The Story of The Usual Suspects begins on a ship in San Pedro Bay, Los Angeles, where a severely injured and helpless man named Dean Keaton is seen. It is told that Keaton was about to set the ship on fire, but the flames were extinguished with urine by a mysterious figure named Keyser Soze. On the ship, several people are also seen lying lifeless. Soze approaches Keaton, kills him, and then sets the ship ablaze. The following day, the police interrogate Verbal, a physically disabled man and Keaton’s associate who survived the tragedy on the ship.
Six weeks earlier in New York, Verbal, along with Keaton, McManus, Huckney, and Fenster, is arrested on charges of hijacking a police truck carrying weapons. Keaton is apprehended while holding a meeting in a restaurant with Edie Finneran (played by Suzy Amis), his lawyer girlfriend, and two clients. The team of police officers arresting Keaton is led by Special Agent Dave Kujan (played by Chazz Palminteri). Verbal’s involvement is viewed as peculiar by Kujan due to his physical condition. The five of them are then interrogated in an attempt to uncover who the mastermind and actual perpetrators of the truck hijacking are, leaving the police baffled.
While in custody, McManus, Huckney, Fenster, and Verbal discuss a wild plan to carry out a real robbery targeting a police vehicle after they are released from prison. The robbery plan is ordered by someone named Redfoot (played by Peter Greene), who they also intend to use as a way to exact revenge on the NYPD (New York City Police Department) for the false accusations against them. However, Keaton, who has a stable career as a businessman outside of prison, is naturally uninterested in joining the robbery plan. In fact, the others fear that Keaton might expose their plan to the police.
The scene shifts to the ship where the incident occurred, with police discovering 27 bodies and two survivors: Arkosh Kovash (played by Morgan Hunter) and Verbal. Arkosh is a Hungarian mafia member who suffered severe burns from the tragedy and is now being treated in the hospital. Since Arkosh cannot speak English, the police require a translator to communicate with him. During his interrogation, Arkosh repeatedly shouts the name “Keyser Soze.” Elsewhere, Special Agent Kujan arrives from Los Angeles to investigate the case by interrogating Verbal.
In a flashback to Verbal’s interrogation, the five suspects are eventually cleared of the police truck robbery charges thanks to assistance from Finneran. Although released from prison, Keaton feels his career as a businessman is irreparably damaged by the false accusations. He contemplates joining McManus, Huckney, Fenster, and Verbal in their plan for revenge against the NYPD. Such a retaliatory operation would be impossible to succeed in if carried out individually. Seizing the moment, Verbal Kint is tasked by his associates to persuade Keaton to join their mission. The plan involves robbing emerald smugglers guarded by corrupt police posing as a specialized taxi service.
McManus plays the role of the coordinator with Redfoot. Fenster is responsible for arranging vehicles, while Huckney handles the equipment and weapons needed. Verbal’s role is to ensure there are no fatalities during the mission, while Keaton acts as the finisher, delivering taunting messages to the NYPD. The operation goes smoothly as planned, and they successfully rob the corrupt police vehicle escorting the emerald smugglers. Their actions lead to the prosecution of around 50 corrupt police officers. Additionally, they secure emeralds worth $3 million, which are handed over to Redfoot.
The group of five then decides to fly to Los Angeles to deliver the stolen emeralds to the individual who had assigned them the job. Up to this point in Verbal’s story, Kujan remains skeptical, knowing full well who Keaton is. Kujan recounts that Keaton was a former police officer dismissed after being convicted of three murders. In total, Keaton faced seven criminal charges during his time as an officer. In one of his trials, witnesses changed their testimonies before the jury under Keaton’s threats. While in prison, Keaton was also recorded as having killed three fellow inmates.
Keaton was previously believed to have died in an incident two years earlier when two eyewitnesses saw him enter a warehouse that subsequently exploded. Three months later, those two witnesses to Keaton’s supposed death met tragic ends themselves. However, after the case was closed due to his presumed death, Keaton resurfaced. Kujan believes that Keaton faked his death again to hide the fact that he was the mastermind behind the events on the ship. Meanwhile, in the hospital room where the severely injured Arkosh is being treated, interrogation begins. Arkosh admits that the people on the ship were not smuggling drugs; instead, they were transporting another individual.
Arkosh also claims he saw Soze and is then asked to provide a detailed description of his face for a sketch. Back in Kujan’s interrogation room, Verbal continues narrating the flashback. The five men are shown meeting Redfoot and handing over the emeralds. Redfoot then offers them another job—to rob a gem collector. However, the new mission goes awry due to fierce resistance from the target. As a result, they are forced to kill the victim and his two bodyguards. To make matters worse, instead of finding gems, they discover drugs in the stolen suitcase.
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Redfoot eventually confesses that he received instructions for the job from a lawyer named Kobayashi (played by Pete Postlethwaite). The group meets Kobayashi, who reveals that he is merely an agent acting on behalf of Keyser Soze. Kobayashi also explains that Soze orchestrated their arrest in New York on false charges of hijacking a police truck. They were meant to be released by Kobayashi, but Finneran’s intervention got them out first. Through Kobayashi, Soze orders them to undertake another mission: to attack a ship carrying cocaine worth $91 million belonging to Argentine drug dealers—Soze’s rivals.
As Verbal’s interrogation continues, Kujan is informed by Jack Baer (played by Giancarlo Esposito)—the officer who previously questioned Arkosh—that no cocaine was found on the ship. Instead, Soze himself was reportedly seen there. Verbal then shares the legend of Keyser Soze with Kujan. Soze was initially a small-time drug dealer whose family was once held hostage by Hungarian mafia members. Upon returning home, Soze killed the entire group of mafia members, sparing only his child, who was held at gunpoint. Instead of rescuing the child, Soze chose to kill them to eliminate the final mafia member in his house.
After that, Soze continued his criminal enterprise using subordinates and intermediaries who never knew his true identity. This secretive structure made Soze a figure of terrifying mystery, evolving into an urban legend. Returning to Verbal’s flashback, Fenster is killed while trying to escape. After burying Fenster, the remaining four ambush Kobayashi in his office, threatening to inform Soze’s superiors to cancel the mission. However, Kobayashi turns the tables by revealing he has arranged a meeting with Finneran, whom he uses as leverage to coerce Keaton and his associates into compliance.
The group ultimately carries out the mission to attack the ship at night. On the way to the harbor, Keaton instructs Verbal to find his girlfriend, Finneran. The raid on the ship proceeds with only Keaton, McManus, and Hockney, who manage to kill several Argentine and Hungarian gangsters. Hockney discovers a car filled with a large amount of cash but is immediately shot and killed by an unseen assailant. Keaton and McManus delve deeper into the ship, only to realize there is no cocaine onboard, contrary to what Kobayashi claimed on Soze’s behalf.
In one of the ship’s cabins, a prisoner is shown being shot dead after screaming in terror and uttering Soze’s name. McManus and Keaton are subsequently killed one by one by the mysterious figure. Back in the police investigation, a body is found on the beach with two gunshot wounds to the head, identified as Arturo Marquez (played by Castulo Guerra). Marquez was a low-level smuggler from Argentina who previously avoided prosecution with Finneran’s help and had claimed to know Soze’s identity. Marquez was the prisoner in the ship’s cabin, shot dead after his terrified outburst mentioning Soze.
Realizing that the slain prisoner on the ship was Marquez, Kujan concludes that Dean Keaton and Keyser Soze must be the same person. According to Kujan’s theory, the Argentine drug cartel deliberately sold Marquez to Soze’s Hungarian rivals to implicate Soze and sabotage his operations. Keaton, whom Kujan believes to be Soze, became aware of the Argentinians’ plot and orchestrated the attack on the ship. In the end, Kujan is convinced that Keaton himself killed Marquez and staged his own death once again, just as he had done in the past.
The speculation that Dean Keaton and Keyser Soze are the same person becomes even stronger when Finneran is found dead from a gunshot wound. The only person who could have known her location and had the freedom to act was Keaton himself. This is compounded by the legend of Keyser Soze, who was ruthless enough to kill his entire family. Eventually, Verbal seems to concede and admits that Keaton was the mastermind behind all the events he narrated. However, Verbal refuses to testify in court. As a key witness with immunity, Verbal is ultimately released without consequence.
After Verbal leaves the police station, Kujan stares at a bulletin board in the office filled with various clippings, photos, and evidence from numerous cases. He realizes that Verbal had fabricated his entire story, piecing it together from random details on the board. From the name “Redfoot” to “Kobayashi,” which turns out to be the brand of a ceramic coffee mug, all were elements Verbal used in his tale. Realizing he has been deceived, Kujan rushes out to find Verbal. Outside, Verbal is seen limping as he walks away, but his gait gradually normalizes, and he stretches his previously disabled hand.
As Kujan frantically searches for Verbal, the police station receives a fax from the hospital where Arkosh was interrogated. The fax contains a sketch of Keyser Soze’s face, which unmistakably resembles Verbal. This confirms the true identity of the mysterious Keyser Soze as none other than Roger “Verbal” Kint, the man who had been interrogated at the police station throughout the film. Kujan continues to run around the vicinity of the station, chasing Soze, but his efforts are futile. Soze escapes after being picked up by a car driven by someone Verbal had earlier mentioned in his fabricated story—Kobayashi.
