MovieChat Forums > Collateral (2004) Discussion > Something I've Always Wondered About.......

Something I've Always Wondered About......

posted 2 years ago by mtxmind (3281)
4 replies | jump to latest

So Vincent is an independent professional hitman, working under contract for some mob guy, right?

Therefore, why wouldn't he have a more reliable & trusted source of transportation to all these targets than some random LA cab driver?

It's been a while since I've seen this movie, so IDK if it was ever addressed in it. Plus, IDK if the subject has ever been brought up here.

So, any answers?

[–] fc31 (4685) 2 years ago

I don't think he works for the mob.

The reason he hired a cab driver, without any partners providing more reliable means of transportation, I think is because he is an independent professional assassin, and nobody can know who he is, or ever see his face, so he can not have partners.

When you are an assassin there is none you can trust. That is something I learned from another movie, Stallone's Assassins 1995. In that movie Miguel Bain (an assassin) was so lonely he talks to people who do not speak any English at all, just so he has someone to talk to.

I wouldn't be surprised Vincent planned to kill the cab driver too once the job is done.

The problem I have is how he got shot by the cab driver, since in his words, he does this for a living.

[–] Seperatrix (1095) 2 years ago

"I wouldn't be surprised Vincent planned to kill the cab driver too once the job is done."

Without question he was going to kill the cab driver. The films definitively fleshes that out for us as tidbits of information become available throughout.

"The problem I have is how he got shot by the cab driver, since in his words, he does this for a living."

It was absurd that he was shot by the cab driver, for the very reason you state. Not only that, but how he blew off a man pointing a gun at him in general, someone who obviously intended to defend the targeted hit.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) a year ago

I wouldn't be surprised Vincent planned to kill the cab driver too once the job is done.

The movie referenced another cab driver who killed a bunch of ppl then offed himself. Vince probably did this already.

The problem I have is how he got shot by the cab driver, since in his words, he does this for a living.

I've chalked this up to thematic plot armor (movie's pretty dreamy already) but after reading some comments online, and rewatching the clip with that in mind, it actually kinda makes sense how it worked. The lights went out. Vince stood still, and went with his usual 2 shots to the chest, one shot to the head, aimed at where Max was standing before the lights went out. But when the lights went out, Max was already strafing, and shot as he did so.

So Max wasn't where Vince was targeting, and Max was just random shooting from side to side, so one of them got through.

[–] Seperatrix (1095) a year ago

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a problem with Vincent being shot by the cab driver, but not in the scene you referenced, but in the office scene.