Batman Begins (2005)

Share this quote on facebook They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I've looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge... Me.

Share this quote on facebook It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.

Share this quote on facebook Man: Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?
Bruce: Actually, there were seven of them.
Man: I counted six, Mr. Wayne.
Bruce: How do you know my name?
Man: The world is too small a place for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear no matter how low he chooses to sink.
Bruce: Who are you?
Man: My name is merely Ducard, but I speak for Ra’s Al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who can offer you a path.
Bruce: What makes you think I need a path?
Ducard: Someone like you is only here by choice. You have been exploring the criminal fraternity, but whatever your original intentions, you have become truly lost.
Bruce: And what path can Ra’s Al Ghul offer?
Ducard: The path of a man who shares his hatred of evil and wished to serve true justice. The path of the League of Shadows.
Bruce: You’re vigilantes.
Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.
Bruce: Which is?
Ducard: A legend, Mr. Wayne. Tomorrow, you will be released. If you are bored of brawling with thieves and want to achieve something, there is a rare blue flower that grows on the eastern slopes. Pick one of these flowers. If you can carry it to the top of the mountain, you may find what you were looking for in the first place.
Bruce: And what was I looking for?
Ducard: Only you can know that.

Share this quote on facebook Ducard: What do you seek?
Bruce Wayne: I seek the means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

Share this quote on facebook [Bruce and Ducard spar on a frozen lake]
Ducard: Your parents' death was not your fault. It was your father's. [Bruce attacks him furiously] Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.
Bruce: The man had a gun!
Ducard: Would that stop you?
Bruce: I've had training!
Ducard: [counterattacks, driving Bruce back] The training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act!

Share this quote on facebook Ducard: You're stronger than your father.
Bruce Wayne: You didn't know my father.
Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain. I wasn't always here in the mountains. Once I had a wife, my great love. She was taken from me. Like you, I was forced to learn that there are those without decency that must be fought without hesitation, without pity. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me.
Bruce: What stopped it?
Ducard: Vengeance.
Bruce: That's no help to me.
Ducard: Why, Bruce? Why did you not avenge your parents?

Share this quote on facebook Alfred Pennyworth: I've prepared the master bedroom for you, sir.
Bruce: No. My room will be fine.
Alfred: With respect, Wayne Manor is your house.
Bruce: It's my father's house.
Alfred: Your father is dead.
Bruce: This place is a mausoleum. If I had my way, I'd pull the damn thing down, brick by brick.
Alfred: This house, Master Wayne, has sheltered six generations of your family.
Bruce: Why do you give a damn, Alfred? It's not your family.
Alfred: I give a damn, sir, because a good man once made me responsible for what was most precious to him in our world.
Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?
Alfred: Never.

Share this quote on facebook Rachel Dawes: The D.A. couldn't understand why Judge Faden insisted on making the hearing public. Falcone paid him off to get Chill out in the open.
Bruce: Maybe I should be thanking him.
Rachel: You don't mean that.
Bruce: What if I do? My parents deserve justice.
Rachel: Well, you're not talking about justice, you're talking about revenge.
Bruce: Sometimes, they're the same thing.
Rachel: No, they're never the same. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better. Which is why we have an impartial system.
Bruce: Your system is broken.
Rachel abruptly turns the car down a side street, taking them through the poorer sections of Gotham:
Rachel: Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. People talk about the Depression as if it's history, and it's not. Things are worse than ever down here. Falcone floods our streets with crime and drugs, preying on the desperate, creating new Joe Chills every day. Falcone may not have killed your parents, Bruce, but he's destroying everything they stood for. [comes to a stop outside a bar] You want to thank him for that, here you go. We all know where to find him, but as long as he keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared, nobody will touch him. Good people like your parents who will stand against injustice, they're gone. What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?
Bruce: I'm not one of your 'good people', Rachel.
Rachel: What do you mean?
Bruce: All these years, I wanted to kill him. [shows her the gun he planned to use on Chill] Now I can't.
[Rachel slaps him twice]
Rachel: Your father would be ashamed of you.

Share this quote on facebook Carmine Falcone: You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne. [his men frisk Bruce] No gun? I'm insulted. You could've just sent a thank-you note.
Bruce: I didn't come here to thank you. I came here to show you that not everyone in Gotham's afraid of you.
Falcone: Only those who know me, kid. Take a look around you. You'll see two city councilmen, a union official, a couple of off-duty cops, and a judge. [draws a gun and points it at Bruce] Now I wouldn't have a second's hesitation in blowing your head off right here in front of them. That's power you can't buy. That's the power of fear.
Bruce: I'm not afraid of you.
Falcone: Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through yet. You haven't thought about your lady friend, down at the DA's office. You haven't thought about your old butler. [gestures with his gun] Bang! People from your world have so much to lose. Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life, but you don't. You've never tasted desperate. You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the prince of Gotham. You'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name! So don't, don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world that you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand.

Share this quote on facebook Batman: [holds Gordon up with a gun] Don't turn around. You're a good cop, one of the few.
Sgt James Gordon: What do you want?
Batman: Carmine Falcone brings in shipments of drugs every week. Nobody takes him down. Why?
Gordon: He's paid up with the right people.
Batman: What would it take to bring him down?
Gordon: Leverage on Judge Faden, and a DA brave enough to prosecute.
Batman: Rachel Dawes.
Gordon: Who are you?
Batman: [reveals gun which is just a stapler] Watch for my sign. [retracts stapler, backs off]
Gordon: You're just one man?
Batman: Now we're two.
Gordon: We?

Share this quote on facebook [Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox visit a special garage at Wayne Enterprises]
Bruce Wayne: [look at a very large and odd vehicle] What's that?
Lucius Fox: The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that. [cuts to Bruce driving it on a test track, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing how it works] She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables. Over here on the throttle, flip that open and throttle up. This will boost you into a rampless jump. [Bruce goes to flip the throttle. The Tumbler accelerates] Not now! Not... not now, Sir!
Tumbler AI: Afterburner disengaged.
Fox: We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine. [Bruce swerves the Tumbler to a stop] So, what do you think?
Wayne: Does it come in black?

Share this quote on facebook [Rachel Dawes visits a hotel and sees Bruce going out soaking wet with two European models in underwear and bathrobes walking out
Rachel Dawes: Bruce?
Bruce Wayne: [tries to recognize] Rachel?
Dawes: I had heard you were back. What are you doing?
Wayne: Ugh, just swimming. Wow, it is good to see you.
Dawes: You were gone a long time.
Wayne: I know. How are things.
Dawes: Same. Job's getting worse.
Wayne: [smiles] Can't change the world on your own.
Dawes: [smiles] What choice do I have. When you're too busy 'swimming.'
Wayne: Rachel, all of, all this, it's not me. Inside, I am more.
Model #1: [calls out] Come on Bruce, come on!
Model #2: We have some more hotels for you to buy.
Dawes: [smiles sympathetically] Bruce. Deep down, you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you. [Walks away]

Share this quote on facebook Dr. Jonathan Crane: What do you want?
Falcone: I want to know how you're gonna convince me to keep my mouth shut.
Crane: About what? You don't know anything.
Falcone: I know you don't want the cops to take a closer look at the drugs they seized. And I know about your experiments with the inmates of your nuthouse. See, I don't go into business with a guy without finding out his dirty secrets. And those goons you used? I own the muscle in this town. Now I've been bringing your stuff in for months, so whatever he's planning, it's big. And I want in.
Crane: Well, I already know what he'll say: that we should kill you.
Falcone: [laughs] No, even he can't get me in here. Not in my town.
Crane: Would you like to see my mask? I use it in my experiments. [opens his briefcase and shows Falcone a burlap hood] Probably not very frightening to a guy like you, but these crazies? They can't stand it. [pulls the mask over his head]
Falcone: So when did the nut take over the nuthouse?
[Crane presses a hidden button on his briefcase and floods the room with his hallucinogenic toxin; Falcone begins screaming in terror]
Crane: They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now.

Share this quote on facebook Batman: Taste of your own medicine, doctor? [Gasses Crane with the fear toxin] What have you been doing here? What was your plan? Crane! Who are you working for?
Crane: Ra's! Ra's al Ghul!
Batman: Ra's al Ghul is dead! Who are you working for? Crane!
Crane: [Hallucinates Batman as a grotesque bat creature] Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...

Share this quote on facebook Ducard: Amusing, but pointless. None of these people have long to live. Your antics at the asylum have forced my hand.
Bruce Wayne: So Crane was working for you.
Ducard: His toxin is derived from the organic compound found in our blue flowers. He was able to weaponize it.
Wayne: He's not a member of the League of Shadows?
Ducard: Of course not. He thought our plan was to hold the city to ransom.
Wayne: But really, you are going to release Crane's poison on the entire city.
Ducard: Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear.
Wayne: You're going to destroy millions of lives.
Ducard: Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This was not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.
Wayne: Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.
Ducard: You are defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.
Wayne: I'll be standing where I belong: between you, and the people of Gotham.
Ducard: No one can save Gotham. [nods to henchmen, who begin vandalizing the house and set it on fire] When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.
Wayne: You've attacked Gotham before?
Ducard: Of course. Over the ages, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one - economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens. Such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger, and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself, and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time, no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.

Share this quote on facebook Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I've failed.
Alfred: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?
Alfred: Never.

Share this quote on facebook Ducard: [pinning Batman down] Don't be afraid, Bruce. You are just an ordinary man in a cape! That's why you couldn't fight injustice, and that's why you can't stop this train!
Batman: Who said anything about stopping it?! [as Ducard sees the train about to crash, Batman overpowers him] You never learned to mind your surroundings!
Ducard: Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?
Batman: I won't kill you...but I don't have to save you. [Batman escapes, leaving Ducard to his fate]

Share this quote on facebook Jessica: The meeting's already started.
William Earle: What meeting? [enters conference room, sees Fox distributing materials to board members seated around table] Fox? I seem to remember firing you.
Lucius Fox: You did. I got another job: yours.
Earle: On whose authority?
Alfred Pennyworth: [driving Bruce Wayne] Batman may have made the front page, but Bruce Wayne got pushed to page eight.
Bruce Wayne: [Bruce reads headline, answers phone] Bruce Wayne.
Earle: What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?
Wayne: Well, the fact that I'm the owner.
Earle: What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.
Bruce Wayne: And I bought most of the shares - through various charitable foundations, and trusts, and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. [speaks slightly louder] Right, Mr. Fox?
Fox: Right you are, Mister Wayne. [turns to Earle, takes off glasses] Didn't you get the memo?

Share this quote on facebook Of all the major comic book characters to transition to a less static visual media, none has been more mistreated than the Bat-Man. As originally envisioned by creator Bob Kane in 1939, Batman was a dark character who walked the tightrope between hero and vigilante. That was his image until the 1960s, when the campy TV series starring Adam West transformed the character into a silly-but-likable good guy in gray spandex. Tim Burton re-invented Batman for a surreal (and, at the time, highly anticipated) 1989 feature, but the movie ended up focusing more on The Joker, leaving the titular hero to lick his wounds as a supporting character. By the time that Batman series reached its third movie, it had fallen back to the campy level of its TV predecessor. Now, there's nothing wrong with camp, per se, but, by the 1997 arrival of Batman and Robin, fans had had enough. Batman looked dead, at least until now.

Share this quote on facebook With Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan has gone back to basics, jettisoning both the silliness of the TV incarnation and the gothic and fetishist elements of the '90s version. This is a hard-core, down-and-gritty origin story - the tale of, as one might reasonably expect, how Batman begins. It isn't intended as a "prequel" to the 1989 film - not only is Gotham City a completely different place, but key events of the Batman chronology are re-spun. Batman Begins is designed as the start of a new life, a reboot for the franchise. In the process, Nolan has not only crafted the best Batman movie, but arguably the second-best motion picture superhero narrative (topped only by the linked duo of Superman and Superman II). For those who thought Spider-Man and X-Men had a lot to offer, wait till you see where this film goes.

Share this quote on facebook In this retelling of the story, Bale's Bruce Wayne is the son of an idealistic American billionaire, an FDR-style patrician liberal who withdrew from the day-to-day running of the family corporation to practise medicine and donate vast sums to establishing a proper public transportation system for Gotham: a gleaming new monorail. As a child, Bruce remembers riding on this train with his parents, instead of in a limo, but Nolan neatly contrives that it is this monorail which, in the denatured and decadent city of Wayne's adulthood, is the scene of Gotham's operatic Armageddon.

Share this quote on facebook If Bale's superhero and Katie Holmes' assistant district attorney were more romantically inclined in Batman Begins, you could imagine her telling her gal pals, "There's just something about his chin."

Share this quote on facebook Batman has a twisted and repressed relationship with Holmes' Rachel (read: Peter Parker and Mary Jane).
The idea is frustratingly underdeveloped, but then, he is Batman; he's not going to go on Oprah to profess his love.

Share this quote on facebook Nolan asked a very simple question for what would come to define his Batman movie. Why would a grown man dress up like a bat? This is a query that Tim Burton glossed over in 1989, because the world he created didn’t need an explanation. Nolan took a wholly opposite approach. Citing influences like Richard Donner’s 1978 adaptation of SUPERMAN, he wanted to ground Batman, as much as possible, in a world similar to our own. Instead of Batman being a product of a fantastically gothic world, he’d be a man who could justify costume dress-up as a lifestyle choice. To help with the shift, he brought in life-long comic book fan David S. Goyer to co-write the first draft of the screenplay.

Share this quote on facebook *“Like [Frank] Miller’s Batman, Mr. Nolan’s is tormented by demons both physical and psychological. In an uncertain world, one the director models with an eye to our own, this is a hero caught between justice and vengeance, a desire for peace and the will to power,” Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times.
But Nolan memorably made his mark with the death scene that incites Bruce Wayne’s eventual transformation. There’s certainly no shortage of Bruce Wayne’s parents dying in film and television, but Nolan’s interpretation, which builds for a surprisingly long time before Batman appears in full cape and cowl onscreen, has become one of the defining iterations of the sequence, exploring the man behind Batman more so than most films had before. (As the Washington Post‘s Desson Thompson put it, the film had a “thoughtful, methodically structured narrative that works on you for days afterward.”)

Share this quote on facebook "Batman Begins" at last penetrates to the dark and troubled depths of the Batman legend, creating a superhero who, if not plausible, is at least persuasive as a man driven to dress like a bat and become a vigilante. The movie doesn't simply supply Batman's beginnings in the tradition of a comic book origin story, but explores the tortured path that led Bruce Wayne from a parentless childhood to a friendless adult existence. The movie is not realistic, because how could it be, but it acts as if it is.

Share this quote on facebook I admire, among other things, the way the movie doesn't have the gloss of the earlier films. The Batman costume is an early design. The Bat Cave is an actual cave beneath Wayne Manor. The Batmobile enters and leaves it by leaping across a chasm and through a waterfall.
The Bat Signal is crude and out of focus.
The movie was shot on location in Chicago, making good use of the murky depths of lower Wacker Drive and the Board of Trade building (now the Wayne Corp.). Special effects add a spectacular monorail down La Salle Street, which derails in the best scene along those lines since "The Fugitive."

Share this quote on facebook As we saw in Burton's films, the portrayal of Gotham is often directly related to the overall take on Batman. Burton's Gotham was like a twisted nightmare come to life. It was surreal -- beautiful to look at, but not an actual city. The Gotham City of Batman Begins, which was filmed largely in Chicago, is a sprawling Metropolis. It looks like a real city, in part, because it is a real city. The altered Chicago is made to look like a vast metropolis, too big for its own good. So large, in fact, that it feels inescapable.
Connecting the sprawling city is a commuter rail built by Bruce Wayne's father just short of his murder. It's one of the few noticeable CG images in the film, but the train plays a vital role.
Gotham is vibrant and its demise into poverty is explained in the film. This isn't just a version of New York gone bad, Gotham is a city that has been bludgeoned by corruption and crippled by an insidious economical plague. This is a city that has lost the war to save itself. What hope does Batman have?

Share this quote on facebook Bruce has indeed wandered the world and had some training. However, that singular purpose often shown in the comics is not evident at first. He is merely rage without direction. It is Ducard (Liam Neeson), who finds Wayne and gives him the training and guidance he needs to get on the proper path. It should be noted that Ducard is never referred to by his first name Henri, nor does he bear a French accent (thankfully).

Share this quote on facebook Most of the Batman comics offer little true motivation for Bruce becoming Batman. They say, merely, that he witnessed his parents murder and swore to avenge them by cleaning up Gotham. Batman Begins takes this further. It gives a real sense of who Bruce Wayne is and why he must fight criminals. Further, it shows the moment when Bruce gains understanding that he cannot fight crime just as a man, that he must become a symbol, a myth, a legend.

Share this quote on facebook The main piece of advice from just about everyone who saw Joel Schumacher's terrible take on the Dark Knight in Batman & Robin was to focus on a single villain. Nolan has ignored this advice. He focuses on no villains -- the focus is all on Batman. However, there are more villains in Batman Begins than any Batman film since the camp '60s flick. Yet it works, because this is a story about The Batman and none of the villains comes close to overshadowing the bat.

Share this quote on facebook Remember how stiff Batman was in those other films? Guess what -- he can finally move his neck! The battles in Batman Begins are frenetic, fast and almost impossible to see clearly

Share this quote on facebook Bale is the first Batman since Michael Keaton to bring a skewed and somewhat vulnerable sensibility into the psychological equation. Bruce's ultimate decision to become the caped crusader is presented here as a neurotic person's way of channeling his neurosis toward a positive end. Since he knows he'll never stop obsessing about crime -- even his stint in the Asian prison was by way of researching the criminal mind -- he might as well do something positive with his obsession.
Keaton suggested these qualities and motivations, as well, but what Bale has that Keaton didn't is a physicality that also makes sense of all the action hero elements. In an early scene, Bruce Wayne beats up a half dozen guys in a prison yard. In terms of direction, it's one of the worst scenes: Nolan, as if uncomfortable shooting a conventional action number, relies on the modern cliches of constant intercutting and of filming so close to the action that it's impossible to see what's going on. But the sequence nonetheless demonstrates that Bale, the most cerebral Bruce Wayne since Keaton, is the most lithe to date. He's physically loose and graceful and looks like what Bruce Wayne pretends to be, a handsome playboy.

Share this quote on facebook Q: This film seems to deal a lot with the underlying issues of what makes Bruce Wayne become Batman. How much of his anger is really under control by the end of this film?

Share this quote on facebook NOLAN: Well, I think when it's harnessed, and that is a form of control, that doesn't mean it's not there and it doesn't mean it's suppressed it's channeled and it's harnessed. And that to me is what keeps him as a character frightening to his opponents and all of us to some extent.

Share this quote on facebook Q: What was your inspiration for the look of Gotham City?

Share this quote on facebook This is the Batman film you've been waiting for. Batman's evolution into the fabled crime fighter is carefully constructed from the first piece of the puzzle to the chiseled and fierce ultimate evolution. Each part of the process is chronicled with astute precision. Nolan actually finds a way to set-up and explain why a guy runs around in a bat suit. He explains every nuance of the character, from why he chooses the bat as his symbol to why he dons a cape to why he uses the weapons he uses. Nolan leaves no stone unturned. During one sequence, the Batmobile jumps from cityscape rooftop to rooftop. It occurred to me watching this, how exactly does he know that he won't crash through the roofs of these buildings? On the second viewing, however, I noticed something. They thought of that too! Batman has a GPS-like navigation system that gives him info on the rooftops before he topples onto them. By the end of the film, you can try to pick it apart all you want, but you will find that Nolan has covered his bases extremely well, explaining each and every aspect of the Batman arsenal.

Share this quote on facebook Shake off those cobwebs. There’s a new Batman in town, and he’s younger, fiercer and klutzier than before. What do you want from a rookie? The Caped Crusader that Christian Bale plays so potently in Batman Begins is still working out the kinks. He nearly gives himself a wedgie scaling a building in a self-designed Batsuit that weighs a stylish ton. Director Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script with David Goyer, shows us a Batman caught in the act of inventing himself. Nolan is caught, too, in the act of deconstructing the Batman myth while still delivering the dazzle to justify a $150 million budget. It’s schizo entertainment. But credit Nolan for trying to do the impossible in a summer epic: take us somewhere we haven’t been before.
This stripped-down prequel grounds the story in reality. If Tim Burton lifted the DC Comics franchise to gothic splendor and Joel Schumacher buried it in campy overkill (a Batsuit with nipples), then Nolan — the mind-teasing whiz behind Memento and Insomnia — gets credit for resurrecting Batman as Bruce Wayne, a screwed-up rich kid with no clue about how to avenge the murders of his parents.
Batman Begins answers a long-standing question about Bruce the tycoon playboy — a Paris Hilton with balls as previously played by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney — by showing us what he was doing before he put on his Bat drag, accessorized with lethal toys and learned to kill like a vigilante.

Share this quote on facebook The buildup is steadily engrossing. That’s because Nolan keeps the emphasis on character, not gadgets. Gotham looks lived in, not art-directed. And Bale, calling on our movie memories of him as a wounded child (Empire of the Sun) and an adult menace (American Psycho), creates a vulnerable hero of flesh, blood and haunted fire.

Share this quote on facebook The Legend Begins.

Share this quote on facebook This Summer, Evil Fears The Knight.