Big Driver is a 2014 crime thriller TV film based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars. It was directed by Mikael Salomon from a screenplay by Richard Christian Matheson, and stars Maria Bello, Olympia Dukakis, and Joan Jett.
Driving home along a generally unused country road following a speaking engagement, famed mystery novelist Tess Thorne experiences a flat tire on her car. She accepts the help of who she believes is a good Samaritan who stops to help her, but who instead rapes her, leaving her submerged in shallow water in a drainage pipe as dead. She found out that he actually orchestrated her getting the flat tire just moments before the rape. Alive, she, in shock, is able to make her way home, but she does not go to the hospital, dealing with her wounds herself, does not call the police, or tell any of her friends or acquaintances how she sustained her obvious injuries. Once the issue of what happened to her settles into herself, she decides to use her skills as an investigative writer to find out the reason behind what happened - if she was a random or targeted victim - and especially if the latter, how best to use that information to her advantage. Using her stories' grandmotherly heroine, Doreen Marcus, as her inspiration, Tess decides that the best course of action is revenge, and figuring out a way not to get caught. In the process, she may discover more than she bargained for.
Tropes:
- Antagonist Title: 'Big driver' is Betsy's nickname for Lester. She has seen him around town but does not know his name.
- Cacophony Cover Up: Just before she kills Ramona, Tess turns up the volume on Ramona's stereo to mask the sound of the gunshots.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Tess's car gets a flat tyre on a remote country road in a spot where there is no cell phone signal. Justified as the nails on the road had been laid deliberately as an ambush, and Lester had picked a spot without reception.
- Companion Cube: Even before her breakdown, Tess was in the habit of talking to her GPS, whom she nicknamed 'Tom'. After her breakdown, she hallucinates that Tom is talking back to her. Tom is something of a Deadpan Snarker.
- Creepy Souvenir: Tess learns Lester stole her earrings after he raped her. Upon tracking him down, she finds that his brother took photos of her during and after this, along with his many other victims.
- Dead Person Conversation: Tess has conversations with each of the people she kills in her Rape and Revenge spree where they speak back to her. However, Tess acknowledges that these conversations aren't really happening but her subconscious telling her things she needs to hear (just like the manifestation of her fictional creation Doreen as an Imaginary Friend).
- The Family That Slays Together: Lester's mother Ramona and his brother Al are both actively involved in his series of rape/murders.
- Gas Station of Doom: Tess's rape and assault takes place in the shell of an abandoned gas station on a remote stretch of country road.
- Groin Attack: Tess, at the urging of Doreen, finishes off Lester by firing her last bullet into his groin.
- Gun Struggle: When Tess confronts Ramona in her house, Ramona knocks the gun from her hand and the two of them wrestle for the gun on the floor.
- Imaginary Friend: Tess has conversations with, and takes advice from, Doreen who is the central character in mystery novels she writes. Doreen borders on being a Spirit Advisor.
- It Won't Turn Off: Tess is hallucinating that her GPS is giving her advice about hunting her rapist. Freaking out, she unplugs it, only for the now black screen to apologize.
- It Works Better with Bullets: Following a Gun Struggle, Ramona gets hold of Tess's gun, points it at her and pulls the trigger. There is a click as the hammer falls on an empty chamber. Tess stabs Ramona and grabs the gun back:Tess: First rule of gun ownership... always keep the first chamber empty... it leads to people accidentally shooting themselves.
- Left for Dead: After brutally assaulting and raping Tess, Lester dumps her her body in a drainage pipe: assuming either that she is dead or, if she isn't, she will soon drown. He is wrong on both counts.
- Most Writers Are Writers: As with many Stephen King works, the protagonist is a writer.
- Murder by Mistake: Tess shoots Lester's brother Al through the grimy window of Lester's truck (which Al was driving), having mistaken him for Lester. Tess later discovers that Al was complicit in his brother's crimes.
- Mystery Writer Detective: Tess decides to use her skills as an investigative writer to find out the reason behind what happened - if she was a random or targeted victim - and especially if the latter, how best to use that information to her advantage.
- Never Suicide: Tess speculates that Lester and/or his mother may have murdered Lester's father (his death was ruled a suicide) as it's possible he'd been intent on exposing Lester's crimes. It's never confirmed however; he might have just been distraught over finding out his son is a monster.
- Obstructive Vigilantism: Tess decides not to report her rape and attempted murder, knowing how rape victims often suffer both in the legal system along with the public. Instead, she tracks her rapist down, to kill both him and his accomplices.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Tess decides on this, as expressed by her imaginary friend/character Doreen. She may go to Hell for murdering Lester, his mother and brother, but the three can go there first, as they richly deserve it.
- Rape and Revenge: After being raped and Left for Dead by the eponymous 'Big Driver', Tess turns detective to track him down and extract revenge.
- Serial Killer: Tess finds the bodies of two of Lester's previous victims in the drainage pipe where she is Left for Dead. The photos she later finds in his lair indicate that Lester has been killing for some time, and that there are many more bodies out there.
- Serial Rapist: Lester raped many women with the help of his mother and brother.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: Tess's misfortunes start when she accepts directions for a shortcut from the organizer of the speaking event she is attending. This route takes her down an isolated country road where her car experiences a flat tyre, and she is brutally raped and Left for Dead in a drainage pipe by the 'good Samaritan' who stops to help.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: The film opens with Tess making a lengthy phone call to her best friend Patsy as she gets ready to go give a speech. Only at the end of the conversation as Tess is outside and unlocking her car do we learn that Patsy lives nextdoor, as she comes up and hands Tess a chapstick (Tess having complained earlier in the conversation that she couldn't find one).
- Shower of Angst: Tess takes one when she makes it back to her home after her rape. She takes another after she has murdered her rapist: symbolically washing herself clean.
- Signature Item Clue: Tess finds the earrings Lester took off her in Ramona's bathroom, proving that she knew about her son's crimes.
- Vigilante Man: Tess decides not to report her rape and attempted murder, knowing how rape victims often suffer both in the legal system along with the public. Instead, she tracks her rapist down, to kill both him and his accomplices.
