Collateral is one of those Tom Cruise films that people often forget about or leave out of conversations when talking about his best works because, well, let’s face it, he has an incredible amount of contenders in that department. And while Cruise’s portrayal of the smooth-talking, jazz-loving, and all around villainous psychopathic hitman Vincent may not be top of mind for most when having these conversations, it definitely deserves to be in the mix.
It’s been 16-years since Collateral came out, and it remains one of only a few films where Cruise actually plays the antagonist. The protagonist of the movie is Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver in L.A. who works the night shift, and happens to be the driver of the cab that Vincent happens upon. Vincent tells Max that he’s just in town for the night to close a real estate deal, that he has five stops to make throughout the night and he wants Max to drive him around to each. Max says that they’re not allowed to hire out the taxis, but Vincent sweetens the pot by offering Max $600 – double what he’d make on a regular night – with a bonus if he can have him back at the airport before 6 a.m. so he doesn’t have to run to catch his flight out.
Max can’t say no to the money, as he’s got a plan to eventually build a limousine service that’s like no other. One where you won’t want to get out of the car even when you reach your destination; however, he needs capital, so while hesitant to do so, Max agrees. He soon finds out that if something is too good to be true then it probably is, as while waiting outside the building of Vincent’s first stop a body falls from an apartment above and onto his taxi. Vincent rushes down to find a shocked Max and has no choice but to tell Max the truth: that he’s been hired by someone to kill five people that night and Max has no choice but to continue driving him around if he wants to keep breathing.
The film is directed by Michael Mann and is just such an incredibly well structured movie. It’s two hours in length, and the first 90-minutes of it are absolutely engrossing with most of it simply being Max and Vincent conversing inside the cab. The dialogue shared between the two, and the journey they go on together mainly within the confines of this vehicle is just so perfectly done, and beautifully framed by Mann, with how Vincent is positioned in the backseat while Max drives. The final act is still good, but it goes from an intense thriller to an action flick so quickly that it’s a bit jarring to the film’s tone.
Vincent is a guy who always has all his bases covered and always has a way to keep his anonymity in check. If something goes wrong he improvises in a way that makes sense and keeps his job in motion; however, that all gets thrown out the window kind of randomly for his second to last kill of the night. For it he has to kill a guy who is inside of an absolutely packed nightclub, but instead of making the kill in a way that would allow him to escape, he simply starts beating down bodyguards left and right.
This is a moment that seems completely out of character for Vincent and it causes people in the nightclub to start freaking out. For someone who doesn’t want to be recognised, breaking bones of security guards in front of dozens of people who can now identify you to police just seems the least logical route to go in killing this guy. Even with guards, there’s no reason they’d suspect Vincent, and people are dancing all over, so he could have gotten close enough to take him out without anyone likely even knowing where the shot originated from. I mean, it is made clear early on that Vincent is a masterful shot with clinical, perfect shot pattern kills.
As I was writing this I began thinking about what it was that throws the film’s tone off once this night club scene happens, and it hit me that it’s without a doubt the fact that Vincent just goes off the rails, beating the hell out of all the guards before starting a shootout within the club. It also became clear to me that the easiest way to solve this issue would simply be for Vincent to be working his way towards his target like I mentioned, and then either have a guard just see him pull out the weapon, or have someone randomly bump him on the dance floor, knocking his gun loose so that a guard notices it and THEN Vincent has to react and adapt by fighting them.
That’d work perfectly, as Vincent’s only way to improvise would be to start taking out everyone and then the final act just flows better. Vincent is losing his ability to control the situation and him blowing his cover was completely out of his hands. With how it is now, it’s just so uncharacteristic compared to what we’ve learned about him throughout the first 90 or so minutes of the movie. I know it sounds like a big rant of a complaint, but it’s not something that ruins the movie, it just seems like this small change is something that should’ve been realized while filming or even during the scriptwriting process, to help keep the tone from taking such a sharp turn when Vincent just snaps.
Again, that’s far from a deal breaker, as you can possibly chalk it up to Vincent just being tired of dealing with things going wrong (okay, you can’t, really, as he’s clearly an incredibly efficient hitman who prides himself in knowing that he can roam around freely because nobody knows what he looks like) or just take it for what it is, a minor hiccup that doesn’t really hinder what is otherwise a fantastic and superbly acted movie.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
This 4K remastering of Collateral looks gorgeous, even though the film itself isn’t one that relies on visuals. The 2160p/Dolby Vision remastering allows for some of the heavier grains to be smoothed out and to just make the film look a lot more visually pleasing, especially with the film taking place entirely at night. The cinematography looked great before, and is only accentuated in all the right places with this upgrade. While the audio remains the same DTS-HD 5.1 lossless soundtrack that was found on the earlier Blu-ray release, but it’s a strong offering as is, so the film doesn’t suffer from that not getting reworked for the 4K release as well.
Special Features:
Director’s Commentary with Michael Mann – This is as self-explanatory a special feature as one could have! It’s also one of the better features fans of films can ask for when it comes to releases of movies they love. This isn’t a new commentary track, but if this is your first time picking up the film, or you simply haven’t delved into the track during prior viewings, it’s well worth a listen to hear Mann’s thoughts on the production and film as a whole.
Paramount Pictures Presents Collateral. Directed by: Michael Mann. Written by: Stuart Beattie. Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Barry Shabaka Henley. Running time: 120 Minutes. Rating: 14A. Blu-ray Released: Dec 8, 2020.
