Plot hole: The premise is that the back-story is a fabrication, including the five being placed together in the police line-up and in custody in order to get them to work together. But in the flashback of Keaton in the restaurant, it is Dave Kujan who takes Keaton in. It is inconceivable that Kujan would be complicit in the staging of the line-up (and doesn't fit with the plot). And if Verbal is inventing it, then Kujan is going to know it didn't happen. It doesn't make sense and undermines the plot.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
1 plot hole
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Benicio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Dan Hedaya, Stephen Baldwin, Pete Postlethwaite, Giancarlo Esposito
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)
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?
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.
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: 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.
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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