MovieChat Forums > The Usual Suspects (1995) Discussion > Kujan actually tripped Verbal up a coupl...

Kujan actually tripped Verbal up a couple times


I don't think that "Oh, f-ck!" Verbal lets out when Kujan comes through the door barking 'Who's Keyser Soze?" was premeditated; I think Verbal was genuinely cornered for a second, worried his real identity was out, before he realized Dave just wasn't familiar with the figure, and that he should just go with the flow and build the legend of Soze into his story.

Also, as some spoiler video on youtube pointed out, when Dave is later shaking Verbal for the truth, Verbal blurts out "I AM Keyser!" before it gets buried in the crying and Dave's insistence that Keaton was Keyser.

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I don't know if he trips him up, but he clearly finds out more than Soze would like. The story Kint wants people to believe is the one he made to grand jury. The facts in it checked out, I'm assuming that would be the 5 of them meeting at a line up over the arms robbery, the exposing of the NYPD, the murder of Saul Berg. He doesn't want the police hearing about Keyser Soze, or that they were on the boat with anything but dope. He didn't plan for anyone to make it out of the harbour alive. But he is able to quickly size up what Kujan wants (a story to fuel his obsession with Keaton) and takes him on that journey using names from the board behind him. It's possible he's used names on the board as a substitution for real people. It's possible he's completely confected entire parts of his story. He's eventually forced to work Soze in and so does it in a way that Kujan can link back to Keaton, which is all he's interested in anyway. Kint basically gives Kujan enogh rope to hang himself. But he's always in control of where the story goes because, as Kujan tells him at the start "I'm smarter than you, and I'm going to get what I want out of you whether you like it or not." Kujan's basically told him that he wants to hear a story about Keaton, and Kint tells it in such a way that Kujan believes he is drawing the information out of him reluctantly when really Kint's just leading Kujan exactly where he wants to go.

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Also, as some spoiler video on youtube pointed out, when Dave is later shaking Verbal for the truth, Verbal blurts out "I AM Keyser!" before it gets buried in the crying and Dave's insistence that Keaton was Keyser.
I can't find a Youtube of this. Do you have a link to a video? Because I say it doesn't happen in the movie.

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I agree that it's possible that Verbal was hoping not to have to tell Kujan about Soze. The screenwriter wants the audience to wonder about it. But it's not certain one way or the other.

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Verbal never says ‘I AM Keyser!’

He can just about be heard saying ‘I killed Keaton’ while Kujan is yelling at him.

Pretty funny and childish of him when you think about it 🤣

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