Film Theory: Collateral Is A Grand Theft Auto Movie

1. The Subtly Surreal Tone

And finally, it's important to consider the movie's tone, for while Collateral certainly isn't the outwardly comical social satire that GTA absolutely is, there are some darkly comedic moments, such as Max helping Vincent talk back to his penny-pinching boss.

Moreover, though, there are moments of levity between all the murder, such as the sequence where Vincent forces Max to visit his mother in the hospital, which feels like one of the many non-shootout respite missions peppered throughout the GTA franchise.

Though Collateral is mostly quite grounded, there's a subtle cartoonishness to it, through surreal asides such as the iconic coyote sequence, where Max stops the car to watch a coyote cross the road, set to Audioslave's terrific "Shadow on the Sun".

This is exactly the sort of eccentric, seemingly random moment that the GTA series has become known for in recent entries, rewarding players who dare to explore the city with an obviously pre-programmed but seemingly "emergent" scene intended to appear off-the-cuff and generated exclusive for the player.

In broader narrative terms, some of Collateral's more implausible plotting does feel rather video game-y in its contrived nature, and so, it's easy to accept Vincent and Max's story fitting easily into a GTA plot.

If Max switched to the right radio channel, one could certainly imagine him listening to Lazlow Jones on Chatterbox FM.