BIG DRIVER

US, 2014, 87 minutes, Colour
Maria Bello, Ann Dowd, Will Harris, Joan Jett, Olympia Dukakis.
Directed by Mikael Salamon.


Big Driver is a brief feature film for television, directed by veteran Mikael Salamon, based on a short story by Stephen King. It is basically a revenge drama.

Maria Bello plays a successful crime novelist invited to speak to an enthusiastic fan club. The president, played by Ann Dowd, is welcoming – but suggests an alternate route back home. Along that route, the novelist has a flat tire, is initially helped by a large man, the Big Driver, who then rapes her (strong sequences showing the brutality of the man and the sexual violence). He leaves the novelist for dead. However, she revives, makes her way to the store, is able to get back home. She decides for revenge, realising, as does the audience, that she has been set up by the president of the fan club, to go on the route home, to be attacked. The novelist researches the family, goes to confront the mother, killing her, then tracking down the brutal son, shooting his brother by accident, finally a confrontation.

While these aspects are straightforward in the revenge genre, there are various Stephen King aspects: the novelist and some trauma in her past, her success in her writing, and not being involved in any personal relationship, some hallucination sequences where she can converses with the voice on the GPS, with one of her characters, played by Olympia Dukakis, who continually appears to her giving opinions and judgement, and her imagining the men she has killed actually answering her back.

There is a cameo performance from singer Joan Jett, rather unexpected in this context.


1. Stephen King story? Thriller? Psychology? Hallucinations? Crime writer?

2. The world of the crime writer, home, friends? Driving to the readers’ function? The back roads? Ruined buildings? The local town? Atmosphere? The musical score?

3. Tess Thorne’s story, age, experience, career, success, phone communication with her neighbour, no personal relationship? Driving to the talk, the welcome from the women, the questions? The president, the cheque? The GPS, the advice for the shortcut, the scenic drive, the flat tire, the encounter with the big driver?

4. The big driver, friendly, fixing the tire, turning on Tess, the brutality of the rapes? His leaving her in the drain, the other bodies? Awakening, walking, her fear of the bikie groups, coming to the town, the store, phone call, the driver, taking her home? Her Washington cleansing?

5. The hallucination touches, the conversation with the GPS, personalised? Doreen and her appearances, advice? Later the dead bodies speaking? Tess and her psychological state?

6. The call from the store, the friendly woman, discussions, getting back her car? And the question of who fixed it and brought it to the store?

7. Her research, finding the mother’s address, realising the setup? The family history, the suicide of the husband? Her going to the house, confronting the woman, the argument, the gun, getting the knife, killing her?

8. Her desire for revenge, supported by Doreen? Getting the gun? Hiding from her neighbour? Driving, at the address?

9. Seeing the truck, following it, hiding, shooting, the dead man’s brother?

10. Her reaction, Doreen’s advice? Completing her task, confronting the big driver, problems with the gun, the struggle, shooting him, the board with the nail, shooting him in the groin?

11. Doreen and her approval? At the computer, the new text, Doreen reading it, the knitting group approving? Psychological motivation for her books?

12. The imaginative world of Stephen King?