The Story Archive

The Usual Suspects

Bryan Singer · 1995 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

Five criminals held overnight on a New York hijacking lineup decide to work together, and the jobs that follow lead them to a burning boat in San Pedro harbour. A customs agent questions a survivor with a limp, who talks his way back through months of it and around the name of a Hungarian nobody has seen. Its interrogation-room construction made narrator-driven misdirection standard equipment for the crime pictures after it.

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Attributes

Genre
Crime / NoirMysteryThriller
Theme
Appearance vs RealityBetrayalPower & CorruptionGuilt & Conscience
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
TricksterShadowAnti-Hero
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeUnreliable NarratorNonlinear / Fractured
Symbol / motif
The MaskThe Ship / BoatFire
Conflict
vs Personvs Society
Mode / tone
NoirIronic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues