"After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone." To be fair, a certain amount of the impact of The Usual Suspects' ending is diminished by the mere fact that we're watching it in 2014. In ideal circumstances, we would be seeing this movie in theaters in 1995 to really experience the famous twist as the Good Lord intended. But alas, we have no time machines, and even if we did they'd probably be needed for more "important" ventures. The fact of the matter is that those last lines still manage to give us goosebumps, and it's a credit to the writing and direction of the final scene, to say nothing of Kevin Spacey's Oscar-winning performance as Verbal Kint. There's something about his unique, almost hypnotic voice reciting Baudelaire that nails it for us every time. The quote about the devil is a perfect fit for the mysterious Keyser Soze, and it marks the gotcha moment by harkening back to earlier in the film when he says the same line - only then it has a totally different connotation, because we were thinking of Soze as a mythological figure rather than a flesh and blood man.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
