In The Movie, "THE USUAL SUSPECTS"..............?

Question

I watched USUAL SUSPECTS a long time a go and enjoyed it a lot. Then I watched it again for free (Comcast ON DEMAND) and it raised some questions.

1. Anyway, Verbal (Kevin Spacey) is Kaiser Sose. But it seems as though he was in cahoots with "Kobayashi" whose actual name we do not know. Verbal calls him Kobayashi but we know that is a fake name he made up from the coffee mug.

2. But, who did the killings at the pier? It seems as though Verbal killed Hockney -- but did he also kill MacManis? It seems as though it was Kobayashi who was killing people inside the boat and that he killed MacManis.

3. But just before MacManis fell and died on the boat, he said he had seen strange things. Could it be he saw Verbal walking normally before Verbal struck him? But how, and yet you never see Verbal in the boat?

4. Anyway, since Kobayashi and Verbal drive away together at the end, they were in cahoots.

Someone clear the fog here.

Answer 1

1. Yes
2. Verbal/Kaiser made sure they were all dead
3. Imagine what you will--some people say strange things with a knife in their back
4. Yes

All aspects of the movie that we saw are "suspect"--the bad guy is telling a story to get himself away from the law--NOTHING he said can be taken as actually happening that way. The only thing that may have been right was that a bunch of people died on a boat--that's the beauty of this film.

He was intelligent enough to weave enough truth into his story to keep it believable, but made up enough to hold the attention long enough to get out.

Love it.

Answer 2

well first off... it's movie world. and keyser soze is one bad bad man who eats criminals for breakfast. so i think that it's kevin spacey killing everyone while "kobayashi" is nowhere on the scene... since there is never a shot that places him there, it would only be speculation to think that he was on the scene.

also i will admit that i really liked this movie because of the great script... but it was a once in a lifetime twist ending. brian singer went on to direct the first two x-men movies and superman returns... which in my opinion sucks fat donkey balls. if you watch usual suspects on dvd, you can listen to the commentary and brian singer will actually list all the mistakes in the movie as they happen. one that sticks out is the palm trees in the "new york scene" where they rob the crooked cops.

but yeah... good movie

Answer 3

I agree with the suggestions for Ocean's 11, or Ocean's 13. You should skip 12. The Shawshank Redemption was a great movie, also. Good plot surprises.

Answer 4

Verbal was doing all the killings. There was so much going on, he had every opportunity to sneak on the boat and kill everyone. There is one scene in the movie where he walks into the informants cabin on the boat and kills him. It was definately Verbal.

Answer 5

Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the lead pipe