[GMD]

The pistol Tom Cruise used in Collateral was a USP.45. He trained with the same gun he used in the movie at the Los Angeles Sheriff's range. Info on this can be found in the Behind the Scenes feature on the video disc, as well as the Guns in Movies website. Reportedly it was the first time Cruise had ever fired a pistol with live ammo. An armorer even welded on an extension to the slide stop lever to make it easier for Cruise to manipulate it. Below are some photos of the actual pistol Cruise used in the movie. And in the screen capture photo you can see the muzzle and can clearly see it is a .45.

 

[alpha_arietis]

Kind of makes me wonder how many more Glocks would have been sold if Vincent used a G21. i think this movie made HK a lot of cash. I still approve of the USP though.

 

[StarWolf]

My point was more along the lines of the fact that there are a multitude of potential rounds that can be used in movie making from 'functional blanks' that are capable of cycling the firearm which may be run with standard or reduced springs to non functional blanks that will probably give you one 'pop' and NOT cycle the weapon on the one side of the spectrum to powder puff rounds along the power levels of cowboy action or 'Match' .45 ACP rounds intended for Bullseye along the lines of 200 gr LSWCs moving 750 tp 800 FPS to full on ball ammo at 230 grains running 850-900 FPS or even +P levels on the other end.

Movies generally will have two or three or five 'copies' of any given firearm important to the filming. Having a non-firing weapon for most scenes is a standard safety precaution. Having a primary and backup for functional firearms is reasonable to avoid filming delays in case something goes wrong with one of them and a cosmetic piece for publicity stills where you wanted to be certain of the look projected can be expected.

Movie magic involves blending misdirection, multiple takes, camera angles and usually faking a reality. Actual live fire will be limited and will be blended with dry run throughs with an empty non-functional gun or the firing of blanks. Firing angles and backstops have to be extremely well thought out. After the Brandon Lee fiasco (1993) and the Jon-Eric Hexum suicide (1984) training for the actors and protocols for the armorers had to improve significantly. It may be typical for movies to use a 9mm in place of a .45 but either way it is not unusual for movies to use blanks or to use lower powered ammunition rather than full power loads for any given caliber where such may be available. We all know that as long as it functions the gun it tends to be a lot easier to control and fire mild loads than heavy ones regardless of the caliber.

Did they use reduced power loads? I don't know. Will they tell you exactly what they did and which takes are live fire vs. blanks or editing or what the camera angles and fields of view were designed to hide? Maybe, but even if they do can you be assured that people who are in the business of creating an illusion will be totally above board, candid and frank about their trade secrets?

 

[ldwhite6]

Why? Director or prop weapons director, said so.


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I read that in the original script, Mann wrote that Vincent's gun was a "HK45".

 

[Big_gun]

Not sure why they picked the USP but I know it was a great movie and I think the USP 45 was a great gun for that movie.

 

[omega hkpro]

the HK USP45 looks like a beast on film , very impressive plus it was something not seen in movies much back then

they probably wanted something that would go with the character played in the movie , a former highly trained Spec Ops type that would use an HK the choice of professionals.

 

[redpillregret]

the HK USP45 looks like a beast on film , very impressive plus it was something not seen in movies much back then

they probably wanted something that would go with the character played in the movie , a former highly trained Spec Ops type that would use an HK the choice of professionals.

I was under the impression most use Glocks.


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[MJBusp1]

I'm sure most members on this forum are familiar with the movie Collateral directed by Michael Mann and staring Tom Cruise playing the hitman Vincent. If you haven't seen the movie you really owe it to yourself to check it out, but please let's not get into a discussion about Tom Cruise the actor.

What I'm curious about is if anyone knows specifically why the full size USP 45 was chosen as his sidearm in this movie, IWB no less! The director Michael Mann is known to be very knowledgable and specific about the firearms he uses in his movies. The full size USP45 was also used in his other movie Heat so I think the USP is well known to him. It's such a large bulky weapon, I would have expected Mann to have used a 1911 or a USP Compact at the very least for the character of Vincent if he was going to carry concealed IWB. Evidently Cruise also trained with the weapon extensively for the movie so it wasn't a minor decision by any means. It also wasn't like his character used it then disposed of it, his USP was almost a costar in the film.

Anyway, I'd appreciate the insight if anyone read an interview with Mann or Cruise and knows what the reasons were for using the USP.

A trained man can handle the USP IWB, try it, i got 23 yrs with it and it’s my chosen piece of firepower but in .40

 

[PizzaSteve]

My raccoon hands struggle with the full size usp45…. and yet they’re probably bigger than Toms.

 

[MJBusp1]

I'm sure most members on this forum are familiar with the movie Collateral directed by Michael Mann and staring Tom Cruise playing the hitman Vincent. If you haven't seen the movie you really owe it to yourself to check it out, but please let's not get into a discussion about Tom Cruise the actor.

What I'm curious about is if anyone knows specifically why the full size USP 45 was chosen as his sidearm in this movie, IWB no less! The director Michael Mann is known to be very knowledgable and specific about the firearms he uses in his movies. The full size USP45 was also used in his other movie Heat so I think the USP is well known to him. It's such a large bulky weapon, I would have expected Mann to have used a 1911 or a USP Compact at the very least for the character of Vincent if he was going to carry concealed IWB. Evidently Cruise also trained with the weapon extensively for the movie so it wasn't a minor decision by any means. It also wasn't like his character used it then disposed of it, his USP was almost a costar in the film.

Anyway, I'd appreciate the insight if anyone read an interview with Mann or Cruise and knows what the reasons were for using the USP.

Because Vincent took his job seriously and put himself in the best position of one shot stops and reliability in any situation