Since the release of the film, the name Keyser Söze has gained two popular uses in Western culture:
the first is as a description of a legend, usually of underworld crime, which is a result of the character's Satanic presence
The second use of the name in popular culture is a shorthand reference to being fooled, by the actual villain, into believing in a villain who does not exist.
Keyser Soze is a low-level drug dealer beginning his criminal career in his native Turkey. The entity that is Keyser Söze is truly born, however, when rival Hungarian smugglers invade his house while he is away, rape his wife and hold his children hostage; when Söze arrives, they kill one of the children to show him their resolve, then threaten to kill his wife and remaining children if he does not surrender his business to them. Rather than give in to their demands, and to prevent his family from having to live with the memory of what has happened, Keyser Söze murders his loved ones and all but one of the Hungarians, whom he spares, knowing that the survivor would tell the mafia what has happened.
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