Collateral (2004)

Collateral is a movie about an LA Cab Driver named Max who seems dedicated and efficient in his line of work which he convinces himself is only temporary as he aspired to one day own his own limousine service. One night Max picks up a man who at first seems to just be another business man on his way somewhere but he makes a deal with Max to pay him more if he sticks with him, dropping him off at various different locations to which Max reluctantly agrees. At there first stop a body lands on the taxi Max is driving and he soon comes to realise that the man he is travelling with is a killer and his plan is to kill several people at each stop he makes that night.

Within one of the scenes, at what I believe is their second stop for  the night, Max is left tied to the steering wheel of the car whilst Vincent is dealing with what he came their to do. Max sees the opportunity for escape and the importance of this scene is that we are hoping for Max to escape. At the beginning in the scene where we met Max along with Annie Farrell and we created a relationship with Max, seeing him as a hardworking, innocent and kind man. So the audience is at suspense because they are hoping that Max can escape this situation he has found himself in. But we lose hope in this escape when we see the shot from inside of the car, where a man pulls a gun to Max's head. We then get a collection of close ups of Max to the man whom is threatening him so we are able to see the recoil of Max at the threat of being shot. We also understand that Vincents suitcase is of some importance to Vincent, as a hitman he would keep hold of things that would presumably be confidential, so when we see the close of the suitcase and witness the man take it from the car we realise now that something bad is going to happen to these men, as we know that Vincent is dangerous.

In the above scene Max is pulled over by the police whilst he has a body in the trunk of his car. This entire scene is incredibly tense. The police become more insistent and suspicious throughout the scene and almost come close to discovering the body and this creates the tension, we don't know whether or not the police will see the body and if they do what will then happen. The light coming from the torches that we see upon Max's face resembles an interrogation, as though he were a suspect for a crime and was being questioned within a police station, making it all the more tense because it's as though Max is being accused for the murder, so we believe if they discover the body it is Max who will be blamed. There's a moment of silence when one of the policemen ask Max about the blood upon his windshield, within this silence we are unaware if Max will tell the truth or what excuse he will make. 

Vincent threatens to murder the two policemen if they persist with Max opening the boot of the car to which we then see Max panicking in close ups of his face we see his worry and concern, he can see what is going to happen and this also makes the audience worry for him. They step out of the vehicle and we see Vincent holding the gun, we realise and accept now that Vincent will kill these two men but this is interrupted as both the men get a call to leave, which brings relief to the audience. We sympathized with these two policemen, innocent men who were almost killed.