The Usual Suspects Scene 12 Summary

  • But, now, things get insane. At the hospital, the doctor faxes the sketch of Söze based on Kovash's description to the cops.
  • Verbal makes his way out of the police station, as Rabin and Kujan discuss finding Keaton.
  • But, suddenly, as he sits on the desk looking satisfied, Kujan realizes something: earlier, Verbal had mentioned being in a barbershop quarter in Skokie, Illinois, and the bulletin board in the office was made by a company called Quartet based in Skokie (it's printed on a metal tag on the board).
  • Kujan drops the cup of coffee he's drinking and it shatters. Details from the story Verbal told him—like the name Redfoot and a stray comment about how Verbal had picked coffee beans in Guatemala—are actually from things posted on the bulletin board.
  • The voiceover starts up, re-hashing things Verbal said earlier in an audio collage, all plucked from the board.
  • Even the name "Kobayashi" was the company name printed on the bottom of the coffee cup that Kujan just dropped.
  • Kujan realizes that Verbal was just making the story up as he told it. He runs out of the office, asking the cops at the entrance to the station where Verbal went.
  • We see Verbal walking down the street, and we see that he suddenly stops limping and flexes his damaged arm—it's actually perfectly fine.
  • The fax of the sketch of Keyser Söze arrives at the station, and it looks exactly like Verbal.
  • Kujan runs out to the street but he can't find Verbal.
  • Meanwhile, a car driven by a man who looks like the Kobayashi we saw in the story picks Verbal—or rather, Keyser Söze—up.
  • As they drive away, we see a frantic Kujan turning on the sidewalk, trying to find where Söze's gone.
  • On the voiceover, we hear Verbal/Söze stating something he said earlier, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."