Max, a cab driver finds himself the hostage of Vincent, a contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles. It transpires that Vincent's mother died whilst he was very young. His father was a drunk who beat up Vincent before he ended up in foster care. At one point in the film, Max questions Vincent and uses steretypes: 'What were you? One of those instittionalised guys...the standard part that are supposed to be there in people, in you...arent.'