Story
Max Durocher is a taxi driver in Los Angeles who is attempting to make enough money to launch his own limo company. Federal prosecutor Annie Farrell, who serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, is one of the evening’s guests. As they start talking, Annie hands Max her business card.
Max agrees to transport Vincent to several destinations when he informs him he is in Los Angeles for a single night to finalize a real estate deal. Vincent is Max’s next passenger. A corpse crashes into Max’s car while he waits at the first halt. Vincent admits that he is a hitman. Max is made to conceal the body in the trunk while he drives. When LAPD detective Ray Fanning gets to the scene of Vincent’s murder, he discovers the victim was an informant for the police.
When Vincent ties Max’s hands to the steering wheel during the second stop, two young men rob him and take his bag. After killing them with a gunshot, Vincent takes the briefcase. When Fanning finds the remains of Vincent’s second victim, criminal lawyer Sylvester Clark, and two murdered robbers at the hospital morgue, he knows this is the work of a hitman.
In order to locate Daniel, his third target, who is scheduled to testify against Vincent’s client, Vincent sends Max to a jazz club. Max begs Vincent to release Daniel, and Vincent wagers that Daniel won’t be able to respond to a query regarding Miles Davis. Though Daniel appears to have given the right response, Vincent suddenly shoots Daniel in the head because he is not happy with his response.
Vincent demands that Max go forward with the visit after learning of Max’s nightly trips to the hospital to see his mother. Ida reveals to Vincent at the hospital that Max has been lying to her in order to get her approval when she proudly informs him that he owns his own limousine business.
Max becomes so distraught that he runs off, takes Vincent’s briefcase, and throws it onto a freeway, where it gets destroyed. Max is forced by Vincent to meet with drug lord Felix Reyes-Torrena in order to retrieve the data on his last two targets. Max gets the information by pretending to be Vincent, but Reyes-Torrena gives his men orders to kill “Vincent” if he doesn’t finish the mission.
Max and Vincent head to a nightclub in search of Peter Lim, the next target. Fanning goes to see FBI agent Frank Pedrosa in an attempt to establish a connection between the three victims. Pedrosa names the victims as witnesses in a federal grand jury that would indict Reyes-Torrena the next day. Based on FBI surveillance showing Max entering and exiting Reyes-Torrena’s club, Pedrosa believes Max is the hitman and instructs FBI agents to keep Lim safe. Vincent murders Lim, one of Reyes-Torrena’s hitmen, and his bodyguards in the nightclub. Max is forced back into the cab by Vincent after Fanning shoots him dead and saves him by sneaking him outside.
After making their escape, Max and Vincent slander one another before Max intentionally smashes the taxi. When the policeman notices the dead in the trunk, he tries to arrest Max, but Vincent manages to get away. Max discovers that Annie is Vincent’s ultimate aim when he sees his laptop open. Using Vincent’s rifle, Max subdues the policeman and charges Annie’s office building.
Max calls Annie while using a phone he stole from a bystander to warn her and tell her to dial 911. Annie is cornered by Vincent, who has taken a security guard’s revolver for protection. Max shoots and injures Vincent, and Annie flees on foot. Vincent follows the two onto a subway car. Captured aboard the train, Max starts a gunfight with Vincent. Deadly injured, Vincent collapses into a chair. While a deceased Vincent continues to travel alone on the train, Max and Annie get off at the next station.
Collateral Movie 2004 | Key Facts
Experts praise Tom Cruise’s skill at drawing a gun, which is demonstrated during tactical training. Cruise received intensive training for the character of Vincent by working covertly as a FedEx delivery agent and attending tactical handgun courses at the battle ranges of the Los Angeles County Sheriff.
Vincent
After being driven to Los Angeles by Max Durocher, a cab driver, Vincent confesses he doesn’t really enjoy the city. Max is stunned when drug dealer Ramón Ayala crashes into the taxi. Vincent then reveals that he is a hit man, holding Max hostage while he kills targets, including Peter Lim, while Max looks on helplessly, terrified that Vincent will kill his mother next.
Max discovers that Annie Farrell, who had previously taken a ride in Vincent’s taxi, is his final target. He tries to warn her that Vincent is going to kill her in her office as he flees from a police officer and takes the man’s phone. Annie is cornered in her office by Vincent, who successfully thwarts her attempt to flee, but Max arrives in time to shoot Vincent and save Annie. Despite being injured, Vincent follows the escaping pair and eventually confronts them on a train in Los Angeles. As a result, Max is forced to confront Vincent with the gun he had earlier grabbed from the policeman. The two engage in gunfire that ends with both men out of ammunition. When it becomes apparent that Vincent is mortally wounded while trying to reload, he at last concedes defeat and sits down on the train to await his impending demise. When Max gets there, they have one more conversation before Vincent thinks back to his earlier comment about a guy who died on the MTA and asks Max, “Do you think anyone will notice?” with a heavy heart. Not long afterward, Vincent gives Max one final look before his head descends, signifying his demise. Annie joins Max as Vincent passes away, and the two of them gaze at his corpse before leaving him on the train when they reach the next station. As daylight breaks, the movie closes with the train departing with the deceased Vincent still inside.
When you first meet Vincent, he comes off as kind, amiable, and pleasant; underneath the surface, though, he is a cold, merciless, and cunning sociopath. He thinks that individuals are selfish at heart and that human nature is inherently wicked.
Additionally, Vincent is extremely cautious and methodical, preferring to use middlemen to accept his contracts and communicate with his employers. Still, Vincent is a happy improviser who loves to adjust to new circumstances.
Max
Despite working as a taxi driver, Max is incredibly clever and has the ability to infer a lot about a person from seemingly little clues, much like Sherlock Holmes. One instance of this is when he deduces Annie’s profession as a lawyer from her dark pinstripe suit, briefcase, and pocketbook. He suggests that for the majority of his clients, he can solve problems like this. However, Max is still only human, so he can’t always judge people fairly. For example, he doesn’t realize that Vincent is a criminal—and a hitman, for that matter—until after he kills his first target. Part of the reason for this is that Max finds it difficult to understand why someone would kill someone they’ve never even met before, much less someone who has never done them any harm.
Max is an extremely kind and understanding individual who is quick to feel sorry for new acquaintances. Early on, he can tell that Annie is worn out from her job and needs it more than he does, so he sends her a favorite snapshot of a vacation resort that he frequently looks at to decompress. Even after discovering that Vincent is an assassin, he is often cordial with him, to the point where Vincent eventually confides in him about his difficult history.
But Max is also a bit of a slacker; he always claims that his job as a cab driver is merely temporary and that he would one day start his own limousine company. In spite of this, he hasn’t even performed the most fundamental actions—like saving money—toward achieving that objective at the beginning of the movie. Vincent confronts him for this, warning him that if he continues in this direction, he will eventually grow old and realize that his goals were never achievable in the first place because he was never going to accomplish them.
Felix Reyes-Torrena
Felix Reyes Torrena is widely regarded as the undisputed leader of the Los Angeles crime syndicate. He is also a prominent figure in the city’s criminal underworld. US attorney Annie Farrell indirectly shares Felix’s story with Max Droucher, the main character of the film, who goes on to learn more about it when he unintentionally hires Felix’s hitman Vincent and is subsequently involved in the first three of Felix’s five hits.
After Max breaks Vincent’s bag in an attempt to undermine his job, he is compelled to go see Felix in his club, where he assumes the identity of Vincent. Felix first shows suspicion and gets quite upset when he finds out that “his stuff was lost,” but in the end, he falls for the ruse and hands Max the final two targets that are supposed to be slain. But once Max departs, Felix covertly designates his bodyguard Paco to track “Vincent” to his next victim and murder him if things go wrong. After killing Paco and his goons to save Max, the real Vincent kills the target and his bodyguards while the local authorities, who are aware of Felix’s case, besiege the clubhouse in a futile attempt to shield the target from Vincent. Felix is not seen again throughout the remainder of the film, but his attempt to have “Vincent” killed backfires.
Felix’s scheme is ultimately totally thwarted when Max succeeds in saving Annie, who was Felix’s ultimate goal, and kills Vincent in a regular gunfight. It is strongly regarded that Annie would go on to finish her case against Felix even though it is unaware of what transpired later. Felix paid Vincent to kill the five targets, making Felix fully accountable for the events depicted in the movie.
Collateral Movie 2004 | Reviews
IMDB score is 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes score is 85%
Collateral Movie 2004 Netflix
Trailer
