20 facts you might not know about 'The Usual Suspects'

Bryan Singer (sorry) read an article in Spy magazine that was called “The Usual Suspects.” This was taken from a famous line by Claude Rains in Casablanca. Singer thought it would make a good name for a film. That’s where The Usual Suspects began.

Singer’s debut feature film Public Access won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. After his success, Singer met Kevin Spacey at a party, and Spacey was so impressed with Public Access that he said he wanted to star in whatever Singer did next.

Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the script for Public Access, was asked at Sundance what was next for him and Singer. The screenwriter answered, almost flippantly, “I guess it's about a bunch of criminals who meet in a police line-up.” Singer had the poster image in his mind and worked backward from there. McQuarrie also brought in aspects of a previous screenplay of his that involved a man murdering his family and disappearing.

In describing The Usual Suspects, Singer called it Double Indemnity meets Rashomon. Now, those are two of the all-time beloved films, so those are some big names to bandy about. However, it was as much about the concept and the formatting of the film as its non-linear storytelling.

Pacino was offered the chance to take on the role of Agent Kujan, the U.S. Customs official who is trying to unravel what happened. However, he had just starred in Heat and decided he didn’t want to play another cop-type figure. Later, Pacino would say not taking the role was the biggest regret of his career.

Singer had wanted Palminteri for Kujan from the beginning, but he wasn’t available. Then, he had an opening in his schedule, but Palminteri only had a week of availability. They made it work. Getting Palminteri signed on is what helped The Usual Suspects secure financing.

Byrne has one of the key roles in the film as Dean Keaton. It wasn’t easy to get him signed on. Byrne turned the movie down because he read the screenplay and figured Singer and McQuarrie couldn’t pull it off. Then, he signed on but backed out again. It wasn’t until they agreed to shoot in Los Angeles, so Byrne didn’t have to travel and get him shot out within five weeks that Byrne signed on for good.

Del Toro definitely makes a memorable impact as Fred Fenster. He’s best known for his character speaking in a very distinct, often unintelligible way. This was Del Toro’s idea. As he explained, he figured his character only existed to show that Keyzer Soze was not to be messed with. Thus, Del Toro decided Fenster didn’t really matter, so what he said didn’t really matter. Why not get a little weird and try to be memorable?

McQuarrie didn’t jump right into screenwriting success. He worked at a law firm before hitting it big. Many of the primary characters’ names in the film are taken from people he worked with at the law firm.

Who is Keyser Soze? This is the question that The Usual Suspects is built around, and eventually, we do find out who it is. McQuarrie’s boss at the law firm was named Kayser Sume, but the screenwriter decided to tweak the name because he was worried about ruffling feathers. “Soze” is a Turkish word that roughly translates to “Talks too much.” If you knew that, you may have figured out that the character with the nickname “Verbal” was more than meets the eye.

The five criminals of the movie meet when they are brought in for a police lineup. It wasn’t supposed to be a funny scene, but the actors kept cracking each other up and started trying to get the taciturn Byrne to break. This annoyed Singer, who tried to get them to get serious. That didn’t work, so he used one of the takes where the actors are messing around.

During the movie, some emeralds are stolen. They could have been fakes, sure, but they weren’t. Instead, real gemstones were used, meaning actual emeralds were on set.

Shooting the underground parking garage robbery took a while. Namely, it took 18 hours. Singer was still not happy with what he had and wanted to keep shooting. The only thing that stood in the way was the film’s bonding company threatening to shut production down.

Redfoot flicks his cigarette at McManus, and it was supposed to hit him in the check. Cigarettes aren’t the most accurate projectile, though. The cigarette hit Stephen Baldwin in the face, and his genuine reaction is in the movie

OK, if you have read this far, we figure you know that Verbal turns out to be Keyzer Soze. However, some last-minute editing was done to the film to lead people to believe that Keaton is Soze. One person who thought that was the case? Byrne. Byrne even said that until he saw the movie, he thought he was indeed Keyzer.

The Usual Suspects was quite successful given its budget, and it even got nominated for two Academy Awards. Those nominations were for Spacey for Best Supporting Actor and for McQuarrie for Best Original Screenplay. Both of them won.

You know who couldn’t stand The Usual Suspects? That would be Roger Ebert. Perhaps the United States’ most celebrated film critic gave the move one-and-a-half stars. He famously wrote, “To the degree that I do understand, I don’t care.”

Kevin Pollak and Stephen Baldwin play two of the “usual suspects,” but their time together was not particularly enjoyable. The two did not get along on set at all, and they had a feud that lasted for years. Pollak has said that Baldwin tried to stay in character and would thus be hostile toward people on set, Pollak included. That apparently did not sit well with the veteran character actor.

In 2005, a Hindi-language adaptation of The Usual Suspects was made. The movie Chocolate stars some notable Indian actors, including Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. However, the film was largely panned.

Verbal paraphrases the French poet Charles Baudelaire when he says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” That quote is also used in the 1999 film End of Days. While that movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, it also has two notable cast members. They would be Byrne and Pollak, who are also in The Usual Suspects.