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.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.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.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 22 wins & 73 nominations total
Videos2
- FBI Agentas FBI Agent
- (as Ken Ver Cammen)
- FBI Agentas FBI Agent
- (as Charlie E. Schmidt Jr.)
- Fever Bounceras Fever Bouncer
- (as Michael A. Bentt)
- Director
- Writer
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
- Taglines
- It started like any other night
- Genres
- Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated R for violence and language
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Michael Mann, Vincent is a man able to get in and out of anywhere without anyone recognizing or remembering him. To prepare for the movie, Tom Cruise had to make FedEx deliveries in a crowded Los Angeles market without anyone recognizing him.
- GoofsWhen Max and Vincent load the first corpse in the trunk, the "corpse" is holding Max by the wrists as well.
- Quotes
Vincent: Look in the mirror. Paper towels, clean cab. Limo company some day. How much you got saved?
Max: That ain't any of your business.
Vincent: Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln town car. That girl,you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?
- Crazy creditsThere are no opening credits of any kind. The title does not appear until the closing credits.
- SoundtracksDebestar
Written by Rick Garcia, Rene Reyes & Cisco De Luna
Performed by The Green Car Motel
Courtesy of FastKat Records
Beyond this memorable scene, there is an edgy undercurrent to nearly all of the conversations in "Collateral," starting with the engaging scene in the cab between Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. All of the performances in this film are outstanding, especially Foxx as the intelligent, underachieving cab driver. I especially admired how the director subtly conveyed within the psyche of Tom Cruise's contract killer a mystery about the character's past. There is a long scene where the hit-man Vincent tells a harrowing tale of family abuse when he was a child, then informs cabdriver Max that he was just kidding. But was he? There are many complexities to the characters effectively layered into the film by Mann.
The stylish cinematography is another trademark of Mann's work. His choices in colors and lighting aesthetics are especially noteworthy in "Collateral." The location filming in Los Angeles, including the different nightclubs were memorable moments of the film. The unique stamp of Mann's style was apparent in an early film like "Thief" (1981), which was ahead of its time in film technique. In "Collateral," the overall effect is that of a "Naked City" presented with brutal honesty.
For all of its gritty realism, however, some of the action sequences, especially the climactic "death" scene, were surprisingly incredible. There are lengthy chase scenes on totally deserted streets in downtown Los Angeles. For anyone who has driven around L.A. at any time of the day or night, it would be difficult to imagine zipping around freeways and streets that look like those portrayed in this film. In the 60 years since the curfew imposed during the years of World War II, there have never been streets as empty in Los Angeles as those depicted in "Collateral."
- lavatch
- Jun 12, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Untitled Michael Mann Project
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $65,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $101,005,703
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $24,701,458
- Aug 8, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $220,239,925
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1