Here's an unexpected surprise — an end-of-the-summer crime thriller that really delivers the goods.

"The Usual Suspects" is a knockout suspense yarn with so many twists and turns you're never quite sure where it's going to wind up. And the trip is enormously satisfying.

The film begins with a prologue at a San Pedro, Calif., dock, where a freighter is burning and the decks are littered with bodies, the aftermath of a shootout over an apparent high-rolling drug deal gone awry. We see someone killed and a mysterious figure skulks off, dropping his lighter on a flammable liquid to fan the flames.

Then we go back six weeks as the story unfolds in the words of a survivor of the incident, a smart but fey and seemingly cowardly con artist named "Verbal" (Kevin Spacey), who tells his convoluted tale to a customs agent (Chazz Palminteri).

In flashbacks, we see New York police arresting five known criminals who may or may not be involved in a local crime. Thrown together in a jail cell, Verbal and the other four — Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Hockney (Kevin Pollak), McManus (Stephen Baldwin) and McManus' partner Fenster (Benicio Del Toro) — are drawn to each other's various skills and plot a heist. When it proves successful, they get greedy and aim for higher stakes, which takes them to California.

There, they get involved with an underworld kingpin, a Hungarian named Keyser Soze, whose sordid history is famous but who remains a shadowy figure, never revealing himself. "He's the devil himself," someone says.

There is much more, of course, but to relate anything else would require giving something away — and this film is so packed with the unexpected that half the fun is trying to figure things out as it goes. Suffice it to say that "The Usual Suspects" is loaded with dense plotting, clever dialogue and first-rate performances by the excellent character cast.

Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and director Bryan Singer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival for an independent production called "Public Access," which has never been released publicly. But "The Usual Suspects" is a remarkable leap for them in terms of the confidence they demonstrate, the complexity of their story and the visual imagination on display.

Some national critics are comparing this film to "Reservoir Dogs," and a case could be made for some similarities. But "The Usual Suspects" isn't nearly so violent, gory or nasty in tone.

And over all, it isn't quite as emotionally resonant as it might be, and occasionally the narrative fudges on Verbal's point of view. There is also the sense in the final moments that McQuarrie and Singer may have overplayed their hand with one twist too many.

Despite all that, however, this one remains the most riveting, highly entertaining picture of the season.

"The Usual Suspects" is rated R for violence, some of it shocking, and considerable profanity, with a blurry rape scene shown in a flashback.