The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Right before they rob the police car, a Boeing 747 (four engines) is seen in shots of the plane coming into land. When the plane is shown from behind, it is a Boeing 767, with only two engines and fewer main landing gears. (00:30:10)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It's for effect to show they were hanging out around the airport for more than a bit.

There's no evidence this was meant to be a montage scene of various planes. The cuts they did have in the first angle were of the same plane getting closer to build suspense. Same for the other angle. Plus, there's no scenes or shots of "them" waiting.

Bishop73

Continuity mistake: In the climactic boat scene when Kevin Pollack runs back from the boat to the van full of money he shoots the man standing by the back of the van. Pollack is then shot in the back as he looks at the money in the back of the van. When Kevin Spacey returns to the van later in the boat scene, we see Pollack's dead body lying on the ground behind the van, however the dead body of the man who Pollack killed has disappeared. (01:17:50 - 01:25:35)

Factual error: A person with 60% burns on his body would not be wearing pyjamas, as the Hungarian guy does. (00:19:45)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: When McManus and Keaton are jabbering back and forth with each other in the jail cell in the beginning, the collar of Keaton's shirt changes back and forth from being tucked into his jacket and being outside of the jacket.

Michael Westpy

Revealing mistake: Towards the end of the movie, Hockney (Kevin Pollack) looks into a van and discovers it's full of cash. He is then shot from behind and blood splatters all over the money. When his chest explodes, you can see the plastic of the bag the blood was in. (01:18:10)

Continuity mistake: When Kobayashi first meets the Suspects, Fenster is laying on a sofa with his feet up on one of the armrests. Kobayashi says, "Mr. Fenster I recognize from his mug shots," and Fenster swings his feet down and sits upright. Thirty seconds later, Kobayashi says, "I work for Keyser Soze," and then Fenster swings his feet down from the armrest and sits up for a second time. (00:50:50)

Phil C.

Continuity mistake: In the scene after Keaton is released from prison, after the line up scene, he stands outside with his girlfriend and lights a cigarette which swaps from being lit to not being lit, and then it disappears entirely. (00:25:05)

Factual error: When the Suspects planned to kill Kobayashi, they waited for him in the office building. McManus got into the elevator and waited for the three men, hidden in the roof. After Kobayashi and the two men got into the elevator, and the lights went out, McManus fired twice. The blood on the wall behind Kobayashi would be correct if the two shots came from in front of the men. But McManus fired from the roof of the elevator, meaning the blood spray should be much lower on the wall and angled sharply downward. (01:05:50)

Continuity mistake: Early on in the movie at the start of the interrogation between the cop and Verbal Kint, Kint asks for some coffee. A bit later on we see the contents of Kint's cup empty, then the camera switches back to the cop then back to Kint, showing that he has a full cup of coffee. (00:24:45)

Visible crew/equipment: When Verbal drops the Zippo lighter in the police office, Chazz Palminteri leans down to pick it up. When he leans down out of frame, there are 2 "C-stands" visible in the background. These shiny, adjustable stands are general-purpose utility holders on a movie set, used to position lights and light control material for a setup (i.e. flags, scrims, diffusion, etc).

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, when Jack Baer is in the pier looking at the wreckage his cigar keeps changing size between shots. (00:16:25)

Factual error: When the burnt Hungarian guy is interrogated the first time a doctor insists that everyone wears masks (even though Jack Baer is very lax about it). When he is surrounded by doctors the second time none of them bothers about masks. (00:38:10 - 01:01:40)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Stephen Baldwin shoots the two men in the elevator, the two blood stains on the wall get noticeably wider (particularly the one on the right) when they get off the elevator.

Continuity mistake: When the suspects are put into a jail cell together after their interrogation, Keaton walks into the cell. He is wearing his suit jacket in the shot where he walks through the cell door, but in the next shot, where he walks to a bench to sit down, his jacket is now slung over his shoulders.

Revealing mistake: When the police car is set on fire you see from the top that the flames start at three different spots, hood, roof, and trunk. Then, when the three vans drive off there's a shot from inside the police car where you don't see any fire. (00:32:45)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: During the line-up Keaton is holding his jacket folded over his left arm and covering his face with his right hand. When the turn comes to Fenster, from one shot to the next Keaton's jacket is folded over his right arm, and his right hand is covering his face. (00:08:35)

NancyFelix

Continuity mistake: At the end of the first meeting with Redfoot we see Hockney taking a seat on the steps of the Chinese temple. In the next wide shot he is standing again. (00:44:00)

NancyFelix

The Usual Suspects mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the cop car's being hijacked, a sledgehammer's slammed down right in the centre of the windscreen. A second later, a shot from inside the car shows the impact point as down in the bottom left corner. (00:31:40)

Jon Sandys

Other mistake: While inspecting the gems from the robbery, Stephen Baldwin is looking through the wrong end of the jewellers magnifying glass.

Cop: I can put you in Queens on the night of the hijacking.
Hockney: Really? I live in Queens. Did you put that together yourself, Einstein?

More quotes from The Usual Suspects

Trivia: The way none of the characters can keep a straight face when reading out the card in the line up was not scripted, but resulted because the cast had had a rather good lunch prior to filming, which included some wine, and were unable to get through what was scripted as a serious scene with straight faces, because of the nature of the scene - supposedly very serious, but they were being asked to utter this rather absurd (and obscene) phrase. Benicio Del Toro also frequently broke wind during the scene, hardly helping the serious tone.

More trivia for The Usual Suspects

Question: While in interrogations Kujan is asking Verbal why Keaton told him to stay back while they were robbing the boat. After a back and forth conversation between them about it they come to the conclusion that it is because Keaton is Kaiser Sose and he wanted Verbal to be his will. However we come to find out this is not true, and Verbal is actually Kaiser Sose, so why did Keaton have Verbal stay back?

Answer: He never did. How they got on the boat and took out the Argentinians could have actually happened in a million different ways. For all we know, verbal went on the boat with them, and then killed them, which is more likely as it is an extra gun. The point of the film is to show how much of a mystery Keyser Soze is, that even after all of that, no one knows who he is. For example, he tells the story as if Soze is Hungarian and killed his wife and kids, but we know this isn't true, because Kint is Soze and he's American. The point is, he's telling so many lies and making up all these stories, so it's got to a point that they don't even know his real nationality. The only reason we though he was Hungarian throughout the film is because Kint told us, but we know his story was a hoax.

Answer: You're missing the point: Verbal is making much of the story up. He's changing facts and events to lead Kujan to think Keaton is Sose.

Answer: Kaiser had manipulated Keaton so much to the point where he thinks Verbal is innocent and wants to let him live.

Answer: Verbal doesn't even know about some of the relevant facts of the story. He acts upset when Kujon asks about so and so when he in fact likely didn't even know about them so he continues to build on his epic tale of fabrications. The entire story is a lie of magnificent proportions.

More questions & answers from The Usual Suspects

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.