The Driver

The Driver (1978) is a crime thriller you can watch online on iFILM, written and directed by Walter Hill and starring Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, and Isabelle Adjani. It arrived before neo-noir had a name and helped define what the genre would become.

The protagonist has no name. Just the Driver — the best wheelman in the city, a man of almost no words and absolute precision behind the wheel. He moves stolen money and getaway gangs, and he has never been caught. A detective (Dern) makes it personal: he cuts a deal with a gang, promising pardons if they help set the Driver up in a staged robbery. Then a woman called the Player (Adjani) enters the frame, and nobody's plan survives contact with hers. Hill strips the story down to its bones — minimal dialogue, maximum tension, chases that feel like chess played at 90 miles an hour.

The film is a direct ancestor of Drive (2011) and a blueprint for the cool, stripped-down action thriller. Stream The Driver (1978) in full online on iFILM.