Drive Review

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Sha Shewakar
updated
  • 3/5

An unnamed Driver works as a mechanic, a stunt double, a stunt driver, and a criminal-for-hire getaway car driver in Los Angeles, California. His jobs are all managed by auto shop owner Shannon, who persuades Jewish mobsters Bernie Rose and Nino to purchase a car for the Driver to race. Driver meets his new neighbor, Irene, and grows close to her and her young son, Benicio. Their relationship is interrupted when Irene's husband, Standard Gabriel, is released from prison. After initial awkwardness, Driver and Standard become friends.

Standard owes protection money from his time in prison and is assaulted by Albanian gangster Cook, who demands that Standard rob a pawnshop for $40,000 to pay off the debt. Cook forces Benicio to pocket a bullet as a symbol that he and his mother are in danger. Upon finding this out, Driver offers to act as the getaway driver for the pawnshop robbery.

While Driver is waiting outside the pawnshop with Cook's accomplice, Blanche, the store owner kills Standard. Driver and Blanche are then pursued by another car. Driver hides with Blanche in a motel where he learns that the pawnshop owner claims Standard was the sole perpetrator and no money was stolen. Driver threatens Blanche when she lies about being oblivious to the second car. She admits that the bag contains a million dollars, and she and Cook planned to re-steal the money for themselves using the car that chased them. While Blanche is in the restroom, she is killed with a shotgun by one of Cook's henchmen; Driver fatally stabs the gunman before killing another one with the shotgun.

At the auto shop, Shannon offers to hide the money, but Driver brushes him off. He hunts down Cook in a strip club, threatens to kill him, and force-feeds him the bullet that he had given to Benicio earlier. Cook reveals that Nino was behind the robbery. Driver calls him and Nino dismisses his offer of the money, instead sending a hitman to the Driver's apartment building. Driver tells an angry Irene about his involvement with her husband's death. When the pair enter an elevator, the Driver notices a hitman. Driver kisses Irene, and then brutally beats the hitman to death, leaving her horrified. Knowing that someone may have leaked Driver's whereabouts for Nino to know his address, the Driver confronts Shannon, who reveals that he also unwittingly mentioned Irene. Driver tells Shannon to flee.

At his pizzeria, Nino reveals to Bernie that a low-level Philadelphia wise guy from the "East Coast mob" stashed the money at the pawnshop with plans to use the money to set up a new operation. Since anyone tied to the robbery could lead the East Coast Italian Mafia to them, they need to kill everyone involved. Bernie warns Nino that nobody steals from the Italian Mob. Nino is angry because the Italian Mob has patronized and insulted him for being Jewish. He convinces Bernie to follow his plan. Bernie murders Cook, as he is the sole witness to their agreement. After Shannon refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the Driver at the auto shop, Bernie slashes his forearm with a straight razor, killing him.

Enraged at finding Shannon's corpse at the auto shop, Driver, disguising himself with a rubber stuntman's mask, follows Nino from the pizzeria to the Pacific Coast Highway and rams his car onto a beach; he chases Nino towards the ocean and drowns him. He phones Irene and tells her that he will not return, but the short period of knowing her and Benicio was the best part of his life. The Driver meets Bernie, who promises that Irene will be safe in exchange for the money. Upon giving him the money, Bernie stabs him in the stomach, before Driver brandishes his own knife and stabs Bernie to death. Driver survives and drives away, while Bernie lays in the parking lot next to the cash. Irene, having second thoughts, knocks on Driver's apartment door but no one answers. Since Bernie was the last living person to know of Irene's existence, she is now safe forever.

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