driven

Director: renny harlin

Actor: sylvester stallone,kip pardue,til schweiger,burt reynolds

Data Published: Fri Apr 27 2001

Genres: Action,Drama,Sport

Key Words: rookie,skirt flying,legs,car racing,movie flop

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132245/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driven_(2001_film)

Description: Driven is a movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Kip Pardue, and Til Schweiger. A young hot shot driver is in the middle of a championship season and is coming apart at the seams. A former CART champion is called in to give him...

Plot: Halfway through the (fictionalized) 2001 Champ Car season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille seems more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. His success has also drawn the ire of the reigning champion and series points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he's not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia becoming "a distraction". He breaks up the engagement and he regains his winning ways. As Brandenburg returns to form, Bly's paraplegic team owner Carl Henry is concerned that Bly is making more driving errors. He sees parallels to his former driver and Champ Car Champion, Joe Tanto, whom he convinces to come out of retirement to mentor Jimmy. Joe agrees and is brought in to replace Jimmy's teammate, Memo Moreno. To complicate matters, Joe's ex-wife Cathy Heguy is now married to Memo, the driver that Joe replaced. Despite all this, Joe and Memo are still friends. Joe's comeback race is extremely close, with Jimmy leading and Brandenburg a close second. Jimmy can't seem to pull away from him so Carl orders Joe to pit and holds him there until the leaders are about to come by, despite Joe's protests. At the last second, Joe leaves the pit just in time to block out Brandenburg, allowing Jimmy to win the race. Jimmy's brother/manager takes a dislike to Joe's mentoring, implying that Joe should just act as a blocker. After the race, Joe urges Brandenburg to reconcile with Sophia because she has started an illegal affair with Jimmy, which is causing him to further lose his form on the track, resulting in Jimmy crashing out in Japan. At a party in Chicago, where the prototypes of next year's cars are being introduced, Brandenburg gives Sophia her ring back, apologizes for his behavior towards her, and they reconcile, much to Jimmy's disappointment. Sophia apologizes to Jimmy, but he is so angry and upset that he takes one of the new cars and races it out of the convention center. Joe hops into another of the new cars and chases him down the streets of Chicago, eventually calming Jimmy down and bringing him back to his senses after they stop driving. In the coming race in Germany, Carl decides that bringing back Joe isn't getting the results he wants, so he reinstates Jimmy's original teammate Moreno while making Joe mentor Jimmy from the pit lane. In the next race, it's another close one with Jimmy and Brandenburg fighting it out for first. Bly needs one more win to take the championship, and Moreno is instructed to block for Jimmy, and keep out of his way. Cathy gets on the radio and convinces Memo to go for the win, and, as a result, he collides with Bly in a horrific crash that sends him flying through the air and crashing into a lake on the far end of the course. Jimmy does a quick u-turn and drives his car to the lake and dives in after him. Brandenburg does the same and the two of them rescue Memo just as a burning tree having caught fire in the crash collapses into the burning car igniting the fuel on top of the water and it explodes. This event causes Brandenburg to warm up to Jimmy, soon telling him he's a good man and that he's sorry he didn't want to win the championship this way. Carl, angered by Jimmy's decision to stop and rescue Moreno instead of fighting on for the championship, argues with Joe who was examining what's left of Memo's car. He decides to replace Jimmy with Brandenburg for the coming season and negotiates a deal with Jimmy's brother who will now represent Brandenburg. Demille tries to get Brandenburg to sign the new contract but he rips it up and Sophia punches Demille in the face for the way he treated her previously. With Memo now hospitalized, Joe is racing again as Jimmy's teammate. Initially, Jimmy was barred from competing due to a foot injury he sustained while rescuing Memo but Carl finally decides to clear him for the race after Jimmy passes Carl's strength test. At the final race of the year in Detroit, Jimmy and Brandenburg are contenders for the championship. In the final laps, Joe has taken the lead but by avoiding an accident, goes flying through the air, landing safely but damaging his front suspension. He can no longer contend for the win and the two leaders pass him on the final lap. It's neck and neck coming down to the finish. Jimmy is starting to have a mental lapse, but then he hears Joe's words of wisdom and in a long slow motion sequence, we see Jimmy beating Brandenburg by just a few inches as Joe crosses in third while doing doughnuts in his now out of control car due to its damaged suspension breaking. Jimmy is the new champion and he, Tanto and Brandenburg, celebrate together on the podium drinking champagne.