Examine individual changes

'{{short description|Character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2012}} {{Infobox character | name = Keyser Söze | image = Keyser Söze - photo.jpg | caption = Kevin Spacey's character Roger "Verbal" Kint is identified as Söze in a police sketch | first = ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'' | creator = [[Christopher McQuarrie]] | portrayer = [[Kevin Spacey]]<br />Scott B. Morgan {{small|(flashback)}}<ref name=sundance>{{cite book|last=Mottram|first=James|title=The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood|year=2006|publisher=[[Faber and Faber]], Inc.|location=NY|isbn=0865479674|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sundancekidshowm0000mott/page/115 115]–116|url=https://archive.org/details/sundancekidshowm0000mott|url-access=registration|edition=1st American paperback}}</ref><br />[[Gabriel Byrne]] {{small|(flashback)}} | alias = Roger "Verbal" Kint | occupation = Crime lord, con artist | gender = Male | nationality = Turkish }} '''Keyser Söze''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|aɪ|z|ər|_|ˈ|s|oʊ|z|eɪ}} {{respell|KY|zər|_|SOH|zay}}) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 film ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'', written by [[Christopher McQuarrie]] and directed by [[Bryan Singer]]. According to the main protagonist, petty con artist Roger "Verbal" Kint ([[Kevin Spacey]]), Söze is a crime lord whose ruthlessness and influence have acquired a legendary, even mythical, status among police and criminals alike. Further events in the story [[Unreliable narrator|make these accounts unreliable]]; in a [[twist ending]], a police sketch identifies Kint and Söze as one and the same. The character was inspired by real life murderer [[John List]], and the spy thriller ''[[No Way Out (1987 film)|No Way Out]]'', which featured a shadowy [[KGB]] mole who may or may not actually exist. The character has placed on numerous "best villain" lists over the years, including [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains]]. Spacey won the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]], turning him from a character actor into a star. Since the release of the film, the character has become synonymous with infamous criminals. Analysis of the character has focused on the ambiguity of his true identity and whether he even exists inside the story's reality. Though the filmmakers have preferred to leave the character's nature to viewer interpretation, Singer has said he believes Kint and Söze are the same person. ==Concept and creation== Director Bryan Singer and writer [[Christopher McQuarrie]] originally conceived of ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'' as five felons meeting in a police line-up. Eventually, a powerful underworld figure responsible for their meeting was added to the plot. McQuarrie combined this plot with another idea of his based on the true story of [[John List]], who murdered his family and started a new life. The name was based on one of McQuarrie's supervisors, though the last name was changed. McQuarrie settled on Söze after finding it in a [[Turkish language|Turkish-language]] dictionary; it comes from the idiom "söze boğmak", which means "to talk unnecessarily too much and cause confusion" (literally: to drown in words).<ref>{{cite book|first1=George|last1=Anastasia|first2=Glen|last2=MacNow|title=The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies: Featuring the 100 Greatest Gangster Films of All Time|date=2011|publisher=[[Running Press]]|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780762443703|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kY5tHAksa7kC&pg=PT86|chapter=Chapter 9: The Usual Suspects}}</ref> Keyser Söze's semi-mythical nature was inspired by Yuri, a rumored [[KGB]] mole whose existence nobody can confirm, from the spy thriller ''[[No Way Out (1987 film)|No Way Out]]''.<ref>{{cite news|first=Phil|last=Hoad|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jan/04/how-we-made-the-usual-suspects-bryan-singer-gabriel-byrne|title=How we made The Usual Suspects|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]]|location=London, England|date=4 January 2016|access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref> Kint was not originally written to be as obviously intelligent; in the script, he was, according to McQuarrie, "presented as a dummy".<ref name=celebrity>{{cite book|first=Penny|last=Spirou|editor-first=Arthur J.|editor-last=Barlow|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPeCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA143|title=Star Power: The Impact of Branded Celebrity|chapter="I'm Not a Celebrity. That's Not a Profession. I'm an actor": Kevin Spacey from ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995) to ''Beyond the Sea'' (2004)|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|location=Santa Barbara, California|year=2014|isbn=9780313396182|page=143}}</ref> Spacey and Singer had previously met at a screening for Singer's film ''[[Public Access]]''. Spacey requested a role in Singer's next film, and McQuarrie wrote the role of Kint specifically for him. McQuarrie said he wanted audiences to dismiss Kint as a minor character, as Spacey was not yet well-known.<ref>{{cite web|first=Eric D.|last=Snider|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/67408/14-unusual-facts-about-usual-suspects|title=14 Unusual Facts About 'The Usual Suspects'|website=[[Mental Floss]]|publisher=[[Dennis Publishing]]|location=New York City|date=August 16, 2015|access-date=March 28, 2016}}</ref> Spacey made it more obvious that the character is holding back information, though the depth of his involvement and nature of his secrets remain unrevealed. McQuarrie said that he approved of the changes, as it makes the character "more fascinating".<ref name=celebrity/> ==Fictional history== ''The Usual Suspects'' consists mostly of flashbacks narrated by Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), a [[con artist]] with [[cerebral palsy]]. Kint was arrested after an apparent drug-related robbery gone wrong resulted in the destruction of a freighter ship and the deaths of nearly everyone onboard. He has been granted [[immunity from prosecution]] provided he assists investigators, including [[United States Customs Service|Customs Agent]] David Kujan ([[Chazz Palminteri]]), and reveals all details of his involvement with a group of career criminals who are assumed to be responsible for the bloodbath. While Kint is telling his story, Kujan learns the name Keyser Söze from [[FBI]] agent Jack Baer ([[Giancarlo Esposito]]) and demands Kint tell him what he knows. Kint states that Söze was believed to be of Turkish origin, but some have said that he was half German through his father. According to Kint, Söze began his criminal career as a small-time drug dealer. Horrifically though, one afternoon while Söze is away from home rival Hungarian gangsters attempt to intimidate him by taking his family hostage and raping his wife, then when he returns home, slitting the throat of one of his children right before his eyes. Determined to show these vicious criminals what toughness really means, Söze shoots and kills his own family and all but one of the Hungarians, letting the last leave so he can tell his cohorts what happened. Once his family is buried, Söze massacres the Hungarian Mafia, their families, their friends, and even people who owe them money. He goes underground, never again doing business in person, operating instead through oblivious underlings. Söze's ruthlessness is legendary; Kint describes him as having had enemies and disloyal henchmen brutally murdered, along with everyone they hold dear, for the slightest infractions. Over the years, his criminal empire flourishes, as does his legend. Remarking on Söze's mythical nature, Kint says, "The greatest trick the [[Devil]] ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist",<ref name=ugo/> a line borrowed from [[Charles Baudelaire]].{{refn|1=Baudelaire, "Le Joueur Généreux," where the Devil recounts to a gambler that he has even heard a preacher (''plus subtil que ses confrères'') cry: "Mes chers frères, n'oubliez jamais, quand vous entendrez vanter le progrès des lumières, que la plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas!" [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Joueur_généreux French text on Wikisource] Neither McQuarrie nor Singer realized this at the time and included it after hearing others paraphrase the quotation.<ref name=ugo/>}} In Kint's story, he and several other criminals meet after being jailed on a trumped-up hijacking charge and work together as thieves for hire. After a botched robbery, they are blackmailed by Söze, through Söze's lawyer Kobayashi ([[Pete Postlethwaite]]), into destroying a rival Argentinean gang's ninety-one million dollar drug shipment. All but Kint and a Hungarian, Arkash Kovash (Morgan Hunter), are killed in the attack. However as no drugs were ever found at the scene, Baer and Kujan believe the true purpose of the attack was to eliminate an informant on the ship named Arturo Marquez, a fugitive whom the Argentineans were attempting to sell to Hungarian mobsters. Marquez, had he survived, was one of the exceedingly rare people who could have positively identified Söze, having actually seen his face. Kujan confronts Kint with the theory that Söze is corrupt ex-police officer Dean Keaton ([[Gabriel Byrne]]), one of the criminals involved. Kujan's investigation of Keaton, which had been ongoing for three years, is what had involved him in the case in the first place. In the film’s final scene, it is revealed that Kint's story is a fabrication, comprising strung-together details culled from a crowded bulletin board in a messy office. Kovash describes Söze to a sketch artist: the [[facial composite|drawing]] faxed in to the police resembles Verbal Kint. Kujan pursues Kint, who has already been released, his limp gone. Kujan misses Kint by moments as the latter gets into a car, driven by "Kobayashi". ==Reception and legacy== [[A. O. Scott]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called Keyser Söze the "perfect postmodern [[antisocial personality disorder|sociopath]]",<ref>{{cite news|first=A. O.|last=Scott|author-link=A.O. Scott|title=Bad Times on Wall Street, Boom Times for Kevin Spacey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/bad-times-on-wall-street-boom-times-for-kevin-spacey.html|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|publisher=[[The New York Times Company]]|location=New York City|date=October 21, 2011|access-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> and Quentin Curtis of ''[[The Independent]]'' described him as "the most compelling creation in recent American film".<ref>{{cite news|first=Quentin|last=Curtis|title=Confused? You Will Be|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-critics-cinema-confused-you-will-be-1598236.html|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|publisher=Independent Print Ltd.|location=London, England|date=27 August 1995|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> Jason Bailey of ''[[The Atlantic]]'' identified the role as turning Kevin Spacey from a [[character actor]] to a star.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Jason|last=Bailey|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/keyser-s-zes-big-break-the-roles-that-made-character-actors-into-stars/263753/#slide7|title=Keyser Söze's Big Break: The Roles That Made Character Actors Into Stars|magazine=[[The Atlantic]]|publisher=[[Emerson Collective]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=October 17, 2012|access-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> Kevin Spacey received the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]] for his performance.<ref>{{cite news|first=William|last=Grimes|title=Gibson Best Director for 'Braveheart,' Best Film|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/26/movies/gibson-best-director-for-braveheart-best-film.html|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|location=New York City|date=March 26, 1996|access-date=July 17, 2013}}</ref> The character placed 48th in the [[American Film Institute]]'s "[[AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains]]" in June 2003.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/100Years/handv.aspx |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains |access-date=19 March 2010 |publisher=[[American Film Institute]]}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' placed him at #10 on their list of most memorably named film characters<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://entertainment.time.com/2012/01/23/top-10-memorable-movie-character-names/|title=Top 10 Memorable Movie-Character Names|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=22 January 2012|access-date=10 July 2013|author=<!-- Staff -->}}</ref> and #5 in best pop culture gangsters.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Kayla|last=Webley|url=http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2020083_2020085_2020081,00.html|title=Top 10 Pop-Culture Gangsters|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|publisher=[[Time, Inc.]]|location=New York City|date=September 17, 2010|access-date=December 10, 2019}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' ranked the character #37 in their list of the 100 greatest characters of the past 20 years,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vary|first=Adam B.|url=http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/01/100-greatest-characters-of-last-20-years-full-list/|title=The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years: Here's our full list!|journal=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=June 1, 2010|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> #6 in "most vile villains",<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Annika|last=Harris|title=50 Most Vile Movie Villains: 6. Keyser Söze|url=http://www.ew.com/gallery/50-most-vile-movie-villains/486194_6-keyser-s%C3%B6ze|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=July 19, 2012|access-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> and #12 in the best heroes and villains.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Good Guys vs. Bad Guys: Who Wins?|url=http://www.ew.com/gallery/good-guys-vs-bad-guys-who-wins/411149_keyser-sose300jpg-0|journal=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=June 7, 2010|access-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> ''[[Ask Men]]'' ranked him #6 in their list of top ten film villains.<ref>{{cite web|first=Matthew|last=Simpson|title=Top 10: Movie Villains|url=http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/61_top_10_list.html|work=[[Ask Men]]|publisher=[[Ziff Davis Media]]|location=Montreal, Canada|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> ''[[Total Film]]'' ranked him #37 in their best villains<ref>{{cite news|title=Top Heroes and Villains Named in Movie List|url=http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/goodies-baddies-get-sorted/story-e6frfmq9-1111114966889|access-date=10 July 2013|newspaper=News.com.au|date=26 November 2007|author=BANG Showbiz}}</ref> and #40 in best characters overall.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Total Film Top 100 Movie Characters Of All Time – 50 to 26|date=28 September 2007|url=http://www.gamesradar.com/the-total-film-top-100-movie-characters-of-all-time-50-to-26/|journal=[[Total Film]]|access-date=10 July 2013|author=<!-- Staff -->}}</ref> [[MSN]] ranked him #4 in their list of the 13 most menacing villains.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hunter|first=Melissa|title=Hollywood's 13 Most Menacing Villains|url=http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/movies/galleries/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=24851055&page=4|work=[[MSN]]|access-date=10 July 2013|date=12 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716180343/http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/movies/galleries/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=24851055&page=4|archive-date=July 16, 2010 }}</ref> ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' ranked him #41 in their "100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.empireonline.com/100-greatest-movie-characters/default.asp?c=69| title=The 100 Greatest Movie Characters | magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] | publisher=[[Bauer Media Group]]|location=London, England | access-date=December 8, 2008}}</ref> ===Analysis=== In an interview with ''[[Metro Silicon Valley]]'', [[Pete Postlethwaite]] quoted Bryan Singer as saying that all the characters are Söze. When asked point blank whether his character is Söze, Postlethwaite said, "Who knows? Nobody knows. That's what's good about ''The Usual Suspects''."<ref>{{cite news|first=Richard|last=von Busack|author-link=Richard von Busack|url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.29.97/brassed-off2-9722.html|title=Unusual Suspect|newspaper=[[Metro Silicon Valley]]|publisher=[[Metro Newspapers]]|location=San Jose, California|date=29 May 1997|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> Spacey has also been evasive about his character's true identity. In an interview with ''[[Total Film]]'', he said, "That's for the audience to decide. My job is to show up and do a part – I don't own the audience's imagination."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.gamesradar.com/the-total-film-interview-kevin-spacey/|title=The Total Film Interview – Kevin Spacey|magazine=[[Total Film]]|publisher=[[Future plc]]|location=Somerset, England|date=1 December 2004|access-date=10 July 2013|author=<!-- Staff -->}}</ref> Singer said the film is ambiguous about most of the character's details, but the fax sent at the end of the film proves in his mind that Kint is Söze.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Keith|last=Staskiewicz|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/18/bryan-singer-the-usual-suspects|title=Bryan Singer remembers The Usual Suspects on its 20th anniversary|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=August 18, 2015|access-date=February 26, 2016}}</ref> Bryan Enk, writing for [[UGO]], states that the myth-making story of Söze's origins is a classic ghost story that would be right at home in horror fiction.<ref name=ugo>{{cite web|first=Bryan|last=Enk|title=The Usual Suspects: The Legend of Keyser Soze|url=http://www.ugo.com/therush/the-usual-suspects-the-legend-of-keyser-soze|website=[[UGO Networks]]|publisher=[[IGN Entertainment]]|location=New York City|date=1 October 2009|access-date=10 July 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926202058/http://www.ugo.com/therush/the-usual-suspects-the-legend-of-keyser-soze|archive-date=September 26, 2011 }}</ref> Writing about [[psychopath]]s in film, academic Wayne Wilson explicitly likens Söze to [[Satan]] and assigns to him demonic motives. Wilson states that Söze allows himself to be caught just to prove his superiority over the police; this compromises his ultimate goal of anonymity, but Söze cannot resist the urge to show off and create mischief.<ref>{{cite book |first=Wayne|last=Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBIjsk-2ok4C&pg=PA251|title=The Psychopath in Film |date=1999 |publisher=[[University Press of America]] |location=Lanham, Maryland|pages=251–255 |isbn=0-7618-1317-9}}</ref> In ''[[The Journal of Nietzsche Studies]]'', [[Lewis Call]] states that Söze's mythological status draws the ire of the [[authoritarian]] government agents because he "represents a terrifying truth: that power is ephemeral, and has no basis in reality."<ref name=jns>{{cite journal|first=Lewis|last=Call|title=Toward an Anarchy of Becoming: Postmodern Anarchism in Nietzschean Philosophy|journal=[[The Journal of Nietzsche Studies]]|publisher=[[Penn State University Press]]|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|issue=21|date=Spring 2001|pages=52–53|jstor=20717753}}</ref> According to Call, Söze's intermediaries – the "usual suspects" themselves – are more useful to the police, as they represent an easily controlled and intimidated criminal underworld, in direct contrast to Söze himself.<ref name=jns/> Hanna M. Roisman likens Kint to [[Odysseus]], capable of adapting both his personality and his tales to his current audience. Throughout his tale, Kint adapts his confession to Kujan's revealed biases. Roisman draws direct parallels to Odysseus' tales to the [[Phaeacians]]: like Odysseus, Kint allows his audience to define him and his narrative. Appealing to Kujan's arrogance, Kint allows himself to be outwitted, humiliated, and broken by his interrogator; Kint further invents a mythical villain that he credulously believes in and gives Kujan the privileged perspective of the skeptic. Kint thus creates a [[neo-noir]] thriller inside of a neo-noir thriller and demonstrates the artificiality of storytelling.<ref>{{cite book|first=Hanna M.|last=Roisman|title=Classical Myth & Culture in the Cinema|year=2001|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford, England|isbn=9780195351569|pages=51–54, 63–68|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3kp8fQWWgBkC&pg=RA2-PA2|editor-first=Martin M.|editor-last=Winkler|chapter=Verbal Odysseus: Narrative Strategy in ''The Odyssey'' and ''The Usual Suspects''}}</ref> Benjamin Widiss identifies [[Post-structuralism|post-structural]] elements to the film, such as the lack of a clear protagonist throughout much of the film. This extends to ambiguity over Kint's role as author or reader, and whether he is Kint pretending to be Söze or the reverse.<ref>{{cite book|first=Benjamin|last=Widiss|title=Obscure invitations The Persistence of the Author in Twentieth-Century American Literature|year=2011|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|location=Palo Alto, California|isbn=978-0804773232|pages=156–157|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_sY757E13EC&pg=PA150|chapter=''Seven'' and ''The Usual Suspects''}}</ref> Söze was also subject to detailed fan analysis and debate. Fans contacted Singer personally and quizzed him on explanations for the film's complicated plot.<ref name=ew>{{cite magazine|first=Jeff|last=Gordinier|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1995/09/29/behind-scenes-usual-suspects|title=Behind the scenes: The Usual Suspects|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=September 29, 1995|access-date=February 26, 2016}}</ref> Fan theories about Söze's identity became a popular topic on Internet forums.<ref name=sundance/> After the film's festival premiere, the ambiguity of Söze's identity and how to pronounce his name were used in the film's marketing. Pronunciation had previously been an issue for distributor [[Gramercy Pictures]], who used, "Who is Keyser Söze?" to demonstrate both proper pronunciation and stoke speculation.<ref name=ew/> The ad campaign was later highlighted by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as "question of the year" for 1995.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Annie|last=Barrett|url=http://www.ew.com/gallery/1995-special-year/414401_question-year-who-keyser-s%C3%B6ze|title=1995: A Special Year?|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=June 26, 2010|access-date=February 26, 2016}}</ref> ===In popular culture=== <!-- Entries without a citation will be deleted. --> Since the release of the film, the name "Keyser Söze" has become synonymous with a feared, elusive person nobody has met.<ref>{{cite web|first=Brandon|last=Griggs|url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/14/entertainment/usual-suspects-movie-keyser-soze-feat/|title=Why Keyser Söze still rules, 20 years later|website=[[CNN]]|publisher=[[Turner Broadcasting Systems]]|location=Atlanta, Georgia|date=17 August 2015|access-date=26 February 2016}}</ref> In June 2001, ''Time'' referred to [[Osama bin Laden]] as "a geopolitical Keyser Söze, an omnipresent menace whose very name invokes perils far beyond his capability".<ref>{{cite In the 2000 comedy movie "Scary Movie" there is a reference of Keyser Söze and to the ending of the movie. At the police station, Cindy and the sheriff discover that the killer was not David Keegan, the man whom Cindy and her friends accidentally killed a year earlier and realize that Doofy(a deformative guy) is the killer the whole time and was faking his disability. Like in "The Usual Suspects" there's a shot on Doofy legs while walking, where he change his walking from limping to a normal walking and he escaping with a girl in a car after removing his disguise.<ref>{{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_Movie}} magazine|first=Tony|last=Karon|url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,131866,00.html|title=Bin Laden Rides Again: Myth vs. Reality|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=June 20, 2001|access-date=December 11, 2019}}</ref> In the episode "[[The Puppet Show (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|The Puppet Show]]" of the television series ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', a character asks, "Does anyone else feel like they've been Keyser Söze'd?", referring to a sense of having been definitively manipulated and outmaneuvered.<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael|last=Adams|title=Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford, England|year=2003|isbn=0-19-517599-9|page=193|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_6b2YyKI7oC&pg=PA193}}</ref> In 1996, punk band [[Link 80]] used the character as the basis of the opening song (titled "Verbal Kint") on their debut album ''[[17 Reasons]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.punknews.org/review/2966/link-80-17-reasons|title=Link 80 - 17 Reasons|last=Punknews.org|website=www.punknews.org|access-date=May 11, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://genius.com/Link-80-verbal-kint-lyrics|title=Link 80 – Verbal Kint|access-date=May 11, 2017}}</ref> In his 1999 review of ''[[Fight Club (film)|Fight Club]]'', which was generally negative, film critic [[Roger Ebert]] commented, "A lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Söze syndrome."<ref>{{cite news|first=Roger|last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Fight Club|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991015/REVIEWS/910150302|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=October 15, 1999|access-date=July 17, 2013|via=rogerebert.com}}</ref> During episode six of the first season of ''[[Billions (TV series)|Billions]]'', the character "Dollar" Bill Stearn invokes Keyser Söze's name when metaphorically "murdering" his own family.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Brian|last=Tallerico|url=http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/billions-recap-season-1-episode-6.html|title=Billions Recap: Scorched Earth|website=[[Vulture.com]]|publisher=[[New York Media]]|location=New York City|date=February 11, 2016|access-date=June 11, 2017}}</ref> In the third season of the American comedy fantasy show ''[[The Good Place (season 3)|The Good Place]]'', main character Eleanor Shellstrop talks about her mother, saying “When the time comes, she will rip this guy off and disappear like Keyser Söze—right after he admitted to groping all those people,” making a veiled reference to [[Kevin Spacey sexual misconduct allegations|the sexual misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tv.avclub.com/the-good-place-annotated-a-fractured-inheritance-1830164636|title=The Good Place, annotated: "A Fractured Inheritance"|last=Adams|first=Erik|date=11 January 2018|website=AV/TV club|access-date=13 December 2018}}</ref> In the second season of the Irish comedy ''[[Derry Girls]]'', which is set in the 1990s, several characters go to see ''The Usual Suspects''. The theater gets evacuated before the film ends, and Ma Mary obsesses about finding out who Keyser Söze is.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Flynn|first=Fiona|title='Derry Girls' fans were loving drunk Clare in this week's episode|url=https://entertainment.ie/tv/tv-news/derry-girls-fans-loving-drunk-clare-393541/|access-date=2020-08-13|website=Entertainment.ie}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Fielding|first=Anna|date=2019-03-13|title=Derry Girls S2 E2 recap: Ms de Brún and The Child of Prague|url=https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/derry-girls-recap-s2-e2-ms-de-brun-child-of-prague/256476|access-date=2020-08-13|website=Stylist|language=en}}</ref> At the end of his verse on the "[[I Shot Ya (Remix)]]" that came out the same year as the film, [[Fat Joe]] refers to himself with the alias Keyser Soze in the last line he raps "Bullets be blazing through these streets filled with torture/Joey Crack, a.k.a. Keyser Soze"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ohhla.com/anonymous/llcoolj/mr_smith/shotyarm.clj.txt}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist|30em}} ==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Soze, Keyser}} [[Category:Crime film characters]] [[Category:Fictional con artists]] [[Category:Film characters introduced in 1995]] [[Category:Fictional crime bosses]] [[Category:Fictional drug dealers]] [[Category:Fictional characters who committed familicide]] [[Category:Fictional mass murderers]] [[Category:Fictional gangsters]] [[Category:Fictional Turkish people]] [[Category:Male film villains]]'