Taxi Driver is set in New York, and focuses on a loner cab driver named Travis Brickle ( Robert De Niro). Travis is a somewhat mentally unstable Vietnam vet, who is sickened by the sleaze and violence that he sees at night on the streets of New York. One night, Travis has an encounter with a young prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster) and becomes determined to persuade her to leave her pimp (Harvey Kietel). As Travis slowly decends into depression, paranoia, and overall madness, he becomes determined to rid the streets of crime himself.