Analyzing Evil: Keyser Söze From The Usual Suspects

Hello everyone and welcome to the ninety-third episode of Analyzing Evil! Our feature villain for this video is Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for watching. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to let me know below!

#theusualsuspects #keysersoze #evil

[Solly-owod]

Never forget my first time seeing The Usual Suspects. That crippled walk going into normal steps was jaw dropping. Probably one of the greatest movie endings ever made.

[PhantomFilmAustralia]

Within the first ten minutes of the film gave a clear indication who Keyser Soze was. After the lineup, Verbal is alone atop of the subway stairs watching Keaton. He's holding his cigarette in a foreign way—between the thumb and index finger and an upturned palm. This is how many Eastern country people held a cigarette. The next time he holds a cigarette this way was in the final scene in the car with Kobayashi. Although Verbal smoked through the entire movie, whenever he was in the presence of a Westerner, he held his cigarette in the Western standard index and middle finger technique.
During Verbal's talk with Agent Kujan, he is seen in a shot gripping his coffee cup by the bottom. Traditional Middle Eastern cups have no handle, and gripping by the bottom of the cup was a common habit, as the cup bases were thicker, making it cooler to hold while drinking a hot beverage.
Verbal indicates that Soze was Turkish and his father was possibly German. It would explain the Eastern style of smoking and the Middle Eastern style of drinking, hinting to the audience that verbal is Keyser Soze.

[andrewvachon]

Singer told everyone that they were Kaiser Sose. It was a way to have each actor deliver a performance like a main villain. Gabriel Byrne got into a fight at the premier with singer after the ending.

[Vile_Entity_]

Benicio had me cracking up the way he spins around just before he gets arrested.

[Pangloss]

I know it's a small detail, but I very much appreciate the fact you say the number of each episode you do before you do them :3

[Nanofuture]

Something else to keep in mind is that movies are rarely ever the creation of a single person. Many other people besides Kevin Spacey worked hard to make this movie, from other actors to screenwriters to crew members and more. We can acknowledge when someone does something horrible without invalidating all the creative effort of others.

[mikebasil]

Even after all that’s happened with Kevin Spacey, it’s good that you’re including Keyser Soze because he’s still one of our most important movie villains. Thank you for another great Analyzing Evil video and Congrats on your 500K.

[michaelodonnell]

The big hole for Dean Keaton being Keyser Soze is that Keaton's whole life is known - from the police academy on.
It therefore always makes it unlikely that Keaton was Soze, especially if we believe the Turkish Backstory

[lukadubak]

Kayser Soze was also a main inspiration behind the character of Doppio/Diavolo, or Boss in Jojo's Golden Wind.

[cf]

I think YOU'RE Keyser Soze. It would explain how you have so much in depth knowledge about all of these villains since you have your fingers in all kinds of criminal underworld dealings. 😈

[daniel_the_enlightened]

Would've been great if you would analyze Lalo Salamanca from Better Call Saul.(or maybe the entire family) I think you are the only man for the job.

[herschelschueler]

Whatever Spacey did or didn't do, you can't deny the sheer amount of talent he possesses. Every time he's on screen he just steals the show. American Beauty most certainly falls in that category.

[tonybippitykaye]

I don’t think it’s wrong to cover this. As much as Spacey is a piece of shit, that doesn’t negate the fact that he still gave iconic performances throughout his career. You can separate the artist from the art when it comes to analysis, but you can also acknowledge that it doesn’t mean you respect the artist themself as a person.

[NotAGoodUsername]

Regardless of whether or not Kaiser is real, the sheer scale of Verbal's deception and its brazenness makes him perfectly worthy of the title, regardless of the truth.

And at minimum, Verbal is responsible for the massacre on the boat. He mentions at the beginning of the interview he has a condition that makes his piss come out like oatmeal when dehydrated, which we saw the killer put out fire with piss matching that description in the opening.

So even if he may not be THE Kaiser, he is unquestionably on Kaiser's scale.

[HILAL]

One of the best movies ever with a very original villain and one of the greatest villains in cinema . Very nice pick... Edit : verbal is keyser soze. He isn't the keyser soze people think keyser is but uses the mythical character to frighten underworld people as a big mythical crime boss to get done what he wants to get done using Kobayashi and knowledge of what every criminal has done making them believe they stole from Keyser to have them in his debt . Idk if I explain it correctly. Verbal creates the myth of a boogey man crime boss as fear and cons that way to get things done. Keyser doesn't exist. He's the biggest con man using other criminals to do things for him...damn this is difficult to explain. English isn't my main language.

[charlieuetz]

I think Marlo Stanfield from The Wire would be an interesting character to do a video on

[SunniDae]

YES! FINALLY A KEYSER SOZE VIDEO!!! Also congrats on 500K :)

[paulrhome]

Over the years, the one thing that is kept me from deciding that there was no Kaiser Soze, at least actively involved here, was Arturo and why he was being targeted. Never actually occurred to me that he was killed to maintain the legend, not the cover. Feels like suddenly realizing the real conspiracy is we never stopped going to the Moon lol.

[jwnj]

What a twist. Love the line-up scene, classic stuff.

[Cometboy]

The single crucial detail about Kaiser is when he relates how he made himself invulnerable to enemies by killing his own family. He realized his family would prevent him from “winning” so he killed them. Contrast him to the protagonist in the Guy Ritchie “Revolver” where in the final scene he totally humbles himself to his mortal enemy to rid himself of ego.