Release Year: 1995

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery

Director: Bryan Singer

Writer: Christopher McQuarrie

Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri

Everyone knows certain movie "secrets" before they see the movie. If you tell someone that Darth Vader is actually Luke Skywalker's dad, you're probably not spoiling Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. "Luke, I am your father!" is one of the world's most commonly quoted phrases in pop culture.

And if you tell people that Jack dies at the end of Titanic and they act shocked—well, they're probably living in a shed somewhere in Montana with no internet, because everyone and his mom knows that there was room on that dang door.

But when anyone starts talking about The Usual Suspects, they should have the words "Spoiler Alert!" blinking above their head in giant red neon letters.

Here's the thing: the things you shouldn't say about The Usual Suspects—the twists you absolutely can't reveal without totally torpedoing everything—are what make the movie so unique and so beloved. Spoiling this movie is a cardinal sin in the Church of Cinema-Lovers: you just do not do it.

If you were to read the Netflix blurb without knowing what really happens, The Usual Suspects appears to be a fairly straightforward crime caper: five ace criminals meet in a police lineup and decide to pull off a job together. Doesn't sound like anything we haven't seen before…

But you actually haven't seen anything just like it before. You wouldn't be reading this if there weren't something wildly special and unpredictable about The Usual Suspects.

So we'll say what we can:

Released in 1995, The Usual Suspects was part of the indie crime film renaissance of the 1990's, alongside Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, and A Simple Plan. The mid-90's were all about snappy dialogue and quirky anti-heroes: these movies amped up film noir, adding crazy complications, muchos cuss words, and graphic violence to a long and storied genre.

They also messed with the structure of movies, using flashbacks buried inside flashbacks, strange digressions, and unreliable narrators. (As you'll discover when you watch it, The Usual Suspects goes all-in on one of these devices in a big way).

This movie also brings out the big guns in terms of craggy-looking-and-totally-talented actors: it stars Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, Benicio del Toro, and Gabriel Byrne's weird Irish accent. The supporting cast includes gun violence, explosives, messy police offices, and the city of Los Angeles in the role of "The City Where Nightmares Come True."

So you have three options. 

1. Watch this movie for the first time, have your mind blown, and then take a solemn oath never to spoil it. 
2. Re-watch it and be amazed by the intricate script and the way the spoiler manifests itself. Or 
3. Don't watch it, and forever miss out on a pop cultural bombshell that changed neo-noir forever.

Only one of these is a bad choice…but we think it's a bad choice on par with angering a semi-mythical Turkish crime lord.

Because if you don't care, Keyser Söze will get you.

Next question?

Ah, we jest. We're never ones to pass up the opportunity to talk at length about why you should care about a) great movies b) videos of sloths in buckets or c) chocolate-covered espresso beans.

You should care about The Usual Suspects because it is a film that's all about audience participation.

No, this ain't The Rocky Horror Picture Show. (Although Kevin Spacey would look great in fishnets.) But it is a movie with a script that allows the audience member—that's you—to question the storyline, make your own assumptions, draw conclusions, and create conspiracy theories.

In fact, it encourages it.

But don't take our word for it—just ask screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie:

"The film would not work if it answered all of your questions. I have heard many theories about what happened and some of them are so good I wish I had written them. To me, a film that answers all of your questions is pointless. People are paying a lot of money to support your bullsh*t. If you don't give them something to take with them, you are a thief, a lousy storyteller. To that end, you also have to take something away from them, rob them of some fulfillment. Without mystery there is no love affair." (Source)

That is, we think, just about the most respectful and awesome thing a screenwriter can say to his audience. And it's also about the most intellectually stimulating.

Yeah: when you walk away from your first, second, third, or seventeenth viewing of The Usual Suspects, you have questions. This is a movie that exists in the gray area between lies and truth, and it's up to you to decide how much of its storyline is truth and how much is untrue.

We've taken a solemn vow of "no spoilers" here in the "Why Should I Care?" section (peep the rest of our The Usual Suspects material at your own risk), so we can't say more. But we think that's actually in keeping with McQuarrie's ethos—after all, this is a movie that demands that you answer your own questions.