The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a movie written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer, completed in 1995. The plot starts with the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), a con man who is one of two survivors of a massacre and massive fire, which have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells his interrogator a story about events that lead him and four other criminals to the boat, and of a mysterious mob-boss known as "Keyser Söze" who commissioned their work. With the usage of flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes more and more complex, as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat.

The film was shot on a $6 million budget, and originally began as a title taken from a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects," after one of Claude Rains's most memorable lines in Casablanca. Singer thought that it would be a good title for a film, the poster for which he and McQuarrie had developed as the first visual idea.

The Usual Suspects was shown out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and then initially released in few theaters. It received favorable reviews, and was given a wider release. McQuarrie won an Academy Award for the screenplay and Spacey won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance.