Omg!! There's actually one person who agrees with me:) cheesy acting, and a "twist" ending that revealed nothing except that the entire movie was a lie told by a "criminal mastermind" that decides to freely walk into a police station for no reason at all after going thru tremendous lifelong efforts to keeping his identity secret? Just silly if you ask me
This is all on the assumptions that a) Verbal was Soze b) If he was, he is as all seeing and all powerful as he is in the stories about him c) he could have easily escaped after the ship blew up
Now, we dont really know for sure who Verbal is. From the FAQs page:
It's entirely plausible that all the evidence that pointed to Verbal Kint being Keyser Söze was red herrings, and someone else could have been the mythical crime lord. For example, Verbal doesn't look old enough to have been married with children. However, it wouldn't be too shocking if he was simply Keyser Soze's son continuing the family tradition. The story about Soze shooting his children is true, but Verbal survived by hiding when the thugs came in. In fact, Kobayashi could reasonably have been Keyser Soze. He is clearly in his late 50s or early 60s, making a larger window for him to become one of the most powerful criminals in the world. He's less amazingly steeped in American culture, vernacular and geography for a Turkish crime lord compared to Verbal, he never gets directly involved in his crimes, let alone enters a police station and gives clues that could ruin a cherished identity, preferring instead to have those jobs be carried out by middlemen. Under this theory, Verbal is a conman who is Keyser's infiltrator who helps him stay on top, and also even plays the part of Keyser sometimes, such as on the boat, while "Kobayashi" remains completely behind the scenes and his face remains a secret. While not the intended theory, it is plausible.So really we cant say for certain who he is.
If he is Soze, he could simply be using 'Kayser Soze the myth' to his advantage, when in reality he could be no where as powerful as the myths make him out to be and simply relies on all the horror stories and legends in order to intimidate his opponents.
Finally, even if he was Soze (or worked for him) there is no guarantee that he could have easily escaped after the ship blew up. We dont know what happened immediately afterwards or the situation he was in. Maybe he rationalised that it would be easier to play the part of Verbal the cripple and allow himself to be taken in by the police, rather than risking his life trying to escape, knowing that he is 'protected up on high by the prince of darkness himself' and that the political pressure he could call upon would get him off the hook immediately. Or perhaps getting caught was the final piece of his plan so that he could get the case closed asap with the story of a dope deal gone bad with no survivors. He may have even rationalised that a smarter cop with a hard on for Keaton may interrogate him at some point and he could lead him into thinking that Keaton was the man behind it all.
As far as it all being pointless as its clearly made up, well that's not the case at all. As people have already said the Verbals story is perfectly feasible. We know that there was a line up with the 5 and we know that this was orchestrated for the purposes of getting them all together with the view of them carrying out the attack on the boat. The events that unfolded in between could have happened to lead the 5 from the line up to the boat job. I think its great that we dont know if the entire thing is a lie or not, its part of what makes the twist so great.
The film does leave clues about the twist throughout. Again the the FAQs page:
es, there are some. One is Verbal's relative position on the night of the attack. He is hiding behind a stack of material on the dock. When Hockney is killed, Verbal would have been the closest person to him. In his testimony, shown in flashback, Verbal supposedly takes cover behind some large spools of rope on the dock as he observes Soze on the boat. However, when the camera zooms in on this area from the opposite side after the explosion, no one is seen peering through the ropes.
In the opening scene, we see Keyser Söze look at a gold pocket watch and produce a gold cigarette lighter. Later, in the scene where the gang threatens Kobayashi, we see Verbal wearing a similar watch. He also collects this watch, along with a gold cigarette lighter, as he leaves the police station, despite having earlier demonstrated his inability to use a similar lighter during his questioning.
In the interrogation, Verbal comments that when he gets dehydrated his urine becomes thick and lumpy due to a kidney condition. In the opening scene when Keyser Söze urinates on the fire, his urine is thick and lumpy.
When agent Kujan begins to suggest that Keaton might be the one behind the hit on the docks, Verbal can be seen starting to smile. When Kujan comes around from behind Verbal and looks him in the face, the smile disappears, and Verbal continues to pretend loyalty to Keaton. During the interrogation throughout the movie, although it is easy to miss upon a first viewing, Verbal is seen glancing for a second or two away from Kujan or over Kujan's shoulder at the wall behind him in full view of wanted posters and advertisement flyers of names as Verbal is clearly making up the names of the mysterious associates and contacts such as 'Redfoot' and 'Kobayashi' when Kujan's questioning becomes more intense as it revealed that Verbal Kint is making up (on the spur-of-the-moment) aliases of his co-conspirators as he goes along.
Keyser Söze is described by Verbal as being of mixed Turkish/German heritage. "Söze" is Turkish for "talks too much," or "verbal." "Keyser" sounds like the German word "Kaiser," meaning "emperor," while "Kint" sounds like "king." Director Bryan Singer has referred to the name as essentially meaning "The king that talks too much."
Finally, one might simply recognize that when Söze whispers "How ya doin' Keaton?" at the start of the film, the voice is that of Verbal/Kevin Spacey. After being thrown on the ground Verbal slips " I did kill Keaton," though Kujan is shouting too loud to hear, and Verbal is able to correct himself by saying "I did see Keaton get shot." Also, when they are listening to the men before the attack on the boat Keaton speculates that they are speaking Russian, Verbal correctly identifies the language as Hungarian, something Soze would obviously know.
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