As Todd and James have commented on the ending sequence in The Usual Suspects, both the writing – how McQuarrie ‘shielded’ the clues throughout the story – and the editing effectively drive home the story’s twist.
An interesting comparison is the twist revelation sequence in The Sixth Sense (1999). Two big differences right off the bat: First, in terms of content, this twist has to resolve itself in a way where the story’s Protagonist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) and his wife Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams) end up in an emotionally satisfying place — they both get a chance to say good-bye, acknowledge what happened, so they can move on with their respective ‘lives;’ so in essence an (albeit bittersweet) upbeat ending as opposed to Usual Suspect’s downbeat ending, at least so far as Chazz Palmenteri’s US Customs agent character is concerned. Second, whereas Suspects uses a ton of V.O. dialogue to stitch together the twist revelation, when the first inkling dawns on Crowe – hey, I might be dead – Sixth Sense goes through an almost strictly visual recounting of key beats in the story where Crowe puts it all together: yes, in fact, he is dead.
Here’s the ending twist revelation sequence of The Sixth Sense. As I say, an interesting comparison to The Usual Suspects.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7t_VAWkiu0]
I actually don’t like The Sixth Sense.
Part of the reason is that I knew Bruce Willis was dead because of the heavy-handed nature of the screenplay.
I mean — M. Night literally gives it away in the “I See Dead People” speech. The next line after that famous one is roughly “I see people who are dead and don’t even know they are.”
Not to mention the boy says it is always cold when he sees them and the COLDEST scene in the ENTIRE movie is that speech, which is JUST Bruce Willis and the boy.
My biggest problem with the movie is that without the twist the movie is very uninteresting. Downright boring. I can’t sit through it for subsequent viewings. (And this formula of the movie being boring except for a huge twist is what has been leading to the downfall of M Night movies in general).
Take a movie like FIGHT CLUB.
That has a HUGE twist. The movie is COMPLETELY different upon a second viewing. And yet it holds together, is just as interesting and entertaining whether you know the twist or not.
The interesting part of Fight Club isn’t the twist itself — it’s how the twist is executed. M Night movies tend to heavily rely on “Look, how clever I was at getting in this twist you didn’t even see coming” in an otherwise completely uneventful film.
James, that’s a good analysis and a fair point about Sixth Sense. And I applaud your insight because when I first saw the movie when it came out in 1999, I did not pick up on the twist.
Shyamalan’s, shall we say, ‘decline’ in filmmaking over the years would certainly lend credence, too, to your assessment.
I think I’ll have to screen the movie again – perhaps it won’t stand up this time around.
I liked the Sixth Sense ending better because after the clues are revealed, you just felt better about being “tricked” than Usual Suspects. I guess I just feel that Suspects was deliberately hiding stuff, when Sixth Sense it just was embedded mor naturually
I really liked Usual Suspects the first time around, but it definitely feels like the storyteller cheats after further review.
With Sixth Sense we have more of an idea of the puzzle being solved, but are surprised by that final piece. With Usual Suspects, the puzzle and the surprise piece kind of all come at you at once.