Batman is a 1989 superhero film directed by Tim Burton, and written by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren. It stars Michael Keaton as the titular vigilante, who is dedicated to protecting Gotham City from the clown-themed criminal mastermind, the Joker.
The film was a massive financial hit, and was celebrated by critics and audiences for its pulp comic-inspired production design and direction, Danny Elfman's musical score, and Keaton and Nicholson's performances. It was immensely influential on the superhero film genre in terms of storytelling and marketing techniques, particularly on the Batman franchise.
It was followed by Batman Returns and other sequels, and even led to the development of the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series.
Synopsis for "Batman"
The mysterious "Batman"
In the crime-infested Gotham City, Gotham Globe reporter Alexander Knox is investigating rumors of a mysterious individual referred to as "Batman", who reportedly kills and hospitalizes criminals. However, the GCPD will not comment on this phenomenon, so Knox and photographer Vicki Vale attend a party at Wayne Manor in the hopes of interviewing the police commissioner and the mayor. Their interviews lead to nothing, but Vicki meets Bruce Wayne, the billionaire owner of the manor and host of the party, and the two set up a date together before Bruce is forced to abruptly leave.
Meanwhile, within Gotham's mafia, crime lord Carl Grissom sends his right-hand man, Jack Napier, to lead a sting operation on Axis Chemicals, unaware it's a setup for him sleeping with Carl's mistress. At the chemical plant, Jack and his men are ambushed by a group of police on Grissom's payroll, as well as the mysterious Batman, and a scuffle between Batman and Jack leads to the latter falling into a vat of toxic chemicals.
Jack Napier becomes the Joker
Jack is dumped into a nearby river with the other chemicals, which have bleached his skin white, his hair green, his lips red, and, even after an attempt at surgery by a mob doctor, his face was contorted into a rictus grin. He goes mad at his new clown-like appearance and takes on the name "The Joker", killing Grissom and, over the next few days, taking control of his mob and rebranding them with clown-themed costumes, gadgets, and vehicles.
Vicki and Bruce are now dating, though Vicki becomes suspicious of Bruce's odd behavior and mysterious activities, and begins to investigate him, unaware that he is actually Batman. Her investigations lead her to follow him into the city and place roses on the ground in an alleyway after he'd told her he was going out of town. While out, she is photographed by the Joker's henchman Bob, and his boss is later enraptured by her beauty, deciding to go after her in the midst of his master plan at Axis Chemicals.
Soon after, models and news anchors began dying across Gotham, laughing themselves to death and dying with a grin akin to the Joker's. The Joker hijacks a news broadcast to announce that these deaths were brought about a poison he created, Smylex, which he's put traces of in various beauty products produced by the chemical plant. This terrifies the public, and Bruce investigates Jack Napier's criminal files to find out how to counteract Smylex. At the same time, his butler, Alfred, urges him to tell Vicki the truth about his alter ego, if he wants to still maintain her trust.
Some time later, Vicki is invited to a date at the Flugelheim Museum, presumably via a letter claiming to be from Bruce. She accepts, and after arriving and waiting there for some time, she is given a gas mask by a waiter before the entire museum is filled with Smylex gas, killing everyone and leaving her as the sole survivor. The Joker and his goons break in immediately after, and the Joker attempts to flirt with Vicki by explaining that to him, death and homicide are art.
Before he can go any further, Batman breaks in, having realized he never sent her an invitation, and escapes with Vicki in the Batmobile. Batman brings Vicki to his underground Batcave and gives her a file on his investigation into how Smylex works to give to the press and stop the deaths. He then knocks her unconscious and brings her back to her apartment, leaving her with the file which she delivers to the Globe.
Bruce confronts the Joker at Vicki's apartment
The following day, Bruce goes to Vicki's apartment, intent on telling her that he's Batman, but the Joker breaks in to confront Vicki about leaving with Batman at the museum. Bruce puts a metal tray under his shirt and stands up to the Joker, and the Joker pulls a gun on him, asking him, "you ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?" before shooting him in the chest. The bullet hits the tray, but Bruce feigns death so the Joker will leave. As the Joker does so, taking Vicki to the doorway to say goodbye, Bruce escapes unnoticed.
Back in the Batcave, Bruce realizes that the Joker had asked the same question that had been asked of him by a mugger who shot his parents in in front of him in the alleyway he'd memorialized when was a child. Upon Bruce realizing this mugger had been none other than Jack Napier, Jack himself hijacks a news broadcast to announce that he will be dumping over $2,000,000 in a parade at midnight.
Bruce knows this is part of a larger scheme to kill even more people, and he prepares to confront him as Batman, before he's confronted by Vicki, who Alfred has let into the Batcave. The two try to discuss their relationship, but Bruce feels there's no time for that at the moment, and suits up as Batman and heads out to take the Joker down.
After Batman destroys Axis Chemicals, he heads off to the Joker's parade in the Batwing, just as Knox and Vicki arrive there to report on it. The parade goes right through the city center, with several giant balloons and floats, and the Joker positioned right at the front, tossing money everywhere. Just as Batman arrives, the Joker announces to the crowd that he's going to kill them all, and as he and his men put on gas masks, they begin overinflating the balloons with Smylex gas, which leaks out of them into the crowd.
Gotham's citizens panic as those around them begin dying, but Batman uses a claw on his Batwing to grab the balloons and hoist them high over the sea to safely dispel the gas, before heading back down to face the Joker proper. The Joker manages to shoot down the Batwing as it flies straight towards him with a specialized gun, and it crashes right in front of Gotham Cathedral. Vicki runs from her hiding spot to see if Batman is alright in the wreckage, but she's held at gunpoint by the Joker, who leads her up the steps to the top of the cathedral for his men to pick them up.
Batman and the Joker's final battle
A wounded Batman crawls from the wreckage and follows them close behind to the top, where he and the Joker engage in a one-on-one brawl, leaving Vicki to watch in horror. Eventually, Batman throws Joker onto a ledge, and as his helicopter arrives to save him, Batman fires a cable hook that wraps around the Joker's leg and a nearby gargoyle. As the chopper lifts into the air, the gargoyle breaks loose, and its weight pulls the Joker off the ladder he was climbing to plummet to his death.
In the aftermath, a press conference is held in front of Gotham City Hall, where the mayor and the commissioner announce that they have partnered with Batman to keep the city safe from future threats such as the Joker. As they unveil the Bat-Signal to call him, Vicki heads out to a date with Bruce, though Alfred tells her he will, of course, be late, as Gotham's criminal element never truly sleeps.
Appearing in "Batman"
Featured Characters:
- Batman (Bruce Wayne) (First appearance) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
Supporting Characters:
- Alexander Knox (First appearance)
- Alfred Pennyworth (First appearance)
- Vicki Vale (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Alicia Hunt (First appearance; dies)
- Antoine Rotelli (Single appearance; dies)
- Bob the Goon (First appearance; dies)
- Carl Grissom (First appearance; dies)
- Carl Grissom's mobsters
- Joe Chill (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
- Joker (Jack Napier) (First appearance; dies) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
- Lt. Max Eckhardt (Single appearance; dies)
- Vinnie Ricorso (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- District Attorney Alday (Single appearance)
- Amanda Keeler (Behind the scenes) (Dies)
- Barbara Gordon (First appearance)
- Becky Narita (News broadcaster) (First appearance; dies)
- Mayor Borg (First appearance)
- Candy Walker (Behind the scenes) (Dies)
- Dr. Davis (First appearance)
- Gotham City Police Department (First appearance)
- Commissioner Gordon (First appearance)
- Harold (Jimmy's father) (First appearance)
- Harvey Dent (First appearance)
- Jimmy (a child) (First appearance)
- John T. Gotham (First appearance) (Statue only)
- Peter McElroy (News broadcaster) (First appearance)
- Wayne Family (First appearance)
- Martha Wayne (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)
- Thomas Wayne (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)
- Johnny Gobbs (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Burtonverse (First appearance; unnamed)
- Corto Maltese (First appearance) (In a photograph only)
- United States of America
- Gotham City (First appearance)
- Axis Chemicals (First appearance)
- Alley at Perl and Phillips St. (First appearance)
- Flugelheim Museum (First appearance)
- Gotham Cathedral
- Gotham City Hall (First appearance)
- Gotham Globe (First appearance)
- Gotham River (First appearance)
- Monarch Theatre (First appearance)
- Vicki Vale's apartment
- Wayne Manor (First appearance)
- Batcave (First appearance)
- Gotham City (First appearance)
Items:
- Batarang
- Batcomputer
- Bat-Signal (Origin)
- Batsuit
- Joker's joy buzzer
- Joker's Bang! flag gun
- Joker teeth
- Martha Wayne's pearl necklace (Flashback only)
- Smylex (First appearance)
Vehicles:
- Batmobile (First appearance)
- Batplane (First appearance) (Destroyed)
- Jokercopter (First appearance)
- Joker goon cars
Cast
- Michael Keaton as Batman
- Jack Nicholson as the Joker
- Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale
- Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox
- Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon
- Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent
- Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth
- Jack Palance as Carl Grissom
- Jerry Hall as Alicia Hunt
- Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon
- Lee Wallace as Mayor Borg
- William Hootkins as Lt. Eckhardt
Notes
- The events of this film happen in many continuities across various DC Multiverses:
- In the Post-Flashpoint Multiverse, they are set on Earth 789;
- In the Arrowverse, they are set on both the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis Earth-89 and also happened in the past of Earth-97 and the Post-Crisis Flashpoint Timeline.
- This film was adapted in Batman: The Official Comic Adaptation.
Trivia
- The tone and story were loosely adapted from The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns.
- It was shot between 1988-1989 in England.
- There are two soundtrack albums for this movie. There was Danny Elfman's orchestral score and there was a contemporary album done by the late musician Prince. Five songs from the Prince album were used in the movie, including "Partyman", "Trust", and "Scandalous" as well as parts of "The Future" (in the opening scene with the tourist couple) and "Electric Chair" (Bruce Wayne's benefit party). He also made a song titled Batdance, which featured soundbites from the movie in-sync with the song, and also referenced the old 1960's Batman television series theme at times.
- This film was in development since 1980. In that year Tom Mankiewicz wrote a treatment for a Batman movie that featured not only Batman's origins but Robin's origins as well. Dick Grayson was to appear as Robin in full costume (much like Batman Forever) at the end of the film setting the stage for sequels. The film was originally based on the Batman comics of the 70's and was to be epic like the first two Superman films. Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon were to appear as well as the Penguin, Rupert Thorne and Silver St. Cloud was to be Bruce's love interest. Dick Grayson's parents were to be killed by the Joker and Bruce Wayne's parents to be killed by Joe Chill from the original comics. Mankiewicz wanted an unknown to play Batman, William Holden to play Gordon and David Niven to play Alfred. The film was to be called The Batman and was to be released in 1985 but the script was shelved due to the fact that a director and cast couldn't be locked down. Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante were considered to direct.[citation needed]
- The scene in which the Joker and his gang deface the paintings at the Flugelheim Museum was likely inspired by a scene from the Batman episode "Pop Goes the Joker" in which Cesar Romero's Joker vandalized an art gallery in a very similar fashion.
See Also
- Characters from Batman (1989 Movie)
- Other things related to Batman (1989 Movie)
- Movie Gallery: Batman (1989 Movie)