Suspense in Collateral

My media class watched the film Collateral which was directed by Micheal Mann and stars Tom Cruise who plays as Vincent, Jamie Foxx who plays Max and Jada Pinkett Smith who plays Annie. There were many suspensul scenes throughout the film and i will be explaining my top three suspenseful moments in the film. Suspense in films build up anticipation to a particular scene that makes the audience more aware of what will happen next. This could be used to sudden bangs of loud music.

In the beginning of the film when Max is waiting for Vincent in his cab,a digetic sound of soothing classical music is played while his waiting. This creates a calming atmosphere aswell as demonstrating the frame of mind Max is in. However it stops and turns to a diegetic sound of the man crashing to the top of his cab creating shock and suspense. Also the sound of the man crashed down on his car is much more louder compared to the previous sound of classical music.

Another suspensful scene in the film is when Max becomes irrate and angry while his driving Vincent. Non-diegetic,slow paced music is played througout that gets louder, the audience can also see Max's anger the fact he drives much faster by having an ariel shot of the cab aswell as a close up of the speed meter in the cab to demonstrate to the audience the speed his driving. The camera also moves alot to show disorientation. The non-diegetic music changes into a more upbeat sound from the point when Max says "But you know new news, it doesnt matter anyway". This shows his change in mood. Diegetic sound of the car screetching through his turns while driving also shows this. The non-digetic music gets louder when Vincent shows that he gets worried about the speed Max is driving at. This stops when Max overturns his car, leaving just the loud sound of the car crashing to the road.

Another suspesful moment in Collateral is at the end when Max is calling Annie on top of a building thats next to her building as he can see Vincint looking for Annie. Non-diegetic dramatic music with heavy violin sounds is played during this scene. More tension is created through the diegetic music when the sound of the mobile phone showing low battery turns off. A larger bass sound is played in the music when Vincent realises where Annie is in the building. Also the fact that Max can see where Vincent and Annie is as there's shot of Vincent in the one of the offices shows suspense aswell.

In addition, the top three suspensful scenes througout the film Collateral is when Max is waiting for Vincent in the cab that creates shock, when Max speeds up when driving and when Vincent is looking for Annie.