There are movies with surprise endings, and then there is The Usual Suspects.

This is one of those movies where the ending makes you immediately rethink everything you have just watched. The coffee mug falls, Kujan starts looking around the office, and suddenly all those random names and details Verbal has been telling him begin appearing right in front of him.

At that point you just sit there thinking what has happened

What I love most about the movie is probably Keyser Söze.

For most of the film, he does not even feel like a normal character. He feels more like a ghost story criminals tell each other. Everyone seems to know the name, nobody seems to actually know the man, and that somehow makes him much more frightening.

And then Verbal tells the story of Söze’s family.

“He realizes they’re never going to let him alone. He lets the last Hungarian go. He waits until his wife and kids are in the ground and then he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents’ friends. He burns down the houses they live in and the stores they work in, he kills people that owe them money. And like that… he was gone. Underground.”

That whole story is probably my favorite part of the Keyser Söze myth. The idea is already horrifying, but what I really like is how Verbal tells it almost like some old legend. By the time he finishes, Söze barely feels human anymore.

And of course there is the line everybody remembers:

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

I know it is probably one of the most overquoted lines in cinema at this point, but honestly, it deserves it.

There is also this one, which I might actually like even more:

“Keaton always said, ‘I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him.’ Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Söze.”

I think that line tells you everything about the reputation the movie builds around him.

And the funniest part is that the whole time, the movie makes you imagine that Keyser Söze is somewhere out there.

Then Verbal walks away.

His limp slowly disappears.

And you realize you have basically spent the entire movie listening to Keyser Söze tell you a story about Keyser Söze.

And like that…

he is gone.