What do you think?
Rate this book
Usual Suspects
One of a hand-picked selection of some of the most popular and cult-worthy titles on Faber and Faber's extensive list of film scripts.
1 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
4 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 22, 2025
بزرگترین نیرنگ شیطان این بود که این تصور رو بوجود آورد که وجود نداره!
آدمها همیشه همونطور که نشون میدن نیستن. گاهی یه مرد لنگ، خنگ، بیآزار، خطرناکتر از هر جنایتکاریه. فیلمنامهی مظنونین همیشگی نوشتهی کریستوفر مککواری، یکی از بینقصترین بازیهای ذهنیایه که توی بستر سینما و روایت نوشته شده؛ یه معما که جوابش روبروی ماست، اما درست زمانی میفهمیمش که دیگه دیر شده.
ساختار روایت غیرخطی، استفادهی هوشمندانه از راوی غیرقابل اعتماد، و پیچوخمهایی که مدام مخاطب رو به اشتباه میاندازن، این فیلمنامه رو به کلاسی در فریب و بازی با درک تبدیل میکنن. داستان با پنج خلافکار شروع میشه که به جرم نامعلومی بازداشت شدن، اما خیلی زود معلوم میشه پای چیزی بزرگتر در میونه: کیزر شوزه، جنایتکاری افسانهای که هیچکس ندیده، اما همه ازش وحشت دارن.
قدرت اصلی این فیلمنامه در چفت شدن بینقص همهچیزه. هر تکه از دیالوگ، هر اشارهی تصویری، هر رفتار کاراکترها یه نشونهست، یه قطعه از پازلی که وقتی کامل میشه، تازه میفهمی که باورت کردن اشتباه بوده.
فیلم به کارگردانی برایان سینگر، با بازی کوین اسپیسی در نقش راجر "وربال" کینت، دقیقاً به همون اندازهی فیلمنامه شگفتانگیزه. اسپیسی یکی از بهیادماندنیترین اجراهای تاریخ سینما رو ارائه میده. روایت آرام و نرمش، شیوهی ایستادنش، حتی اون حالت خاص دستهاش... همهچیز حسابشدهست.
و بعد میرسیم به پایان. اون لحظهای که همه چیز فرو میریزه و تماشاگر، مثل کارآگاه فیلم، بهتزده فقط نگاه میکنه. به قول خود فیلم:
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that—he’s gone."
فیلمنامهی مظنونین همیشگی هم یک معماست و هم یک آینه؛ آینهای که اگر خوب نگاهش نکنی، تصویری از خودت نشونت نمیده؛ فقط کسی رو میبینی که فکر میکردی میشناسیش، ولی هیچوقت نشناختیش.
آدمها همیشه همونطور که نشون میدن نیستن. گاهی یه مرد لنگ، خنگ، بیآزار، خطرناکتر از هر جنایتکاریه. فیلمنامهی مظنونین همیشگی نوشتهی کریستوفر مککواری، یکی از بینقصترین بازیهای ذهنیایه که توی بستر سینما و روایت نوشته شده؛ یه معما که جوابش روبروی ماست، اما درست زمانی میفهمیمش که دیگه دیر شده.
ساختار روایت غیرخطی، استفادهی هوشمندانه از راوی غیرقابل اعتماد، و پیچوخمهایی که مدام مخاطب رو به اشتباه میاندازن، این فیلمنامه رو به کلاسی در فریب و بازی با درک تبدیل میکنن. داستان با پنج خلافکار شروع میشه که به جرم نامعلومی بازداشت شدن، اما خیلی زود معلوم میشه پای چیزی بزرگتر در میونه: کیزر شوزه، جنایتکاری افسانهای که هیچکس ندیده، اما همه ازش وحشت دارن.
قدرت اصلی این فیلمنامه در چفت شدن بینقص همهچیزه. هر تکه از دیالوگ، هر اشارهی تصویری، هر رفتار کاراکترها یه نشونهست، یه قطعه از پازلی که وقتی کامل میشه، تازه میفهمی که باورت کردن اشتباه بوده.
فیلم به کارگردانی برایان سینگر، با بازی کوین اسپیسی در نقش راجر "وربال" کینت، دقیقاً به همون اندازهی فیلمنامه شگفتانگیزه. اسپیسی یکی از بهیادماندنیترین اجراهای تاریخ سینما رو ارائه میده. روایت آرام و نرمش، شیوهی ایستادنش، حتی اون حالت خاص دستهاش... همهچیز حسابشدهست.
و بعد میرسیم به پایان. اون لحظهای که همه چیز فرو میریزه و تماشاگر، مثل کارآگاه فیلم، بهتزده فقط نگاه میکنه. به قول خود فیلم:
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that—he’s gone."
فیلمنامهی مظنونین همیشگی هم یک معماست و هم یک آینه؛ آینهای که اگر خوب نگاهش نکنی، تصویری از خودت نشونت نمیده؛ فقط کسی رو میبینی که فکر میکردی میشناسیش، ولی هیچوقت نشناختیش.
October 28, 2025
The Usual Suspects, written by Christopher McQuarrie
Nine out of 10
The Usual Suspects is one of the motion pictures that has won so much acclaim that it looked destined to enter the History of Cinema – and maybe it is there already, or it will be included, just as it is on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list https://www.listchallenges.com/new-yo... - and on the Top Rated, Popular Movies list at 32, https://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=t... – it is also the winner of two Academy Awards and many other key trophies…
That brings us to the problematic, or catastrophic participation – for the future of the feature in these or maybe any other compilations – of the director, Bryan Singer, who has had his share of scandals and though this cinephile is not up to date with what his status is now, it looks like he is not involved in the projects that would be his, if it were not for the private shenanigans, which obfuscate, maybe eventually annihilate for many, his achievements here and in other productions that he has helmed…
Most importantly though we have the involvement of Kevin Spacey, who has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Usual Suspects – and for the leading role in the stupendous American Beauty - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/a... - but he is now definitely compromised, apparently stigmatized for his sexual abuses, making perhaps this movie anathema for future generations…
Judged without taking account of the said scandals, which again, could become impossible in an époque where there are so many glorious motion pictures without so much baggage to select from that the people of the future, if there is one after this pandemic and the Virus in the White House – more popular than ever, if you can believe the judgment of those Cult members that maybe deserve what they get, if there are so unadapted, such awful judges that they place their lives and those of their families into the hands of the Ultimate Crook – The Usual Suspects is remarkable, intelligent, astute, creative…
To end the Kevin Spacey chapter here, his character, Verbal Kint, has a key presence in the storyline and he could offer one of the biggest surprises in crime movies history, though about that we would not elaborate more, except to say that he may be right when he says…
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist,"
That is of course, if you believe in God and his adversary, the Devil, which I do not, but still, the idea that the mastermind of the plot tries to confuse, to make the investigators think he is not the Main Suspect, that he ‘does not exist’ as a criminal, that he has only had a limited presence in the scheme, indeed, he has a plea bargain for whatever he had admitted, sounds credible, smart and contributes to the value of the movie…
To begin with, the five Usual Suspects are lined up for identification and then locked together in a police cell and all the artists are marvelous – for Spacey, amendments have been made, sort of, for his personal life – Gabriel Byrne as Keaton, Benicio Del Toro as Fenster, Kevin Pollak as Hockney and finally, another disgraced participator in this film, at least for this viewer, the infamous Trump supporter – apparently the first and one of the few in Hollywood – Stephen Baldwin, in flagrant opposition with his brilliant brother, an outstanding impersonator of the Biggest fool in the World – well, there would be others parked in bushes all over the world, but to have access to so much intelligence, best information, means to ‘wise up’ and fail so catastrophically, that makes one the Most Outstanding Cretin of them all…
As they are all in together, the criminals – not for this highjack that brought them to the lineup – plot a revenge that would bring them money and get many corrupt police officers in massive trouble, since they were offering various Traficant protection and even rides to their illegal transaction spots in their…official cars…
As it is expected for one of the most appreciated – still – movies in history, the plot is very complex and representative Kobayashi aka another regretted, brilliant actor, Pete Postlethwaite, enters the stage to announce The Usual Suspects that they each and every one of them have a debt to pay to the infamous Keyser Soze, his boss, and such a mythical figure that legends are circulated around him, placing his origins in Turkey, where rivals have entered his house, kidnapped his family to blackmail this vicious gang leader…
Something out of the grimmest horror movies happens in this mythical tale, when this Keyser Soze shocks everyone, most of all the public in the cinema theater, when he uses his gun to shoot…his own family!!
Children, wife and only after he murders the intruders, letting one alive to go out and spread the story, to make his power grow, creating an image – if this ever happened, which with hindsight, it might not have, given the later developments – of an absolute psychopath, one that all adversaries must fear…
This feature is indeed more than just gripping, captivating, there are many passages where the immersion, absorption is total and thus this could be ideal for this terrorizing calamity that we have to live through and one absolutely vital aspect is to try to use Positive Psychology rules, one of which would have us establish a strategy to cope with adversity, by thinking of other things, trying to eliminate, at least temporarily, the obsessive images of thousands of dead, scenarios where millions would die and those who survive – aka you and me – might have to go out to the Post-apocalyptic scripts we have seen in 28 days and other such features…
Nine out of 10
The Usual Suspects is one of the motion pictures that has won so much acclaim that it looked destined to enter the History of Cinema – and maybe it is there already, or it will be included, just as it is on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list https://www.listchallenges.com/new-yo... - and on the Top Rated, Popular Movies list at 32, https://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=t... – it is also the winner of two Academy Awards and many other key trophies…
That brings us to the problematic, or catastrophic participation – for the future of the feature in these or maybe any other compilations – of the director, Bryan Singer, who has had his share of scandals and though this cinephile is not up to date with what his status is now, it looks like he is not involved in the projects that would be his, if it were not for the private shenanigans, which obfuscate, maybe eventually annihilate for many, his achievements here and in other productions that he has helmed…
Most importantly though we have the involvement of Kevin Spacey, who has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Usual Suspects – and for the leading role in the stupendous American Beauty - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/a... - but he is now definitely compromised, apparently stigmatized for his sexual abuses, making perhaps this movie anathema for future generations…
Judged without taking account of the said scandals, which again, could become impossible in an époque where there are so many glorious motion pictures without so much baggage to select from that the people of the future, if there is one after this pandemic and the Virus in the White House – more popular than ever, if you can believe the judgment of those Cult members that maybe deserve what they get, if there are so unadapted, such awful judges that they place their lives and those of their families into the hands of the Ultimate Crook – The Usual Suspects is remarkable, intelligent, astute, creative…
To end the Kevin Spacey chapter here, his character, Verbal Kint, has a key presence in the storyline and he could offer one of the biggest surprises in crime movies history, though about that we would not elaborate more, except to say that he may be right when he says…
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist,"
That is of course, if you believe in God and his adversary, the Devil, which I do not, but still, the idea that the mastermind of the plot tries to confuse, to make the investigators think he is not the Main Suspect, that he ‘does not exist’ as a criminal, that he has only had a limited presence in the scheme, indeed, he has a plea bargain for whatever he had admitted, sounds credible, smart and contributes to the value of the movie…
To begin with, the five Usual Suspects are lined up for identification and then locked together in a police cell and all the artists are marvelous – for Spacey, amendments have been made, sort of, for his personal life – Gabriel Byrne as Keaton, Benicio Del Toro as Fenster, Kevin Pollak as Hockney and finally, another disgraced participator in this film, at least for this viewer, the infamous Trump supporter – apparently the first and one of the few in Hollywood – Stephen Baldwin, in flagrant opposition with his brilliant brother, an outstanding impersonator of the Biggest fool in the World – well, there would be others parked in bushes all over the world, but to have access to so much intelligence, best information, means to ‘wise up’ and fail so catastrophically, that makes one the Most Outstanding Cretin of them all…
As they are all in together, the criminals – not for this highjack that brought them to the lineup – plot a revenge that would bring them money and get many corrupt police officers in massive trouble, since they were offering various Traficant protection and even rides to their illegal transaction spots in their…official cars…
As it is expected for one of the most appreciated – still – movies in history, the plot is very complex and representative Kobayashi aka another regretted, brilliant actor, Pete Postlethwaite, enters the stage to announce The Usual Suspects that they each and every one of them have a debt to pay to the infamous Keyser Soze, his boss, and such a mythical figure that legends are circulated around him, placing his origins in Turkey, where rivals have entered his house, kidnapped his family to blackmail this vicious gang leader…
Something out of the grimmest horror movies happens in this mythical tale, when this Keyser Soze shocks everyone, most of all the public in the cinema theater, when he uses his gun to shoot…his own family!!
Children, wife and only after he murders the intruders, letting one alive to go out and spread the story, to make his power grow, creating an image – if this ever happened, which with hindsight, it might not have, given the later developments – of an absolute psychopath, one that all adversaries must fear…
This feature is indeed more than just gripping, captivating, there are many passages where the immersion, absorption is total and thus this could be ideal for this terrorizing calamity that we have to live through and one absolutely vital aspect is to try to use Positive Psychology rules, one of which would have us establish a strategy to cope with adversity, by thinking of other things, trying to eliminate, at least temporarily, the obsessive images of thousands of dead, scenarios where millions would die and those who survive – aka you and me – might have to go out to the Post-apocalyptic scripts we have seen in 28 days and other such features…
July 27, 2021
"أعظم خدعة قام بها الشيطان هي إقناع العالم أنه ليس موجوداً
المشهد الختامي من فيلم The Usual Suspects و فوز مستحق لكيفن سبايسي بالأوسكار 👌
عيد ميلاد سعيد كيفين Kevin Spacey 🎂
افضل اداء بالفيلم كان للنجم " كيفين سبيسي " والذي كتب شهادة ميلادة بهذا الفيلم وقدم دور رهيب ومقنع للغاية لدرجت انني شككت ان هذا الممثل معاق فعلا بالحقيقة , ايضا جبريل بارني قدم دور مميزا ومحيرا طوال احداث الفيلم . من الادوار التي اعجبتني ايضا دور المحقق الفيدرالي الذي قدمه جينكارلو اسبوسيتو نجم بريكنج باد المشهور
الفيلم يمتاز بالقصة المشوقة والاحداث المثيرة والنهاية الصادمة وهنا سأتحدث عن النهاية دون حرق, اعتبر نهاية هذا الفيلم هي من اروع النهايات علي الأطلاق واكثر النهايات الصادمة في التاريخ بل و اؤكد انني لم اجد متابع واحد للفيلم استطاع توقعها وانخدع دائما بتفاصيل اخري جعلته يتوقع هوية القاتل الحقيقية بطريقة خاطئة وهذا ان دل علي شيء فبالتأكيد علي حرفية النص والسيناريو وقوة القصة التي جعلت هذا الفيلم من روائع هوليود
ازاي تكون عصابه فشيخه بالصدفه من المشتبه فيهم وتجمعهم في مكان بالصدفه
June 11, 2017
A very good screenplay to a fine film. Well deserving of its Academy Award.
Read
December 30, 2008در صورت تمایل، جهت مشخصات فیلمی که بر اساس این کتاب ساخته شده است؛ میتوانید از لینک زیر استفاده بفرمایید
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814
July 10, 2019
A hard boiled crime mystery with a beautifully constructed and realised twist.
February 11, 2020
An OK story.
January 10, 2023
ترجمه خیلی خوبی نداشت. بعضی جاها با زیرنویس فیلم مقایسه اش کردم
April 17, 2025
All I can say is: Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
July 10, 2015
The script behind an engaging movie
5 April 2012
This is a somewhat unusual book namely because it is the script which was transformed into the movie. It is not a novelisation so I am unsure on how I should approach this book. Do I write a review based upon the book, or do I write it based upon the movie considering that it is much closer to the movie than a novelisation. Novelisations tend to follow the movie closely but expand upon what is not possible to show on the screen (whether it be due to time constraints, or the restrictions that the medium imposes). Mind you, things have changed a lot since Willow or Conan in that it is now a lot cheaper to make much more complex movies than it was previously. It is still very expensive though, and I point to the series Rome as an example. However I digress because I really should be writing about this book/movie.
Many of you are probably familiar with this movie, and if you aren't shame on you. Okay, maybe you don't like this type of movie, and that is okay. If we all had the same tastes then this would be a boring world indeed. Mind you, people have critised me for hating something that they like (A Street Car Named Desire for instance) but that is just the way things are. Personally, I am not going to tone down my criticisms because one person may think that I am a cretin because I do not appreciate the same work of art that they appreciate. In a way that is the nature of art and literature: we all approach it differently. It is difficult, though, to determine whether a movie is art, or literature, or just pulp entertainment. Mind you, pop art is actually a very lucrative business, and in a way it is art just as Picasso is art: it really comes down to what you appreciate.
Okay, I haven't even touched on this book yet, and maybe I won't because this is one of those stories/movies that you don't want to give anything away because it is full of surprises, especially when you get to the end. Anyway, as the title suggests, it is about a group of men who are known as 'The Usual Suspects'. This is because whenever anything happens, the first people that the police want to round up are these guys. They live in New York and each and every one of them has a bad reputation, all except one: Verbal Kint. However, when the police let them go they decide that they want to get revenge, and knowing that the police run a protection racket for criminals, they decide to hijack one of their escorts and then get the hell out of New York.
It has been a while since I have seen this movie, though I am still quite familiar with the story. It all evolves around a faceless figure known as Kaiser Soze. We are told a lot about him, but in a way we never meet him. It is like one of those mysterious criminal masterminds that nobody has any idea as to his identity. In a way he could walk right up to you and you would never know it is him. He always deals with intermediaries (such as Kobyashi) and while he can never be connected with anything, he has his finger in everything. He is the type of person that you can never escape from, and if you upset him, you will forever be looking over your shoulder, and despite doing that, you will never know when he comes and finally gets you.
This is the type of movie where everything ends badly for everybody, and the police never get their man. In fact the police, unlike many Hollywood movies, are not the fine upstanding members of society that is the usual portrayal. In a way they are all too human. The police in many movies are painted as the person seeking justice, and live by a philosophy of The Ends Justifies the Means. It is not a philosophy that I subscribe to much, but sometimes one must step outside of one's boundaries to further one's agenda. It really does come down to the agenda. The best example is money. To many people money is the end, but I believe that is deceptive and very destructive. If you make money the end, then you will do anything to get your hands on it. However, if you have another end, and make money one of the means to achieve that end, then ones attitude to it changes slightly. In many cases the end is important, but the means to get to that end may not always be the best way. For example, your end is to become boss, and one of the means to get to that end is to kill your boss. No, in that circumstance the end does not justify the means. However, if the end is to get your loved one to a hospital before he/she dies, and the means involves speeding and running red lights, then maybe in that case the end does justify the means.
I could go on for much longer rambling on about things that have absolutely nothing to do with this movie or book, but in this situation I will not. In the end I think I will use the means of signing off know so that I may reach the end of lying on the couch and watching an episode of Rome. Tchus.
5 April 2012
This is a somewhat unusual book namely because it is the script which was transformed into the movie. It is not a novelisation so I am unsure on how I should approach this book. Do I write a review based upon the book, or do I write it based upon the movie considering that it is much closer to the movie than a novelisation. Novelisations tend to follow the movie closely but expand upon what is not possible to show on the screen (whether it be due to time constraints, or the restrictions that the medium imposes). Mind you, things have changed a lot since Willow or Conan in that it is now a lot cheaper to make much more complex movies than it was previously. It is still very expensive though, and I point to the series Rome as an example. However I digress because I really should be writing about this book/movie.
Many of you are probably familiar with this movie, and if you aren't shame on you. Okay, maybe you don't like this type of movie, and that is okay. If we all had the same tastes then this would be a boring world indeed. Mind you, people have critised me for hating something that they like (A Street Car Named Desire for instance) but that is just the way things are. Personally, I am not going to tone down my criticisms because one person may think that I am a cretin because I do not appreciate the same work of art that they appreciate. In a way that is the nature of art and literature: we all approach it differently. It is difficult, though, to determine whether a movie is art, or literature, or just pulp entertainment. Mind you, pop art is actually a very lucrative business, and in a way it is art just as Picasso is art: it really comes down to what you appreciate.
Okay, I haven't even touched on this book yet, and maybe I won't because this is one of those stories/movies that you don't want to give anything away because it is full of surprises, especially when you get to the end. Anyway, as the title suggests, it is about a group of men who are known as 'The Usual Suspects'. This is because whenever anything happens, the first people that the police want to round up are these guys. They live in New York and each and every one of them has a bad reputation, all except one: Verbal Kint. However, when the police let them go they decide that they want to get revenge, and knowing that the police run a protection racket for criminals, they decide to hijack one of their escorts and then get the hell out of New York.
It has been a while since I have seen this movie, though I am still quite familiar with the story. It all evolves around a faceless figure known as Kaiser Soze. We are told a lot about him, but in a way we never meet him. It is like one of those mysterious criminal masterminds that nobody has any idea as to his identity. In a way he could walk right up to you and you would never know it is him. He always deals with intermediaries (such as Kobyashi) and while he can never be connected with anything, he has his finger in everything. He is the type of person that you can never escape from, and if you upset him, you will forever be looking over your shoulder, and despite doing that, you will never know when he comes and finally gets you.
This is the type of movie where everything ends badly for everybody, and the police never get their man. In fact the police, unlike many Hollywood movies, are not the fine upstanding members of society that is the usual portrayal. In a way they are all too human. The police in many movies are painted as the person seeking justice, and live by a philosophy of The Ends Justifies the Means. It is not a philosophy that I subscribe to much, but sometimes one must step outside of one's boundaries to further one's agenda. It really does come down to the agenda. The best example is money. To many people money is the end, but I believe that is deceptive and very destructive. If you make money the end, then you will do anything to get your hands on it. However, if you have another end, and make money one of the means to achieve that end, then ones attitude to it changes slightly. In many cases the end is important, but the means to get to that end may not always be the best way. For example, your end is to become boss, and one of the means to get to that end is to kill your boss. No, in that circumstance the end does not justify the means. However, if the end is to get your loved one to a hospital before he/she dies, and the means involves speeding and running red lights, then maybe in that case the end does justify the means.
I could go on for much longer rambling on about things that have absolutely nothing to do with this movie or book, but in this situation I will not. In the end I think I will use the means of signing off know so that I may reach the end of lying on the couch and watching an episode of Rome. Tchus.
March 16, 2009
یک فیلمنامه فوق العاده، پر از جزئیات و پیچیدگی هایی که حتی بهترین کارگردانان هم در به تصویر کشیدنش دچار مشکل میشن. از اون فیلمنامه هایی که بعد از دیدن فیلم ساخته شده از روشون میتونی دوباره به قدرت کلام در برابر تصویر، ایمان بیاری.
Read
April 4, 2009در صورت تمایل، جهت مشخصات فیلمی که بر اساس این کتاب ساخته شده است؛ میتوانید از لینک زیر استفاده بفرمایید
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews