FAQ

American filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for The Usual Suspects.

The title comes from a line in the classic film Casablanca (1942), where the corrupt police chief, anxious to cover up the murder of a Nazi officer, tells a subordinate to "round up the usual suspects," meaning that the police should question a bunch of criminals who are known to be prolific. In the film, the criminals are rounded up without any evidence specifically pointing to them. The police are hoping to randomly get one of them to confess. Thus, they are the "usual suspects" because they have been convicted of crimes that relate to the one for which they have previously been arrested.

The usual suspects are five small-time crooks who are brought together in a police line-up on trumped-up charges. There is Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a corrupt ex-cop trying to go straight, crack shot Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), his partner Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak) the hijacker, and Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), a con artist crippled by cerebral palsy.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Basic (2003), Memento (2000), Frailty (2001), Identity (2003), The Big Sleep (1946), Mystic River (2003), Primal Fear (1996), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Se7en (1995), A Soldier's Story (1984), The Game (1997).