Collateral

Plot synopsis:
Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx), a meticulous Los Angeles cab driver, is working to earn enough to start his own limousine business. One of the evening's fares is U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith). On the drive to her office, they strike up a conversation and Annie gives Max her business card.
Max's next fare is Vincent (Tom Cruise) who exits the building just after Annie entered. Impressed by Max's skill at navigating the streets of LA, Vincent offers Max $600 to drive him for the entire night, against regulations. Max reluctantly agrees, as the money is too good to pass up. As Max waits at the first stop, a man falls onto his car. Vincent reveals himself as a hitman, and the dead man, drug dealer Ramón Ayala, is the first of five targets for the night. He forces Max to hide the body in the trunk and continue driving.
At the second stop, Vincent ties Max to the steering wheel. Max sounds his horn and flashes his lights, attracting the attention of a group of young men. He asks them for help, but instead two of them take his wallet and Vincent's briefcase. Vincent returns and kills the two, much to Max's horror. At a gas station, Vincent tells Max they are ahead of schedule and offers to buy him a drink at a jazz club he likes. Vincent admires the trumpet player on the stage, Daniel (Barry Shabaka Henley), and after his set, invites him over for a drink. Vincent and Max listens with enthusiasm as Daniel talks about his experience with famous jazz musician Miles Davis, but Daniel turns out to be Vincent's third mark and, after the club closes, Vincent kills him in front of Max. Max tells Vincent that he wants out, but Vincent threatens to kill him if he refuses to obey.
Max's boss, who constantly calls Max over the radio regarding his whereabouts, informs Max that his mother Ida (Irma P. Hall) is trying to reach him. Learning of Max's nightly visits to his hospitalized mother, Vincent insists Max does not break his routine and visits her. At the hospital, Max grabs Vincent's briefcase containing files on his targets, runs on a pedestrian bridge and tosses the briefcase onto the freeway. Vincent forces Max to meet drug lord Felix Reyes-Torrena (Javier Bardem) to obtain information on his last two marks, threatening to murder Ida otherwise. Posing as Vincent, Max meets with Felix and successfully acquires the information on a USB flash drive. Vincent heads to the next target, Korean gangster Peter Lim, who is at a nightclub.
Meanwhile, LAPD Detective Ray Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) uncovers the connection between the three victims and reports his finding to FBI Special Agent Frank Pedrosa (Bruce McGill). Frank identifies the victims as witnesses in a federal grand jury indicting Felix the following day, and thus are target for assassination. Pedrosa assembles a force to secure Lim. At the nightclub, they run into Vincent, who is being followed by Felix's men. Vincent manages to kill all of Felix's hitmen, Lim's bodyguards and Lim himself, then leaves the club. Fanning rescues Max and smuggles him outside, but is killed by Vincent, who beckons Max back into the cab.
Following their getaway, the two start trading personal insults and criticisms. Vincent mocks Max for his lack of ambition, while Max berates Vincent for his disregard for human life. This escalates into an argument that prompts Max into deliberately crashing the cab, intending to stop Vincent's rampage. However, both men survive and Vincent escapes. A police officer arrives at the crash to help, but then notices Ayala's corpse in the trunk and arrests Max. He initially surrenders, but while the officer handcuffs him, he sees Vincent's laptop open in the cab, and learns that Annie is the final target. He overpowers the policeman and takes Vincent's gun and heads to Annie's office.
Max calls Annie while she is in the law library to warn her of Vincent's impending hit on her. At first, Annie accuses him of playing a practical joke on her, but she is shocked when he reveals that he knows about Felix and the other witnesses to the case she is going to prosecute the next day. Vincent breaks into her office two floors below the library. Max sees Vincent in the window and beckons Annie to call 911, just as his cell phone battery dies. He rushes into the building, and using the gun he retrieved, shoots his way through the glass doors to the elevator cage. Meanwhile, Annie calls 911, but Vincent uses a fire axe to cut the power to the floor, and the call is lost.
A tense hunt ensues as Annie is trapped in the library in the dark. Vincent finally finds her and holds her at gunpoint, but Max saves her just in time by wounding Vincent, and the two escape on foot. Still pursued by Vincent, Max and Annie board a metro rail train, but Vincent boards the train as well. Left with no other option, Max makes his last stand and engages in a shootout with Vincent. Vincent reaches into his magazine pouch to reload, but discovers that he is unable to insert the magazine into the pistol due to the fact that he is fatally wounded. Succumbing to his injury, he slumps into a seat and dies, as he refers back to his previous anecdote about a man who died unnoticed on a Metro train. Max and Annie get off at the next station, in the dawn of a new day.

Tags: comedy, dark, neo noir, murder, mystery, dramatic, cult, violence, revenge, atmospheric, absurd, action, suspenseful, storytelling

Review:
Acting-wise, this is definitely one of the most indescribably amazing movies ever.The script is very simple, and could have been easily taken way too far, however, Michael Mann makes sure that the story is not overdone, and delivers a solid beginning, middle, and fabulous ending.I know I've already gone over the acting once, but Tom Cruise definitely deserves even more recognition.
Max hasn't even begun to revel in the pleasure of possessing the beautiful attorney's digits when he gets his next passenger, Tom Cruise as Vincent, a slick hit-man in town for a night of killing.When a body drops out of a fourth story window and onto Max's cab, he becomes an unwilling partner on Vincent's murder spree.
Director Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali) does a masterful job manipulating texture and tone throughout the movie, taking us to settings as diverse as a junkie's apartment, a penthouse, a hospital room, and a smoky jazz club, all the while making the city of angels a central character in the story.The soundtrack is also excellent, with a mixture of popular music and ambient tracks perfectly-timed and synced to the story...
A bizarre side-note, I know.As the movie builds to a climax, the police are hunting for Max, believing he is the one on a killing spree, and Vincent stalks his final victim in a blacked-out high-rise office to a backdrop of the brilliant LA skyline, reflected in multiplicity by the office's dozens of glass cubicles.Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith all rise to the occasion in Collateral, and together they transcend their previous appearances on film.
Mark Ruffalo gives a good performance as the cop who knows everything is not what it seems.There are a few minor plot points which didn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief (like when Max agrees to take Vincent the vicious hit-man to see his Mother in the hospital), but overall this is a fantastic movie.Troy Dayton.
Jamie Foxx shows signs of the charisma and ability that made him a cert for the best actor Oscar for Ray. Meanwhile Tom Cruise is a sheer revelation as the psychotic but professional hit-man Vincent.Cabbie Max (Foxx) picks up Vincent (Cruise) expecting just another job.
When a body crashes on to his cab, followed by Vincent's re-appearance, Max is shocked by the answer to his accusatory 'you killed him!" - No, I shot him, the bullets and the fall killed him." This matter-of-fact approach is indicative of Vincent's professionalism, and adds a really chilling level of apathy to the character.It is certainly refreshing to see Cruise in such a different role, and it is one which he really gets his teeth into, producing a sociopath contract killer, seemingly with no remorse and no redeeming qualities.
Here Max and Vincent are opposites who get under each others' skins over the course of the night; their relationship is very strange and I think the script does well to bring this across even if it is hard to understand at times (part of this is their relationship getting tied up in some of the plot weaknesses).A big part of the plot problems being covered is due to the strong direction from Mann, who can shoot a city like nobody else.
In fact he dominates the film with a quiet role that runs a gauntlet of emotions while Cruise mostly sits in 'cold killer' mode, meaning that, in most scenes, Foxx is the one we are watching.
Mann's direction is great, mixing film with digital to good effect and Cruise is very good playing against type with a good support cast of well-known faces.However the genuine surprise of the film is Jamie Foxx; better known for clichéd ethnic comedy roles, he steps up here and just about steals every scene he is in..
This is a collision of two lives All collapsed in the events of one night The movie starts with Vincent (Tom Cruise) arriving to L.A., a guy who just looks perfect Some people happen to people on purpose, in order to tell them something about their livesAnd they sit somewhere and share two or three lines, and they leave, and you know, your life is changed When Max (Jamie Foxx) first meets Vincent, it was "who cares?
Why don't you hang with me?" It's not until the offering of the money that you see really connect "Collateral" projects in a much deeper way into Cruise/Vincent character He can become very quiet, and we can look at the screen, and we will feel that Cruise is totally in commandHe's a quick drawVincent is fastAs an assassin, he must be economical in his moves The film focused some of the wildness, and what lurks below the surface of L.A. Just the opening shot, when we look at that cab driving out and we see the big paintings on the walls, it was just visual sophistication The movie is not an action story It's a compelling drama with realistic action that works for the story And it is done for an emotional reason Cruise gives a dynamic performance as the cold-blooded killer Foxx is terrific as the honest hearted guy driving a cab for twelve years, and both come together suddenly like a spike in a railroad right here in this point where things were going to change in one nightJamie Foxx finds himself in the presence of a real adversary in the form of this bumbling cab driver, who has never fired a handgun in his life.
Nobody's perfect, but it's hard to go wrong with a Michael Mann-directed film, especially when it's a crime movie.Although this isn't the quality of his 1995 "Heat," it wasn't far behind in its ability to interest and entertain the viewer while providing some slick visuals.Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are the stars of the film, Foxx winning an Academy Award.
When you see Tom Cruise in this movie you see Vincent as he might had been in real life ,you feel the power in his speech and with his actions and thats what really makes this a great movie.Jamie Foxx takes on this cab driver acting role who keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the time and at other times gives you something to laugh about.If you haven't seen this movie Collateral then do yourself a favor and check it out,Tom Cruise just might make a successful hit on you,I'm giving Tom Cruise a BIG 10!
I'm sure you already know that Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver who picks up a hit-man played by Tom Cruise.
Max (Jamie Foxx), a taxi driver, falls victim to Vincent (Tom Cruise), who takes him hostage so that he could complete five hits in one night in the city of Los Angeles.
This is even more mysterious because Mann had no problem killing off main characters and love interests in the "Miami Vice" series.I would have given this movie another star if Vincent had ultimately killed the prosecutor and then said something philosophical to Max before simply walking away.
In this film, he delivers an unusually strong performance as the ruthless hit-man "Vincent." Some of the execution he carries out are filmed with enthralling dazzle (especially the nightclub scene and the jazz singer).Jamie Foxx did a fantastic job playing the role of the innocent loner Max and the dialog between him and Vincent was terrific and well acted.A few weak points let the film down though.
I was beginning to get sick of his typecast American Hero role in every movie, perhaps apart from the dismal Vanilla Sky. Then came the role of Vincent, a hit-man who is ruthless and relentless, yet at times displaying streaks of compassion and empathy towards his hired taxi driver, played by Jamie Foxx.Sometimes you have got to 'pity' Tom Cruise.
Even the much criticised ending, which I found was not that lame and unbelievable, fails to make this overall an enjoyable movie experience.Who should watch: Anyone who doesn't believe that Tom Cruise can actually act 'evil' Who shouldn't watch: Taxi drivers who do night shifts Rating: 7.7.
. Occasionally, the picture has that Mann shimmer to it, especially at the end, when a cobalt-blue dawn illuminates an industrial landscape of power-lines and train-tracks.Unfortunately, the movie also has Tom Cruise, with a shimmer of his own: a bad dye-job on his hair.
If Alfred Hitchcock were alive and making movies today,I firmly feel that they would look something like this excellent thriller from Michael Mann.Tom Cruise makes an excellent turn going against type as a hired killer.Also excellent are Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith in their supporting roles.It's very rare that you can compare any modern day thrillers with the likes of Hitchcock,but I feel safe in saying that he would give a thumbs up here.It has enough plot twists and turns to keep the audience on the edge,and again,Cruise does a great job of making us hate him,if only for a couple of hours.It's definitely worth the rental, and worth buying and placing with your Hitchcock favorites..
Tom Cruise looks sexy with the slick silver hair, but that's all the movie has to offer.What's more troubling than the implausible premise and absurdly convenient coincidences is the film's less than subtle racism.Whenever the black character played by Jamie Fox points his gun as a white face the victim's fear is played for laughs.
Experience has taught me to stay away from the slapstick "comedy" and teen movies, but this was sluggish, hard to understand (due to poor diction) garbage of the first degree.Cruise must have been desperate for money to agree to "act" in this pile of manure....The opening scenes set up the film to an extent and for a while it looked good - the Taxi driver had a warmth and the female passenger (leter to be the last on the hit list) jelled well and there was a chemistry between them.Once the carnage began though the reason for the killings and the way in which they were done was not as clever as the trailer depicted.
Collateral is directed by Michael Mann and stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
Tonight his life will change when he picks up the smartly attired Vincent (Cruise), who is in town for one night, an assassin with five stops to make.By the time of Collateral's release, Michael Mann had firmly established himself as a purveyor of slow burn intensity with the likes of Heat & The Insider.
It's all as grey as Cruise's hair is for the film (looking like a chilly Richard Gere actually) and it makes for better rewards when the finale arrives.There's also the other things that have become Mann trademarks, that of his astute musical cues and action set piece constructions.
This is just proof that Michael Mann is one of the most innovative directors working in modern American cinema.Max (played by Jamie Foxx) is a somewhat melancholy L.A. cab driver, a kind-hearted man who just wants to make some money and be able to offer his customers a smooth cabbie service.
The movie focuses to Max(Jamie Foxx)a cab driver from Los Angeles.He makes his rounds during the night with numerous characters(Debi Mazar,Jada Pinkett Smith)into the car talking with them.He dreams with his own Limousinas company though to his ill mummy(Imma P.Hall)says her that he is proprietary.Vincent(Tom Cruise) is a cruel killer with an engaging contract who offers an great sum of money to drive him several locations around L.A. Max realizes which he is a murderer who has been contracted to kill various people.Events go wrong and Max becomes in hostage and he must find a way to rescue the last objective.Meanwhile a Police Inspectors(Mark Ruffalo,Peter Berg) are tracking down from the killer.The picture packs action,violence,drama,shootout with exciting scenes.Casting is frankly excellent,the main protagonists make a first class performance.Jamie Foxx(recently his Oscar by ¨Ray¨)as hapless cab man is awesome similarly to Tom Cruise as the relentless murderer,besides Jada Pinkett(Will Smith's wife) as obstinate prosecutor is magnificent.
Atmospheric and spectacular music by the master James Newton Howard.Colorful cinematography -although in the main night- is by two nice cameramen,Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron.The motion picture is well directed by the successful director Michael Mann.The film will like to Tom Cruise devotees and action films enthusiastic.Rating :Better than average.Well worth watching..
What I like about the movie:Michael Mann loves Los Angeles and it shows  the nighttime LA is one of the film's true stars and director uses quite a few helicopter shots to show it's beauty and magnificence.
Every cast member and plot turn in this movie is as hollow as Tom Cruise's hit man psychopathic character.
This is the only truly good film Micheal Mann film out there.From the trailers you can see that it's got two of the biggest names in films to this date, Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, these two people in this film are what make it, and the story is so simple but yet such a ride.
Still the film starts off in an airport with two men exchanging brief cases and this is what most of the film is around what is contained within that, in the next seen we meet Max an average cab driver who is played by the excellent Jamie Foxx, now as the tag of the film suggests it starts like any other night.After 15 minutes of not much happening the film suddenly moves into a world of it's own, as Max drops off a woman, who hes clearly pulled, by the name of Annie who is played by Jada Pinkett Smith (one of the only decent people in the Matrix sequels) still after dropping her off he meets Vincent who is played by Tom Cruise who just happens to be a contract killer who has to make several stops and a get away...who just happens to be Max.There are loads of excellent moments in the film when Jammie and Tom have some really good lines off each other, also some of the scenes in which Tom does go into his own and typical action hero he does it as amazing as always, such as the scene when he has to get back his brief case from some "homies".There is enough to keep you watching it and the ending is truly amazing, at some points however you do get abit "x y z" about the directing but nothing too bad and not as bad as in Manns next film Miami Vice which looked as if it was filmed for an A level media project.
But the style of which he uses for this film works such as the shots in the car from PoV and the shots he uses of the fox...it just shows a whole other side to LA.However there is nothing really bad about this film it is after all what it was meant to be a high action thriller, there are some typical shoots in places but some really excellent ones such as the nightclub scene which Mann tried to copy at the opening of Miami but failed on so many levels its unreal.If you want to see a truly good film this this probably isn't for you since it's not the best but if you do however want to watch a film with a simple story and which has simple characters and is set mostly in a cab then this film is for you..
Tom Cruise, a very good actor, (But one who needs to sort out some personal problems) takes the role of "Vincent." In the beginning of the film we have no idea who he is.
very well filmed thriller from Michael Mann who once again proves his mastery of Directing, with Tom Cruise being equalled for performance alongside Jamie Foxx.
Jamie Foxx is cast as the routine taxi driver with aspirations to become something more, but is held back lack of ambition and a reliance on security and routine.Even more surprising than Tom Cruise' role is the fact that this is the finest performance he's ever committed to a film.
You would think that nothing too outrageous will happen, but eventually Max finds out Vincent's line of work and the police are on their trail as well.This is a terrific film, filled with exceptional performances, excellent writing, and marvelous directing by Michael Mann that holds us in suspense just long enough to finish the story, but not too long that we begin to not care.
But the experienced professional hit-man Vincent (Tom Cruise) has a lot of trouble even shooting straight and covering up tracks.The philosophical ideas that are put forward in the film (by forcing them into conversation during the cab fare) are meant to add more depth to the story, but in truth, end up as pretty bland and well-milked observations.
The plot line of this movie is not one that would entice many, but the way that Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise executed their roles is so unprecedented that it was a film that many people saw as "edge-of-your-seat" material.
"Collateral" is a good action movie, and one of the best with Tom Cruise.
Cabbie Max (Jamie Foxx) finds himself caught with psychopath-hit-man Vincent (Tom Cruise) in his taxi on a night with murder in the air...Vincent is doing his thing with a couple of witnesses of some sort of crime (I forget what it was), and his last stop is procecutor Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith).
The screen play has a quick pace and Mr. Mann uses the music intelligently to enhance parts of the film.The big asset for this movie is the pairing of Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
Tom Cruise's character Vincent is a contract killer who uses an innocent Taxi Driver named Max played by Jamie Foxx, to drive him around town as he kills his victims.