“Baby Driver” is one of those movies that I went into not really knowing what I was going to get. I saw zero trailers which makes the experience 1000 times better because trailers tend to show most of the good bits of a film. Which is something that I highly recommend doing, avoid trailers at all costs. Go in not knowing what your going to get, as the experience was excellent. But I Digress. The movie does a great job setting up the characters and the environment that they live in.
*BEWARE SPOILERS AHEAD*
The film opens up to one of the best scenes of the whole movie. Baby (Ansel Elgort,) Griff (Jon Bernthal,) Buddy (Jon Hamm,) and Darling (Eiza Gonzalez,) are about to pull off a bank heist in Atlanta, Georgia. Baby, who has a passion for music, is the getaway driver for the crew. He uses the music as a way to drown out the ringing in his ears from an accident he had years ago that took the lives of his parents and placed him in foster care.
The scene that follows after the robbers return to the car is superb. The police are already coming, and Baby uses his skills to evade the police in a very artistic fashion. The scene reminded me of something out “Grand Theft Auto," with Baby performing really ridiculous stunts, which were all done with little to no special effects. Baby eventually evades the police and the crew goes on to their hideout. The intro scene was great and it really got the adrenaline pumping, which is something that you need to start off a movie. We are then introduced to Doc (Kevin Spacey,) who orchestrates the heists, and it is revealed that Baby stole from Doc and this is a form of repaying him, while also making a little bit of money.
The film reminded me a lot of the 2010 film “The Town,” except a little more lighthearted. In “The Town,” Ben Affleck’s character meets a woman that was involved in one of his crews robberies and eventually, the FBI uses her as bait to get to him and he escapes to
We get to see a human side of Baby. All these characters he has worked with have been, for the most part, really bad and terrible people, and we see that Baby is the exact opposite of these people. When scouting the Post Office, he meets an attendant who is really kind to Baby, which prompts him to ask if she is working tomorrow, the day of the robbery, and she says yes. This makes Baby feel guilt and he becomes concerned about the heist. We are introduced to Bats (Jaime Fox,) who is basically a psychopath and isn’t afraid to do something rash. At one point in the film, at an under ground gun deal, he opens fire on under cover cops, who later turn out to be dirty cops working for Doc. He even threatens Debora at one point in the film but Baby stops him just in time.
At the ending of the film, Baby tries to make things right. They decide to go through with the Post Office heist, and as he is waiting for the crew to finish what they were doing inside, he sees the attendant he met the day before coming into work. He signals for her to run, and just as that happens a security guard comes up to the car and the crew comes out and kills the guard and the attendant then realizes what Baby was trying to say. Baby begins to panic and Bats starts screaming and threatening him, so he drives right into a truck that is parked in front of him, killing Bats. This results in a long chase scene through Atlanta, as well as Baby stealing an elderly woman’s car, and then giving her purse back to her because that’s just who he is.
The ending reminded me a lot of “the Town.” He goes to Debora and picks her up from the diner, except Buddy is already there. He has lost his wife, Darling, and he blames Baby for it. He plans to get his revenge by killing someone that Baby loves. Buddy is eventually killed and Baby and Debora go on their Journey. Except the FBI and police are waiting for them. Baby is taken into custody and is sentenced to 25 years. This was a moment that was bittersweet, as we know Baby is going to jail. The witnesses defend him saying how kind and passionate Baby is, and how he is just involved with the wrong crowd. The judge ends up offering him a parole hearing after 5 years and he is released from prison. Finally, he and Debora can go on their road trip.
I really enjoyed Baby Driver, while it clearly takes inspiration from the Grand Theft Auto series in terms of driving, it is still a fantastic film with a fantastic cast. The story is also stellar, as the main character isn’t an anti-hero, but instead he is just someone who is caught up in something without a choice on what to do. In films like “The Town,” and most other heist movies, the main character is a anti-hero type that seems to enjoy what they do. While Baby loves driving, I don’t think he likes doing it for the cause that he was apart of. "Baby Driver" is excellent and I highly recommend that everyone goes and sees it.
