It was a dreary and very rainy Sunday afternoon in Adelaide, Australia. I had just picked up my registration packet for a systems engineering (INCOSE) conference that was set to start the next day and I was walking the streets of Adelaide like a zombie in the rain soaked streets after my 24-hours of travel the previous day…so it was the perfect time duck into a movie theater and get out of the weather for a while. I had seen a few trailers for Baby Driver and I was curious, so I gave it a shot hoping that my messed up internal clock wouldn’t cause me to fall into a coma-like sleep during the movie. Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about.
Just because he has headphones in doesn’t mean he isn’t listening (Image: Sony Pictures)
For those of you that haven’t seen or even heard of Baby Driver, it is a movie about a rather young and talented “wheelman” (or getaway driver) who suffers from tinnitus and therefore almost always has earbuds stuffed into his ears pumping music into his skull to help dull the constant ringing he has in his ears. It’s a great action flick, full of car chases and gun fights and plenty of violence (not really a movie for young kids). But the real unique aspect that makes this movie so great is the painstaking detail that was required to synchronize the movie’s soundtrack to the action that was taking place on the screen. You heard me right, the writer/director (Edgar Wright) made sure that each scene in the movie was played out to the beat of the music being played. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Baby Driver was nominated for three Oscars in film editing, sound editing and sound mixing. Seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie it is definitely worth checking out. I highly recommend either buying it through Apple with all the iTunes extras or buying on Blu-Ray so you can watch the “making of” supplementary materials and get the full story of what when into making this movie.
But there is also a geeky thread that runs through the entire movie. The main character Baby, played by Ansel Elgort, as I mentioned earlier has a need to always be listening to music and what better way to do that then by using an iPod. At least that used to be how many of us listened to music. Granted these days most people have a smart phone that doubles as a music player, but since this character was involved with activities that included stealing cars he always had a large number of stolen iPods at his disposal. Plus, the iPod is iconic and if Edgar Wright had used smart phones instead of iPods the movie would have been outdated before it even hit the editing room. So Edgar Wright chose to use an already vintage but iconic music player and give us Apple geeks something to talk about. So untangle those knotted white earbuds you have stuffed in a drawer somewhere, plug them into your favorite playlist and hang on for a geeky trip through the iPods of Baby Driver.
59 seconds into the movie and playing ‘Bellbottoms’ by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion we get our 1st iPod. This is a 5th Gen iPod Classic due to the slightly larger color screen and non-anodized front plate. (Image: Sony Pictures)
9 min and 46 sec in we get the above scene with Baby listening to a bit of ‘Egyptian Reggae’ by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. This appears to be the same 5th Gen iPod Classic from the opening chase scene as you can barely glimpse the black face plate when the iPod is flat on the table a few seconds earlier in this scene. (Image: Sony Pictures)
16min and 3 sec in we get a whole table full of iPods while Baby is mixing a version of ‘Was He Slow?” There are a lot of variants of iPods in this clip including the Classic, Mini, Shuffle and one of my favorites the “fat” Nano 3rd Gen. (Image: Sony Pictures)
16 min and 24 sec in and Baby is listening to his finished mix of “Was He Slow” and we get a slightly different angle on the table of iPods from the scene a few seconds earlier. Most notable is the Special Edition U2 iPod seen in the background just to the left of Baby’s head with the red click wheel. We don’t get a close enough look to determine whether it is a 4th Gen or 5th Gen. (Image: Sony Pictures)
17 min and 4 sec in we get our 1st look at Baby’s Original/Scroll Wheel 1st Gen iPod. How do we know this a 1st Gen and not a 2nd Gen? Since the wheel is off we can see that that it has manual scroll sensors instead of the touch sensitive click wheel of the 2nd Gen model. In the background we can see a 7th Gen iPod Nano and just above it looks like the 5th Gen black iPod from the opening scene sitting in a dock getting recharged for the next car chase. (Image: Sony Pictures)
25 min and 53 sec and its time for another bank robbery with “Neat Neat Neat” by The Damned. This is the same 5th Gen iPod from previous scenes but we get a nice close-up of just how much use this little iPod has seen. (Image: Sony Pictures)
33 min and 44 sec and we get a lot more of Baby’s flashback to the birthday when he received his iPod as a gift. This shot is of his Original/Scroll Wheel 1st Gen iPod fresh out of the box, which we also get to see just prior to this shot. (Image: Sony Pictures)
34 min and 22 sec with “Easy” by The Commodores playing. While I can’t be certain with this edge on view it sure looks like the same 5th Gen black iPod that seems to be Baby’s “go to” iPod so far. (Image: Sony Pictures)
36 min and 26 sec and Baby is back in the diner and we get a new angle on the same 5th Gen black iPod. (Image: Sony Pictures)
38 min and 04 sec in and we are still in the diner. Baby pulls out this pink and glittery beauty so he can play the song “Debra” by Beck for Debora. This is most likely a 2nd Gen iPod Mini since the click wheel lettering color appears to match the iPod body color but it is hard to tell for sure. (Image: Sony Pictures)
55 min and 26 sec and just before Baby pulls out another iPod so he and Buddy can listen to Baby’s “killer track” you get a glimpse of Baby listening to something on a white iPod. Based on the screen size and the white front face color this is a 4th Gen iPod Classic. (Image: Sony Pictures)
55 min and 26 sec and Baby is showing Buddy his “killer track” which we get to hear later in the film. This is the same 5th Gen iPod black iPod from previous scenes. (Image: Sony Pictures)
1 hour 1 min and 32 sec and Bats asks Baby to find something funky to play on his iPod, so he plays “Tequila” by Button Down Brass. This looks like the same 4th Gen iPod Classic from the scene just a few minutes ago. (Image: Sony Pictures)
1 hour 26 min and 30 sec and the same 4th Gen iPod Classic from the 2 previous scenes is destroyed by a bullet during a shoot out. The entire scene is synced to the beat of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus. Goodbye iPod. (Image: Sony Pictures)
1 hour 33 min and 27 sec and we have Baby and Buddy in the diner in a rather tense scene. Baby is listening to “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” by Barry White. We get a very quick view of the iPod as Buddy takes it from Baby and it looks like the same 5th Gen iPod black iPod from previous scenes. (Image: Sony Pictures)
1 hour 38 min and 44 sec and Buddy cranks up the killer track “Brighton Rock” by Queen as he prepares to run Baby down with his stolen police car and the final showdown begins. This is same 5th Gen iPod that we see Buddy take from Baby and pocket in the diner scene. (Image: Sony Pictures)
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One of the cute things about this that Edgar Wright mentioned: Baby has an infinite supply of iPods and sunglasses because he’s been stealing cars for so long.
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that in all of the pictures where you say that there is a 6th Gen iPod Classic, it is actually an iPod 4th Gen, either a Photo or grayscale variant.
You are absolutely correct and I have updated the article. I initially thought it was a 6th Gen because it looked like an anodized finish but the screen size and the fact that it has a white front (which changed to silver in the 6th Gen) gave it away. Thanks for heads-up! Turns out there are quite a few website reference out there that list “white” as a color option for the 6th Gen and that is not the case (it’s really silver).
Because of baby, I have become a baby myself. I hoard all kinds of ipods with other people music in it and I also bought a 50k mile 2006 red wrx sti. I use this car to drift.
One of the cute things about this that Edgar Wright mentioned: Baby has an infinite supply of iPods and sunglasses because he’s been stealing cars for so long.
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that in all of the pictures where you say that there is a 6th Gen iPod Classic, it is actually an iPod 4th Gen, either a Photo or grayscale variant.
You are absolutely correct and I have updated the article. I initially thought it was a 6th Gen because it looked like an anodized finish but the screen size and the fact that it has a white front (which changed to silver in the 6th Gen) gave it away. Thanks for heads-up! Turns out there are quite a few website reference out there that list “white” as a color option for the 6th Gen and that is not the case (it’s really silver).
Because of baby, I have become a baby myself. I hoard all kinds of ipods with other people music in it and I also bought a 50k mile 2006 red wrx sti. I use this car to drift.