Baby Driver

The scene

Baby doesn't go anywhere without music. Earbuds in, iPod in pocket, the world becomes a choreographed heist set to a perfectly curated soundtrack. He has tinnitus from a childhood car accident, and the music covers the ringing — but it also makes him untouchable. When the music plays, Baby drives like nobody else on Earth.

Edgar Wright's 2017 film is built around a simple premise: every action scene is synchronized to a song, and the songs live on iPods. Not a phone. Not a streaming app. Physical devices with click wheels and limited storage, loaded with specific tracks for specific moments. Baby rotates through them the way a DJ rotates through crates.

The iPods aren't props. They're instruments.

The gear

Baby carries multiple iPods throughout the film. The confirmed models include a 1st generation iPod (2001) — the original white brick with the mechanical scroll wheel — visible in a childhood flashback. He also uses a 4th generation iPod Photo (the color-screen model from 2004) and a pink iPod Mini, the compact aluminum model that was the must-have device of 2005.

The variety is deliberate. Baby doesn't have one iPod — he has a collection, each loaded with different playlists for different moods and situations. Wright has said in interviews that the iPod choice was both a character detail (Baby is analog in a digital world) and a practical decision: the click wheel gives the audience a visual cue of track selection that a touchscreen phone can't match.

In his apartment, Baby also has an E-MU Emulator II, a legendary 8-bit sampler from 1984 that originally cost $8,000. He uses it to sample and remix conversations into music. The Emulator II was the instrument of choice for Depeche Mode, New Order, and countless '80s producers — a serious piece of music production history sitting in a young getaway driver's apartment.

"One more job and I'm done."

Why it matters

Baby Driver arrived at the perfect moment for iPod nostalgia. By 2017, the iPod was effectively dead — Apple had discontinued the Classic in 2014. The film turned obsolete hardware into romantic objects: each iPod is a vessel for a specific emotional state, curated with care that streaming can't replicate.

The collector market for vintage iPods has exploded since 2017, and Baby Driver deserves partial credit. 1st generation iPods — the model from Baby's flashback — now command $300–$1,000+ depending on condition. The iPod Mini, once a $50 eBay afterthought, has climbed to $100–$200 for clean units. Collectors mod them with flash storage and new batteries, turning them into functional daily players.

The E-MU Emulator II is a different kind of collectible entirely. These are studio-grade samplers that shaped the sound of the 1980s. Working units are rare and command serious prices — the kind of instrument you find in a museum or a very dedicated producer's studio.