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Driver (Ryan Gosling), who remains unnamed throughout the film, works in Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) garage, picks up occasional stunt driving work, and moonlights as a getaway driver. At the start of the film, his driving skills and precision are established as he helps two burglars evade the police and split up at the Staples Center's crowded parking lot. Driver always works anonymously, never for the same crooks twice, and makes a point of only allotting them five minutes to do their business.
Shannon approaches Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), a Jewish mobster, to provide the backing for Shannon's scheme to buy a NASCAR racecar and have Driver drive it. Bernie agrees to back the scheme with $300,000 after seeing Driver exhibit his driving skills. Bernie is partners with Nino (Ron Perlman), another Jewish mobster who, we learn later, had once had Shannon's pelvis broken because he overcharged for his services.
Driver becomes involved with his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her young son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), when their car breaks down at a grocery store. Driver and Irene appear to be slowly developing a romantic connection when her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), comes home from prison. Standard owes "protection" money to Cook (James Biberi) from his time in prison. Cook beats him for it and threatens to come after Irene and Benicio if Standard does not do a job for them.
Concerned for Irene, Driver agrees to help Standard placate Cook by robbing a pawn shop. Also participating in the heist is Blanche (Christina Hendricks), a woman associated with Cook. The job goes fatally wrong as Standard is shot dead by the pawn-shop owner. As Driver and Blanche escape, they are pursued by a mysterious car. As it turns out, Cook had double-crossed them and was planning to steal the money from them after they pulled the job.
Driver and Blanche elude their pursuers and hide out in a motel room. There they discover that the stolen money was much more than they had been told. (Later we learn that it's Mob money being held at the pawn shop.) Two of Cook's men attack them in the motel room, killing Blanche with a shotgun blast and injuring Driver before he kills both of them.
Driver confronts Cook and learns that Nino has been behind the heist all along. Nino resents the East-Coast Italian mob and has engineered the job to get at them.
Driver attempts to make a deal with Nino: the money for Irene's safety. However, Nino sends a hitman, whom Driver brutally kills in an elevator while Irene cowers in terror. After Bernie kills Shannon and Driver kills Nino, Driver and Bernie meet in a restaurant, ostensibly to broker another deal of money for safety. In the parking lot afterward, as the money is pulled from Driver's car's trunk, Bernie stabs Driver in the abdomen. The attack is not fatal, however, and Driver stabs and kills Bernie, leaving his body on the ground next to the satchel of money. The film closes ambiguously with Driver driving through the night, followed by a smash cut to black.


Starring

• Ryan Gosling
• Carey Mulligan
• Bryan Cranston
• Christina Hendricks
• Ron Perlman
• Oscar Isaac
• Albert Brooks