5 Ways The Usual Suspects Has Aged Well (& 5 Ways It Hasn’t)

Every year presents plenty of exciting movie anniversaries – such is the richness of our entertainment history. 2020, for instance, brings with it the 10th anniversary of 2010’s Inception and the 50th anniversary of 1970’s Patton. Celebrating 25 years is the beloved crime thriller from an era full of them – The Usual Suspects.

Movies and the world have changed quite a bit since this low-budget brain-buster made Oscar noise in 1995. Some of its talented cast and crew are now massive stars and others will be pleasantly re-discovered upon a rewatch. In some of its aspects, the film’s influence on today’s films is clear. Other aspects can be looked back on curiously. Overall, the fascinating movie is among the most worthy of all-time for regular reconsideration.

10 Hasn’t Aged Well: Cops As Cartoon Characters

One of the responses to the mass protests surrounding police brutality and behavior in 2020 has been the canceling of numerous highly-popular “cop” dramas and reality shows. These decisions don’t reflect a sweeping perspective of cops as bad, they simply recognize the inappropriateness of the glorification of police officers as infallible protectors, especially when bending the rules.

In The Usual Suspects, the main police characters played delightfully by Chazz Palminteri and Dan Hedaya are as tough-guy over-the-top as you can imagine. This is, to some degree, an artistic choice (being playful with the noir tradition) but is a representation waning in artistic impact, in light of recent discourse.

9 Has Aged Well: Christopher McQuarrie’s Handle On Action Film

In the two-and-a-half decades since penning The Usual Suspects early in his career, Christopher McQuarrie has become a staple of the action-packed big screen. Particularly, he has been a close colleague of Tom Cruise, contributing to Valkyrie, Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, and a number of the recent renowned Mission: Impossible installments.

All of the high-concept set pieces are hinted at in The Usual Suspects – an office building turned into a massive booby-trap and a ship heist turned into an inferno.

8 Hasn’t Aged Well: Too Much Testosterone

A recent article on Screen Rant sister site, CBR, commented on legendary director Stanley Kubrick’s resistance to collaboration, especially with women. What’s inarguable about this perspective is that the history of film has altogether suffered from a lack of female energy.

In this regard, The Usual Suspects is something of a dinosaur, presenting almost no female characters whatsoever. Here’s to betting the inevitable reboot places someone like Tessa Thompson in as the keen-eyed investigator.

7 Has Aged Well: The Classic Lineup Scene

The Usual Suspects is overwhelmingly associated with the image from its poster – the five criminal characters in a classic police identification lineup. It’s also one of the most entertaining scenes in the film, even without a hint of action or violence.

Taking place early on in the screen time, each character reveals their personality through the simple reading of the same line (a quotation from the scene of the crime, at the request of police and witnesses). Its captivating, introductory, and somehow funny, all at the same time.

6 Hasn’t Aged Well: Trigger-Happy Protagonists

In every sense of the phrase, The Usual Suspects is a “shoot ’em up” movie. Throughout a riveting shell plot that seeks to uncover the identity of a mysterious criminal mastermind, scene after scene is put into place presenting vague circumstances for high-action, VHS-era gun violence.

Gun violence and control have been a more somber topic of cultural discussion in the years since 1995, and today we see far less relatively meaningless shooting on screen.

5 Has Aged Well: The 90s-Era Time-Bending

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction made putting a film in chronological order outright unfashionable. Puzzle movies, like Run Lola Run, Memento, and Mulholland Drive became all the rage among cinephiles. Among the earliest in this craze was The Usual Suspects.

For the length of the film, it’s critical events have already transpired and are simply being recounted by innocuous henchman, Verbal (Kevin Spacey). Within the police interrogation though, there’s more at play than meets the eye.

4 Hasn’t Aged Well: Bryan Singer

One of the likely reasons The Usual Suspects has not received some sort of revival treatment a la Fast Times at Ridgemont High in this, its 25th anniversary year, is the controversy surrounding its auteur, Bryan Singer, who has been at the wrong end of numerous sexual assault claims.

The acclaimed director helmed multiple installments in the X-Men series and the award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018, but has been effectively out of work since these issues came to light shortly after.

3 Has Aged Well: Benicio Del Toro

Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro, while among the titular gang, has an entertaining yet understated role in The Usual Suspects. He has fairly little to do in the script, and before the final scene, his character has bailed on the mission.

It would be several years before Del Toro was memorably paired with Johnny Depp for the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a few more before he nabbed his award for the Steven Soderbergh film Traffic. Now, he is something of a Hollywood character actor legend, most recently stunning in Ben Stiller’s series, Escape at Dannemora.

2 Hasn’t Aged Well: Kevin Spacey

One of the most unfortunate stories to emerge from the #MeToo movement surrounded long-time critical darling, Kevin Spacey. A two-time Oscar winner, including for his role in this film, Spacey was known for his ability to make monotone creepy, cruel, and powerful.

Given the substantial allegations against him, it is now difficult to separate such nefarious onscreen characters from his detestable offscreen behavior. Unfairly to co-stars and other co-collaborators, his films thus have suffered significantly.

1 Has Aged Well: The Twist Ending

Famously, the 1990s was the height of independent film. Now-towering directors, like Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan, emerged on the scene with scripts meant to dazzle as much as their scenes. M. Night Shyamalan and David Fincher further contributed to a culture of strong stories and, especially, knockout surprise conclusions.

Time-jumping like Tarantino and Nolan and end-twisting like Shyamalan and Fincher, The Usual Suspects‘ ending is among the greatest of all time. The film’s final shot knows it, too.

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