Baby Driver

Plot(Spoiler Alert)

Baby is a very skilled getaway driver who is in love with the music he listens to on his iPod. He doesn’t feel like he belongs with a gang of criminals. He has no use for friends until he meets a beautiful waitress named Debora who is understanding, is full of life, and loves music just as much as he does.



Blaine: Edgar Wright heard the song “Bellbottoms” by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion when he was 21 and always imagined this car chase in his head. He told himself to think of an idea for a movie that is as cool as this car chase he imagined and that’s how the idea for “Baby Driver” started. Edgar loves gagster and car chase movies, but “Baby Driver” was more inspired by the music he listened to and this was like a dream project for him. The title “Baby Driver” came from a song by Simon & Garfunkel.

Edgar had met with Ansel Elgort and the whole conversation was about music. Edgar had the script for “Baby Driver” with him and thought that Ansel might like it. The thing was it was on an iPad. It also had little logos at the top of every page that when you click on it a song will play for the scene. It’s the same songs that are in the film. Ansel Elgort would learn how to stunt drive so that way he would be able to do his own stunts in the movie, except for anything dangerous. The stuntman, Jeremy Fry, would do those scenes. Ansel would practice on an empty parking lot in Rosamond and Jeremy would be Ansel’s teacher on how to stunt drive.

One of the things I love the most about “Baby Driver” is the sound. Like for example during the warehouse scene when there’s a shootout they were able to match the drums with the gunfire and were able to time the explosion at the end of it with the beat of the song. Music is everything to Baby and it’s like his best friend. He also likes to create his own sounds in music with the recordings he does and what surrounds him. The play music on the set while shooting a scene like it was a timer.

The studio asked Edgar Wright why they needed a coffee scene during the opening credits and Edgar informed them that it would be a one long take and it shows that Baby loves music and dancing. In the script it didn’t say there was much dancing so Ryan Heffington, the choreographer, came up with all the dance moves and taught Ansel Elgort how to dance. What was challenging to choreograph was the car chase scene to the music. They found out by test driving the car that the move was going to take 10 seconds and so they had to adjust the time given on the animatic to see how it was going to fit the music because the animatic which is like a video storyboard is telling them how they needed to sync everything because it had to be more precise so they could fit certain beats into the music.

In scenes they shot with guns being fired, all you could hear was the guns. They didn’t play any music in the background while they were shooting that sequence because it was noisy enough on the set with the sounds of guns being shot. Ryan Huffington would tell the actors how their guns should sound. They had to sound like a beat.

Edgar Wright also thought of “Baby Driver” as an ensemble movie. It would be about this loner surrounded by these people he doesn’t want to be around with. What Edgar likes about the criminal characters he has created for “Baby Driver" is that they can be dangerous at times and then other times they can be really funny.



Kevin Spacey’s character, Doc, who is in charge of planning out the bank robberies, can be a threat to Baby at times, but other times he defends him whenever the bank robbers talk shit about him. At the end Doc shows that he has heart by helping Baby escape. He sees Baby with his girl, Debora, and if there’s one thing he’s a sucker for it’s romance because he was in love once and seeing Baby and Debora together reminds Doc of himself when he was Baby’s age. Doc seems like the type of character who cares about Baby and is almost like a father to him. Doc’s death is pretty extreme I would say getting hit by the police car driven by Budd. He goes up and hits one of the ceiling lights in the parking garage and then goes down.

The only actor Edgar had written a part for in “Baby Driver” was Jon Hamm. Edgar was at the 30 Rock building and he met Jon Hamm while he was hosting SNL. After having a nice conversation, Edgar had Jon in mind for “Baby Driver” while the script was still in works and so Edgar wrote the part of Buddy for Jon Hamm.

Edgar Wright used to copy stuff off of TV when he was a kid and Baby uses a few lines from the Pixar film, “Monsters Inc.” Edgar was trying to find a line about friendship and teamwork and he thought “Monsters Inc.” had something very useful. All Edgar had to do was get permission from Pixar to use a clip and a line from one of their animated features in an R rated film.

Baby’s not fond on the gang killing people whether they are innocent or guilty and during the third and last robbery of the film, Baby does the toughest thing he has ever done and that’s kill a person, Bats, played by Jamie Foxx. Towards the end, Baby is in big trouble with both the police and the gagsters. I feel more concerned about Baby on the run from the police than the gangsters because he’s running at a fast pace while the cops are chasing him.

I almost thought that the ending to “Baby Driver” was going to be another ending where two people make it and are far away from any problems they've had. But there is a twist because the cops find Baby and he goes to jail. Good news is Baby was a good thief by warning a woman who worked at the post office, during the third robbery, not to go inside because there was dangerous people robbing it. Baby also gave back that woman’s purse after stealing her car. He goes to jail, but because of his good behavior he is only sentenced to five years instead of twenty five. In the end Baby and Debora are reunited and have a happy ending. And Baby no longer has to deal with any bank robberies and gangsters because they’re all dead now.

My rating on “Baby Driver” is five out of five stars










Sound example



Blaine: There’s a lot other great sounds of objects mixed with music in “Baby Driver".