EDITED ON 5/24/2023 Note: I don't like to erase my mistakes, I prefer to learn from them, so where the original comment I made begins will be marked below. Hey all, Been awhile since I've come back to this video, and I haven't checked in on this comment. Looks like the overwhelming opinion regarding what I said here was that I was wrong, and I'd like to acknowledge that I indeed was! I initially made the statement that Vincent could have handled the muggers differently based on his expertise. I assumed that a man with a skill set like Vincent's is more than capable of incapacitating these men without killing them, but he chose to kill them because that's part of his villainous nature, and I used that notion to bolster my findings regarding his morality. However, as many of you have pointed out, no matter a person's skill set in such a scenario, the proper thing to do when someone is threatening your life is to eliminate that threat by any means necessary. For a man like Vincent, that could be shooting them in the legs or the shoulder, but even for a man like him, a death blow is much more appropriate in this scenario given the the threat. Also, I would like to emphasize again that I made this claim based on his SKILL SET. Anyone who is far less skilled than he, (which is the majority of us) should ALWAYS take the course of action that will save your life or the lives of those being threatened that you're trying to protect, and again, even if you are skilled like Vincent, you should do the same. Self defense is self defense, and you defend yourself as best you can when the time comes, and in this type of situation incapacitation is unreliable, unsafe, and bound to get you killed. Do what you have to do to survive by any means necessary when your life is threatened. I'm not perfect nor am I all knowing or versed in every subject and I get things wrong, so I appreciate it when you all point things out to me so I can learn from my mistakes. Sorry for the initial erroneous judgement I made and I apologize for the discord it may have caused. ORIGINAL COMMENT BEGINS HERE: “The muggers deserved what they got!” I’m pinning this comment in anticipation of more comments like this. This may be a matter of opinion, and perhaps I didn’t explain myself as well as I should have, but the reason I said they didn’t deserve it because he already had the one who was pointing a gun at him incapacitated, and the other was struggling to get his gun out of his pants when the other was dazed. A man with Vincent’s skills could have easily incapacitated both without killing them. (He could have even shot them in the legs or something to that effect) but he chose to kill them instead. That’s why I said that. Both are still idiots, and deserved to be punished and dealt with for sure, and if that scene had played out differently, I would agree with you. However it played out how it did, and in my opinion, they still didn’t deserve to die given that he didn’t have to kill them to incapacitate them.
Exactly. Also on the matter of Vincent being a sociopath, if i remember correctly a sociopath is a normal person who through trauma (sometimes reversably sometimes not) lost their empathy, while a psychopath is somebody born without it, so I'd say Vincent IS a sociopath, but not a psychopath.
I think Vincent assessed the situation and responded appropriately. One was definitely armed, and actively threatening Vincent, the other was very likely armed and close enough to cause an issue if he couldn't quickly dispatch the first. I'm sure that if the thugs had turned around and said "yeah, this your briefcase, sorry we took it" and handed it back, he would have let them go, but faced with the situation that they presented to him, Vincent chose the reaction that would give him the highest probability of success.
@@kirbus69 They were both armed and the second guy was attempting to raise his gun wielding hand to shoot Vincent as soon as Vincent disarmed his partner.
@Allison Bauch Yeah. I remembered a movie long ago. Quite funny sometimes, but has many flaws. Only his and Cameron Diaz’s charisma saved the entire movie from collapsing. People legit forget his acting abilities as if he’s only an action star. Sadly, he’ll quite probably be remembered as one due to acting in so many.
I gonna admit I like this movie more then Heat .. I don’t know maybe it’s because it isn’t too long or the characters isn’t too much cartoony “ no offense Mr Pacino “ but that’s just opinion I guess..
One thing you missed: Vincents plan was to kill and frame the taxidriver (which he had done previously). This means that, not only did he put the driver through hell, every kindness he showed him was entirely pointless, since he was going to kill him from the start
That was never really established. There was that throwaway line of dialogue about a cabbie in san diego but its possible (and more realistic imo) that he just intended for Max to never be the wiser to what he was doing.
@@StainsStainsStains That 'throwaway line' Is what establishes it... That's why the line was there: A warning and reminder that, no matter how personable Vincent was, he absolutely had a pattern to the way he worked...
@@TimParker-Chambers there’s an underlying subtext about Vincent losing his ability to do his work and culminates at the end when max is able to outshoot him. It first shows up after he shoots the jazz guy, he looked remorseful and like he was losing his momentum. He saved max from the cartel guy so more reason to think that this wasn’t his normal quality of work and that he might have gone lighter on his normal body count had he finished the job. Had it ended the way Vincent wanted it to end, 50/50 chance he’d have survived as long as he was still unaware of what Vincent was doing.
His shooting and reload speed is amazing. Definitely has a military background, spec ops. Great pick...i love this film. Along with Nightcrawler, Its one of the last gritty LA films. Suggestion: 'Dfens' from 'Falling Down'
@@stup4501 cruise just made it look good cause micheal mann makes u train for movies like this to add to the realness of it he did the same with heat de niro and the guys trained and were taught by actual sas british operatives thats why the the gun handling looked so real
You’re wrong. You are supposed to wait until he shoots you before you use deadly force. Americans and their ridiculous right to self defense. *facepalm.
Vincent is a unique villain that stood out to me because of how "innocent" and charismatic he is. From an outsider perspective, you wouldn't know what he's truly capable of, making him terrifying. It's people like Vincent that make you doubt those around you.
What's sad about Vincent, is there's positive redeemable qualities in him. He still has a level of humanity even though his soul has been spent sometime ago. 🙁
One of my favorite films that I felt has become criminally underrated over the years, glad to see it features here. Word of advice to other Collateral fans: watch this with someone that knows nothing about this film, and let them go into it as blindly as possible. I showed the film to my wife back while we were dating, and with the way the film starts she assumed it would be a quaint, day-in-the-life drama. But when the first target crashed down onto the taxi cab, she screamed and was so stunned by the tonal shift that her mouth was agape for the rest of the scene. A priceless reaction.
Despite all his talk about adapting and rolling with it, Vincent is ultimately taken down by sticking to his strict habits. After he and Max fire upon each other in the subway train, you can see his shooting pattern of the mozambique drill (2 center mass + 1 above forming a triangle, which he has been doing throughout the film to all his victims) in the door which stopped his bullets. He even reflexly tries to reload his weapon, running on autopilot. Max shot wildly and managed to hit him through the glass windows, the two characters now fully swapped places from when they met.
I love how you are able to dissect villians to their core elements so we can their thoughts ambitions and dreams. What motivates them, and why they are the way they are. It reminds us that although these people are fictitious. They're characteristics are all too human. That evil is lurking somewhere in us all. And that is the most frightening thing.
Despite not even being nominated Best Actor, Tom Cruise's performance in Collateral is the best of 2004 and also one of the best performances of the last 20 years. Cruise always stays in the character of Vincent throughout even in the most miniscule moments. Vincent is the best written and acted assassin/hitman in film history. Unlike most movie assassins, he's not flashy or over the top and on the opposite end of the spectrum, he's not brooding or edgy. He never tries to aggressively bully or intimidate people just because he can. Prior to the night club shootout, in every interaction that he had with any character, he was actually humble and nice when dealing with them. He is never really intentionally mean or angry with Max throughout the film. A part of it has to do with Vincent using manipulation and tact to keep Max calm and focused and perhaps giving him a false sense of security, but also it doesn't appear to be in Vincent's nature to be mean. He's tactful and nice to people, but also cool and collected at his job. A perfect example is the prelude to the jazz club scene with Daniel. Vincent has just killed 2 victims who are "collateral" damage in the alley and he knows Max is on edge, so he smoothly defuses the situation by making Max feel "safe" even if only for a while. There's an odd combination of deception and humanity in these actions. Vincent somehow comes across as a regular person, but also one who's completely detached from true compassion and humanity. Any humanity that manifests from Vincent is because of the begrudging connection that he develops with Max over the night. Therein lies the brilliance of uniqueness of the script. Vincent isn't one of these cliche, sympathetic "Hollywoodized" bad guys who is misunderstood, spouts cringe one-liners, and secretly has a heart of gold. He talks and sounds like an actual person, because actual people, regardless of who they are or what they do, talk and interact like REAL people. Vincent isn't a scenery-chewing clown like a lot of "bad guy" or unlikable movie characters. But at the end of the day, he's still a villain, plain and simple, yet he vicariously gets heavy doses of humanity through Max to the point where it's actually debatable if some of the things he does is actually because he genuinely likes Max. Like when he asked Max if he was ever going to call Annie. That's a moment where Vincent had no real reason to be nice to Max, yet he was starting to realize that Max is a person of worth with potential that he was wasting his life by not taking chances. The same way that Vincent showed signs of remorse in killing Daniel, I assume that had he ended up killing Max, he would have had that same remorse if not more.
Lol yeah he should of won the Oscar in 05 that's when this movie was eligible and it was a nominee in several categories, funny enough Jamie Foxx won best male performance for Ray that year which was an amazing movie, but Tom 100% should of won it he didn't even get Nominated lol that shits a joke anyway.
For him being cast against type in this role, Tom Cruise absolutely KILLED it as Vincent. I became a genuine fan of Tom Cruise after this movie and an even bigger fan of Michael Mann's work. This is a film so carefully crafted with the cinematography, the thoughtful symbolism, the music, hell even the action scenes. Almost 20 years later, Collateral remains my all time favorite work of film.
Villans I'd like to see on future episodes: -Edelgard -Kyros -The Miracle (probably the most difficult one) -Wesker -Kefka -James Sunderland -Magneto Also it would be cool to see some other content like: Upgrading the villan: Have you seen some movie and were like dayum that villan feels sympathethic and you understand why its doing thing but then you would be like ....dayum that villan failed at this, how would you "improve" said villan
Hi there! excuse me as I infiltrate myself on making requestes to. LOL ! I would LOVE to see one on Mr.Blonde -from the film Reservoir Dogs🖤 #ty n #tc 👊
0:53 Paradox. Narcicists mimic empathic behavior theyve seen in others to give the illusion of empathy to hook YOU. Mutually existing polarities of empathys not possible.
5:02 I just saw Collateral today for the first time, mostly because it was featured by The Vile Eye. This portion of the video struck me as ignorant, perhaps in part due to my background in the military. Success in a military lifestyle depends a great deal upon morale, and any organization that wants to develop fighters capable of functioning at the highest level takes morale very seriously. It is true that the job of killing people while they're trying to kill you can be a depressing endevour that causes brooding, especially when friends become casualties. However, people who brood are not mentally healthy, and that illness threatens to seep into performance and jeopardize missions. Thus maintaining morale is about being motivational - preferably, aggressively motivational - in spite of the character of such work. A productive experience in the military teaches discipline, and the motivational energy that Vincent exudes is the kind of emotional discipline that's necessary for black ops forces to maintain if they want to remain successful for an entire career - and Vincent's graying hair shows he's made a career out of violence, after and most likely during his time in the military. In short, the brooding stereotype is a popular misconception, typical of those who are on their way out of the military lifestyle, not of those who remain in it, and although I'm only familiar with professional killers in the context of being employed by the government, real pro killers typically act like Vincent and not like the popular quiet stereotype - indeed, I knew someone in real life who reminds me of Vincent to such an extent that, if he ever went solo, I can easily imagine him behaving exactly as Vincent does.
Vincent’s “empathy” and “concern for the common man” was just a facade to make people put their guard down, he was giving Max hope when he was encouraging him to not take BS from his boss and call that girl, so in the end when he kills him after he eliminates his 5th and final target 🎯 he wouldn’t see it coming. Similar to the way he gave that jazz club owner hope after he got that question right about Miles Davis before shooting Him twice in the head, this dude is a clear sociopath, and the police mentioned a taxi driver who went mad and killed several people before killing himself, which is clearly another victim of Vincent, if Max didn’t flip over his vehicle he would have had the same fate…
Very good points; I always wondered about that randomly thrown in info about "other" taxi drivers. Maybe Vincent did it that way in order to get some of that "deep human connection" he yearns for, while also having a great cover for his profession. He seems like the "2 birds, 1 stone" type.
Yeah I think Vile Eye is well off the mark with this one. Vincent was going to kill Max, he was playing with him. Vincent might have liked max on some level but that doesn't matter because to him, nothing matters
This is true. He was probably going to kill Max anyway but that is why the movie is so cool that you never know for sure. Toms portrayal of Vincent makes him so likable you can't but to fall in to his charms.
I hate to say it but I was rooting for Vincent to complete his mission. Hands down for me Tom Cruise’s best character. I have known individuals like this in the service.Very focused, passionate but would not hesitate to kill or destroy anything to accomplish the mission.
Vincent is probably closer to James Cameron's original idea of The Terminator than even he presented; a man who was able to blend in a crowd and to kill remorselessly.
Legally the alley killings were self defense as well. Not for the theft but for pointing a weapon at him which is classified as assault. He was definitely going to do it either way but I think he did a small bit of good there.
Threats were made and people chose how to respond to those threats. Stealing from a business? That's what insurance is for. Stealing a wallet or purse and running? That's what checking / saving accounts are for. Threatening an individuals' life by breaking into their home or pointing a firearm? That should be met with the same intensity. Great video
Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon), "The Shape of Water" Marvel's Loki Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), "Stardust" Lady Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), "Crimson Peak" Macbeth as played by Michael Fassbender
There's one thing you missed. When Vincent sat down with Daniel and eventually revealed in so many words he was there to kill him. He asked a question about Miles Davis under the auspices of letting Daniel go. You could see in his eyes he had no intention of letting him go. Also Daniel got the answer half correct. Daniel took a breath and before he was given a chance to give the second half of the answer which Vincent whispers in his ear after plugging him 3 times in the skull. Vincent was mentally tormenting him. What I'm saying is he revealed a true/definite sadistic side to his character I think was overlooked. Great analysis though.
Collateral is one of Tom Cruise's best performances in his career. Vincent is a sociopath. His empathy isn't genuine, it's just a means to an end. Remember the cop saying there were other murders similar in other cities that police pinned on cab drivers. The officer mused about the theory that those cab drivers were the fall guys, and the real killer was still out there. From that, we learn Vincent's M.O. . He uses a cab to get around a city( smart, he won't stand out or fill out rental car paperwork) ; once the job is done, Vincent pins the murders on the cab driver, who becomes another of Vincent's victims. Vincent is very intelligent, disciplined, well trained and well organized. When his 1st kill goes out the window, literally, he has to adapt . Everything Vincent says or does is for self preservation and self gratification. Even when it seems that he is helping Jaime Foxx's character, Cruise's character is helping himself. The game played to keep the cabbie off kilter but not too far off finally goes to far; a miscalculation perhaps? The showdown between these characters is terrifying. Sheer dumb luck saves the day.
He's an opportunistic improviser by nature that learned, somewhere along the way, how much he strives on the rush of getting by those high moves, the greatest game of life, the game of the predator and the preys, he is intelligent, not necessarily savant, although well versed into culture apparently, he knows what to do with what he have on hand or manages to find a way. He's even willing to tolerate all the flaws of Max and share with him his own gold of experience, as much as did the taxi driver too, both back to back, great scene. It's exactly that, you were put into a situation to ask yourself 'where is the true reference, the true justification of all actions and decisions, the 'right' centre from which to decide and move from', on which to judge 'yes, the government is right to send men kill other men' and 'no this men doesn't deserve to be killed', everyone will die, everyone will be killed by life and death, we are at every instant, so the outcome is inevitable said Smith, you will die, just as sure as you were born, and men have died to the hands of countless men, no God ever intervened, it's the game that have been played for ages, and it's only about how you perceive that chicken on the table you are so afraid to kill, cut and cook. The choice of death have been 'took away' from men a long time ago, but it's somewhat in the way survival works in the end, no other laws than the laws of physic. My second favourite villain after The Joker :P But, ya know, collaterals ;) Just don't get in the way of a meteor.
Just Got Done Watching Collateral for the very first time off Netflix and wow what a character Vincent is in that movie and definitely someone i would rather not take 600$ from
Vincent killing the two junkies was entirely justified. They are arguably the only justified killings in the whole film being out of genuine self defense.
he didn't care about Max. He was going to kill him at the end of the night anyways. That fit the m.o. of the previous jobs that the detective references. That makes his concern about him all the more creepy.
From what I understand a sociopath is conditioned to be evil. While a psychopath is completely detached. I would say that sociopath is more accurate than anything else
Empathy is an emotion like any other. You can have empathy, and not be controlled by or it, or you can make a decision and factor it out. So yea, this character probably has empathy, but he values cold logic more.
One of my favorite movies! Anything remotely likeable that Vincent did for the cabbie was part of the plan. The detective says early in the movie about how another cabby was framed or set up for a bunch of murders, a while earlier. And that this case reminds him of that. So imo, Vincent has a routine that he sticks to and anything that seems helpful or genuine to the cabby is insincere or worse cruel.
I'm no psychologist, but from what I understand, it's not that sociopaths don't have emotions. It's just that they're far more concerned about themselves than others. They have little to no empathy, but that doesn't mean they can't mimic empathetic behavior. In this sense, I don't think it's unreasonable to call Vincent a sociopath.
Vincent reminds me strikingly of the hat man with the case in The Candidate directed by David Karlax. Like him, Vincent is able to move from place to place undetected. No one suspects that he may have ties to the underworld in some ways. Unlike the man with the case (Robert Picardo), Vincent does not send people letters or offer them an opportunity to make a deal with an unknown organization. Vincent is definitely not a member of such a society as the one he was part of. Vincent is still carrying a case. We just do not see it. We do not see the malignant thoughts he carries with himself - his invisible, untouchable case. We are more afraid of the nihilist with a visible case, than a nihilist without one. For those who do not know, the Candidate is a short about voodoo. Collateral is a full length feature suspense film about what something similar might be like in the mind of a sociopath. Except there is no religion in Collateral. There is no visible case so you can see the luggage Vincent carries: a legacy of death as terrifying in every way as that which the mysterious man with the case carries. The man with the case is therefore more terrifying than Vincent, because he preys on members of the upper class and is much less predictable. Unlike Vincent, he will tell you his plans, his motivations, and whether or not you are on his list. Yet you still cannot see through either of them, and they are both equally soulless with equally terrifying measure and raw power. Thank you for your video. Kind regards from Ásgeir in Iceland.
In your summary conclusion of Vincent, you do not identify him as a sociopath. This begs the question, if a mass murderer is not a sociopath by definition, how would you define a sociopath?
To my understanding once you take a life, it just gets easier and easier. I feel pretty certain Vincent is former military, and because of that and the things he's seen, probably become a desensitized atheist. Having that mindset would allow him to do his job without the burden of a guilty conscience. He views the citizenry as either hammers or nails, while seeing himself as one damn big sledge hammer.
Just a psychologist note: a sociopath is in fact very emotional. A psychopath is the classic cold-blooded, emotionless type without empathy. A sociopath is hot-blooded, prone to outburst, and view themselves as oppressed victims so therefore the people they hurt deserve it. Both are now reclassified as "Anti-social personality disorder" (APD).
You sure did miss something right after he killed jazz man, he looks at him a certain way like in this lost and confused gaze.. but once he realizes Max left, he snaps out of it all the sudden I wanna know what that’s about look at them closely as he looks down in the dead, Daniel it’s just weird
Vincent randomly chose Max to be his driver for the night and the fact that he exposed Max to his true purpose made Max a doomed man. Max was going to die anyway because Vincent couldn’t leave any loose ends. Also the sequitur has me curious, has Max doomed himself?, Vincent died on the train. But Max had to play fast and loose with the rules to save the Lawyer in time…
I think Max will be all right. He might have to compensate the guy whose cell phone he stole, and he definitely will have some explaining to do handcuffing the police officer who was about to arrest him, but I think the lady lawyer whose life he saved would be able to help him out.
In the past I agreed with your assessment of Vincent in this film. But upon rewatching, I think Vincent seeming to bond a little with Max was manipulation to make his job go smoother. I think every scene where Vincent shows humanity was him wearing a mask. Psychopaths (I've read, I am no expert), are able to mimic human emotion when in fact there is none. I think that all the small redeeming qualities Vincent seemed to possess were a facade to appear to be normal so that he could mechanically accomplish his tasks. Which made the movie even more intriguing to me. One of the best movies in my opinion. I am only posting my opinion here as a talking point and not to disagree with your assessment. Your videos are excellent.
Two petty thieves, a drug dealer, and an importer... The world is better off without their continued existence. Nothing will "change" with the death of those four things. Drugs will flow, illicit goods will continue to arrive, briefcases/wallets etc will be taken, and nothing will be any different tomorrow than it was today.The only solace will be the fact that handful of beasts will no longer draw breath. Vincent was performing a service for our species.
7:10 Those thieves had guns drawn on Vincent. Perfectly fine killings. JuSt bEaT uP tHe GuNmAn is fantasy. This movie displays gunmanship and physical combat quite well.
Those gunmen were not skilled gunmen as they were just too close. If they were they would not have walked into hand-to-hand where they got sucker-punched by actual expert. So Vincent just beat up two gunmen.
@@vksasdgaming9472 "Guns have range, hence getting killed from point blank is impossible, and an 'expert' should just risk death to an 'idiot' by bringing fists to a point blank gun fight." You sound like a rtrd.
“He’s not a malicious person?” I would very much object. As many fine folks caught and mentioned, Vincent was going to kill Max; the police discussing the other cabbie in SD may seem too easy to some, but that is what it was, and for all of Vincent’s “humanistic’ actions, there is no doubt that he has nothing but contempt for others based on his condescending tone, and that is how sociopaths think. He couldn’t have cared less about Max, and even when he knew he was fatally wounded, he showed no feelings at all.
The thing I find amazing about this movie are the little things people who are neither a narcissist or empath recognize Vincent is a narcissistic psychopath who preys on max I think the cabbies name is, Vincent totally preys on maxes good nature and manipulates him through the whole movie Vincent shows no emotions no remorse not even for his unwilling partner in crime max it's a classic narcissist manipulating a empath the whole movie even in the end max is forced to kill Vincent and still feels remorse for Vincent because max know down inside it's not Vincent's fault he's evil but he is evil
I've always loved this movie. Whenever I would recommend it people would leave it because of the run time and the pacing. I'm glad it's finally getting some respect and love.
Ok! Are you stating that the two criminals who took his briefcase with GUNS are different from Vincent? HOW SIr?! They both use guns as a means to an end! He did NOT KILL anyone that did not have it coming eventually. Remember this. What you do on to others. Is onto yourself! Eventually! You will in evil acts yourself. Find your own end.. CB~
I agree with pretty much everything here except for when you said Vincent's killing of the junkies who robbed Max was undeserved (or unjustified). In America, when someone is actively threatening you with deadly force (eg pointing a gun at you and verbally threatening you after they just stole your briefcase), you are well within your rights to use deadly force in an attempt to defend yourself. I doubt the Vincent character would've killed those guys if they'd returned the items they stole instead of running up on him with a pistol. Fun fact: A lot of firearms instructors consider Tom Cruise's gunwork in that scene to be the most realistic in all of cinematic history in displaying what a true firearms master would do in that situation.
8:57 This wasn't a coincidence. Jada Pinkett's character, the attorney was actually the first target. Vincent decides to save her for last. If you notice that the attorney leaves the cab and Vincent is the next customer in. Vincent has an MO and that is he uses cab drivers for his assignments and after they are completed he executes the cab driver as well.
I say this with 90+% sureness… there’s an easy to miss line with cops where they talk about a while back, where a cabbie went on a random killing spree like this one and then killed himself. That’s Vincent. Vincent is going to kill Max at the end of the night. Max can ID him and “no one knows what he looks like”. That’s why Vincent sent Max into the club to get the back up information. Every encouraging thing Vincent says to Max is hollow and meaningless, because at the end of this night, Vincent is going to kill him anyway. On top of that, it’s also very likely Vincent could very well kill Max’s mom as well sense she can ID him too.
So I would say everything you're saying is all true however I feel like there is this tiny sliver of kindness in Vincent despite being a sociopath. What do you think of the part when Vincent doesn't bother to shoot back at Max when he is in the law office? Max pointed a gun at him, Vincent seems surprised that he's there and in fact carries on as if he's not a threat. Gets shot in the cheek for this lapse in judgment. He didn't need Max at that point? Vincent could've easily shot him like he did those punks in the alley. Did he really think that after Max crashed the car that he wouldn't pull the trigger? Could be some emotional thing clouding his judgment. I feel like Vincent may actually sort of like Max in a very small almost insignificant way. He definitely would kill him though as he tried to do on the MTS because at that point he took Max seriously and knew he was a definite threat to his mission. He also saves Max in the club. Did he really still need Max at that point? If Max had died in the club Vincent still would've been able to carry on. If anything he would've succeeded had he not saved Max in the club. Max wouldn't be driving him and Max wouldn't have crashed the car. Sure he needed his driver but I just find it curious that's how things would've turned out had he not saved Max in the club.
I heard that line as well and, like you, knew they were indirectly talking about Vincent. I also believe you are correct that that was Vincent intended to do with Max...have him drive him around while he makes his hits and then kill him at the end of the night. Where I disagree, and this is why I love this movie because of all the layers of the characters, is that was still his intention by the end of the movie. See, in the first scenario, his m.o. worked like a charm. The cabbie just drove him around, making small talk and thinking he just made a huge tip. But when the guy fell out of the window onto Max's cab, the pretense fell and Max became truly aware of who and what Vincent was. Vincent, needing to keep his ride, was now forced to deal with Max on a real level, without his mask of "just some successful businessman needing a bunch of signatures". I think Vincent was truly happy because he could really be who he was with someone. And when he saw Max having some similarities to himself like a trauma dealing mother, I think Vincent was forced to see himself in Max AND recognize that Max IS a human being. That made him bond with Max in a way he always wanted to bond with someone, but was incapable of. I think Vincent grew to care about Max in some way.
He was never going to kill Max, period . He actually had respect for him and wanted him to better his life. Why do you think when the cab crashed, Vincent just left Max there , After sarcastically telling Max ,that was brilliant, and ran off to go after the lawyer?
@@entreri76x It was mentioned by someone else on this topic, when they see the Coyote, the expression on Vincent's face changes, looking almost sad or remorseful. What actually happened to cause that? Well I doubt a nihilist like him got catched in a sudden irony of the reflection this presents. While the symbolism is more apparent to us, to Vincent in the scene something else should be more apparent. Max stops the car for the coyote. He is a genuinely good person and hasnt given up yet on what Vincent thinks are hollow beliefs. And I think at that point he is a bid regretful that he has to kill Max at the end of the night. Its nothing he will enjoy but it has to be done. And thats what he realises. But to make it clear, this is one interpretation that is not to outlandish and the movie lives and gains from allowing different interpretations. There is no absolute true theory when it comes to this movie outside of what is established as fact by the movie and its creators.
@@BlackStrey and that all makes sense .. but .. as I’ve said before.. when Max crashed that taxi, Vincent pretty much told him he’s an idiot.. and ran off to go after the lawyer leaving Max alive.. Max could’ve went straight to the authorities or the FBI at that point . Vincent would never have thought Max would immediately go risk his life to save the lawyer.
EDITED ON 5/24/2023 Note: I don't like to erase my mistakes, I prefer to learn from them, so where the original comment I made begins will be marked below.
Hey all,
Been awhile since I've come back to this video, and I haven't checked in on this comment. Looks like the overwhelming opinion regarding what I said here was that I was wrong, and I'd like to acknowledge that I indeed was! I initially made the statement that Vincent could have handled the muggers differently based on his expertise. I assumed that a man with a skill set like Vincent's is more than capable of incapacitating these men without killing them, but he chose to kill them because that's part of his villainous nature, and I used that notion to bolster my findings regarding his morality.
However, as many of you have pointed out, no matter a person's skill set in such a scenario, the proper thing to do when someone is threatening your life is to eliminate that threat by any means necessary. For a man like Vincent, that could be shooting them in the legs or the shoulder, but even for a man like him, a death blow is much more appropriate in this scenario given the the threat. Also, I would like to emphasize again that I made this claim based on his SKILL SET. Anyone who is far less skilled than he, (which is the majority of us) should ALWAYS take the course of action that will save your life or the lives of those being threatened that you're trying to protect, and again, even if you are skilled like Vincent, you should do the same. Self defense is self defense, and you defend yourself as best you can when the time comes, and in this type of situation incapacitation is unreliable, unsafe, and bound to get you killed. Do what you have to do to survive by any means necessary when your life is threatened.
I'm not perfect nor am I all knowing or versed in every subject and I get things wrong, so I appreciate it when you all point things out to me so I can learn from my mistakes. Sorry for the initial erroneous judgement I made and I apologize for the discord it may have caused.
ORIGINAL COMMENT BEGINS HERE:
“The muggers deserved what they got!”
I’m pinning this comment in anticipation of more comments like this. This may be a matter of opinion, and perhaps I didn’t explain myself as well as I should have, but the reason I said they didn’t deserve it because he already had the one who was pointing a gun at him incapacitated, and the other was struggling to get his gun out of his pants when the other was dazed. A man with Vincent’s skills could have easily incapacitated both without killing them. (He could have even shot them in the legs or something to that effect) but he chose to kill them instead. That’s why I said that.
Both are still idiots, and deserved to be punished and dealt with for sure, and if that scene had played out differently, I would agree with you. However it played out how it did, and in my opinion, they still didn’t deserve to die given that he didn’t have to kill them to incapacitate them.
Exactly. Also on the matter of Vincent being a sociopath, if i remember correctly a sociopath is a normal person who through trauma (sometimes reversably sometimes not) lost their empathy, while a psychopath is somebody born without it, so I'd say Vincent IS a sociopath, but not a psychopath.
Never seen this movie, cool video gives aesthetic vibes
You should analyze brick top from snatch next
I think Vincent assessed the situation and responded appropriately. One was definitely armed, and actively threatening Vincent, the other was very likely armed and close enough to cause an issue if he couldn't quickly dispatch the first. I'm sure that if the thugs had turned around and said "yeah, this your briefcase, sorry we took it" and handed it back, he would have let them go, but faced with the situation that they presented to him, Vincent chose the reaction that would give him the highest probability of success.
@@kirbus69 They were both armed and the second guy was attempting to raise his gun wielding hand to shoot Vincent as soon as Vincent disarmed his partner.
Vincent and Collateral as a whole are extremely underrated.
Yes! Finally! I was waiting for videos about this movie for so long!
Sadly at the time this movie came out youtube didn't even exist yet...
Yes agree
@Allison Bauch Yeah. I remembered a movie long ago. Quite funny sometimes, but has many flaws. Only his and Cameron Diaz’s charisma saved the entire movie from collapsing. People legit forget his acting abilities as if he’s only an action star. Sadly, he’ll quite probably be remembered as one due to acting in so many.
I gonna admit I like this movie more then Heat .. I don’t know maybe it’s because it isn’t too long or the characters isn’t too much cartoony “ no offense Mr Pacino “ but that’s just opinion I guess..
The word "underrated" is overrated.
One thing you missed: Vincents plan was to kill and frame the taxidriver (which he had done previously). This means that, not only did he put the driver through hell, every kindness he showed him was entirely pointless, since he was going to kill him from the start
great point
That was never really established. There was that throwaway line of dialogue about a cabbie in san diego but its possible (and more realistic imo) that he just intended for Max to never be the wiser to what he was doing.
This
@@StainsStainsStains That 'throwaway line' Is what establishes it... That's why the line was there: A warning and reminder that, no matter how personable Vincent was, he absolutely had a pattern to the way he worked...
@@TimParker-Chambers there’s an underlying subtext about Vincent losing his ability to do his work and culminates at the end when max is able to outshoot him. It first shows up after he shoots the jazz guy, he looked remorseful and like he was losing his momentum. He saved max from the cartel guy so more reason to think that this wasn’t his normal quality of work and that he might have gone lighter on his normal body count had he finished the job.
Had it ended the way Vincent wanted it to end, 50/50 chance he’d have survived as long as he was still unaware of what Vincent was doing.
His shooting and reload speed is amazing. Definitely has a military background, spec ops.
Great pick...i love this film.
Along with Nightcrawler, Its one of the last gritty LA films.
Suggestion: 'Dfens' from 'Falling Down'
@Quajay : I completely agree with everything you wrote, and would just like to add "Heat" and "Drive" to your gritty LA films list ;)
He says to Max in the cab, "private sector six years" - I doubt the non-private sector experience was in charity!
@@stup4501 Hahahsha....right 👍
@@stup4501 cruise just made it look good cause micheal mann makes u train for movies like this to add to the realness of it he did the same with heat de niro and the guys trained and were taught by actual sas british operatives thats why the the gun handling looked so real
When the thief points the gun it’s a credible threat of deadly force and there’s no issue taking his life.
Spoken like a true American. *facepalm*
You’re wrong. You are supposed to wait until he shoots you before you use deadly force. Americans and their ridiculous right to self defense. *facepalm.
Where are you from?
Exactly
@@The_real_Arovor so you'd just let somebody shoot you because you're morally superior? I doubt it.
"You open that trunk, they go in it." Just insane, without batting an eye.
Vincent is a unique villain that stood out to me because of how "innocent" and charismatic he is. From an outsider perspective, you wouldn't know what he's truly capable of, making him terrifying. It's people like Vincent that make you doubt those around you.
“Vincent doesn’t care about anything. He’s a nihilist.”
“Oh, that must be exhausting.”
A Big Lebowski reference nice .. 😎
"Don't worry Donny, these men are cowards"
"Oh boy. How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus"
He is not a Nazi, he is a nihilist
@@rafaelalodio5116
"Nihilists?
Fuck me.
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."
Loved the choice in color. Vincent was literally the perfect Gray Man.
What's sad about Vincent, is there's positive redeemable qualities in him. He still has a level of humanity even though his soul has been spent sometime ago. 🙁
The soul doesn't exist in psychology we talk more about lack of empathy and remorse mixed with quick change of humor due to a very painful childhood
One of my favorite films that I felt has become criminally underrated over the years, glad to see it features here.
Word of advice to other Collateral fans: watch this with someone that knows nothing about this film, and let them go into it as blindly as possible. I showed the film to my wife back while we were dating, and with the way the film starts she assumed it would be a quaint, day-in-the-life drama. But when the first target crashed down onto the taxi cab, she screamed and was so stunned by the tonal shift that her mouth was agape for the rest of the scene. A priceless reaction.
nice
Yeah, perfect date movie.
Despite all his talk about adapting and rolling with it, Vincent is ultimately taken down by sticking to his strict habits. After he and Max fire upon each other in the subway train, you can see his shooting pattern of the mozambique drill (2 center mass + 1 above forming a triangle, which he has been doing throughout the film to all his victims) in the door which stopped his bullets. He even reflexly tries to reload his weapon, running on autopilot. Max shot wildly and managed to hit him through the glass windows, the two characters now fully swapped places from when they met.
This is one of the best movies Tom Cruise has ever worked on.
Hard to pick great body of work
I love how you are able to dissect villians to their core elements so we can their thoughts ambitions and dreams. What motivates them, and why they are the way they are. It reminds us that although these people are fictitious. They're characteristics are all too human. That evil is lurking somewhere in us all. And that is the most frightening thing.
We all have evil in us it's just up to the person if they let put the evil
This movie, and particularly performance of Tom Cruise as Vincent, is absolutely outstanding.
For his first and only villain role ever, he did an amazing job
Idea for Analyzing Evil: John Milton from The Devil’s Advocate.
Milton from Office Space.
X2
Thats kind of redundant since he is supposed to be a literal incarnate of Satan. Lomax would be better or both since they play off of eachother.
@@paingain100 interesting thought, but still…Milton’s a great villain, and a great interpretation of the Devil.
He’s literally Satan so that would probably be kind of boring.
Tom cruise was perfect as this character.
Despite not even being nominated Best Actor, Tom Cruise's performance in Collateral is the best of 2004 and also one of the best performances of the last 20 years. Cruise always stays in the character of Vincent throughout even in the most miniscule moments. Vincent is the best written and acted assassin/hitman in film history. Unlike most movie assassins, he's not flashy or over the top and on the opposite end of the spectrum, he's not brooding or edgy. He never tries to aggressively bully or intimidate people just because he can. Prior to the night club shootout, in every interaction that he had with any character, he was actually humble and nice when dealing with them. He is never really intentionally mean or angry with Max throughout the film. A part of it has to do with Vincent using manipulation and tact to keep Max calm and focused and perhaps giving him a false sense of security, but also it doesn't appear to be in Vincent's nature to be mean. He's tactful and nice to people, but also cool and collected at his job. A perfect example is the prelude to the jazz club scene with Daniel. Vincent has just killed 2 victims who are "collateral" damage in the alley and he knows Max is on edge, so he smoothly defuses the situation by making Max feel "safe" even if only for a while. There's an odd combination of deception and humanity in these actions.
Vincent somehow comes across as a regular person, but also one who's completely detached from true compassion and humanity. Any humanity that manifests from Vincent is because of the begrudging connection that he develops with Max over the night. Therein lies the brilliance of uniqueness of the script. Vincent isn't one of these cliche, sympathetic "Hollywoodized" bad guys who is misunderstood, spouts cringe one-liners, and secretly has a heart of gold. He talks and sounds like an actual person, because actual people, regardless of who they are or what they do, talk and interact like REAL people. Vincent isn't a scenery-chewing clown like a lot of "bad guy" or unlikable movie characters. But at the end of the day, he's still a villain, plain and simple, yet he vicariously gets heavy doses of humanity through Max to the point where it's actually debatable if some of the things he does is actually because he genuinely likes Max. Like when he asked Max if he was ever going to call Annie. That's a moment where Vincent had no real reason to be nice to Max, yet he was starting to realize that Max is a person of worth with potential that he was wasting his life by not taking chances. The same way that Vincent showed signs of remorse in killing Daniel, I assume that had he ended up killing Max, he would have had that same remorse if not more.
Lol yeah he should of won the Oscar in 05 that's when this movie was eligible and it was a nominee in several categories, funny enough Jamie Foxx won best male performance for Ray that year which was an amazing movie, but Tom 100% should of won it he didn't even get Nominated lol that shits a joke anyway.
Vincent probably found a home in the military or in an intelligence agency. Damaged men can be moulded into instruments of death.
For him being cast against type in this role, Tom Cruise absolutely KILLED it as Vincent. I became a genuine fan of Tom Cruise after this movie and an even bigger fan of Michael Mann's work. This is a film so carefully crafted with the cinematography, the thoughtful symbolism, the music, hell even the action scenes. Almost 20 years later, Collateral remains my all time favorite work of film.
Villans I'd like to see on future episodes:
-Edelgard
-Kyros
-The Miracle (probably the most difficult one)
-Wesker
-Kefka
-James Sunderland
-Magneto
Also it would be cool to see some other content like:
Upgrading the villan: Have you seen some movie and were like dayum that villan feels sympathethic and you understand why its doing thing but
then you would be like ....dayum that villan failed at this, how would you "improve" said villan
Is James Sunderland really a villain? I consider him more of an anti hero who's extremely mentally ill.
Hi there! excuse me as I infiltrate myself on making requestes to. LOL ! I would LOVE to see one on Mr.Blonde -from the film Reservoir Dogs🖤 #ty n #tc 👊
Instead of James Sunderland he should do Walter Sullivan from the fourth silent hill
@@tylertheguy3160 Well I think he has some villan and hero traits (Like Walter white). But yeah maybe calling him a villan is too much.
@@max_blak836 Would be cool too!
I'M CASTOR TROY!!
0:53 Paradox. Narcicists mimic empathic behavior theyve seen in others to give the illusion of empathy to hook YOU. Mutually existing polarities of empathys not possible.
Another good villain to analyze. Loving these vids. This is one of my favorite Tom Cruise roles.
Love all these "Hello everyone" edits
Vincent is the kind of villain that would’ve been great, probably the best in any profession he was In
5:02 I just saw Collateral today for the first time, mostly because it was featured by The Vile Eye. This portion of the video struck me as ignorant, perhaps in part due to my background in the military. Success in a military lifestyle depends a great deal upon morale, and any organization that wants to develop fighters capable of functioning at the highest level takes morale very seriously. It is true that the job of killing people while they're trying to kill you can be a depressing endevour that causes brooding, especially when friends become casualties. However, people who brood are not mentally healthy, and that illness threatens to seep into performance and jeopardize missions. Thus maintaining morale is about being motivational - preferably, aggressively motivational - in spite of the character of such work. A productive experience in the military teaches discipline, and the motivational energy that Vincent exudes is the kind of emotional discipline that's necessary for black ops forces to maintain if they want to remain successful for an entire career - and Vincent's graying hair shows he's made a career out of violence, after and most likely during his time in the military. In short, the brooding stereotype is a popular misconception, typical of those who are on their way out of the military lifestyle, not of those who remain in it, and although I'm only familiar with professional killers in the context of being employed by the government, real pro killers typically act like Vincent and not like the popular quiet stereotype - indeed, I knew someone in real life who reminds me of Vincent to such an extent that, if he ever went solo, I can easily imagine him behaving exactly as Vincent does.
Vincent did not know the narc was an officer as he was undercover. Vincent would have thought him just another criminal in the mix.
One of the best movies. Would really want a prequel.
Vincent is a guy doing a job, like a professional does.
After watching this after 3 years again, i realized vincent is tom cruise in a sense! Both the character and the actor are insane!!
One of my favorite Michal Mann movies. It is just fantastically made. Thank you for this brilliant analysis of Vincent.
Vincent’s “empathy” and “concern for the common man” was just a facade to make people put their guard down, he was giving Max hope when he was encouraging him to not take BS from his boss and call that girl, so in the end when he kills him after he eliminates his 5th and final target 🎯 he wouldn’t see it coming. Similar to the way he gave that jazz club owner hope after he got that question right about Miles Davis before shooting Him twice in the head, this dude is a clear sociopath, and the police mentioned a taxi driver who went mad and killed several people before killing himself, which is clearly another victim of Vincent, if Max didn’t flip over his vehicle he would have had the same fate…
Very good points; I always wondered about that randomly thrown in info about "other" taxi drivers. Maybe Vincent did it that way in order to get some of that "deep human connection" he yearns for, while also having a great cover for his profession. He seems like the "2 birds, 1 stone" type.
Yeah I think Vile Eye is well off the mark with this one. Vincent was going to kill Max, he was playing with him. Vincent might have liked max on some level but that doesn't matter because to him, nothing matters
This is true. He was probably going to kill Max anyway but that is why the movie is so cool that you never know for sure. Toms portrayal of Vincent makes him so likable you can't but to fall in to his charms.
Vincent had to kill max. Eyewitnesses to everything.
@@Biggdoom344 exactly, someone like Vincent who liked to cut every loose end would never let max live after all he witnessed
I hate to say it but I was rooting for Vincent to complete his mission. Hands down for me Tom Cruise’s best character. I have known individuals like this in the service.Very focused, passionate but would not hesitate to kill or destroy anything to accomplish the mission.
Vincent is probably closer to James Cameron's original idea of The Terminator than even he presented; a man who was able to blend in a crowd and to kill remorselessly.
Yep. OJ Simpson was Cameron's first choice but felt he wasn't believable as a killer.
Legally the alley killings were self defense as well. Not for the theft but for pointing a weapon at him which is classified as assault. He was definitely going to do it either way but I think he did a small bit of good there.
Threats were made and people chose how to respond to those threats. Stealing from a business? That's what insurance is for. Stealing a wallet or purse and running? That's what checking / saving accounts are for. Threatening an individuals' life by breaking into their home or pointing a firearm? That should be met with the same intensity. Great video
Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon), "The Shape of Water"
Marvel's Loki
Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), "Stardust"
Lady Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), "Crimson Peak"
Macbeth as played by Michael Fassbender
There's one thing you missed. When Vincent sat down with Daniel and eventually revealed in so many words he was there to kill him. He asked a question about Miles Davis under the auspices of letting Daniel go. You could see in his eyes he had no intention of letting him go. Also Daniel got the answer half correct. Daniel took a breath and before he was given a chance to give the second half of the answer which Vincent whispers in his ear after plugging him 3 times in the skull. Vincent was mentally tormenting him. What I'm saying is he revealed a true/definite sadistic side to his character I think was overlooked. Great analysis though.
Collateral is one of Tom Cruise's best performances in his career. Vincent is a sociopath. His empathy isn't genuine, it's just a means to an end. Remember the cop saying there were other murders similar in other cities that police pinned on cab drivers. The officer mused about the theory that those cab drivers were the fall guys, and the real killer was still out there. From that, we learn Vincent's M.O. . He uses a cab to get around a city( smart, he won't stand out or fill out rental car paperwork) ; once the job is done, Vincent pins the murders on the cab driver, who becomes another of Vincent's victims.
Vincent is very intelligent, disciplined, well trained and well organized.
When his 1st kill goes out the window, literally, he has to adapt . Everything Vincent says or does is for self preservation and self gratification. Even when it seems that he is helping Jaime Foxx's character, Cruise's character is helping himself. The game played to keep the cabbie off kilter but not too far off finally goes to far; a miscalculation perhaps?
The showdown between these characters is terrifying. Sheer dumb luck saves the day.
He's an opportunistic improviser by nature that learned, somewhere along the way, how much he strives on the rush of getting by those high moves, the greatest game of life, the game of the predator and the preys, he is intelligent, not necessarily savant, although well versed into culture apparently, he knows what to do with what he have on hand or manages to find a way. He's even willing to tolerate all the flaws of Max and share with him his own gold of experience, as much as did the taxi driver too, both back to back, great scene. It's exactly that, you were put into a situation to ask yourself 'where is the true reference, the true justification of all actions and decisions, the 'right' centre from which to decide and move from', on which to judge 'yes, the government is right to send men kill other men' and 'no this men doesn't deserve to be killed', everyone will die, everyone will be killed by life and death, we are at every instant, so the outcome is inevitable said Smith, you will die, just as sure as you were born, and men have died to the hands of countless men, no God ever intervened, it's the game that have been played for ages, and it's only about how you perceive that chicken on the table you are so afraid to kill, cut and cook. The choice of death have been 'took away' from men a long time ago, but it's somewhat in the way survival works in the end, no other laws than the laws of physic.
My second favourite villain after The Joker :P But, ya know, collaterals ;) Just don't get in the way of a meteor.
I literally saw this the other day and tried to find your video of him but didn’t until today thanks
Vincent is a hitman. Morality is not a virtue for a hitman. He doesn't glory in killing. He kills because that's his job.
Just Got Done Watching Collateral for the very first time off Netflix and wow what a character Vincent is in that movie and definitely someone i would rather not take 600$ from
Vincent killing the two junkies was entirely justified. They are arguably the only justified killings in the whole film being out of genuine self defense.
Thank you, had been recommending this for a while!!!
he didn't care about Max. He was going to kill him at the end of the night anyways. That fit the m.o. of the previous jobs that the detective references. That makes his concern about him all the more creepy.
I don't know who I like more as a quiet professional killer. Tom cruise or Denzel Washington. Both are damn good at these characters.
I would love to see you do an episode on Commodus from the film Gladiator. Thanks for the videos!
From what I understand a sociopath is conditioned to be evil.
While a psychopath is completely detached.
I would say that sociopath is more accurate than anything else
i'd argue those 2 thieves, he killed were also in self defense . He didnt have control over the situation and handled the best possible way he could
What an amazing analysis. this is a fantastic Channel.
Vincent/Collateral has similar sayings and philosophy’s as Taxi Driver , Joker , Fight Club all of these movies are very similar to this movie
An Evil analysis on Bradley Thomas of Brawn in cell block 99...would be something!!!
I can't wait to get into this. I saw this in theatre twice back in 2004. Excellent character, the best Tom Crews role by far imho.
I'm convinced Vincent and Max are the same person just having a psychological break
A man steals from you then pulls a gun to steal from you some more and that’s not a justifiable death. Those tweekers def deserved what they got.
One of my absolute favorite characters of all time
Empathy is an emotion like any other. You can have empathy, and not be controlled by or it, or you can make a decision and factor it out. So yea, this character probably has empathy, but he values cold logic more.
One of my favorite movies!
Anything remotely likeable that Vincent did for the cabbie was part of the plan.
The detective says early in the movie about how another cabby was framed or set up for a bunch of murders, a while earlier.
And that this case reminds him of that.
So imo, Vincent has a routine that he sticks to and anything that seems helpful or genuine to the cabby is insincere or worse cruel.
He who hunts monster should see to it that he does not become a monster himself and If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you.
"I shot him. The bullets and the fall killed him." If you listen to Mann's commentary on the Collateral DVD he talks about Vincent's background.
I'm no psychologist, but from what I understand, it's not that sociopaths don't have emotions. It's just that they're far more concerned about themselves than others. They have little to no empathy, but that doesn't mean they can't mimic empathetic behavior. In this sense, I don't think it's unreasonable to call Vincent a sociopath.
Finally, the video I'm waiting for
Vincent seemed to show a little remorse after killing the jazz man
Vincent reminds me strikingly of the hat man with the case in The Candidate directed by David Karlax. Like him, Vincent is able to move from place to place undetected. No one suspects that he may have ties to the underworld in some ways. Unlike the man with the case (Robert Picardo), Vincent does not send people letters or offer them an opportunity to make a deal with an unknown organization. Vincent is definitely not a member of such a society as the one he was part of. Vincent is still carrying a case. We just do not see it. We do not see the malignant thoughts he carries with himself - his invisible, untouchable case. We are more afraid of the nihilist with a visible case, than a nihilist without one. For those who do not know, the Candidate is a short about voodoo. Collateral is a full length feature suspense film about what something similar might be like in the mind of a sociopath. Except there is no religion in Collateral. There is no visible case so you can see the luggage Vincent carries: a legacy of death as terrifying in every way as that which the mysterious man with the case carries. The man with the case is therefore more terrifying than Vincent, because he preys on members of the upper class and is much less predictable. Unlike Vincent, he will tell you his plans, his motivations, and whether or not you are on his list. Yet you still cannot see through either of them, and they are both equally soulless with equally terrifying measure and raw power. Thank you for your video. Kind regards from Ásgeir in Iceland.
Do one on Jim Terrier from The Gunman (2015) Sean Penn gave a hell of a performance.
In your summary conclusion of Vincent, you do not identify him as a sociopath. This begs the question, if a mass murderer is not a sociopath by definition, how would you define a sociopath?
To my understanding once you take a life, it just gets easier and easier. I feel pretty certain Vincent is former military, and because of that and the things he's seen, probably become a desensitized atheist. Having that mindset would allow him to do his job without the burden of a guilty conscience. He views the citizenry as either hammers or nails, while seeing himself as one damn big sledge hammer.
I agree with everything you said, but the 2 guys he killed who stole his briefcase had guns so killing them isn't evil is self defense.
Don't know of he's done bogue from the magnificent seven but if you haven't he's a good shout
Just a psychologist note: a sociopath is in fact very emotional. A psychopath is the classic cold-blooded, emotionless type without empathy. A sociopath is hot-blooded, prone to outburst, and view themselves as oppressed victims so therefore the people they hurt deserve it. Both are now reclassified as "Anti-social personality disorder" (APD).
Cruise gave a great performance as a cold blooded assassin
The Ralph character from Lord of The Flies is an interesting topic.I believe he is the villain.
You sure did miss something right after he killed jazz man, he looks at him a certain way like in this lost and confused gaze.. but once he realizes Max left, he snaps out of it all the sudden I wanna know what that’s about look at them closely as he looks down in the dead, Daniel it’s just weird
Vincent randomly chose Max to be his driver for the night and the fact that he exposed Max to his true purpose made Max a doomed man. Max was going to die anyway because Vincent couldn’t leave any loose ends.
Also the sequitur has me curious, has Max doomed himself?, Vincent died on the train. But Max had to play fast and loose with the rules to save the Lawyer in time…
I think Max will be all right. He might have to compensate the guy whose cell phone he stole, and he definitely will have some explaining to do handcuffing the police officer who was about to arrest him, but I think the lady lawyer whose life he saved would be able to help him out.
"Vincent is not a malicious person." I STRONGLY DISAGREE
Pulp Fiction's Vincent would also make for an interesting video. Thanks for this one, enjoyed it. :)
In the past I agreed with your assessment of Vincent in this film. But upon rewatching, I think Vincent seeming to bond a little with Max was manipulation to make his job go smoother. I think every scene where Vincent shows humanity was him wearing a mask. Psychopaths (I've read, I am no expert), are able to mimic human emotion when in fact there is none. I think that all the small redeeming qualities Vincent seemed to possess were a facade to appear to be normal so that he could mechanically accomplish his tasks. Which made the movie even more intriguing to me. One of the best movies in my opinion. I am only posting my opinion here as a talking point and not to disagree with your assessment. Your videos are excellent.
Two petty thieves, a drug dealer, and an importer...
The world is better off without their continued existence. Nothing will "change" with the death of those four things. Drugs will flow, illicit goods will continue to arrive, briefcases/wallets etc will be taken, and nothing will be any different tomorrow than it was today.The only solace will be the fact that handful of beasts will no longer draw breath.
Vincent was performing a service for our species.
7:10 Those thieves had guns drawn on Vincent. Perfectly fine killings.
JuSt bEaT uP tHe GuNmAn is fantasy. This movie displays gunmanship and physical combat quite well.
Those gunmen were not skilled gunmen as they were just too close. If they were they would not have walked into hand-to-hand where they got sucker-punched by actual expert. So Vincent just beat up two gunmen.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Utter fantasy. Yeah sure, risk dying to an unskilled gunman.
@@noimnotnice Guns have range. Not making use of it is stupid. Five-meter rule did not come out of nowhere.
@@vksasdgaming9472 "Guns have range, hence getting killed from point blank is impossible, and an 'expert' should just risk death to an 'idiot' by bringing fists to a point blank gun fight."
You sound like a rtrd.
“He’s not a malicious person?” I would very much object.
As many fine folks caught and mentioned, Vincent was going to kill Max; the police discussing the other cabbie in SD may seem too easy to some, but that is what it was, and for all of Vincent’s “humanistic’ actions, there is no doubt that he has nothing but contempt for others based on his condescending tone, and that is how sociopaths think.
He couldn’t have cared less about Max, and even when he knew he was fatally wounded, he showed no feelings at all.
Vincent: "You're not going to tell anyone are you?'
Max: "No no"
Vincent: "Get in the f-- car"
hey, have you considered to make video about Marlo Stenfield from “The Wire”?
Richard Roeper (Hugh Laurie), "The Night Manager"
This movie is on my top 5 list. I rewatch every year. Tom Cruise was superb.
Not a Tom Cruise fan, but he knocked it out of the park in this role. Jamie Fox was also amazing.
The thing I find amazing about this movie are the little things people who are neither a narcissist or empath recognize Vincent is a narcissistic psychopath who preys on max I think the cabbies name is, Vincent totally preys on maxes good nature and manipulates him through the whole movie Vincent shows no emotions no remorse not even for his unwilling partner in crime max it's a classic narcissist manipulating a empath the whole movie even in the end max is forced to kill Vincent and still feels remorse for Vincent because max know down inside it's not Vincent's fault he's evil but he is evil
I've always loved this movie. Whenever I would recommend it people would leave it because of the run time and the pacing. I'm glad it's finally getting some respect and love.
Am gonna give this a watch, definitely has intrigued me.
You should do Connie Nikas from 'Good Time'. I just finished watching it and instantly thought of this channel.
Ok! Are you stating that the two criminals who took his briefcase with GUNS are different from Vincent? HOW SIr?! They both use guns as a means to an end! He did NOT KILL anyone that did not have it coming eventually. Remember this. What you do on to others. Is onto yourself! Eventually! You will in evil acts yourself. Find your own end.. CB~
I agree with pretty much everything here except for when you said Vincent's killing of the junkies who robbed Max was undeserved (or unjustified). In America, when someone is actively threatening you with deadly force (eg pointing a gun at you and verbally threatening you after they just stole your briefcase), you are well within your rights to use deadly force in an attempt to defend yourself. I doubt the Vincent character would've killed those guys if they'd returned the items they stole instead of running up on him with a pistol. Fun fact: A lot of firearms instructors consider Tom Cruise's gunwork in that scene to be the most realistic in all of cinematic history in displaying what a true firearms master would do in that situation.
Excellent analysis.
8:57 This wasn't a coincidence. Jada Pinkett's character, the attorney was actually the first target. Vincent decides to save her for last. If you notice that the attorney leaves the cab and Vincent is the next customer in. Vincent has an MO and that is he uses cab drivers for his assignments and after they are completed he executes the cab driver as well.
Overall... I think Vincent was just a ruthless business man.
As good of a movie today as when I saw it in theaters.
One of Tom Cruise's best performances playing a unique and interesting antagonist.
I would LOVE to see the governor from the walking dead!
I say this with 90+% sureness… there’s an easy to miss line with cops where they talk about a while back, where a cabbie went on a random killing spree like this one and then killed himself. That’s Vincent.
Vincent is going to kill Max at the end of the night. Max can ID him and “no one knows what he looks like”. That’s why Vincent sent Max into the club to get the back up information.
Every encouraging thing Vincent says to Max is hollow and meaningless, because at the end of this night, Vincent is going to kill him anyway.
On top of that, it’s also very likely Vincent could very well kill Max’s mom as well sense she can ID him too.
So I would say everything you're saying is all true however I feel like there is this tiny sliver of kindness in Vincent despite being a sociopath. What do you think of the part when Vincent doesn't bother to shoot back at Max when he is in the law office? Max pointed a gun at him, Vincent seems surprised that he's there and in fact carries on as if he's not a threat. Gets shot in the cheek for this lapse in judgment. He didn't need Max at that point? Vincent could've easily shot him like he did those punks in the alley. Did he really think that after Max crashed the car that he wouldn't pull the trigger? Could be some emotional thing clouding his judgment. I feel like Vincent may actually sort of like Max in a very small almost insignificant way. He definitely would kill him though as he tried to do on the MTS because at that point he took Max seriously and knew he was a definite threat to his mission.
He also saves Max in the club. Did he really still need Max at that point? If Max had died in the club Vincent still would've been able to carry on. If anything he would've succeeded had he not saved Max in the club. Max wouldn't be driving him and Max wouldn't have crashed the car. Sure he needed his driver but I just find it curious that's how things would've turned out had he not saved Max in the club.
I heard that line as well and, like you, knew they were indirectly talking about Vincent. I also believe you are correct that that was Vincent intended to do with Max...have him drive him around while he makes his hits and then kill him at the end of the night.
Where I disagree, and this is why I love this movie because of all the layers of the characters, is that was still his intention by the end of the movie. See, in the first scenario, his m.o. worked like a charm. The cabbie just drove him around, making small talk and thinking he just made a huge tip. But when the guy fell out of the window onto Max's cab, the pretense fell and Max became truly aware of who and what Vincent was. Vincent, needing to keep his ride, was now forced to deal with Max on a real level, without his mask of "just some successful businessman needing a bunch of signatures".
I think Vincent was truly happy because he could really be who he was with someone. And when he saw Max having some similarities to himself like a trauma dealing mother, I think Vincent was forced to see himself in Max AND recognize that Max IS a human being. That made him bond with Max in a way he always wanted to bond with someone, but was incapable of. I think Vincent grew to care about Max in some way.
He was never going to kill Max, period . He actually had respect for him and wanted him to better his life. Why do you think when the cab crashed, Vincent just left Max there , After sarcastically telling Max ,that was brilliant, and ran off to go after the lawyer?
@@entreri76x It was mentioned by someone else on this topic, when they see the Coyote, the expression on Vincent's face changes, looking almost sad or remorseful. What actually happened to cause that? Well I doubt a nihilist like him got catched in a sudden irony of the reflection this presents. While the symbolism is more apparent to us, to Vincent in the scene something else should be more apparent. Max stops the car for the coyote. He is a genuinely good person and hasnt given up yet on what Vincent thinks are hollow beliefs. And I think at that point he is a bid regretful that he has to kill Max at the end of the night. Its nothing he will enjoy but it has to be done. And thats what he realises. But to make it clear, this is one interpretation that is not to outlandish and the movie lives and gains from allowing different interpretations. There is no absolute true theory when it comes to this movie outside of what is established as fact by the movie and its creators.
@@BlackStrey and that all makes sense .. but .. as I’ve said before.. when Max crashed that taxi, Vincent pretty much told him he’s an idiot.. and ran off to go after the lawyer leaving Max alive.. Max could’ve went straight to the authorities or the FBI at that point . Vincent would never have thought Max would immediately go risk his life to save the lawyer.