Collateral vs. Fight Club
 

I was watching Michael Mann's Collateral, when I felt this strong deja-vu. I'm not sure if it was during the car scene, or later when Max enters the building, but something was fishy. The more I thought about it, the clearer it had become. Michale Mann and Stuart Beattie, who probably noticed similar themes in their film and in Fight Club, decided to make a very elaborate homage to Fight Club.

All shots but one were taken in the same order!

The story revolves around a blue-collar man, in his thirties, sick of his job and ordinary life in general.
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/1016/si...ylifefc3iz.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/s...ry-life-CO.jpg

To the rescue comes a mysterious alter-ago. Ironically, both Tyler and and Vincent are first introduced in an airport.
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/9743/introductionfc5wt.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/introduction-CO.jpg

Cherche la femme. The story can never be complete without a love intreset.
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/2202/ch...femmefc0sz.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/c...a-femme-CO.jpg

So our two heroes meet, in a casual setting, and they have this wierd conversation.
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/8996/theymeetfc0ix.jpg
"You know why they put oxygen masks on planes?"
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/they-meet-CO.jpg
"I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices."

The annoying boss must be dealt with...
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/o...y-mouth-FC.jpg
"Tyler's words coming out of my mouth."
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/9903/outofmymouthco4bk.jpg
Vincent forces Max to tell his boss "to stick this cab up his fat ass."

Meanwhile, the cops are investigating.
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/5106/thecopsfc1sy.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/the-cops-CO.jpg

A short break from the main storyline to meet the head mobster.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/the-mobster-FC.jpg
http://img137.echo.cx/img137/6391/themobsterco5ah.jpg

Finally, the climatic car scene begins.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/car-scene-1-FC.jpg
http://img71.echo.cx/img71/4489/carscene1co3ft.jpg

A very heated "discussion" is taking place.
http://img71.echo.cx/img71/9832/carscene2fc6dl.jpg
http://img71.echo.cx/img71/5038/carscene2co0nq.jpg

It deteriorates into "less than safe" driving.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/car-scene-3-FC.jpg
http://img71.echo.cx/img71/8005/carscene3co5wg.jpg

... which eventually results in a near-fatal accident.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/car-scene-4-FC.jpg
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/6051/carscene4co9mu.jpg

The lead must save the world - he's forced to point a gun at a cop.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/points-gun-FC.jpg
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/9784/pointsgunco7qj.jpg

In a hurry to save a world
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/8861/inhurryfc8gm.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/in-hurry-CO.jpg

Must enter building. Must break window.
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/1001/un...glassfc5ii.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/u...e-glass-CO.jpg

Didn't work? This will do it.
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/2493/thatwilldoitfc7gn.jpg
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/t...l-do-it-CO.jpg

Indeed. *shuttered glass*
http://img210.echo.cx/img210/8421/sh...glassfc5dw.jpg
http://img77.echo.cx/img77/8910/shatteredglassco0uu.jpg

Finally. Our lovers together and safe.
http://img77.echo.cx/img77/7392/fina...etherfc9du.jpg
http://img77.echo.cx/img77/133/finallytogetherco8or.jpg

Well you have to admit, there are some obvious similarities, but you could probably do the same thing with a dozen over movies.

A well put together case though!

That was really well put together.... well done.

As for if I agree.. I'm not sure. I'm trying to think of other movies that have stuff set up so damn similar.

Well put together!

The similarities are there, but you could do that for a few films.

I had no idea hollywood movies could be formulaic

Im not sure if I would call that an homage, or ::cough,cough:: ripoff ::cough,cough::

I don't know, the similarities are a bit extreme at some points. Like the car scene, and then the way he breaks into the building. The whole "ordinary life sucks" motive, and the Tyler-Jack/Vincent-Max relationship. Kinda hard for me to believe it's all chance.

Maybe the screenwriter was unaware that he was describing scenes from a film that affected him or something.

I don't think this was necessarily a homage. Some of it is just the same writing style and some if it can be taken out of a dozen or so other movies.

:lol: :lol:

I would never have picked up on the similarities...interesting perspective there.

Though I could NEVER put those two movies together, you managed to... not bad! clearly you must have really been spaced out to see that...

pretty cool!

There's ONE major difference.


Fight Club was way better! :D

you could do that with CELLULAR and FALLING DOWN. they were so much alike that i could point out like 10 scenes.

but fight club and collateral are completely diffrent besides those things... i really enjoyed both so i dont care about the simmalarities. :)

it's a good comparison but you gotta remember: only certain plot events are chosen to correspond to each other in this comparison. you can take certain plot events out of a lot of movies and compare it to others and have just as many similarities. if you think about Fight Club and Collateral (both two of my favorite movies) plot-wise, as a whole, they are extremely different. I don't recall Jamie Foxx beating anyone into a bloody pulp beyond recognition and I don't recall Brad Pitt listening to "Hands of Time" by Groove Armada with a pack of wolves crossing in front of his taxi cab :)


good comparisons though. esp. like the screens.

They do both contain similar plot events, but that's hardly enough to say that they carry the same theme or have similar plot structures. Fight Club is a movie about a man with dissociative identity disorder that starts up underground fist fight clubs to eventually form an organization to overthrow the government. Collateral is about a man put into an unbelievable situation and how he has to overcome his own feelings to get past it. :)

I like both movies, but I have to say that I enjoyed Collateral much more than Fight Club. Collateral is one of my favorite movies...I was amazed while watching it.

Excellent plot similarities that you noticed though. Like jake said, good screencaps too to prove your point. :)

-Lasereth

Fight Club > Collateral