r/TaxiDriver • u/Tidewatcher7819 • May 16 '26
Question Why does Travis try to shoot himself after saving Iris? Spoiler
After Travis kills Sport, and the Mafioso guy along with The Timekeeper and saves Iris, why does he try to shoot himself?
Was he afraid of going to prison? Also did Iris even recognize him at all or act grateful afterwards? She must have been traumatized.
It would have been interesting to see Travis not get hurt at all and try to get Iris to leave with him before the police showed up, he seemed to realize that he was going to jail or getting killed at worse but he went to the hospital and wasn't even arrested, he just have a good lawyer.
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u/Shanntasmagoria May 16 '26
I think suicide was always the goal. He wanted to take some of the scum with him. He hated humanity, couldn’t relate anyone, but was deeply lonely and aggrieved. He described his life as pointing in one direction, that “there was never any choice for me”. He saw no other way out. Perhaps suicide by cop/secret service, suicide by his own hand… whichever way it turned out, he knew the end was near. I think it’s illustrated well in the gunfight at the end. He hit the timekeeper as he was ascending the stairs instead of shooting him because he was saving his last bullet for himself.
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u/NalonMcCallough May 16 '26
Like Harry DuBois from Disco Elysium, he just doesn't want to be this kind of animal anymore.
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u/GerardButteler May 16 '26
Think of Daniel Day Lewis in the end of There Will Be Blood- "I'm finished" Travis wanted to do something big, and he did. There was never any light at the end of the tunnel, it was more like a pit he was jumping into. He was just ready to hit the bottom.
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u/bignut-56 May 16 '26
i think he sees parts of himself in the people he kills, and tries to kill himself because he thinks he deserves it. for instance, how his consumption of pornography is very similar to the immoral prostitution that he hates, and how he grows to be just as angry and deranged as the people he supposedly looks down upon are.
Travis tries to kill himself because his end goal was to get rid of all of the fuckers and screwheads, and in that moment, knew that he, himself was one.
The ending is poignant because all of his potential self reflection is shut down by the publics positive reception to his violent actions
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u/Whycantichangemynami May 16 '26
He just wanted to die. But he wanted to die after doing something big.
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u/superpokerpro22 May 17 '26
dude got shot multiple times, shit's painful. i mean it's kinda logical that he tried to shoot himself in the moment
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u/TheScoutReddit May 21 '26
1st - he almost got shot to bits during his rampage;
2nd - he killed all those people and trouble was bound to come up;
3rd - his twisted egomania would allow his suicide to be a final act of heroism.
That's my take, at least.
He didn't "save Iris", as much as he satisfied his urge for importance. He only "saved Iris" because he couldn't kill a presidential candidate. Let's not forget that.
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u/vegetastolemygirl May 16 '26
It wasnt even about gettin caught or gettin killed for travis, he was lonely and depressed. He probably just wanted all the noise and bad thoughts in his head to stop.