What is it with movies about getaway drivers, that their creators will regularly opt to render their protagonists nameless? Often known simply as “driver” or “wheelman,” it seems the maintenance of mystique and obscurity around their character is paramount to their credibility behind the wheel. It’s like naming your pet cat, “cat;" it’s either incredibly lacking in creativity or an ingenious way of preserving the allure of a profession that is famous for its adrenaline-inducing stunts and daredevil nature.
In the cases of these films, it’s certainly the latter, with them all falling into the category of hot-blooded, hard-boiled, suspense-filled, getaway-driving classics that combine some of the most skilled stunt work seen on the big screen, with some of the most talented camera work that creates supremely aesthetically pleasing action thrillers. Let’s take a look at the best movies about getaway driving…
5 Wheelman
The Netflix original picture, Wheelman, flew monumentally under the radar, and has an exquisite performance from Frank Grillo, who plays the central character, Wheelman. Lonand behold, this getaway flick is another low-budget neo-noir crime thriller with an edge, and unpredictability aplenty.
Telling the tale of a highly-masterful getaway driver who after a bank heist gone wrong, discovers he has been double-crossed. As much a story of retribution as it is a chronicle about the dangers and risks of being behind the wheel for high-stakes robberies. A truly slick, intense movie, that combines elements from Locke and The Driver.
4 The Italian Job
In one of the definitive heist movies of the 1960s, Michael Caine appears in one of his most memorable performances as London gangster and former prisoner, Charlie Croker. Fresh from a spell at one of her majesty’s penitentiaries, Charlie enlists the help of several ex-convicts with expertise in the field of large-scale robberies, including crime boss, Mr. Bridger (played by the legendary Noel Coward).
Having planned to carry out a gold bullion heist in Rome with an accomplice, Roger, it soon transpires that Roger has been killed by the mafia, and Charlie must execute the mission himself. While not solely based on a getaway, The Italian Job has one of the most iconic getaway scenes in cinematic history as the three Mini Coopers sporting the colors of the Union Jack race through the streets of Rome attempting to evade police capture.
3 Baby Driver
After conquering British film with the first two installments of the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy, Edgar Wright made the transatlantic voyage over to Hollywood in order to plow his filmmaking furrow elsewhere with 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, before returning seven years later with 2017’s Baby Driver. With a killer soundtrack infused with rock ‘n roll, R&B, and classic jazz, Ansel Elgort stars as the young getaway driver, Baby.
After inadvertently stealing a mob boss’ car, Baby is indebted to him and must recompense through a series of daring heists with a number of morally skewered individuals. Baby Driver is an immensely enjoyable film, that manages to attain the sex appeal of Hollywood filmmaking while concurrently staying true to Wright’s quirky techniques and quips that propelled him into big-budget filmmaking in the first place. It's an action movie definitely deserving of a sequel.
2 The Driver
The Driver was originally written with Steve McQueen in mind for the titular role of The Driver, which would have made the film irrefutably better and undoubtedly more commercially viable; that said, Ryan O’Neal was subsequently cast as the lead in this 1978 neo-noir crime drama.
The Driver traverses the tale of a nameless man who is regularly recruited by criminal organizations to operate as the getaway driver for infamous bank heists in Los Angeles, yet he soon finds himself the subject of a police investigation and sting operation. This is an effortlessly cool, Ray-Ban aviator-wearing, television-out-of-hotel-window flick that is a seminal film of its genre, a benchmark-setting title with two awe-inspiring performances from O'Neal and Bruce Dern.
1 Drive
Ryan Gosling has thoroughly perfected his niche as the laconic, moody, and ice-cool action star. Wasting little energy on spoken diction, often straight-faced and unreadable, The Gray Man lead was perfectly enigmatic in 2011’s Drive, a role that accelerated him towards industry acclaim. The neo-noir crime drama, with its low-key neon luminescence, deep-set in this stylized shadow is an atmospheric feast.
Set against the backdrop of LA, Nicholas Winding Refn’s movie could have arguably translated even better in LED-clad Las Vegas, with its multitude of stunts and dimly-lit backstreets. The film tells the story of the unnamed man (Gosling) who is a stuntman by day and a getaway driver for LA’s criminal underworld by night. After falling in love with a career criminal’s wife, Irene (Carrey Mulligan), he is forced into intervening to protect her and her son from the violence brought to their very doorstep by her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac).