Collateral

I revisited Michael Mann’s 2004 crime thriller Collateral recently, and honestly, it’s still one of those movies that gets under my skin in the best way. Tom Cruise plays a silver-haired contract killer named Vincent who forces Jamie Foxx’s cabbie, Max, to drive him around LA for a night of hits. On paper it sounds simple, maybe even a little ridiculous. But Mann doesn’t let anything about this premise go to waste. There’s an urgency to the story that kicks in about five minutes after Vincent enters Max’s cab, and it doesn’t really let up until the credits.

One of the first things you notice is how LA itself becomes more than just a backdrop - the city feels alive and dangerous, buzzing with neon lights, emptiness, and a sense of lurking threat. Mann’s choice to shoot largely on digital, which was still pretty new for big movies at the time, gives everything a weirdly intimate feel. Dark alleys, flickering bars, and endless city stretches are bathed in a kind of digital haze. It all feels immediate and real, but also a little unreal, which fits the mood perfectly. It’s stylized, but not in a way that screams for your attention; it just gets in your head.

The casting here is a masterstroke. Jamie Foxx gives a genuinely nuanced performance as Max. He’s just a regular guy who gets swept into this nightmare, but Foxx doesn’t play him as a clichéd everyman. There are moments of hesitation, bursts of anger, flashes of creativity - he keeps surprising you. And then there’s Cruise, who goes fully against type. He is icy and unreadable and all sharp edges. Somehow, Cruise pulls off being menacing even when just making small talk. His Vincent is efficient and philosophical, making you uncomfortable but also a little fascinated.

What really sells Collateral is the chemistry between Foxx and Cruise. The entire film rests on that dynamic. You’ve got Max’s simmering panic clashing against Vincent’s cold confidence, turning their cab rides into mini-chambers of psychological warfare. My favorite scenes are the quieter ones: two men in a car, circling conversations that say a lot about class, apathy, morality. Their exchanges are uncomfortable but mesmerizing. Mann seems to delight in long takes and awkward silences - you can almost feel LA’s night air between the dialogue.

The film is tight in a way a lot of crime movies aren’t. There’s little wasted time or side quests. Sure, there’s an action set piece or two (a Korean nightclub sequence stands out - slick, violent, and both leads in over their heads), but the movie stays focused. When it does break into violence, the impact is quick and harsh, not stretched out for spectacle. This keeps the tension humming and never feels forced or show-offy.

It does rely on a few coincidences that can stretch believability, which isn’t a crime movie cardinal sin, but I did find myself wishing a couple of plot turns were a little less convenient. You also have to accept that Vincent, a hyper-competent hitman, sometimes gets a little too talky for his own good. Still, the script (by Stuart Beattie) mostly walks the line between stylized and grounded, and the dialogue feels sharp.

The ending… well, without giving anything away, let’s just say it lands with more of a philosophical thud than an explosive bang. For some people, that might be a letdown, but I’ve always been cool with it. By the time the credits roll, you’re left thinking less about what happened to the characters and more about what the whole ordeal meant. Collateral is more interested in questions of purpose, randomness, and city loneliness than just who survives.

In the end, Collateral holds up as one of the most satisfying urban crime thrillers of the 2000s. It’s beautifully shot, well-acted, and tense as hell. It isn’t perfect - some logical leaps and a couple character beats can feel a little movie-ish rather than human - but even with its flaws, it has a mood and energy that’s hard to shake.