Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004) stars Jamie Foxx as Max Durocher, a Los Angeles cab driver who dreams of establishing his own limousine business. Max considers driving a taxi temporary employment, something he intends to abandon once his business is ready. The problem is that he has been preparing for that future for years without taking the first decisive step.
One evening, Max picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise), a seemingly ordinary businessman who claims he is in Los Angeles to complete a real estate transaction. Vincent explains that he needs to make several stops throughout the city to obtain signatures on important documents. Max agrees to drive him for the remainder of the night. However, he soon discovers that his passenger is actually a professional assassin hired to eliminate people connected to a criminal prosecution. What began as an ordinary fare becomes a terrifying ordeal when Vincent forces Max to serve as his unwilling chauffeur.
Cruise departs from his familiar heroic roles to portray Vincent, a gray-haired professional killer who murders without apparent remorse or concern for the consequences of his actions. Vincent has no personal connection to his victims and appears entirely indifferent to their deaths. To him, murder is simply another business transaction. Yet his emotional detachment does not mean he fails to understand how other people feel. He recognizes Max’s love for his mother and his concern for innocent people, including police officers, and uses those feelings to manipulate him. Vincent understands compassion well enough to exploit it, even though he appears incapable of experiencing it himself.
As the night progresses, Max and Vincent become unlikely mirrors of one another, each exposing uncomfortable truths about the other’s life. Max has spent twelve years preparing to establish his limousine business while insisting that driving a taxi is merely temporary employment. Vincent challenges that explanation, pointing out that twelve years is hardly temporary. What Max describes as preparation may actually be an excuse for avoiding the risks associated with pursuing his ambitions.
Max insists that he needs business connections, clients, and employees before launching his company. Vincent dismisses these explanations, arguing that Max could have started with something as simple as a down payment on a Lincoln Town Car. The irony is unmistakable: a man who kills for a living may understand more about taking action than a decent man who has spent twelve years waiting for the perfect opportunity. Vincent’s criticism is harsh, but that does not necessarily make it wrong.
Conversely, Max challenges Vincent’s attempt to justify murder as simply part of his profession. Max recognizes that Vincent’s indifference to human suffering reveals something far more disturbing than professional detachment. Vincent appears to lack the compassion and empathy that ordinarily connect people to one another. His behavior suggests the personality of a sociopath. The two men expose each other’s weaknesses, but they are not morally equivalent. Max’s hesitation has held him back; Vincent’s decisiveness has become a tool for killing.
That contrast gives Collateral more substance than a conventional thriller about a hostage and his captor. Vincent possesses the confidence and willingness to act that Max lacks, while Max retains the humanity Vincent has abandoned. The film raises an uncomfortable question: Can a person whose actions are morally reprehensible nevertheless tell someone else a truth he needs to hear? Mann does not need to make Vincent sympathetic for that question to be compelling.
Mann also makes excellent use of Los Angeles after dark. Illuminated office towers, stretches of nearly empty roadway, and the glow of the city create a landscape that feels both expansive and strangely lonely. The nighttime digital photography gives the streets a distinctive texture. The city is more than a backdrop; its isolation and uncertainty reinforce the danger of Max’s predicament and the film’s neo-noir atmosphere.
TF’s Notes
Collateral succeeds because of its intriguing premise, compelling characters, and the psychological conflict between two men who could hardly be more different. Cruise delivers an unsettling performance as Vincent, while Foxx gives Max a convincing combination of vulnerability, frustration, and quiet determination. Mann builds tension from the first few minutes and sustains it without sacrificing the characters’ complexity. For fans of intelligent crime stories and neo-noir thrillers, Collateral is a must-see.