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Cast;
Stephen Baldwin as Michael McManus: The actor was tired of doing independent films where his expectations were not met and when he met with director Bryan Singer, he went into a 15-minute tirade telling him what it was like to work with him. After Baldwin was finished, Singer told him exactly what he expected and wanted and this impressed the actor.[
Gabriel Byrne as Dean Keaton: Kevin Spacey met Byrne at a party and asked him to do the film. He read the screenplay and did not think that the filmmakers could pull it off and turned them down. Byrne met screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and Singer and was impressed by the latter's vision for the film. However, Byrne was also dealing with some personal problems at the time and backed out for 24 hours until the filmmakers agreed to shoot the film in Los Angeles, where the actor lived, and make it in five weeks.
Benicio del Toro as Fred Fenster: Spacey suggested Del Toro for the role. The character was originally written with a Harry Dean Stanton-type actor in mind. Del Toro met with Singer and the film's casting director and told them that he did not want to audition because he did not feel comfortable doing them.
Kevin Pollak as Todd Hockney: He met with Singer about doing the film but when he heard that two other actors were auditioning for the role, he came back, auditioned, and got it.
Kevin Spacey as Roger "Verbal" Kint: Singer and McQuarrie sent the screenplay for the film to the actor without telling him which role was written for him. Spacey called Singer and told that he was interested in the roles of Keaton and Kujan but was also intrigued by Kint whom, as it turned out, McQuarrie wrote with the actor in mind.[1]
Chazz Palminteri as US Customs special agent Dave Kujan: Singer had always wanted the actor for the film but he was always unavailable. The role was offered to Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro, both of whom turned it down. The filmmakers even had Al Pacino come in and read for the part but he decided not to do it because he was playing a cop in Heat. Palminteri became available but only for a week. When he signed on, this convinced the film's financial backers to fully support the film because he was a high profile enough star thanks to the recent release of A Bronx Tale and Bullets Over Broadway.
Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi, Söze's right-hand man.
Giancarlo Esposito as FBI Special Agent Jack Baer, investigating the boat explosion on the pier.
Suzy Amis as Edie Finneran, Keaton's girlfriend.
Dan Hedaya as Sergeant Jeffrey "Jeff" Rabin, assists in Dave Kujan's interrogation of Verbal Kint.
Peter Greene (uncredited) as Redfoot the Fence: He not only sets up a job for the five criminals in Los Angeles but also puts them in touch with Kobayashi.
Story;
On the deck of a ship in San Pedro, California, a figure identified as "Keyser" speaks with an injured man called Keaton. The two talk briefly, then Keyser appears to shoot Keaton before setting the ship ablaze. The next day, FBI Agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) and U.S. Customs special agent Dave Kujan (Palminteri) arrive in San Pedro separately to investigate what happened on the boat. There appear to be only two survivors: a crippled man named "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), and a hospitalized Hungarian criminal. Baer interrogates the Hungarian, who claims that Keyser Söze, a Turkish criminal mastermind with a nearly mythical reputation, was in the harbor "killing many men." The Hungarian begins to describe Söze while a translator interprets and a police sketch artist draws a rendering of Söze's face. "Verbal" Kint tells the authorities everything he knows in exchange for immunity. After making his statement to the district attorney, Kint 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 criminals are brought together in a police lineup—Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a corrupt former police officer who has apparently given up his life of crime; Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin) is a crack shot with a temper and a wild streak; Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro) is McManus' partner who speaks in mangled English; Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollack) is a hijacker who forms an instant rivalry with McManus; and Kint himself is a con artist with cerebral palsy. While in holding, McManus convinces the others to join forces to commit a robbery targeting corrupt NYPD police officers who escort smugglers to their destinations around the city. After the successful robbery, the quintet travel to California to sell their loot to McManus' fence, "Redfoot". Redfoot talks them into another job: robbing a purported jewel smuggler. Instead of jewels or money, as they were told he was carrying, the smuggler had heroin. An angry confrontation between the thieves and Redfoot reveals that the job came from a lawyer named Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite). They later meet with Kobayashi, who claims to work for Keyser Söze and blackmails them into destroying the cargo of a ship coming to San Pedro harbor.
Spacey as "Verbal" in The Usual SuspectsIn the present, Verbal tells Kujan the story of Keyser Söze as he apparently heard it. Verbal's flashback reveals Söze's family being harassed by a rival Hungarian gang in Turkey. Söze goes on a murderous vendetta against all those who were involved. Afterwards, he apparently disappeared; thereafter, he rarely conducted business without an alias and maintained anonymity between himself and whoever worked for him. With time, Söze's story took on mythic stature, with most people either doubting his existence or disbelieving it entirely. Back in the present, Kint continues to tell his version of what happened on the boat. His flashback reveals Fenster's attempt to run away, but he is tracked and killed by Kobayashi. The remaining thieves kidnap Kobayashi, believing Söze to be a cover for his own activities, intending to kill him if he does not leave them alone. Before McManus can execute him, Kobayashi reveals that lawyer Edie Finneran (Suzy Amis), Keaton's girlfriend, is in his office. Kobayashi also says that he has the will, the information and the means to injure or kill the remaining four criminals' relatives if they do not go through with the arrangement.
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 to take the money to Edie if the plan goes awry so she can pursue Kobayashi "her way"; Verbal reluctantly agrees to do so. He watches the boat from a distance, in hiding, as Keaton, McManus and Hockney attack the men at the pier. Hockney is killed as Keaton and McManus discover separately that there is no cocaine on the boat. Meanwhile, Hungarians, yet untouched by the thieves, are being killed, and a closely-guarded Hispanic passenger is killed by an unseen assailant. McManus is killed with a knife to the back of his neck, and Keaton, turning away to leave, is shot in the back. A figure in a dark coat appears, presumably Keyser Söze, and lights a cigarette with a gold lighter. He appears to speak briefly with Keaton before apparently shooting him (the scene which began the film in medias res).
In the present, with Verbal's story finished, Kujan 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—the Hispanic passenger held captive, one of the few individuals alive who could positively identify Söze—is killed. After Söze presumably killed the man, he eliminated everyone else on the ship and set it ablaze; Kujan also reveals that Edie has been killed. He has concluded that Keaton was Keyser Söze. Verbal admits that the whole affair, from the beginning, was Keaton's idea. His bail having been posted, Verbal departs with his immunity. He retrieves his personal effects from the property officer as Kujan, relaxing in the office he used for the interrogation, notices that details and names from Verbal's story are words appearing on various objects around the room. Putting the pieces together, Kujan realizes that Verbal made up the entire story. He runs outside as a fax arrives with the police artist's impression of Keyser Söze's face, which resembles Verbal Kint. Leaving the police station, Verbal's distinctive limp gradually disappears and he shakes out his palsied hand. He then steps into a waiting car driven by "Mr. Kobayashi", departing just as Kujan comes outside. Verbal Kint appears to be Söze, so it is open to interpretation as to how much of his narration was truthful.
Production tales;
Bryan Singer met Kevin Spacey at a party after a screening of the young filmmaker's first film, Public Access at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival.[2] Spacey had been encouraged by a number of people he knew who had seen it[1] and was so impressed that he told Singer and McQuarrie that he wanted to be in whatever film they did next. Singer read a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects" after Claude Rains' line in Casablanca. Singer thought that it would be a good title for a film.[3] When asked what their next film was about by a reporter at Sundance, McQuarrie replied, "I guess it's about a bunch of criminals who meet in a police line-up,"[3] which, incidentally, was the first visual idea that he and Singer came up for the poster: "five guys who meet in a line-up," Singer remembers.[4] The director also envisioned a tagline for the poster, "All of you can go to Hell".[1] Singer then asked the question, "What would possibly bring these five felons together in one line-up?"[5] McQuarrie revamped an idea from one of his own unpublished screenplays—the story of a man who murders his own family and walks away, disappearing from view. The writer mixed this with the idea of a team of crooks.[3]
Links: Wikipedia synopsis The Usual Suspects