Taxi Driver
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50 free Taxi Driver trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Taxi Driver put a lonely New York cabbie at the center of one of the most argued-over films of the 1970s. Martin Scorsese directed it, Paul Schrader wrote it, and Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle became a character people still quote, imitate and worry about. This quiz covers the whole ride: the plot and its famous scenes, the cast around De Niro, the low-budget shoot in a sweltering summer, the awards it won and lost, and the movies and real events it later touched. It is pitched at fans of Scorsese and 1970s cinema, but plenty of the questions can be reasoned out by anyone who has seen the film once.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which haircut, suggested by a Vietnam veteran in the cast, does Travis Bickle give himself in Taxi Driver?
A mohawk
A mohawk was the idea of actor Victor Magnotta, who told Scorsese that soldiers in Saigon wore one when they were ready for a Special Forces mission.
Q 02John Hinckley Jr., fixated on Taxi Driver and Jodie Foster, tried to assassinate which US president in 1981?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan survived the shooting, and Hinckley's lawyers closed their defense by playing the film for the jury, which found him not guilty by reason of insanity.
Q 03Travis Bickle delivers the most quoted line of Taxi Driver, improvised by Robert De Niro, while facing what?
A mirror
A mirror is his only audience as he rehearses drawing a gun on imagined enemies. Screenwriter Paul Schrader said De Niro improvised the dialogue.
Q 04A 1977 magazine quip said Taxi Driver did for cab-riding what which earlier thriller did for swimming?
Jaws
Jaws was the comparison Ladies' Home Journal reached for in March 1977, summing up how uneasy the film had made a late-night cab ride feel.
Q 05Robert De Niro flew home from which country, where he was filming 1900, to drive a real cab for Taxi Driver?
Italy
Italy was where De Niro was shooting Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900: he would wrap on a Friday in Rome, fly to New York and pick up fares for a couple of weeks.
Q 06Taxi Driver lost the Best Picture Oscar to which 1976 film that also beat Network and All the President's Men?
Rocky
Rocky took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing that night. Scorsese was not even among the four nominations his own film received.
Q 07Which 2019 film cast Robert De Niro as a talk-show host in a story that borrows heavily from Taxi Driver?
Joker
Joker grew out of director Todd Phillips's love of 1970s character studies, and Scorsese himself was at first attached to the project as a producer.
Q 08Robert De Niro was recognized only once while driving a cab for Taxi Driver, despite a recent Oscar for which film?
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II had won him Best Supporting Actor as the young Vito Corleone, yet only one passenger spotted him behind the wheel.
Q 09Where did the sound crew ride while scenes inside Travis Bickle's cab were being filmed for Taxi Driver?
In the trunk
In the trunk, while Scorsese and his cinematographer squeezed onto the back-seat floor and shot with whatever light was available.
Q 10What did Martin Scorsese alter in the final shootout of Taxi Driver so the film could avoid an X rating?
Color of the blood
The color of the blood was muted from bright red to a reddish brown, a change Scorsese later called an improvement on the original scene.
Q 11Which condition leads Travis Bickle, a Vietnam veteran, to take a night-shift job in Taxi Driver?
Insomnia
Insomnia came straight from Paul Schrader's own life: the screenwriter had battled it himself and sought out places that stayed open all night.
Q 12Where does Travis Bickle take Betsy on the second date that ends their romance in Taxi Driver?
A porn theater
A porn theater is one of his regular haunts, and Betsy walks out at once. His attempts to make amends afterward fail.
Q 13Which actress plays Betsy, the campaign worker Travis Bickle becomes infatuated with in Taxi Driver?
Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Shepherd had made her film debut in The Last Picture Show five years earlier, and by her own account Scorsese had been looking for an actress of her type before casting her.
Q 21Which composer finished recording the score for Taxi Driver only hours before he died in December 1975?
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann, the composer of Psycho and Vertigo, was Scorsese's first and only choice, and the film is dedicated to his memory.
Q 22Which top prize did Taxi Driver win at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, where its violence drew boos?
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or came in May 1976, a few months after the film opened in New York and well before its four Oscar nominations were announced.
Q 23Which playwright presided over the Cannes jury that gave Taxi Driver its top prize in 1976?
Tennessee Williams
Q 14Which actor plays Sport, the pimp who controls 12-year-old Iris in Taxi Driver?
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel had worked with Scorsese since the director's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door, almost a decade earlier.
Q 15Which comedian made his feature film acting debut in Taxi Driver as Tom, Betsy's campaign-office colleague?
Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks was allowed by Scorsese to improvise much of his dialogue as the campaign aide.
Q 16What nickname does the fellow cabbie played by Peter Boyle go by in Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle seeks his advice?
Wizard
Wizard listens as Travis confesses his violent thoughts, then brushes them aside and assures him he will be fine.
Q 17In Taxi Driver, what does Travis Bickle keep that supplies the voice-over narration heard throughout the film?
A diary
A diary gives the film its narration: his entries, read in voice-over, chart his growing disgust with the city and his deepening isolation.
Q 18The grateful parents of Iris, the girl rescued by Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, write to him from which city?
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is home for Iris, and the handwritten letter of thanks tells Travis she is safely back there and attending school again.
Q 19How do the newspapers portray Travis Bickle after the brothel shootout at the end of Taxi Driver?
As a hero
As a hero: the press hails him for rescuing a child, though Paul Schrader has said Travis is not cured and will not be one next time.
Q 20Who spots Travis Bickle reaching into his jacket at Senator Palantine's rally in Taxi Driver, forcing him to flee?
Secret Service agents
Secret Service agents give chase, but Travis slips away and gets home undetected, then goes after Iris's pimp that same evening.
Tennessee Williams led a jury that also included Costa-Gavras, Charlotte Rampling and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Q 24Jodie Foster first acted for Martin Scorsese, before Taxi Driver, in a small role in which 1974 film?
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore gave her a minor supporting part as a street kid; her mother wanted her to move beyond children's roles into films made for adult audiences.
Q 25Before 12-year-old Jodie Foster could be cast as Iris in Taxi Driver, what did California authorities require?
Psychological testing
Psychological testing with a UCLA psychiatrist was meant to show the role would not scar her, and a social worker accompanied her on set.
Q 26Who stood in for 12-year-old Jodie Foster in the more suggestive scenes of Taxi Driver?
Her older sister
Her older sister Connie served as the stand-in, performing the provocative actions judged inappropriate for the young star.
Q 27Which actor turned down the role of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver because he thought Martin Scorsese was crazy?
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman passed on the part, and Al Pacino, Jeff Bridges and Jason Miller were also considered before De Niro took it.
Q 28Robert De Niro reportedly took Travis Bickle's most quoted line in Taxi Driver from which rock star's stage act?
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is named in the memoir of his saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who said De Niro explained the origin while they made New York, New York.
Q 29Which fellow director introduced Martin Scorsese to both the screenwriter and the composer of Taxi Driver?
Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma had wanted to direct the script himself, but its producers thought Scorsese would be better suited.
Q 30Dan Perri, who designed the neon-lit opening titles of Taxi Driver, created the title sequence of which 1977 hit?
Star Wars
Star Wars got its receding opening crawl from Perri, who had made his name with the titles of The Exorcist.