The unnamed driver (Ryan Gosling), who lives in an Echo Park, Los Angeles apartment, works repairing cars and as a part-time movie double. Managed in both jobs by auto shop owner Shannon (Bryan Cranston), the duo also provides a getaway driver service. With Shannon organizing the schemes, the driver gives criminals only five minutes to perpetrate robberies and reach his car. After meeting his new neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), the driver soon becomes close to her and befriends her young son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), while Irene's husband, Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac), is in prison. After her husband is freed, Irene still asks the driver to visit them.
Shannon persuades Jewish mobsters Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman) to purchase a stock car chassis and build it for the driver to race. Standard, owing protection money from his time in prison, is beaten up by Albanian gangster Cook (James Biberi), who demands that Standard rob a pawnshop for $40,000 to pay the debt. The gangster gives the young boy Benicio a bullet as a symbol that he and his mother are in danger. The driver, concerned for the safety of Irene and Benicio, steals a Ford Mustang and offers to act as the getaway driver for the pawnshop job.
While waiting for Standard and Cook's accomplice Blanche (Christina Hendricks) to complete the heist, the driver sees a custom Chrysler 300 pull into the parking lot. Blanche returns with a large bag, but Standard is shot in the back several times and killed by the pawnshop owner. The driver flees with Blanche and the money. They are pursued by the Chrysler, which bumps them but skids in the fast turns and eventually spins out. Eluding the other vehicle, the driver hides with Blanche in a motel. Learning that the bag contains a million dollars, yet the TV news reports the robbery as no money stolen, the driver threatens to beat Blanche, forcing her to admit she and Cook planned to re-steal the mysterious money with the Chrysler. Minutes later, two of Cook's men ambush them in the motel room, killing Blanche and injuring the driver before he manages to kill them both.
At the auto shop, the driver's arm is bandaged from the shotgun pellets; Shannon offers to hide the money, but the driver refuses. He hunts down Cook in a strip club, smashes his fingers with a hammer, and threatens to kill him, forcefeeding him the bullet that was given to Benicio; Cook reveals that Nino was behind the robbery. The driver decides to return the million but Nino dismisses the offer and instead sends a hitman (Jeff Wolfe) to the driver's apartment building. Entering the elevator with Irene, the driver encounters the hitman and spots his pistol. The driver kisses Irene and then brutally beats the hitman to death. Irene exits horrified and stunned.
In his pizzeria, Nino reveals to Bernie that the money was stashed at the pawn shop by a low level Philadelphia wise guy from the "East Coast mob" and since anyone tied to the robbery could lead the East Coast Mafia to them, they need to kill everyone involved. Bernie warns Nino that nobody steals from the Italian Mob. Nino becomes angered and explains how the Italian Mob has, in part due to his Jewish heritage, continually marginalized and insulted him. At the end, he convinces Bernie to follow his plan. Bernie then proceeds to murder Cook with knives from the restaurant, as he is the sole witness to their agreement. After Shannon refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the driver, Bernie kills him at the auto shop with a straight razor from his collection of blades.
The driver, disguising himself with a rubber mask from his stuntman job, follows Nino from the pizzeria to the Pacific Coast Highway and T-bones Nino's car onto a beach, then chases him from the wreck to the ocean and drowns him. The driver goes to meet Bernie at a Chinese restaurant. He makes a phone call to Irene to tell her he is leaving, saying that meeting her and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to him. At the restaurant, Bernie promises that Irene will be safe in exchange for the money, but warns the driver must always be on the run. At his car, the driver gives Bernie the money but Bernie attempts to kill him, stabbing him in the stomach. The driver survives and fatally stabs Bernie in the neck, then drives away, abandoning the money bag alongside Bernie's body. Irene knocks at the driver's apartment, but gets no response. The driver is shown driving away into the night.
Where does the driver go to meet Bernie?
Chinese restaurant