Lieutenant Gordon and Batman uncover an intense conspiracy as they hunt the Riddler.
Jonathan Olley/DC
The Batman is in film theaters (however not on HBO Max but), with Robert Pattinson donning Bruce Wayne’s iconic cowl and beating up Gotham City’s criminals in an intense journey set within the early days of his vigilante profession. In writer-director Matt Reeves’ film, Batman faces off in opposition to the wildly creepy Riddler (Paul Dano) because the puzzle-obsessed supervillain targets the town’s sleazy elites.
Teaming up with Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman, performed by Zoë Kravitz) and GCPD Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), our hero unravels Riddler’s darkish plot to show the depths of the town’s corruption. It’s a twisty-turny story, so let’s take a better take a look at the ending, a number of the main revelations, Barry Keoghan’s chilling cameo and sequel potentialities. We even have a separate explainer for the post-credits Easter egg.
Be warned, SPOILERS are about to swoop in.
Gotham underwater
The Riddler permits himself to be arrested after exposing the depths of Gotham City’s corruption, however solely so he can watch his scheme’s ultimate act play out from the protection of his cell in Arkham Asylum. A sequence of vans are rigged to explode the seawall across the metropolis, flooding its streets and forcing everybody to flee to the venue the place new mayor Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) is celebrating her victory.
A bunch of the villain’s on-line followers don his Zodiac Killer-inspired costumes like his and infiltrate the occasion. They open hearth on the trapped crowds, however Batman, Catwoman, Gordon and the town’s cops cease them in a fairly epic motion sequence.
The Riddler’s endgame sees Gotham City flooded.
Jonathan Olley/DC
Stunned after getting shot at point-blank vary, Batman jabs himself with adrenaline and virtually beats one of many goons to demise however is stopped earlier than he goes too far. After unmasking the man, Gordon asks who he’s.
“Me, I’m vengeance,” he responds, mirroring Batman’s slogan and making the hero notice he is been a bit too darkish and broody in his strategy to crime combating.
Batman leaps into motion to cease individuals from getting electrocuted within the flood waters, then rescues the brand new mayor and a bunch of others who obtained trapped below particles. As the ability goes out, he lights a flare (a Bat-flare?) and leads everybody to security, turning into a literal beacon of hope for the town.
The Bat and the Cat have a fiery alliance.
Jonathan Olley/DC
With the town flooded and below martial regulation, Selena tells Batman she’s going upstate or to Blüdhaven (a close-by metropolis that, within the comics, is historically stomping floor of Batman ally Nightwing, however that character hasn’t been established on this universe). She tries to influence Batman to go together with her to allow them to be broody vigilantes collectively, however he opts to remain in Gotham.
Joke(r)’s on you
Stuck in Arkham, Riddler is understandably upset that his horrible plan did not play out absolutely. However, he is greeted by a seemingly sympathetic fellow inmate (Barry Keoghan). We solely see him momentarily, however his facial scars and creepy chortle trace at his id.
“One day you are on high, the following you are a clown… there are worse issues to be,” he says. “Gotham loves a comeback story.”
A deleted scene presents a clear-ish take a look at Barry Keoghan’s Joker.
Warner Bros.
“Riddle me this: the much less of them you’ve gotten, the extra one is price,” he asks, enjoying into Riddler’s shtick.
“A good friend,” the Riddler responds. Yay, villain pals.
Keoghan’s character is credited as “unseen Arkham inmate,” however he is virtually actually this universe’s Joker. It’s unclear if he is encountered Batman but or why he is in Arkham, however this seems to be establishing some form of supervillain pairing in a sequel or at the very least hinting our hero will face a brand new form of risk on this universe. This film is reportedly the primary of a trilogy, and two HBO Max exhibits (a police procedural set within the GCPD and a Penguin-centric crime sequence) are seemingly within the works.
Warner Bros. additionally launched a fairly wonderful deleted scene during which Batman visits Keoghan’s character in jail, in search of his recommendation in regards to the Riddler’s id. It provides us a greater take a look at the creepy villain’s scarred visage and hints that they had a run-in a few yr earlier than the film’s occasions. But that should not be taken as canon because the scene is not within the film.
Gotham conspiracy
The mayor, police commissioner and district legal professional undergo horrible deaths as a part of Riddler’s insidious plot, on account of their roles in a conspiracy to bust crime boss Sal Maroni. The villain’s puzzles ship Batman and Gordon on a hunt for an unidentified informant generally known as El Rata Alada — Spanish for The Winged Rat. Which sounds prefer it’s referring to a bat, but it surely’s revealed that Riddler is attempting to find a snitch whose title is derived from a chook — the tremendous sleazy mobster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).
Carmine Falcone is the rot at Gotham’s coronary heart.
Jonathan Olley/DC
With Maroni off the streets, Falcone took over his drug operation. Those who helped him or seemed the opposite means obtained paid, and everyone received. Except Gotham, which was much more of a cesspool. So Riddler determined to disclose the depths of the town’s corruption as he broadcast his killings on-line.
Before Batman and the GCPD can take Falcone into custody, Selena confronts him with the revelation that he is her father and prepares to kill him. He turns the tables and taunts Selena by confessing to strangling her mom as he chokes her however is stopped by Batman.
Penguin could also be Gotham’s new kingpin.
Jonathan Olley/DC
Falcone is then led exterior to be arrested, the place the Riddler weapons him down from afar — the supervillain wished to get the mobster into the open so he may kill him. This leaves an influence vacuum in Gotham’s legal underworld, which is able to almost definitely be crammed by Oz (AKA Penguin, performed by Colin Farell).
Wayne household secrets and techniques
Riddler additionally targets Bruce Wayne by sending him a bomb within the mail. It does not attain its meant recipient (what sort of billionaire opens their very own letters?), as a substitute wounding trustworthy butler Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis).
During one in all Riddler’s broadcasts, he reveals a number of the darkness within the Waynes’ previous. Bruce’s late mom, Martha, was a member of the Arkham household whose mother and father died in a murder-suicide, with the trauma main her to be institutionalised a number of occasions rising up.
Alfred presents Bruce perception into his late father.
Jonathan Olley/DC
Martha apparently discovered stability when she married Thomas Wayne and had Bruce, however Thomas’ choice to run for mayor of Gotham led reporter Edward Elliot to dig into the household’s previous.
This threatened to show Martha’s story, and Thomas went to Falcone for assist (as a result of going to a mobster for help at all times ends effectively) and Elliot ended up useless. Falcone tells Bruce that Thomas had him kill Elliot, however Alfred presents a distinct model of occasions: Thomas requested Falcone to scare Elliot off the story, however Falcone killed the reporter and Thomas stated he was going to admit every thing to the police.
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The Waynes had been killed shortly afterward — the homicide stays unsolved on this continuity — leaving the charity fund Thomas established to resume Gotham to be snatched by the town’s corrupt elites.
This left Gotham’s poor in worse form than ever, however none extra so than younger Edward Nashton. The super-smart orphan grew up in squalor, and seeing Bruce incomes the town’s sympathy after Matha and Thomas had been killed crammed him with a jealous rage, reasoning that the Wayne household fortune made dropping his mother and father simpler than had been for others. And so Edward grew as much as be the Riddler.
We get one other dose of the Riddler’s creepiness after the credit.
Jonathan Olley/DC
Post-credits Easter egg
The Batman does not have a post-credits scene, however there may be one final reference to the Riddler’s marketing campaign — we see a typed “?” adopted by “GOOD BYE” and www.rataalada.com appears to flash up on the display for the briefest of moments. That URL brings you to a viral advertising and marketing web site the place you reply a sequence of the villain’s questions.
Comic inspiration
This film is conceptually and tonally much like iconic 1996 story The Long Halloween, which sees Batman attempting to infer the id of a serial killer who slays individuals on holidays. He additionally works with Gordon and DA Harvey Dent to forestall a gang conflict between the Falcone and Maroni crime households.
The Long Halloween is among the many most beloved Batman tales of all time.
DC Comics
It acts as a followup to 1987 Batman origin story Year One, which The Batman director Reeves additionally cited as inspiration. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy weaved in parts from Year One and The Long Halloween as effectively — they’re important studying for any Batman fan. They’ve additionally been tailored into animated films.
Martha Wayne is not historically a member of the Arkham household within the comics, however 2012 graphic novel Batman: Earth One takes place in a continuity the place she is. In quantity 1 of that story, Martha’s mom killed her father and left the household scandalized. Thomas Wayne additionally runs for mayor in opposition to Oswald Cobblepot, however he and Martha are killed by a mugger. Bruce’s relationship with Alfred is kind of much like the dynamic seen in The Batman too.
Earth One’s second quantity introduces a serial killer Riddler who vegetation a bomb to get Batman’s consideration, resembling The Batman’s model of the character.
The concept of the Riddler flooding Gotham mirrors the wonderful 2013 storyline Zero Year, which takes place at a equally early level in Batman’s profession.
In an interview with CNET, director Reeves famous that 2000 story Ego influenced the film’s strategy to Bruce’s internal battle.
“It obtained into the psychology of the beast inside being Batman, this drive for vengeance, this instinctual facet,” he stated.
In the 2011 comics storyline Gates of Gotham, Edward Elliot was one of many individuals accountable for the development of Gotham City within the 1800s (together with Bruce’s ancestor Alan Wayne and Penguin’s ancestor Theodore Cobblepot). Elliot is the ancestor of Thomas Elliot, a childhood good friend of Bruce whose jealousy led him to turn into the supervillain Hush and launch a marketing campaign in opposition to Batman.
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