Collateral (film)

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Collateral
Collateral Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Michael Mann
Produced by	Michael Mann Julie Richardson
Written by	Stuart Beattie Michael Mann (uncredited) Frank Darabont (uncredited)
Starring	Tom Cruise Jamie Foxx Mark Ruffalo Jada Pinkett Smith
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Dion Beebe
Editing by	Jim Miller Paul Rubell
Distributed by	- USA - DreamWorks SKG - non-USA - Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 6, 2004
Running time	119 minutes
Language	English Spanish
Budget	-Production-   65 million USD -Marketing-   40 million USD
IMDb profile

Collateral is  a 2004 Academy Award-nominated Dreamworks SKG/Paramount Pictures American drama/thriller/crime film directed by Michael Mann and  written by Stuart Beattie, with un-credited rewrites by Mann and  Frank Darabont.

It had financial success, and  was largely praised by critics. The film is  also noticeable for having Tom Cruise playing a rare villainous role. Both followers of Michael Mann and  Tom Cruise have  considered it  a good film, though there has been substantial critical praise for the performance of Jamie Foxx, including a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. The movie takes place in Los Angeles though the original screenplay set the story in New York. it  is also the first major motion picture to be shot with the Viper FilmStream Camera.

[edit] Plot summary

A nihilistic, erudite hitman, Vincent (Tom Cruise) uses a taxicab to carry out a series of contract hits in a single night in Los Angeles. The unlucky taxi driver is  Max (Jamie Foxx), who soon learns what his passenger is  up to when Vincent's first hit lands on the roof of the taxi. Max's situation then turns into a tense series of escape attempts and  desperate pleas. Eventually Max accepts that he can't argue with Vincent and  resentfully carries him around the city, clearly horrified at what he is  in effect assisting.

Eventually, Max realizes that the marks are  key witnesses for the prosecution in a court case against an  organized crime boss. Max must find a way to save himself and  the one last victim (Jada Pinkett Smith) while a police detective (Mark Ruffalo) is  hot on Vincent's trail.

[edit] Featured cast

[edit] Synopsis

Max (Jamie Foxx), the cabbie

Max (Jamie Foxx) is  a cabbie in LA; he strives to be the best. He has had the job for twelve years. Max has dreams of starting a limo company in his head, but they’re just dreams. One day he picks up a prosecuting attorney Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith), they talk, and  in the end when she leaves the cab, she gives him her business card and  asks him to call her sometime "To argue cab routes".

As Max is  staring at the card in amazement, a non-descript man, Vincent (Tom Cruise), hails Max's cab. Initially, Vincent gets no response from Max, and  starts to move to the next in line cab behind Max's. Ironically, Max realizes that he just missed out on a fare, and  coaxes Vincent to return to the cab. After getting Vincent's destination and  quoting a "time" as he did with Annie, Max makes the typical Cabbie small-talk with Vincent, who tells him that it's not his first time in L.A., and  that every time he's here he can't wait to leave. Vincent continues to explain how sprawled out and  disconnected the City of Los Angeles feels to visitors. When asked if he agreed with that statement, Max simply says "It's home". Vincent continues the dialogue with a short story; "I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and  off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.". Max gets him to his destination in time. Vincent admires Max's precision and  attention to detail, subsequently asking him to be his driver for the entire night, taking him to four more  "appointments" and  then back to the LAX for a departing flight. Max shows hesitation at first saying that it's against the taxi company's regulations, but accepts after Vincent offers him $600 for the night and  an extra $100 "if you get me to LAX and  I don't have  to run for the plane." Since this is  almost twice as much as Max makes in one shift, he has little choice but to agree. Max waits for him to return in an  alley behind the building.

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Max (Jamie Foxx) and  Vincent (Tom Cruise) in the cab after the roof top was smashed

Next, Max unwraps his submarine sandwich and  starts to eat it. In an  instant, a body smashes on the roof of the cab. Max is  stunned, throwing his sandwich and  spreading its ingredients all over the front seat of the cab he keeps so clean. He looks up at where the body came from and  then down again  to see Vincent standing near the trunk of the car. Vincent has a noticeably tense demeanor, looking around for any signs of attention, but also disgusted at his lack of good fortune. Adding up the chain of events, Max asks, “You killed him?”, Vincent responds, “No, I shot him. Bullets and  the fall killed him.” Max begins to freak out, until Vincent raises his gun in order to force Max into helping him put the dead body in the cab's trunk. After quite a bit of coaxing, Vincent takes Max hostage and  forces him to continue his job of chauffering Vincent around L.A. for the remainder of his contract hits. Max continues to freak out even while driving, and  Vincent's nihilistic beliefs become even more  evident. As Vincent says "I off one fat Angelino and  you throw a hissy fit."

The next thing Max knows, the flashing blue and  red lights of an  LAPD cruiser are  in his rear view mirror. They pull Max over because of his broken windshield. A slightly comedic exchange ensues, when the cop sees blood on the windshield and  asks how it  got there. Max says he hit a deer. The cop asks where. Max says "Somewhere over by Slauson." The cop counters "A South Central deer?" The cops expect to impound the taxi, and  take an  inventory of its contents before the tow truck takes it  away. Vincent warns Max: "Don't let me get cornered, because you don't have  the trunk space." Luckily for the cops, they are  called away for an  officer-in-distress before they open the trunk of the cab, but not before they warn Max to take the cab immediately back to the depot.

Max and  Vincent continue on. At the next hit, Max parks in a back alley at 7565 Fountain in West Hollywood. Vincent uses zip-ties to hold Max's hands to the steering wheel of the cab. Once Vincent departs to make the hit, Max honks the horn and  taps the brake pedal in hopes of catching the attention of someone on the street. Furthering his bad luck this night, the attention Max attracts is  from local gang members, who summarily rob him of his wallet and  steal Vincent's briefcase from the back seat of the cab. Vincent reappears with excellent timing, noticing that the gang bangers have  stolen his briefcase. He confronts the gang banger carrying his briefcase, who pulls a gun on Vincent, surely not knowing he is  dealing with a contract killer. Vincent summarily disposes of the gang bangers in two swift motions, using a textbook Mozambique Drill, double tap to the sternum, one to the head.

The next hit is  a jazz musician (played by a veteran of Michael Mann's films, character actor Barry Shabaka Henley).

At this time, a call over the radio informs Max and  Vincent that Max's mom has been trying to reach him; Max religiously visits his ailing mom nightly. Max tries to blow the meeting off, but Vincent insists that they make the rendezvous, to lessen the chance that Max's situation is  discovered, and  to have  more leverage against him (Vincent later threatens to kill Max's mother before leaving town). They make the visit - and  even share the elevator with LAPD Detective Fanning, who is  visiting the coroner while investigating one of Vincent's murders. Vincent discovers that Max has been lying to his mother, who believes that her son actually owns a limo service and  that Vincent is  one of Max's "high-profile" clients.

Vincent (Tom Cruise), the hitman

While Vincent amiably chats with Max's mother, Max steals his bag of files and  makes a run for it. He makes it  to an  interstate overpass and  flings the case onto the road, destroying the laptop Vincent had been using. an  enraged and  surprised Vincent then forces Max to meet with Felix - the man who has hired him - to get replacement files, as Vincent doesn't want his identity or  appearance to be revealed to even his employers. Felix is  at a cowboy club for the evening and, unbeknowingst to him and  Vincent, is  under surveillance by the FBI. Detective Fanning notices Max's wrecked cab on one of the surveillance cameras, and  the law enforcement officials believe Max to be the hitman and  that he is  driving alone. They do, however, correctly judge the motives of the hits.

We learn that Felix is  a powerful drug dealer and  that Vincent was hired to take out the witnesses in a trial against him. Felix has hired Vincent more  than once before, though he has never met Vincent and  knows nothing to identify him. Pretending to be Vincent, Max succeeds in bluffing Felix into providing the required information, and  allowing him to leave to complete the job. As Max leaves with the files on a flash drive, Felix instructs his men to follow "Vincent" and  eliminate him if any problems occur.

Vincent and  Max go to a nightclub, Fever, for the next hit, but FBI and  LAPD (and Felix's men) are  on their trail. In the ensuing mess, Vincent gets his target and  even saves Max’s life, but also kills Fanning who - correctly figuring Max to be an  innocent pawn - was nearly able to get Max away safely. Forced to drive Vincent to one last hit, a bitter argument ensues between the two, developing into mutual character assassinations. In a fit of guilt-fueled rage and  fatalistic realization, Max grimly accelerates the cab to reckless speeds, catching Vincent off guard. Vincent tries to get him to slow down through desperate tactics by pointing a gun at his head but instead, Max runs the cab into a construction barrier and  flips in over. To add insult to injury, Max makes another remark which prompts Vincent to try and  stab him with a shard of broken glass, only to hear police sirens in the distance prompting Vincent to run on foot and  leave everything behind. Max is  just about to give himself up to a cop who is  at the crash site when he sees that the last target on Vincent’s list is  the prosecution lawyer he met in the beginning. Max quickly overpowers the cop and  takes Vincent's pistol which he had left behind. Max starts running to save her. He steals a cell phone from a man on the street, aiming his stolen gun at him. He calls her to warn her, but Vincent is  already in the building.

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Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) and  Max (Jamie Foxx), running from Vincent (Tom Cruise)

When he realises Vincent is  in the building, Max runs inside. Just as Vincent is  about to shoot Annie, Max shoots Vincent in the ear. Annie and  Max run toward the MTA (subway). Having been shot by Max, an  enraged Vincent pursues both Max and  Annie through the building. As they make their way to one train underneath the building, Vincent finally stops before two trains to pick his choice, which just happens to be the one both Max and  Annie are  hiding in. In the ultimate climax, Max is  on one side of the skytrain doors and  Vincent is  on the other. They both shoot multiple times until they run out of bullets. Vincent starts to re-load, finds he doesn't have  another magazine, and  he realizes he has been shot, bleeding from the chest. We see that the bullets fired by Vincent hit the door, this was the thing that probably saved Max, as you can see Vincent's distinguish line of firing, 2 in the gut and  1 in the head. Vincent sits down, apparently calm about the fact that he is  dying. Max, still clutching his empty gun, walks over and  sits across from him. With his last few breaths Vincent repeats to Max a line he said when they first met, revealing his nihilistic view, “Guy gets on the MTA here in LA and  dies. Think anybody'll notice? ”

With Vincent dead, Max and  Annie get off the subway and  walk away into what appears to be another Los Angeles morning. The film ends with the subway train, in which Vincent's corpse is  sitting, driving away.

[edit] Theme

Michael Mann himself has stated^{[citation needed]} that the general idea behind Collateral is  the clashing of ideals behind the two main characters. Vincent is  obsessed with improvisation, often mentioning his reverance for constant change and  making things up as he goes along almost as an  art form (also reflected by his love of jazz), and  definitely as a way of life, whereas Max has been driving cabs for twelve years because he believes that everything he does must be meticulously planned, especially the "Island Limos" company he wishes to set up.

This, of course, is  merely one interpretation, but being the one of the director, it  is most likely the one that was intended. Another interpretation implies improvisation as a way to live life. Vincent was at his best when improvising and  Max was always restricted by his meticulous planning. In the final shootout, Vincent failed to adapt and  fired straight ahead, hitting the doors separating him from Max. Max, on the other hand, moved to the side and  fired chaotically through the windows, emptying his gun. Due to Vincent's close proximity, Max was able to hit him in the abdomen with a lucky shot. Keeping in line with other events in the film, the victor of this confrontation was the one who was most able to adapt; Max.

Interestingly, Mann's other major crime-drama movie, Heat begins with Robert DeNiro's character at an  MTA station very similar to the one that Collateral ends in; Heat also begins at an  MTA station and  ends at an  airport - Collateral begins at an  airport and  ends at an  MTA station. On the DVD commentary for Collateral, Mann confirms that it  is the same MTA station in both movies.

Another connection with Heat, and  other movies of his involving criminals is  the focus on the dichotomy of personalities. Heat actually has the reverse, with Al Pacino's character, the detective (also named Vincent) being the one that seems to be focused on adaptation and  impulse, whereas DeNiro's criminal character is  obsessively methodical with his giving into impulse leading to his downfall.

A final theme within the film is  the title itself: Collateral. The main theory behind the title is  Max's mother and  Vincent's threat that he will kill her. This example of awareness to Vincent's surroundings serves as a way of further showing his ability to improvise and  read his situation. He sees that Max is  getting scared after the jazz club incident and  snatches at an  opportunity to gain the collateral he seeks on Max, should he decide to be uncooperative. Rather than kill Max and  find another liaison to L.A., he finds a weakness outside of Max's physicality and  exploits it  ruthlessly.

[edit] The Coyote Scene

One scene that often creates much discussion is  a short sequence where two coyotes pass in front of the cab as it  stops at an  intersection. Many theories arise as to the true meaning of the symbolism in the scene, and  since Mann has never given a specific answer, it's still heavily debated (especially on the forums at IMDb.com).

Some of the more  common theories are  ^{[original research?]}:

• The coyotes directly represent Vincent and  Max. The first coyote races across the road, seemingly startled and  afraid, mimicking Max's reactions to Vincent. The second coyote follows behind in a much cooler, calmer manner, representing Vincent's more  relaxed state. Another support to this theory is  that Vincent often follows Max, even when in the cab, by always taking the back seat. Likewise, Vincent's coyote follows Max's.
• Another theory notices that Mann concentrates much more  on Vincent's reaction than Max's, suggesting that Vincent is  the focus of the scene. it  also acknowledges the insert shot of the damaged Silver Bacardi advertisement on the roof of the cab. This supposes that Vincent, upon seeing the coyotes, realises that he is  no different. He is  a scavenger in a city, populated by people he doesn't understand (which Max later points out to him after escaping Fever). The damaged advertisement represents how Vincent's image is  starting to crack and  peel away, revealing a vulnerable man (this idea is  supported later when Max sees through Vincent and  rolls the car onto its roof, crushing the advertisement).
• A third popular idea relates between Max and  Vincent. Had Vincent been driving, he would not have  stopped for the coyotes. Max shows compassion and  respect toward other life, qualities Vincent never realised that he had lost, until this moment. Vincent's mesmerised stare towards Max reveals he is  surprised, even shocked, that he lacks these basic human traits.

Although these are  the most common, there are  several more  theories pertaining to this scene that can be found on film forums. There are  also plenty of people who choose to take the scene at face value—an image that Mann himself saw in real life, was struck by, and  decided to include in his film.

[edit] Cameos

In the beginning of the film, upon leaving the airport, Vincent (Tom Cruise) receives the briefcase containing his files from an  Englishman, played by Jason Statham. Some believe this minor character to be Frank Martin, Statham's character and  the protagonist from the action thriller movies The Transporter and  Transporter 2. This is  never directly established, however, with the only evident similarity between the two characters being that they are  both played by Jason Statham (although this theory can possibly be supported by the fact that in The Transporter movies, Statham's character is  a courier of suspicious and  frequently illegal materials, which would appear to be the purpose of the Englishman in this movie).

The Insider co-star Debi Mazar also makes a cameo appearance alongside Bodhi Elfman as a bickering couple in Max's cab.

[edit] Trivia

• Tom Cruise's character, Vincent, wears a similar suit to that of Robert de Niro's character in a 1995 Michael Mann film, Heat. This is  no coincidence as Mann's research indicated that both characters would dedicate their appearance to being difficult to describe. Both men are  medium build and  height, grey and  white suit with a light beard. Vincent goes further and  has his hair dyed silver grey and  his facial hair is  less pronounced (he has facial hair but it's not a full beard). This lends his appearance a low contrast, colorless look that will not draw attention to itself. Both Vincent and  McCauly in Heat use the Mozambique Drill and  even the words "double tap to the sternum and  one to the head" make it  into the films.
• To prepare for his role as Vincent as a person who could get in and  out of anywhere without being recognized or  remembered, Tom Cruise made FedEx deliveries in a crowded Los Angeles market without being recognized - one of these deliveries can be seen on the DVD.
• In one scene, Jamie Foxx can be seen eating a Subway sandwich while he sits in his taxi.
• There is  an error in the final sequence of the movie concerning the MTA blue line: while Max & Annie are  making their getaway from Vincent, the destination that the train is  headed for isn't the usual path the blue line takes but instead end up going the route of the MTA Green Line and  ending up at the end of the line in Redondo Beach instead of Long Beach
• The "Black Peter" Christmas story that Felix tells is  a real-life folktale; however, it  is not a Mexican tale, but rather a Dutch one.

[ and  nominations">edit] Awards and  nominations

2005  and  Publishers">ASCAP Film and  Television Music Awards

• Won - Top Box Office Film — James Newton Howard, Antonio Pinto

2005 Academy Awards (Oscars)

• Nominated - Best Performance by an  Actor in a Supporting Role — Jamie Foxx
• Nominated - Best Editing — Jim Miller, Paul Rubell

2005 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

• Nominated - Best Actor (Film) — Tom Cruise
• Nominated - Best Director — Michael Mann
• Nominated - Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
• Nominated - Best Writing — Stuart Beattie

2005 American Cinema Editors (Eddies)

• Nominated - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases — Dion Beebe, Paul Cameron

2005 Art Directors Guild

• Nominated - Feature Film - Contemporary Film — David Wasco, Daniel T. Dorrance, Aran Mann, Gerald Sullivan, Christopher Tandon

2005  and  Television Arts">BAFTA Film Awards

• Won - Best Cinematography — Dion Beebe, Paul Cameron
• Nominated - Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Jamie Foxx
• Nominated - David Lean Award for Direction — Michael Mann
• Nominated - Best Editing — Jim Miller, Paul Rubell
• Nominated - Best Screenplay (Original) — Stuart Beattie
• Nominated - Best Sound — Elliott Koretz, Lee Orloff, Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga

2005 Black Reel Awards

• Won - Best Supporting Actor — Jamie Foxx
• Nominated - Best Supporting Actress — Jada Pinkett Smith

2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

• Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Jamie Foxx
• Nominated - Best Picture

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Collateral

• Official site
• Collateral at the Internet Movie Database
• Collateral at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shit Happens - The Collateral Fanlisting