10 Films That Are Better The Less You Know Going In

3. The Usual Suspects

There are any number of ‘twist ending’ films that could inhabit this list, but sometimes knowledge of a twist is not the only thing that can sour your appreciation. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first, on to the movie.

Following the explosion of a cargo ship, The Usual Suspects stars Kevin Spacey as cerebral palsy sufferer Verbal Kint, the only survivor able to speak after the destruction, who is interrogated by US Customs. Revealed in flashback, Kint tells the story of a group of criminals attempting a heist before finding themselves at the mercy of enigmatic and ruthless Hungarian crime boss Keyser Söze. Once his story is finished and Söze believed dead, Kint is released, gradually losing his limp and flexing his disabled hand as he walk away, revealing he was Söze all along.

The Keyser Söze twist is one of the most famous in the history of cinema, so these days you’d struggle to actually see the film without at least knowing that something uncertain surrounds this name. It still plays well knowing the twist, but somehow being shielded from this would be incredible.

It's important to note The Usual Suspects is a particularly uncomfortable watch in 2021 though. In 2017 Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple actors and colleagues including the then underage Anthony Rapp, and effectively ended Spacey’s 35-year career. The film's director Bryan Singer has also been accused separately of sexual misconduct too - casting a deeply uncomfortable shadow over this thriller.