10 Best "Everything You Know Is A Lie" Moments In Movies
2. Verbal Is Keyser Soze - The Usual Suspects
Has there ever been a climactic mic-drop twist more stunningly game-changing than that of The Usual Suspects?
Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) spends the movie investigating a massacre onboard a ship, where one of the two survivors, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), tells a long, convoluted story centered around the mysterious crime lord known as Keyser Söze.
Eventually, Kint confesses that a fellow criminal, Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), was indeed Söze, at which point he's released on bail.
Moments later, though, Kujan realises that Kint fabricated the entire winding story, using objects around the office as inspiration to buy time until his bail was posted.
After leaving the office, Kint then sheds his prominent limp, confirming it to be an act, before a police sketch of Söze is faxed through to the office and precisely resembles Kint.
The film ends with Kujan in utter disbelief, desperately looking outside the police station for any sign of Kint/Söze, who disappeared from the scene moments earlier.
It's a great example of how placing the central character in the same position as the audience, and having them come to a devastating realisation at the exact same time, can be so effective.