plot explanation - Was 'The Driver' leaving the town at the end of Drive (2011)? - Movies & TV

I saw Drive (2011) a little while ago. It was the second time I watched this movie. I am a little bit confused about the ending.

Did the driver leave the town or went to meet Irene at the end?

Answer

From Wikipedia:

The Driver makes a final phone call to Irene to tell her he is leaving, and says that meeting her and Benicio was the best thing that has ever happened to him [...]

[...] That evening, Irene knocks on the Driver's apartment door, with no response. The Driver drives into the night.

From 'Drive' Ending Explained:

When we last see Driver – bleeding out while behind the wheel of his car, before pulling himself together and speeding off into the night – there is a certain amount of lingering doubt about the literalness vs. figurativeness of what we are seeing.

When I asked [the director] Refn first-hand what the ending of Drive was all about, I expected the typically coy filmmaker to hand me an equally coy answer. However, he was surprisingly straight forward in his response:

• "Well all my films always have open endings. All of them. Because I believe art is always best when…you talk about it and think about it, so forth. Maybe once in awhile I’ve gone too far, but I always believe in finding the right balance. And in ‘Drive’ he lives on for more and new adventures."

[...] the implications of the film are such that Driver will likely speed off into new adventures, as Refn claims, albeit still stuck in the lonely and isolated existence in which we found him. The only difference is: he now knows what kind of hero he can be.