Tagline: It started like any other night.
Collateral movie storyline. LA cabbie Max Durocher is the type of person who can wax poetic about other people’s lives, which impresses U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell, one of his fares, so much that she gives him her telephone number at the end of her ride. Although a dedicated man as seen through the efficiency in which he does his work, he can’t or won’t translate that eloquence into a better life for himself.
He deludes himself into believing that his now twelve year cabbie job is temporary and that someday he will own his own limousine service. He even lies to his hospitalized mother that he already owns one, with a further lie that he tells her as such primarily to make her happy, rather than the truth which is that he won’t do anything to achieve that dream. One night, Max picks up a well dressed man named Vincent, who asks Max to be his only fare for the evening. For a flat fee of $600, plus an extra $100 if he gets to the airport on time – Vincent wants Max to drive him to five stops that evening. Max somewhat reluctantly agrees.
Max learns the hard way at their first stop when a body falls from a third story apartment window and lands dead on top of his cab that Vincent is a contract hit man. Vincent’s main goal, as per his current contract, is to kill five people, one at each of the stops, but he will not let others get in the way of that goal, even if it means killing them, including Max.
As Vincent forces Max to continue driving him for the evening, Max tries slyly at every turn to take back control of his life from Vincent, especially when Max learns of one of the names on Vincent’s hit list. Meanwhile, LAPD narcotics detective, Ray Fanning, and ultimately the FBI get involved when Vincent’s first victim is associated with a case in which Ray is working undercover. Ray is able to piece together information which makes him hot on Max and Vincent’s tail.
Collateral is a 2004 American neo-noir crime action thriller directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie. It stars Tom Cruise cast against type as a contract killer and Jamie Foxx as a taxi driver who becomes Cruise’s hostage during an evening of the hitman’s work. The film also features Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo.
Foxx and Cruise’s performances were widely praised, with Foxx being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film’s editors, Jim Miller and Paul Rubell, were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.
The film opened on August 6, 2004, in 3,188 theaters in the United States and Canada and grossed approximately $24.7 million on its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It remained in theaters for 14 weeks and eventually grossed $101,005,703 in the U.S. and Canada. In other countries it grossed a total of $116,758,588 for a total worldwide gross of $217,764,291.
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Collateral (2004)
Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Irma P. Hall, Bruce McGill, Barry Shabaka Henley, Debi Mazar, Javier Bardem, Jamie McBride
Screenplay by: Stuart Beattie, Frank Darabont
Production Design by: David Wasco
Cinematography by: Dion Beebe, Paul Cameron
Film Editing by: Jim Miller, Paul Rubell
Costume Design by: Jeffrey Kurland
Set Decoration by: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Art Direction by: Daniel T. Dorrance
Music by: James Newton Howard
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures
Release Date: August 6, 2004
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