First Trailer: ‘Drive’ Starring Ryan Gosling

The buzz surrounding director Nicholas Winding Refn’s action thriller Drive kicked into high gear when the film had its premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. There, the hard R-rated Drive earned Refn best director honors and had everyone talking about Ryan Gosling’s performance.

Drive will screen at the Toronto Film Festival and then, finally, will hit theaters on September 16th for the rest of us to check out.

The Plot: Ryan Gosling stars as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for criminal operations by night. A loner by nature, Driver can’t help falling in love with his beautiful but vulnerable neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young mother dragged into a dangerous criminal underworld by the return of ex-convict husband Standard (Oscar Isaac).

After a heist operation, intended to help Standard pay off protection money, spins out of control, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman). When the gangsters reveal that they’re after more than the bag of money in his trunk—that they’re coming straight for Irene and her son—Driver is forced to shift gears and go on the offense.