10 Movies That Only Make Sense At The End

If it's often stated that The Usual Suspects is a convoluted and obtuse piece of neo-noir storytelling, that is absolutely intentional on the part of screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie.

Of course, for 99% of the movie's runtime, the reason for this isn't clear to the viewer, and it simply seems like McQuarrie is crafting an homage to the self-consciously incomprehensible noir classics of Hollywood's Golden Age.

But the impenetrable narrative is entirely in service of the film's all-timer twist ending, which reveals that the mythic, spectral gangster Keyser Söze is none other than cerebral palsy-afflicted criminal Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey).

Kint, who has spent most of the movie in police questioning relaying his account of Söze's crimes to agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), has actually been improvising a story from the items posted on the office's bulletin board.

After pinning the massacre on Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Kint is granted bail, at which point he drops his limp and escapes into the night, just as Kujan learns the truth.

You can debate whether or not it's worth sitting through 100 minutes of headache-inducing storytelling for an incredible payoff, but the film's enduring popularity certainly suggests it is.