The opening credits of drive start with an establishing shot of a city with a thumping electronic soundtrack. This shows the setting of the film but also the urban themes and tone of the film. The soundtrack has a steady and heavy beat with a recurring electronic motif, and the heaviness of the soundtrack provides a bleakness adding to the dark colours, but the lively sounds of the synth give a more romantic and exciting sound to the film, like the city lights. The city fades into a mid-shot of the driver sitting in silence in his car, he has a toothpick in his mouth. This

shows us that he is isolated and secretive, but collected and compelled and sets him up as the protagonist. The next shot is a close up from behind the driver as he drives through the streets. The lighting on half his face and pulling of focus from the action on the road show that the film centres on him as a character and the not the driving, and portray him as

questionable, with the dark lighting foreshadowing the character doing something evil. The shot of his hand on the wheel controlling the car connotes him moving forward into his destiny, but having control over his direction. This is further emphasised by the lyric “Im gonna tell ya something you, don’t want to hear” suggesting the forth coming events are not pleasant for the driver, and finalised by the cut back to the driver looking sullen as he drives under an orange glow, which connotes deceit and distrust.

As a synth chord cuts through the shot cuts to a rotating shot of a highway, which is a match on action from the driver in his car to the aerial shot of his car continuing on its journey. The female singer singing “there’s something inside you, it’s hard to explain” represent the driver as special but in a twisted sense, as his talents for driving are used for criminal means in the film. The shot cuts to a wide shot of a car pulling into a car park show the drivers forward moving slowdown in his personal

space. There is a mid-shot from behind the drivers back showing his scorpion jacket. The scorpion is a deadly creature that attacks unsuspectedly, which is the representation of the driver. The scorpion is gold which connotes glory and heroism, showing that his fierceness is a positive feature. As he walks to the elevator a woman leaves and walks

past him. The woman is shorter than him and walks with her hands in front fidgeting, she is also looking down at the floor which contrasts to the driver who walks with his head up and hands in his pocket. This shows that he is confident and headstrong whereas she is shy and more domestic. She walks under a white light, which represents her as angelic and pure. The shot from inside the elevator of her walking away emphasises her importance to the story, the doors closing represents the separation from her and the driver

As the driver enters his apartment the music dulls to just the lyrics, this use of soundtrack shows that the drivers personal life is unimportant which is reflected by the short amount of time that he spends in the apartment. The apartment is very bare, with just a bed and tv in it, with the window view looking out onto the roof. The blue light from the windows shining onto the driver represent his mystery as he is coming out from the shadows. From this scene we can tell that the driver does not like to be stationary as he stands for a moment before leaving, showing that he lives for the drive and can’t be held down. As he leaves he flicks the light of to the beat of the music, which gives a rapid feel to the character, with a fast cut to an aerial shot of him driving, which slowly zooms in, then cuts into the car with him, this final shot shows the importance of driving to the driver.