![]() ![]() Image: Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Picturesīefore Max can even fully process what’s happened, Vincent makes it clear nothing has changed for Max’s situation: Vincent still needs ferrying to his destinations, and Max is responsible for that. The body hitting the car’s roof not only shatters part of the taxi sign that rests there, but also the lies that Vincent spun to Max about his one-night agenda. This all changes quickly when Vincent’s first hit goes slightly awry and the body of his victim does a two-story belly-flop onto the top of Max’s cab. He’s charming but focused, and outside of sporting a buzzed, gray hairstyle that matches his immaculate suit, Vincent feels like the actor relying on the qualities that made him a star. In these early moments of the film, Vincent doesn’t seem all that unique compared to other Cruise performances. To aid him in his task of navigating the city, he dupes a taxi driver, Max (Jamie Foxx), into chauffeuring him, with promises of a wad of cash for an easy night’s work. The plot of Collateral finds Vincent arriving in Los Angeles for a one-night spree of assassinations, intended to stop a federal indictment before it proceeds. Collateral may not have Cruise wearing a mask and brandishing a chainsaw, but it unabashedly has all those other needed pieces front and center - they’re just covered in the window dressing of a noir-ish crime thriller. ![]() But the slasher horror genre is broad and composed of only a few essential elements: an unstoppable killer, unwitting victims (who try but fail to escape the killer’s wrath), and a foil to stand against the madman’s rampage. The word “slasher” likely conjures images of unstoppable knife-wielding maniacs killing off coeds at a summer camp or university. Coupled with Mann’s use of sudden violence, Collateral stands out as the closest thing to a slasher movie that Tom Cruise has ever done. While it is not his only villainous role, it is certainly his most chilling. Inhabited by Tom Cruise, the character, Vincent, is a rarity among the image-conscious superstar’s past performances, allowing him to play an emotionally distant and ruthlessly violent force of destruction. This foreboding sequence sounds like a horror movie, but it’s actually Michael Mann’s 2004 thriller Collateral. The brutal killer is unfazed by the physical altercation and now one step closer to completing his grisly mission. The loud music and pulsing crowd obscure the violent scene from detection. A few guards lie in wait, hidden among the crowd, to protect the intended target, but they are quickly dispatched in a savage flurry of snapped limbs and bludgeoning strikes. He is there for a single awful purpose, to stalk and kill another victim, and nothing will stop him. The figure working his way to the back of the room is not there to dance or mingle. ![]() The enraptured crowd is fully lost in the music, unaware of the dark presence that moves among them like a shadow. A well-dressed man slips through throngs of dancers at a tightly packed nightclub while the rhythmic, electronic drone of Paul Oakenfold’s “Ready Set Go” bounces off every surface in the space. ![]()
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