Question: At the start of the film we see Keyser Soze kill Keaton and then set fire to the boat and walk away. If he has already accomplished all his goals (killing the witness and killing the 3 remaining thieves), why do we see him later as Verbal Kint in the police station? Why wouldn't Keyser Soze (a mastermind) simply have escaped into thin air after he blows up the ship?
counselor
18th Mar 2012
Chosen answer: He needed to give the police SOME kind of explanation for all the violence at the harbor, or it would have become a big mystery like Jimmy Hoffa or Amelia Earhart's disappearances that people are always trying to solve, and then someone may have discovered more truth than he wanted. As Verbal he could tell a story to the police that implicated Keaton as Soze and he could disappear again.
Captain Defenestrator