Movie

The Usual Suspects

Name: The Usual Suspects
Released: 1995

1995 • Crime, Drama, Mystery

Woke Score

1.4

out of 10

Plot

Following a truck hijack in New York, five criminals are arrested and brought together for questioning. As none of them are guilty, they plan a revenge operation against the police. The operation goes well, but then the influence of a legendary mastermind criminal called Keyser Söze is felt. It becomes clear that each one of them has wronged Söze at some point and must pay back now. The payback job leaves 27 men dead in a boat explosion, but the real question arises now: Who actually is Keyser Söze?

Overall Series Review

The Usual Suspects is a taut, non-linear neo-noir crime thriller focused entirely on a group of career criminals and the law enforcement agents interrogating them. The story’s main preoccupation is the unreliability of narrative and the mystery of the legendary crime boss Keyser Söze. The film’s atmosphere and character-driven plot, common for 1990s crime dramas, are devoid of modern identity politics and social justice messaging. The narrative prioritizes plot, mystery, and character dynamics over any form of ideological lecturing. The cast is overwhelmingly male, with female characters existing largely on the periphery as motivations or supporting professionals, and the focus is firmly on the men's competence (or lack thereof) in their chosen life of crime. The film is a study in amoral power dynamics and deceit, not a critique of Western civilization or a platform for contemporary social issues.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The characters are defined by their criminal specialization and personality traits—the con man, the ex-cop, the madman, the mechanic, the fence. Race and immutable characteristics are irrelevant to the plot and the characters' power dynamics. The narrative operates on a universal meritocracy of cunning, where the most skilled deceiver prevails over everyone, regardless of background.

Oikophobia2/10

The film is a critique of a corrupt, modern criminal underworld and the law enforcement bureaucracy trying to contain it, which is standard for the crime genre. There is no deconstruction of Western heritage, no demonization of ancestors, and no 'Noble Savage' trope. The movie concerns the chaos of lawlessness, but does not frame the home culture as fundamentally rotten on a civilizational level.

Feminism1/10

The main cast of protagonists and antagonists is composed almost entirely of men. Women are present but serve secondary or supportive functions, like Keaton's lawyer-girlfriend, who is a smart professional but not central to the main criminal plot. There are no 'Girl Boss' or 'Mary Sue' tropes, and masculinity is neither demonized nor excessively celebrated; it is simply the dominant gender dynamic of the criminal world being depicted.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story adheres to a normative structure, with male-female pairing being the background standard for the only relationship shown. Sexual ideology or gender theory is completely absent from the narrative. The focus is exclusively on the criminal enterprise and the investigation.

Anti-Theism3/10

The film's world operates on a moral vacuum, where the ultimate power is Keyser Söze, a mortal criminal who has achieved mythical, God-like status through ruthlessness and fear. The line 'I believe in God, but the only thing I’m afraid of is Keyser Söze' highlights a complete moral relativism and the embrace of an amoral power dynamic over any transcendent moral law. This makes the world spiritually empty and subjectively evil, but it stops short of active vilification of Christianity.