/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25506323/vlcsnap_2024_06_25_16h06m34s808.png "The owner of Toys ‘R’ Us just used OpenAI’s Sora to animate the zombie brand")
Many also quickly replied to my call-out, cracking fun about it being a “trap” or a way to iron out “red flags.” This is, of course, because Taxi Driver has become somewhat synonymous with modern incel culture. A quick search online will tell you how Travis’s self-labeling of “God’s lonely man” has been adopted as an anthem by disconnected young men who blame their social isolation and lack of romantic prospects on women. “[Taxi Driver] is a portrait of the 21st century online ‘incel’ before it even existed, the pure epitome of masculine rage and entitlement personified,” observes Cian.
When Travis is first rejected by Betsy, his instinct is to amp up the violence, stalking her at her workplace and becoming increasingly unstable. It is only when Betsy enlists the help of a male co-worker (an early career Albert Brooks!) that Travis finally backs down, his internal monologue perfectly capturing the essence of the involuntary celibate movement: “I realize now how much she’s just like the others, cold and distant. And many people are like that, women for sure. They’re like a union.”
This violent response to Taxi Driver is nothing new. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan in a bid to catch the attention of Jodie Foster, whom he had been stalking and harassing for months. Addicted to prescription drugs and having just been kicked out of a neo-Nazi group for being too extremist (read that again), Hinckley identified with Travis Bickle—and, like the Marine, saw a chance at redemption in the sex worker played by Foster, thwarting the lines between fact and fiction to a highly dangerous degree.
