The scene changes back to the hospital. This point in the film involves a lot of cross-cutting between locations. Earlier in the film a man in the hospital was describing what Keyser Soze looks like to an artist. Now, the camera follows the police officer to the desk where he asks the receptionist if he can use the fax machine. He has the drawing in his hands. This moment provokes excitement in the audience for it seems that at last, the true identity of the infamous Keyser Soze is to be revealed.
Back at the police station we see the stumbling Kint collecting his possessions before leaving “One watch, gold. One lighter, gold.” If the viewer has been paying attention, they will recognize the significance of these words. We have seen these objects before; they are Keyser Soze’. At this point the audience may start to feel a hint of something not quite right, why are we watching Kint leave? Does he have further importance?
Cut back to Kujan’s office where he is sitting on the desk chatting to another cop. The camera cuts back to Verbal and watches him leaving. Although we are being shown Verbal, the diegetic sound is of the cop’s continuing conversation. This cross-cutting makes clear that something is going to happen involving Kujan and verbal.
Again, cut back to the office and back to the two-shot of the cops sitting at (or on) the desk. They are discussing the messy state of the office when one of the cops makes a statement which triggers a dramatic turn of events. “It all makes sense when you look at it, you know? You just got to stand back from it.” It is at this point that the audience realizes that the film is definitely not over yet, something major is about to happen.
The camera cuts to show Kujan from a different angle, facing the doorway instead of the back of the room. The camera very slowly starts to zoom in towards the notice board. Then it cuts back to let us see Kujan again and slowly starts zooming in towards his face. Kujan’s expression is changing, he looks thoughtful and then shocked. Mysterious non-diegetic music begins to play and we stop hearing any diegetic sound at all. This heightens the suspense and tension starting to build up within the audience. Kujan drops his cup on the floor but we don’t hear it break. The cup is shown falling and breaking 3 times from 3 different angles, to amplify Kujan’s shock but also to give us a glimpse of a word on the underside of the cup. The first is a high angle shot of it falling to the floor, then a close up of it hitting the floor and then a low angel shot of it falling the last few centimeters before smashing on the floor.
At this point the audience is starting to feel excited, Kujan has clearly realized something shocking and amazing. The camera continues cutting back and forth between Kujan and the notice board and we start to hear a voiceover of Verbal telling his story to Kujan. We realize that he used names and snippets of things from the notice board to construct an elaborate lie. The voices in the voiceover overlap each other and start to be accompanied by flashbacks from earlier in the film. The audience is feeling rising tension and suspense.
The voiceover starts to repeat “Kobayashi, Kobayashi,” as the camera zooms in to the broken cup on the floor. On the bottom of the cup it says Kobayashi. The repetition changes to Kujan’s voice “Convince me, convince me, convince me.” Of course, that’s exactly what Kint did.
As the montage sequence ends the music reaches it climax and the diegetic sound returns. Kujan instantly flees the office. We are still hearing voiceovers from earlier part of the film as the camera cuts to Verbal limping down the stairs outside the building.
The camera cuts back to Kujan who rushes to the property desk and shouts at the man to tell him which way “the cripple” went. The camera watches him run out of the building. At his point the editing takes on a faster pace, mirroring the action.
Cut back to inside the office and the fax has just come through, it’s a drawing of Verbal Kint. What every audience member suspected is now confirmed. Cut back to outside and we watch Verbal limping along the street. Then the camera changes to a high angel shot looking down at Verbal’s lower legs and feet. As we watch, Verbal’s crippled foot slowly straightens out and he stops limping. The audience at the point doesn’t know what to feel. Verbal has betrayed them, all the way through the story the audience has felt sympathy for Verbal but now, that is thrown back at them. Kujan is looking around bewildered for Kint now; do we want him to get away even though he fooled us? Or do we want Kujan to catch him? Close up of Kint stretching out his hand which he had held to look crippled for so long. He uses his gold lighter to light up a cigarette.
Voiceovers are still continuing throughout this. We hear Verbal say “My guess is you’ll never hear from him again.” as a side-shot shows him get into a car with Kobayashi. The camera turns to watch the car drive round the corner and comes to rest on an agitated Detective Kujan as the voiceover repeats Verbal’s remark from earlier in the film. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
Finally we come back to a scene from earlier in the film, Verbal says “and like that, he’s gone” and as he says “he’s gone” the screen goes black.
I feel that this is an extremely effective ending as it provokes many different responses in the audience. The montage sequence is particularly effective, as a variety of different editing and sound techniques are used to provoke a strong audience response. Such as when Kint is first leaving the editing is slow-paced and casual, lulling the unsuspecting audience into a false belief of the film coming to a rather anti-climactic end. However, this is turned on its head as the editing gets faster and faster during and after the montage sequence, amplifying the shock of the truth. Sound is also used very effectively. The voiceovers from earlier in the film which are used in the montage not only draws the viewer’s attention to previous statements made in the film, but the overlapping also helps to promote the feeling of bewilderment and shock at the discovery.