The Nagging Questions "Usual Suspects" Fans Have Been Asking For 3 Decades

Warning: this article quickly and thoroughly spoilers the ending of The Usual Suspects.

The Usual Suspects' ending is often cited as the greatest twist in cinematic history, but as the movie approaches its 30th anniversary, more and more viewers are confronting the unanswerable questions raised by the big Keyser Söze reveal in the final moments. That is, Keyser Söze is Verbal Kint, but then who, exactly, is Verbal Kint?

Kint, played by Kevin Spacey, is the Platonic ideal of an unreliable narrator. Everything audiences see on screen during the portions of The Usual Suspects told in flashback by Verbal Kint is thrown into doubt by the film's conclusion.

Yet while Keyser Söze and Kint are one and the same, how much each identity is "real" is open to debate.

The Dividing Line Between "Keyser Söze" And "Verbal Kint" Is Actually "The Usual Suspects" Greatest Mystery

The Ultimate Unreliable Narrator, Even 30 Years Later

The Usual Suspects itself portrays Keyser Söze as a semi-mythical figure. Authorities aren't sure the criminal mastermind even exists, and the backstory offered by Verbal Kint in the movie is just one version of the character's legendary origin. Meanwhile, Kint is a low-level criminal, but one thing Usual Suspect viewers have to take for granted is that he is real.

Verbal Kint's interactions with the authorities suggest his identity is real, and traceable. He has a prior criminal history, and makes a deal for immunity. If Kint were a fabricated persona used by Keyser Söze, it would have to be such an expert, substantive false identity that it could fool the FBI.

Given the scope of Söze's power suggested by The Usual Suspects, that's totally possible. Of course, the film's ending reveals that at least his cerebral palsy is an affectation. Given that the authorities don't question his condition, it must be an established part of the Kint persona, however real or fake it might be.

The Big Twist In "The Usual Suspects" Operates On A Different Level From Other Iconic Third Act Reveals

Endings Like Sixth Sense & Fight Club Are Just Built Different

The more time you spend thinking about The Usual Suspect's twist, the more clear it becomes that pulling at the threads of the ending reveal a ball of yarn with no center. The film's greatest trick is that it ends on a perfectly ambiguous note, one which retroactively infuses every preceding frame of the film with that same ambiguity.

Many big reveals tell the audience how to rewatch the movie. Think of Fight Club, for example. The context of the movie changes upon multiple viewings; the twist makes it a different movie, and the subtle clues about the movie you were watching all along become increasinfly evident. The Usual Suspects does the exact opposite.

Every scene of the movie becomes a mystery, once the Keyser Söze reveal hits. The truth is, the movie doesn't have answers to its lingering questions, because if it doesn't contain them, viewers can't get at them, and the lack of resolution is the entire point of The Usual Suspects.