The Usual Suspects is a 1995
American neo-noir film written by
Christopher McQuarrie and directed by
Bryan Singer. The film tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (
Kevin Spacey), a small-time
con man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator,
U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (
Chazz Palminteri), a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the
Port of Los Angeles in
San Pedro Bay. Using
flashback and
narration, Verbal's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat.
The film, shot on a
$6 million budget, originally began as a title taken from a column in
Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects", after
Claude Rains' line in
Casablanca. Singer thought that it would be a good title for a film, a poster for which he and McQuarrie had developed as the first visual idea.
The Usual Suspects was shown out of competition at the 1995
Cannes Film Festival, and then initially released in few theaters. It received favorable reviews, and was eventually given a wider release. McQuarrie won an
Academy Award for the screenplay and Spacey won the
Best Supporting Actor award for his performance.