Collateral is so gripping with its frenetic dynamism and tension build-up, you can’t help but immerse yourself fully in it. The threads that gradually connect with one another in this cat-and-mouse game all align through a series of fateful events, enveloped by this lively depiction of Los Angeles. The lights that reflect in the taxi’s windows, the bustling nightlife that moves unaware of the unfolding killings, even the multiple portrayals of the different roads that they drive on is imbued with vigor through motion and speed. Meanwhile, this sort of work also builds tension through cinematic chaos; by having short cuts in between, there is never a moment to settle in before we expect more. The Fever nightclub scene is the exemplary scene from which we see this. The atmosphere is rife with a discombobulating sense of fear, complemented by the shadowy aspects of Los Angeles.
What really scores for me as the pith of this film is the philosophical and moral intertwining that defines the dynamic between Max and Vincent. Vincent is almost a nihilist who, in his defiance of implicit meaning of life, displays an irreverence to the value of life. He lives in the present moment in the pursuit of a job finished, carried on by this irreverence.
