Tom Cruise Transformed Into A Terrifying Villain In This Must-Watch Thriller On Prime Video

Tom Cruise isn't shy about playing the occasional jerk or antihero, but he'd never portrayed an icy, remorseless villain until he took on the role of Vincent in Michael Mann's "Collateral." Though he hadn't exactly been playing it safe since horrifying audiences as raging misogynist Frank T.J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" (e.g. he wasn't exactly the most likable guy in Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky"), watching his gray-haired hitman force Jamie Foxx's cab driver Max to drive him all over Los Angeles to knock off a series of targets was both unsettling and exhilarating. Cruise had weaponized his overpowering magnetism to pull us into the world of a stone-cold killer.

It's a coin flip between "Collateral" and "Rain Man" as to which film contains Cruise's finest performance. "Rain Man" has a fuller arc, with Charlie Babbitt going from self-involved collectibles dealer to loving brother, but, man, Cruise has never been more subtly charged than he is in "Collateral" (which is currently streaming on Prime Video). For most of the movie, Vincent is modulated; he's very much in control, and, thus, avoids histrionics. He's a professional's professional who's considered every eventuality. There's no bump in the road he can't steer through. But his cool arrogance winds up being his downfall, as he underestimates Max's intelligence.

Vincent was obviously a significant departure for Cruise, so it's good he had a meticulous crime film veteran in Mann to get him in the right mindset. Cruise never half-asses a performance, but it was crucial to have Mann give him little assignments so that he'd better understand the life of a contract killer.

At the film's 2004 press junket, Cruise discussed his preparation, which included creating a backstory for Vincent, and finding layers that, while they wouldn't be discussed in the movie, would give greater depth to his performance. Per Cruise:

"With Michael, he had pictures of where I came from. We discussed a lot of different aspects of where I live and how I became the way I became as Vincent. So it will emotionally inform the movie and start to look at 'Where does this fracture happen?' Vincent is impinging on Max. I'm driving that car from the back seat and then bring my attention to the things I have to do to get my job done."

In a 2024 interview with Empire, Mann revealed that he had Cruise stalk the film's assistant director as if he really were Vincent. "We knew that [the AD] went to the gym three mornings a week," said Mann. "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."

Mann also had Cruise go undercover as a FedEx deliveryman, to see if one of the most famous people in the world could work a regular job without being identified. According to the filmmaker, "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 preparation paid off. Critics mostly raved, with Cruise receiving some of the best reviews of his career. "Collateral" also grossed $220 million against a $65 million budget, even though it received a ho-hum "B" Cinemascore. Though I think it gets disappointingly conventional in its third act, "Collateral" is a captivating thriller for most of its runtime. If you've never seen it, hail it down ASAP on Prime Video! (And then wonder how it would've played had Adam Sandler been cast as Max.)