Synopsis

Following a deadly shootout aboard a ship, Roger "Verbal" Kint is questioned by federal agent Dave Kujan. In flashback, Verbal recounts how a police lineup brought five criminals together and set them on a series of increasingly dangerous crimes. Their actions eventually draw the attention of Keyser Soze, a feared underworld figure whose identity may be closer than anyone realizes.

Factoids & Trivia

• The title comes from a line in Casablanca and was also the name of a column in Spy magazine.

• Christopher McQuarrie wrote nine drafts of the screenplay over five months. The story was shaped by his earlier work at a Los Angeles law firm and a detective agency.

• Keyser Soze's name was partly inspired by McQuarrie's former supervisor, Kayser Sume. The word "soze" was found in a Turkish dictionary, where it was translated as "talk too much."

• The film was made on a budget of approximately $5.5 million and was shot in only 35 days in Los Angeles, San Pedro, and New York City.

• The police lineup scene became unexpectedly comic during filming because the performers repeatedly broke character. Some of that laughter was retained in the final edit to suggest the criminals' growing familiarity with one another.

• The emeralds used in the jewel robbery scene were real gemstones loaned to the production.

• The marketing campaign built much of its promotion around the question "Who is Keyser Soze?" The campaign also helped audiences learn how to pronounce the character's name.

• The film won Academy Awards for Kevin Spacey in the supporting actor category and Christopher McQuarrie for original screenplay.

• In 2008, the American Film Institute ranked it tenth on its list of the greatest American mystery films.