The Driver is hired by the FBI to help defuse a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee has kidnapped a CEO and has hidden her, demanding $5,088,042. The Driver delivers the money, writing the sum on his hand as instructed by the hostage taker. After he is told that he holds the life of a person in his hand, he is ordered to burn the money. As he complies, the federal agents break in and attempt to subdue the man, who shoots himself in the head before he reveals where the woman is hidden. The Driver then tries to find the hostage before she drowns in the trunk of a sinking car. As a twist, the kidnapped woman is revealed to be the hostage taker's lover. She coldly taunts the dying man in the hospital.
Direction
Woo distills his entire aesthetic into 600 seconds.
Acting
Owen's hands do more acting than most faces.
Cinematography
That burning money shot? *Chef's kiss*
Director
John Woo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of five short films BMW commissioned for 'The Hire' series — essentially expensive car commercials directed by A-listers. Woo reportedly shot this in two days.
The trunk-drowning sequence directly echoes Woo's own 'Hard Boiled' (1992) hospital scene, but here it's compressed to brutal efficiency. The BMW barely matters — Woo just wanted to make another pressure-cooker.
GB
US
