Taxi Driver Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!

Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city. When Travis meets pretty campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), he becomes obsessed with the idea of saving the world, first plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, then directing his attentions toward rescuing 12-year-old prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster).

SPOILERS AHEAD

Taxi Driver Plot Summary and Synopsis

Travis Bickle is a 26-year-old honorably discharged U.S. Marine and Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and living in isolation in New York City. Travis takes a job as a night shift taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia. He frequents the porn theaters on 42nd Street and keeps a diary in which he consciously attempts to include aphorisms, such as “you’re only as healthy as you feel.”

Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. After watching her interact with fellow worker Tom through her window, Travis enters to volunteer as a pretext to talk to her, then takes her out for coffee. Betsy agrees to go on another date with him, during which he takes her to see a pornographic film; a disgusted Betsy leaves. Travis attempts to reconcile with her, to no avail. Enraged, he storms into the campaign office where she works and berates her before he is ordered to leave by Tom.

Experiencing an existential crisis and seeing various counts of prostitution throughout the city, Travis confides in fellow taxi driver Wizard about his thoughts, which are beginning to turn violent; however, Wizard assures him that he will be fine. In an attempt to find an outlet for his rage, Travis begins a program of intense physical training. A fellow taxi driver refers him to a black market gun dealer, “Easy” Andy, from whom Travis buys four handguns. At home, Travis practices drawing his weapons, and modifies one to allow him to hide and quickly deploy it from his sleeve. He also begins attending Palantine’s rallies to scope out their security. One night, Travis enters a convenience store moments before an attempted armed robbery and kills the robber.

On his trips around the city, Travis regularly encounters Iris, a child prostitute. He fantasizes about saving her from her life of exploitation.

Travis solicits her and tries to convince her to stop prostituting herself. Soon after, Travis cuts his hair into a mohawk, and attends a public rally where he plans to assassinate Palantine. However, he is chased away by Secret Service agents who see him drawing his gun.

That evening, Travis drives to the brothel where Iris works. He confronts Iris’s pimp, “Sport”, outside of the brothel, and shoots him.

He enters the building and engages in a shootout with Sport, and Iris’s client, and is shot several times. Travis manages to kill the two men, then brawls with the bouncer before Travis stabs him with his knife and kills the bouncer, before slumping on a couch next to a sobbing Iris. He attempts to kill himself, but is out of bullets. As police report to the scene, a delirious Travis imitates shooting himself in the head.

Travis goes into a coma due to his injuries. He is heralded by the press as a heroic vigilante and is not prosecuted for the murders. He receives a letter from Iris’s father, thanking him.

After recovering, Travis returns to work, where he encounters Betsy as a fare. Travis drives her home, and allows her to leave without paying her fare, departing with a smile.

Taxi Driver Ending

As Travis drives off, he becomes suddenly agitated after noticing something in his rear-view mirror.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).