
Vincent is the main antagonist of Collateral. He is a nihilistic professional hitman who is affiliated with crime boss Felix Reyes-Torrena.
He is portrayed by Tom Cruise, who also portrayed Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview With the Vampire.
Biography[]
Vincent's mother died giving birth to him, while his father was an abusive alcoholic. Vincent often moved from one foster home to another. He was beaten by his father and ostracized at school. When Vincent was 12 he killed his father. Vincent later joined the United States Army, becoming a member of the Green Berets. Vincent did not progress much further in his career and eventually left the army.
Vincent has no conscience and cannot feel empathy for other people, and rationalizes his sociopathy with a nihilistic philosophy in which morality does not exist in a random, chaotic universe. He sees himself as a man of action who simply "improvises" and "rolls with" whatever the universe throws at him. He also dismisses people who would call him evil as hypocrites who only really care about themselves, but condemn "bad guys" like him in order to feel superior.
Sometime after being discharged Vincent joined a private military company, through which he obtained his contracts. Just prior to the beginning of the film, Vincent was hired by high-ranking members of what is implied to be the Sinaloa Cartel to assassinate four witnesses and the prosecutor for a grand jury indictment against Felix Reyes-Torrena, a member of the cartel operating the "El Rodeo" nightclub, a drug-distribution front in Los Angeles.
Hostage[]
Vincent arrives in LA when a taxi driver Max Durocher takes him for a ride, during this Vincent admit he didn't like Los Angeles very much. Max was shocked when a drug dealer Ramón Ayala falls down into the taxi and Vincent reveled himself as hit man hold Max as hostage to covered up Alaya's murder, during which he killed his targets include Peter Lim as Max watching helpless and feared his mother will be targeted by Vincent after that.
Max come to realized that Vincent's last target was Annie Farrell whom he had cruised. with escaped from police officer and he tried call her by telling about Vincent about to kill her at office. A shootout ensues in the subway with the MTA in which Vincent is mortally wounded; as he dies, he muses that it will likely be hours before anyone on the subway notices that he is dead.
Trivia[]
- Unlike the more undisciplined street thugs, he is extremely professional in gunfighting. This is evidenced when he quickdraws his pistol and fires six shots at two thugs in less than 2 seconds flat.
- His method is first to approach the armed goon with his hands raised in apparent surrender, come in to knock out the man's weapon and draw his own gun, fire two shots at his opponent's chest, then fire two more shots at the second goon's chest, before killing the latter with a headshot, and then doing the same to the first man. This technique is known as the "Mozambique drill".