The Element of Human Perception in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects

Written by Anthony Watkins

One of director Bryan Singer’s most celebrated films is the 1995 crime drama The Usual Suspects. Starring Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, and Kevin Spacey, the film tells the story of five criminals who meet in a police lineup and the subsequent events told by one of the members of a drug deal that went terribly wrong. Featuring strong performances from its lead actors, a smart, ever-twisting screenplay from Christopher McQuarrie, and sharp, noir-style cinematography, the film is regarded as one of the smartest crime thrillers ever to be released. This short article will take you behind the scenes of its famous twist ending—specifically how Singer used human perception to manipulate audiences. If you haven’t seen this film yet, I highly recommend viewing it before continuing reading!

The most brilliant element of The Usual Suspects is that the story of the drug deal is told by one of the criminals, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey). Through his re-telling of the events, Verbal manipulates the audience into believing what he wants them to believe, and we fall for it. We can’t help but believe him, as what he says directly follows what we see on screen. However, at the end, we realize he has been deceiving us all along. Of course, director Bryan Singer wanted to reveal this in the most convincing and effective way as possible. The original plans for the reveal of Verbal as Keyser Soze were quite different from the final cut of the film. Kevin Spacey notes, “We had some discussions about, do we want it to be cosmetic? Does Verbal come down the stairs of the police station and as he’s beginning to walk away, shed his jacket and tussel his hair and get into the car and maybe a jacket comes out of the car and he puts on a different sports coat and suddenly he puts on a pair of dark glasses and suddenly physically he changes…and ultimately we found what would be more profound and debilitating for an audience in terms of going, ‘What a minute’, was if absolutely nothing changed but your perception, literally as if the angle from which you were watching our character completely shifted 380 degrees and you suddenly saw that person entirely differently and nothing had changed but the way you viewed it” (The Usual Suspects DVD).

Director Bryan Singer tantalizes audiences over the question, "Who is Keyser Soze" using flashbacks that skillfully obscure Soze's identity.

Singer and Spacey implement human perception earlier in the film during the initial interrogation of Verbal. Kevin Pollak notes, “Certain moments of Kevin’s performance, which obviously wouldn’t change from the first time you saw the movie to the second time…but the exact same performance would have two different readings and reactions from the audience from the first time you saw the movie to the second time” (The Usual Suspects DVD). One of these moments is when Verbal is first set in the interrogation room. The camera focuses on Verbal’s facial reactions. Pollak notes, “He looks bored out of his mind. The second time you see the movie, knowing he made some of the story from the bulletin board, you think you see him reading from the bulletin board. Same performance that you swore the first time you saw the movie he looked bored” (The Usual Suspects DVD). This is of course part of the brilliance of Kevin Spacey’s superb acting, from which he received an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He quotes, “How amazing it is that the truth can be looking you right in the eye; it could be staring at you and you miss it” (The Usual Suspects DVD).

Another subtle moment in The Usual Suspects that gains significance through the second viewing of the film is when Verbal is looking (apparently) at chief Kujan, but is really looking at the bottom of Kujan's coffee cup to use the text in his fabricated story.

Besides being a riveting, well-paced and superbly written crime drama, Singer’s The Usual Suspects has significant relevance for the real world. People we meet are not always who they seem. We as humans tend to judge someone based on their physical characteristics or even how they act. But, as The Usual Suspects displays, we cannot always be so sure about someone based on these characteristics. There is something more to that person, a complex individual beneath what is visible. Although sometimes desired, we cannot read someone’s mind or true intentions. There is always something hidden. In the end, “maybe there’s just a Keyser Soze in all of us” (Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects DVD).

 

WORKS CITED
The Usual Suspects. Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie. Dir. Bryan Singer. Special Edition DVD. Polygram Filmed Entertainment, 1995.

 

 

Here is the ending to Singer's The Usual Suspects. (Again, if you haven't seen the film, please view it first!) The twist ending forces audiences to entirely change their perception of Verbal and now want to go back and re-watch the film.