A masterpiece of suspense film created by ``The Usual Suspects'' strategist Christopher McQuarrie *Note! Contains spoilers.

Christopher McQuarrie's dramaturgical techniques to skillfully mislead the audience

The story begins with Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) being shot by a mysterious man, believed to be Keyser Soze. However, the decisive moment when Keaton is shot and killed is not shown. Moreover, the burnt corpses found in San Pedro Harbor were so badly damaged that their identities were unknown. From these facts, the audience is imprinted with the possibility that ``Maybe Keaton is still alive.''

This is truly Christopher McQuarrie style dramatization. Keaton's girlfriend Edie, a female lawyer, was killed in a manner typical of Keyser Soze, who also took his own wife and children into his hands. The story is cleverly misled into believing that the ``Keaton theory'' advocated by Customs Bureau investigator David Quillen (Chazz Palminteri) is The Truth.

"The Usual Suspects" (C) 1995 Rosco Film, GmbH & Bad Hat Harry Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. TM,(R) & Copyright (C) 2013 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

On the other hand, Verbal, the real culprit, must not be aroused with suspicion. Christopher McQuarrie created Verbal as a ``small-talking villain character'' who is the complete opposite of Keyser Soze. Furthermore, by having Keyser Soze hold a gun with his left hand at the beginning, it gives the illusion that Verbal, who is paralyzed in his left hand and left leg, is a ``trustworthy narrator'' (although it was actually a play).

However, on the other hand, hints that Verbal is Keyser Soze are also carefully drawn. The seemingly meaningless scene where Verbal is looking around the room is, of course, a foreshadowing that he is ``looking for hints for a fabricated story,'' and he is looking unnaturally at the bottom of the coffee cup, which is the hint for Lawyer Kobayashi. The scenes are also carefully inserted. At the beginning of the film, Keaton says, ``I can't feel my legs,'' which is probably a sarcastic reference to Verbal, who was pretending to be paralyzed in his left leg. If you look closely, you can see that in the scene where Agent Couillant grabs him by the chest during an interrogation, Verbal brushes him away with his left arm, which is supposed to be stationary (it's a delicate trick...).

By the way, "verbal" means "chat" in English, but the Turkish word "sözel" has the same meaning. The strategist Christopher McQuarrie had foreshadowing even in his name.

The film life of McCurry and Singer was divided into bright and dark times.