Trivia

This film was originally written for Steve McQueen, but he turned it down. According to Walter Hill, "He didn't want to do anything that had to do with cars at that time. He felt he had already done that and it was pretty hard to argue with that." Hill had been assistant director on Bullitt (1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and wrote The Getaway (1972).

Not one character has a name in this movie, and are all addressed by their occupation; e.g. "the Driver", "the Detective" etc.

Isabelle Adjani agreed to be in the film because she was an admirer of Walter Hill's first film Hard Times (1975).

Walter Hill says the major visual influence on the movie was the works of artist Edward Hopper.

The titular driver is a man of few words - 350 in all.