...Spacey is now an established bastard both on and off screen? I can imagine 1995 viewers bought Spacey's nonthreatening character throughout the movie because he wasn't quite as established back then. Still, my buddies and I greatly enjoyed the film.
shareMost likely. Also, twist endings were less common, so not as much expected.
shareI would think Spacey being in the role played a large part. Also, movies like this pioneered crazy twist endings to some extent. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if movies like Memento were directly inspired by The Usual Suspects. Unfortunately, I don't remember what my reaction was when I saw it in the '90s, and I was a teenager and didn't appreciate this sort of movie as much at the time. I could see concluding that Spacey was Keyser Soze, but I suppose the real surprise would be that the story was semi-fictionalized based upon items in the room.
Also, when Keyser Soze speaks with Keaton you can tell that it is Kevin Spacey, although his voice wouldn't have been as recognizable when the movie was released.
I believe you, but its hard not to think maybe you picked up a clue somewhere without knowing it, subliminally.
And as others noted, it strikes different now than it did in 95. You cant imagine.
No, you didn't.
See? Question solved. Yer welcome.
When the movie came out, it was rare to have a twist ending like that. So no one was looking for it.
In The Usual Suspects, there were three surprises: the fact that there was a twist, who it was, and that he got away with it.
Most people I knew at the time enjoyed the ending.
Today, when I see a movie like this, the first I do is try to guess who the twist character is going to be.
I'm right only about 30% of the time, but even when I'm wrong, there is always a twist character.