Keyser Söze

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Keyser Söze (pronounced /ˈkaɪzər ˈsoʊzeɪ/) is a fictional character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. Söze is an underworld kingpin whose ruthlessness and influence have a legendary, even mythical, status among law enforcement agents and criminals alike.

Contents 1 Background 2 Film revelations 3 Keyser Söze in popular culture 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Background

Söze's past is unknown, but the story told by Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) has Söze as a low-level Turkish drug dealer beginning his criminal career in his native Turkey. The entity that is Keyser Söze is truly born, however, when rival smugglers working for the Hungarian mob invade his house while he's away, rape his wife and hold his children hostage; when Söze arrives, they kill one of the children to show him their resolve, then threaten to kill his wife and remaining children if he doesn't surrender his business to them. Rather than give in to their demands, and to prevent his family from having to live with the memory of what has happened, he murders his loved ones and all but one of the Hungarians, whom he spares, knowing that the survivor would tell the mafia what has transpired.

Söze then goes after the mob, killing dozens of people, including the mobsters' families, friends and even people who owe them money, as well as destroying their homes and businesses. He then goes "underground," never again doing business in person and remaining invisible even to his henchmen, who almost never know for whom they are working. One of the most famous lines from the movie, spoken by Kint, is: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." This is a paraphrased quote from a story by Charles Baudelaire, ^[1] but neither McQuarrie nor Singer realised this at the time, and they "borrowed it from people who were quoting Baudelaire themselves." ^[2] When Söze does commit crimes, it is always in disguise and under a fake name, leaving no one the wiser.

Söze's ruthlessness is legendary, having enemies and disloyal henchmen brutally murdered, along with everyone they hold dear, for the slightest infractions. Over the years his criminal empire, centered around the drug trade, flourishes, as does his legend; he becomes, as Verbal describes during his interrogation, "a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night." However, he does seem to possess a very twisted sense of honor. If someone unknowingly steals from him he will generally offer them the opportunity to redeem themselves by carrying out a high-risk assignment, and if they survive the job they are told their transgression will be forgiven. In the movie, however, Söze makes it a point of personally killing his accomplices during the boat heist. It would seem that the offer of redemption is a hollow one, used solely to entice the offenders into choosing the lesser of two evils (a slim chance of survival vs. being killed by Söze outright).

[edit] Film revelations

The film The Usual Suspects consists mostly of flashbacks narrated by con artist Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), a petty criminal with cerebral palsy affecting one leg and one arm. Verbal has been granted near-total immunity from prosecution provided he assists investigators, including Customs Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), and reveals all details of his involvement with a group of notorious criminals assumed responsible for the destruction of a ship and the murder of nearly everyone aboard.

While Verbal is telling his story, Kujan learns the name Keyser Söze from FBI agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito), including Söze's reputation as a shadowy criminal mastermind, and demands Verbal tell him what he knows. Apparently deeply distraught, Verbal describes how he and a small group of career criminals are blackmailed by Söze, through Söze's lawyer Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), into destroying a large drug shipment belonging to Söze's Hungarian rivals. All but Verbal and one Hungarian are killed during the attack. Baer believes there were no drugs and the true purpose of the attack was to eliminate a passenger on the ship that had seen and could identify Söze. Kujan confronts Verbal with the theory that Söze is, in fact, one of the criminals that Verbal had worked with: a corrupt former police officer and professional thief named Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne). Kujan's ongoing investigation of Keaton is what involved him in the case initially.

In the final scenes of the movie, it is revealed that Verbal's story is an elaborate and improvised concoction, made up of strung-together details culled from a crowded bulletin board in the office where the interrogation took place. The methods used to persuade the audience of this included a buzzing montage of voices from the movie, effectively cut and pasted with pictures and text from the board, as well as the "KOBAYASHI" manufacturer's logo printed on the bottom of Kujan's coffee cup. The surviving Hungarian, severely burned and hospitalized, describes to a sketch artist a man he saw during the attack that he believes is Keyser Söze. The sketch, which appears to be a near-perfect drawing of Verbal, is faxed to the police station too late. Verbal has already walked out on bail, his cerebral palsy limp suddenly fading. He uses a gold cigarette lighter similar to one Söze was seen with at the beginning of the film to light a cigarette with a steady hand, and climbs into a car driven by the character he had referred to as Kobayashi. As they drive away, Kujan desperately looks around the crowded streets for Verbal having realized, too late, Verbal's true identity. The camera pulls away from a stunned agent Kujan, and just before the screen goes dark, we see a brief flashback of Verbal's prophetic statement, "And like that, he's gone."^[3]

[edit] Keyser Söze in popular culture

Since the release of the film, the name Keyser Söze has become something of a neologism. It has two popular uses in Western culture: the first is as a description of a legend, usually of underworld crime, which is a result of the character's Satanic presence in The Usual Suspects. One such reference can be found in the video game Max Payne, where the titular character refers to Rico Muerte as "a regular Keyser Söze."^[4]

Another video game tribute comes to us courtesy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City released in 2003. The game's anti-hero is given a number of contract killing missions by a mysterious and unknown employer. The man is never seen, only his distinctively odd voice is heard over the telephone. Some players may have noticed that is the voice of Keyser Söze's lawyer Kobayashi. The caller makes it known that he is contracting the killings on behalf of "my employer," a phrase Kobayashi uses several times in the movie to refer to Söze.

Yet another video game tribute comes in the game Final Fantasy 7, the scene in which Sephiroth is walking into a sea of flames bears a striking resemblance to the scene in which Keyser Söze is a shadow walking into a wall of fire. Even the long hair and overall composure of Keyser are imitated by Sephiroth's character model in the game and scene, leading us to think that Squaresoft may be fans of the film.

The second use of the name in popular culture is to one who has fooled many as to his/her true identity and agendas. This use of the name is owed to the film's legendary twist, which is widely considered one of the greatest surprise endings in film history. One such reference can be found in the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Nicholas Brendon's character, upon discovering the disappearance of a possessed dummy that had convinced the heroes it was on their side asks, "Does anyone else feel like they've been Keyser Sözed?"^[5]

In his 1999 review of Fight Club, film critic Roger Ebert commented that "A lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Söze syndrome."^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Keyser Söze

• Keyser Söze at the Internet Movie Database