I think it's a revenge film; the revenge of the frog. The Driver, the frog, knows about the nature of the scorpion now, he has (finally) learned the lesson of the fable. He grins knowingly at the end when the scorpion makes an honest deal with him (honest in the sense that the scorpion admits he will kill him); the frog knows what's coming and has prepared accordingly. The frog kills the scorpion and swims away (drives away, in the metaphor of the movie), bloodied but alive.
Not a revenge film but he survived mostly as a loner or by following his rules but when got soft and broke them it got him killed. When talks to the kid about the shark he tries to change his nature got him killed he was trusting people he would of normally wouldn't and had the chance to escape but stayed to save the girl and kid.
I thought this too. Then I realised, I just wanted a happy ending... Even though I always insist happy endings suck. lol *Oops, 7 year's ago? I'm sure you weren't expecting a reply!!
He's the frog, not the scorpion. His life, his work involves the literal transportation of seedy criminals to and fro, much like the frog ferrying the scorpion across the river. He wears the scorpion on his back, symbolizing the frog carrying the scorpion. He is good natured but has a dark underbelly because of the work and people he's involved with. The criminals are all the scorpions attempting to poison and tear apart his way of life. We see this demonstrated in the diner scene when he is offered a job but refuses, telling the con man to shut his mouth. In the original fable, the frog was reluctant to help the scorpion, as he knew the risk of being stung. However, he is eventually convinced and naively takes a job. Like the frog, he is fooled several times by the criminals and eventually ends up being stabbed by one, only to turn around and kill the criminals himself, like the frog drowning the scorpion, as a result of being stung.
Not just the criminals. His single mom GF her kid her BF all of them are scorpions who lead him to his doom. They may not intend to they may try to be good people but they need him and by their nature fuck him over and lead him to his doom. Depressing reality but there it is,.
I agree, he's both. He's the frog when dealing with the criminal world as in he ferries them around, but he's the scorpion in regards to Irene in the sense that he cannot change who he is. The scorpion on his jacket can symbolize both things.
I think he is a pure scorpion. You can see author proving that by bloodstains and when his partner in crime got her head popped up. A normal person would be shocked but a man of underworld would not. I think he has a dark past behind him thats why he refused to use gun, he wanted to move on for better life.
I think the movie shifts the driver from scorpion to frog. It’s a movie about the drivers internal struggle as to whether or not he can be a criminal whilst being a good person “there are no good sharks?” The driver does things that make the viewer think he is the scorpion and then the frog, until ultimately after a lot of is he/isn’t he we finally learn his fate, he becomes the frog after defeating the scorpion and swims off into the sunset. Great movie
this is my absolute favorite movie, ive watched it probably over a hundred times by now & analyzed it deeply. i heavily disagree with many of your points here & although i do see where you're trying to go with them, i believe you have a couple of things backwards. ill preface this by saying refn's characters do not diminish in strength. they transform & sacrifice to realize their true destiny & are then set free by it. firstly, i believe you're mistaking the drivers rehearsal over his professional criminal life as a weakness when it is actually a strength. here, we are seeing yhe driver in his prime form. his true element. the only aspect in his life in which he has total control over, & he utilizes it. the driver is very good at one thing & makes no apologies for it. driving. it is why this vessel will lead him to fulfill his destiny. when he encounters the former criminal that he drove he does not react threateningly because his "rehearsed line is shot down", its because he never wanted his personal life to mix with his criminal life. the driver drives on his terms, & his terms alone. in that aspect of his life, he exhibits full control. what he does not have control over is his growing emotional intensity with irene. in that scene where hes asking benicio about sharks, hes not asking about himself. he is asking about bernie. if we can recall that scene immediately follows the point where we clearly see the driver eliciting suspicion of bernies motives, making it a seamless transition. a shark is a fairly common term for a gangster. in this sense, the gangsters are the sharks, the driver is the scorpion, irene & benicio are the frogs. irene & benicio are the frogs because they carry him to his transformation to fulfill his destiny, although not without being stung by him unintentionally because it is simply in his nature. irene & benicio are the true vessels to his transformation from an anti hero that protects criminals by driving them to safety into a "real hero" (as in the song thematically used in the movie) that protects the innocent from those criminals. they taught him to be human. they gave his life a value. if we recall the first scene in which we see the driver on set performing a dangerous stunt, he signs liability for his life away on a waiver over 250$ (500 that him & shannon split), effectively showing how little he values his own life. until irene & benicio give him a true human purpose, which is why even when he thinks he might be walking into his certain death for them he calls her to tell her that her & benicio are the best thing that ever happened to him. they helped him realize his potential to be "a real human being, & a real hero", as back to the song. in this way, he has successfully transformed to fulfill destiny & has been liberated by it. this is a common theme for refn's characters.
I have to go somewhere and I don't think I can come back. But I just wanted you to know getting to be around you and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Nah, man. He's the frog. The scorpion is on his back. The moral is that you can't be a good person if you ferry the scorpions around (which is his job, if you think about it). They drag you down.
I like the OP's theory. But I can't square it with the scene in which he stomps the guy to death. That really felt like the scorpion finally revealing its nature. Still, I've only seen the film a few times...
He was forgoing his nature to help the others which benefited him nothing, but because he felt it right to help them. Then he reclaims his nature and destroys those who have been tearing his world apart. Unlike animal symbols, the man is nuanced and capable of resembling both at different times.
It may also be a reference to the 1995 film Desperado. In this film Antonio Banderas plays "El Mariachi", a guitar player who seeks retribution from a drug lord who killed his lover. The protagonist also wears a jacket with a scorpion on the back.
imo the confrontation with the former client in the diner, his line wasn't shot down, the former client immediately backs off, instead of pressing the matter further or escalating, the former client walks away
One thing that I personally noticed while watching was the driver's outfit changing. As in the beginning of the movie he wore the scorpion jacket then when he meets the girl his outfit changes into the denim jacket and it says that way until the botched robbery when after the gun fight in the motel he wears the scorpion jacket till the ending
I like your analysis, but there's one scene that convinced me Driver was a scorpion. Or at least no longer fully frog. It's when Driver is in the elevator and sees that the man is there to kill him. He realizes that Irene is going to see what he truly is so he kisses her goodbye. He stomps on the guy's head until it's mush. Probably a few stomps too many. Why? My conclusion is that Driver is not just doing bad things to protect himself from scorpions. Rather, he's now harboring some kind of evil himself. He's not only willing to do horrible things, but he takes pleasure in them as well. He killed Nino with pleasure. Stalked him with glee. Slowly. Wanted to make Nino feel as much terror as possible. He may not have been born a scorpion, but something happened in his life and now this evil is part of him. That's why he tells Irene that they can't be together. Wouldn't a nice guy go back for the girl in the end? Start a happy family? I guess we don't see what happens, but it sure as hell doesn't seem like that's what happens. I think he drives off. Disappears. Because he knows that he should not be in her life. Perhaps the definition of an anti-hero is something like a frog who grows a scorpion tail. A tail that will never go away.
Disagree about the elevator part. In any other circumstance he'd have stopped when he died but in this particular situation that guy was the sole cause of him having to reveal himself to Irene which causes him to go overboard.
He does these things to these people because they ripped away his chance at a normal life. Because he just wants out and they won't let him. The hero goes back for the girl sure, but what about when the hero knows he's only going to put the girl in danger by sticking around?
We all know Driver is the frog. His iconic briefing "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." proves that. Violence is NOT in his nature. One thing I believe that is missed is that Irene is the water/river in the story. Typically she is calm, sernene, a source of peace and (emotional, for Driver) sustinence. Due to extenuating circumstances though, (Standard and the problems that come with him being the storm) she has become a source of grave danger that could swallow up both scorpions and frogs. I realized this when I rewatched the apartment scene and she literally gives Driver water.
Great analysis dude. Never considered this angle. I just watched another clip earlier, where he takes Bernie out to his car after a discussion. Things appear a safe. As he opens the car boot… he's literally stabbed in the back by Bernie's knife. It struck me as another parallel from your Scorpion/Frog theory.
Just saw this movie again on the big screen due to a re-release here in Korea. I noticed the Driver's boyish and almost naive personality when he first meets Standard during his welcome back party. In this scene, the Driver always has a sheepish grin on his face even when Standard asks in a semi confrontational way about whether he helped Irene out while he was gone. We all know Standard doesn't like that and feels threatened by it, but the Driver seems almost oblivious to Standard's anger/frustration under the surface. This is what leads me to believe at his core, he's an innocent being like the frog.
He's the Scorpion, they're the frogs, but they're all people going against their true natures. He seems to be the only able to live outside his nature successfully, which is why he dominated them in his true nature when provoked.
La metafora della Rana e dello Scorpione nel film Drive : "Conosco il male perché ne faccio parte e quando sento del bene dentro me, posso distruggere la malvagità (mia e in generale) facendo qualcosa di buono, ma lo faccio rimettendoci la mia vita purché il male muoia con me" O meglio "sento del buono dentro me, ma la mia natura è malvagia, ma posso usare Il male a fin di bene anche se dovrò perdere quanto di più caro e buono possiedo..." In pratica rappresenta una dualità dell' individuo, ma può essere intesa anche come 'alternanza' del bene e il male... un po' come lo 'ying e yang' orientale
Sam I really like the review, it also, as all good reviews should allows discussion on many things, great work... The Scorpion story is similar as the Arkham Asylum light beam Joker pun, which I believe may be the original of these, plus, how about the Driver original movie, there are similarities there also.
There is another version of the scorpion and the frog. When the frog asks why he stung him. The scorpion answers better we both die than my enemy live. That fits this movie a little more. Since he’s willing to die to kill his enemies
the thing is, using a hammer on a bullet like that wont do shit other that a big bruise. you need a firing pin to set off a bullet, he's just hammering a blunt object into the guy's head. even if the bullet was somehow set off, it would just explode in his hand because it has no barrel to guide the pressure from the gunpowder igniting
burnzy3210 is that somehow less threatening than being "shot" in the head? "hammering a blunt object" into someones skull sounds a hell of a lot more intimidating to me than getting shot in the brain, & thats exactly the point.
Fight fire with fire 😂 burn it down and show them never to play with fire again. 😉 Is why I got my gold jacket 😀 without a scorpion emblemed on it. Cause theres no good sharks 😛 ... get out of the WATER! Sh sh sh S H A R K !!!
isint the driver the frog w the scorpion on his back driving them around all day, they burn him they all get burned etc ... mm .. could be the frog becomes the scorpion i guess ..
No, he's the frog the moral of the scorpion and frog story is that people can't change how they are the same way with the frog, the driver is pretending to be something he is not and is a fish out of water because of it
The Driver is clearly the Scorpion 🦂. I am impressed how others have made him out to be a Frog 🐸 - Sam Cooney (an interesting theory) and many others in the comments.
I think it's a revenge film; the revenge of the frog. The Driver, the frog, knows about the nature of the scorpion now, he has (finally) learned the lesson of the fable. He grins knowingly at the end when the scorpion makes an honest deal with him (honest in the sense that the scorpion admits he will kill him); the frog knows what's coming and has prepared accordingly. The frog kills the scorpion and swims away (drives away, in the metaphor of the movie), bloodied but alive.
He's the Scorpion - he will not back down even of he knows he'll get killed.
@@DogFoxHybrid I don't think so. Note the scorpion is "on his back" the whole time.
Not a revenge film but he survived mostly as a loner or by following his rules but when got soft and broke them it got him killed. When talks to the kid about the shark he tries to change his nature got him killed he was trusting people he would of normally wouldn't and had the chance to escape but stayed to save the girl and kid.
I thought this too. Then I realised, I just wanted a happy ending... Even though I always insist happy endings suck. lol
*Oops, 7 year's ago? I'm sure you weren't expecting a reply!!
@@longshotkdb 😅7 isn't long in UA-cam years. A happy ending would've ruined this movie for me.
that was actually surprisingly really good. For such a short video
He's the frog, not the scorpion. His life, his work involves the literal transportation of seedy criminals to and fro, much like the frog ferrying the scorpion across the river. He wears the scorpion on his back, symbolizing the frog carrying the scorpion. He is good natured but has a dark underbelly because of the work and people he's involved with. The criminals are all the scorpions attempting to poison and tear apart his way of life.
We see this demonstrated in the diner scene when he is offered a job but refuses, telling the con man to shut his mouth. In the original fable, the frog was reluctant to help the scorpion, as he knew the risk of being stung. However, he is eventually convinced and naively takes a job. Like the frog, he is fooled several times by the criminals and eventually ends up being stabbed by one, only to turn around and kill the criminals himself, like the frog drowning the scorpion, as a result of being stung.
Not just the criminals. His single mom GF her kid her BF all of them are scorpions who lead him to his doom. They may not intend to they may try to be good people but they need him and by their nature fuck him over and lead him to his doom. Depressing reality but there it is,.
I reckon he's bit of both. Duality of human nature.
I agree, he's both. He's the frog when dealing with the criminal world as in he ferries them around, but he's the scorpion in regards to Irene in the sense that he cannot change who he is.
The scorpion on his jacket can symbolize both things.
I think he is a pure scorpion. You can see author proving that by bloodstains and when his partner in crime got her head popped up. A normal person would be shocked but a man of underworld would not. I think he has a dark past behind him thats why he refused to use gun, he wanted to move on for better life.
I think He is actually a scorpion because he made his tenets on his nature
I think the movie shifts the driver from scorpion to frog. It’s a movie about the drivers internal struggle as to whether or not he can be a criminal whilst being a good person “there are no good sharks?”
The driver does things that make the viewer think he is the scorpion and then the frog, until ultimately after a lot of is he/isn’t he we finally learn his fate, he becomes the frog after defeating the scorpion and swims off into the sunset. Great movie
this is my absolute favorite movie, ive watched it probably over a hundred times by now & analyzed it deeply. i heavily disagree with many of your points here & although i do see where you're trying to go with them, i believe you have a couple of things backwards. ill preface this by saying refn's characters do not diminish in strength. they transform & sacrifice to realize their true destiny & are then set free by it.
firstly, i believe you're mistaking the drivers rehearsal over his professional criminal life as a weakness when it is actually a strength. here, we are seeing yhe driver in his prime form. his true element. the only aspect in his life in which he has total control over, & he utilizes it. the driver is very good at one thing & makes no apologies for it. driving. it is why this vessel will lead him to fulfill his destiny. when he encounters the former criminal that he drove he does not react threateningly because his "rehearsed line is shot down", its because he never wanted his personal life to mix with his criminal life. the driver drives on his terms, & his terms alone. in that aspect of his life, he exhibits full control.
what he does not have control over is his growing emotional intensity with irene. in that scene where hes asking benicio about sharks, hes not asking about himself. he is asking about bernie. if we can recall that scene immediately follows the point where we clearly see the driver eliciting suspicion of bernies motives, making it a seamless transition. a shark is a fairly common term for a gangster.
in this sense, the gangsters are the sharks, the driver is the scorpion, irene & benicio are the frogs. irene & benicio are the frogs because they carry him to his transformation to fulfill his destiny, although not without being stung by him unintentionally because it is simply in his nature. irene & benicio are the true vessels to his transformation from an anti hero that protects criminals by driving them to safety into a "real hero" (as in the song thematically used in the movie) that protects the innocent from those criminals. they taught him to be human. they gave his life a value. if we recall the first scene in which we see the driver on set performing a dangerous stunt, he signs liability for his life away on a waiver over 250$ (500 that him & shannon split), effectively showing how little he values his own life. until irene & benicio give him a true human purpose, which is why even when he thinks he might be walking into his certain death for them he calls her to tell her that her & benicio are the best thing that ever happened to him. they helped him realize his potential to be "a real human being, & a real hero", as back to the song. in this way, he has successfully transformed to fulfill destiny & has been liberated by it. this is a common theme for refn's characters.
Very nice commentary.
Yes mine too I'm still trying to wrap my head around it... Why?
I’ve read many analysises on the film and this one is by far the best.
Very nice...impressive
Thanks for this!
He is the frog who became a scorpion, instead of a wolf in sheep's clothing, he is a sheep who learned how to be a wolf.
I have to go somewhere and I don't think I can come back. But I just wanted you to know getting to be around you and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to me.
i love how the movie clearly portrays him as the frog but makes you want to thing he's the scorpion with that jacket
straight in to the feels, nice interpretation on the movie. god i loved this film, have to watch it again now.
Nah, man. He's the frog. The scorpion is on his back. The moral is that you can't be a good person if you ferry the scorpions around (which is his job, if you think about it). They drag you down.
Ah okay, at the end you finally say it. I thought it was obvious the whole time.
Archie WahWah at the end of the video he said so
I like the OP's theory. But I can't square it with the scene in which he stomps the guy to death. That really felt like the scorpion finally revealing its nature. Still, I've only seen the film a few times...
He was forgoing his nature to help the others which benefited him nothing, but because he felt it right to help them. Then he reclaims his nature and destroys those who have been tearing his world apart.
Unlike animal symbols, the man is nuanced and capable of resembling both at different times.
@@bigol9223 Now that sounds more like it
It may also be a reference to the 1995 film Desperado. In this film Antonio Banderas plays "El Mariachi", a guitar player who seeks retribution from a drug lord who killed his lover. The protagonist also wears a jacket with a scorpion on the back.
He is the frog, the scorpion is on HIS back...
very nicely explained. now the movie makes sense. Thanks Sam
This was an oddly insightful video, considering how many views it has.
Thank you?
Nah it’s just his accent that makes it sound insightful
imo the confrontation with the former client in the diner, his line wasn't shot down, the former client immediately backs off, instead of pressing the matter further or escalating, the former client walks away
One thing that I personally noticed while watching was the driver's outfit changing. As in the beginning of the movie he wore the scorpion jacket then when he meets the girl his outfit changes into the denim jacket and it says that way until the botched robbery when after the gun fight in the motel he wears the scorpion jacket till the ending
I like your analysis, but there's one scene that convinced me Driver was a scorpion. Or at least no longer fully frog.
It's when Driver is in the elevator and sees that the man is there to kill him. He realizes that Irene is going to see what he truly is so he kisses her goodbye. He stomps on the guy's head until it's mush. Probably a few stomps too many. Why? My conclusion is that Driver is not just doing bad things to protect himself from scorpions. Rather, he's now harboring some kind of evil himself. He's not only willing to do horrible things, but he takes pleasure in them as well. He killed Nino with pleasure. Stalked him with glee. Slowly. Wanted to make Nino feel as much terror as possible.
He may not have been born a scorpion, but something happened in his life and now this evil is part of him. That's why he tells Irene that they can't be together. Wouldn't a nice guy go back for the girl in the end? Start a happy family? I guess we don't see what happens, but it sure as hell doesn't seem like that's what happens. I think he drives off. Disappears. Because he knows that he should not be in her life.
Perhaps the definition of an anti-hero is something like a frog who grows a scorpion tail. A tail that will never go away.
Disagree about the elevator part. In any other circumstance he'd have stopped when he died but in this particular situation that guy was the sole cause of him having to reveal himself to Irene which causes him to go overboard.
He does these things to these people because they ripped away his chance at a normal life. Because he just wants out and they won't let him. The hero goes back for the girl sure, but what about when the hero knows he's only going to put the girl in danger by sticking around?
We all know Driver is the frog. His iconic briefing "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." proves that. Violence is NOT in his nature. One thing I believe that is missed is that Irene is the water/river in the story.
Typically she is calm, sernene, a source of peace and (emotional, for Driver) sustinence. Due to extenuating circumstances though, (Standard and the problems that come with him being the storm) she has become a source of grave danger that could swallow up both scorpions and frogs. I realized this when I rewatched the apartment scene and she literally gives Driver water.
Great analysis dude. Never considered this angle. I just watched another clip earlier, where he takes Bernie out to his car after a discussion. Things appear a safe. As he opens the car boot… he's literally stabbed in the back by Bernie's knife. It struck me as another parallel from your Scorpion/Frog theory.
Ah of course! Well observed. And thanks kindly for the words
Bernie must have known he would retaliate, known there was nothing to gain. It was just his nature
In this story he's both the scorpion and the frog. The will to seek out more, and the self destructive nature we all have
Ryan Gosling is born in November, he's Scorpio.
Roll credits
Just saw this movie again on the big screen due to a re-release here in Korea.
I noticed the Driver's boyish and almost naive personality when he first meets Standard during his welcome back party.
In this scene, the Driver always has a sheepish grin on his face even when Standard asks in a semi confrontational way about whether he helped Irene out while he was gone. We all know Standard doesn't like that and feels threatened by it, but the Driver seems almost oblivious to Standard's anger/frustration under the surface.
This is what leads me to believe at his core, he's an innocent being like the frog.
Exactly. He doesn't drive off Into the sunset, but rather drives on slowly as if drowning after the sting, the stab. Very good 👍
He should have had a lobster. Lobsters a psychic.
He's the Scorpion, they're the frogs, but they're all people going against their true natures.
He seems to be the only able to live outside his nature successfully, which is why he dominated them in his true nature when provoked.
La metafora della Rana e dello Scorpione nel film Drive : "Conosco il male perché ne faccio parte e quando sento del bene dentro me, posso distruggere la malvagità (mia e in generale) facendo qualcosa di buono, ma lo faccio rimettendoci la mia vita purché il male muoia con me"
O meglio "sento del buono dentro me, ma la mia natura è malvagia, ma posso usare Il male a fin di bene anche se dovrò perdere quanto di più caro e buono possiedo..."
In pratica rappresenta una dualità dell' individuo, ma può essere intesa anche come 'alternanza' del bene e il male... un po' come lo 'ying e yang' orientale
Sam I really like the review, it also, as all good reviews should allows discussion on many things, great work... The Scorpion story is similar as the Arkham Asylum light beam Joker pun, which I believe may be the original of these, plus, how about the Driver original movie, there are similarities there also.
the scorpion and the frog story is much older than the killing joke.
"lol" said the scorpion, "lmao"
How do you have so few Subs, this is great
There is another version of the scorpion and the frog. When the frog asks why he stung him. The scorpion answers better we both die than my enemy live. That fits this movie a little more. Since he’s willing to die to kill his enemies
Thank you. A very insightful analysis of the Frog and Scorpion tale and of one of my 5 most loved movies.
He's the tough frog. He bares the burden so other frogs don't have to. His unsaid quote "Someone's gotta do it "
Thats really cool actually, thanks for informing me of all this! Such a truly compelling piece that has left its mark.
the movie the Crying Game also discusses this
the thing is, using a hammer on a bullet like that wont do shit other that a big bruise. you need a firing pin to set off a bullet, he's just hammering a blunt object into the guy's head. even if the bullet was somehow set off, it would just explode in his hand because it has no barrel to guide the pressure from the gunpowder igniting
burnzy3210 is that somehow less threatening than being "shot" in the head? "hammering a blunt object" into someones skull sounds a hell of a lot more intimidating to me than getting shot in the brain, & thats exactly the point.
He makes him eat it later on too.
Fight fire with fire 😂 burn it down and show them never to play with fire again. 😉 Is why I got my gold jacket 😀 without a scorpion emblemed on it.
Cause theres no good sharks 😛 ... get out of the WATER! Sh sh sh S H A R K !!!
Excellent video! With time, patience, and small improvements, you'll gain an audience and become popular. Keep up the good work!
Thanks a lot for the words! My aim right now is to simply improve so if I get that far I'll be happy.
But I'll take popularity if it's going..
neh .. he wears that jacket just because Ryan Gosling is born under the sign of Scorpio. Director has nothing to do with it i reckon.
isint the driver the frog w the scorpion on his back driving them around all day, they burn him they all get burned etc ... mm .. could be the frog becomes the scorpion i guess ..
Underrated video
Sam Cooney offered a close interpretation of the symbols in the film.
Very good analysis. Spot on!
lol. lmao.
No offence bit your analysis is way off
cool Drive is my favourite movie
how does this video have 37.084 views but less than a thousand likes
No, he's the frog the moral of the scorpion and frog story is that people can't change how they are the same way with the frog, the driver is pretending to be something he is not and is a fish out of water because of it
Ahh so he's a fish.
Try making it through all 4 minutes. There's a twist.
that was deep
Damn that’s spot on
I love these kinda videos
Make another video!
Genius
ummmm.....meh
The Driver is clearly the Scorpion 🦂. I am impressed how others have made him out to be a Frog 🐸 - Sam Cooney (an interesting theory) and many others in the comments.
Pretty sure he's supposed to be both
Umbrella Academy did a far better job.
The scorpion and the frog is the shittiest story ever