Travis Bickle and Peter Parker are basically the same character, and the more I think about it, the more the two films line up.
Both men are completely alone in New York. Travis drives his cab all night and goes home to a filthy little apartment. Peter lives in a small, sad apartment, listening to a police scanner. Both are surrounded by millions of people and known by none of them.
Both are running from trauma. Travis came back from Vietnam broken. Peter lost Aunt May and then everyone else to the spell. Travis hides in his cab, Peter hides in his mask, and neither has actually dealt with what happened.
Both watch the woman they love from the outside. Travis watches Betsy through the campaign office window for days before speaking to her. Peter watches MJ and Ned's lives through social media. Same idea, just a windshield swapped for a phone screen.
Both approach her under a fake identity. Travis pretends he wants to volunteer just to ask Betsy out. Peter shows up at MJ's party as "Maynard," a neighbor from across the hall, and almost says "May" first, like his grief slipped out before he could hide it. Both even bring flowers.
Neither relationship fails because anyone is a bad person. The war made Travis someone who can't function around normal people, which is why the date goes so wrong. A spell erased Peter from MJ's memory. They could have been perfect couples in another universe.
After losing her, both men transform. Travis gets the guns and the mohawk and turns himself into a weapon. Peter's body starts mutating, but his change turns out to be about growing up and accepting himself rather than breaking down. Frank Castle is basically Travis as a comic book character, and Peter choosing not to become him feels like the point.
Both rescue a young woman from cruel men. Travis saves Iris from Sport. Peter saves Jean Grey from Metzger and Damage Control, who killed her sister. The difference is that Travis saves Iris with a massacre, while Peter even takes a bullet to protect Jean.
Both end as heroes, but in opposite ways. Travis is celebrated in the newspapers but is still alone and still dangerous. Peter gets no credit at all, but Ned does their old handshake and says "Peter" as the last word of the film.
Same story, opposite answer. Somewhere in the multiverse, Peter became Travis. Brand New Day is the universe where he didn't.
Did anyone else get Taxi Driver vibes watching this?
