The movie” Collateral,” written by Stuart Beattie, is about a taxi driver named Max who finds himself trapped in his vehicle with a contract killer named Vincent. Max is forced into difficult situations and eventually stands up for himself and the last name on Vincent’s hit list. There are many points that the writer makes throughout the film however, one stands out more than others. You need to take risks to get what you want. In the movie, Max is a taxi driver who picks up a woman named Annie.
She tells him to drive in a certain direction, however, Max knows there will be traffic there so he bets her a free ride if he is wrong about the traffic. At the end of the ride, Annie gives Max her business card and max puts it in the visor of the car. Later Max picks up Vincent in his taxi and Vincent pays Max six hundred dollars to drive him around for the night. Throughout the night Vincent and Max go around the city. Vincent turns out to be a contract killer and forces max to stay with him and finish the job. Vincent has a bag that contains the names of the people that he needs to kill.
Later in the movie, you find out that Max visits his mother in the hospital every night so in order to not raise suspicion Vincent and Max take a trip to visit Max’s mother. During the visit Max decides he has had enough of Vincent so he grabs Vincent’s bag and runs off with it. There is a huge chase seen and Max ends up throwing the bag over a fence on to a highway. I believe that this is the turning point it the movie because you see from this point on that Max is changing, risking more, and is making progress in stopping Vincent.
Max starts taking charge of the bad situation he is in. The next time in the movie you see Max taking risks was when he is forced into going in to the club to get the last two names from the man paying Vincent. Max is nervous in the beginning but takes charge of the situation by telling the man behind him to put his gun away. This shows the man in charge that Max is not messing around and Max pulls off becoming Vincent. Also it shows the viewers that Max is willing to do anything to be rid of Vincent.
Another part of the movie that had this theme was the ending when Max and Vincent are on their way to kill Annie, the last person on Vincent’s list. Max tries to throw off Vincent by flipping the taxi. However, Vincent is only slightly injured after the taxi rolls over. Vincent leaves Max in the flipped taxi while Vincent walks to the last target’s office building. Police show up to the scene and find the dead body in the trunk so the police officer goes to arrest Max.
Max takes a huge risk and handcuffs the officer to the flipped taxi and runs after Vincent. After many attempts to warn Annie, Max goes up in to the office building to save Annie. Max took many risks to save Annie. The risks Max took throughout the movie lead to getting the girl he wanted. Before meeting Vincent, Max would not have ever even thought about handcuffing a police officer to his flipped taxi. Taking risks and getting what you want is not only one of the main themes but is a good lesson to take from the movie as well.
