Quote:
Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Verbal made up the entire story to perpetuate Soze's legend. He used other characters to make it sound like he was a ruthless, omniscient killer.
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I'm obviously a less proficient student of The Usual Suspects than Coltrane is, but I think the brilliance of the plotline is this observation, coupled with the fact that Verbal is forced to
change and redirect the narrative in response to things happening outside the room. Palmienteri's character keeps coming in and out of the room with dribs and drabs of outside information, which Soze then weaves into the story. As I said, Soze's name isn't even mentioned until halfway through the movie, at which point Verbal is forced to guess at how much Palmienteri has learned from the survivors of the boat fire, and scramble to explain (1) why the Soze thing is consistent with facts Palmienteri knows from other sources and (2) why he didn't tell the DA about Soze's involvement before getting immunity.
The entire movie is about how Verbal needs to keep spinning the story to get out of the interrogation room at all costs and back into the underworld. It's like "1001 Nights" where Scheherazade is trying to stay alive, but is herself one of the tales.
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