BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden D...

BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained

 

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers Show, I’m your host Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down Batman.

Tim Burton’s 1989 classic is a film that completely changed my life. This was a movie I watched as a kid, and it made me completely fall in love with Batman. From there, I got obsessed with comic books and film, and it led to the guy you see sat here in front of you. I’ve been wanting to break this down for a while and can’t wait to get into the movie. Throughout this, we’re going to be going through the Easter eggs, hidden things you missed, and the making of trivia.

As I said in our breakdown for The Batman, I’ve got pretty much all the big Batman graphic novels from over the last 85 years. So come with me as we journey back in time and talk about Batman ’89.

Now, in order to talk about this film, we have to talk about where things were after the 1966 show. That, of course, got its own movie too, but Batman fans felt like something was missing. A comedy that was camp and comedic, it was a big departure from the work in the comics. Personally, I’ve always loved the ’66 show, and it’s something I grew up watching as a kid. I love how when you’re little, you take it seriously because you don’t really understand the jokes, and all the characters play it straight. When you’re older, you finally see it for what it is, and it works brilliantly in both aspects.

TIM BURTON’S BATMAN MOVIE: ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

However, you can see why fans were desperate for something that was closer to the comics. Now, as with a lot of TV shows, The Batman series was subject to ratings and viewership. After popularity waned, the show was cancelled, but there was still a lot of interest in the rights.

CBS wanted to produce Batman in Space, but this ended up, thankfully, getting mothballed.

However, in 1979, the rights were purchased by two people who wanted to take the character back to his roots. This was Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan, who wanted to make a dark and serious version.

Describing him as a creature of the night that stalked criminals in the shadows, it’s with this idea that they started working on a script. Guy Hamilton was approached to direct it, with him being the brain behind a lot of the big Bond films.

Now, though he turned it down, there was still interest in the project. However, all the studios wanted a film similar to the TV show, with them not understanding what the pair were after.

Uslan then rewrote the script and titled it Return of the Batman, which would give the idea that it was a return to his roots. The character was always labelled as The Batman originally, and over time they dropped the “The.”

It’s cleaner.

The title would, of course, later be referenced with Batman Returns, and this word “returns” really got the idea across. The Dark Knight was something they’d later use to sell the movie, with its popularity showing people wanted a serious Batman.

Now, though by 1980 they still didn’t have a studio, they announced the movie was coming at the Comic Art Convention in New York. Warner Bros took interest in the project, as Superman had been extremely successful for them.

Tom Mankiewicz then worked on a new script titled The Batman, which would focus on the origins of Dick Grayson. He’d be taken under the wing of the Batman, and the pair would fight against the Joker. Rupert Thorne would also be a villain, with Silver St. Cloud being Bruce’s love interest.

Strange Apparitions was cited as the influence, with this featuring Thorne and also Hugo Strange. Its artist, Marshall Rogers, was also hired to do concept art, but as we know, this version never got made.

However, there were some interesting ideas, and they also played with the idea of Peter O’Toole as the Penguin. He’d have a low body temperature, and I always feel like he’d incorporate elements of Mr Freeze.

He’d gone through a number of iterations, including his Mr Zero origins, which he started off with in 1959.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, we’re breaking down all these Batman movies alongside The Penguin, which we’re also doing on the channel. So make sure you’re subscribed for that, and if you want to support the channel and get some merch, then check out our Penguin-inspired design below. This P-p-pick up a Penguin shirt plays off the classic British biscuit, and we also have our Theory Time ones, Alien Chestburster, Me and the Boys, and House of the Dragon stuff. It all goes towards helping videos like this get made, and huge thank you to everyone who’s p-p-p-p-picked one up.

Now, Ivan Reitman was attached to this project, and he initially wanted Bill Murray as Batman. Eddie Murphy would star as Robin, but the project ended up stuck in development hell. Nine writers were hired over time, with them all doing nine rewrites of the script. Murray said that Murphy was after playing the lead, and Murphy said that he was way too old to play him, so it never went anywhere.

Steven Spielberg was also interested, with him wanting Harrison Ford as Bruce Wayne. Michael J. Fox would be Robin, and Tim Curry would play the Joker. Jon Pertwee was also tapped to play Alfred, and his son Sean would later play him in Gotham.

Either way, Warner Bros stepped in and hired Tim Burton, who had recently had success with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. He got his then-girlfriend Julie Hickson to write a new thirty-page treatment.

Though Burton wasn’t a big fan of comics, he read both The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: The Killing Joke. He said these two guided the work, and then he brought in Sam Hamm to turn it into a screenplay.

Hamm was a massive comic fan, but he didn’t really want to do an origin story. Looking back, this is kind of wild for a first film, but it’s a strategy that a lot of studios now do when adapting comic book characters. What I love that Hamm did is that he introduced the idea of the origin in flashbacks. As an audience, we’d unlock the mystery, and it’s something other Batman directors would later adapt.

Nolan used his usual time jumps to skip about his story, and Matt Reeves set things in Year Two. Hamm said that if you show the literal process in which Bruce becomes Batman, then it has the potential to lose the audience. I feel like this motif is something that’s stuck around in Hollywood, and there were even versions of the script that had Henri Ducard. Bruce would travel through Europe and learn from him, but ultimately this was scrapped.

But hey, one day I would like to see it laid out in order, but moving on.

Hamm was the one who swapped St. Cloud for Vicki Vale, with Rupert Thorne being swapped for Carl Grissom. Now, Dick was originally still in the film, but over time his role got more and more reduced.

Batman co-creator Bob Kane was pretty positive about the treatment, but Warner Brothers were less enthusiastic. However, according to the Wiki, the script was leaked, and copies of it were sold at comic stores across the States.

Positive word of mouth was rampant around it, with many saying this was the true Batman fans had been wanting. On top of this, Burton released Beetlejuice in ’88, and this was also widely successful. So Warner Brothers decided to give the go-ahead, and pre-production went underway. Building off of Beetlejuice, Burton cast Keaton as Batman, but yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard all the controversy with that.

I think pretty much every actor except Bale and Clooney has been met with a lot of controversy when cast as him. At this point, Burton was known for Pee-Wee and Beetlejuice, and Keaton had been in a number of comedies.

So fans’ minds naturally went to them thinking it was ’66 again.

Warner Brothers received over 50,000 letters demanding that they should recast the character.

But once the first photo was released, it silenced a lot of critics. This had Batman stood in front of the Batmobile, and it’s something Reeves would later echo with one of his first looks.

They also quickly threw together a trailer, which helped to get good word of mouth.

On top of this, they had Jack Nicholson as the Joker, which…yeah…perfect casting. Nicholson had played a number of unhinged characters, with Joker being described as Jack Torrance in makeup. However, he was initially reluctant, and thus the studio offered the role to Robin Williams. Williams agreed to be part of the movie, but this is where things got complicated.

The studio then went back to Nicholson and said that Williams was up for doing it. This then convinced Nicholson to sign on, and thus Williams was dropped from the film. When talking about it, he was really open about how he felt like he was used as bait and refused to work with Warner Brothers again.

Poor guy got used as leverage and then dropped by Warner Brothers, and worst thing is, they didn’t even warn a brother.

He refused to play Riddler in Batman Forever and said he wanted an apology from the studio. They did, and eventually, he worked with them on Fathers’ Day, which was released in 1997.

With Nicholson’s contract, he got to choose his own hours, and he got every day off that the Lakers played at home. He also got paid $6 million and a cut of the film’s earnings and merchandise.

BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained
BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained

‘89 was the summer of Batman, and the movie was a worldwide phenomenon. Known as Batmania, we had cereals, toys, t-shirts, Heavy Spoilers merch (below the video), socks, and more. In the end, it’s estimated Nicholson got $90 million, which these days would be about $250 million. Nicholson was also given top billing, something that wouldn’t happen again with a villain until Batman & Robin.

He also convinced them to hire his friend Tracey Walter, who plays the Joker’s right-hand man, Bob.

Now, when it came to Vicki Vale, they initially had Sean Young in the role, but she was injured during a horse-riding accident.

This was on the grounds where they were going to film Wayne Manor, though they ended up scrapping the scene. However, Young would return later down the line, which we’ll talk more about in Batman Returns.

Producer Jon Peters then suggested Kim Basinger, who Peters was even dating at one point.

Guy sounds like a pretty wild character, and check out The Death of Superman Lives to see Kevin Smith talking about him.

Hammer film mainstay Michael Gough was cast as Alfred, with Robert Wuhl playing Alexander Knox. Knox was originally going to be killed in the climax—poisoned by Joker Gas—but they ended up liking how he played it, so they changed it so that he lived in the end.

His character was placed as the promotional face of the movie, hosting the behind-the-scenes documentaries on the film.

Now, that takes us into the film itself, which starts with the Warner Brothers logo that fades into a bat symbol built out of stone. Burton said this was one of the first times the logo was ever altered like this, and it was extremely difficult to do. He said that nowadays it’s pretty commonplace, and we’d see throughout the franchise how they’d do warps and alterations.

Now, this opening is sort of Burton’s signature style, with him often starting with long credit scenes over the top of locations and objects.

One of the most important parts of the movie is its score, and we hear it perfectly thumping away here. Elfman’s score is absolutely iconic, though initially, the producers didn’t want him involved. At that time, Elfman had only really worked on Pee-Wee and Beetlejuice, and he was worried about a movie of this size. Peters wanted Prince and Michael Jackson, with the pair both doing different songs in the movie.

In the end, they managed to get Prince, and Elfman was encouraged to incorporate his songs.

This led to the movie having two soundtracks—one being the score, and the other Prince’s songs.

However, Burton wasn’t that pleased, with him saying his movies weren’t meant to be commercials like Top Gun. However, they pushed ahead with Elfman, who got help from Shirley Walker. Walker later incorporated the score into Batman: The Animated Series, with her also composing Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

Elfman has said he took inspiration from Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and you can definitely hear that in its theme.

Now, after this, we cut to Gotham City, which is a matte painting of a gothic-looking metropolis.

Batman creator—sorry, co-creator, because Bob Kane took all the credit—Batman co-creator Bill Finger came up with the name after flipping through the phone book. He wanted to give the freedom to artists to make up their cities and not be restrained by things like New York. Initially, he tried “Capital” and “Coast City,” but they didn’t feel like they fit the tone of Batman. He then looked in the phone book and saw “Gotham Jewelers,” which is when he came up with the name Gotham City.

I don’t even think they quite appreciated how genius this was because “Gotham” paints out the idea that it’s gothic. It all helps to lead into the tone of the character and is as tied to Batman as any other aspect of his character.

The dark, shadowy city is a stark contrast to Metropolis, which perfectly fits its bright and hopeful character. In these dark, dank environments, you can imagine how crime would thrive, and this is something we see from the off.

What I love about this is that it basically tells Batman’s origin story without necessarily needing to spell it out. Watching for the first time, you might even believe it’s the Waynes, and as we get the crowd shot, we see a sign for Monarch Theatre. This is what the Waynes went to in the comics before they were gunned down that fateful night. However, it’s just a random family, but through this, we see how Gotham hasn’t changed. Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson would later say Batman is almost going out every night trying to stop his parents’ deaths, hoping that he comes across the criminal who did it.

Retroactively, I think this description works perfectly with this scene, and it’s almost like history repeating itself. Now, Batman doesn’t…doesn’t really stop them, mate…and hey, could’ve stepped in there. Still, though, we see him watching from the roof, and he’s almost like a predator stalking his prey.

We see the family walk through the street, and they even get stopped by ladies of the night. Originally, they wanted to have a 14-year-old girl here, which would’ve been a nod to the original Taxi Driver. Batman: Year One referenced this as well, as Holly Robinson was clearly a child working the streets for a pimp.

Initially, they wanted some cops flirting with her, and it would show how sleazy and corrupt the police are in the city.

Either way, it instantly paints out the kind of city Gotham is, and there are some great details here about how it can corrupt. You might notice the kid is wearing a t-shirt that says “I ♥ Gotham City.”

This is something one of the muggers later wears, and he was likely a bright-eyed kid once, like the one he’s robbing. The fact that this is also a recreation of the Waynes’ murder highlights how the city hasn’t changed. It’s stuck in this cycle of the same crimes and violence, with the kids growing up to do the same thing.

That is until Batman comes in and changes things, and he’s the spanner in the works that’s going to make it all change.

The city itself almost feels like an industrial machine, which is something we see from the city title card.

It almost looks like a gigantic oil refinery, which I love in the design. Terry Gilliam’s Brazil was also highlighted as an inspiration, with Blade Runner being looked at as well. This smoke is carried across to the criminals sitting on the roof, and while they sit and smoke, we also see smoke and steam rising around them. Anton Furst designed this with the idea that it would be like hell breaking out of the concrete. You definitely get that feeling, with all the spires and the idea of burning pits exemplified by the smoke.

Furst’s designs are completely iconic, and we’ll go through them one by one as we work through the movie. Keaton’s batsuit is almost like a shadow, with the yellow on black being such an iconic way to have this bright beacon of hope in the darkness.

However, you might notice that the batsymbol itself is slightly different from how it appears on the poster and in the credits. This was down to a rights issue that arose when they were making the costume, which eventually got resolved by the time they reached the marketing. This is why it’s different in Batman Returns, but I actually kind of like this design too.

Originally, they were going to have a black or brass utility belt to blend in with the character’s suit better. However, after the outcry from fans over Keaton’s casting, they decided to play it safe and went with the classic yellow instead.

We also have the mask and its eyebrows, which help to exemplify Batman’s seriousness. Eyebrows play a big part in the performances, with both Keaton and Nicholson having quite distinctive ones. So the suit needed them as well, and it’s a really close tie between this and the Justice League batsuit for my favourite costumes.

Now, this is when Batman descends through the smoke, and he breaks it up to highlight he’s the one who now controls the landscape. Tackling the criminals, we see him bust out his classic batarang during the first fight. This was something they needed to hammer home from the start to show they wanted to give fans what they’d been craving.

Though he’s shot, he also rises back up, giving the idea that he’s a creature of the night. Now, I’m someone who likes the idea of the sort of “Batgod” Batman that really became prevalent during Grant Morrison’s run. The phrase Batgod doesn’t mean he’s a god; it just means he’s basically on “God mode” and can take down 60 guys in a room with ease.

So I did always wonder why they showed him falling on his back in his first fight. However, I think this humanises the character, but him rising up then shows he’s something more.

So it works in letting us know Batman’s a man we can relate to, but also that he’s just got that extra edge to him. One of the most famous quotes in the comics is that Batman describes criminals as a cowardly and superstitious lot. We see this with the criminals discussing how the bat got someone else, and later they help to spread his legend.

Holding the criminal, Nic, over the edge of a building, this is one of my favourite British actors, Christopher Fairbank.
Now, at the end with Joker, sometimes I get pushback saying that Batman didn’t kill Joker but… yeah, he definitely killed him, mate.

I’m sure there’ll be comments there too, so we’ll just say he tied him to the gargoyle, and it was Joker’s choice to keep going.

Originally, this line in the script said “I am the night,” but Keaton thought it would work better to just outright say he was Batman. However, the idea of him being the night was later incorporated into Kevin Conroy’s iconic:

“I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman.”

Now, according to IMDb trivia, Michael Keaton was a logic freak who was a bit sceptical that no one would figure out Batman’s identity. He and Burton trialled ideas to better disguise the character, including contact lenses and a cowl that covered his mouth.

In the end, Keaton realised a lot of it was down to the performance, and he decided to speak in a lower register when in the cape and cowl. This is something that’s been adapted into most portrayals afterward, with Conroy and Bale most notably doing it.

Keaton also realised that when wearing the cowl, he was pretty much deaf. Due to the thickness of the rubber, he could barely hear anything going on on set. However, he used this to aid the performance and said that he retreated inside himself to provide this almost internalised performance of the Dark Knight.

Batman then jumps over the edge before doing his first of many disappearances. Grand entrances like this are somewhat of a staple in how Batman shows up to places in this film, with a lot of his arrivals containing him coming in from the sky.

From here, we cut to a press conference with Harvey Dent. Played by Billy Dee Williams, he was originally cast to eventually become Two-Face.

However, as we know, he was eventually recast as Tommy Lee Jones during *Batman Forever*. We’ve had him continue the role in other iterations though. Billy Dee voiced Two-Face in *The Lego Batman Movie*, and the story continued in the recent *Batman ‘89* comic. This continued the story after *Batman Returns*, telling how Dent became the iconic villain.

Dent was first created in 1942, originally having the name Harvey Kent. However, they felt readers might think he was related to Martha and Jonathan, so they changed it to distance him from Superman.

Later on, we get some subtle visual foreshadowing towards his transformation, which comes roughly at the 50-minute mark. We see Joker smashing a TV like the like button with a giant boxing glove. Just before the TV shatters, you can see the glove hit one side of Harvey’s face, with the TV then smashing out from there.

In this moment, we’re also introduced to Commissioner Gordon, and you can see D.A. Alday with him. Cos we do breakdowns like this all day.

Now, this idea of Joker watching his speeches is set up early here when we next cut to Jack. As we learn throughout the film, his surname is Napier, which in itself contains a couple of Easter eggs. This namely links to the ‘66 show in which Alfred was played by the actor Alan Napier.

Beyond that, Jack Napier is a play on the word “Jackanapes,” which can mean either a jester or joker. He can be seen playing with a card, and you might also notice that his tie has playing cards on it.

HIDDEN DETAILS IN TIM BURTON’S BATMAN MOVIE

This also continues the long tradition of Jack Nicholson playing characters called Jack. I’ve lost count of how many movies he’s done it in, but it always reminds me of that Keith Chegwin sketch on *Extras*. Basically, they have to keep calling his character Keith because he gets confused otherwise.

Though the comics mainly try to keep Joker anonymous, he is sometimes given the name Jack Napier. This is especially seen in the *White Knight* run, where the character ends up going back to his old identity.

However, beyond that, the police file on Napier has a further nod to Nicholson. It lists his date of birth as April 22, 1937, which is also the actor’s date of birth in real life.

Along with this, we get his psychological profile, which says that he suffers from emotional instability. This ties into the character’s insanity, which gets worse when his face is destroyed. This vanity is highlighted when he starts looking in the mirror, and we are then introduced to Alicia.

Alicia was based on the character Circe, who, in the comics, was a girlfriend of Black Mask. Mask disfigured her face, which is what happens to Alicia in the film. We later get this shot recreated in the movie with both characters returning to appear in this mirror. However, there’s a really subtle thing they do early on, which we can see in the picture of Alicia on the wall. There, she appears in black and white except for her lips, which are red. Later, she wears a white mask that has red lips, and Joker’s skin is also white with his red lips too.

This mask was inspired by *Eyes Without a Face*, in which surgery ends up leaving a woman disfigured. It’s possible this also inspired the surgery scene in which they reconstruct the Joker’s face.

BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained
BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained

The tools were a nod to the dental tools used in *The Little Shop of Horrors*, a remake of the 1960 film that starred Jack Nicholson.

Now, the novelisation explains how this affair was discovered, with that being through Lieutenant Eckhardt. Played by Porkins from *Star Wars*, I always feel bad because all the lines the guy did were dubbed by someone else.

In the novelisation, we discover that he’s the one who tipped him off. Also, I love how Jack says he’s brought him a little snack, and we can see the money in the bread. ‘Cos he’s giving him the bread in the bread.

We then cut to some foreshadowing as we see Dent and the mayor on the steps of City Hall.

The mayor was based on the Mayor of New York at the time, and they even hired a guy who looks exactly like Ed Koch.

Banners are going up for the bicentennial, which is the celebration Joker invades. And these balloons are what Joker later uses to spread his Smilex gas.

From here, we cut to the *Gotham Globe* to meet Alexander Knox and Vicki Vale. The *Globe* is one of the many publications we get throughout the comics, and there are a couple of other Easter eggs here. Knox is shown an artist’s mock-up of the Batman, which is signed by co-creator Bob Kane.

Kane was originally supposed to cameo in this moment, but he became ill, and they didn’t reschedule it.

We see Vale also did a story on Corto Maltese, which is a location that appeared in *The Dark Knight Returns*. This would later show up in James Gunn’s *Suicide Squad*, and it’s often the centre of some kind of revolution.

The name itself is a nod to Italian comic character Corto Maltese, who was known for getting involved in wars and revolutions. She’s a renowned photojournalist and wants to be the one that breaks the Batman story with Knox.

That night, we cut to mob boss Carl Grissom, who slams down a newspaper. This announces the report on Dent cracking down on him, but they do a really cool detail with the date. You might notice it just says “November 25” and doesn’t have the year on it. This helps to give Gotham this timeless feel, and there’s never really a true centre point for when the film is set.

Saying he’ll be ruined if Axis gets linked to him, he sends Jack into a trap. Played by the late, great Jack Palance, he’s having a friend for dinner. Apparently, Burton and Palance got into it on the set, and they butted heads. Burton was still a new filmmaker, and Palance apparently didn’t take his direction kindly. He told Burton he’d made more than 100 films and asked him how many he’d made. Burton later described it as an experience he’d never forget. However, according to IMDb trivia, he still thought Palance was perfect for the part, and he couldn’t think of anyone better to pull off being Jack Nicholson’s boss.

Jack’s told to go to Axis Chemicals, which is a play on Ace Chemicals from the comics. In most iterations, Batman beats the Red Hood there, and he then ends up falling into a vat of chemicals. This was most notably seen during The Killing Joke, in which Joker told one of his many potential origin stories.

This, in itself, was based on Detective Comics 168, which showed the Red Hood and his origin.

Not only does the Joker’s face look just like Jack Nicholson’s, but it also has a hole in the cheek. This is later on where Jack gets shot at from the ricochet, so this bullet hole does a little foreshadowing.

From here, we cut to Wayne Manor and see a fundraiser being held by Bruce to save the Festival.

In doing this, he basically funnels money for those balloons. You can bet he used it to buy that Batwing as well — it looked expensive.

Keaton plays up the part perfectly, with him being pretty uncomfortable at these events.

You contrast his suit here to how he acts in the Batsuit, and there’s a massive difference in his confidence.

This is playing off the fact that Bruce Wayne is sort of an act at this point, and he doesn’t really know who he is. I love how we have a bit of physical comedy as she walks off, and Bruce is clearly besotted by her. He just puts down his glass nonchalantly, and Alfred swoops in to stop it from falling.

Now, as Knox and Vale explore the house, we get the idea of how well-travelled Bruce is. The guy’s been around the world honing his abilities, which we see from the suits and armour. This includes one which Knox says is:

Which is a nod to The Wicker Man. There’s also a Japanese one, and these suits of armour all had somewhat of an inspiration on his own.

Now Bruce… vain…ey, because of the big mirror, ends up spying on them in his Batcave, which is when we get the first shot of the Batcomputer. It turns out this entire function is actually a ploy so that Batman can keep an eye on the police.

Learning that Napier’s at Axis, we then cut to it to see police cars surrounding it, with Eckhart leading the charge. Inside, we then see the gangsters opening up a safe. Inside is a file which talks about some top-secret CIA programme, which we see at Joker’s later in the movie. This involved harnessing nerve gas, and it shows images of the soldiers it was tested on.

So this sets up how Joker would harness it, which is a really nice little detail.

Anyway, the police arrive, along with Batman, and I love how skilfully he takes them down. Throwing one over the edge of a railing using his grapnel, stepping out to do a stealth takedown… you know, it kind of encompasses Batman in predator mode.

Eventually, he works his way up to Jack, who’s currently sending the factory haywire.

Throwing him over the railing, he tries to save him, but Jack seemingly falls to a watery grave.

Now, what I love about the movie is that there’s this idea that Joker created Batman, and Batman created Joker.

As we learn, Jack killed the Waynes in front of Bruce, and then Bruce became Batman, who created the Joker. At every stage in their lives, the characters have a meeting, which ends with either one of them beating the other.

Jack and Bruce met when the pair were younger, then Batman and Jack met at Axis Chemicals. Bruce and Joker meet at Vicki Vale’s apartment, and lastly, we have Batman and Joker. From a screenwriting perspective, it’s absolutely perfect, and I love how we get these dynamic showdowns.

Now, Joker killing Bruce’s parents is a big change from the comics, with it normally being attributed to Joe Chill. Kane actually applauded this change, though, and says if they’d planned the storyline out in the comics, this is how they would have done it.

His cards come to the surface along with his hand, and we get that white, bleached skin right in front of the Joker card.

Now, he ends up getting plastic surgery in a scene that was beautifully parodied in The Simpsons. I love how they don’t reveal his face here, and all we hear is the character’s iconic laugh. This makes it more impactful when he steps forth, and like Batman, he arrives from the shadows.

From here, we cut to the Globe and see Vale and Knox looking over a map. This is actually a map of Vancouver, and they got away with it because nobody, nobody goes there, mate. I think all the Canadians watch Think Story.

Next, we jump to Bruce and Vicki’s date and get the big long dining table. It kind of just lightens up the character and makes him seem sort of like this detached rich guy.

In doing this, though, it lets them go into another room where they can get closer.

This kind of has an ambiguous side to it, and it’s him hinting at how the Batcave is more him.

We also hear Bruce’s embarrassing childhood stories from Alfred, and it kind of sums up how he became his dad. Going upstairs, Vicki takes off her heels, with Basinger improvising this moment. She did this because her feet were really sore from walking in them, and this is something she does in character throughout the film. This happens when she goes to get in the Batmobile and also when she’s climbing up the clock tower at the end.

Waking up, she finds Bruce hanging upside down like a bat. This, again, was thought up by Keaton, who wanted to tap into the mental illness side of Bruce. He initially didn’t want to play Batman, as he didn’t feel he was right for the part. However, after reading the script, he realised this guy’s probably dealing with a lot of trauma, but he handles it by dressing up as a bat. Going to Burton with this take, they loved the idea, and it really pays off in moments like this.

Anyway, that night, Joker arrives at Grissom’s office, and I love how we get this slow walk out of the elevator. The closer he gets, the more the white starts to come out of the shadow. I feel like they later adopted this with Silva in Skyfall, but there it was done in a well-lit room. Here, the shadow adds to the mystery, and Joker’s voice slowly ramping up sucks you right in.

REFERENCES IN TIM BURTON’S BATMAN MOVIE

It’s here that they reveal his rictus grin, which has somewhat become a staple of the character. When creating him, this was based on The Man Who Laughs. This was later adapted into the Joker’s origin comic The Man Who Laughs, and the iconic grin is a staple of the character.

The Man Who Laughs was a creation from French literature, and Joker also used to drop French phrases in the comics. This is something Nicholson does throughout the film. Also, a thing I noticed on the 4K is that you can see the purple coat has rubbed off on his makeup. Ruined it. Ruined the movie. Nah, if you love the classics and want to see movies in the highest possible quality, then definitely check out our partners at Arrow Video. They do a tonne of 4K films, such as the recent Silence of the Lambs release, which makes the movie look absolutely incredible. Every month, they announce new titles, and if you use the code “heavyspoilers” at checkout, you get 10% off. Just use the code “heavyspoilers” at checkout anytime you buy from them, and you’re going to get 10% off.

Now, Nicholson really hams up the entire film from this point on, and he dances about shooting Grissom’s corpse.

Coming across a newspaper on Grissom’s desk, this highlights Batman as a freak. Joker says, “Wait until they get a load of me,” which was referenced in Kick-Ass as the movie’s final line.

Meeting with the other bosses, we see the Joker’s classic weapon from the comic: the electrifying trick ring. While doing this, he sings “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” by Theodore A. Metz. This song was composed in 1896, and again, it’s another thing that adds to the almost timeless cultural feel of Gotham. Burton said he didn’t want the city to feel futuristic; he wanted it to feel timeless. This is why the fashion is the way it is and why everything has an art deco style to it.

Also, when I was a kid, yeah, I never actually had the VHS of this. What I did have was a tape my mother used to record off the telly that was filled with adverts. She also thought some of it was too violent for me to watch, so would stop recording when it got to a bit she thought was bad. Thing is, though, she hadn’t seen the movie, so like… all the good parts were missing. I thought it was a movie about a guy laying roses on a pavement.

Nowadays, you just blur those bits and ruin it because YouTube restricts anything that isn’t Mr Beast.

Now, Joker ends up rubbing off his makeup, which reveals his white skin below. This was extremely difficult to pull off, with the makeup team firstly applying the prosthetics around Nicholson’s face. They then added the white paint and covered it in silicone oil to add a layer between that and the next layer of makeup. They then took skin-coloured grease paint, which they added on top of the silicone.

The handkerchief Joker then pulls out was soaked with alcohol, which removed the paint but not the silicone.

Now, Joker decides to whack all the other mobsters after talking it out with the corpse of Anton. Originally in the script, the character was called Carmine, which would have been a nod to Carmine Falcone.

However, Nicholson knew how stressed Anton Furst was on set, so he added in this line to try and lighten his mood.

Now, we see as Vicki does some light stalking and follows Bruce all the way to Crime Alley. Him visiting the site of his parents’ murders on their anniversary ties into the comics, namely “There Is No Hope In Crime Alley.”

Appearing in Detective Comics 457, this had him showing up to remember them and his promise.

BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained
BATMAN (1989) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of Trivia & Ending Explained

Shoutouts to Bigbatfan on Reddit for pointing out that the rose detail was then brought into the comics, and it appeared in Detective Comics 782.

Bruce then wanders across to City Hall, where we see one of the crime bosses and Joker’s gang. Here, they’re dressed as mimes, which is way more akin to his henchmen in the comics. Joker also wears a black and white suit along with a top hat.

I couldn’t find what was made first, but DC referenced this in a comic released the same year. That was Batman 429, which took place over the Death In The Family arc.

Joker ends up killing the gangster with a pen, and Nolan would later reference this with his Joker killing someone with a pencil.

After seeing Batman getting Joker’s press, he gets photos from the Hall and falls in love with Vicki. Hope they get together.

We see as he starts shipping out Smilex gas and cuts to Action News. News segments like this featured heavily in The Dark Knight Returns, and they helped to carry a lot of the exposition.

We can see as they read off paper reports rather than a teleprompter, which again adds to this timeless feel. I think. Like, I’m pretty sure they had teleprompters in ’89. Drop it below if you know why they did that, because to me it makes it feel like an older station.

Action News is also a reference to Action Comics, which is heavily tied in with DC, namely due to its introduction of Superman.

You might also notice the female anchor is getting some last-minute makeup done, and this is what eventually causes the reaction. As we learn, Joker has poisoned several products so that when used in combination, they cause death by laughing fit and leave a rictus grin.

Because of the fear of these products, we see as the anchors show up later on with them having not styled their hair and being covered in zits.

I love how Joker also hijacks the broadcast and plays a commercial using the dead models.

There was a deleted scene in which we’d see the girls at a photo shoot with a photographer telling them to smile more. They’d start giggling, which the photographer would like at first, but this would then descend into horror. However, they felt that it was a bit redundant with the news anchor scene, as they kind of accomplish the same goal.

Pretty messed up, just having their corpses paraded with the mouths superimposed over as he sits on a deck chair at a beach. Also, the dancing as he pushes the trolley — whatever you paid this guy, it wasn’t enough.

Lastly, I love where he’s got the guy tied up for the Brand X bit.

He’s been watching Screen Crush.

You instantly get why the Joker’s a fascinating character, and Nicholson is perfect in the role.

Now, Bruce watches this all playing out, which is when he gets the file, and we see the Mayor berating Dent to get the festival ready.

From here, we cut to Alfred taking a call, saying Vicki will be late for their date.

Only thing is, mate, he hasn’t arranged to meet her, and we learn this is actually a trap by the Joker.

This goes down at the Flugelheim Museum, which is playing off the Guggenheim in New York. The word “Flugel” is German for “wing”, with this being a nod to a Batwing.

Sending her a gas mask and filling the place with gas, I remember watching this as a kid and thinking it was so messed up. Just something about people falling dead face-first in a desert is really weird and creepy.

The handwriting on and inside the box was done by Burton, and being in crayon makes it even creepier.

This is then juxtaposed instantly by Joker’s arrival to Party Man by Prince.

This entire scene is based around the 1966 show episode Pop Goes The Joker, with the villain there vandalising a gallery. I love how you can see Bob walking behind the group taking notes, and according to the wiki, he’s writing how much everything costs.

Jokerfying the artwork, we see the busts being painted green and red, “Joker was here” being written on a wall, and handprints over Rembrandt’s self-portrait.

The painting The Blue Boy appears as Joker goes up the stairs, and this actually was given a nod in Joker when Arthur had a print up in his apartment.

Now, Bob goes to slash Figures With Meat by the artist Francis Bacon. Christopher Nolan’s a big fan of this artist, and he later referenced his work when creating the Joker. The guy also included one of his paintings in Inception, and I love how these kinds of Easter eggs sort of go out and inspire other things.

Walking past the picture of George Washington, Joker points out how it’s on the dollar bill.

Now, the trivia for the film pointed out that this was originally going to be incorporated into the script and that it would later pay off in the parade scene. We end the movie with Joker throwing money in the air, which then leads into him gassing the crowd. It was going to be revealed that all of this money was fake and had the Joker’s face on it, which would all build out from this one little moment.

Playing Theme From a Summer Place while he calls her mundane work crap, he then becomes fixated on her photos of the war. Describing himself as the world’s first fully functioning homicidal artist, he wants to make the most elaborate, horrifying things possible.

It leads to her revealing her scars, and Joker then busts out another of his gadgets. This is the acid-spraying flower, which is something that he almost hits Vicki with. Now, not to theory time theory time theory time, but I do wonder if this is also telling us how Alicia got her scars.

Either way, Vicki throws some water in Joker’s face, and he references The Wizard of Oz by saying he’s melting.

Giving a boo, I love the makeup effect here as well. It’s so good how you get the idea of the clown coming out and it all being hidden under this normal-looking exterior. Well, normal-ish. That’s also something I feel about The Batman, with Bruce being the mask he wears to hide who he is.

Now, speaking of Batman, he makes another grand entrance and then pulls out a gun and shoots Joker in the face.

Nah, nah, shouldn’t have done that, mate, but instead, it’s one of his zipline guns, which is also a staple gadget that he uses in the comics.

Anyway, shut the hell up because this takes us to the most iconic Batmobile ever created.

Though I think we’ve had some classics over the years, this is by far the slickest and most stylistic. When in pre-production, Burton knew that the car was one of the most important aspects of the movie and that it set the tone for the rest of the film.

When crafting it, Furst looked at several iconic cars, including the recently created Thrust2. This secured the world land speed record in 1983, and you can instantly see how its design played into what we got here. The 1950s Batmobile was also looked at for the basis, with the fin from that being brought into the two that we get here. That car was also known for its long look and the fact that it had an afterburner on the back.

However, when creating the initial concept model, they quickly ran into a problem. Burton said it was great but asked where the door was. They realised they hadn’t put one in, so they ended up taking elements of a Harrier jet to create the sliding cockpit.

Built on the chassis of a Chevy Impala, it carried this engine across and got the tail lights of a Ferrari along with the fuel caps of a London bus. However, when shooting with it, they ran into an impractical truth with the car and cowl. The ears on the regular one were too long, and they stopped the cockpit from sliding shut. Thus, an alternate cowl with shorter ears was crafted for scenes involving the car.

Racing through the streets, we see as the Batmobile easily outmanoeuvres the Joker’s cars. It too employs grappling hooks, which allow it to take the tight corners easier. One thing I love is when they exit, shields come out and cover the car.

When I was little and we were with my uncle, he’d take his car keys and say “shields” when pressing the central locking. So I always have fond memories of this bit, and it leads into a back-alley chase. Batman ends up asking Vicki her weight, which is something that would later be referenced in The Flash.

After falling, Batman’s face is nearly exposed, but he’s saved by Vicki’s camera flash.

On the rooftop, she takes photos of the fight, with each flash going off during a hit. This was done to mimic the boom, bap, pow style fight scenes that were a staple of the ’66 show. Going back to the car, I love how the whole thing’s voice-activated, and it brakes just before hitting Batman. This then takes us into my favourite part of Elfman’s score, Descent into Mystery.

We just get a couple of moments of the Batmobile driving in the woods to the rousing score, and it’s the perfect way to show off the car. Also, love how Batman has a light built just above his seat so he can shine it at the passenger if they try and look at him. A similar scene would show up in Batman Begins, with both car rides then leading to the Batmobile.

There it was hidden behind a waterfall, whereas here, it’s behind a fake sliding cliffside. This idea of it being hidden was also something in the ’66 show, with a road barrier going down and raising if you were exiting or entering it.

Now, the cave is depicted almost like an endless abyss, with them using matte paintings to give the effect. It’s a sheer vertical drop that’s filled with bats, and it feels almost like a Gothic cathedral.

Leading Vicki to the computer, he exposes the chemicals that are causing the Smilex reaction.

Taking the camera film, he drops her off at home and then arrives the next day as Bruce. Trying to explain, he’s interrupted by Joker. This line comes from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, which is about someone slowly going insane. He’s come over to tell her Alicia’s dead, and he symbolises this by smashing her mask. Though we hear she ended her own life, there are theories that Jack pushed her to it. Like, literally.

In the background of this scene, we can hear Stephen Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer.

Composed by Stephen Foster in 1864, this was apparently made days before his death, and thus it’s fitting with the tragedy of Alicia.

Keaton then lets his darker side come to the surface and says:

“You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts.” Which is something he later says in The Flash. At the time, though, this was a reference to the Prince song Let’s Go Crazy, in which he says the line “let’s get nuts”.

Prince, of course, did the soundtrack, so it was a little nod to that.

At this point, Joker asks him: “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” This was also the title of an unreleased song written by Prince that was going to feature on the soundtrack.

No idea what it means, but Bruce remembers it because it’s what Jack said before his parents’ murder.

Joker says that he says it before killing his prey, but yeah, first time you’ve said it in this movie, mate, and you’ve murdered about 40 people.

Either way, Bruce uses a metal tray as a bulletproof vest, which he holds up over his chest. The bullet and gun were apparently a .22 short, meaning that they wouldn’t have had the impact to penetrate the metal. Jack also shot Eckhardt in the chest like this, so Bruce gambled and hoped he’d do the same.

Joker then dances out of the apartment, with Nicholson dubbing this the bird dance, which he, of course, improvised.

Now, all the horse riding was going to come in off the back of this moment, as we would have had Batman riding through the streets chasing down Joker. This would be a nod to The Dark Knight Returns, in which he rides one at one point. However, they quickly realised the suit looked terrible in daylight, so decided to cut it. So Sean Young basically lost the part for nothing.

Also, right, I do second watches of this stuff, and as I was writing this bit, I had the bit with Vicki and Joker at the Batcave, and I noticed that the aftershave on the screen says Monsieur de Joker. Wonder… wonder which product has the Joker poison in.

Now at the Globe, we see that Knox has done some digging on Bruce and discovered his parents’ murder.

In this, we see a photo of a young Bruce, and there was actually a scene shot alongside this. The photo shows the young Bruce being helped by a policeman, and this was going to be revealed to be Gordon. The scene would have had Gordon working the murder and he’d comfort a young Bruce and tell him he’d get justice.

This then would influence the character and also explain the bond that Batman feels to Gordon. James Bond. This scrapped idea was later used in Batman Begins, with the pair meeting on the night of the Waynes’ death. Knox asks what they might do to a kid, and it’s here that Vicki realises the truth.

We then get a press conference with the Mayor cancelling the parade due to the danger. However, this is interrupted by the Joker, who says he’s giving out free money. He does this by sliding some of the screens, but yeah… no idea how this works when you’re just watching one. The Mayor is stood there looking over to him on another scr… look, I dunno, mate.

Now that always cracked me up because it’s like… what a stupid thing to say, and I genuinely say that a lot at the end of a sentence when I’ve been talking about how bad Ryan Arey is.

Singing to the cops, of course, also means that someone’s a snitch, and as we saw, he informed them about Joker.

Pausing it on his “let’s get post-nuts clarity” face. This then takes Bruce back, way back, back in time. We see the poster Footlight Frenzy, and this was also shown outside the theatre at the start, highlighting the cyclical nature. Looking at the poster for this, I was wondering if it was foreshadowing Catwoman, as the designs are very similar.

Now, here we meet a younger Jack, who kills both the Waynes. The iconography here is ripped right from the comics, with the falling pearls coming directly from The Dark Knight Returns.

We also have popcorn, which of course comes from a cinema, and on that night in Year One, Bruce had gone to see Zorro. This had a further influence on him, as the masked crime fighter would influence Batman.

HOW TIM BURTON’S BATMAN MOVIE INFLUENCED OTHER BATMAN ADAPTATIONS

This falling popcorn showed up earlier in the movie, as Vicki dropped it at her apartment when Joker and Bruce faced off. So we have this popcorn in another face-off with them, and it’s sort of like poetry, they rhyme.

Now, the young Jack here is played by Hugo Blick, and hot take… but this guy… this guy looks more like the Joker than Jack Nicholson does. That grin is incredible, and it’s a testament to the casting that you instantly know this is a young version of him.

His photo can also be spotted in Napier’s file, with those eyes and eyebrows on the left-hand side.  This outlines his criminal history and also has text after the photos that give some insight. We can see that it says he’s highly intelligent but also unstable. At the bottom, it also says he’s apt in science, chemistry, and art, all of which kind of play into his character.

Now, in the original script, Jack was going to have been hired to murder Thomas because he’d been running for City Mayor. Though dropped, the idea of Thomas running for Mayor was later used in both Joker and The Batman. It also appeared in Batman: Earth One and has become a character trait tied in with the deaths.

Vicki then arrives in the Batcave, with Alfred letting her in. Now, Jon Peters said this is the bit he got fans dissing him the most about, but he’s made several denials and said it wasn’t his idea. However, there was a bit of backlash at the time, and they even made a joke about it in Batman Returns.

Now we get the first of many iconic Batman suit-up scenes, with the symbol acting almost as foreshadowing of the Bat-Signal before its creation. That’s a reach, mate, but Batman then rides out to Axis Chemicals and blows it up using the Batmobile.

This enters through using machine guns, which is something the Batmobile had in The Dark Knight Returns. It was rubber bullets there, but here, kill ’em, kill ’em all.

It’s revealed after that this is by remote control, but ey… I can see someone sat in it, mate, I can see.

This then leads to Joker taunting Batman outside, which has Batman spinning around. Keaton realised just before filming that he couldn’t turn his head and look up, so he had to move his entire body. This has been dubbed “The Hero Turn”, but ey, I think it looks good.

Joker also calls him: “Junior Birdman”. With the Junior Birdmen being an American youth group. The line “Up in the air, Junior Birdman” was also a line from the 1955 film To Hell and Back.

Coincidentally, Keaton would later star in the movie Birdman, which was basically a parody of his Batman portrayal.

Now, we then get the parade scene with Joker on a throne on top of a float.

Originally, they were planning to have Joker poison the police force’s coffee, which is why there wouldn’t be any officers here.

This throne is actually a repurposed prop from MGM, having been used in the movie Queen Christina. It was a replica of Queen Kristina’s silver throne, and it shows how egotistical the Joker is.

Now, it’s a great way to kick things off, and it leads into the Batwing’s arrival.

They had five models built for this but didn’t do the full-scale replica because it would have been about 35 feet long. So a lot of the close-ups are shot with the back missing, but it still provides the effect.

Taking the balloons away, they have such an iconic shot where it flies up to the moon and then creates the Bat-Symbol.

Knox also gets his hero moment too, with him using a bat to smack Joker’s forces. Unfortunately, trying to get back in the car, Vicki forgets, and it’s in this that he was meant to die. Nice work on nearly killing the guy, Vicki.

Stepping down from the float, I love how we can see Joker uses a henchman’s back as a step. He’s walking all over them literally, and it culminates in him shooting Bob. This is where you lost it, mate. It was killing Bob that lost it for you, and you deserve it.

Batman then brings out the big guns. Like, literally. Pushed him too far, Joker, and now he’s just gunning everyone down.

Nah, but this has, of course, become a big point of contention amongst fans. I think when you look at pretty much every Batman though, at least in the movies, they’ve all been mass murderers. Burton obviously wasn’t that familiar with the comics, so he wasn’t fully aware of how much it was a rule that had been brought in for his characterisation.

However, the Batwing did have a machine gun attached to it, which Batman used against the Monster Men. There was a retelling of it by Matt Wagner, which was based on The Giants of Hugo Strange from 1940.

Now, to add another cherry on top, they had him not only using machine guns, but also missing every bloody shot.

Joker taunts Batman to hit him, and I do feel like Nolan improved on this scene during the truck flip one in The Dark Knight.

However in the original plan for this scene they were gonna have J running and dancing out the way. This can be seen in some of the concept art by David Russell.

Joker then pulls out a gigantic gun, which was a custom Smith & Wesson with a 21-inch barrel.

This causes the Batwing to crash, though as Joker sees, there isn’t a body there. Now, this takes us into the cathedral climb, which has a cool detail to set it up. Joker says:

And it then takes 10 minutes from this point until the helicopter shows up.

The cathedral is a great way to close out the movie, which kind of builds off that first shot of Batman at the beginning. However, it had a lot of its elements changed. Originally, Vicki was going to die, but they thought that would make the movie go out on a bit of a downer.

Furst also was put under more pressure because he had to turn around a 30-foot model of it in a short period of time, which is why Nicholson gave him that shoutout earlier.

It was so bad that IMDb trivia lists that when filming the stairs scenes, the actors kept asking what would happen at the top. Nicholson apparently stopped the shoot to ask why he was even walking up the stairs, and Burton told him he’d tell him at the top.

The only issue was Burton said he had no idea.

This typically means that someone is insane, and it’s a really nice subtle line that plays off both characters and the location.

Joker then sends his goons against Batman. He takes one out with a wrist thing, which… no idea what that is, but I love these kinds of counters. He also did one earlier against the guy with the swords, that kick kind of feeling like the Raiders of the Lost Ark sword moment.

Batman also hangs upside down and pulls a guy over the ledge with his legs, which kind of set the groundwork for some of the takedowns in the Arkham games.

Except here he throws him 500 feet to his death.

Now, while this is going on, we have Vale limply dancing with Joker. This would later be referenced in the video for Tom Petty’s Mary Jane’s Last Dance. Petty dances with Basinger in the video, with Basinger saying she did a repeat of a scene.

I love the line about how they’re like Beauty and the Beast, but if anyone calls her Beast, he’ll rip their lungs out. Said that a couple of times in real life and always got a laugh… but I stole it from this.

And now he’s asking his prey before he takes them out.

Batman gets to just knock the crap out of him, and it’s great how Joker still keeps pulling out the gags, like the fake teeth and glasses.

Though it starts off as an easy fight, Joker later gets the upper hand and uses a fake one too. He takes the villain down by attaching him to a gargoyle, which Joker also mocks for having a grinning face on it.

This is the same spot we saw Batman at the 4-minute mark, and there you can see the gargoyles as well as the spires on the structure that they’re now hanging off of.

Now, though the leg tie is used, they had a different idea originally. The helicopter was going to awaken bats in the cathedral, and they’d all fly out and attack the Joker. He’d then fall to his death, but they decided Batman needed to be involved in taking out the villain.

However, this swarm of bats was used in Batman Returns, with it being one of the ways that Batman defeats Penguin.

Also, yeah, this always gave me a fear of rope ladders, and yeah, I can’t climb ’em now, just don’t get how they work. Falling to his death, Joker dies laughing, with a laughing bag being found next to his body.

I love how they have the entire pavement cracked around him as well as the broken gargoyle. Cos that’s a pretty big fall.

Now, we end the movie with the Bat-Signal being unveiled and Bruce being late to his date with Vicki Vale.

Symbolically, this shows he’ll always watch over the city and put the interest of that above his own. It’s the classic tragedy of Batman, in which he loses out on life trying to make other people’s better. I love the final shot of the film and the signal shining with him standing there like a god.

It reminds me a lot of the idea of Caesar and the statuesque Buckingham Palace guards that stand ever-watchful. Batman will forever remain as a guardian, a silent protector… a Dark Knight.

Now, I dunno if this was intentional or not, but you can clearly see that this is a literal statue. The ears on the cowl are a lot shorter, and I don’t think this even has proper feet. Still though, it’s a symbol, with a deeper meaning, and yeah, love that this closes out the movie.

It, of course, would go on to have a massive legacy and, in many ways, established the comic book movies we know today. Now though Superman is the obvious one that brought it to the forefront, this actually did it in more ways than one.

Warner Brothers knew it was going to be a massive hit, so they had merchandise put into production way before its release. This is kind of the opposite to Star Wars, with people getting cardboard cutouts promising that figures would come one day.

If you know, you know.

Warner Brothers had the toys and merch all ready ahead of time. The rights to this were purchased by Toy Biz, which at the time was overseen by Ike Perlmutter. When Marvel was facing bankruptcy in the 90s, he bought the licence to their figures. He then became the head of Marvel Entertainment and basically helped to create the MCU.

So everything we know today kind of was caused by this movie and yeah, it’s one of the most important films ever made.

Bit hyperbolic there, but yeah, it’s a banger.

Now, as mentioned earlier, the stories to this and Returns continued in Batman 89. However, we also had a nod to it in CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.

There, Robert Wuhl returned as Knox, and we got a nod to the Joker still being alive. How that happened, no idea, but this all went down on Earth 89.

Either way, that wraps up the film, and huge thank you for watching through the breakdown. This movie’s a classic, and it completely changed my life, and huge thank you for going through it with me.

If there’s anything you guys noticed, then drop it below and let me know your thoughts on the film.

Please drop a like on the video, and if you want to support the channel as a member of the Spoiler Society, then please click the join button.

You’ll get early access to videos every week, and it goes such a long way to helping us. We will be redoing our Jokerbreakdown for a more in-depth look at the film before 2 drops, and then I’ll return… I’ll return for Heavy Spoilers Returns. Update on The Two Towers as well. So I think it’s going to be a massive video that will probably take us two weeks at least to put together. The algorithm kind of expects our channel to post on certain days, so when all these Burtonverse Batman vids are out the way, I’m going to do an ultimate breakdown with them all in one. That will buy us that week in the middle, and then you’ll have your Two Towers video.

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