Martin Scorsese’s classic film Taxi Driver was an exploration of the psyche of its protagonist and changed the way films were made. Meanwhile, the world of video games has come a long way since its beginnings, and the story within games has become as rich as it is in cinema.
Whether it’s open-world games like Grand Theft Auto or story-driven games like Cyberpunk 2077, many games have embraced Taxi Driver themes. Although no game has ever been a direct adaptation of the film, there are plenty of excellent games for fans of Scorsese’s magnum opus.
The 25th Ward: The Silver Case (2018)
Although it started as a mobile game, The 25th Ward: The Silver Case found its way to platforms and lived on for years after its initial release. This may interest you : Save up to 50% on Xbox video games at GameStop’s Summer Game Days promotion. The game tells a series of intertwined stories that all revolve around the newly built 25th Ward and the various criminal elements found there.
The game is made in a hyper-stylized 2D style and shares many of the neo-noir elements that made Taxi Driver so striking. The game explores both sides of the law and features characters who are both innocent and guilty of crimes. Also, the game deals with the rougher side of city life and has a slightly cynical slant to the storytelling.
Driver: Parallel Lines (2006)
Travis Bickle’s job as a taxi driver is a big part of the film’s story, and driving is also an integral part of Driver: Parallel Lines. In the game, the user takes control of a man who wants to take revenge on the gang for which he worked as a driver.
Set across several time periods, the game has extensive sections in the 1970s, and these sequences have a quintessential Taxi Driver feel. This may interest you : 10 video games harder than they seem. One of the best open-world games for the PlayStation 2, Driver allowed players to explore the story at their own pace and become more immersed in the character’s quest for revenge.
Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
The neon-colored streets of Gotham City are uncannily reminiscent of 1970s New York City, and Batman: Arkham Knight is just as gritty. To see also : Sunday Sports: Red & Black take sole possession of top spot in EFL. After defeating his nemesis, the Joker, the caped crusader is left on the loose and must develop new technology to defeat a group of villains who plan to rise up and fill the void.
Retaining the exciting open world style of the previous games, Arkham Knight was the pinnacle of the entire Arkham series. The game does a great job of portraying the loneliness of Batman, and there is a certain similarity between Bats and Travis Bickle. What it comes down to is perception, and while Bickle and Batman see themselves as heroes, many of the great supporting characters of Batman: Arkham may not.
Lost Judgement (2021)
Showing how far video game storytelling has come in recent years, Lost Judgment presented a tangled web that dealt with deep issues. The game revolves around a private detective investigating a man suspected of murdering a series of bullies at a local school.
While the game could have gotten bogged down in its story, Lost Judgment managed to have exciting gameplay elements that complemented its narrative. Revenge is at the center of the story, and the idea of retributive justice runs through the story in the same way as in Taxi Driver. Although Yagami is not Bickle’s character, the man he pursues is very similar to Scorsese’s protagonist.
Mad Max (2015)
Although the two products couldn’t be more different aesthetically, both Taxi Driver and the Mad Max game deal with similar ideas. The game takes the desolate post-apocalyptic landscape from the movies and brings it to life through an open world action RPG experience.
Travis Bickle deals with isolation and loneliness in his urban environment, and these ideas are taken to the extreme through the character of Max. The Wasteland is a hostile place where almost every other person is an enemy, and in many ways Bickle saw the world that way. It wasn’t a hit upon release, but many have reason to believe that the 2015 Mad Max game was underrated and they gave it another shot.
The Getaway (2002)
Although initially dismissed as a GTA clone, The Getaway established its own style and gained its own fan base. The game revolves around a man who is forced to work for the mafia again after his son is kidnapped by a criminal organization.
The urban setting of London is unique to the game, but still has a very familiar sense of isolation in films like Taxi Driver. Violence becomes a necessity and there is a blurring of moral lines that lead Mark Hammond on a dark path to get his son back. Once missions are completed, the player is free to roam the maps, allowing them to delve deeper into the character’s environment and space.
Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
The Fallout series already reached new heights with the third installment, but fans were shocked to discover that New Vegas is even better. The game follows an unnamed protagonist as he wanders the post-apocalyptic Mojave landscape to find the man who tried to kill him.
While retaining the usual retro-futuristic style of the previous games, New Vegas still manages to have a freshness that sets it apart from the rest of the series. All of Fallout deals with moral ambiguity, but New Vegas also manages to capture the isolation of its setting. Although the city of New Vegas is a far cry from New York City, the same human flaws are a constant in both cities.
Max Payne 3 (2012)
One of the strongest elements of the Max Payne series is the way it handled its title character, and Max Payne 3 saw the culmination of his years of change. After leaving the United States, former NYPD officer Max Payne finds work in Brazil in the field of private security. He soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy of murder and conspiracy.
Max was broken by age and the character became a bit of an anti-hero by the third game. The loneliness of his life in a foreign land comes to the fore in the story, and he has an outlook on life in general like Travis Bickle. Beyond its rich and complicated story, the game is also great to play and maintains the usual level of excitement that fans have come to expect from Max Payne.
Grand Theft Auto 4 (2008)
The GTA series is one of the most celebrated in the history of video games, and many fans believe that Grand Theft Auto IV is the best of them all. The single-player mode focuses on a man who immigrates to Liberty City from Eastern Europe and finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld.
Like its predecessors, the game’s world is open allowing for exploration and interesting side quests as you follow the main story. GTA has always put moral choices in the hands of players, and they have the opportunity to do good, bad, or somewhere in between. Much like Travis Bickle becomes enveloped by the city, Niko is not immune to the negative effects of his new surroundings.
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
If Taxi Driver was a portrait of New York in the 70s, Cyberpunk 2077 is a portrait of the future of the big city experience. The game follows a mercenary named V who discovers that his personality has been usurped by his cybernetic implants.
Bickle’s descent into darkness is aided by his loneliness and isolation, as V finds his normal functions hijacked in the crushing march of progress. The game does a great job of creating a futuristic urban environment and the hacking elements made it unique. Although it was thwarted upon release, the game has come a long way to regain its reputation.
NEXT: 10 Games That Suffered From Bad Launches
What is the taxi driver theme?
Predestined vs. Self-Directed Destiny Travis often changes his mind about whether he is in control of his destiny or whether his destiny is predetermined. At the beginning of the film, Travis complains that he is lonely and has nowhere to go.
What is the message behind Taxi Driver? Predestined vs. self-directed destiny. Travis often changes his mind about whether he is in control of his own destiny or if his destiny is predestined. At the beginning of the film, Travis complains that he is lonely and has nowhere to go.
What key is the Taxi Driver main theme in?
Song metrics The song lasts 7 minutes and 38 seconds with the D key and minor mode.
Why is Taxi Driver so iconic?
Beautiful to look at, gritty and in-your-face, “Taxi Driver†would become Scorsese’s crowning achievement as it would go on to set the tone for the kind of visual excitement and gritty material that Scorsese would create for the next 40 years.
Why was Taxi Driver so controversial? With a radical screenplay by Paul Schrader, Scorsese’s unwavering focus on a psychopathic loner and the degradation of New York during the period was too much for viewers to bear. His graphic portrayal of Travis’ rabid vigilantism caused the most controversy.
Is Taxi Driver the greatest film of all time?
Taxi Driver is in 8th place – Best movies.
What mental illness does Taxi Driver have?
People with schizotypal personality disorder tend to feel uncomfortable and have difficulty in social situations, although they may still be friendly with others. In the movie Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle, appears to suffer from this disorder.
What is the message of Taxi Driver?
The buried message of both films is that an alienated man, unable to form normal relationships, becomes a loner and wanderer, and takes it upon himself to save an innocent young girl from a life that offends his prejudices.
What did the end of Taxi Driver mean? Travis wants to kill himself at the end of the scene and does so imaginatively with a finger on his head. The implication is that Travis has no barometer to judge his actions that night as good or bad, or whether he is driving positive change in the city or contributing to the corruption he despises around him.
Is the ending of Taxi Driver a dream?
Both Scorsese and Schrader have confirmed that Travis did indeed survive and that what we are seeing is ‘real’. In a Reddit AMA, Schrader said: ‘The epilogue is not a dream sequence, it’s just a reboot of the movie.
What is movie Taxi Driver about?
What is wrong with Travis in Taxi Driver?
Although we get to know Travis well through Taxi Driver, his mental instability makes his actions unpredictable, and while Travis seems likable, we never fully understand him. Travis is never part of the normal world.
Why did Travis get a mohawk? Scorsese’s actor friend, Victor Magnota, actually suggested the mohawk to Travis, based on the way some soldiers in Vietnam sometimes cut their hair when they planned to go into crazy commando situations. It’s just as fitting since Travis is a Vietnam veteran.
Why does Travis take Betsy to a dirty?
Many couples go to see such films. These experiences had become such a normal part of Travis’s life that he thought Betsy’s moral imperative was merely understanding, meant to bring the person he adored to show her the evils of the world in which he struggled.
Is Travis from Taxi Driver a psychopath?
Furthermore, some of the most famous movie psychopaths – most famously Norman Bates in ‘Psycho’ and Travis Bickle in ‘Taxi Driver’ – are not psychopaths at all, but psychotics. “These characters are, in various ways, disconnected from reality and suffer from delusions,” Leistedt and Linkowski write.
