FILM · 2011 · USA
Drive
- Directed by
- Nicolas Winding Refn
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Studio
- FilmDistrict, Bold Films, Marc Platt Productions
129 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Driver is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene and her young son, Benicio. When Irene's husband gets out of jail, he enlists Driver's help in a million-dollar heist. The job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful…
129 Interesting Facts About Drive
Interesting Facts (46)
- #001
While preparing for his role, Ryan Gosling restored the 1973 Chevy Malibu his character drives in the film.
- #002
The Driver and Irene actually say very little to each other because Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan felt they needed to focus more on the mood of their scenes and refused to say many of the lines in the script. Mulligan summed up the making of the film as "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours each day."
- #003
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- #005
When Albert Brooks met Nicolas Winding Refn, he was in character, pinning him against a wall and speaking menacingly. To make his character more emotionless, Brooks shaved off his eyebrows for the role.
- #006
The opening chase scene was shot primarily by Nicolas Winding Refn from inside the car. In an interview, Winding Refn explained that the idea for the scene was to imitate the feeling of a "diver in an ocean of sharks," never leaving the vehicle during a car chase so that the audience could see what was happening from the character's point of view. Because his money and time were limited, he shot the scene in two days. Due to two different setups prepared in the car, the director found it difficult to move the camera, so he would move it to two additional nearby setups. As downtown Los Angeles changed for the better, Refn avoided certain areas to preserve the bleak atmosphere. The scene was also shot from low angles with minimal lighting.
- #007
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- #012
Nicolas Winding Refn almost did not get the job, and the film might not have happened. Ryan Gosling and Refn have spoken about the terrible incident at their first meeting. Refn was sick and delirious, which Gosling interpreted as a lack of interest. On the drive back to the house, REO Speedwagon came on the radio and Refn began singing and shouting, then turned to Gosling and said, "The movie is about a guy who drives around LA at night listening to pop songs." If that song had not come on the radio, the film might not have happened.
- #013
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- #015
The crew built the driver's apartment, which included a hallway and an elevator connecting his unit to Irene's. Beth Mickle also built a strip club set in an abandoned building and Bernie Rose's apartment. Transforming a "run-of-the-mill" auto body shop in Los Angeles into a grand dealership was one of the most challenging tasks. She painted the walls electric blue and created a showroom filled with vintage cars.
- #016
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- #019
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film's alternative/working cut contains numerous subtle additions of dialogue and scenes compared with the final film. The temporary music includes a strikingly different and memorable piece of music in the famous restaurant/showdown scene between Bernie and the Driver.
- #020
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- #022
Beth Mickle was hired as production designer on Ryan Gosling's recommendation; they had worked together on Half Nelson (2006). Before shooting, Mickle oversaw a crew of 40 who routinely worked 16 to 18 hours a day. This was her most expensive film to date, and compared with Half Nelson (2006) Mickle felt freer, saying "there was another zero added to the budget."
- #023
- #024
While going through mixer Johnny Jewel's catalog, Nicolas Winding Refn chose "Under Your Spell" and "Tick of the Clock" because he considered the film a fairy tale. During the climax, the opening melody of "A Real Hero" is avoided because that is the moment the driver transitions into both states. At first Jewel worried that "Under Your Spell" might be too realistic, but he soon realized it was used in Drive "the way I felt when I wrote it. He absolutely understood the nuance of the song and understood what it was supposed to mean and wanted to give the audience that feeling, the same feeling."
- #025
Thinking about music in terms of its basic elements, Johnny Jewel would tell Nicolas Winding Refn that certain scenes should have no bass, because as an earth tone it is usually used for a more emotional or ominous part. For the "dreamlike" scene, Jewel thought the music should be at a high level and soothing. To help with the writing process and to create melodies, the producer followed a procedure in which he highlighted many sentences in the novel, then had those words printed in a large typeface and hung them on his walls, or drew pictures while watching the film.
- #026
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- #033
While watching a cartoon, Benicio assumes one of the characters is the villain because it is a shark, and the Driver responds, "Are there no friendly sharks?" In Finding Nemo (2003), Albert Brooks (who plays Bernie in this film) voiced a fish (Marlin) who encounters a menacing-looking shark that turns out to be quite friendly.
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- #043
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 94 minutes, Driver kills Bernie Rose while being gravely wounded himself. In the shot, however, Driver is seen immediately afterward with one foot on the ground, then standing up and sitting in his car. On close inspection, Driver is wearing yellow bowling shoes. The blood on the shoe on the ground matches both colors of his jacket: blood-stained blond.
- #044
As Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) cleans Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) blood off his straight razor and puts it back in the display case, he apparently believed he was hiding its use in Shannon's murder; modern forensic science can recover human blood visible only at a microscopic level from tiny gaps in metal surfaces. If any police investigation reached him, whether or not it was connected to this murder, the razor would be taken as evidence and Shannon's blood would incriminate him. For a criminal who seems so knowledgeable, it is a very stupid move.
- #045
- #046
(At about the 53rd minute) When the door of the pawn shop opens, the sound effect of a metal door is heard. The stock sound effect has been used in countless films, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Rock (1996) and Monsters, Inc. (2001), as well as in video games such as Alone in the Dark (1992), Far Cry 3 (2012) and Grand Theft Auto V (2013). It was first recorded by Jerry Ross of Skywalker Sound for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985).
Production Story (60)
- #047
Contains a major spoiler — show
The second half of one of the early drafts of the screenplay was completely different from the final film. After the scene in which the Driver talks to Irene following his meeting with Cook, where he understands the real reasons behind the heist he did for Standard, the Driver takes Irene out to make her feel better. He is then killed by a hitman actually sent by Nino to kill the Driver, who then chases him in his Impala and eventually crashes into the hitman's car, but manages to kill the hitman's driver as he flees. Later in the screenplay, the Driver manages to find him and kill him with barbed wire. There were several more scenes in this draft focusing on the Driver character's focus on himself and his "problem" losing control and his anger attacks. At one point, during the shooting of a very difficult chase scene, after an egotistical stuntman began messing with him, the Driver runs the stuntman off the road and ends up beating him so badly that he breaks the stuntman's jaw. The ending of this draft was also different. After killing the hitman who killed Irene, the Driver secretly enters Nino's beach house, kills all his bodyguards and strangles him. And after killing Bernie Rose the way he does in the film, a gravely wounded Driver decides to leave Los Angeles to protect Irene's son Benicio and his old friend Shannon (who, unlike in the film, had not been killed in this earlier draft) from the other mob killers trying to find him, while Shannon looks after Benicio and helps him find a place to live on a farm away from Los Angeles.
- #048
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- #050
Driver and Irene actually say very little to each other because Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan felt they needed to focus more on the mood of their scenes and refused to say many of the lines in the script. Mulligan summed up the making of the film this way: "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours each day."
- #051
Hugh Jackman was first attached to the role of Driver in 2008, with Neil Marshall set to direct. Jackman's studio Seed Productions was to produce the film. Jackman and Marshall parted ways in 2010, and Seed closed later that same year. Ryan Gosling was cast in his place, and for the first time in his career he was allowed to choose his director. Nicolas Winding Refn was his only choice.
- #052
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- #056
The opening chase scene was shot primarily by Nicolas Winding Refn from inside the car. In an interview, Winding Refn explained that the idea for this scene was to imitate the feeling of a "diver in an ocean of sharks," never leaving the vehicle during a car chase so that the audience can see what is happening from the character's point of view. Because his money and time were limited, he shot the scene in two days. Due to two different setups prepared in the car, the director found it difficult to move the camera, so he would switch the camera to two additional nearby setups. As downtown Los Angeles changed for the better, Refn avoided certain areas to preserve the bleak atmosphere. The scene was also shot from low angles with minimal light.
- #057
- #058
- #059
Bryan Cranston was one of the first actors Nicolas Winding Refn wanted to cast because he was a fan of Breaking Bad (2008). Knowing Cranston had other opportunities, Winding Refn tried to win his interest by asking how he wanted to develop the role. While Cranston wrote the pros and cons of doing the film on a piece of paper, Winding Refn called him when he got no answer. Impressed by Winding Refn's interest, he accepted the role.
- #060
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- #063
During filming, Nicolas Winding Refn moved into a house in Los Angeles and insisted that the cast and writers move in with him. They would work on the script and shoot the film all day, then watch movies, edit, or drive at night. Refn also demanded that the editing room be set up in his house. With an 81-page shooting script, Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling continued to reduce the dialogue during filming.
- #064
- #065
Nicolas Winding Refn almost did not get the job, and the film might not have happened. Ryan Gosling and Refn talked about the terrible incident during their first meeting. Refn was sick and delirious, and Gosling interpreted this as a lack of interest. During the car ride home, REO Speedwagon came on the radio and Refn began singing and shouting, then turned to Gosling and said, "The movie is about a guy who drives around LA at night listening to pop songs." If that song had not come on the radio, the film might not have happened.
- #066
- #067
- #068
Consistent with Nicolas Winding Refn's usual visual style, wide-angle lenses were used extensively by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. Handheld camera work was avoided. He also avoided the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), preferring to keep the film more "grounded" and original. Not being able to afford CGI due to budget constraints was also a factor in this decision.
- #069
- #070
The crew built the driver's apartment; this building had a hallway and an elevator connecting his unit to Irene's. Beth Mickle also built a strip club set in an abandoned building and Bernie Rose's apartment. Transforming a "run-of-the-mill" auto body shop in Los Angeles into a grand dealership was one of the most challenging tasks. By painting the walls electric blue, she created a showroom filled with vintage cars.
- #071
- #072
Bryan Cranston had previously guest-starred in the 1998 episode of "The X-Files" titled "Drive." This was his first collaboration with writer Vince Gilligan. Gilligan, impressed by his sympathetic villain performance in the episode, later cast him as Walter White in Breaking Bad (2008), which ultimately led to his role in Drive.
- #073
- #074
"Trying to work in a more reality arena for a character like that," Nicolas Winding Refn initially attended auditions for porn stars for Blanche. He couldn't find anyone with the necessary acting ability. After meeting with Christina Hendricks, feeling that her "powerhouse" personality would suit the character, he decided to cast her.
- #075
The second half of one of the script's early drafts was completely different from the final film. After the section where the Driver talks with Irene following his meeting with Cook, in which he understands the real reasons behind the heist he did for Standard, the Driver takes Irene out so she can feel better. He is then killed by a hitman actually sent by Nino to kill the Driver, who then chases him in his Impala and eventually crashes into the hitman's car, but manages to kill the hitman's driver as he flees. Later in the script, the Driver manages to find him and kill him with barbed wire. There were several more scenes in this draft focusing on the Driver character's fixation on himself and his "problem," losing control and having anger attacks. At one point, during the filming of a very difficult chase scene, after an egotistical stuntman starts messing with him, the Driver runs the stuntman off the road and eventually beats him so badly that he breaks the stuntman's jaw. The ending of this draft was also different. After killing the hitman who killed Irene, the Driver secretly enters Nino's beach house, kills all his bodyguards and strangles him. And after killing Bernie Rose the way he does in the film, a gravely wounded Driver decides to leave Los Angeles to protect Irene's son Benicio and his old friend Shannon (who, unlike in the film, was not killed in this earlier draft) from the other mob killers trying to find him, while Shannon looks after Benicio and helps him find a place to live on a farm away from Los Angeles.
- #076
- #077
The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on May 20. It received plenty of praise at its first showing to the press and earned "some of the best responses of the festival," although one positive review said it was a "can't win, won't win" for Cannes's top prize. Some extremely violent scenes were cheered by audiences while being met with shouts of joy and howls from the press. It also received a 15-minute standing ovation.
- #078
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Nicolas Winding Refn's inspiration came partly from reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, and his goal was to make "a fairy tale that takes Los Angeles as the background," in which the Driver is the hero. To play with the common theme of fairy tales, the Driver protects what is good while also killing corrupt people through violence.
- #081
Producers Marc Platt and Adam Siegel of Marc Platt Productions optioned the novel after Siegel read a review in Publishers Weekly. The Driver appealed to Siegel because he was "the kind of character you rarely see anymore; he was a man with a purpose; he was very good at one thing and didn't apologize for it." The character appealed to Platt because he reminded him of the film heroes he looked up to in his childhood, characters usually played by Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood.
- #082
The film contains many references to Taxi Driver (1976). One of them is the scene where Driver sits alone eating pie. This is exactly what protagonist Travis Bickle does in Taxi Driver. Refn expressed his respect for Taxi Driver director Martin Scorsese.
- #083
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- #085
Ryan Gosling explained what first drew him to the script: "Trying to figure out who would do such a thing, and the only way to understand it is that this guy has seen too many movies and has started to confuse his life with a movie. Lost in Hollywood mythology… I could understand that because as a kid, when I first saw First Blood (1982), it captivated me and I thought I was Rambo. The next day I went to school and put all these knives in my Fisher-Price Houdini set and threw them at all these kids during recess and got suspended from school… So I connected with the film in that way; that's how movies can do magic."
- #086
- #087
Beth Mickle was hired as production designer on Ryan Gosling's recommendation; they had worked together on Half Nelson (2006). Before shooting, Mickle was overseeing a crew of 40 who routinely worked 16 to 18 hours a day. This was her most expensive film to date, and Mickle felt freer compared to Half Nelson (2006), saying "there was another zero added to the budget."
- #088
- #089
While going through mixer Johnny Jewel's catalog, Nicolas Winding Refn chose "Under Your Spell" and "Tick of the Clock" because he thought the film was a fairy tale. During the climax, the opening melody of "A Real Hero" is avoided because it is about transforming into "a real human being, and a real hero," since this is when the driver transitions into both states. At first, Jewel worried that "Under Your Spell" might be too realistic, but soon realized it was used in Drive "the way I felt when I wrote it. He absolutely understood the nuance of the song and what it was supposed to mean, and he wanted to give the audience that feeling, the same feeling."
- #090
Thinking about music in terms of essential elements, Johnny Jewel would tell Nicolas Winding Refn that there should be no bass in certain scenes because it is generally used as an earth tone for a more emotional or ominous part. For the "dreamlike" scene, Jewel thought the music should be at a high level and soothing. To help with the writing process and create melodies, the producer followed a procedure in which he highlighted many sentences in the novel, then had these words printed in large type and hung them on his walls, or drew pictures while watching the film.
- #091
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- #096
While watching a cartoon, Benicio assumes one of the characters is the villain because it is a shark, and Driver responds, "Are there no friendly sharks?" In Finding Nemo (2003), Albert Brooks (who plays Bernie in this film) voiced a fish (Marlin) who encounters a villainous-looking shark that turns out to be quite friendly.
- #097
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- #099
As Driver (Ryan Gosling) eats dinner with Standard (Oscar Isaac), Irene (Carey Mulligan) and young Benicio (Kaden Leos) before the heist that will free Standard from his obligations, Standard asks his new friend to make a toast, but Driver raises his water glass to join the toast. Toasting with water is considered bad luck as a harbinger of the coming disaster.
- #100
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- #103
Hossein Amini adapted the novel for the screen. He thought it was a rare book that could be optioned from a studio because it was short, bleak and resembled poetry. Amini found the adaptation difficult because the novel did not present a linear story and contained many flashbacks and jumps in time. He felt the non-linear structure made it "a very tricky structure" for a feature film.
- #104
At around 94 minutes, Driver kills Bernie Rose while being gravely wounded himself. However, in the camera shot, Driver is seen with one of his feet on the ground right after, then standing up and sitting in his car. On close inspection, Driver is seen wearing yellow bowling shoes. There is blood on his shoe on the ground that matches both colors of his jacket: blood-stained blond.
- #105
As Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) cleans Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) blood off his razor and puts it back in the display case, he apparently believed he was concealing its use in Shannon's murder; modern forensic science can recover human blood visible only at a microscopic level from tiny gaps in the surface of metals. If any police investigation reached him, regardless of whether it was connected to this murder, the razor would be taken as evidence and Shannon's blood would incriminate him. A very stupid move for a criminal who seems so knowledgeable.
- #106
(At around the 53rd minute) When the pawn shop door opens, a metal door sound effect is heard. The stock sound effect has been used in countless films, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Rock (1996) and Monsters, Inc. (2001), as well as in video games such as Alone in the Dark (1992), Far Cry 3 (2012) and Grand Theft Auto V (2013). It was first recorded by Jerry Ross of Skywalker Sound for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985).
Behind the Scenes (7)
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During production, Nicolas Winding Refn moved into a house in Los Angeles and insisted that the cast and writers move in with him. They would work on the script and shoot all day, then watch films, edit or drive at night. Refn also requested that the editing room be set up in his house. With an 81-page shooting script, Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling continued to reduce the dialogue during filming.
- #111
Consistent with Nicolas Winding Refn's usual visual style, wide-angle lenses were used heavily by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. Handheld camera work was avoided. He also avoided the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), preferring to keep the film more "grounded" and original. Not being able to afford CGI due to budget constraints was also a factor in this decision.
- #112
- #113
Characters & Cast (5)
- #114
Bryan Cranston was one of the first actors Nicolas Winding Refn wanted to cast because he was a fan of Breaking Bad (2008). Knowing Cranston had other opportunities, Winding Refn tried to interest him by asking how he wanted to develop the role. While Cranston wrote the pros and cons of doing the film on a piece of paper, Winding Refn called him when he got no answer. Impressed by Winding Refn's interest, he accepted the role.
- #115
- #116
"Trying to work in a more reality arena for a character like that," Nicolas Winding Refn initially auditioned porn stars for Blanche. He could not find anyone with the necessary acting ability. After meeting Christina Hendricks, he decided to cast her, feeling that her "powerhouse" personality would suit the character.
- #117
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Throughout the film, Albert Brooks pushes back against the neurotic, pathetic, unlucky, perpetually complaining roles he usually plays, in which his characters never get what they want out of life. Here he plays a confident man who is respected and feared, has control over his life, and turns violent when pushed.
Easter Eggs & References (6)
- #119
Contains a major spoiler — show
Drive references the fable of the scorpion and the frog: a frog agrees to carry a scorpion across a river if the scorpion promises not to sting it; the scorpion, using unassailable logic, promises that it would only destroy itself if it stung the frog above the water; halfway across the river the scorpion stings the frog anyway, saying "it's just my nature," and both drown. The Driver can be seen as the Frog of the story; he drives criminals (the scorpions) around in his car, but is inevitably dragged (stung) into their destructive world, which leads to everyone's downfall. Just as the frog carries the scorpion on its back, the Driver has a scorpion on the back of his jacket.
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Bryan Cranston had previously guest-starred in the 1998 "The X-Files" episode titled "Drive." It was his first collaboration with writer Vince Gilligan. Gilligan, impressed by his sympathetic villain performance in the episode, later cast him as Walter White in Breaking Bad (2008), which ultimately led to his role in Drive.
- #123
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Deeper Meaning (2)
- #125
- #126
Ryan Gosling explained what first drew him to the script: "Trying to figure out who would do something like this, the only way to understand it is that this guy has seen too many movies and has started to confuse his life with a film. Lost in Hollywood mythology… I could understand that because as a kid, the first time I saw First Blood (1982) it captivated me and I thought I was Rambo. The next day I went to school and put all these knives in my Fisher-Price Houdini set and threw them at all these kids at recess and got suspended from school… So I connected to the film in that way; in that way films can do magic."
Career & Awards (1)
- #127
While Driver (Ryan Gosling) eats dinner with Standard (Oscar Isaac), Irene (Carey Mulligan) and young Benicio (Kaden Leos) before the heist that will clear Standard's obligations, Standard asks his new friend to make a toast, but Driver raises a glass of water to join in. A toast made with water is considered bad luck, a harbinger of the coming disaster.
Life & Family (2)
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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