Was Vincent really a bad guy, what drove him, and what what his past?

@PeachMelba

This is a very intriguing question you have. I have loved this film since my best friend first introduced me to it in high school. Vincent is one of the coolest, most badass characters I have ever seen. I think a lot of his back story was meant to be ambiguous but. If you listen to the DVD commentary. Michael Mann gives some backstory on Vincent. Such as he was born in Gary, Indiana and later joined the armed forces before becoming a private sector contract killer.

As far as what drove him. And if he was a bad guy. Vincent is a pure sociopath, as well as being very delusional. He sees nothing wrong with what he is doing. As he alluded to to Max after the first killing at the motel Fanning later went too.

You can tell Vincent lived a hard life and is tough as nails. As well as being completely dauntless. He fears no man on this earth. I suffer from a severe mental illness and have to take medicine for it. Which the church of scientology sternly does not condone. But I Still love Cruise and I think he can play a badass with the best of them.

This is a really good question. I think he is a bad guy, but one that knows he's trapped into that existence. I think his rant towards Jamie Foxx about not having the ambition to accomplish his dreams was because he feels that he has no choice in his life of what he decides o do. I do think he's a sociopath, but some sociopaths do want to change and are tortured by the way they are unlike psychopaths. Sociopaths justify their actions but often times they question those justifications. He seems to do this a lot in the film but eventually falls back to his default sociopathic behavior.

Vincent gave up on humanity a long time before the events of the film. Killing was a job to him. Feeling for his victims wasn't in his DNA. He was a sociopath, yet he was still somewhat sane. Thus why he was able to connect to Max and deliver life lessons during the course of the night. I like to think of it as while Vincent lacked a conscience, he still had a soul. Vicariously, he wanted to experience through Max the things he never had a chance to experience, a legit profession, a loving partner, a happy life. Ironically, Max probably went on to all of those things after his treacherous night with Vincent.

I've always been interested in how his day to day life was when he wasn't out in the job. He's very knowledgeable indeed due to his travels, but something that caught my attention was when we are introduced to his character, chit chatting with Max, he mentions that he hates LA (he was just messing with Max at this point trying to see if he could provoke him) due to the disconnection that is in the city. How nobody knows each other, how nobody cares, nobody notices. Meanwhile it's mentioned the commentary that he lives somewhere in Thailand, in a Buddhist community where people leave each other alone. A place where he probably has no connection to anyone either. In other words, if he were living in the US, LA would be the perfect place for him.

And while I do agree that he is a Sociopath, I do think that he was going through a transition on this night. While trying to get Max to rethink his life, I think he was rethinking his own. Notice the disappointment after he had to kill Daniel. He was truly enjoying Daniel's company and connection they shared for their love of Jazz and Miles David. Having to kill him was a bummer making you think how would he have felt when the moment came that he had to kill Max. When Max instead mortally wounds him, yes you can see his face of being upset of the outcome of his shootout with Max, but I think somewhere in him, he was glad that it was Max that got the best of him and not some random thug or criminal. Also his whole life of being anonymous caught up with him at this moment by asking "Do you think anybody will notice"? meaning "do you think that someone will notice that there was a time that I existed"?

Oh and by the way, I'll come up with a better signature soon.

[deleted]

A bit tired to go into details, but, as an audience, we didn't learn anything about Vincents true past, or personal life. By not knowing this, it is difficult to see what drives him (what his motivations for being a hitman are). Vincent doesn't seem to care about money, as he is high level, and probably gets paid well. There is no evidence of him javong a family to support either. Does Vincent care about justice? Yeah, maybe slightly. But not enough to become a hit man. Maybe he feels like such a lone wolfe, and not connected to anything, that he thinks 'why not?'.

Vincent is a paid hitman, there is no doubt about that... But why? When he's obviously an educated and intelligent man, as evidenced by his knowledge of jazz history, and population statistics, as well as the strategic social he uses to get closer to his targets.

I'd love to know more about Vincent's upbringing and history.

Any insights from IMDB viewers, or as presented in the script?