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I was browsing through Tom Cruise’s movies the other day and saw Collateral on the list. Having not seen it in an age, I put it on my watchlist. I didn’t really remember anything about the movie. In fact, I forgot it was a Michael Mann film.
Collateral stars Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill, Barry Shabaka Henley, and a very young Javier Bardem. Mann directs and the story is by Stuart Beattie. Beattie’s back catalogue as a writer is impressive, the original Pirates of the Caribbean, 30 Days of Night, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Then he does 4 episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and lets himself down.
The Story
All I remembered about the movie was that Cruise is a hitman in Los Angeles, in town to complete a series of murders. Foxx is the cabbie who drives him around. The official outline says:
A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.
We meet Max (Foxx), a nighttime cabbie in LA. He knows the city and he knows his customers. He picks up Annie (Pinkett Smith) and they kind of hit it off. Max knows what kind of lady she is, a working hard lawyer, close to burnout and needs a holiday.
As she gets out of the cab, she passes on her number, hoping to hear from him again.
Maxx then picks up Vincent (Cruise), a guy there to visit friends in LA in one night. After the first stop off, it turns out that Vincent isn’t what he seems to be. A body falls out of a window and on to Max’s cab.
Max soon realises that Vincent is an assassin and is taken hostage by him. As the night goes on, Max gets into more and more trouble.
Mann on Mann
Collateral didn’t introduce itself as a Mann movie, but all the way through you just know it is him. The style, the camerawork, it was just a Mann movie from top to bottom.
He has a sense of realism that really makes all of the characters feel real. Foxx is a very good actor. His Max is great, just a humble guy, making a living in one of the biggest cities in the world.
Cruise is excellent as well. I’m so used to seeing him in those Ethan Hunt roles that seeing him as a cold-blooded assassin was a nice change. He’s very cold, very calculating, and even a little scary.
Then you have Pinkett-Smith. After everything that went on with Will Smith you just can’t help but think she might be an unpleasant person, and that takes you out of the movie when she is on screen, which was a shame.
What was also weird was Mark Ruffalo. I honestly didn’t recognize him until he talked. Greased back, and with a goatee, it just didn’t look like him and he’s not too annoying here.
Overall
This is Michael Mann at his finest. Collateral is one of those movies that kind of slips through man people’s memory – “Yeah, I think I’ve seen it, it’s pretty good” – but it’s better than that. It’s great.
I kind of wish it was more played out, without Max knowing what’s going on from the start. He finds out what Vincent is up to on the very first murder. I think him finding out on the third or fourth might have been more interesting.
Another moment I can pick at is when Max has to pretend he’s Vincent to obtain a copy of his destroyed itinerary. This felt a little silly, and that Max probably would have been shot almost straight away.
I’m being overly picky though. Collateral is a great movie. If you haven’t seen it in a while, revisit it. If you haven’t seen it at all, then you’re in for a treat.
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