Every Death In Baby Driver Explained

Warning: This list contains spoilers for Baby Driver.

Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is a high-speed crime and action movie that sees the deaths of almost the entire cast, besides a couple of main characters. The thriller follows musical enthusiast Baby (Ansel Elgort) a young getaway driver determined to leave behind a life of crime. However, when the crime boss Doc (Kevin Spacey) forces him to return for a heist that goes horribly wrong, Baby is launched into a labyrinth of death, destruction, and revenge.

Baby, his girlfriend Debora (Lily James), and adoptive father Joseph (CJ Jones) pull through the dangerous adventure, but pretty much the entirety of the rest of the cast is not so lucky. Additionally, there is death in Baby’s backstory, which is revealed through flashbacks in the movie. This is not even considering the deaths of numerous extras including other criminals, cops, and security guards. Baby Driver is a thrilling and unique movie that effectively conveys the danger of the world Baby is trying to escape — and Wright’s finished script for Baby Driver 2 is hopefully the same.

8

Baby’s Mother & Father (Sky Ferreira & Lance Palmer)

Baby’s parents are killed in a car crash shown in Baby Driver’s flashback scenes.

Information about Baby’s childhood is revealed in a flashback, and an accompanying music video. Baby’s parents were both killed in a car crash which left Baby with a permanent ringing in his ears, which he blocks out with headphones, giving the movie its unique musical accompaniment. The flashback scenes show that the car crash happened while Baby’s father was shouting at his mother, while Baby was in the back seat with earbuds in, visibly distressed by the argument.

Baby’s mother was an aspiring singer who inspired Baby’s love of music; his parents gifted him an iPod for one of his birthdays (a gift most likely chosen by his mother), and one of his most treasured possessions is a demo tape his mother recorded before her death. Baby also appears to have been in the habit of blocking out things with music long before he was affected by tinnitus, namely, so he did not have to listen to his father shouting at his mother. Therefore, Baby’s relationship with his deceased parents is intertwined with his relationship with music.

7

Griff (Jon Bernthal)

Griff’s fate in Baby Driver is still unconfirmed.

Baby Driver is one of Jon Bernthal’s best movies, even though the actor disappears from it before the end of the first act. Bernthal’s character Griff participates in the robbery and getaway which is the opening scene of the movie. When the crew meets up afterward, Griff is put off by Baby’s generally spaced-out demeanor and demands to know why he is always listening to music and never speaks. Right before he parts ways with the rest of the cast, Griff tells them all: “If you don’t see me again, I’m dead.”

This final line suggests that Griff dies in Baby Driver, as he is never seen again. He appears to have done his job in the robbery well and there is no reason to believe Doc wouldn’t have worked with him again unless he was killed in another heist gone wrong. Admittedly, Doc says that he “never does a job with the exact same crew twice,” suggesting that if he were to work with Griff again, he wouldn’t be paired with the same trio as before. However, Griff’s ultimate fate in Baby Driver remains ambiguous.

6

JD (Lanny Joon)

JD is killed off-screen in Baby Driver.

JD is a member of the second crew for which Baby serves as a getaway driver in the movie. The only member of this crew who plays a major role in the movie is Jamie Foxx’s Bats, while JD appears in just a couple of scenes. JD gets some humorous moments, such as telling Baby he changed his tattoo to “increase [his] chances of employment.” He also has a comedic disagreement with his crew over what masks they were supposed to buy.

Like everyone else except for Doc, JD is shocked when Baby recites the entire plan despite having been listening to music while Doc explains it. During the close getaway for this heist, JD accidentally leaves his shotgun behind. Both Bats and Doc are mad at JD for leaving this evidence to be found, and it is implied that one of them kills him off-screen. Baby notes JD’s absence when he arrives at the post-heist debrief and Doc shows him JD’s body in the trunk of a car afterward.

5

The Butcher (Paul Williams)

The Butcher provides weapons to Doc’s crime organization.

Doc’s contact known as “the Butcher” leads a group of corrupt cops who are willing to sell weapons to the crime boss. When the crew goes to pick up weapons, Bats figures out that they are cops and fires on all of them, allegedly believing that they are undercover. Doc is later furious that Bats ruined this business relationship as he knew that they were cops, but the others insist that they go ahead with the planned heist.

The Butcher’s practices and way of speaking might be inspired by John Wick. He is dressed elegantly and presents the various weapons he has available by comparing them to cuts of meat, hence his code name. However, the Butcher doesn’t have the same impact as the denizens of the Continental Hotel, and his role in Baby Driver’s story is only to raise the stakes before the heist and further demonstrate Bats’ impulsivity.

4

Bats (Jamie Foxx)

Baby himself is the one to kill Bats in Baby Driver.

Baby is at odds with Bats from the moment he arrives, as Baby does his best to prevent any civilians from being killed during their heists and Bats has no qualms about collateral damage. During their first heist together, Baby prevents Bats from shooting a driver who comes after them, which Bats notes. When Bats comes back for another job, disaster ensues between them.

In this third heist depicted in the movie — the one which Doc has to extort Baby into returning for — Bats mercilessly kills a security guard, leaving Baby appalled. While the others shout at Baby to drive away, he is unsure what to do. He then drives the car forward into the back of a truck, impaling Bats. Because Baby Driver sets Bats (or Doc) up as the most merciless villain, and this moment subverts expectations by killing him off before the conflict’s culmination.

3

Darling (Eiza González)

Baby Driver’s Darling is killed during a chase scene.

Baby Driver is also among Eiza González’s best movies, featuring her as the criminal known as Darling. Darling and her husband Buddy appear to be among Doc’s regular collaborators because he calls them back for another heist. They give the impression of having worked with Baby regularly in the past when they tell Griff to leave him alone. During this scene, they appear affectionate towards Baby and maybe even think of him as a friendly coworker. However, this amicable relationship ends when Darling is killed.

After Baby kills Bats and destroys their getaway car, he, Darling, and Buddy are forced to flee on foot. Eventually, they end up having a shootout with the police force in a parking lot, where Darling is shot and killed by the officers. Buddy then blames Baby for his wife’s death and sets out on a vicious revenge mission that becomes the movie’s final conflict.

2

Doc (Kevin Spacey)

Buddy presumably kills Doc, running over him with a car.

Despite threatening Baby into helping with the last heist, Doc tries to help him and Debora flee at the end of the movie. When Baby and Debora come back to Doc’s headquarters, planning to go on the run to escape the police and Buddy, Doc is persuaded to give them cash and advice. However, the police ambush them and shoot Doc. Doc stays on his feet and shoots all three officers present.

Buddy then shows up in a stolen police car and runs down Doc. The movie doesn’t go back to Doc to confirm that he is dead, but this is a safe assumption given his injuries and the movie’s rising death toll. In the end, it appears as though only Baby and Debora were meant to survive the fray, in addition to some supporting characters.

1

Buddy (Jon Hamm)

Buddy is the last person to die in Baby Driver.

Like his wife, Buddy seems to like Baby, even discussing a Queen song they both like in one scene. However, Buddy becomes the final threat of the movie in his quest to avenge Darling’s death. After killing Doc, Baby and Debora end up in a brutal final fight with Buddy. Baby thinks he has won when he pushes Buddy’s car off the upper level of a parking garage. However, it is revealed that Buddy somehow got out of the car when he reappears a moment later threatening to shoot Baby.

After Buddy damages Baby’s hearing further with gunshots and proceeds to murder Debora, Baby, and Debora are finally able to overpower Buddy. He falls backward off the level and lands in the car crash below. Baby Driver plays with the audience’s expectations about who will be the worst villain and who will be the last to die. Buddy does not seem like he will be either at the beginning, but his character pivots, and he ends up having a very dramatic death.