I just watched Collateral again, an action thriller produced and directed by Michael Mann. In the brilliant screenplay by Stuart Beattie, I discovered a breathing scene…. Here‘s what‘s happened so far (relevant to the breathing scene):
Max, played by Jamie Fox, a cab driver in Los Angeles has picked up Vincent, an assassin played by Tom Cruise. Vincent has hired Max for the whole night, telling him he has several stops to make. At Vincent‘s first kill stop, his target accidentally fell out of the open window after being shot and onto Max‘s cab. Max was tucking into a homemade sandwich when the body hit the roof and windshield and Max‘s food splattered all over the passenger seat and floor. (This is significant because the movie starts with Max meticulously cleaning his car.) Vincent returns, threatens Max with a gun and orders him to help him stuff the dead body into the trunk. Vincent then orders Max to drive on.
They stop at a red light. Max glances at the mess on the passenger seat. He parks the gearshift and goes for the paper towels, cleaning up. Vincent over the tablet PC, taking in Max.
VINCENT: What are you doing?
MAX: I‘ve got to clean it up. It’s a mess.
VINCENT: So?
Max keeps wiping, as if getting the seats clean might put everything right again.
VINCENT (CONT’D): Lady Macbeth. We’re sitting here and the light’s green. Leave the seats.
A car honks behind Max. The car whips around them to get through the intersection.
DRIVER: Asshole!
VINCENT: You no longer have the cleanest cab in La-La Land. You gotta live with that. Focus on the job. Drive.
Max puts the car in gear and proceeds.
VINCENT (CONT’D): (checks the PC) 7565 Fountain. You know it?
MAX: West Hollywood.
VINCENT: (checks his watch) How long, you figure?
Max has to force himself to concentrate:
MAX: I don‘t know. Seventeen minutes. Why?
Silence from the back. Max into the rearview, realizing:
MAX (CONT’D): Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no. Hold on, man.
VINCENT: I told you we had other stops to make tonight.
MAX: No, you said you were visiting friends!
VINCENT: They’re somebody’s friends.
MAX: No.
VINCENT: You drive a cab. I make my round. You might make it through the night and come out seven hundred bucks ahead.
MAX: I’m not trying to piss you off, or nothing like that. But I can’t drive you around while you go round killing people…Man, that ain‘t my job…
VINCENT: Tonight it is.
MAX: You don’t get it. I mean it. I mean it. I’m, I‘m, I‘m not up for this.
Vincent realizes Max is on the verge of panic.
VINCENT: Hey, hey, hey. You‘re stressed.
MAX: Yes I am!
VINCENT: You‘re stressed. I understand that. You just keep breathing, stay calm.
MAX tries to collect himself.
VINCENT (CONT’D:) Are you breathing?
MAX: Shit.
VINCENT: Are you breathing?
MAX: Yes.
VINCENT: Ok, good. (Pause) Look, here’s the deal. You were gonna drive me around and never be the wiser. But El Gordo got in front of a window, did his high dive, we’re into Plan B. Still breathing? (beat) Now we have to make the best of it. Improvise. Adapt to the environment. Darwin. “Shit happens.” I Ching… whatever, man, we got to roll with it…
MAX: I Ching? What are you talking about? You threw a man out a window!
VINCENT: I didn’t throw him, he fell.
MAX: But what’d he do to you?
VINCENT: What?
MAX: What‘d he do to you?
VINCENT: Nothing. I only met him tonight.
MAX: You only just met him and you kill him like that?
VINCENT: I should only kill people after I get to know ’em? (off Max’s look) Max, six billion people on the planet and you get bent out of shape ’cause of one fat guy?
MAX: Who was he?
VINCENT: What do you care? Have you ever heard of Rwanda?
MAX: Yes, I know Rwanda.
VINCENT: Tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobody’s killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Did you bat an eye, Max?
MAX: What?
VINCENT: Did you join Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Whale, Greenpeace or something? No. (off Max’s silence) I off one Angeleno, you throw a hissy fit…
Max stops at another red light.
MAX: Man, I don’t know Rwandans.
VINCENT: You don’t know the guy in the trunk, either. (beat) If it makes you feel any better, he was a criminal involved in a continuing criminal enterprise.
MAX: And what are you doing, you‘re just taking out the garbage?
A police siren sounds.
MAX: Shit.
Max pulls over. Tense scene with two police officers. They get lucky, are called to another crime scene. Max and Vincent drive on.