NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, and Pete Postlethwaite. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 403 Ã— 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (508 Ã— 755 pixel, file size: 95 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a film poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the film... Bryan Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American film director. ... Michael McDonnell [1] is a Florida civil and criminal trial lawyer whose clients have included film legend Hedy Lamarr[2][3] , baseball hall of famer Gaylord Perry and members of the rock band Rush[4]. McDonnells cases have been featured on Court TV where he is also a guest... Christopher McQuarrie (born 1968) is an Academy Award winning American screenwriter and director. ... Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor. ... Chazz Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usaul Suspects, A Bronx Tale and Mulholland Falls. ... Kevin Spacey (born July 26, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor (film and stage) and director. ... Stephen Baldwin (born May 12, 1966 in Massapequa, New York) is an American actor, best known for his role in the 1995 ensemble cult film, The Usual Suspects. ... Kevin Pollak Kevin E. Pollak (born on October 30, 1957 in San Francisco, California) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his uncanny impressions of Christopher Walken and William Shatner. ... Benicio Monserrat Rafael Del Toro Sanchez (born February 19, 1967, in San GermÃ¡n, Puerto Rico) is an Academy Award winning Puerto Rican actor. ... John Ottman (born July 6, 1964 in San Diego, California) is an American film editor, composer and director. ... PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE) was a London-based film studio, founded in 1991 as a European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999. ... Gramercy Pictures was a major film distributor, a joint venture of Polygram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks alongside the Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Berlin, Germany, and Toronto, Canada festivals as one of the most prestigious in the world. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Neo-noir (a portmanteau of the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black) is a type of motion picture that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style or visual elements that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 50s. ... â€œMoving pictureâ€ redirects here. ... Christopher McQuarrie (born 1968) is an Academy Award winning American screenwriter and director. ... Bryan Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American film director. ... Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor. ... Kevin Spacey (born July 26, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor (film and stage) and director. ... Chazz Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usaul Suspects, A Bronx Tale and Mulholland Falls. ... Stephen Baldwin (born May 12, 1966 in Massapequa, New York) is an American actor, best known for his role in the 1995 ensemble cult film, The Usual Suspects. ... Benicio Monserrat Rafael Del Toro Sanchez (born February 19, 1967, in San GermÃ¡n, Puerto Rico) is an Academy Award winning Puerto Rican actor. ... Kevin Pollak Kevin E. Pollak (born on October 30, 1957 in San Francisco, California) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his uncanny impressions of Christopher Walken and William Shatner. ... Peter William Postlethwaite OBE (born February 7, 1945)[1] is an English actor. ...

It tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), a small-time con man, who is in a police interrogation, and tells his interrogator, U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (Palminteri), a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Verbal's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on that boat, but not everything is as it seems. Grifter redirects here. ... The United States Customs Service (now part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection or CBP) was the portion of the US Federal Government dedicated to keeping illegal products outside of US borders. ... General Information Founded December 9, 1907 Coordinates - Latitude - Longitude 33Âº4239 N 118Âº1459 W Area - Total - Land - Water 7500 acres 4200 acres 3300 acres Available Berths 270 Vessel Arrivals 2,813 (FY 2004) Annual container volume 7. ... San Pedro Bay is an inlet on the Pacific Ocean coast of southern California, United States. ... In literature, film, television and other media, a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. ... In fiction, a narrator is a voice or character who tells the story. ...

The film, shot on a $6 million budget, did not create much excitement prior to its initial release and was released in few theaters, but it received favorable reviews and was given a wider release, grossing far more than expected. The film eventually became one of the most highly regarded of the crime-drama genre. McQuarrie won an Oscar for the screenplay and Spacey won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. A drama film is a film that depends mostly on in-depth character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes. ... // The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to male actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ...

Plot

The movie begins on the deck of a ship in San Pedro, California, where an injured man identified as "Keaton" (Byrne) speaks briefly with a shadowy figure identified as "Keyser". Keaton attempts to destroy the ship, but his efforts are thwarted by Keyser. After Keaton asks what time it is, Keyser appears to shoot him twice. Keyser then uses his cigarette to set the ship ablaze as he makes his escape. Look up escape in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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 - Verbal Kint and a hospitalized Hungarian man. Baer visits the hospital and interrogates the Hungarian, who claims that "Keyser Söze" was in the harbor "killing many men." Intrigued, Baer has the Hungarian describe Söze while a police sketch artist draws a rendering of Söze's face. F.B.I. and FBI redirect here. ... Giancarlo Esposito (b. ... For the record label, see Hospital Records. ...

Verbal 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 begins his tale: Six weeks prior, five crooks are brought together in a police line-up on trumped-up charges. They are an eclectic bunch: 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 diminutive con artist with cerebral palsy. In United States law, Prosecutorial immunity (or immunity from prosecution) occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity, usually to a witness in exchange for testimony or production of other evidence. ... A district attorney is, in some U.S. jurisdictions, the title of the local public official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminals. ... A police lineup (in American English) or identity parade (in British English) is a process by which a crime victim or witnesss putative identification of a suspect is confirmed to a level that can count as evidence at trial. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A Carjacking scene from the film Reservoir Dogs. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Incensed at their arrests, the five criminals join forces to plan a high-stakes robbery that targets corrupt police officers in the NYPD. Thanks to Verbal's intricate plan, the robbery is a success. Not only do the criminals come away with money and jewels, 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 a small-time fence named "Redfoot" (Peter Greene). While in California, they partake in another job: the robbery of Saul Berg, a local jewel smuggler. The robbery goes wrong, and the crew is forced to kill Saul's bodyguards as well as Saul himself. The men then meet with a lawyer named Kobayashi (Postlethwaite), who originally suggested stealing from Saul. At the meeting, Kobayashi reveals that he works for "Keyser Söze," an almost mythic criminal mastermind, whose name evokes both skepticism and fear from the criminals. Because Kobayashi has knowledge of the five's individual criminal doings, he blackmails them into performing a dangerous job for Söze - the destruction of a ship in the San Pedro harbor. The ship, which has $91 million of cocaine aboard it, is part of a drug deal that will aid Soze's competitors. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) was created in 1845 and currently is the largest municipal police force in the world with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City. ... In law enforcement, a fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale in a (usually) legitimate market. ... Greene in Pulp Fiction as Zed, the officer of Maynard (Duane Whitaker)s pawn shop. ... For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation). ... Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ...

In the present, Verbal explains to Kujan who Söze is, according to the explanations of his fellow criminals. Keyser Söze, as Verbal relates, is organized crime's answer to the bogeyman. When Söze 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, Söze 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. Söze 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, Söze's story took on mythic stature, with most people either doubting his existence or disbelieving it entirely. Kevin Spacey as Roger Verbal Kint, in the 1995 film, The Usual Suspects This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Kevin Spacey as Roger Verbal Kint, in the 1995 film, The Usual Suspects This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. ... For other uses, see Bogeyman (disambiguation). ... These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA The illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging and sale of illegal psychoactive substances. ...

Back in the narrative, the criminals debate on whether Kobayashi's boss is real. Fenster bails from the group in the night, but he is tracked and killed by Kobayashi's men. After Kobayashi reveals that he has 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. Verbal watches the boat from a distance. Keaton, McManus and Hockney attack the men at the pier. The three seem to be on the verge of success, but their efforts are foiled when Keyser Söze himself appears and kills Hockney and McManus, along with most of the Hungarians. Keyser seems to shoot Keaton, and the audience sees the beginning scene over again.

Verbal's story is over. Kujan then reveals what he has deduced, with the aide of Baer: The boat highjacking was not about cocaine, but rather to ensure that one man aboard the boat—Arturo Marquez, one of the only individuals alive who could positively identify Söze—is killed. After Söze killed Marquez, he killed everyone else on the ship and set it ablaze. Kujan presses Verbal on whether Keaton truly is dead (no one witnessed his death), and even goes so far as to say Keaton was acting as "Keyser Söze" and is still alive. Verbal breaks into tears and admits that the whole plan, from the beginning, was Keaton's idea. By this time, Verbal's bail has been posted, and he departs with his immunity. The word bail as a legal term means: Security, usually a sum of money, exchanged for the release of an arrested person as a guarantee of that persons appearance for trial. ...

Verbal retrieves his personal effects from the jail warden, while Kujan, relaxing in the office he used for the interrogation, comments that Verbal was spared to keep the legend of Keyser Söze alive. Suddenly, Kujan notices that crucial details and names from Verbal's story are words appearing on objects around the room. (Most notably, the cups from which they both have been drinking coffee are made by a company called Kobayashi Porcelain.) Finally putting the pieces together, Kujan scrambles outside, just missing a fax with the police artist's impressions of Keyser Söze's face, which looks almost exactly like the now-released Verbal Kint. As Verbal leaves the jail, his distinctive limp suddenly disappears, and his contorted, palsied hand straightens out. He then steps into a waiting Jaguar limo driven by "Mr. Kobayashi," departing just before Kujan arrives and misses him. A Samsung fax machine Fax (short for facsimile, from Latin fac simile, make similar, i. ... Jaguar Cars Limited is a luxury car manufacturer, originally with headquarters in Browns Lane, Coventry, England but now at Whitley, Coventry. ...

Cast

Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor. ... Chazz Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usaul Suspects, A Bronx Tale and Mulholland Falls. ... The United States Customs Service (now part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection or CBP) was the portion of the US Federal Government dedicated to keeping illegal products outside of US borders. ... Kevin Spacey (born July 26, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor (film and stage) and director. ... Stephen Baldwin (born May 12, 1966 in Massapequa, New York) is an American actor, best known for his role in the 1995 ensemble cult film, The Usual Suspects. ... Kevin Pollak Kevin E. Pollak (born on October 30, 1957 in San Francisco, California) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his uncanny impressions of Christopher Walken and William Shatner. ... Benicio Monserrat Rafael Del Toro Sanchez (born February 19, 1967, in San GermÃ¡n, Puerto Rico) is an Academy Award winning Puerto Rican actor. ... Dan Hedaya Dan Hedaya is a prolific character actor who was born on July 24, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York to a Sephardic Jewish family. ... Peter William Postlethwaite OBE (born February 7, 1945)[1] is an English actor. ... Giancarlo Esposito (b. ... Suzy Amis Suzy Amis (born January 5, 1962 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American film actress and model. ...

Production

Bryan Singer met Kevin Spacey at a party after a screening of the young filmmaker's first film, Public Access.^[1] Spacey was so impressed that he told Singer and McQuarrie that he wanted to be in whatever film they did next. McQuarrie wrote the role of Verbal Kint for Spacey.^[2] Singer and McQuarrie first came up with the visual idea for the poster: "five guys who meet in a line-up," Singer remembers.^[3] McQuarrie wrote eight to nine drafts of his screenplay over the course of four months until Singer felt it was ready to shop around to the studios, none of which, and most of the independent ones, were interested except for a European financing company.^[4] McQuarrie and Singer had a difficult time getting the film made because of the non-linear story, the huge amount of dialogue and lack of cast attached to the project. However, the European money allowed the film's producers to make offers to actors and assemble a cast. They had to offer the actors well below what they usually made but they agreed because of the quality of McQuarrie's script and the chance to work with each other.^[3] However, the money fell through and Singer used the script and the cast to attract Polygram to pick up the negative.^[4] The budget was set at $5.5 million and the film was shot in 35 days^[4] in Los Angeles, San Pedro, and New York City.^[5] Public access television is a cable television service that allows members of the public to use a cable companys facilities and equipment to create and broadcast their own content. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ... San Pedro is a community within Los Angeles, California, annexed in 1909 and a major seaport of the area. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

According to Byrne, the cast bonded quickly during rehearsals.^[1] He also said that they were often laughing between takes and "when they said, 'Action' we'd barely be able to keep it together."^[1] Spacey also said that the hardest part was not laughing through takes, with Baldwin and Pollack being the worst culprits.^[2] Their goal was to get the usually serious Byrne to crack up.^[2] For example, the line-up scene took 15 takes because everyone kept laughing. Byrne remembers, "Finally, Bryan just used one of the takes where we couldn't stay serious."^[1] Del Toro worked with his friend Alan Shaterian to develop Fenster's distinctive, almost unintelligible speech patterns.^[6] Spacey says that they shot the interrogation scenes with Palminteri over a span of five to six days.^[2]

Singer described Suspects as Double Indemnity meets Rashomon and said that it was made "so you can go back and see all sorts of things you didn't realize were there the first time. You can get it a second time in a way you never could have the first time around."^[5] Double Indemnity is a 1944 film noir. ... This article or section cites its sources but does not provide page references. ...

Behind the scenes

According to the DVD commentary, the stolen emeralds were real gemstones on loan for the movie. Also according to the commentary, the scene in which the crew meets Redfoot after the botched drug deal, Redfoot flicks his cigarette at McManus' (Baldwin) face. The scene was originally to have the Redfoot character flick the cigarette at Baldwin's chest, but the actor missed and hit Baldwin's face by accident. Baldwin's reaction in the film is real. As explained in Special Edition DVD, in the "Keyser Soze-Lie or Legend" featurette, in Turkish, "Soze" means "talks a lot" and the reference for that is the word "Verbal." A major selling point of DVD video is that its storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra features in addition to the feature film itself. ... A selection of gemstone pebbles made by tumbling rough rock with abrasive grit, in a rotating drum. ...

The title is a reference to the film Casablanca. On multiple occasions in that movie, when confronted with a crime he does not really want to solve, Captain Renault orders his men to "round up the usual suspects." Casablanca is an Oscar-winning 1942 romance film set during World War II in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca. ...

As described in the DVD commentary, the character of Söze is based on John List, who murdered his whole family and then disappeared for almost two decades before he was ultimately apprehended. Size comparison: A 12 cm Sony DVD+RW and a 19 cm Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. ... John Emil List (born September 17, 1925 in Bay City, Michigan) is a convicted mass murderer who, on November 9, 1971, murdered his mother, his wife and three children in their sparsely furnished 18-room mansion in Westfield, New Jersey, and then disappeared. ...

Response

Suspects averaged a strong $4,181 per screen at 517 theaters and the following week added 300 play dates.^[4] DVD cover or insert scan from the movie The Usual Suspects, personal scan, claiming fair use (does not detract from original work, scanned from legal copy, image is of sufficiently low resolution). ... DVD cover or insert scan from the movie The Usual Suspects, personal scan, claiming fair use (does not detract from original work, scanned from legal copy, image is of sufficiently low resolution). ...

While embraced by most viewers and critics, The Usual Suspects was the subject of harsh derision by some. Roger Ebert, in a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four. Nevertheless, the film consistently ranks in the Top 20 on the Internet Movie Database. It was also voted as having the best plot twist, beating out The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game, and Witness for the Prosecution in an IMDB poll.^[7] Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... A Plot twist is a change (twist) in the direction or expected outcome of the plot of a film or novel. ... For the ability sometimes referred to as sixth sense, see Extra-sensory perception. ... For the song of the same name by Geoff Stephens, see The Crying Game (song). ... Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 crime film based on a short story (and later play) by Agatha Christie. ...

Awards

Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given to male actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... // The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ... BAFTA Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards. ... John Ottman (born July 6, 1964 in San Diego, California) is an American film editor, composer and director. ... The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay: 1990: Heathers - Daniel Waters 1991: The Grifters - Donald E. Westlake 1992: The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally 1993: The Player - Michael Tolkin 1994: Falling Down - Ebbe Roe Smith 1995: Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino 1996: The Usual Suspects - Christopher McQuarrie 1997... Founded in 1984, the Independent Spirit Awards were originally known as the FINDIE (Friends of Independents) Awards and presented winners with Plexiglas pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. ... A supporting actor performs roles in a play or movie other than that of protagonist. ... 65th National Board of Review Awards The 65th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 1995, were announced on 13 December 1995 and given on 26 February 1996. ...

References in popular culture

Films

Computer animation is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers. ... Hoodwinked! is an American computer-animated family comedy produced by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment. ... A depiction by Gustave DorÃ©. Little Red Riding Hood is a famous folktale about a young girls encounter with a wolf. ... This article is about a horror parody movie. ... Cynthia Cindy Campbell, portrayed by Anna Faris, is a fictional character in the Scary Movie series, in which she serves as the protagonist and a general parody of the final girl character typical of horror films. ... Developmental disability is a term used to describe life-long disabilities attributable to mental and/or physical or combination of mental and physical impairments, manifested prior to age twenty-two. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Behind the scenes

Response

Awards

References in popular culture

Films

Further reading

References

See also

External links

Contents

Plot GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Cast

Production

Behind the scenes

Response

Awards

References in popular culture

Films

Further reading

References

See also

External links

Plot