Line #7 Characters/Collateral


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	[[folder:Vincent]]
4	!!Vincent
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c84f263d_ca49_4df4_972f_72ed4fc3ac3f.jpeg]]
6	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/TomCruise [[labelnote:Other Languages]]Creator/BrunoChoel (European French)[[/labelnote]]
7
8	->''"There's no good reason, there's no bad reason to live or to die."''
9
10	A former special operator and professional hitman hired by middlemen to kill four witnesses and a prosecutor.
11	----
12	* AbusiveParents: According to Vincent, his father was an abusive drunk who frequently beat him up. Vincent would get shifted from foster home to foster home before winding up back with his father. It can be taken as an attempt of manipulation on Vincent's part to get Max to do his bidding, but WordOfGod confirms that it was a rare moment of honesty on his part, that he quickly tries to cover up.
13	* AffablyEvil: Played with; he comes across as a charming man that enjoys conversing with people, even if he plans to kill them. He expresses seemingly genuine concern for the state of Max's life, encourages him to call Annie, describes himself as Max's friend while being nice to Max's mother - who he insists on bringing flowers. However, it's at least partly a facade - he's planning to kill Max to preserve his cover from the very beginning, his threatening Max's boss and visiting his mother are born out of concern that Max acting out of character will get them noticed, and he threatens Ida's life barely a scene after visiting her. Moreover, what rapport he has with Max crumbles slowly throughout the film as his plans go off the rails. It seems to be up to the viewer whether he's actually this or FauxAffablyEvil.
14	* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: After being fatally wounded by one of Max's gunshots, and bleeding everywhere, he calmly accepts defeat, sits down, and Max seems to genuinely sympathize with him. Vincent doesn't fight back, curse at him, nothing, he just asks if anyone will even notice that he's dead]].
15	-->[[spoiler: '''Max''': We're almost at the next stop...]]
16	-->[[spoiler: '''Vincent''': Hey Max... a guy gets on the MTA here in L.A. and dies... [[MeaningfulEcho do you think anybody will notice?]]]]
17	* AllThereInTheManual: Creator/TomCruise and Creator/MichaelMann came up with an extensive background for Vincent. Including his abusive childhood, his career in special forces and how he lives in South-East Asia and commutes for his jobs.
18	* AnimalMotifs: Wolves. Hell, he even looks like one!
19	* BadassInANiceSuit: His flannel suit is tailored by, [[UnreliableNarrator according to him]], a very good tailor. Oh, and he's also a total badass.
20	* BaitTheDog: Most of Vincent's nicer interactions with Max become this when [[spoiler: we find out that his MO is to murder kidnapped cabbies and frame them for the hits he's committed, meaning he was ''always'' planning to kill Max from the word 'go.']]
21	* BeingEvilSucks: There are hints throughout the film that Vincent doesn't like his work and that it's had a far greater effect on him than he would like to admit.
22	* BigBad: Although he is hired by Felix, he is still the most prominent threat of the film and Max's archenemy.
23	* CombatPragmatist: He's a brutal combatant who does anything he has to do to win a fight as we see in the night club where he uses a night stick, shatters one man's leg with a swift kick and stabs another in the leg when his gun is knocked out of his hand. Tom Cruise did extensive training in Krav Maga for the role, a fighting style with this as it's core principle.
24	* DeadpanSnarker: He's remarkably sarcastic and walks away with the film's best lines.
25	-->''"What? I should only kill people after I get to know them?"''
26	-->'''"Lady Macbeth, we're sitting here and the light's green. Leave the seats."''
27	-->''"Only thing that didn't show up is the Polish cavalry."''
28	-->''"Of all the cabbies in L.A. I get Max: Sigmund Freud meets Dr. Ruth."''
29	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:After being mortally wounded, Vincent realizes he's going to die. He doesn't try to take Max out, he just sits down and accepts his own death with utter calm.]]
30	* FriendlyEnemy: He sincerely likes Max [[spoiler:despite planning to kill him, and remains friendly and polite with him even when they turn on each other. When he's fatally wounded, he accepts Max won and spends his last moments cracking a joke with him.]] He's also quite friendly with Daniel as well and sincerely seems to respect him despite being sent to and succeeding in killing him.
31	* FromCamouflageToCriminal: According to WordOfGod he was former US Special Forces, with a line alluding he's only been in the 'private sector' for six years.
32	* GeniusBruiser: He's a highly skilled planner and tactician as well as a charming and skilled manipulator and he's a lethal combatant, both with guns and his bare hands.
33	* TheGunslinger: Type D. His QuickDraw is amazing. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-P8sJNHk0#t=167s It's even mentioned by one of the actors in the documentary.]]
34	* HitmanWithAHeart: Subverted. He tries to convince Max he's this, saying he only kills bad people, "taking out the garbage." His daddy issues also serve to make him sympathetic. But then, Max learns [[spoiler: the people Vincent's killing are witnesses for a case against a drug lord, and Vincent honestly has no qualms with it. We also learn from the cop that his MO is to take a taxi cab driver hostage to drive him around and then fake said driver's "suicide" after the other killings are done, implicating the dead man for the murders.]]
35	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:His overreliance in the Mozambique Drill (two shots to the chest, one to the head) backfires on him when he tries to use it on Max through two metro doors and fails, while Max's random fire gets through the windows. Max was also using Vincent's H&K [=USP=] pistol, so it counts for double. Triple if you include how Vincent told Max to improvise and take risks, but he dies because Max ''actually'' took a risk and Vincent shot by rote training.]]
36	* IJustWantToBeLoved: In a very dark way. He seems to be so starved of meaningful human contact that he starts treating Max like an actual friend at points. While it's later revealed his MO is to [[spoiler:kill his taxi driver at the end of the night]], notable cracks in Vincent's facade start showing as he starts to talk more to Max, even opening up to him about his father. Note how defensive he gets in the aftermath of the nightclub shoot-out, where he actively encourages Max to yell at him to get ''something'' out of him. And when he visits Max's mother, she tells him the flowers he perfunctorily bought her are beautiful - at which point he visibly stops treating it like an exercise to maintain his cover and starts actually conversing with her ''and enjoying it''.
37	* IconicOutfit: Vincent's suit, which has appeared in quite a few [[VideoGame/MaxPayne3 video]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV games]].
38	* ImplacableMan: [[spoiler:He survives a serious 100MPH car crash, gets right up and runs off. Soon afterward he gets shot... in the head... and simply continues to chase after his quarry with only the slightest hit to his cohesion.]]
39	* LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't have much regard for the people he kills or spend much time showing remorse for his acts. As he explains to Max.
40	-->'''Vincent:''' Max, six billion people on the planet, you're getting bent out of shape cause of one fat guy.
41	-->'''Max:''' Well, who was he?
42	-->'''Vincent:''' What do you care? [[{{UsefulNotes/Rwanda}} Have you ever heard of Rwanda?]]
43	-->'''Max:''' Yes, I know Rwanda.
44	-->'''Vincent:''' Well, tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobody's killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Did you bat an eye, Max?
45	-->'''Max:''' What?
46	-->'''Vincent:''' Did you join Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Whales, Greenpeace, or something? No. I off one fat Angelino and you throw a hissy fit.
47	-->'''Max:''' Man, I don't know any Rwandans!
48	-->'''Vincent:''' You don't know the guy in the trunk, either.
49	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Vincent is surprisingly sophisticated for a mass murdering hitman, and his love for jazz and his luxury suit make him this.
50	* MissingMum: He mentions that his mother died before he could remember her.
51	* OneManArmy: As an assassin, Vincent mostly uses darkness and false pretence to get close to his targets. But when he has to, Vincent clears through a group of bodyguards quickly and calmly.
52	* OnlyOneName: Only ever referred to as "Vincent". Which is probably an alias anyway.
53	* PetTheDog: Guns down a bodyguard about to shoot Max during the nightclub shootout. Doing this only alerts further guards to his location and makes his kill that much harder, but he does it anyway. His facial expression just afterwards (actually seen in the above image) suggests he's livid with both Max and himself for doing so.
54	* PragmaticVillainy: Oh boy.
55	** Vincent travels all the way with Max just to meet Max's mom, he even buys a flower! ...then he threatens to kill her, right to Max's face.
56	** In the nightclub shootout scene, Vincent saves Max's life, which is definitely not out of honor.
57	** [[spoiler: His death as a whole can be considered this. Vincent is fatally wounded and has no ammunition left, so he'll just die anyway, even if he hadn't accepted death]].
58	** Aaaand, to a certain extent, [[spoiler: the entire film. Vincent was planning from the beginning to kill Max, and all of their interactions is just Vincent putting up an act]].
59	* ProfessionalKiller: He is an assassin, and quite an efficient one at that.
60	-->''"Max! I do this for a living!"''
61	* PunchClockVillain: Vincent has few moral qualms about his work or wheter his victims are deserving of death. To him, it's just what he does for a living.
62	* SignatureMove: Almost exclusively uses the [[DoubleTap Mozambique]] [[BoomHeadShot Drill]]. [[spoiler: It ends up being the cause of his demise.]]
63	* SilverFox: He has grey hair and he's played by Tom Cruise.
64	* TheSociopath: Vincent is described as such in-story. He ticks most of the boxes, but there ''are'' glimpses into his personality that does show conflict, genuine empathy and affection for others and maybe smidges of regret for what he does.
65	* StrawNihilist: He has very definite views on the world around him.
66	-->'''Vincent:''' There's no good reason, there's no bad reason to live or to die.
67	-->'''Max:''' Then what are you?
68	-->'''Vincent:''' I'm indifferent.
69	** Or you can see him as an {{Ubermensch}}, he is basically giving Max a vision of what his life could be like if he didn't play it safe all the time.
70	--->'''Vincent:''' Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln town car. That girl, you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?
71	* VillainProtagonist: He has enough screentime to be considered this.
72	* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Has steely grey hair. The film commentary suggests it's that way prematurely.
73	* WickedCultured: He has a fairly extensive knowledge of jazz and really good taste in suits.
74	* WouldHitAGirl: His last target is [[spoiler: Annie.]]
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Max]]
78	!!Max Durocher
79	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c88dcd4f_91ee_476b_b60a_8afcc3d90c6a.jpeg]]
80	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JamieFoxx
81
82	A taxi driver whom Vincent employs (and later holds hostage) to drive him to the locations of his targets.
83	----
84	* ActionSurvivor: Manages to survive the film, even [[spoiler:being the one to take down Vincent]].
85	* TheAntiNihilist: He becomes one explicitly so that he can counter Vincent's nihilism.
86	* ClockKing: He likes punctuality, precision and neatness. Unfortunately, it's why Vincent feels they make such a good team.
87	* CompulsiveLiar: Max has managed to keep his mother at bay by persuading her he has actually set-up his limo company with an exclusive client list. Max does feel bad about it though.
88	* DareToBeBadass: His speech prior to crashing the cab after finally having enough of Vincent's nihilist ravings and HannibalLecture - peppered taunts.
89	* DeadpanSnarker: He has an understated wit.
90	* TheFettered: He [[HeroicWillpower is strongest]] when protecting someone he cares about (even if they [[TheDulcineaEffect just met]]).
91	* GlassesPull: [[spoiler: Which leads him to BecomingTheMask in front of Felix]].
92	* MyBelovedSmother: His mother places a great deal of pressure on him.
93	* NiceGuy: Very much so. He's quick to sympathise with people he's just met [[spoiler:including Vincent's victims]] and goes out of his way to treat his customers well, even though driving a cab is "only temporary" for him. That treasured picture of a holiday resort he looks at whenever he needs to relax? He gives it to a stranger he's just met, because she's stressed out over her job and he can tell she needs it. Aw.
94	* RightManInTheWrongPlace: A civilian with no firearms training, defeats Vincent, a professional assassin who has already dispatched many cops and armed guards up to this point.
95	* SherlockScan: He performs one on Annie.
96	-->'''Max:''' How do you like being a lawyer?
97	-->'''Annie:''' What are you, psychic?
98	-->'''Max:''' Little bit. There's the dark pin-stripe suit, elegant, not too flashy, that rules out advertising, plus a top-drawer briefcase that you live out of. And the purse. A Bottega. Anyway, a man gets in my cab with a sword, I figure he's a sushi chef. You? Clarence Darrow.
99	* TookALevelInBadass: About two thirds through the movie when he has to pretend to be Vincent in front of gangster Felix. You can actually see the ''[[GlassesPull exact point]]'' in the film where he levels. He then takes ''another'' level or two when he [[spoiler:deliberately crashes the cab at top speed, and then when he goes to rescue the lawyer]]. Made even more moving by the fact that Max [[spoiler: turns Vincent's StrawNihilist rhetoric on its head in a ShutUpHannibal moment just before the crash.]] There's also a less-noticed level when [[spoiler:Max takes the briefcase and runs, destroying it, even at the risk of his own life.]]
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Annie]]
103	!!Annie Farrell
104	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JadaPinkettSmith
105
106	The lawyer prosecuting Felix Reyes-Torrena.
107	----
108	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: She's Vincent's last target.]]
109	* HelloAttorney: Max most certainly thinks so.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Fanning]]
113	!!Det. Ray Fanning
114	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/MarkRuffalo
115
116	An LAPD detective on the tail of Vincent and Max.
117	----
118	* TheCassandra: Correctly deduces that Max-as-Vincent is a patsy for the real hitman, but none of his peers believe him. [[spoiler:Sadly, he gets killed for acting on his hunch.]]
119	* DeadpanSnarker: He has a very sardonic sense of humour.
120	-->'''Weidner:''' Maybe he jumped.
121	-->'''Fanning:''' Sure... he's depressed so he jumps four stories out of a window onto his head. "Wow, that feels better." Picks himself up. "Now I think I'll go on with the rest of my day."
122
123	-->'''Fanning:''' So you're telling me the guy walks into a phone booth, and shazam, changes into a meat-eater super assassin? What's he do, squeeze them in between fares?
124	* {{Determinator}}: Fanning spends all of the night trying to find Max in order to help him, disregarding orders from his superior and the FBI to leave well enough alone. [[spoiler:It makes his sudden death a lot more sad]].
125	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He literally is the only law enforcement agent in the cast who thinks Max is just an innocent bystander dragged into a bad situation.
126	* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Detective Fanning, the only one who believed Max's story and could have ended Vincent's mission without Max himself bloodying his hands, is killed by Vincent near the end of the story to up the stakes and [[HopeSpot slam shut Max's hope someone else will solve this]].]]
127	* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler:Fanning is suddenly and unceremoniously put down by Vincent just as he seems to be getting somewhere in his investigation. Vincent dispatches him with no more difficulty than his other victims.]]
128	* TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled: [[spoiler:While the other cops believe Max is the killer, Detective Fanning doesn't think so, in large part because he's familiar with another case in which a cab driver was suspected of a killing people under questionable circumstances. However, he's killed by Vincent before he gets a chance to prove his case.]]
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Weidner]]
132	!!Det. Richard Weidner
133	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/PeterBerg
134
135	Ray's superior and partner in the LAPD.
136	----
137	* DaChief: A senior officer in the LAPD
138	* JurisdictionFriction: Concerned with any clash with the FBI
139	* TheWatson: Ray explains his current caseload and his "Hitman-Cabbie" theory to Richard
140
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Felix]]
144	!!Felix Reyes-Torrena
145	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JavierBardem
146
147	A Mexican cartel drug lord who hires Vincent.
148	----
149	* BreakThemByTalking: When Max poses as Vincent, Felix gives him a pretty brutal speech that doesn't break Max in quite the way he probably intended, but ''does'' force him to take action.
150	-->'''Felix:''' Do you believe in Santa Claus?\
151	'''Max:''' No.\
152	'''Felix:''' Nor do I. Nor do I, but my children do. They are still small. But do you know who they like even better than Santa Claus? His helper, Pedro el Negro. Black Peter. There's an old Mexican tale that tells of how Santa Claus got so very busy looking out for the good children that he had to hire some help to look out for the bad children. So he hired Pedro. And Santa Claus gave him a list with all the names of all the bad children. And Pedro would come every night to check them out. And the people, the little kids that were misbehaving, that were not saying their prayers, Pedro would leave a little toy donkey on their window. A little burro. And he would come back, and if the children were still misbehaving, Pedro would take them away, and nobody would ever see them again. Now, if I am being Santa Claus, and you are Pedro, how do you think jolly Santa Claus would feel if one day Pedro came into his office and said, "I lost the list."? How ''fucking furious'' do you think he will get?
153	* TheCartel: He's in the cartel business, and the law is closing in on him.
154	* EvilSoundsDeep: As per Javier Bardem, he has a threatening baritone.
155	* FauxAffablyEvil: Felix only stays polite for a short amount of time before showing his temper.
156	* GreaterScopeVillain: The whole tale wouldn't have happened if Felix didn't felt like [[LeaveNoWitnesses getting rid of some witnesses]].
157	* KarmaHoudini: He presumably gets away scott-free, [[spoiler:since so many witnesses are dead and the trial has been entirely derailed. However, with Max as a highly valuable witness, it's entirely possible he gets put away.]]
158	* TheManBehindTheMan: Felix is the one who hired Vincent and put the entire night's events into motion.
159	* YouHaveFailedMe: He's [[NotHyperbole not joking about the mention of "being furious"]] in the speech above: the moment Max leaves he orders his men to kill "Vincent" for his FUBAR, setting up the discotheque BlastOut.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Daniel]]
163	!!Daniel Baker
164	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/BarryShabakaHenley
165
166	A jazz club owner and one of the witnesses.
167	----
168	* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:How Vincent disposes of him.]]
169	* ICouldaBeenAContender: Daniel had the chance to follow his dreams and even jazzed with Miles Davis at one point. But, as he laments, other events got in the way. He serves as an example of putting your dream off because it's too risky until you're too old to actually pursue it. Isn't that interesting, Max?
170	[[/folder]]
171
172	[[folder:Pedrosa]]
173	!!Agent Frank Pedrosa
174	!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/BruceMcGill
175
176	An FBI agent staking out Felix Reyes-Torrena's club.
177	----
178	* InspectorJavert: One of the more notable members of the law enforcement part of the cast that believes, with very little evidence, that Max is a hitman (the theory he and the others in that camp posit is that Max is not Max but Vincent having done a KillAndReplace with a cabbie that looks alike). He even prioritizes trying to arrest Max in the middle of a shootout.
179	* JurisdictionFriction: He pulls the "it's FBI jurisdiction, we'll take it from here" card on Vincent's murders courtesy of their connection to the Felix Reyes-Torrena case.
180	* PoliceAreUseless: He decides to arrest Max thinking he's Vincent and his time on the spotlight ends with [[spoiler:him being hit in the leg by random gunfire during the nightclub shootout, with his fellow agents dragging him to safety and letting Vincent continue his assassination]].
181	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After [[spoiler:he gets hit in the leg during the shootout at the nightclub, he is dragged to safety by the other FBI agents. We never find out if he made it out okay]].

Context Characters / Collateral