[Eugene]

---SPOILERS---

For the most part, everything ended as I would have expected. Though it's obvious there's going to be a huge fallout between at least two of the characters in the movie, you never know which two until after the fact. Would Cameron's fit of rage result in him or Officer Hanson being shot? Would Officer Ryan die in his attempt to save (and reconcile with Christine) from the overturned car? Would Farhad kill Daniel or force Daniel to kill in self-defense with his daughter watching? And after the fact, the false alarm when Farhad pulled the trigger with Lara embracing Daniel. And of course the real climax where Hanson's own prejudice/presupposition leads to him fatally shooting Peter.

Unlike Collateral, it never was obvious what would happen. Everyone who saw that movie knew from the beginning that Cruise's character was profiling the office building where Jada Pinkett Smith's character worked. About the most surprising thing in that movie was when the NARC got shot in the chest by Cruise in the club scene.

Everything ended as it should for the most part. The only character who stayed clean throughout was Daniel, so I was particularly hysterical when I thought his daughter had been shot. Don Cheadle's character did the wrong thing to cover up the cop vs. cop shooting. He also did a poor job taking care of his junkie mom. In the end his punishment is losing his brother and his mother's respect. Dillon, Ludacris, and Bullock's characters all have their humanizing epiphanies while Farhad gets a reprieve for his actions in the form of pure luck. Works for me...

The only thing I would have done differently would have been to tie up the loose ends in Officer Hanson's story. I felt cheated not knowing the consequences of his actions or how he would end up dealing with it.