Despite their vast differences in style and tone throughout the decades, every Batman
movie tends to pull from the same handful of references and plot points again and again,
to the point where you can pretty much set your bat-watch by them.
Hey, did you know Bruce Wayne's parents were shot by a mugger in front of him when he was
a kid?
If you didn't, it's safe to assume that you've never seen a movie about the Dark Knight,
because it comes up a lot.
Seriously, we've had more scenes of Thomas and Martha Wayne being gunned down in an alley
over the years than we've had Batmobiles.
Admittedly, that makes a lot of sense.
Along with the bats that inspired Bruce to put on a costume in order to strike fear into
the superstitious, cowardly lot that is Gotham City's criminal underworld, it's the single
most important thing about his origin story.
Still, once you've seen it happen for the fifth or sixth time, it starts to lose its
impact, even if each version tries to add something new.
Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film makes it a major plot point by casting the murderer as the
crook who would eventually become the Joker.
Batman Forever shows the murders multiple times as part of a story where the Riddler
is stealing memories.
Batman Begins replaces the traditional movie theater with an opera house, and even shows
us the trial of a remorseful Joe Chill, something that's never really been done in another Batman
story.
"Your honor, not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could take back what I did."
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice leans into slow-motion close-ups, and puts a spin on
it by having bats burst out of Martha Wayne's tomb.
The one Batman film that doesn't feature the Wayne murders is, of course, Batman: The Movie,
which ties into the 1966 Adam West TV series.
In fact, in the show's entire 120-episode run, plus the movie, the killing is only ever
mentioned once, in the pilot.
"Perhaps if there had been anti-crime centers of the type you now propose when my own parents
were murdered by dastardly criminals."
It seems like Warner Bros. finally made up for that in 2018, when they included what
might just be the darkest — and most hilarious — take on the Wayne murders in the kid-friendly
Teen Titans Go to the Movies.
Who knew Robin was that stone cold?
More than any other superhero, Batman has an incredible roster of compelling villains,
with a deep bench that goes from worldwide threats like Ra's al-Ghul to sinister nuisances
like the Riddler, and even classic antiheroes like Catwoman, who have become main characters
worthy of a spotlight in their own right.
They're the best bad guys in comics.
As a result, the Batman movies are always eager to introduce a new villain, and almost
all of them make sure to dive into their origin stories.
"Jack is dead my friend, you can call me Joker."
The big exception is, of course, Batman '66, where all four baddies are already well-known
arch-criminals, just like they are on the show.
The rest of them, however, go hard at origins.
Batman '89 doesn't just show us the Joker going into the vat of acid, it gives us his
complete backstory as the underling of a mob boss, complete with its own web of double-crosses.
"You are my number one guy."
Batman Returns does even more.
Not only do we see Selina Kyle's breakdown and re-emergence as Catwoman, we also get
the Penguin's literal life story, from infancy to death.
Batman Begins shows us the Scarecrow's transition from weirdo doctor to full-on supervillain.
And Batman & Robin?
That movie actually does this four times, giving us the origin of Poison Ivy, A backstory
for Mr. Freeze that explains why he looks like a bodybuilder, a beginning for Bane,
and if you want to get technical about it, it even has an origin story for Jason Woodrue,
the Floronic Man.
It's easy to point to The Dark Knight as a movie that studiously avoids giving its major
villain a backstory, as the Joker gives a few conflicting versions of his past to preserve
his mystery.
Instead, it's a film focused on the origin of supervillainy itself.
In addition to giving us a full origin for Two-Face, it also shows the Joker's first
reign of terror in Gotham City, which ends up being the end of traditional organized
crime and a beginning for costumed supercriminals.
For decades, Alfred Pennyworth was Batman's loyal and somewhat bumbling butler.
With a few notable exceptions, however, the movies tend to avoid introducing Robin, and
Alfred became one of the only people that Batman can speak to casually.
As a result, he became a sarcastic comedic foil for the very serious Dark Knight.
The clearest example of this is probably Michael Caine's portrayal of Alfred in the Dark Knight
trilogy, who seems to delight in throwing shade at Batman, and pretty much everyone
else.
"Did you get mauled by a tiger?”
“It was a dog.”
“Huh?”
"It was a big dog."
It's definitely present across all versions, though.
The Jeremy Irons version from Batman v Superman is the only counterbalance to the movie's
otherwise all-consuming grimness.
Michael Gough's Alfred revels in dunking on the Caped Crusader by telling embarrassing
childhood stories about Bruce Wayne to his potential girlfriend.
C'mon, man, let the guy have a couple of secrets!
Batman's identity is one of his most important secrets.
Bruce Wayne is, after all, a very public figure whose home address is pretty easy to figure
out, so if his enemies ever discovered exactly who it was underneath that mask, he'd be in
a whole lot of trouble.
And there's also the fact that being a vigilante is technically extremely illegal, no matter
how many custom-made spotlights you mount on top of the police station.
And yet, every time Batman hits the silver screen, the whole "secret" part of his identity
goes right out the window.
The Dark Knight trilogy might actually be the most egregious in this regard.
Ra's al-Ghul knew from the very beginning, Rachel Dawes figures it out thanks to Batman
repeating a familiar phrase, and even some random dude who works at Wayne Enterprises
notices that Batman's exclusively using stuff that should be down in the warehouse.
In Batman '89, Alfred just walks Vicki Vale down to the Batcave one afternoon, which not
only blows his secret identity, but also forces her to see the unforgettable sight of Batman
wearing mom jeans.
In Batman Forever, the Riddler learns it by literally stealing Bruce Wayne's memories
and then uses the information to blow up the Batcave.
Justice League even features a scene where the extremely famous Bruce Wayne is just hanging
out in public with Aquaman, talking about being Batman.
All of that can be forgiven, though, because it also gives us the single greatest moment
of Batman Returns, and one of the best scenes in any Batman movie.
When Batman pulls off his mask to make a heartfelt plea to Catwoman, Max Shreck — played by
Christopher Walken — reacts the way most of us would in that moment.
“Why are you dressed up like Batman?"
“Because he IS Batman, you moron."
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