History Film / BabyDriver

* AnimalMotifs: Buddy is repeatedly compared to bulls. Darling describes him as unstoppable when he sees red, he's bathed in red light [[spoiler: while driving the stolen cop car, and he tries to kill Baby and Debra by ramming their car like a bull. And a news broadcast reveals his name to be Van ''Horn.'']]

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:When Baby comes to Bob's diner, covered in blood, and finds Buddy sitting there with a gun under his newspaper]], we hear sirens and see police lights outside as a cop walks in - and [[spoiler: asks Debra for the restroom key, ignoring Baby and Buddy.]]
* BarehandedBladeBlock: A variation. Baby grabs the slide of Bats' gun and holds it back, preventing him from firing, when he thinks [[spoiler:Bats is about to shoot Debra.]]

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: There is a vague sense of TwentyMinutesIntoThePast about the setting. People still use iPods and there's nary a smart phone to be seen, but in a flashback we also see Baby as a child getting a first-generation iPod as a birthday present. Given his age in that scene versus his age now you'd think the film's timeline would be a post-iPod setting. Of course it's entirely possible that Baby collects iPod for their retro appeal (as well as their sentimental value to him given that he still keeps his destroyed first iPod), and as most of the people we meet in the film are criminals it would make sense for them to be using disposable "burner" phones that couldn't reveal a lot of personal data about them if they fell into police hands. However there is definitely a sense of some deliberate anacronism in the film's setting.

* BlueIsHeroic:
** Inverted. During the second heist, Bats, Eddie No-Nose and J.D. are wearing blue, but are the ones pulling off the heist against an armored truck and steal a car at Bats's insistence. Also, one of the two cars used to get them back to Doc's garage is a blue Nissan.
** Played straight with "Soldier Boy", the BadassBystander veteran during the same heist, who drives a blue Dodge truck with white stripes.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst:
** The only Asian character, JD is killed by Doc after dropping his shotgun during the armored car robbery.
** [[spoiler:Bats]] gets abruptly killed in the final heist, being the first member to go out.

* RealityEnsues:
** Baby spends the entire time during operations not wearing anything to properly conceal his face. [[spoiler:So, it's no wonder why he's arrested in the end.]]
** [[spoiler:Darling opens fire on the police after the post office robbery without taking cover, and promptly gets gunned down.]]
** [[spoiler:Baby and Debora make their escape and go on the run, only to find out you can't outrun the radio, and a law enforcement blockade is ready and waiting for them.]]
** While evading the cops on foot, Baby ducks into a store and quickly slips on a jacket, hat, and glasses in an attempt to conceal his identity. When he hears the cops nearby, he dashes out of the store and immediately trips the theft alarms, bringing a swarm of cops right to him again.
** [[spoiler:A few PetTheDog moments don't erase several years of being the wheelman for robbery crews, and Baby is found guilty and tossed in jail after his surrender.]]

* RightUnderTheirNoses: Baby attempts to do this while [[spoiler:fleeing from the cops]] by running into a clothing store and quickly putting on a [[WigDressAccent jacket, a baseball cap, and a new pair of shades]]. [[spoiler:They realize its him seconds later before he even leaves the store and he is forced to run again.]]

* TheMillstone: Bats, oh so very much. He's basically walking talking id with no impulse control, he kills people like most normal people swat flies with no regard to whether or not he should be bringing police attention on himself (for example when he murders a gas station attendant whilst prepping for a heist simply because he didn't want to pay for gum), implies that he sooner or later kills everybody he knows -- in front of people he's dependent on for his well-being and will threaten his own getaway driver moments after committing a pointless murder, whilst still on a job. His shooting up of Doc's crooked cops during the arms deal provokes a lethal response from said arms dealer's associates. Why Doc thought such a person would be of any use even as DumbMuscle boggles the mind. [[spoiler:Needless to say his death at the hands of Baby goes unmourned]]

* FamedInStory: Even people who have never heard of Doc's eccentric wheelman know the legend of ''The Spirit of 85'', a joyrider of mythical status for the merry chase he led the cops on for hours on end before evading caprture. They're shocked when they learn Baby is the Spirit.

** [[spoiler: If anything though, Bats constantly being a trigger-happy troublemaker and having it out for Baby for no real reason is the true cause of things going irrevocably crazy by the end of the film]].

* ASideOrderOfRomance: Baby falls in love with the waitress that works at an old-fashioned diner that the crew visit a few times while on the job. She doesn't learn about his true career until near the end of the movie, but she is incredibly loyal to him, willing to risk death and imprisonment for him even though she barely knows him. The AmbiguousEnding [[spoiler: implies that she waits for him for his whole jail sentence. ]]

** The veteran who attempts to stop Bats, Eddie, JD and Baby in the second heist is revealed to later be called Malik Kelly in a police report.

** Baby's usual threads (long-sleeved white shirt, dark vest, dark pants) reference both [[Film/ANewHope Han Solo]] and Ansel Elgort's own musical career (where he has recorded, produced, and DJ'd under the name "Ansolo").
** Buddy's real name is revealed on the police radio as "Jason Van Horn", during the middle of his slasher villain-like rampage during the climax of the film. His name, recently awakened psychotic behavior, and inhuman durability resembles Jason Voorhees, who is the subject of a discussion during the second heist.
** Edgar Wright shoutout himself. One of the clips that Baby turns through when surfing the TV happens to be the start of the music video for Mint Royale's "Blue Song." Before making ''Baby Driver'', Edgar Wright had already "cannibalized" his idea for the film's opening scene to serve as the basis of the music video.

** Even Bats can do this, as he praises Baby's skills behind the wheel at least twice.

* BigBad: At first, Doc seemed as this, but Doc is more of an AntiVillain. The real BigBad is [[spoiler: pretty much everyone else in the group, especially]] [[spoiler: Buddy because other than Baby, he’s the last man standing.]] ** [[spoiler: If anything though, Bats constantly being a trigger-happy troublemaker and having it out for Baby for no real reason is the true cause of things going irrevocably crazy by the end of the film]].

* BigBad: At first, Doc seemed as this, but Doc is more of an AntiVillain. The real BigBad is [[spoiler: Buddy (well technically everyone in the group would be considered the BigBad, but Buddy is especially portrayed as one because other than Baby, he’s the last man standing). If anything though, Bats constantly being a trigger-happy troublemaker and having it out for Baby for no real reason is the true cause of things going irrevocably crazy by the end of the film]].

** [[spoiler:Bats threatens to kill his own getaway driver immideatly after murdering an innocent bystander. Needless to say Baby decided enough was enough and killed Bats at that point]].

* ApologeticAttacker: Baby excuses himself for stealing the old lady's car.

** Buddy bonds with Baby over [[Music/{{Queen}} Brighton Rock]] early on. [[spoiler:At the climax when Buddy is trying to kill Baby with a stolen police cruiser, he blasts the song over the cruiser's speakers, reminding Baby how he said it was his "killer track".]]

** Baby, despite running several blocks away [[spoiler: still runs into Buddy and Darling outside the shopping mall.]]

* TheOner: The opening credits, in which Baby walks (and dances) from Doc's office to a coffee shop and back, is set to the entirety of "Harlem Shuffle" by Bob & Earl.

** Buddy discourages Baby from "mailing it in at the post office" heist.

* TheQuietOne: Baby doesn't talk much, Buddy [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this by joking that he's mute.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Bats suggests this to be Buddy's backstory; that he was fired from his job as a stockbroker in Wall Street, and turned to a life of crime. The audience never finds out if he's right, though.

* BigBad: At first, Doc seemed as this, but Doc is more of an AntiVillain. The real BigBad is [[spoiler: Buddy]] [[spoiler: (well technically everyone in the group would be considered the BigBad, but Buddy is especially portrayed as one because]] [[spoiler: other than Baby, he’s the last man standing). If anything though, Bats constantly being a trigger-happy troublemaker and having it out for Baby for no real reason is the true cause of things going irrevocably crazy by the end of the film]].

* AmbiguousEnding: [[WordOfGod Reportedly]], the final scene where Baby gets out of jail was deliberately left ambiguous (notice that neither Baby nor Debora has visibly aged) to let the audience interpret whether he really got paroled.

* GainaxEnding: The ending is so idyllic, romantic, and far too similar to Baby's dream of hitting the road with Debora that there's room for interpreting it as ItWasAllADream. [[WordOfSaintPaul Even the actors disagree on it]].