Written by Old Bluffer 6th Apr 2007

Kindly submitted by Mad Moview Matthew

The events in Collateral all take place during the twilight hours of one particular night in LA.
The premise is that an ordinary cab driver, Max, unwittingly picks up a contract killer, Vincent, played by Tom Cruise.

Now the drama in this film mainly derives from the fact that Max is a rather likeable character, and we don't want him to die. This is built up in an unusually long introductory sequence where nothing particularly exciting happens, other than him picking up his first fare - a beautiful, high powered state lawyer who happens to be working on a massively important case to prosecute a crime baron.

There is no doubt that she will show up later in the film then...

During this sequence though, we learn that Max is an intelligent, charming man, who dreams of starting his own limo company and then retiring on an island in the Maldives.
The girl departs, leaving Max her number (way to go, Max!), leaving Max to pick up his next fare, a silver haired contract killer by the name of Vincent...

Vincent's modus operandi is to use the ubiquitous yellow cab as his ride, carrying out hits while the unwitting cabbie waits for him outside. At the end of the night, Vincent will kill the cabbie and leave town.
At this point of the film though, Max doesn't know anything about Vincent's profession, and neither does the audience.

The soon-to-be-dead Ramone is a small-time informant for the police, helping bring down a gangster. He is Vincent's first hit, and Max innocently agrees to wait in an alley while his fare carries out his business.

While Max eats a baguette (which is the best type of sandwich in the world, this submitter says), Ramone's body suddenly smashes onto the top of the cab, crumpling the roof and covering the cracked windshield in blood. As most people would in this situaion, Max freaks out. "Oh no! S**t! F**k! F**k!" he curses and screams, quickly crawling backwards out of the cab.

[This scene marks the beginning of the film proper really, as up until then the pace has been deceptively slow...]

Max rises to his feet asks if Ramone is "alright". No response. "Oh, s**t. F**k," Max swears, when he knows for certain the man lying on top of his cab is dead. Max looks up and notes the broken top floor window.

Vincent runs in and Max tries to explain what has just happened. "He, he, he...," Max stutters. "He fell on the cab. He fell... He fell from up there on the motherf**king cab. S**t. I think he's dead." Without missing a beat, Vincent tells him that was a "good guess." Max is so frightened that this last statement takes a moment to actually register. When it does, he turns to Vincent, mouth agape.

"You killed him?" asks Max, somewhat uncertain. "No, I shot him," Vincent snaps back. "Bullets and the fall killed him."

Max knows he's in for a long night...