Vincent works his craft, killing several people with little fuss. He executes Lin – double tap, plus a head shot – the same method he used in his earlier kills, including those that weren’t on the list. Although Vincent prides himself on adaptation, he paradoxically follows a strict routine in killing.

In the ensuing chaos, Fanning manages to connect with Max. As they leave the club however, he is gunned down by Vincent. The killing is as quick and efficient as any other so far, however this is someone who was driven by purpose, building momentum. The fact that Fanning was snuffed out so unceremoniously is a heated point in Vincent and Max’s next exchange.

In this bizarre moment, Vincent is upset that a man whom he has kidnapped, held at gunpoint tied up, and forced to participate in murder, has not thanked him for saving his life. This is a killer that sees people as a commodity, and life as negotiable, yet he still maintains standards of decorum and expects the same standards from those he terrorizes. Max, understandably, is far from being on the same page as Vincent, and humanizes Fanning:

MD: “Why’d you have to kill him? He’s probably got a family, Kids will grow up without him.”

Max has reached his limit, the scales between preserving life, and preserving humanity have been tipped. We see him stand his ground:

MD: “Why don’t you just kill me and get another cab driver?”

V: “Because you’re good. We’re in this together. Fates intertwined, cosmic coincidence.”

Vincent sees himself but nobody else as having a purpose. In his own universe, he is the center. Max has meaning because Vincent has bestowed it on him. In a sense, he may be right, and it’s here that Max’s reality changes.

“What do we got to lose anyway right?”

We are now at the very heart of what this movie is about:

MD: “you’re full of shit.”

V: “I’m Full of shit? You’re a monument of it. you’ve even bullshitted yourself. All I’m doing is taking out the garbage, killing bad people.”

MD: “Then what’d they do?”

V: “How do I know? They’ve all got that witness for the prosecution look to me. Probably some major federal indictment of somebody who majorly does not want to get indicted.”

M: “So that’s the reason?”

V: “That’s the why. There’s no reason. There’s no good reason, there’s no bad reason to live or to die.”

M: “Then what are you?”

V: “Indifferent. Get with it. Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars and a speck on one in a blink. That’s us, lost in space. The cop, you, me, who notices?”

Though this is an extremely nihilistic viewpoint to take on the pointlessness of life, it is true. When looking at the scale of things, our insignificance is frightening. To avoid confronting this harsh truth, we bullshit ourselves.

Vincent continues:

V: “Someday my dream will come? One night you’ll wake up and you’ll discover that it never happened. Its all turned around on you. It never will. suddenly you are old. Didn’t happen and never will, because you were never going to do it anyway.”

Vincent sees reality for what it is and he has broken the taboo, picking apart the threads of bullshit that hold our flimsy beliefs together. Or is this just his father talking?

He continues:

V: “You’ll push it into memory then zone out in your barcalounger being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don’t you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln town car. Or that girl, you can’t even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?”

The truth penetrates deeper than any bullet.

Max realizes his own bullshit, and his revelation occurs. On this one night he has been made to confront death up close, not only the deaths of other people, but potentially, his own. When faced with this, he is forced to confront the bullshit that he has been selling himself. Even if he does survive this night, is it worth continuing the the existence he has had so far? Looking at everything before today, the answer is no. If he is to truly live, the current ideas and beliefs that make up his identity have to die.