Driven--My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: When Emerson, a cab driver, picks up a mysterious man with an odd request, she must try to survive the night. 

I’ve often wondered about the stories taxi drivers and ride-sharing drivers must have.

For us, the customers, calling a cab is a matter of convenience to take us from one destination to another.

For the drivers, it’s a great chance to earn money and find more stories.

Not many passengers must keep to themselves. Some might be taking personal calls, gossiping with their friends, revealing secrets and habits about themselves.

The driver is sitting in front, part of the background, part of the car and the convenience to get to the destination.

But here’s the thing, drivers have ears and they aren’t exactly made to sign confidentiality agreements, are they?

So don’t be surprised, if a particular habit or piece of conversation makes it to a comedy routine of a driver who is moonlighting as a driver but is actually a stand-up comedian.

DRIVEN Movie Plot 

The story of Driven follows a Ferry driver Emerson who over the course of the night picks up several eccentric characters. For her, analyzing her customers’ characteristics is material for her comic routine.

She’s a friendly driver, even offering sightseeing advice to her passengers and helping out the drunk who can’t remember the right address.

I’m glad some services ask you to enter the destination and name as soon as you use the app and hail a ride. The driver can easily add the destination to GPS and take the passengers to their destination without even exchanging a word.

Emerson seems to like to exchange words and learn from her passengers. We see her picking up one passenger after another until finally, she gets another pickup alert.

She stops the car and nods at the man standing on the street.

He gets in and has a briefcase with him. Then he makes an odd request. He wants to be taken to different destinations and will pay waiting charges as well.

Emerson is excited at the prospect of earning a little more because she’s been driving her sister’s car to earn money and lives in a crappy apartment with terrible plumbing.

While the passenger goes to the first house, Emerson practices her routine. She doesn’t see a man being pushed at the window and being killed.

Her passenger returns and asks to be dropped to the other location where he warns it will take time to finish his errand.

Emerson removes her seatbelt and prepares to wait for a long time when her passenger returns and slams his bloodied hand on her window. He gets in the car and is extremely possessive of his briefcase.

Emerson questions what is going on but is told to drive away as fast as possible. Emerson does exactly that but is now curious about her passenger.

He introduces herself and he says his name is Roger. She wants him to get off because he keeps complaining about her choice in radio stations, and the weird air fresheners she uses, as well as refuse to divulge why he needs to go to different destinations.

In anger, she reveals about the turd spoon she uses because of the terrible plumbing in her apartment she is sharing with a friend.

Roger feels he can trust her after her embarrassing reveal and tells her about his true profession which is that of a demon hunter.

He tells her about how his great grandfather had made a deal with a demon to grant him excess wealth and in return, a portal had opened and the demons had escaped. It’s a curse that Roger must now defeat all the demons roaming in this city.

Emerson doesn’t believe his story but is forced to when they are stopped by the police who is then attacked by demonic women.

The policeman is then possessed and attacks the duo again at the gas station. Emerson and Roger are able to defeat him and flee but Roger reveals whatever is possessing the policeman will possess someone else again.

Throughout the night, Emerson and Roger form a quick friendship, and she allows him to breathe in fresh air while she squirted mists all over her car to calm herself.

She tells him about how she always chickens out going to the comedy club and performing her routine. He tells her about the ancient book, his quest to find the opening of the portal that will send the demons back. For that he needs pieces of five trees and go to the cemetery.

In order to defeat demons on the way, he will also require silver. Emerson says she has some and goes to her apartment to find her ex-girlfriend Jess is meeting with her roommate.

She gets upset while Roger rummages through her silver collection and finds several pieces that aren’t actually silver.

Roger asks to be dropped off at a house where he can retrieve an integral object for the ritual which he had dropped. He warns her not to leave her car no matter what.

Emerson sees the demons return and in order to alert Roger, honks. The demons are alerted just as Roger escapes through the back door. In order to help him, Emerson uses his briefcase to hit his attackers.

They escape but Roger is mad she didn’t heed his warning and to top it all, broke his talisman.

Emerson too argues back that she was trying to help him and that the demons hadn’t disturbed her town until he arrived.

Roger reveals that his book talks about a farrier helping him. And since she works for a service called Ferry, he thought it was a sign. Emerson gets pissed that he got the spelling wrong.

They get pissed off at each other and Roger gets out of the car. Emerson heads home and sees Jess leaving.

She offers to take Jess home and they talk and work out their differences.

DRIVEN Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

They are mending their relationship when Jess mentions the old cemetery that was cleared away. Since she also spent summer fixing shoes on horses, Emerson thinks she’s the farrier who's going to show the way.

Emerson, realizing the old cemetery was where Roger needs to be to perform the ritual, dumps Jess on the side of the road and goes to pick up Roger.

They head to the street but are attacked by demons. Roger is possessed by a demon and it is now up to Emerson to use the dozens of mists she keeps in her glove compartment to purify.

The demons are stunned and defeated and Roger turns to his normal self.

Emerson and Roger part ways and she learns to find the courage to stand up on stage and do her routine.

The movie was funny and entertaining and definitely worth a watch.

Scare scale: 3.5/5