Collateral

Collateral

Year: 2004

Actors: Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox

Director: Michael Mann

Information: The Collateral was Manns first feature film to be shot with mostly high definition cameras. The film sat on Dreamworks tabl for 3 long years bfore creation. It wasn't until Russel Crowe showed interest in the film that the project started to generate heat.Crowe bought Michael Mann on board but eventually left the movie to him after times concerns. Mann immediatley went to Tom Cruise with the idea of him playing the main man, the hit man. The movie was a hit. It remained in the cinemas for 14 weeks and made a gross $101,005,703 in America and Canada and a worldwide gross of $217,764,291.

Narrative: The movie is about an innocent taxi driver who unforutnately picks up a notorius hitman. The cab driver (Jamie Fox) is then forced into driving the hit man (Tom Cruise) to locations where the hit man needs to strike. Invesitgators have an idea that the hitman may be driving around in a cab and plan to kill the cab driver in hope to pin the crimes all on him. Allowing the hitman to ecscape freely. However whether things work out for the hitman or not we will have to see.

There are multiple elements within the movie that create a Thrilling suspense. Below are multpile scenes from the movie that I am going to analyse.

Brief case scene:

In this scene we witness Cruise retreiving his stolen breifcase. The way this scene is shot ranging from the camera angles to the acting itself adds an element of Thrill but also a 'cool' factor. We see Cruise approaching the theives so calmly. To the theives he is just a normal office man, he addresses them as 'homies' which allows the theives to think he is harmless. We however know that he is a hit man who is very intelligent and very quick on his feet. This thrills the audience as we have an inklin in to what is going to happen. These theives will get what they deserve yet they are unaware of what is going to happen. However we do not know exactly what Cruise is actually going to do to them to retreive his case back, this also creates a sense of tension and enigma.

Man shot out of window scene:

This scene alone quite easily indicates that the movie is a Thriller. This is the first scene that shows notable elements of the Thriller genre. Obviously what happens is clearly an aspect of Thriller. From no where a body smashes through a window and falls on to the cab. The driver in the previous scene had no idea what his passenger went in the building too. There are some interesting shots that establsih the setting and the accident. The way the cab driver jumps from the car adds tension especially the way it has been shot. The shot where the driver climbs to his feet is very interesting. It acts as some form of tracking shot, almost half circling the driver. It allows us to capture his surprise. The characters themselves are very stereotypical. We have the antagonist-Cruise and the protagonist-Fox. Cruise is dressed in a typical suit, very well advanced and very good looking. The protagonist is very kind, very intelligent but also very normal. This tends to be typical in Thrillers, the good guy is either very well advanced (E.g. Bond) or very caught of guard-in this case Fox's character. These are typical Thriller characters.


Character breakdown:
Protagonist: Jamie Foxx
Foxx is seen as the good guy, the antagonist who unfortunately picked up the wrong passenger in his cab. This results in him having to fight for his own survival. We also witness him trying to save other people as well as himself. We see this quiet character grow throughout the film, he goes from being under control by Cruise as out of control. The final scenes result in him trying to save a women he picked up in his cab previously, in a chase (typical of Thriller) foxx kills cruise. This is a very shocking end but however is again typical. Within most Thrillers the good guy wins in some way. Be it through escaping, self growth and/or defeating the antagonist. Foxx played this character well.

Antagonist: Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise fits this character really well in terms of conventions. Within a Thriller movie there is usually always some form of chase and/or conflicting narrative. Foxx and Cruise are the conflicting characters. Cruise is the antagonist. He is holding Foxx against his will forcing him to drive him around whilst he kills people. He is a typical hit man, he's dressed in a suit and has very swift movements. He is always one step ahead. The suit is typical for a strong character within a Thriller, for example Bond is always wearing a suit. He's also very intelligent and philosophical gaining an advantage above the people he has been hired to kill and Foxx himself. He is a farily good looking character which again tends to be typical within a Thriller. He's also fairly tall. All of this is typical of a Thriller character.