Collateraldirector Michael Mann recalls Tom Cruise’s extreme hitman training for the 2004 crime thriller. Marking Mann’s follow-up toAli(2001) andThe Insider(1999),Collateralstars Jamie Foxx as Max, a Los Angeles cab driver who finds himself tangled up in the violent business dealings of Vincent (Cruise), a ruthless hitman. The film, which also stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Mark Ruffalo, earned positive reviews from critics, with particular praise directed atCruise in one of his few villain roles.
In a recent interview withEmpiremagazine,Mann recalls Cruise’s intense training for the role of Vincent inCollateral, which, in addition to fight and weapons training, involved stalking the film’s assistant directoras if for a hit. Mann, who was in on the Method antics, even reveals that he sent Cruise undercover as a deliveryman. Check out Mann’s comments about Cruise’s preparation below:
“We knew that [the assistant director] went to the gym three mornings a week, and that he came to work early at 7.30. And here’s where he parked, and that’s the place to get him because there was one way in and three exits. Which is good tradecraft.
“I had him deliver a calendar to a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles, strike up conversations with three people, and nobody knew it was Tom Cruise. There was a sign on him that said ‘FedEx’ and he had a cap that said ‘FedEx' and when people see a sign, they believe it.”
This 20-Year-Old Tom Cruise Movie Can Lay The Blueprint For His Future After Mission: Impossible
Tom Cruise won’t be able to do Mission: Impossible movies forever, but one of his old movies may have paved the way for his acting future.
Collateral Remains An All-Time Tom Cruise Movie
Vincent Was A Major Departure For The Movie Star
Though Cruise’s couch-jumping interview with Oprah in 2005 was certainly a major blow to his public image, prior to that he was seen as one of the most charismatic leading men in Hollywood (a status he’s since reclaimed). The actor was well known at the time for his roles in movies likeTop Gun(1986),Jerry Maguire(1996), and the first twoMission: Impossiblemovies. Just prior toCollateral, he also starred inMinority Report(2002) andThe Last Samurai(2003), cementing a shift toward more standard Hollywood leading man fare.
Though Cruise had certainly played some very flawed characters in the ’80s and ’90s,Collateralmarked his first time playing a cold-blooded killer, and he was remarkably good at it. No doubt a result of some of his training and preparation, Cruise, sporting gray hair and a matching suit, comes across inCollateralas someone who is truly dangerous and terrifyingly efficient at killing. The film currently sports a strong 86% critics' score onRotten Tomatoesand an 84% Popcornmeter score (previously called the audience score), suggesting movie-goers enjoyed this surprising turn from the actor.
Unfortunately, Cruise has never really returned to this well in the last 20 years, and most of his recent roles, including those in 2022’sTop Gun: Maverickand2023’sMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, see him playing more traditional Hollywood protagonists. Cruise is one of the best actors in Hollywood at playing these types of roles, so it’s not a total loss, butit’s also a shame he hasn’t delivered another performance like Vincent. While it remains unclear what the next two decades of Cruise’s career will look like,Collateralstill remains a standout film in his impressive filmography.
Collateral
Cast
Directed by Michael Mann, the crime thriller Collateral features Tom Cruise as a hitman hired to take out witnesses before a big trial and Jamie Foxx as the cab driver who unwittingly becomes his accomplice. With Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardem in its cast, the 2004 film received critical acclaim for its direction, performances, and suspenseful plot.
