Chayana's Textual Analysis of "The Usual Suspects"

Textual Analysis of "The Ususal Suspects"

by Chayana Forde

The film "The Usual Suspects" begins with an ECU of match being ignited, and a flame engulfs the whole shot, introducing a prominent motif of fire throughout the whole sequence. This alerts the audience of the danger, as fire is a icon in the genre of Thriller, and often denotes the symbol of danger. This shot paired with the later shot of the of fuel, that is clearly flammable, gives the viewer insight as to what will happen. This is at the beginning, as the thought will be ringing in their mind as to when the fire will happen, which creates suspense.

This creates an anti-climax as the audience is lead to believe that it is going to happen when the protagonist drops the match on to the trail of the fuel. However, as revealed a couple of seconds later, the fire is put out by the antagonist. However, before this occurs, there is a tracking shot that follows the fire. The composition of the shot is composed so that the viewer is able to see a dead body in the background. Despite the fact that the body is not the main focus of the shot, it arises questions in the viewers mind as to who killed them, or who why they are there.

The fire could be symbolic of the protagonist. As it is a Thriller, it is safe to assume that the main character is trying to find the antagonist, and goes on a search that gets him close, where he sees, or even causes, some dead bodies along the way. However, when he gets close to the end, he gets 'put out', by the antagonist.

The next shot that is shown is a Pan up to a MLS of the antagonist. However, the audience is not able to see his face. This arises more questions, such as, who is it? His clothes were black which makes the audience assume that he is mysterious, and he walks like he has time, which shows that he is in control of the situation. It is the point where the antagonist starts walking that the mysterious non-diegetic music starts playing.

There is a long drone of a brass instrument, then suddenly there is a trill of a flute as he walks past the dead body. There is are not many instruments playing, which is reflective of the character as we do not know who it is yet.

After a long Pan of him walking down to the protagonist to show that the character is indulgent of the time he takes, there is a shot of him that is obstructed by rope, which is significant later. When the antagonist reaches the protagonist, he lights a lighter, bringing the first bit of light to his character. This lets the protagonist see who the mysterious man is, but the audience are still left in the dark. We can see that the protagonist is in some short of distress, as he closes his eyes and sighs.

The antagonist then says in a gruff voice "How are you doing, Keaton?" to which he replies "I can't feel my legs, Keyser," It is safe to assume that this is their first exchange, but the antagonist Keyser knew who he was the whole time that Keaton had been looking for him, and Keaton had finally found who he was looking for, but he knew that was going to die.

Keyser then asks "Are you ready," while putting out his light. At this point the audience might have expected him to set him on fire then. However, Keyser makes a move towards his pocket. From the shot framing, his hand is not in focus, but the audience assume that it is a gun that he is pulling out.



Keaton doesn't answer his question, but asks "What time is it?" his could be so that he could call the time of his death, or it could be because of events later in the film that suggest that he had a time limit to find Keyser.

Keyser looks at his watch and tells him the time, before he points the gun at his head. However the shot that is taken is an off-screen diegetic. This leaves the audience wondering, as it would have been more shocking to see the shot be taken.

The next frame is an establishing shot, were the audience is given the knowledge that the events are all taking place on a boat. This will be a warning sign for later on in the movie, as the viewer will know that when something happens on a boat, that somebody is going to get shot. This sets up anticipation for later on in the film.

The following frame is a shot of the flammable liquid, to remind the viewer that any fire could make the boat blow up, and then a motion shot of Keyser dropping his cigarette. The slow motion is used so that the viewer has more time to process the action that will make Keaton die. there is then a shot of the fire igniting and a cut to rope, that are likely to catch fire. This shot it then followed by the fire traveling in that direction, which shows danger. While the ropes catching fire is not shown the audience can assume that is what happened. Instead there is a shot of Keyser climbing down the ladder escaping., and then a shot of the fire traveling over lifeless legs. The sequence then ends with a massive flush of flames.