. When Soze was a small-time Turkish drug runner, a rival Hungarian gang tried to seize his territory by breaking into his house and threatening his family, raping his wife and killing one of his children. In response to the gang's threats, Soze killed his own family and all but one of the gangsters, who is spared in order to carry the news to the rest of the gang. Soze then initiated a brutal vendetta against the gang, systematically eliminating their friends, family, children, lovers, parents, and even their debtors, as well as their homes and businesses. He then completely disappeared; he almost never did business in person without an alias, and made sure that even his own henchmen did not know for whom they truly worked. With time, Soze's story took on mythic stature, with most people either doubting his existence or disbelieving it entirely.

Back in the narrative, the criminals debate on whether Kobayashi's boss is real. Keaton insists that, "There is no Keyser Soze!" Fenster disagrees, while Hockney and McManus warily abstain. Fenster bails from the group in the night, but he is tracked and killed by Kobayashi. The remaining thieves kidnap Kobayashi, killing his two bodyguards, and take him to a floor under construction in the lawyer's building. Keaton tells Kobayashi, "We know you can get to us, but now you know we can get to you." McManus is about to shoot Kobayashi, when the lawyer reveals Edie Finneran is in his office. The group carefully confirms this. After Kobayashi reveals that he has the will, information and the means to kill or brutally injure the remaining four criminals' loved ones if they do not go through with the arrangement, they are forced to concede.

On the night of the cocaine deal, the sellers (a group of Argentine mobsters) are on the dock, as are the buyers (a group of Hungarian mobsters). Keaton tells Verbal to stay back and flee if the plan goes wrong, taking the money to Edie so she can destroy Kobayashi. Keaton tells Verbal, "If I don't get him my way, she'll get him her way." Verbal is reluctant to abandon his planned position, but Keaton asks, "Do what I say." Verbal watches the boat from a distance, hiding behind a jumbled pile of marine junk. Keaton, McManus and Hockney attack the men at the pier. It seems to be going well, but then Hockney is shot while adoring the truck full of money. Keaton and McManus discover separately that there is no cocaine on the boat. Hungarians yet untouched by the thieves are being killed, and a closely-guarded Hispanic passenger/captive shouts, "I'm telling you, it's Keyser Soze!" Two shots appear to blow this captive's brains out. McManus is killed with a knife to the back of his neck, and Keaton, turning away to leave, is shot in the back. A tall figure in a dark coat appears, presumably Keyser Soze. Soze has a handgun, wears a gold wristwatch and lights a cigarette with a gold cigarette lighter. Soze appears to speak briefly with Keaton and then shoot him twice in the head. The audience sees the opening scene over again.

Verbal's story is over. Kujan then reveals what he has deduced, with the aide of Baer: The boat hijacking was not about cocaine, but rather to ensure that one man aboard the ship , Arturo Marquez, the captive, one of the few individuals alive who could positively identify Soze, is killed. After Soze presumably killed Marquez, he eliminated everyone else on the ship and set it ablaze. Kujan presses Verbal on whether Keaton truly is dead (no one truly witnessed his death; Verbal's vision was obscured by the marine junk), and even goes so far as to state that "Dean Keaton was Keyser Soze" and is therefore still alive. He also reveals that Edie has been found dead, with two bullets in her head. Kujan states that Keaton is cleaning up loose ends, and that Verbal is dead if he leaves. Verbal breaks into tears and admits that the whole affair, from the beginning, was Keaton's idea. By this time, Verbal's bail has been posted, and he departs with his immunity. Verbal retrieves his personal effects from the property officer, while Kujan, relaxing in the office he used for the interrogation, comments that Verbal was spared to keep the legend of Keyser Soze alive. Suddenly, Kujan notices that crucial details and names from Verbal's story are words appearing on objects around the room. Finally putting the pieces together, Kujan scrambles outside, just missing a fax with the police artist's impression of Keyser Soze's face, which looks almost exactly like the now-released Verbal Kint. As Verbal leaves the jail, his distinctive limp gradually disappears, and he shakes out his contorted, palsied hand. He then steps into a waiting Jaguar driven by "Mr. Kobayashi," departing just before Kujan arrives and misses him. In the end, Verbal Kint appears to be Soze, so it is left to the viewer to decide how much, (if any) of his narration was truthful.

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