Does Keyzer Soze exist? The question - and eventually its answer - is what drives Bryan Singer's 1995 thriller about a group of career criminals who team up for a heist.
The film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, while Kevin Spacey walked away with the statue for Best Supporting Actor and helped make him one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. But the film was destined for an even more prestigious accolade - it is (spoiler alert!) this week's choice for the Cultural Toolbox.
Speaking of spoiler alerts, if you have spent the last two decades without seeing the film or even just hearing about what happens in the final five minutes, then you might want to rectify that before listening to the podcast or reading on...
John is a big fan of the film, as is reliably the case with Cultural Toolbox choices. "I think it's one of those stories that carries you along relentlessly," he suggested. "You never see where it's going, and it gets more and more intriguing.
"It's told in an incredible flashback style, through an interrogation... You think it's just this sort of procedural cop story... but it gets murkier and murkier. But the whole thing is a preamble to the last five minutes, and it's ingeniously told".
While the revelation about mastermind Keyser Soze's true identity is the film's most memorable moment - bar, perhaps, the police lineup image that also served as the film's iconic poster - John argued there's some ambiguity there.
"I don't fully follow it," he admitted. "[But] even though there was a big reveal at the end about who is Keyser Soze, you're not really sure who it is. There have been very cryptic things... Even Kevin Spacey has said he's not sure who Keyser Soze is".
It's unfair to forget the rest of the ensemble cast who make the film what it is - including Gabriel Byrne and Benicio del Toro. "I love the other characters - those five 'usual suspects' are very unusual, they're not your normal kind of crime people".
Shane, meanwhile, served as the prosecution. "I enjoyed it at the time," he said. "I think the acclaim it has got subsequently is ludicrous, quite frankly. It's like The Shawshank Redemption - it's one of those films people say 'it's one of the best films ever made!' It actually isn't.
"For starters, the whole premise of the film is based on this narrative that the Kevin Spacey character gives. The narrative is completely made up. The film is all about the end," he added, while John contested that was 'ingenious'.
Shane further suggested "the Keyser Soze character - it's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous".
There's often disagreement between John and Shane, although this was one of the livelier ones. For more, listen back to the full podcast above.
