I thought the ending to Collateral was brilliant. The whole movie you have Vincent being a step ahead of Max because of how both stick to who they are. Vincent takes initiative while Max lets the world decide his fate for him, but finally he starts to be proactive and make decisions for himself and the ones he cares about. It all ends perfectly as he runs to the end of the train, no where else to go, he has to stand up and fight the inevitability of this situation with Vincent, and because he does what's foreign to him he wins while Vincent goes down doing what he always does, and never taking into account Max would change.
We see Vincent kill everyone the same way (2 to the chest & 1 to the head) & at the end (look at the train door) he attempts to do the same to Max, but obviously Max has changed, he is no longer who Vincent though he was, and underestimated him. Max fires wildly and hits Vincent (better to be lucky than good sometimes), and the final sit down and ride in LA together. See the man who was willing to change and take the world head on won in the end, while the man who was stuck in his ways perished, Vincent fell victim to what he was telling Max the whole movie.