'Collateral'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan hop in a cab with a contract killer to rewatch 'Collateral,' starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx and directed by Michael Mann.
Cast
Tom Cruise as Vincent
Jamie Foxx as Max
Jada Pinkett Smith as Annie
Mark Ruffalo as Detective Fanning
Javier Bardem as Felix
Peter Berg as Detective
Jason Statham as Airport Man
Barry Shabaka Henley as Daniel
Bruce McGill as Pedrosa
Directed by: Michael Mann
Written by: Stuart Beattie
Notes
- First photo-real film shot digitally – Michael Mann used digital video cameras to capture LA's unique nighttime look with magenta lights and soft illumination.
- Tom Cruise stalked crew members for weeks during pre-production, putting Post-It notes on their backs as 'confirmed kills.' He also spent months working as a FedEx delivery guy to learn how to move through spaces without being noticed.
- Jamie Foxx's incredible 2004: Ray (Oscar win for Best Actor), 'Collateral' (Best Supporting Actor nomination), hosted the ESPYs, appeared on Chappelle's Show – two Oscar acting nominations in a single year.
- Stuart Beattie wrote the original script at age 17 after taking a cab home from Sydney airport and imagining a homicidal maniac in the back seat.
- Michael Mann writes extensive background documents on each character – detailed histories that never end up in the film but help actors fully inhabit their roles.
- Mark Ruffalo did 80+ takes of one scene at Mann's direction.
- $65 million budget, earned $224 million worldwide.
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“Collateral is essentially a long conversation between a killer and a man who fears for his life, punctuated by what happens at each of the five stops.”
Ebert called it 'essentially a long conversation between a killer and a man who fears for his life' with five stops that work like 'short films that could be freestanding.'
The first cab ride with Jada Pinkett Smith and the Groove Armada music, the body falling on the cab, the jazz club Miles Davis story, the fever nightclub in Koreatown, the office building double-tap robbery scene, and the subway ending all get mentioned. Bill and Chris can't narrow it down – the whole movie is a series of rewatchable vignettes.
White-haired evil Tom Cruise, Javier Bardem's menacing one-scene performance, the cab-vs-Uber nostalgia, Jason Statham's blink-and-you-miss-it airport cameo, the coyote crossing the street, and the pioneering digital cinematography that captured LA at night like never before.
The movie drags between the Miles Davis jazz club scene and the fever nightclub sequence. Also: the hospital section, Jada Pinkett Smith's implausible LA directions, Pete Berg mailing it in, Mark Ruffalo's goatee, and the improbability of the Fox/Bardem scene.
Russell Crowe was considered for Vincent. Adam Sandler was considered for Max. Edward Norton was offered both leads. Spike Lee, Scorsese, and Spielberg were all offered the director's chair. Cuba Gooding Jr. met for Max. Val Kilmer pulled out of the Mark Ruffalo role (Fanning) to do Alexander. Dennis Farina was originally cast in the Bruce McGill part.
Bruce McGill and Barry Shabaka Henley. Henley's jazz club scene opposite Cruise is one of the film's most memorable sequences – he tells the Miles Davis story and you genuinely fear for his life.
Bardem gets one scene as the drug lord Felix and absolutely owns it. His Santa Claus monologue is terrifying.
Nobody really qualifies – everybody's at the top of their game but nobody's peak is this movie. Maybe Ruffalo's goatee, which could have gone in many directions but was shaved off. 'Taxi Driver' is the apex mountain of cabs.
Would Max's cab really be drivable after a body falls four floors onto it? Would Vincent really know everything about jazz and Miles Davis? Could you really double-tap kill two people off Santa Monica Boulevard without causing a stir? The late-night train station is completely empty – no workers anywhere.
Did Bardem's character go to trial given all the witnesses are now dead? Why is the fever nightclub witness at a nightclub and not in witness protection? Is this movie better or worse if Fox and Cruise switch roles? Why did Michael Mann name the character Vincent when that was also his character's name in Heat and 'The Color of Money'?
Tom Cruise. Bill calls it his favorite Cruise performance. This is also the end of the Tom Cruise era – an 18-year run from 'Top Gun' (1986) through 'Collateral' (2004) that is one of the great runs in movie history.