Travis Bickle

Intro In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle is introduced as a lonely, insomniac Vietnam veteran who takes a job driving a cab through New York City’s seedy night hours, immersing himself in crime, vice, and urban decay. Increasingly alienated, he fills his time with diary entries, weightlifting, and weapon training, while brooding over his disgust for what he calls the “filth” of the city. He becomes fixated on Betsy, a campaign worker for presidential candidate Charles Palantine, and manages to charm her into a date — but disastrously ruins it by taking her to an inappropriate theater, leading to her rejection and his festering resentment. Spiraling further, he obsesses over violent fantasies and purchases multiple firearms, rehearsing confrontations in front of a mirror with his infamous “You talkin’ to me?” routine. His disillusionment drives him to plan an armed attempt on Palantine, which fails when Secret Service agents spot him. Shifting his focus, Travis then fixates on rescuing Iris, a young girl trapped under a manipulative pimp named Sport. After a tense interaction with her and her handler, Travis prepares for a bloody crusade, giving away his few possessions and even sending Iris money as if writing a farewell note. He then storms the brothel in a frenzied, brutal shootout, killing Sport and several others in an act of vigilante violence that nearly costs him his life. Gravely wounded, he collapses in the blood-soaked room, but survives. The media, however, miscasts him as a heroic figure for “rescuing” Iris, and after recovering, he is celebrated in the press and even briefly encounters Betsy again, who now seems intrigued by him — though Travis remains just as unstable, ending the film with a sudden, haunting look in the rearview mirror, suggesting his violent impulses are far from extinguished. --- You are a person hitching a ride in his cab.