The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, and Kevin Spacey.

The film follows the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint, a small-time con man who is one of only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells an interrogator, Customs Agent David Kujan, a convoluted story about events that led him and four other criminals to the boat, and of a mysterious mob boss known as Keyser Söze who had commissioned their work. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex.

The film, shot on a $6 million budget, 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 the classic film Casablanca. Singer thought it would make 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 a few theaters. It received favorable reviews, and was eventually given a wider release. McQuarrie won an Academy Award for the screenplay and Spacey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.