Travis Bickle

Travis Bickle is the mentally unstable, antihero protagonist of the 1976 film Taxi Driver, portrayed by Robert De Niro. A 26-year-old Vietnam War veteran and honorable discharge Marine, he suffers from chronic insomnia, depression, and social isolation while working graveyard shifts as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City. Driven by a warped sense of moral superiority and disgust with the city’s "filth," Bickle’s descent into paranoia leads him to buy weapons, attempt to assassinate politician Charles Palantine, and violently storm a brothel in a misguided effort to rescue the 12-year-old prostitute Iris Steensma, ultimately being hailed as a hero by the media despite his profound psychological instability.