“You know the story about the scorpion and the frog? Your friend Nino didn’t make it across the river.”
I recently rewatched Drive, a 2011 Neo-Noir crime thriller and one of my favorite films. I wanted to write this post to argue against an interpretation of the film I often see online, namely the idea that The Driver (Ryan Gosling) is the scorpion in the story of the scorpion and the frog. Because I don’t think The Driver is the scorpion, I think he’s the frog.
Some context, the scorpion and the frog is a fable about a scorpion who asks a frog to carry him across a river away from danger. The frog is hesitant, worried that the scorpion will sting him but the scorpion points out that if he were to sting the frog, he’d die too. The frog agrees to help but when they’re halfway across the river the scorpion stings him. As they’re dying the frog asks the scorpion why he did it and the scorpion responds by saying it was in his nature. They both die, the moral being that showing kindness towards and associating with evil isn’t necessarily going to have positive results. The Driver actually mentions this story late in the film when talking to Bernie Rose, a crime boss, telling him that Bernie’s partner Nino didn’t make it across the river.
Now I understand why people might think The Driver is the scorpion of this story, he wears a jacket with a scorpion on it and his violent life of crime does destroy what hopes he has of a future with Irene. But The Driver isn’t that scorpion, rather he’s literally carrying the scorpion on his back. His job as a getaway driver entails him figuratively carrying people across the river away from danger. This is further evidenced by him typically only wearing the jacket when he’s doing crime, often in his civilian life such as when he’s spending time with Irene and Benicio he just wears his lighter blue denim shirt or white t-shirt.
The Driver helps Irene and her family at several points throughout the film, from coming to their aid when their car has broken down to helping Standard rob a pawn shop to pay off his debt to the gangsters who assaulted him and are threatening his family. He offers to give Nino the million dollars he stole and when asked what he’ll get out of it The Driver responds “Just that, out of it.” A very positive outcome for Nino yet he still sends someone to kill The Driver. After brutally killing a man to protect Irene, you see that the two of them are now a world apart and everything about how the scene is shot shows the distance which now exists between them. The scene ends with a close up of the scorpion on The Driver’s jacket, moving as he breathes. Which I’d argue isn’t indicating that The Driver is the scorpion but that the scorpion, the life he leads has finally caught up with him and stung him, destroying what hopes he had of a future with Irene.
This event, sending someone to kill him and potentially Irene and Benicio is what The Driver is referring to when he brings up the story of the scorpion and the frog. Nino certainly isn’t the frog in the story. He tries to make a similar deal with Bernie even after Bernie murdered his friend Shannon, give Bernie the money and walk away. But The Driver is stung again, stabbed by Bernie after handing him the money. Bernie is the scorpion in this scenario and like the scorpion, betraying The Driver when they could have both happily walked away is what ends up getting Bernie killed.
What’s important to keep in mind about the fable is that it isn’t just the scorpion who dies, the frog dies too for associating with him. The Driver may not be a bad person but because of the people he’s associated with his hopes at a better life are destroyed none the less. “A Real Hero” by College is the song most associated with The Driver, it plays when he goes on his first “date” with Irene and at the end of the film, it encapsulates his desire to be a better person and live a more fulfilling life. And while the film ends with him knowing he doesn’t have that and driving away from L.A never to return; Irene is safe, Benicio is safe and even if he’ll never be with them, that’s enough and the time they had together was worth it.
