The Usual Suspects (1995)
Five criminals. One line up. No coincidence.
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 19 July 1995 |
| Genre | Drama, Crime, Thriller |
| Director | Bryan Singer |
| Starring | Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne and Benicio del Toro |
| Runtime | 106 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 7.8/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 87% · Metacritic 76/100 · TMDB users 8.2/10 |
Where to watch The Usual Suspects
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Where to watch The Usual Suspects in 6 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Andorra | Netflix, Prime Video |
| Australia | ARD/ZDF |
| Hong Kong | Netflix HK$88 |
| Japan | Prime Video ¥600 JPY, Hulu, U-NEXT ¥2189 JPY |
| Spain | Netflix €13.99, Prime Video €4.99 |
| Sweden | SVT Play free |
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What kind of watch this is
The hook is a man in a wheelchair talking. That is the entire shape of the film. Bryan Singer directs 106 minutes of a suspect unraveling a heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor, leaving few survivors. The story is told from a single perspective, filtered through the mind of someone who may be lying about everything. It plays with the audience’s patience, building a legend of a crime lord who may not exist. The tension comes from the gap between the story being told and the truth it hides. You watch to see if the lie holds together until the very end.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes rates it 87% as of January 2026, while Metacritic settles on 76. The consensus praises the editing and the way the plot unravels. Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, was not convinced. He gave it 1.5 stars, calling it confusing and uninteresting. "To the degree that I do understand, I don't care," he wrote.
That is a specific kind of rejection. It is not that the film is bad; it is that it is opaque. For everyone else, the opacity is the point. The ending rewrote the beginning. Ebert found it empty.
How it did with audiences
On TMDB, users rate it 8.2 out of 10. The box office data is missing, which is a mystery in itself. Without a budget to compare against, the financial story remains a blank page. We are left with the numbers people typed into a database.
Awards
The Usual Suspects picked up 4 awards from 2 nominations. The 68th Academy Awards gave Kevin Spacey Best Supporting Actor and Christopher McQuarrie Best Original Screenplay. Spacey accepted with a line about Keyser Söze getting gloriously drunk. The National Board of Review also honored the cast and named the film a Top Ten pick.
What came next for the cast
Benicio del Toro went from Licence to Kill to Avengers: Infinity War. Gabriel Byrne moved from Little Women to Vikings. Stephen Baldwin swapped Born on the Fourth of July for Fred Claus. Kevin Pollak slid from Willow to Tulsa King. The timeline lists these moves, but it does not claim the 1995 film caused them.
Where it left its mark
The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay 35th on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays in 2006. It is a rare feat for a film famous for its twist to be judged primarily on its dialogue. The American Film Institute placed it at number 10 in its mystery category in 2008. Verbal Kint landed at number 48 on AFI’s villain list, while Empire ranked Keyser Söze number 69 among its greatest movie characters. Paste magazine cited the performance as one of Kevin Spacey’s best in 2016.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched The Usual Suspects.
Read more: Heat
Sources
- The Usual Suspects on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q132351 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “The Usual Suspects” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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