Collateral
Ah yes, L.A. The City Of Angels. It possesses an atmosphere as unique as the souls who inhabit it while still retaining an urban feel that is not quite as brick and mortar, cut and dry as its East Coast counterpart of New York City. A place where a simple car ride for some nearby business requires getting on and then off the freeway for quicker access within the city itself while everyone seems to interact with each other from within their own secure little bubbles. And probably no modern filmmaker has such an intricate knowledge of the place as Michael Mann himself, a director who can fuck up spectacularly when he makes a bad film, but when he does hit the mark, the results can be absolutely mindblowing. Which he did here in 2004 with this particular effort which is not quite the sprawling epic that his Heat was but still retains some of that filmâs existential themes but only in a much more intimate setting, depicting as it were the encounters that an everyday, average Joe cab driver has when he meets up with a mysterious, obviously highly trained and cold blooded hitman for whom both his background and level of life experience are worlds beyond his own. But if these two are to be considered the main characters, the third main co star is obviously the city itself, with Mann setting a most evocative mood (something he seems able to do almost effortlessly) in the opening moments as Jamie Foxxâs cab driver who has just come on gives an early fare her ride through the city, and we get to see L.A.âs cold yet peaceful demeanor in the early evening hours and can really grasp why many would want to actually live there, what with it being the center of the American entertainment industry and all of the vast sources of culture to be found therein combined with the perfect accompanying music that allows the city to hypnotize and enchant the viewer as much as it obviously does Mann himself. And here is where we meet Foxxâs Max, a wonderfully written and acted regular guy type of character happily tooling along through his existence without really giving it much thought, delighting in telling his fares that this job is only âtemporaryâ (of course) until he saves up enough to start his own limo service, which (of course) will be above and beyond any other limo service ever known, an experience so great that as he says âYou wonât want to get out when you get to the airport.â Meanwhile, at LAX, a shadowy individual arrives who goes by the name of âVincentâ, and after picking up a briefcase from an equally shadowy courier (a cameoing Jason Statham in an obvious in joke reference to his role in The Transporter films) goes about his business that he has come to the city to take care of. The fact that Vincent is in actuality a professional killer and that he is played by none other than Tom Cruise are perhaps both equally astounding in and of itself. Cruise, known mostly for his wildly grinning true blue heroes, takes on arguably the biggest gamble of his acting career and scores big with it, especially in his first sizeable dialogue scene where his voice actually sounds like that of a cynical, hardened killer, which along with his silver dyed hair and noticeable beard stubble makes this role almost unique from any other that heâs ever played, even as the character dynamic between he and Foxx has a more sinister connotation than his somewhat similar teamup with Cameron Diaz in the more lighthearted Knight And Day made a few years later with the concept being of Cruise picking out an average person and telling them âHey! Youâre it!â during a wild and crazy adventure. Of course Foxx winds up getting Cruise in his cab, and it is there that the basic layout for the story is put forth: Cruise intends to (quickly) visit and then murder 5 different people over the course of one night before heading straight back to LAX and certain safety, all of whom are involved mostly as witnesses against a powerful druglord (Javier Bardem, striking gold with his cameo) who was obviously willing to put forth a large amount of money for Cruiseâs services, especially with it being that Vincentâs biggest asset is his ability to remain anonymous and to move in and out of places without anyone ever noticing him. The one ridiculous element of the story is that Cruise has paid Foxx to be his personal driver for the night, but when the first hit goes a bit awry and the victim smashes down on top of the cab, that means that Foxx now knows his âsecretâ and at that point is literally forced at gunpoint into almost being an accessory to the whole killing spree, something that doesnât really sit too well with either Foxx or the viewer, as one wonders why such a sleek and efficient hitman would literally want to carry around this kind of extra baggage or even why he wouldnât just grab himself a rental car instead (even as it is implied that while Cruise not only is obviously going to kill Foxx at the end of the night, but heâs also setting him up to be the patsy for the other murders as well). Despite that, it seems that Mann would rather revel in the contrasts between the two characters portraying Foxx as a friendly people person who genuinely enjoys making others happy, whereas Cruise in comparison is a bitter, world weary sociopath with a misplaced code of ethics and morality who has mentally conditioned himself to perform his job by thinking that most people are just useless, mindless sheep and that whenever he slaughters a few from the herd for his payday that itâs still not nearly as bad as the damage caused by a natural disaster or acts of mass genocide. And off they go into the night, as Foxx stays at the wheel continuously looking over his shoulder while Cruise pays visits to a sleazy lawyer, a jovial jazz club owner, and an Asian criminal with plenty of his own henchmen (all while being doggedly pursued by a cop played by Mark Ruffalo), and even a visit to Bardem himself, during which time Cruise chooses to send Foxx inside instead and instructs him to take his name and pretend to be him because his own policy is that he âdoesnât meet peopleâ and to preserve his own anonymity, and it is in THIS acting showdown between Bardem and Foxx where the druglord tries to intimidate him and Foxx (already fed up with having had Cruise ordering him around all night with a gun to his head) decides to stand up for himself and lets Bardem know that he wonât be taking any shit from him either where Foxx no doubt singlehandedly earned his out of the blue Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor (though many would argue that he was a lead actor here alongside Cruise, who surprisingly received no recognition himself) as we lead up to the finale, where Foxx has become so sick and tired of Cruise constantly belittling him over his plain, flat out ordinariness and lack of any real initiative in his life to do something other than driving a cab that it leads to Foxx CRASHING the cab and then engaging in a game of cat and mouse over the fate of the final intended victim, with Cruise practically getting his ear almost blasted off yet still displaying almost superhuman qualities while in hot pursuit, with the final minutes being somewhat transcendent in blurring the line between Cruiseâs philosophy that both life and death are cheap and worthless with Foxxâs beliefs that most people are good people and that all lives do matter, and all the while itâs made very clear that Mann really has chosen the perfect setting to have this psychological conflict play out between these two, even as it stretches the lines of credibility of how a hitman would really go about his business actually choosing to have a potential loose end and someone who has seen his face be forced to accompany him all night when he himself clearly seems to be a lone wolf killer who outright hates being suffocated in the steel and concrete cage of the big city landscape and obviously canât wait to get out of there when heâs done with his business at hand, but if that plot conceit can allow two of the best actors around to match wits with each other in such a compelling piece of work as this is, then more power to The Mann himself who created itâŚ
9/10