Cohen and Tate
Cohen and Tate is a suspenseful high tension thriller starring Roy Scheider and Adam Baldwin, about a boy that's been kidnapped by two mismatched hitmen. The boy tries to put them at each other's throats while being driven to their employers, possibly to be killed. Cohen, an older, no-nonsense, straight-laced professional becomes increasingly irritated with his partner Tate, a young, brutish, hot tempered, psychopathic killer. When their prisoner uses unnatural guile and resourcefulness to play them off against each other the movie becomes filled with edgy, suffocating tension. Written and directed by Eric Red, who also brought us Near Dark and The Hitcher.
Tropes used in Cohen and Tate include:
- Balance of Power: Possibly why Cohen & Tate was forced to work with each other so they can compensate for each other's personality, flaws, strengths, and weakness. Cohen balance out Tate's hotheadedness, Tate balances out Cohen's age, and physical weakness.
- Batman Gambit: Travis pulls this on his captors by figuring out Cohen and Tate's psychological weaknesses.
- Boring but Practical: Cohen's method. And ironically the thing that screws him and Tate over in the end.
- Cult Classic:
- Divide and Conquer: Travis play Cohen and Tate off of each other.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu/Tempting Fate: Travis does this A LOT to Tate. But this is part of his gambit to get the tension between Tate and Cohen to build up. As he knows Cohen won't allow Tate to hurt him before they get to their employers.
- Driven to Suicide: Cohen shoots himself in front of Travis after realizing there was no escape after being surrounded by police in every direction
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The FBI agents assigned to protect the Knight family whom apparently was in a witness protection program.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Cohen is VERY skilled with his Colt pistol. he shoots a state trooper in the back of the head while driving behind said troopers squad car. After suspecting of being recognized by the gas station attendant he shoots the clerk several yards away, and the phone he was using, including shooting out the power to the gas station!!, Travis' dad was one lucky mofo to survive being shot by this guy.
- Irony: Cohen pretty much chew out Tate over the fact he's a Loose Canon, and being careless and sloppy. The irony comes from the fact that Tate, makes sure all of his victims are deader than dead, while Cohen's reserved, practical method of killing Travis dad with one shot fails to get the job done. Essentially setting into motion their gradual downfall.
- I Work Alone: Cohen apparently use to, but was forced to work with Tate by their employers.
- Loose Canon: Take a guess..
- No Kill Like Overkill: Tate uses SIX shotgun shells to kill Travis's mom, While Cohen shoot's his dad just once (a shot that didn't kill him). Which lead to the Plethora of Mistakes.
- Oh Crap: When Travis see that Tate is still alive after looking through the back windshield, whom was creepily illuminated thanks to the red brake lights.
- Order Versus Chaos: Cohen and Tate are almost physical manifestations of this respectively.
- Plethora of Mistakes: Whoo boy.. possibly starting with the fact that Cohen botched his kill (Travis' dad)
- Psycho for Hire: Tate..
- Psycho Party Member: Tate..obviously
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Cohen and Tate, So much so they can't even stand each other, and start to show signs of very short nerves towards the end. Travis of course helps move this along.
- Those Two Bad Guys
- Witness Protection: The Knight family.
- You're Insane!: Travis yells at Cohen that Tate is "nuts", in which Cohen replies by wearily saying "I Know".