MovieChat Forums > Drive (2011) Discussion > The Elevator Scene: Pros and Cons

The Elevator Scene: Pros and Cons

posted 9 years ago by daniel-389-59760
14 replies | jump to latest

PROS:

This is a scene that I wish I could witness for the first time once more. After you witness this scene, you won't forget the impression it leaves on you. The scene starts with Gosling and Mulligan waiting for an elevator to go down to the lower parking garage. The elevator doors open, and a man motions to step out. He sees the two standing in the hallway and says, "wrong floor" and steps back inside the elevator. Gosling and Mulligan step inside the elevator. When Gosling reaches to push the button, he glances at the man. We then see a gun inside the man's jacket, and it seemingly becomes apparent to Gosling that the man is there to kill him.

[CUE SLOW MOTION & IRONICALLY DREAMY MUSIC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It4WxQ6dnn0

As the film transitions to slow motion, he guides her over to the corner, as far from the gunman as possible. Steps towards her and kisses her delicately. The suspense builds up while riding on two very different themes - romance and violence. All crammed into one small elevator for one short ride.

The combination of romance and violence truly sets up a beautiful scene as we all know what is coming next. This dramatic moment leaves you in suspense wondering if this may just be the moment where the girl dies by mistake. When I first saw the film I was certain that Gosling was not going to die, but I couldn't say the same for the girl. She seemed expendable given the whole movie was feeling like a tragedy unfolding. I also thought for certain she was going to die being Gosling and her son seemed to have bonded, which would have been an interesting dynamic. The cowboy and the orphan.

All of these ideas caused by such perfect elements of cinematography. The music, the character development, the slow frame rate, and the crush red elevator walls. It couldn't have been anymore of a perfect buildup.

[DING]

[FRAME RATE RETURNS TO FULL SPEED & IRONICALLY DREAMY MUSIC STOPS PLAYING]

The gunman reaches for his pistol, and Gosling slams his face on the elevator wall, then knocking the man to the ground. Gossling then holds the handrail of the elevator to gain more leverage as he proceeds to fully stomp on the man's head. Not once - not twice - not three times. To be fair, I have no idea how many times he did stomp the man's skull in, but I can tell you that once I saw the gunman's face cavitate in from Gossling's boot, I had goosebumps.

The sheer defensive rage Gossling projects in this film is palpable. You can see an intense look in his eye as he's ending the gunman's life as he defends his girl. There are too few movies that show this sort of content, and I genuinely value the bravery of the producers of this film. This scene is borderline "too much". But no - I say it was just enough.

Slow motion kiss on elevator rapidly transitions into man getting skull caved in by Gossling's boot.

After this entire scene unfolds, we are then left with a new kind of tragedy - an "innocence lost" sort of feel. It's at this moment, when Gossling looks to his girl to ensure she's ok, to see nothing but a look of terror in her face. I truly felt at that moment he understood that she would never look at him the same again. It was that moment he realized that was their last kiss.

Like I said - so many powerful moments in this scene and all squeezed into one small elevator. This film set a standard for my appreciation of cinema forever.

What were your thoughts on the scene? Sorry for spelling it all out, but it was almost fun typing it out and rethinking the moment.

You can watch the scene on YouTube at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ufgkJ-uVE

CONS:
Oh wait...

[–] daniel-389-59760 9 years ago

Still couldn't think of any cons....

[–] gasmeter1983 9 years ago

The dimming of the lights bar 1 set a good feel then boom.

[–] tb-sch 9 years ago

Wonderful scene. I could have done without the head mashing shot, as it gives a B-movie feel, where a less explicit angle would have felt less like a gimmick.
But all in all like the whole movie there is so much told between the lines in such an intense way.

[–] bellboa-43102 9 years ago

It was a really cool and visceral scene.

[–] Elder_Yautija 9 years ago

It's interesting how you got Gosling's name right for the first two and a half paragraphs, then in the third paragraph you added a second "s" to make it "Gossling" and you never turned back.
I wander what caused it...

Anyway, that was a nice scene. Improbable situation and outcome, but nicely put together.

[–] courtey8400 8 years ago

His spell checker gave him two and a half paragraphs. Any spelling mistakes in those two and a half paragraphs and the spell checker was his. Anything happens after that and he was on his own. Do you understand?

[–] johnral (138) 7 years ago

The scene might be artsy and all... but the kissing part of the scene is not very realistic. You don't go smooching if you're in an elevator with someone who wants to kill you. But, putting that aside, the final part of the violence is a somewhat realistic depiction of how that would occur; most movies don't go that graphic. There was a similar scene in American History X. By contrast, I don't find the final stabbing scenes to be very realistic; that's just not how killers go about stabbing people. (A more realistic scene can be found in e.g. I saw the Devil, in the taxi scene, currently available, around 3 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx5IL0P89Zo )
But what troubles me more is that I just don't see the Gosling character as being physically strong enough to take down that guy, nor any hit-man type of guy for that matter. Gosling is just a slim guy. Is he supposed to be an expert driver, expert mechanic, and also expert martial arts skills? I can buy the other stuff, but not the tough-guy stuff.
I was also surprised at that point in the movie that the gangster guy was going to kill Gosling. My recollection is that the last scenes simply indicated that they were looking for Gosling, not that they were out to kill him. Perhaps that's implicit, but I found that odd. (And would they want to kill him without knowing where the money is?)
Just a few random thoughts on the elevator scene.

[–] ccr1633 (1526) 7 years ago

johnral wrote:
"The scene might be artsy and all... but the kissing part of the scene is not very realistic. You don't go smooching if you're in an elevator with someone who wants to kill you."

A few comments:
(1) Give some latitude for artistic license.
(2) If you've ever made out while roaming the streets with someone you just met who really digs you too, then you'd know that time stands still in those magical public makeout moments. What seems likes 5 minutes to you is 5 seconds to everyone else. This elevator kiss wasn't quite as obvious a time of vulnerability as you imply.
(3) The Driver obviously loved Lena, but he probably decided to kiss her right then and there to distract Bernie's henchman from the violent fate that soon befell him, to make him think his own designs weren't suspected.
(4) If the Driver had just there on guard, taking furtive glances at the henchman's coat, then he would've lost the element of surprise and might even have triggered the goon into pulling out his piece before he could react.

[–] McQualude (4231) 5 years ago

The elevator kiss was a goodbye. Driver knew they might die and if not, she would never see him the same way again.

[–] atd8vii (593) 7 years ago

Christina Hendricks getting her head blown off with a shotgun left more of an impression on me tbh. The elevator scene was brutal, but I'd heard about from various people prior and knew it was coming. Albert Brooks stabbing Cook in the eye with a fork and then with a kitchen knife was also more confronting for me.

"And what about the sh*t weasels, the ones that blast out the basement door" - Col. Curtis

[–] McQualude (4231) 5 years ago

I think the elevator guy was reacting to Driver, not the other way around. He was there to find out who had the money. Besides he wouldn't kill them before finding the money.