The Suspects’ Ages

Wednesday, July 14th, 2004 | The Usual Suspects |

Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen the movie.

I discovered the original script online last week and read the whole thing. One small finding was the scriptwriter’s suggestion for the character’s ages.

Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), “in his thirties”
Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak), “in his thirties”
Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), listed both as 40 and “in his forties”
Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey), “thirty-odd years”
Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), 28

FBI Agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito), “in his late thirties”
Edie Finneran (Suzy Amis), 33
Arkosh Kovash, “mid-thirties”
U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), “thirty-ish”
Sergeant Jeffrey Rabin (Dan Hedaya), “in his late thirties”

This is trivia, though it has some practical bearing on the question of who is Keyser Soze. Sure, Verbal shot the witness on the boat, and he shot Keaton, but I’m not sure that makes him Keyser Soze. There are other explanations that work. For instance, he may be working for Soze. I need to explore that in a lot more depth, but I need to build up to it. For instance, I need to think more about which parts of the movie are reliable, and which parts are unreliable.

5 Comments to The Suspects’ Ages

Tana D.
July 14, 2004

Wouldn’t it be funny if Keyser Soze was the most unlikely of them all: Sergeant Jeffrey Rabin? And his messy, hapless persona was just a fa

Les Jones
July 14, 2004

You could really make a case that Verbal and Keaton were in on it together, and that Verbal double-crossed him at the end. Again, depending on how much of Verbal’s story you decide to belive. Darned unreliable narrator.

Tana D.
July 17, 2004

That’s the first time I’ve heard that angle. Cool theory. What about McManus?

Les Jones
July 17, 2004

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that angle.”

I just made it up. But yeah, it would make more sense to have both of them manipulating the gang. Otherwise it’s a little hard for me to believe that Verbal could use his jedi con man powers to manipulate the group into going to California and being in the right place to hit the boat.

A valid criticism of this theory is that it requires Keaton to let himself be caught, and to have his business plans foiled. So yeah, it’s a weak theory.

McManus? Sure, I can make up a theory about him, too. He’s the one who planned the emerald hit (according to Verbal). He’s the one who wanted to go to California to meet Redfoot (again, according to Verbal). He was in the harbor killing many men. Maybe Kint lied about him getting a knife in the back, or maybe he faked his death.

The problem with the McManus-as-Soze theory is that he’s even younger than Verbal. The main problem I have with the idea that Verbal was Soze is that he seems too young.

Tana D.
July 17, 2004

“…jedi con man powers…”: that’s pretty funny.

Well, I meant McManus-with-Soze, not McManus-as-Soze. But I’m going to go back to doing the lazy thing and just not try to figure out who is Soze and when is Verbal lying in his story. I’ll just let the really smart guys take care of that = )