This One Line From 'Collateral' Plays on a Loop in My Head

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Not an ad, just saving you a Google search: You can watch Collateral for free on PlutoTV. Anyway: light spoilers for Collateral below.

In Collateral, one single night in Los Angeles doesn’t unspool so much as it detonates, and the movie tracks all the explosion’s splatter. Jamie Foxx is Max Durocher, an everyman cab driver just trying to scrounge and save to start his own limousine service, who sneaks looks at his dream destination (the Maldives) in between rides. Tom Cruise is Vincent, a random passenger who makes mysterious small talk, about death and LA’s loneliness. Max lingers outside of Vincent’s destination at the passenger’s request. A body lands on his car windshield not a moment later. Max goes into a panic, but Vincent remains calm: “I off one fat Angelo and you throw a hissy fit.”

Tom Cruise is never beating the weirdo allegations, and Collateral exploits his utter strangeness. Vincent isn’t devoid of charisma, he just turns it on and off so transparently. In one moment he c…