"The Batman" is a gritty three-hour thriller that is sure to please DC Comics fans.
But what's the story behind "el rata alada"?
What's Barry Keoghan doing in this movie?
Your questions about the ending, answered, straight ahead.
The Riddler takes aim at the inherently corrupt institutions that hold Gotham together, and
he starts with Mayor Mitchell.
The murder itself feels right out of a slasher, as the villain finds his way into the Mayor's
office in the dark, stands behind him, and waits for his moment to strike.
It's immediately clear that it's a huge step away from the prancing trickster played by
Jim Carrey in "Batman Forever."
This is director Matt Reeves' way of introducing us to the type of threat Batman is up against
-- a villain who isn't afraid to creep around in the dead of night and commit heinous atrocities
in the name of vigilante justice.
Hang on, that sounds an awful lot like what Bruce Wayne does, doesn't it?
Interesting.
Anyway, the first attack is what sends the Dark Knight and James Gordon tumbling down
a conspiratorial rabbit hole regarding the Mayor's nighttime activities.
Although they find photographic evidence on a thumb drive that he's been having an affair
with a young woman, the Riddler also sends the images to the press.
So from the very beginning, the Riddler's whole agenda is to force the wrongdoers out
into the light; he wants them to be humiliated for their crimes.
And as the police scramble to look for the Riddler, he strikes again -- this time targeting
Commissioner Pete Savage.
He sends a unique message by killing Savage with a horde of rats in a box strapped to
the poor guy's face.
As Bruce soon figures out, there's a rat at the heart of Gotham's corruption who has caught
the Riddler's eye.
The Riddler calls this person, "el rata alada" -- the rat with wings.
As it turns out, Selina Kyle's best friend, Anika, is the girl who's been spending extramarital
time with Mayor Mitchell at the seedy Iceberg Lounge, and her face is quickly plastered
across every TV screen in the city because of Batman and Gordon's investigation.
Although Selina tries to protect her, it isn't long before she disappears.
This is what draws Selina and Batman together, as he promises to help her find out what happened
to her best friend.
The cat burglar is only further inspired to get to the truth when she discovers that Anika
has been spending time in 44 Below, the mob's "club within the club" at the Iceberg Lounge.
It quickly becomes clear that Annika has been kidnapped for things Mayor Mitchell has told
her about the inner workings of his campaign -- and who he really works for.
Selina makes it clear that she'll do anything to help find her friend, even if Batman is
too preoccupied with the Riddler.
But Anika is yet another victim of corruption, as the Cat and the Bat ultimately discover
her dead body while they're looking into the Penguin and his role in the mob.
This only hardens Selina's resolve to get revenge.
It's truly vigilante season in Gotham, with Catwoman, Batman, and the Riddler all out
enforcing their own competing brands of justice.
"You really could be doing more for this city.
Your family has a history of philanthropy, but as far as I can tell, you're not doing
anything."
Sure, Bruce doesn't really spend much time as a billionaire playboy philanthropist, but
the world hasn't forgotten about the Waynes and what his parents did for the city.
However, the Riddler forces the hero to look closer at his legacy as he takes aim at Thomas
Wayne and his unsuccessful mayoral campaign.
Wayne Sr. started the 'Renewal Project' as part of his run for mayor, pouring millions
into an initiative intended to help the poorest in Gotham.
But the fame and attention brought the paparazzi to his door -- including a journalist working
for the previous mob boss, Salvatore Maroni.
In a surprising revelation, we learn that Bruce's mother is a member of the Arkham family.
Before her untimely death she struggled with her own mental health issues.
Martha Wayne was even committed to a psychiatric facility -- something Thomas was desperate
to keep out of the papers.
His old friend Carmine Falcone even had a journalist killed to keep Martha's secret.
The Riddler uses this as ammunition against the Wayne family, suggesting that Thomas was
just as corrupt as Mayor Mitchell and Pete Savage.
It's a crushing blow for Bruce, who holds his parents' memory in such high regard.
So Batman has a crisis of identity.
This information threatens to invalidate his entire heroic crusade in Gotham.
Bruce Wayne would be hypocritical for not addressing corruption in his own family.
Thankfully, Alfred convinces him that Thomas didn't care about his mayoral campaign or
preserving his status; he only wanted to keep Martha's secret so that she wouldn't be humiliated
in the press.
Yes, Thomas asked Falcone for help -- but he didn't want to assassinate the journalist.
Not only does this chat restore Bruce's faith in his mission, it also forges a closer bond
between the hero and Alfred.
So, who is "el rata alada" and why are they so important?
Well, it all stems from Thomas Wayne's Renewal Project.
After the Waynes' deaths, the city's elite started to use the millions intended to help
Gotham's poorest to line their own pockets.
The perpetrators of this conversion included gangster Sal Maroni, but when the Mayor and
various other powerful figures got greedy, they decided to get rid of him.
The problem is that they used an anonymous informant, "el rata alada," to do it.
Surprisingly, this mystery snitch is none other than Carmine Falcone.
Carmine saw this as an opportunity to extend his reach across Gotham -- to essentially
have the Mayor, the District Attorney, and the Police Commissioner in his pocket.
Unfortunately, Selina Kyle also figures out that Carmine is the one who ordered Anika's
death, and she almost kills him in revenge.
It's understandable why Selina takes a shot at him, because she's also his illegitimate
daughter.
Her assassination attempt is the culmination of 20 years of pain knowing that he abandoned
her mother.
Although Batman stops her from actually murdering Falcone, the Riddler finishes the grim job
with a rifle.
Thankfully, because the Riddler left himself vulnerable by staying near the crime scene,
it doesn't take long for the GCPD to track him down and haul "Edward Nashton" over to
the Arkham Correctional Facility.
Yes, it's time for the typical "villain explains their plan in great detail" part of the movie.
Nashton's explanation actually serves a key purpose this time beyond lazy exposition:
He reveals the true extent of the corruption that has gripped Gotham for decades, and forces
the audience to face an uneasy comparison between himself and the Caped Crusader.
You see, Riddler used to work for the Waynes' Renewal Project as a forensic accountant,
and that's where he discovered the dark truth.
While the wealthy elite got richer by skimming from Renewal, Nashton was growing up in one
of the orphanages that should've benefited from that money, enduring a horrific childhood
in squalor.
He then makes a disturbing confession: He was only spurred into action when he saw how
Batman was tackling crime on Gotham's streets.
Yes, Bruce helped bring the Riddler to life; he inspired the killer to take the leap into
vigilantism, meaning there's plenty of blood on those bat-hands of his.
To be fair, the film makes a point of showing just how brutal Batman is to the point that
the civilians aren't even sure if he's a friend or foe.
It's hardly surprising that other self-righteous folk would follow in his footsteps.
Unfortunately, there's little time for soul searching here, since Riddler has already
rigged bombs around Gotham's sea wall as the final act in his war on the city.
The final stage of the Riddler's plan sees the villain bomb the sea wall, which floods
most of the city in a moment comic readers will recognize from the pages of the New 52's
"Zero Year" event.
The Riddler's entire game has been about forcing the corrupt into the light and unearthing
their crimes, as well as cleansing the city of its collective sins.
By flooding the entire city, he plans to purge Gotham of the rot that has taken hold -- while
forcing the citizens to start afresh.
Although the villain succeeds in flooding the city, he has another surprise up his sleeve
-- as a horde of his faithful followers are waiting in the Gotham Arena, which has been
set up as the emergency shelter for survivors.
Thankfully, Batman and Catwoman show up to dish out a beating.
This is the first time Batman truly feels like a hero in the film, rather than just
a brawler feeding his own thirst for vengeance.
It's the critical moment that draws a clear contrast between Batman's brand of vigilantism
and Riddler's.
After all, one vigilante is trying to indiscriminately kill thousands of people, while the other
is trying to protect them.
Even when he's at the point of exhaustion on the floor, Batman uses a suspicious green
adrenaline shot to force himself up so he can stop one of the shooters from killing
Selina.
Ultimately, this dynamic duo manages to save the day.
As for that suspicious green liquid?
We've got a guess.
"It's the venom."
Yes, the Riddler has been defeated -- but only to a point.
It says a lot that the losing villain still managed to flood an entire city, while also
singlehandedly proving that institutional corruption is rife within the Mayor's office
and the GCPD.
But since Riddler is pretty deranged here, it's no surprise that he's locked up in Arkham
-- and this is a comic book movie, after all, so it's time for that all-important sequel
bait.
Back in 2020, rumors swirled that director and co-writer Matt Reeves was planning to
include the Joker in his Batman trilogy, and it seems this early speculation was spot on.
While the Riddler is crying in his cell, an eerie voice starts to creep in from the cell
next to his.
This menacing neighbor has a scary smile as he tells the Riddler that everyone "loves"
an encore, before saying
"You know what they say: 'One day you're on top of the world, and the next day you're
a clown.'"
Clown!
Joker!
You get it.
It's a brief scene, but "Eternals" star Barry Keoghan really does a lot with it.
It's unsurprising, since he already proved he can tackle difficult characters thanks
to his work in "American Animals" and "The Killing of a Sacred Deer."
A Joker-Riddler alliance would be fun, but it would be much more interesting if Gotham
got caught between the two.
We could be headed for a story inspired by "The War of Jokes and Riddles."
So where does this all leave Batman?
By the time the action in Gotham Arena is over, he's immediately on disaster aid duty.
He starts the film with a devil-may-care attitude, but he slowly realizes that he can be a positive
force for change in Gotham by trying to help its people -- not just as muscle against muggers
and serial killers.
The prime example of this is the way he leads some of the survivors out of the wreckage.
It absolutely hammers home the film's central moral quandary: What makes Batman good and
Riddler evil?
The answer appears to be that for Batman, there's an honest moral calculation between
means and ends.
It's clear to the hero that he can do more when he helps a young girl who's being evacuated.
She grabs his hand out of fear, and he's there to silently reassure her that everything is
going to be okay.
Despite his earlier claim…
"I'm vengeance."
…he's more than the retributive hand of justice.
He also helps the people who have been harmed.
Riddler has no interest in helping, and for him the punishment appears to be an end in
and of itself.
Considering the film starts with Batman brutalizing a gang of thugs in the rain -- this is all
quite the optimistic and hopeful development.
He's not the only one who's changing their outlook on life.
Selina is also ready to change her situation by the time the credits roll.
Miss Kyle decides to leave Gotham for Bludhaven, a reference to the city Nightwing usually
makes his home, in the hope that she can make a new life there.
It's unsurprising that she needs a fresh start after enduring so much trauma thanks to her
mobster father.
Unfortunately, she can't persuade Bruce to join her, because he's got a renewed sense
of faith when it comes to his crusade to save Gotham from itself.
But she'll probably be back for the sequel.
It'll be interesting to see whether Selina discovers his billionaire alter-ego in the
future, and whether that makes him seem more or less eligible as a romantic partner.
"Maybe we're not so different.
Who are you under there?"
So the Bat and the Cat say their goodbyes in a race through Gotham's sprawling necropolis
like the angsty emo kids that they are.
They even speed off in separate directions -- with Bruce heading back into the city toward
the light of the Bat-Signal.
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