Villains Beginning With 'R'

Roger "Verbal" Kint AKA Keyser Söze

The Usual Suspects film (1995)

Söze's supposedly began his criminal career in Turkey as a low-level drug dealer. The entity that is Keyser Söze is truly born, however, when rival smugglers working for the Hungarian mob invade his house while he is away, raping his wife and holding his children hostage. When Söze arrives they kill one of the children and then threaten to kill his wife and remaining children if he does not surrender his business to them. Rather than give in to them, and to prevent his loved ones from having to live with what has happened, he murders them all accept one of the Hungarians, knowing that the survivor would tell the mafia what has transpired.

After burying his family, Söze goes after the mob, killing dozens of people, including the mobsters' families, friends, and even people who owe them money, as well as destroying their homes and businesses. He then goes "underground", never again doing business in person and remaining invisible even to his henchmen, who almost never know who they are working for.

Söze's ruthlessness is legendary, having enemies and disloyal henchmen brutally murdered, along with everyone they hold dear, for the slightest infractions. If someone working for Söze without realizing it unwittingly steals from him, however, he would offer them the chance to redeem themselves. Over the years his criminal empire, centered around the drug trade, flourishes, as does his legend; he becomes "a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night", and on a par with the Devil in the world of crime.

Roger "Verbal" Kint is a con-artist, a petty criminal with cerebral palsy affecting one leg and one arm. Verbal has been granted near-total immunity from prosecution provided he assists investigators, including Customs Agent Dave Kujan, and reveals all details of his involvement with a group of criminals assumed responsible for the destruction of a ship and the murder of nearly everyone aboard.

While Verbal is spilling the beans, Kujan learns the name Keyser Söze, including Söze's reputation as a criminal mastermind, and demands Verbal tell him what he knows. Apparently deeply distraught, Verbal describes how he and a small group of career criminals are blackmailed by Söze, through Söze's Pakistani lawyer Kobayashi, into destroying a large drug shipment belonging to Söze's Hungarian rivals. All but Verbal and one Hungarian are killed during the attack. Baer believes there were no drugs and the true purpose of the attack was to eliminate a passenger on the ship that had seen and could identify Söze. Kujan confronts Verbal with the theory that Söze is, in fact, one of the criminals that Verbal had worked with: a corrupt former police officer and professional thief named Dean Keaton.

Verbal's story is however an elaborate concoction, made up of strung-together details culled from a crowded bulletin board in the office where the interrogation took place. The surviving Hungarian, severely burned and hospitalized, describes to a sketch artist a man he saw during the attack that he believes is Keyser Söze. The sketch, which appears to be a near-perfect drawing of Verbal, is faxed to the police station too late. Verbal has already walked out on bail, his cerebral palsy limp suddenly fading. He uses a gold cigarette lighter similar to one Söze was seen with at the beginning of the film to light a cigarette with a steady hand, and climbs into a car driven by the character he has referred to throughout as Kobayashi. As they drive away, Kujan desperately looks around the crowded streets for Verbal having realized, too late, Verbal's true identity - Keyser Söze!

SUMMARY

EXTERNAL LINKS

In addition, read more information on:

RELATED VILLAINS

Mola Ram

Megatron

Darth Vader

Jareth

Ming the Merciless