FROM: SAN PEDROTO: WHERE IT WASP.01
1995. A story told in one room in a police station, and undone by a sheet of paper coming out of a fax machine. The station is real, and so is the street he walks out along.
Outside · Inside
The police station in the film is two real buildings 34 km apart: its front in San Pedro, its rooms downtown.
Outside · 638 South Beacon Street, San Pedro
The police station seen in the film is the San Pedro Municipal Building.
Near the end of the film, after he posts bail, Verbal Kint walks down the sidewalk out front.
It opened on 29 September 1928 as San Pedro’s city hall, with Engine Company 36 on the ground floor until 1972.
City offices in a working civic building. See the front from Beacon Street, where Verbal walks out.
Inside · Broadway and 11th Street, Downtown Los Angeles
The interrogation scenes were shot in a real office in the old newspaper building, not on a set. Only one wall could be taken out.
The interrogations with Spacey and Palminteri were shot first, over five or six days, before the rest of the film.
For the line-up the crew built one wall, and a second wall with an observation window that kept the people in front in silhouette.
Julia Morgan designed it for Hearst; it was finished in 1914. The paper printed its last edition on 2 November 1989.
Arizona State University’s Los Angeles campus since 2022. See the domes and arcades from Broadway.
The cast could barely get through the line-up for laughing. Christopher McQuarrie fed them questions off camera, they made up their answers, and Bryan Singer used one of the takes where nobody could keep a straight face.
The line-up: lines improvised to McQuarrie’s off-camera questions; Singer used a take where the cast could not stay serious.
939 South Figueroa Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Built in 1926 as a hotel for professional women travellers, restored in Spanish Colonial style: 268 rooms over 14 floors and a coffin-shaped pool. Downtown, a walk across South Park to the Herald Examiner Building.
See the hotelThe last thing to arrive
At the end of the film, as Verbal walks out, a fax reaches the station with the sketch artist’s composite of Keyser Söze. Here the places arrive the same way: one page at a time, printed line by line.
A fax arrives at the station with the sketch artist’s composite of Söze as Verbal leaves.
Paper tray empty.
The line is open. 8 pages waiting.
Angels Gate Park, San Pedro
The bell is the setting of the jewel exchange in the opening scenes.
The suspects meet up with Redfoot at the bell.
It was dedicated on 3 October 1976 for the US Bicentennial: over seventeen tons of copper and tin, 12 feet high.
When it rings, it rings 33 times.
Free, in a public park on the hill above the ocean. Step inside the pavilion to see the bell close up; it is rung on public holidays and in a monthly maintenance ring on the first Saturday.
Berth 84, Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, San Pedro
The film was shot in 1994 in Los Angeles, San Pedro and New York City; the story opens on a ship in San Pedro Bay.
Tom Sigel calls it a real, unforgiving ship where no wall could be moved, shot on the shortest nights of the year.
A second camera came for one day, mostly for the ship and the explosion: the only day Sigel had a Steadicam.
The museum’s Streamline Moderne ferry terminal was finished in 1941 and opened as a museum in 1979.
The ship’s berth is not recorded. The old ferry building, now the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, looks over the Main Channel; it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5pm, adults $5.
The San Pedro International Film Festival lists The Usual Suspects among the films shot in San Pedro.
The museum opens Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5pm; adults $5.
San Pedro
Live marketplace results for harbour cruises from San Pedro, along the Main Channel where the ship scenes were shot. None is built round the film.
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Compare cruisesThe director’s reading
Bryan Singer saw the film as The Wizard of Oz: the gang start in New York, Kansas, and are pulled to Los Angeles, Oz, where Kobayashi is the man behind the curtain. Gabriel Byrne nearly backed out, then agreed if the film shot in Los Angeles for five weeks. That was already the plan, New York scenes included.
Singer’s Wizard of Oz reading of New York and Los Angeles, with Kobayashi as the man behind the curtain; Byrne’s condition and the five weeks in Los Angeles.
Kansas · New York and New Jersey
175 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York
At the Flatiron, Keaton wants to say goodbye to Edie, his lawyer girlfriend; Verbal hurries him on because they are late.
Sigel says only a tiny bit was shot in New York, mostly establishing shots; the rest was the Los Angeles area.
Daniel Burnham’s 22-storey building opened on 1 October 1902.
Being turned into private apartments. See the prow from Madison Square Park.
346 Clarksville Road, West Windsor, New Jersey
Bryan Singer graduated here in 1984 and Christopher McQuarrie in 1986.
After school McQuarrie worked for a detective agency, which shaped how the script sees criminals and officials.
A working school, closed to visitors. See it from Clarksville Road or Penn Lyle Road.
Oz · Los Angeles
6525 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
A critical scene of the film was shot in one of the club’s rooms.
Meyer & Holler designed it; it was finished in 1924.
Offices and an event space. See the 1924 building from Sunset Boulevard.
638 South Beacon Street to West 6th Street
Verbal leaves the station, loses his limp, flexes the hand he said was useless and is driven away seconds ahead of Kujan. It was shot on the pavement outside the Municipal Building in San Pedro.
He is still inside. Take the first step.
Verbal posts bail and walks down the sidewalk out front.
He loses his limp, flexes his supposedly disabled hand, and gets into a car driven by Kobayashi seconds ahead of Kujan.
West 6th Street at Beacon Street, San Pedro
Dave Kujan just misses a car as it turns down West 6th Street in San Pedro.
Verbal leaves in a car driven by Kobayashi, seconds ahead of Kujan.
A public street of shops and cafés one block from the Municipal Building, running down to the harbour.
The cast as themselves
Two photographs from the film’s own years, then the rest of the cast later on: no free photograph of them from the 1990s has turned up, so each says when it was taken.
$6 million budget, a 35-day shoot and $66.9 million worldwide.
Two nominations, two Oscars.
Mental Floss: 14 unusual facts about The Usual SuspectsAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: the 68th Academy Awards, 1996
Benicio del Toro and Christopher McQuarrie also won Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on 23 March 1996.
135 North Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles
The 68th Academy Awards were held here on 25 March 1996.
Kevin Spacey won Best Supporting Actor and Christopher McQuarrie won Best Original Screenplay.
It opened in 1964 with 3,156 seats and held 25 Oscar ceremonies.
Home of LA Opera at the Music Center. Walk the plaza any day, or book a performance.
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France
The film was shown out of competition at Cannes in May 1995.
Twenty years on, in 2015, the festival showed it again on the beach at the Cinéma de la Plage.
At the top of the Croisette by the old port. The halls open for the festival and other events.
10 places you can visit or see from the street, in San Pedro, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and Cannes.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. City offices in a working civic building. See the front from Beacon Street, where Verbal walks out.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street of shops and cafés one block from the Municipal Building, running down to the harbour.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free, in a public park on the hill above the ocean. Step inside the pavilion to see the bell close up; it is rung on public holidays and in a monthly maintenance ring on the first Saturday.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The ship’s berth is not recorded. The old ferry building, now the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, looks over the Main Channel; it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5pm, adults $5.
638 South Beacon Street, San Pedro
The police station seen in the film is the San Pedro Municipal Building.
City offices in a working civic building. See the front from Beacon Street, where Verbal walks out.
West 6th Street at Beacon Street, San Pedro
Dave Kujan just misses a car as it turns down West 6th Street in San Pedro.
A public street of shops and cafés one block from the Municipal Building, running down to the harbour.
Angels Gate Park, Gaffey and 37th Streets, San Pedro
The bell is the setting of the jewel exchange in the opening scenes.
Free, in a public park on the hill above the ocean. Step inside the pavilion to see the bell close up; it is rung on public holidays and in a monthly maintenance ring on the first Saturday.
Berth 84, Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, San Pedro
The film was shot in 1994 in Los Angeles, San Pedro and New York City; the story opens on a ship in San Pedro Bay.
The ship’s berth is not recorded. The old ferry building, now the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, looks over the Main Channel; it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5pm, adults $5.
Stay
A 1926 hotel across South Park from the Herald Examiner Building.
939 South Figueroa Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Built in 1926 as a hotel for professional women travellers, restored in Spanish Colonial style: 268 rooms over 14 floors and a coffin-shaped pool. Downtown, a walk across South Park to the Herald Examiner Building.
See the hotelGo there
Marketplace harbour cruises from San Pedro and film-location tours of Los Angeles.
San Pedro
Live marketplace results for harbour cruises from San Pedro, along the Main Channel where the ship scenes were shot. None is built round the film.
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Live marketplace results for film-location tours of downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. Check each itinerary for Broadway and Sunset Boulevard.
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LA Opera opens its season in the hall of Oscar night 1996.
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Take it home
An original 1995 German poster, McQuarrie’s screenplay and John Ottman’s soundtrack.
An original German poster from the 1995 release, 22 × 33 inches. Rolled, previously folded, very good condition.
In stock
View posterChristopher McQuarrie · Faber and Faber
McQuarrie’s Oscar-winning screenplay, published by Faber and Faber in 1996.
Find the bookJohn Ottman · CD, Milan, 1995
John Ottman edited the film and wrote its score; this is the 1995 US CD.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 12 of 12 Moments
638 South Beacon Street, San Pedro
San Pedro’s 1928 city hall plays the police station where Verbal is held.
Verbal posts bail and walks down the sidewalk out front, losing his limp as he goes.
West 6th Street at Beacon Street, San Pedro
Kujan just misses the car as it turns down West 6th Street.
Angels Gate Park, Gaffey and 37th Streets, San Pedro
The jewel exchange in the opening scenes, and the meeting with Redfoot, are at the Korean Bell of Friendship.
Berth 84, Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, San Pedro
The night on the ship in San Pedro Bay was shot aboard a real ship in San Pedro.
Broadway and 11th Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Kujan questions Verbal in a real office in the old Herald Examiner building, shot first, over five or six days.
The New York line-up was built inside the Herald Examiner building: one wall, and a window wall for the watchers.
6525 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
A critical scene was shot in one of the Hollywood Athletic Club’s rooms.
135 North Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles
Kevin Spacey and Christopher McQuarrie win Academy Awards on 25 March 1996.
175 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York
Keaton wants to say goodbye to Edie at the Flatiron; Verbal hurries him away.
346 Clarksville Road, West Windsor, New Jersey
Singer (class of 1984) and McQuarrie (class of 1986) went to the same New Jersey high school.
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France
Shown out of competition at Cannes in May 1995, and again on the beach in 2015.
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