If I drive for you, you get your money. You tell me where we start, where we’re going, where we’re going afterwards. I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything a minute on either side of that and you’re on your own. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down. I don’t carry a gun. I drive.
Driver references the fable of The Scorpion and The Frog: a frog agrees to carry a scorpion across the river if the scorpion promises not to sting the frog; the scorpion does promise, but halfway across the river he stings the frog anyway, saying “it’s my nature,” and they both drown. Driver can be seen as The Frog of the story - he drives/carries criminals (scorpions) around in his car, but is inevitably dragged into their destructive world (stung) leading to everybody’s downfall. Driver’s jacket has a scorpion on the back, just as the frog carried the scorpion on its back.
I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything a minute on either side of that and you’re on your own. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down. I don’t carry a gun. I drive.
“I’d secretly had this feeling I wanted the film not to be about driving fast or stunts but about a guy driving round listening to music because that’s the only way he could feel. That wasn’t in the script but that’s what Nicolas felt, too. We both connected to the idea that driving can be an existential experience and you can put your persona and identity aside because you’re not really being watched. We were both interested in using the car as a vehicle to take you into the driver’s subconscious.”
Ryan Gosling as ‘Driver’ in Drive(2011) dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
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