The Usual Suspects, released over a decade ago, was greeted with very little fanfare in the theater. It made $23m at the box office and should have been quickly forgotten. Instead it gained cult status and has spread like a wildfire. I think the main reason is the crisp and innovative dialogue. Let's review, shall we?

Cop: I can put you in Queens on the night of the hijacking.
Hockney: Really? I live in Queens, did you put that together yourself, Einstein? Whaddya got a team of monkeys working around the clock on this?

To set the scene at the open of the movie, five criminals are being interrogated. They've been thrown together by chance (or something more sinister), and a solitary light swings above them as they all tread around prison time--Hockney is played by Kevin Pollak, Verbal by Kevin Spacey, and Fenster by Benicio Del Toro. Thankfully they have healthy doses of sarcasm and aren't afraid to use them. You need a line for your next meeting? Try the above monkey line and see if you can get a severance package out of the deal.

Cop: What are you saying?
Fenster: I said he'll flip you.
Cop: He'll what?
Fenster: Flip you. Flip you for real.

This is the first time I remember seeing Benicio Del Toro, and it's classic. I can't really understand what he's saying or what he's getting at, but it makes me smile every time. Throughout the movie Benicio is used as comic relief because he's basically unintelligible.

Verbal: Keaton always said, "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him." Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.

Kevin Spacey made his first critical splash here too, even though he was in the immortal Glengarry Glen Ross first. Verbal sets up the dread that is Keyser Soze, which makes the payoff that much better.

Fenster: You do some time, they never let you go, you know? They treat you like a criminal. I'm not a criminal.
Hockney: You are a criminal.
Fenster: Now why'd you got to go and do that? Trying to make a point.

The banter between friends, one trying to make a point (that's a lie) and one trying to bust his chops. Seeing the hurt in Del Toro's eyes is big fun.

Verbal: Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Keyser Soze looms over the entire movie even though there is no telling who he is. They set him up with so many great stories and lines that you get the picture even without him as a central character. He could be anywhere, he could be anyone, but you know for sure he's the devil.

Verbal: How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?

This is Verbal's reason for not killing Keyser and somehow the cop believes him. By this point Keyser is so damn scary you kind of believe it too. What if you miss him? You'd be in sad city, wouldn't you?

Verbal: And poof. Just like that, he's gone.

Easily the most famous quote to come out of the The Usual Suspects, delivered with the power of a nasty punch. Most people hadn't figured out what was going on by this point, and as I sat in the theater I felt a wave of understanding and awe wash over me. And just like that, before we even really knew him, Keyser Soze was gone.

The trailer doesn't do it justice, but it's worth that walk down memory lane: Trailer.

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Laremy Legel --Mail Me!
I haven't truly loved Spacey since. (Superman Returns Review)

See my quotable Big Lebowski, and Grosse Point Blank.

Laremy ponders and portends on Movies, DVD, and TV five times per week.

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