Tom Cruise is one of the handful of actors that represent the glamour and mystique of the old Hollywood star standard. He along with Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Denzel Washington, and Julia Roberts are part of the elite group of aging but still bankable stars that and It’s a testament to his commitment to craft that after about 40 years in the business, he’s able to star in a sequel movie to a movie he starred in nearly 40 years ago and have his highest ever opening with Top Gun: Maverick. Yeah, we can say it’s the sign of the times as everything old is gold these days, but it’s 2022 and the young actors of today, and even the ingénues and starlets from even 20 years ago, are nowhere near the level of superstardom of the old--but still relevant--guard.
Top Gun: Maverick is a movie stuffed with Americana and it has its target set squarely on the Memorial Day, flag-waving, we need a hero crowd. Perhaps it was kismet that after being delayed from its original release date of December 2020, it finally was cleared for take-off at the start of the summer movie season. Top Gun: Maverick is definitely much more suited as a summer movie than Christmas season fare. But beyond the nostalgia and the remembrance that the United States of America is and should still be known for hope and being on the side of good. The mission this time for the Top Gun pilots is to take down a uranium enrichment plant in an unknown region.
For many years now, Tom Cruise’s filmography and notoriety has been linked to action films. Despite his dramatic and idiosyncratic turns in Born on the Fourth of July, Eyes Wide Shut, and Tropic Thunder. But Tom Cruise is best identified as by audiences as the All American good guy the world needs to save it from itself. And when I review all of the movies I paid to go see Tom Cruise in, and he was 100% the reason why I paid to go, nearly every single one of them have been an action movie with the exception of Interview with the Vampire (technically our uncle paid for this one), Jerry Maguire, and Collateral.
Besides Tom Cruise, the other reason why I paid to go right away was director Michael Mann. About ten years earlier, I saw one of the best crime movies ever with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino called Heat. I saw the movie three times at the theatre (despite being underage) bought every magazine that featured the movie, bought the soundtrack, and even received a huge poster of the coffee shop scene with De Niro and Pacino as a Christmas gift. I figured if Michael Mann could bring us a bank heist thriller like that with two of the greatest living actors ever, then he must have something even more incredible to show us with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
We know right away Tom Cruise is not going to be playing a cool Jerry Maguire type in Collateral with his shock of gray hair. I can’t recall any movie with Tom Cruise in which he had a hint of gray hair which could give away his aging status. Michael Mann spoke to Entertainment Weekly and explained the reason for the gray hair was an “intuitive thing.” His character is “steely, and the visual for that was silver hair and a tight gray suit.”
One of the things I learned from the one film course I took as an outside elective in business school was the use of color in film to describe characters or moods. Funnily enough, one of the films we were forced to watch and analyze was Eyes Wide Shut. The usage of Christmas lights and the colors of Christmas was something that we were made aware of that was intentional by the filmmaker. And Michael Mann uses aesthetics and the color palette to further flesh out his characters and films.
In one of the many articles I read about Heat, Michael Mann deliberately chose a monochrome or colorless scheme. If you watch the movie, you’ll notice that it’s pretty much all black, white, gray, and blue. In this interview with Entertainment Weekly for the re-release of Heat in 4K Blu-ray, Mann talks about how he would have focused on a blue-black palette.
Although Collateral takes place nearly 10 years after Heat, the characters from Collateral look like they could have been walking around and playing out their story at the same time down the block from the bank heist. The look and feel of Collateral is so trademark Michael Mann’s Heat that you know right away that this is another Michael Mann film set in Los Angeles.
The opening scene of Collateral is nearly identical to the opening scene in Heat. In Heat, just like Collateral, we’re already in the midst of something happening, but with barely any words yet to be spoken. People are carrying on with their lives while the criminal is making his way through his. In Heat, Neil McCauley, is quiet but focused as he’s cutting through an emergency room and dressed in a medic’s uniform. Later on, we see McCauley setting up scores and getting his bag while dressed in the same gray suit with no tie look that Tom Cruise’s Vincent wears throughout Collateral. Heat also has another main character named Vincent who’s played by Pacino.
Tom Cruise as Vincent, a contract killer as we soon find out, lands in Los Angeles for another job. He bumps into an equally shady looking guy played by Jason Statham who leaves behind a briefcase that contains the information Vincent needs to do his work. As Vincent gets ready to start his work day, we see another working man in LA getting ready for his. Jamie Foxx is Max, an introverted and wannabe ambitious taxi driver. We watch as he and other cabbies prep his car for his shift. Max has pride in his work as he keeps his car clean, listens to high brow classical music, and keeps a picture of an unnamed island on his car’s sun visor as inspiration for his ultimate goal.
We follow Max on his shift as he carts around annoying passengers who don’t care that he is right there and can hear all of the loud and lewd details of their conversations. Despite Max’s efforts to cope and even validate his existence as a taxi driver, we can feel how invisible and exhausting it must be to be someone’s hired chauffeur. In one moment when Max slams the door shut, the noise from the outside world is gone and Max seems to have a moment of peace finally to himself.
But the peace is short-lived. Max picks up another passenger, this time a lawyer named Annie played by Jada Pinkett Smith, who introduces herself much like any other rude and dismissive rider by telling Max which streets to take. I always found it strange whenever I’d see on TV or in the movies the passengers telling the drivers where to go. I grew up in a small town, so taxis weren’t needed. But I also grew up being taught that you don’t take taxis unless you have no idea where you’re going and you’re on vacation. I’ve been in many taxis, but they were only ever going to and from an airport. I wouldn’t know where to begin to give a driver directions as that's the whole point of hiring a driver.
Annie’s cool demeanor changes when Max charms her with his mastery of the LA streets. He insists his route will take her to the destination faster and if he’s wrong, the ride is free. Along the way, Max shares his desire to start his own driving service called Island Limos. He’s got his dream all figured out in that he’s working as a taxi driver part time to pay off the leases on the Benzes. Guests will love riding in his limos so much that they won’t ever want to leave. Annie is impressed with his plan and she’s even more impressed when they arrive at her destination faster than her original orders. Max gives her his card and Annie surprisingly gives him her card just in case.
The night wears on and Max is parked along a pick-up area along with other drivers. Vincent leans his head into Max's cab to ask for a lift, but he doesn't hear Vincent’s request the first time. Max calls out after Vincent and implores him to come back. It’s just Max’s poor luck that he of course will be the one who will pick Vincent up.
Max attempts small talk with Vincent by asking if it was his first time in LA. Vincent responds with contempt as can’t wait to leave whenever he is there. He says LA is sprawled out and disconnected and despite the 17 million people in it, he read that a man died on the MTA for six hours until he was discovered.
Vincent then asks Max about his job including if it comes with benefits. Vincent is a man whose life is consumed by his work as a hired assassin, so there’s a bit of a mutual respect in that he’s interested in what this other working man is doing. Max tells Vincent his plan for his Island Limos and that the taxi job isn’t the kind of job that provides benefits.
Like Heat, there’s no absolute good or bad guys in Collateral. In an interview about Heat, Mann mentioned how none of the characters were good or bad with maybe the exception of the character of Edie played by Amy Brenneman. For those who haven’t seen Heat, Edie was the bookstore worker who became romantically involved with Neil McCauley but was unaware of his vocation. And in Collateral, Max is definitely the good guy, but he’s not perfect. He’s timid. Lacks the bravery to go for what he wants. And his mother, played by Irma P. Hall, emotionally abuses him and who has no doubt, contributed to his lack of confidence.
Even though Vincent is the literal bad guy with the gun who’s going around killing people, he has some redeeming qualities. As he is task-oriented in how he goes about his relationships, he is committed once there is an agreement. He offered Max $600 to be his personal cabbie for the evening and they shook hands on it. They’re essentially coworkers until Vincent has completed his five hits and gets out of LA on a 6am flight.
Vincent stands by his “colleague” Max when Max’s boss tries to reach him over the radio. Earlier, they were stopped by the police and told to return the cab as the window was shattered on one side. Unbeknownst to the cops, the damage was not from a random deer as Max claimed, but from the body of the first victim on Vincent’s hit list. Max’s boss berates Max and tells him that he will have to pay for the damages to the vehicle. Vincent hears this and says he shouldn’t be liable for the damages. Max weakly parrots what Vincent tells him to say, but his boss is not having it. He’s paying. Vincent has heard enough of Max’s boss screaming over the radio and takes over. He introduces himself as a U.S. district attorney and that he will report him to the DMV. He accuses Max’s boss as extorting a working man, and the boss backs off.
The strange twist of fate for Max is that agreeing to be Vincent’s personal cabbie was the best and worst decision of his life. Yes, Vincent has locked him into an agreement he can’t get out of, but what does it matter to him? As Vincent declares, he’s just taking out the trash. Why does Max care? Does he volunteer for organizations like Oxfam? Who cares about the people he is executing? And with this logic, does it really matter? Vincent isn’t here to kill Max. He’s here to kill the five people he’s been contracted to kill and he’s simply doing his job.
And Vincent is great at his job. He’s laser focused and does exactly what he’s been hired to do. He’s also able to adapt his work schedule to accommodate Max’s. He receives a radio call that his mother is concerned about his whereabouts, and at Vincent’s insistence, they go to the hospital to visit Max’s mom, so no one suspects anything. Max doesn’t care, but Vincent cared enough to bring flowers. Vincent is also the only one being respectful as Max gets into an argument with his mother about the way she is speaking to him. Instead of spending time with his mom, Max takes the opportunity to escape, but Vincent catches up to him and they are again back in the taxi together. Vincent threatens to murder his mom if he doesn’t carry out his duties and so they move on.
But even Vincent is human and needs a break. At one point in the evening, Vincent is game for a break at a jazz club. The break is just a typical work break. Max and Vincent relax and have a drink with a man who talks about Miles Davis. But the clock continues to tick and once break time is over, Vincent whips out his silencer gun and that guy is shot in the head. Vincent’s mind is always on the job.
Through the course of the evening, Max’s frustrations and anger towards Vincent and his situation builds. He finally has enough and he tosses the briefcase which has the information about the victims over an overpass. The contents are pulverized by an oncoming semi-truck. But Vincent isn’t deterred. He’s a professional and professionals know how to adapt to changing work situations. He simply needs to get another copy of the information and since the people who hired him don’t know how he looks like, Max is going to go in his place.
Stuart Beattie’s script takes twists and turns that you never see coming. And what a better way to convey how Max’s character has changed and what he has learned from Vincent, then to put Max in a realistic situation where he has to stand in for the more experienced colleague. Haven’t we all had to do this at some point in our working lives? Max is certain he can’t do it, but Vincent tells him there is no other way. Max reluctantly walks into the bar where Javier Bardem, Felix the client, is there. If you see Javier Bardem in any movie, it’s almost a guarantee that he’s a killer of some sort. At the same time, FBI agents have the place wiretapped as they are looking for evidence of who killed Ramone, the first hit of the evening. Ramone is the informant for Ray (Mark Ruffalo) an LAPD detective working with the FBI, and they believe Felix has something to do with it. But they weren’t prepared to pick up surveillance footage of Max.
Poor Max sits across from Felix and makes his case as to why he needs a copy of the information again. Like most newbies who are unexpectedly thrust into the driver's seat, Max is at first awkward and uncertain with himself, but he gains confidence as he barrels down the learning curve. Something changes in Max as he takes off his glasses and even warns the goons surrounding their table to keep their guns away. Felix agrees to give him the information again in a USB key and Max even offers a discount for his services. Because that’s what people do in business right when the customer has been inconvenienced, right? What I find funny of movies featuring crime and technology from the 90’s and early aughts is it’s always about stealing important information found on a USB key of some sort. Because everything boils down to some external disk storage device.
As Max leaves, Felix orders his men to go to the Fever club and monitor the situation. If Max as Vincent doesn’t kill the target, they are to kill him. The detectives and FBI agents hear this and start making calls and orders to go to the Fever club and be ready for the take down. This scene of the cops all simultaneously getting to work reminds me so much of the same scene in Heat where Pacino orders wiretaps and surveillance on De Niro’s crew and that he wants them to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days week and they will never close. And going along the theme of taking pride in your work, we see the detective Ray (Ruffalo) arguing with his Richard (Peter Berg) about the take down. Ray isn’t certain all is what it seems to be and he doesn’t trust that the cabbie is the real killer. But Richard just wants to go home for the evening and is okay with the other team of agents moving in.
So now both the cops and Max and Vincent are making their way to the Fever club in search of Peter Lim, the FBI's’ witness. As Max and Vincent are driving over, Vincent asks Max if he’s going to call the lady who gave him her business card. He tells him to pick up the phone as life is short. And if they both make it out alive, he should call her. This is perhaps Vincent’s way of thanking Max for doing the impossible and getting the information back.
Their conversation breaks off when they come across a coyote crossing the street. I’ve seen this film a million times and I’m still not certain what the meaning is behind this animal interrupting their drive. Do coyotes roam the streets of Los Angeles? But the look on both Vincent and Max’s faces as they watch this coyote walk by is strangely captivating. Maybe it’s a signal to them both that they are lonely humans trapped together in a car while the lone animal gets to walk free outside on his own.
Meanwhile in the club, the police think Max is the killer while Vincent follows closely behind undetected. The synth music that plays while the crowded revelers dance is also very reminiscent of the same music beat that plays in a similar climatic scene in Heat. Music resembling a heart beating heavily plays while De Niro and his crew enter the bank while Pacino and his crew are on their way. But unlike in Heat, the music continues to play even after the first shot is taken.
During the chaotic scene, the FBI agents are there to confront Max while Felix’s crew are there to make sure Max as Vincent does what he’s been told. But they all have to do this with hundreds of packed people on the dance floor. Felix’s crew has the lasers of their guns pointed on Max who has his hands in the air. Vincent sees this and kills the men, saving Max. Vincent looks at Max as if to give him a thumbs up partner, but Max doesn’t react. Vincent eventually makes his way to the back of the club where Peter Lim is sitting and shoots him dead.
Max meanwhile is on his way to exiting the club when Detective Ray grabs him and tries to bring him to safety. But yet another potential to escape is vanquished when the detective is shot dead by Vincent and Max is forced to go back behind the wheel. As they drive away, Vincent grumbles how he gets no thanks from Max and he even asks if Max wants to talk. But Max doesn’t. He’s still in shock that yet another person has been murdered. Max bluntly demands to know what’s with Vincent. Why is he doing what he’s doing? Vincent doesn’t like being called out for his misgivings and he starts tearing Max down about his failed dreams. He’s going to wake up old and he’s not going to call the girl. And why the fuck is he still driving the cab.
This exchange of hard truths drives Max over the edge. Vincent is right. What does it matter anyway? Max begins to drive faster and erratically and purposely crashes the taxi. Upon hearing the sirens, Vincent flees from the scene. This is again another similar scene found in Heat. In Heat, Neil is about to approach the car where Edie is, but he then spots Vincent or the heat. Without a second thought, he turns and runs away.
A policeman approaches Max to see if he’s okay, but the policeman notices the dead man in the trunk of the vehicle. The first man Vincent killed earlier in the evening. Max sees an image of Annie on Vincent’s damaged laptop screen and realizes she is the fifth and final victim on Vincent’s kill list. With nothing to lose, Max fights the policeman and takes his gun and heads to the office location written on her business card. With his adrenaline going, Max even steal’s a guy’s cell phone as he’s racing towards the office building.
Without skipping a beat, Vincent is still determined to finish the job he was hired to do. He’s cruising through the office tower with a dead security guard’s cardkeys. Max calls Annie and tries to warn her, but she’s of course in disbelief at first. But Max relays details to her that only she would know and that’s when she understands that the situation is real and Vincent is there to kill her.
Of course Max’s cell phone runs out of battery life, as cell phones, guns, cars, whatever, always run out of power, bullets, and gas in these movies. Max has no other choice but to go into the building himself to rescue her. Max and Annie somehow make their way out of the building and into the subway system. The ending sort of reminds me of the anti-climatic ending of Speed which also featured a subway confrontation. Without much build up, Vincent and Max both fire blindly at each other while being in two separate subway cars and it just so happens that Max’s shots connected first.
The entirety of the movie had been full of twist and turns that it would’ve been nice if a more inventive clash between Vincent and Max had been planned. Like who knew the fight scene on the bus in Shang-Chi would be possible? Also, if Los Angeles is so full of people, how come there was so little people around the office, on the streets, and the subway system? Yes, it was around 5am, but I’ve lived in big cities and there are already lots of people around at that time. Working people are on the clock at all hours and 5am is like a normal start time for many people in a big city.
It’s also a little hard to believe that Vincent, a skilled sharp shooting killer would have missed shooting at Max from that close of a range. I think a more believable ending would have been if say both Max and Vincent were hit and both dying. But, Max had Annie to be there in his last moments in one subway car. And Vincent was alone in the adjacent car like the guy who was dead on the MTA for six hours. But only Vincent dies and even in his death, there was some unspoken words of respect between them. Vincent takes a seat and Max sits down in front of him. It’s the first time also both are seated facing each other in a moving vehicle as if they are equals now. Max tells him that they’re almost at the next stop. As if maybe they can get help for him. But Vincent’s final words are about a guy who died on the MTA and if anyone will notice. Max isn’t happy Vincent is dead. We don’t know what he’s thinking as no other words are said as the subway carries on its route with Vincent dead on the subway chair.
It’s again another similar scene to Heat. In the finale, Neil and Vincent face off with each other at the airport with planes flying overhead and it’s Neil who dies. Vincent holds his hand as the movie ends and he too isn’t happy that he had to kill Neil. Now that there’s news of a Heat 2 prequel/sequel coming out this summer, it would be great to resurrect Vincent from Collateral and have him and Neil from Heat cross paths.
Collateral did not bring Tom Cruise an Oscar nomination which is such a shame. Jamie Foxx received one for Supporting Actor, but Tom Cruise’s Vincent is the Ying to Max’s Yang. They’re partners at work and in crime in Collateral. The two were basically on the screen the entire length of the film and Collateral only works because both actors were equally impressive.
And Collateral did not bring Michael Mann a directing nomination nor Stuart Beattie a screenwriting nod which it should have. How many crime films have there been about LA, but one that takes place in one night and in a taxi cab? The authenticity of the city and its surroundings and attention to detail is something that can’t be overlooked in the movie. As with Mann’s other films about LA, LA is a vital supporting character in the movie. We see LA from the streets. From the night life. From a taxi. From dark alleyways. From the sky in helicopters. From places you don’t want to be in when the sun is down in a cold city like LA.
And the story of Collateral is more than just a hired killer using a taxi cab as his personal chauffer. There’s also another story happening and that’s one about what is the purpose of one’s life. Why do we do the jobs that we do? Not only is Vincent and Max questioned about their career choices, don’t forget that early on in the film, we learned that Annie the lawyer was into music in her youth, but she gave it up. Vincent talks about how day time TV sucks people in like Max and that’s how they lose their precious time to make something of their lives and instead they wake up one day and they’re just old. Isn’t that the truth though? A lot of us just give up or become complacent and we get by with watching mindless TV. Who knew a movie about a guy hired to kill people and a taxi driver was actually a movie about life?
See Top Gun: Maverick, but also see Collateral. You can stream Collateral on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.
Comments