“ | The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. | „ |
~ Söze's most famous line |
Keyser Söze (alias Roger "Verbal" Kint) is the main antagonist of the 1995 neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects. He is a drug lord with a fearsome reputation in the criminal underworld, who masquerades as small-time con artist Verbal Kint as part of an elaborate plan to eliminate a disloyal henchman who can identify him to the police.
He is portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who also portrayed Hopper in A Bug's Life and John Doe in Se7en.
Early Life[]
Söze is originally from Turkey, where he worked as a small-time drug lord. One day, three thugs working for the Hungarian mob invaded his house, raped his wife, and threatened to kill his family unless he gave them all of his territory. To show him they meant business, they killed one of his three children. Söze declared that he would rather see his family dead than have them live with the shame of what had happened to them, and promptly kills his wife, remaining children, and two of the three thugs. He let the last one go to tell his bosses what happened.
After burying his family, Söze massacred the mob - killing them, their friends and families, their business associates, and even people who owed them money - and disappeared. He never again did business in person, only working through subordinates who did not know who they were working for. He became a legendary, bogeyman-like figure in the criminal underworld, "a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night". No one truly believed he was real, and yet the mere mention of his name was enough to strike fear into the hearts of even the most hardened criminals.
When Arturo Marquez, one of Söze's few underlings who had knowingly met him in person, was arrested for drug crimes, he made a deal with the police to identify Söze in return for legal immunity. Söze hatched an elaborate plan to eliminate Marquez, orchestrated with help from his lawyer and right-hand man, Mr. Kobayashi.
In the film[]
Posing as Roger "Verbal" Kint, a thief and con artist with cerebral palsy, Söze pulls strings to have himself arrested along with a group of career criminals on trumped-up hijacking charges. One of the thieves, Michael McManus, suggests they work together to rob a ring of corrupt cops who transport smuggled goods, and Verbal comes up with a plan to pull off the robbery without killing anyone. The robbery is successful, and the thieves go to hide out in Los Angeles.
McManus' fence, Redfoot. gets them another job robbing jewelry dealer Saul Berg, during which Verbal kills Berg. They discover that Berg was in fact carrying heroin, however, and that Redfoot set them up. When they confront Redfoot, he puts them in touch with Kobayashi, who tells them that they have all unwittingly stolen from Söze, and that they must steal $90 million of cocaine from a group of Hungarian mobsters in order to clear the debt. Terrified of the idea of working for Söze, one of the thieves, Fred Fenster, tries to run, but Kobayashi has him killed. He then threatens to kill the thieves' loved ones if they do not follow Söze's orders.
The thieves hijack the Hungarians' boat, but discover that there is no cocaine onboard. Meanwhile, Marquez, who is being sheltered on the boat so he can help the Hungarians take Söze down, is murdered by an unseen assailant. The mysterious assailant also murders the other thieves and nearly all the Hungarian gangsters. The only survivors are Verbal and Arkash Kovash, a Hungarian mobster who is severely injured during the attack.
Verbal's lawyer gets him a lenient plea bargain in return for giving a statement about the massacre. Customs Agent Dave Kujan interrogates Verbal, intent on finding out whether one of the thieves, former corrupt cop Dean Keaton, is really dead. Verbal tells him the entire story, and Kujan theorizes that Keaton was actually Keyser Söze. Verbal refuses to testify about Söze, and leaves the station house on bail.
Moments later, however, Kujan realizes that Verbal concocted his entire story from details on a crowded bulletin board in the precinct captain's office. As he races after Verbal, a police sketch of Söze, as described by Kovash, comes in over the fax machine - resembling none other than Verbal Kint. Verbal walks out of the station, dropping his feigned limp and flexing his supposedly withered arm, and gets in a car driven by Kobayashi. They drive off and disappear, as Kujan looks around desperately for them.
External Links[]
- Keyser Söze at Wikipedia
- Keyser Söze at the Villains Wiki