This paper aims to combine the theories on the phenomenon of the metropolis and the American urban crisis with the concept of the flâneur or the stroller, an emblem of the individualised urban experience, and apply them to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, in order to depict space as a dynamic ever-changing notion, unfairly neglected in humanities studies and narrative interpretations. The theoretical basis for the analysis of space is provided by Edward Soja’s theory on the trialectics of space, within which Thirdspace, as a lived space, combines and transcends the real and imagined space. The urbanised and industrialised city is then described as a place of indifference and ambivalence, its immensity unavoidably leading to loneliness and isolation, accompanied by the fear of hidden criminal intentions. Directed towards the city’s marginal groups and the representatives of the city’s otherness, the urban fear gradually developed into paranoia, which was especially evident during the period of the urban crisis. The analysis of Scorsese’s depiction of New York serves as a demonstration of the artistic employment of the urban crisis, as well as the example of the subjectivity of the lived reality and the perception of the city. The ambivalence which defines the urban experience has produced flânerie as a symbolical representation of the individual exploration of the city, in which the flâneur can evolve from a passive stroller into an active figure, undertaking the role of a useful member of the society or the criminal. Travis Bickle’s obsessive and psychotic strolling is reminiscent of Benjamin’s theory on the potentially aggressive flânerie and the stroller’s duality depicted by Edgar Allan Poe, while also encapsulating the ideas on the urban loneliness and the anti-urban myths. Ultimately, the spatial experience depicted on film is not only influenced by the actual spatial experience, but also possesses the ability to contribute to the mental and imaginative aspect in the construction and the practice of spatial reality.