Petey

Luke, Try placing Vincent as the Relativists during Ancient Greek, while Max is Socrates in action rather than words. Vincent may understand the concepts of values and goals, but his opinion above all else is the only thing that matters. As you stated that Vincent lacks selfishness as to how he doesn’t value himself. He does value himself; he says this at the end while Vincent is chasing Max and Ida (the attorney) on the train. "This is how I survive Max." Vincent cries as his last argument for Max to allow Vincent to finish his work. It was as if Max was now holding the gun to Vincent’s way of life. Vincent was selfish all along, hence the word Collateral, selfish for his survival. Vincent's job as an assassin in Vincent’s mind is no different than painting a house. There is a goal, now attain it. To Vincent, killing the people on his list is his Collateral because he is, then allowed to survive longer from the Collateral he receives from assassinating the people on the list. That’s the contradiction to Vincent, is that he wishes he will live, but does not wish or care of others to live. I think that most people forget that Vincent's character develops too. When Max starts to believe Vincent's philosophy that "nothing matters" and begins to speed and eventually crashes, Vincent has several chances to end Max's life. The question is, was Vincent hesitating and trying to call Max's bluff? Or Did Vincent not want to hurt Max? Was Max really collateral to Vincent's purpose at that point? Another interesting clue in the movie is when Max and Vincent visit Max's mother. Max's mother says that "Max wouldn't do anything unless a gun was at his head." Max responded to this failed expectation from his mother and threw Vincent's work off the highway. Vincent used this motherly insight and experimented with Max's survival instincts. As far as completing Vincent’s mission, I think by doing this it jeopardized the mission more than helping it. However, Vincent ran out of options, and he manipulated Max by forcing Max to run out of options: Vincent forced Max to go to Felix for the last 2 kills and possibly die or Vincent would kill Max's mother or kill Max in the car there. The real question is where Max gets his Values, not how Vincent lacks them. Petey