Batman Begins (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne from the death of his parents to his journey to become Batman and his fight to stop Ra s al Ghul and the Scarecrow from plunging Gotham City into chaos.

After Batman & Robin was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled future Batman films, including Joel Schumacher s planned Batman Unchained. Between 1998 and 2003, several filmmakers collaborated with Warner Bros. in attempting to reboot the franchise. After the studio rejected a Batman origin story reboot Joss Whedon pitched in December 2002, Warner Bros. hired Nolan in January 2003 to direct a new film as Nolan and Goyer began development on the film in early 2003. Aiming for a darker, more realistic tone compared to the previous films, a primary goal for their vision was to engage the audience s emotional investment in both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities of the lead character. The film, which was principally shot in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Chicago, relied heavily on traditional stunts and miniature effects, with computer-generated imagery being used in a minimal capacity compared to other action films. Comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.

Expectations for Batman Begins ranged from moderate to low, which originated from the poor reception of Batman & Robin that was credited with stalling the Batman film series in 1997. After premiering in Tokyo on May 31, 2005, the film was released on June 15, 2005. It received positive reviews from critics, who deemed the film an improvement over the Schumacher films. Critics praise for the tone, Bale s performance, action sequences, score, direction, and the emotional weight compared to previous Batman films, but criticism was directed at lack of screen time for the villains, the hand to hand combat scenes, and Holmes performance as Rachel Dawes. The film grossed over $371.9 million worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2005 and was the second highest grossing Batman film at the time behind Tim Burton s Batman (1989). Receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, the film evaluated Bale to leading man status while it made Nolan a high-profile director.

Since its release, Batman Begins has been critically reassessed and it has been considered to be one of the best superhero films ever made, one of the best Batman films ever made, and has often been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. It was credited for revitalizing the Batman character in popular culture, shifting its tone towards a darker and more serious tone and style. The film helped popularized the term reboot in Hollywood, inspiring studios and filmmakers to revived franchises with realistic and serious tones. It was followed by The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), with the three films constituting The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Plot

In Gotham City, a young Bruce Wayne falls down a dry well and is attacked by a swarm of bats, developing a fear of them. Attending the opera with his parents, Thomas and Martha, Bruce becomes frightened by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, mugger Joe Chill murders Bruce s parents in front of him, and the orphaned Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth. 14 years later, Chill is paroled after testifying against mafia boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce intends to murder Chill to avenge his parents, but one of Falcone s assassins does so first. Bruce s childhood friend Rachel Dawes berates him for acting outside the justice system, saying that his father would be ashamed. After confronting Falcone, who tells him that real power comes from being feared, Bruce spends the next seven years traveling the world training in combat and immersing himself in the criminal underworld.

In a Bhutan prison, he meets Henri Ducard, who recruits him to the League of Shadows led by Ra s al Ghul. After completing his training in ninja methods and purging his fears, Bruce learns that the League knows about Gotham and, believing the city is beyond saving, intends to destroy it. Bruce rejects the League and its edict that killing is necessary, burning down their temple during his escape. Ra s is supposedly killed by falling debris, while Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard. Returning to Gotham intent on fighting crime, Bruce takes an interest in his family s company, Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by the unscrupulous William Earle. Company archivist Lucius Fox, a friend of Bruce s father, allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and a heavily armored vehicle called a Tumbler. Bruce poses publicly as a shallow playboy, even to Rachel for a moment; while setting up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor and taking up the vigilante identity of Batman , inspired by his childhood fear, which he has now conquered.

Intercepting a drug shipment, Batman provides Rachel, now a Gotham Assistant District Attorney, with evidence against Falcone and enlists Sergeant James Gordon, one of Gotham s few honest cops, to arrest him. In prison, Falcone meets Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychologist whom he has helped smuggle drugs into Gotham. Donning a scarecrow mask, Crane sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen which drives him insane, and has him transferred to Arkham Asylum. While investigating his crimes, Batman is sprayed with the hallucinogen and set on fire by Crane but manages to escape and is saved by Alfred, who gives him an antidote for the hallucinogen developed by Fox. When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, he reveals to her that he has introduced his drug into Gotham s water supply. Crane then drugs Rachel with the hallucinogen, but Batman subdues him and sprays Crane with his own chemical to interrogate him, where Crane claims to work for Ra s al Ghul.

Batman evades the police by attracting a large horde of bats using a high-pitched sound, to get Rachel to safety, administering her the antidote and giving her a vial of it for Gordon and another for mass production. At Bruce s birthday party, Ducard reappears and reveals himself to be the true Ra s al Ghul. Having stolen a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham s water supply, rendering Crane s drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He sets Wayne Manor aflame and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him. Ra s loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham s monorail system to release the drug at the city s central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob and indirectly reveals his identity to her. Confronting Ra s on the monorail, as Gordon uses the Tumbler s cannons to destroy a section of the track, Batman refuses to kill Ra s but chooses not to save him, gliding from the train as it crashes, killing Ra s.

Bruce gains Rachel s respect and love, but she decides she cannot be with him now, telling him if Gotham should no longer need Batman, they can be together. Batman becomes a public hero and Bruce reveals he has purchased a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, firing Earle and replacing him with Fox. Sergeant Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant, shows Batman the Bat-Signal, and tells him about a criminal who leaves behind Joker playing cards. Batman promises to look into it, and disappears into the night.

Cast

• Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman:A billionaire socialite who, after witnessing his parents death in a mugging at age 8, travels around the world seven years before returning home to inherit his family company Wayne Enterprises whilst operating at night as a bat-masked vigilante bringing justice upon the criminal underworld of Gotham City. Bale was relatively unknown when cast. Before he was confirmed on September 11, 2003, having expressed interest in the role since Darren Aronofsky was planning his own film adaptation, Eion Bailey, Henry Cavill, Billy Crudup, Hugh Dancy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson, Heath Ledger, David Boreanaz and Cillian Murphy, who would later be cast as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, took interest in it as well. Josh Hartnett met with Nolan about the role, but decided against pursuing it. Bale, Bailey and Murphy cast using the Batman Forever sonar suit donated by Val Kilmer, but the cape was lost, and Amy Adams served as the casting reader for the casting of Bruce Wayne / Batman in a favor to the casting director. Bale felt the previous films underused Batman s character, overplaying the villains instead. To best pose as Batman, Bale studied graphic novels and illustrations of the superhero. Director Nolan said of Bale, He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for. Goyer stated that while some actors could play a great Bruce Wayne or a great Batman, Bale could portray both radically different personalities. Since he had lost a great deal of weight in preparation for his role in The Machinist, Bale hired a personal trainer to help him gain 100 pounds (45 kg) of muscle in the span of only a couple of months to help him physically prepare for the role. After realizing he went over by 30 pounds (14 kg), he lost the excess weight by the time filming began. Bale trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the movie.Gus Lewis as Young Bruce Wayne.
• Gus Lewis as Young Bruce Wayne.
• Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:A trusted butler to Bruce s parents, who continues his loyal service to their son after their deaths as his closest confidant. Nolan offered the role to Anthony Hopkins but he declined. Nolan went to Caine s country home to personally deliver him the script, telling what his role would be and describing Alfred as Batman s godfather . Nolan felt Caine would effectively portray the foster father element of the character. Although Alfred is depicted in the film as having served the Wayne family for generations, Caine created his own backstory, in that before becoming Wayne s butler, Alfred served in the Special Air Service. After being wounded, he was invited to the position of the Wayne family butler by Thomas Wayne because, He wanted a butler, but someone a bit tougher than that, you know?
• Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard / Ra s al Ghul: The leader of the League of Shadows, an ancient society that uses chaos to punish the corrupt and decadent, who goes undercover as an associate of the League and trains Bruce in martial arts, later revealing himself in the film s climax. Writer David Goyer said he felt he was the most complex of all the Batman villains, comparing him to Osama bin Laden; He s not crazy in the way that all the other Batman villains are. He s not bent on revenge; he s actually trying to heal the world. He s just doing it by very draconian means. Gary Oldman was first choice for the part, but ended up playing James Gordon instead. Guy Pearce, who collaborated with Christopher Nolan on Memento (2000), reported that the pair had discussions about him playing the role, but both of them decided that he was too young for the part. Viggo Mortensen was also considered for the role. Neeson is commonly cast as a mentor, so the revelation that his character was the main villain was intended to shock viewers.
• Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes: Bruce s childhood friend and love interest who serves as Gotham City s assistant district attorney and fights against corruption in the city. Nolan found a tremendous warmth and great emotional appeal in Holmes, and also felt she has a maturity beyond her years that comes across in the film and is essential to the idea that Rachel is something of a moral conscience for Bruce .Emma Lockhart as Young Rachel Dawes.
• Emma Lockhart as Young Rachel Dawes.
• Gary Oldman as James Gordon:One of the few uncorrupted Gotham City police officers, who is on duty the night of the murder of Bruce s parents and, in this way, shares a special bond with the adult Bruce and thus with Batman. Oldman was Nolan s first choice for Ra s al Ghul, but when Chris Cooper turned down the part of Gordon to spend time with his family Nolan decided that it would be refreshing for Oldman, who is renowned for his portrayals of villains, to play the role instead. I embody the themes of the movie which are the values of family, courage and compassion and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and justice, Oldman said of his character. He filmed most of his scenes in Britain. Goyer said Oldman heavily resembled Gordon as drawn by David Mazzucchelli in Batman: Year One.
• Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow: A corrupt psychopharmacologist working as Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum. A specialist in the psychology of fear, he has secretly created a fear-inducing toxin and plots with Ra s al Ghul to expose the entire Gotham population. Nolan decided against casting an Irish actor like Murphy for Batman, before casting him as Scarecrow. Murphy read numerous comics featuring the Scarecrow and discussed making the character look less theatrical with Nolan. Murphy explained, I wanted to avoid the Worzel Gummidge look, because he s not a very physically imposing man – he s more interested in the manipulation of the mind and what that can do.
• Tom Wilkinson as Carmine The Roman Falcone:The most powerful Mafia boss in Gotham, who shares a prison cell with Joe Chill after he murdered Bruce s parents. Later, after having Chill murdered for his decision to testify against their relationship, he goes into business with Dr. Jonathan Crane and Ra s al Ghul by smuggling in Crane s fear toxins through his drug shipments over the course of several months so that they can be mixed in with the city s water supply.
• Rutger Hauer as William Earle:The CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who takes the company public in Bruce s long-term absence.
• Ken Watanabe as decoy Ra s al Ghul:A member of the League of Shadows assigned to impersonate Ra s al Ghul during Bruce s training.
• Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:A high-ranking Wayne Enterprises employee demoted to working in the company s Applied Science Division, where he conducts advanced studies in biochemistry and mechanical engineering and supplies Bruce with much of the gear necessary to carry out Batman s mission. He is promoted to CEO when Bruce takes control of the company by the end of the film.

Other cast members include Mark Boone Junior as Arnold Flass, Gordon s corrupt partner; Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne, Bruce s late father; Larry Holden as district attorney Carl Finch; Colin McFarlane as Gillian B. Loeb, the police commissioner; Christine Adams as Jessica, William Earle s secretary; Vincent Wong as an old Asian prisoner; Sara Stewart as Martha Wayne, Bruce s late mother; Richard Brake as Joe Chill, the Waynes killer; Gerard Murphy as the corrupt High Court Judge Faden; Charles Edwards as a Wayne Enterprises executive; Tim Booth as Victor Zsasz; Rade Šerbedžija as a homeless man, who is the last person to meet Bruce when he leaves Gotham, and the first civilian to see Batman, Risteárd Cooper and Andrew Pleavin as uniformed policemen, Jo Martin as a police prison official, and Shane Rimmer and Jeremy Theobald (the star and co-producer of Nolan s 1998 film Following) as Gotham Water Board technicians. Jack Gleeson, who had previously co-starred with Bale in 2002 s Reign of Fire and later found fame for his role as Joffrey Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones, appears as a young admirer of Batman who is later saved by him from Ra s al Ghul s men; Gleeson was cast at Bale s recommendation. Actors John Foo, Joey Ansah, Spencer Wilding, Dave Legeno, Khan Bonfils, Mark Strange, Grant Guirey, Rodney Ryan and Dean Alexandrou portray members of the League of Shadows. Hayden Nickel made his acting debut portraying James Gordon Jr.

Production

Development

In January 2003, Warner Bros. hired Memento director Christopher Nolan to direct an untitled Batman film, and David S. Goyer signed on to write the script two months later. Nolan stated his intention to reinvent the film franchise of Batman by doing the origins story of the character, which is a story that s never been told before . Nolan said that humanity and realism would be the basis of the origin film, and that the world of Batman is that of grounded reality. will be a recognizable, contemporary reality against which an extraordinary heroic figure arises. Goyer said that the goal of the film was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Nolan felt the previous films were exercises in style rather than drama, and described his inspiration as being Richard Donner s 1978 film Superman, in its focus on depicting the character s growth. Also similar to Superman, Nolan wanted an all-star supporting cast for Batman Begins to lend a more epic feel and credibility to the story.

Goyer wanted to reboot the franchise; he and Nolan saw Batman as a romantic character, and Nolan envisioned a large, sweeping film like Lawrence of Arabia. Nolan did not have a problem with the studio s requirement that the film not be R-rated because he wanted to make the film that he wanted to see when 11 years old. His personal jumping off point of inspiration was The Man Who Falls , a short story by Denny O Neil and Dick Giordano about Bruce s travels throughout the world. The early scene in Batman Begins of young Bruce Wayne falling into a well was adapted from The Man Who Falls . Batman: The Long Halloween, written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale, influenced Goyer in writing the screenplay, with the villain Carmine Falcone as one of many elements which were drawn from Halloween s sober, serious approach . The writers considered having Harvey Dent in the film, but replaced him with the new character Rachel Dawes when they realized they couldn t do him justice . The character was later portrayed by Aaron Eckhart in the 2008 sequel The Dark Knight. The sequel to Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory, also served as a minor influence. Goyer used the vacancy of Bruce Wayne s multi-year absence presented in Batman: Year One to help set up some of the film s events in the transpiring years. In addition, the film s Sergeant James Gordon was based on his comic book incarnation as seen in Year One. The writers of Batman Begins also used Frank Miller s Year One plot device, which was about a corrupt police force that led to Gordon and Gotham City s need for Batman. Due to Batman s extensive rogues gallery over seventy years, Goyer and Nolan decided to use the Scarecrow and Ra s al Ghul as the film s villains, as both characters had not been featured in previous Batman films nor in Adam West s 1960s television series.

A common idea in the comics is that Bruce saw a Zorro film with his parents before they were murdered. Nolan explained that by ignoring that idea – which he stated is not found in Batman s first appearances – it emphasized the importance of bats to Bruce and that becoming a superhero is a wholly original idea on his part. It is for this reason Nolan believes other DC characters do not exist in the universe of his film; otherwise, Wayne s reasons for taking up costumed vigilantism would have been very different.

Filming

As with all his films, Nolan refused a second unit; he did this in order to keep his vision consistent. Filming began in March 2004 in the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland (standing in for Bhutan). The crew built a village and the front doors to Ra s temple, as well as a road to access the remote area. The weather was problematic, with 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) winds, rain, and a lack of snow. A shot that cinematographer Wally Pfister had planned to take using a crane had to be completed with a handheld camera.

Unlike Burton and Schumacher s Gotham City that did not exist in the real world, Nolan shot exteriors in London, New York, and Chicago as he wanted the city to seem recognizable. In seeking inspiration from Superman and other blockbuster films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nolan based most of the production in England, specifically Shepperton Studios. A Batcave set was built there and measured 250 feet (76 m) long, 120 feet (37 m) wide, and 40 feet (12 m) high. Production designer Nathan Crowley installed twelve pumps to create a waterfall with 12,000 imperial gallons (55,000 l; 14,000 US gal), and built rocks using molds of real caves. In January 2004, an airship hangar at Cardington, Bedfordshire was rented by Warner Bros. during April 2004 and, converted into a 900 feet (270 m) sound stage, was where the slum-district of the Narrows and the feet of the monorails were filmed.

Mentmore Towers was chosen from twenty different locations for Wayne Manor, as Nolan and Crowley liked its white floors, which gave the impression of the manor as a memorial to Wayne s parents. The building chosen to represent Arkham Asylum was the National Institute for Medical Research building in Mill Hill, northwest London, England. The St Pancras railway station and the Abbey Mills Pumping Stations were used for Arkham s interiors. The Senate House of University College London was used for courtrooms. Some scenes, including the Tumbler pursuit, were filmed in Chicago at locations such as Lower Wacker Drive and 35 East Wacker. Authorities agreed to raise Franklin Street Bridge for a scene where access to the Narrows is closed.

Despite the film s darkness, Nolan wanted to make the film appeal to a wide age range. Not the youngest kids obviously, I think what we ve done is probably a bit intense for them but I certainly didn t want to exclude the sort of ten to 12-year olds, because as a kid I would have loved to have seen a movie like this. Because of this, nothing gory or bloody was filmed.

Music

The score for Batman Begins was composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Nolan originally invited Zimmer to compose the music, and Zimmer asked Nolan if he could invite Howard to compose as well, as they had always planned a collaboration. The two composers collaborated on separate themes for the split personality of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. Zimmer and Howard began composing in Los Angeles and moved to London where they stayed for twelve weeks to complete most of their writing. Zimmer and Howard sought inspiration for shaping the score by visiting the Batman Begins sets.

Zimmer wanted to avoid writing music that had been done in earlier Batman films, so the score became an amalgamation of orchestra and electronic music. The film s ninety-piece orchestra was developed from members of various London orchestras, and Zimmer chose to use more than the normal number of cellos. Zimmer enlisted a boy soprano to help reflect the music in some of the film s scenes where tragic memories of Bruce Wayne s parents are involved. He s singing a fairly pretty tune and then he gets stuck, it s like froze, arrested development, said Zimmer. He also attempted to add a human dimension to Batman, whose behavior would typically be seen as psychotic , through the music. Both composers collaborated to create 2 hours and 20 minutes worth of music for the film, with Zimmer composing the action sequences and Howard focusing on the dramatic scenes.

Special effects and design

Design

Nolan used the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner as a source of inspiration for Batman Begins. He screened Blade Runner to Pfister and two others to show the attitude and style that he wanted to draw from the film. Nolan described the film s world as an interesting lesson on the technique of exploring and describing a credible universe that doesn t appear to have any boundaries , a lesson that he applied to the production of Batman Begins.

Nolan worked with production designer Nathan Crowley to create the look of Gotham City. Crowley built a model of the city that filled Nolan s garage. Crowley and Nolan designed it as a large, modern metropolitan area that would reflect the various periods of architecture that the city had gone through. Elements were drawn from New York City, Chicago, and Tokyo; the latter for its elevated freeways and monorails. The Narrows was based on the slummish nature of the (now demolished) walled city of Kowloon in Hong Kong.

Tumbler

Crowley started the process of designing the Tumbler for the film by model bashing. Crowley used the nose cone of a P-38 Lightning model to serve as the chassis for the Tumbler s turbine engine. Six models of the Tumbler were built to 1:12 scale in the course of four months. Following the scale model creation, a crew of over 30 people, including Crowley and engineers Chris Culvert and Annie Smith, carved a full-size replica of the Tumbler out of a large block of Styrofoam in two months.

The styrofoam model was used to create a steel test frame , which had to stand up to several standards: have a speed of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), go from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, possess a steering system to make sharp turns at city corners, and withstand a self-propelled launch of up to 30 feet (9.1 m). On the first jump test, the Tumbler s front end collapsed and had to be completely rebuilt. The basic configuration of the newly designed Tumbler included a 5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine, a truck axle for the rear axle, front tires by Hoosier (which are actually dirt racing tires used on the right rear of open wheel sprint cars), 4 rear 44/18.5-16.5 Interco Super Swamper TSL tires (44 tall, 18.5 wide, mounted on a 16.5 wheel) and the suspension system of Baja racing trucks. The design and development process took nine months and cost several million dollars.

With the design process complete, four street-ready race cars were constructed, with each vehicle possessing 65 panels and costing $250,000 to build. Two of the four cars were specialized versions. One version was the flap version, which had hydraulics and flaps to detail the close-up shots where the vehicle propelled itself through the air. The other version was the jet version, in which an actual jet engine was mounted onto the vehicle, fueled by six propane tanks. The visibility inside the vehicle was poor, so monitors were connected to cameras on the vehicle body. The professional drivers for the Tumblers practiced driving the vehicles for six months before they drove on the streets of Chicago for the film s scenes.

The interior of the Tumbler was an immobile studio set and not actually the interior of a street-capable Tumbler. The cockpit was oversized to fit cameras for scenes filmed in the Tumbler interior. In addition, another version of the Tumbler was a miniature model that was 1:6 scale of the actual Tumbler. This miniature model had an electric motor and was used to show the Tumbler flying across ravines and between buildings. However, the actual Tumbler was used for the waterfall sequence.

Batsuit

The filmmakers intended to create a very mobile Batsuit that would allow the wearer to move easily to fight and crouch. Previous film incarnations of the Batsuit had been stiff and especially restrictive of full head movement. Costume designer Lindy Hemming and her crew worked on the Batsuit at an FX workshop codenamed Cape Town , a secured compound located at Shepperton Studios in London. The Batsuit s basic design was a neoprene undersuit, which was shaped by attaching molded cream latex sections. Christian Bale was molded and sculpted prior to his physical training so the team could work on a full body cast. To avoid imperfections picked up by sculpting with clay, plastiline was used to smooth the surface. In addition, the team brewed different mixtures of foam to find the mixture that would be the most flexible, light, durable, and black. The latter presented a problem, since the process to make the foam black reduced the foam s durability.

For the cape, director Christopher Nolan wanted to have a flowing cloak... that blows and flows as in so many great graphic novels . Hemming s team created the cape out of their own version of parachute nylon that had electrostatic flocking, a process shared with the team by the British Ministry of Defence. The process was used by the London police force to minimize night vision detection. The cape was topped by a cowl, which was designed by Nolan, Hemming, and costume effects supervisor Graham Churchyard. The cowl was created to be thin enough to allow motion but thick enough to avoid wrinkling when Bale turned his head in the Batsuit. Churchyard explained the cowl had been designed to show a man who has angst , so his character would be revealed through the mask.

Fight choreography

Fight choreographers for Batman Begins, Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman, trained actors and stunt performers using the Spanish Keysi Fighting Method, which itself gained fame after it was used in the film and its sequel, The Dark Knight; however, the method was modified in The Dark Knight Rises due to Batman s age and physical condition and in order to match Bale s fighting style. The method is a self-defense system whose training is based on the study and cultivation of natural instincts.

Visual effects

For Batman Begins, Nolan preferred traditional stuntwork over computer-generated imagery. Scale models were used to represent the Narrows and Ra s al Ghul s temple. There were, however, several establishing shots that were CG composite images, such as Gotham s skyline, exterior shots of Wayne Tower, and some of the exterior monorail shots. The climactic monorail sequence mixed live action footage, model work, and CGI. The bats depicted in the film were entirely digital (except in shots containing only one or two bats), as it was decided that directing large numbers of real bats on-set would be problematic; dead bats were scanned to create digital models. Locations and sets were recreated digitally so that the flying bats would not appear incongruous once incorporated into the finished film.

Release

Context

2005 was expected by industry experts to underperform compared to 2004. Many attributed to high ticket prices, marketing costs, DVD sales hitting record levels, and new technologies have created an incipient demand for movies delivered directly via the Internet, over-the-airwaves, satellite dish or cable set-top box. By the start of the theatrical summer in 2005 (May), the box office slumped for 11 consecutive weeks, with year-to-date ticket sales down 5.4 percent from last year even as ticket prices rose a moderate 3 percent, to around $6.40 on average, according to Exhibitor Relations. Theater attendance has tumbled about 8 percent.

Several films were projected to not only perform well at the box office, but also reverse the slump at the box office. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was expected by the industry to be the top grossing film of the summer due to being the final live action Star Wars film at the time. Other films that were expected to do well were Batman Begins, Madagascar, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four, War of the Worlds, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Batman Begins was expected by industry experts to help reverse the box office slump in June. However, there were concerns over a possible soft opening for the film. The previous film, Batman & Robin, was widely panned by critics and was credited with stalling the franchise since 1997. Bale s lack of star power at the time and a lack of iconic villains such as the Joker and Penguin that were portrayed by A-list celebrities were seen as possible detachments from audiences. Some also expressed concerns that Holmes involvement with the film could derail the film s financial prospect due to her high-profile relationship with Tom Cruise (whose film War of the Worlds opened the following weekend) after his controversial appearance on The Oprah Winfery Show

Theatrical

Warner Bros. held the world premiere for Batman Begins in Tokyo, Japan on May 31, 2005. The film opened on June 15, 2005, in the United States and Canada in 3,858 theaters, including 55 IMAX theaters.

Home media

The DVD of Batman Begins was released on October 18, 2005, in both single-disc and two-disc deluxe editions and also released on VHS and UMD Video formats. In addition to the film, the deluxe edition contained featurettes and other bonus materials. The edition contained a small paperback booklet, the first Batman story, featured in Detective Comics #27, as well as Batman: The Man Who Falls and an excerpt from Batman: The Long Halloween. Batman Begins achieved first place in national sales and rental charts in October 2005, becoming the top-selling DVD of the fourth quarter of 2005. The DVD grossed $11.36 million in rental revenue. The DVD held its position at the top of the sales chart for a second week, but fell to second place behind Bewitched on video rental charts. The film had brought in $167 million in DVD sales by August 2006.

Batman Begins was released on HD DVD on October 10, 2006. A Limited Edition Giftset of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 8, 2008, to coincide with The Dark Knight which hit theaters July 18, 2008. Due to the successful box office performance of The Dark Knight, the Batman Begins DVD saw an increase in both sales and rentals. Batman Begins was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on December 19, 2017. It received a novelization written by Dennis O Neil, and a comic book adaptation by Scott Beatty.

Reception

Box office

Batman Begins ranked at the top in its opening weekend, accumulating $48 million, which was seen as strong but unimpressive by today s instantaneous blockbuster standards . The film s five-day gross was $72.9 million, beating Batman Forever (1995) as the franchise high. Batman Begins also broke the five-day opening record in the 55 IMAX theaters, grossing $3.16 million. Polled moviegoers rated the film with an A, and according to the studio s surveys, Batman Begins was considered the best of all the Batman films. The audience s demographic was 57 percent male and 54 percent people over the age of 25.

The film held its top spot for another weekend, accumulating $28 million in a 43 percent drop from its first weekend. Batman Begins went on to gross $205 million in North America and had a worldwide total of $371.8 million from its original release. It earned $1.6 million more from its 2012 re-release, bringing its lifetime worldwide total to $373.4 million. It is the fourth-highest-grossing Batman film, as of August 2012, behind Tim Burton s Batman, which grossed $411 million worldwide and also being surpassed by its sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which have grossed over $1 billion. Batman Begins averaged $12,634 per theater in its opening weekend. It was released in more theaters, but sold fewer tickets than the other previous Batman movies, with the exception of Batman & Robin. Batman Begins was the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2005 in the US.

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives Batman Begins an approval rating of 84% based on 288 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site s critical consensus reads, Brooding and dark, but also exciting and smart, Batman Begins is a film that understands the essence of one of the definitive superheroes. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating reviews, the film received an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 41 critics, which indicates generally favorable reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A on an A+ to F scale.

James Berardinelli applauded Nolan and Goyer s work in creating more understanding into who is and what motivates him , something Berardinelli felt Tim Burton s film had lacked; at the same time, Berardinelli felt the romantic aspect between Bale and Holmes did not work because the actors lacked the chemistry Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (Superman), or Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) shared in their respective roles. According to Total Film, Nolan manages to create such strong characters and story that the third-act action sequences cannot compare to the frisson of two people talking , and Katie Holmes and Christian Bale s romantic subplot has a spark refreshingly free of Peter Parker/Mary Jane-style whining .

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan, who felt the film began slowly, stated that the story, psychology and reality, not special effects , assisted the darkness behind Batman s arsenal; he noted that Neeson and Holmes, unlike Bale s ability to feel his role in his bones , do not appear to fit their respective characters in being both comic-book archetypes and real people . The New Yorker s David Denby did not share Berardinelli and Turan s opinion. He was unimpressed with the film, when comparing it to the two Tim Burton films, and that Christian Bale s presence was hindered by the dull earnestness of the screenplay , the final climax was cheesy and unexciting , and that Nolan had resorted to imitating the fakery used by other filmmakers when filming action sequences.

Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune believed Nolan and Goyer managed to comfortably mix the tormented drama and revenge motifs with light hearted gags and comic book allusions, and that Nolan takes the series out of the slam-bang Hollywood jokefests the franchise had drifted into. Comic book scribe and editor Dennis O Neil stated that he felt the filmmakers really understood the character they were translating , citing this film as the best of the live-action Batman films. In contrast, J.R. Jones, from the Chicago Reader, criticized the script, and Nolan and David Goyer for not living up to the hype about exploring Batman s damaged psyche . Roger Ebert, who gave mixed reviews to the previous films, and claimed in his review for Batman Returns that he did not believe noir worked in superhero films, wrote this was the Batman movie I ve been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for . Giving it four out of four stars, he commended the realistic portrayals of the Batman arsenal – the Batsuit, Batcave, Tumbler, and the Batsignal – as well as the focus on the story and character with less stress on high-tech action .

Like Berardinelli, USA Today s Mike Clark thought Bale performed the role of Batman as well as he did Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, but that the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes was frustratingly underdeveloped . Kyle Smith thought Bale exhibited both the menace and the wit he showed in his brilliant turn in American Psycho , and that the film works so well because of the realism, stating, Batman starts stripping away each layer of Gotham crime only to discover a sicker and more monstrous evil beneath, his rancid city simultaneously invokes early 90s New York, when criminals frolicked to the tune of five murders a day; Serpico New York, when cops were for sale; and today, when psychos seek to kill us all at once rather than one by one. In contrast, Salon.com s Stephanie Zacharek felt Nolan did not deliver the emotional depth expected of one of the most soulful and tortured superheroes of all ; she thought Bale, unlike Michael Keaton who she compared him to, failed to connect with the audience underneath the mask, but that Gary Oldman succeeded in emotional complexity where the rest of the movie failed.

Film director Tim Burton—who had directed the 1989 Batman film and its first sequel—felt Nolan captured the real spirit that these kind of movies are supposed to have nowadays. When I did Batman twenty years ago, in 1988 or something, it was a different time in comic book movies. You couldn t go into that dark side of comics yet. The last couple of years that has become acceptable and Nolan certainly got more to the root of what the Batman comics are about.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Result
2006	Academy Awards	Best Cinematography – Wally Pfister	Nominated
	Art Directors Guild Awards	Best Production Design for a Fantasy or Period Film – Nathan Crowley	Nominated
	BAFTA Awards	Best Production Design – Nathan Crowley	Nominated
		Best Sound	Nominated
		Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects	Nominated
	Costume Designers Guild Awards	Best Costume Design for a Fantasy Film – Lindy Hemming	Nominated
	Saturn Awards	Best Fantasy Film	Won
		Best Director – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
		Best Screenplay – Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer	Won
		Best Actor – Christian Bale	Won
		Best Supporting Actor – Liam Neeson	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress – Katie Holmes	Nominated
		Best Costume – Lindy Hemming	Nominated
		Best Score – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard	Nominated
		Best Visual Effects	Nominated
	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best DVD/Blu-Ray Collection	Nominated
		Best Fantasy Film	Won
		Best Actor – Christian Bale	Won
		Best Writing – Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer	Won
		Best Supporting Actor – Liam Neeson	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress – Katie Holmes	Nominated
		Best Director – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
		Best Music – James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer	Nominated
		Best Costume – Lindy Hemming	Nominated
		Best Special Effects – Janek Sirrs, Dan Glass, Chris Corbould, Paul J. Franklin	Nominated
2005	African-American Film Critics Association	Top 10 Films – 9th place	Won
2006	American Society of Cinematographers	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases – Wally Pfister	Nominated
	ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top Box Office Films – James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi	Won
2005	Awards Circuit Community Awards	Best Cinematography – Wally Pfister	2nd place
	Black Movie Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Morgan Freeman	Nominated
2005	British Society of Cinematographers	Best Cinematography Award – Wally Pfister	Nominated
2013	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Favorite Film Franchise	Nominated
2006	Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Picture	Nominated
	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Original Score – Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard	Nominated
	DVD Exclusive Awards	Best Games and Interactivities – Warner	Nominated
		Best New Movie Scenes – Warner	Nominated
	Empire Awards	Best Thriller	Nominated
		Best Director – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
		Best Actor – Christian Bale	Nominated
		Sound Editing/Mixing – David Evans, Stefan Henrix, Peter Lindsay	Nominated
	Gold Derby Awards	Sound Editing/Mixing – David Evans, Stefan Henrix, Peter Lindsay	Nominated
2005	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Supporting Actress - Katie Holmes	Nominated
2013	Golden Schmoes Awards	Best DVD/Blu-Ray of the Year	Won
2005		Favorite Movie of the Year	Won
		Best Director of the Year – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
		Best Screenplay of the Year – Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer	Nominated
		Biggest Surprise of the Year – The Dark Knight	Nominated
		Best Actor of the Year – Christian Bale	Nominated
		Breakthrough Performance of the Year – Cillian Murphy	Nominated
		Coolest Character of the Year – Batman	Nominated
		Best Music in a Movie	Nominated
		Favorite Movie Poster of the Year	Nominated
		Best Trailer of the Year	Nominated
		Best DVD/Blu-Ray of the Year	Nominated
		Best Action Sequence of the Year	Nominated
2006	Golden Trailer Awards	Best Action	Nominated
2005		Summer 2005 Blockbuster	Nominated
2005	Hollywood Film Awards	Sound of the Year – David Evans	Won
2006	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation	Nominated
2013	IGN Summer Movie Awards	Best Movie Blu-Ray	Won
2006	International Film Music Critics Award	Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure Film – Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard	Nominated
	International Online Cinema Awards	Best Visual Effects	Nominated
		Best Sound Mixing	Nominated
		Best Sound Editing	Nominated
2005	Irish Film and Television Awards	International Film Award	Nominated
		Best International Actor – Christian Bale	Nominated
		Best International Film – Christian Bale	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor in a Feature Film – Cillian Murphy	Nominated
		Best International Film – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
2006	Italian Online Movie Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Michael Caine	Nominated
		Best Special Effects	Nominated
	London Critics Circle Film Awards	British Supporting Actor of the Year – Cillian Murphy	Nominated
		British Director of the Year – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
	Motion Picture Sound Editors	Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Foreign	Nominated
		Best Sound Editing in Feature Film	Nominated
		Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Foreign	Nominated
	MTV Movie + TV Awards	Best Hero – Christian Bale	Won
		Best Villain – Cillian Murphy	Nominated
		Best Movie	Nominated
	Online Film & Television Association	Best Sound Mixing	Nominated
		Best Sound Mixing	Nominated
		Best Sound Effects Editing	Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Original Score – James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer	Nominated
	People s Choice Awards	Favorite Movie	Nominated
		Favorite Movie Drama	Nominated
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Best Stunts	Won
2005	Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards	Best Film - Christopher Nolan	Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Outstanding Overall DVD	Nominated
2007	Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America	Best Script	Nominated
2006	Scream Awards	The Ultimate Scream	Won
		Best Director – Christopher Nolan	Won
		Best Scream-Play	Won
		Most Heroic Performance – Christian Bale	Nominated
2005	SFX Awards	Best Director – Christopher Nolan	Nominated
2006	Teen Choice Awards	Movies: Choice Sleazebag – Cillian Murphy	Nominated
2005		Choice Summer Movie	Nominated
2006	Visual Effects Society Awards	Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture	Nominated
	World Soundtrack Awards	Best Original Soundtrack of the Year – James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer	Nominated

Impact

Batman Begins has been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. On the film s 10th anniversary, Forbes published an article describing its lasting influence: Reboot became part of our modern vocabulary, and superhero origin stories became increasingly en vogue for the genre. The phrase dark and gritty likewise joined the cinematic lexicon, influencing our perception of different approaches to storytelling not only in the comic book film genre but in all sorts of other genres as well. In 2020, Empire magazine named it as one of The 100 Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century .

Shawn Adler of MTV stated Batman Begins heralded a trend of darker genre films, that either retold back-stories or rebooted them altogether. Examples he cited were Casino Royale, as well as the in-development RoboCop, Red Sonja, and Grayskull. In 2012, Kevin Feige, film producer and president of Marvel Studios, stated, Chris Nolan s Batman is the greatest thing that happened because it bolstered everything. Filmmakers, screenwriters and producers who have mentioned Batman Begins or The Dark Knight Trilogy to describe their projects include:

• Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
• Edward Norton (The Incredible Hulk)
• McG (Terminator Salvation)
• Alan Taylor (Terminator Genisys)
• Damon Lindelof (Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness)
• Robert Downey, Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)
• Lorenzo di Bonaventura (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)
• Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
• Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class)
• Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
• Sam Mendes (Skyfall)
• Alex Kurtzman (Van Helsing)
• Gareth Edwards (Godzilla)
• Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man)
• David Ayer (Suicide Squad)
• Bryan Cranston (Power Rangers)
• Adam Wingard (Death Note)
• Patty Jenkins and Matthew Jensen (Wonder Woman)
• James Mangold (Logan)
• Simon Kinberg (Dark Phoenix)
• Andrew Kosove (Blade Runner 2049)
• Todd Phillips (Joker)
• Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey)

Themes

Comic book writer and author Danny Fingeroth argues that a strong theme in the film is Bruce s search for a father figure, saying is the good father that Bruce comes to depend on. Bruce s real father died before they could establish an adult relationship, and Liam Neeson s Ducard is stern and demanding, didactic and challenging, but not a father figure with any sympathy. If Bruce is anyone s son, he is Alfred s. Freeman s Lucius is cool and imperturbable, another steady anchor in Bruce s life. Blogger Mark Fisher states that Bruce s search for justice requires him to learn from a proper father figure, with Thomas Wayne and Ra s al Ghul being the two counterpoints. Alfred provides a maternal figure of unconditional love, despite the overall lack of focus on a mother figure in Bruce

Condition

New

Format

DVD

Rating MPA

Pg-13

Age Group

Adult

Amazon ASIN

B07F9M8W2V

UPC / EAN

012569594159

Year

2005

ReleaseDate

2005-06-15

RuntimeMins

140

RuntimeStr

2h 20min

Awards

Top rated movie #126 , Nominated for 1 Oscar, 13 wins & 79 nominations total

Directors

Christopher Nolan

Writers

Bob Kane, David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan

Stars

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe

Produced by

Larry Franco, Benjamin Melniker, Lorne Orleans, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Cheryl A. Tkach, Michael E. Uslan

Music by

James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer

Cinematography by

Wally Pfister

Film Editing by

Lee Smith

Casting By

John Papsidera, Lucinda Syson

Production Design by

Nathan Crowley

Art Direction by

Peter Francis, Paul Kirby, Simon Lamont, Dominic Masters, Alan Tomkins, Su Whitaker, Eggert Ketilsson, David Lee, Shane Valentino

Set Decoration by

Gene Foad, Andrew Hodgson, Paki Smith, Simon Wakefield

Costume Design by

Lindy Hemming

Makeup Department

Deena Adair, Jane Body, Nathaniel De Lineadeus, Nick Dudman, Richard Glass, Claire Green, Nancy Hancock, Tracey Lee, Laura McIntosh, Tamara Mills, Peter Robb-King, Sue Robb-King, Jemma Scott-Knox-Gore, Jenny Sharpe, Zoe Tahir, Vicki Vacca, Tracey Wells, Chelo, Sarah Downes, Chris Lyons

Production Management

Sam Breckman, Jennifer Campbell, Piers Dunn, Nigel Gostelow, Steve Harvey, Finni Johannsson, Michael J. Malone, Mark Mostyn, Michael Murray, Vail Romeyn, Jessie Thiele Schroeder, Suzie F. Wiesmann, Bill Daly

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Phil Booth, Chris Burgess, Rob Burgess, Simon Downes, Hilbert Hakim, Alex Kaye-Besley, Martin Krauka, Ben Lanning, Cliff Lanning, Eric Richard Lasko, Leslie Mikol, Matthew Sharp, Richard Styles, Lee Tailor, Michael Winter

Art Department

Sara Aghdami, Adam Aitken, Alex Aitken, Douglas Allam, Christopher Arnold, Martin Asbury, Celia Barnett, Rosie Bedford-Stradling, Ute Bergk, John Blakeley, Troy Borisy, Guy Bradley, Toby Britton, Alan Brooks, Mark Buck, Alastair Bullock, Claudio Campana, Darryl Carter, Jiye Choi, Dean Coldham, James Cornish, Jim Cornish, Noreen Coyne, Wayne Day, Amanda Dazely, Peter Dorme, Michael Driscoll, Martin Duffy, Bob Eames, Peter Edge, Judith Edwards, Tommy Lee Edwards, Sander Ellers, Colin Ellis, Michael Finlay, Matthew Foster, Mark Fruin, Leigh Gilbert, Matthew Jonathan Golding, Daniel Gommé, Larry Gooch, Bradley Good, Oliver Goodier, Barry Greaves, Craig Guinan, Jonathan Hall, Bernie Hearn, Douglas Ingram, Jason Ivall, Robert Jackson, Thomas Jones, Valdimar Jóhannsson, Stuart Kearns, Jody King, Martin Kingsley, Steven Lawrence, Charlotte Leatherland, Peter Lee, Katie Lodge, Leslie Lovelace, Michael Lubomski, Patrick Lumb, Mary Mackenzie, Gaynor Maher, Paul Marah, Glenn Marsh, Stephen Morahan, Eddie Murphy, Alan Neighbour, Ruth Nicol, Cyrille Nomberg, Julie Ochipinti, Troy Osman, Wolfgang Osterholzer, David Packard, Robert Park, Sarah Robinson, Daniel Rogers, Annushka Russell, Gary Samson, Chris Seddon, Jamie Shelley, Alex Smith, Mike Smith, Rich Smith, Mike Sotheran, Gary Stopps, Larry Szymanowski, Sophie Tarver, Ty Teiger, Rebecca Timons, Bradley Torbett, Remo Tozzi, Roger Tyrell, Sloane U Ren, Dan Walker, Julian Walker, Wolfgang Walther, Peter Watson, Clint Whelan, Jamie White, Ian Whiteford, Marcus Williams, Peter Williams, Greg Winter, Bradley Woodbridge, Matt Wyles, Ravi Bansal, Alex Boswell, Anna Bregman, Roy Chapman, Jordan Crockett, Adriaan Engelbrecht, Thomas J. Glynn, Greg Goad, Bruce Gordon, Kate Grimble, Andrew Guyett, Sarah Iovino, Derek Ixer, Alex King, Rene Knol, Ashley Lamont, Dougie Lankston, Lucy Lontay, Glenn Marsh, Naaman Marshall, Simon McGuire, Dave Midson, Joe Monks, Daniel Newton, Michael V. Nichols, John Noble, Dermot Power, Ryan Roberts, Alex Rutherford, Matthew Savage, Ivan Shannon, Laura Skinner, Robert Stannage, Adrian Start, Glenn Stevens, Keith Stevenson, Nic Stubbings, Daniel Thompson, Jason Torbett, Louis Turner, Missy Weimer, Brian West, Andrew Williamson, Lotta Wolgers, Rob Yale

Sound Department

Justine Angus, Rodney Berling, Jimmy Boyle, Peter Burgis, Ed Colyer, Andie Derrick, André Dias, Nathan Duncan, David Evans, Iain Eyre, Glen Gathard, Rodney Glenn, Howard Halsall, Stefan Henrix, Lora Hirschberg, Christian Joyce, Andy Kennedy, Steve La Fayette, Peter Lindsay, Jed Loughran, Kate Morath, Gemma Nicholson, Julian Pinn, Barney Pratt, Gary A. Rizzo, Malcolm Rose, Fred Runner, Derek Trigg, Niv Adiri, Nicolas Becker, Alexander Beddow, James Bennett, Michael Brigman, Sandy Buchanan, Ricky Butt, Andrew Caller, James Doyle, José Egea, Jm Finch, Phil Freudenfeld, Glen Gathard, Peter Gleaves, Nigel Holland, Robert Ireland, Sze-Wun Li, Bruce Maddocks, Michael Miller, Simon Price, Jamie Roden, Gavin Rose, Carlos Solis, Jack Whittaker

Special Effects by

Hideki Arichi, Bruce Armstrong, Scott Armstrong, Jonathan Barrass, Steve Benelisha, Paul Bentman, Barry Best, Brian Best, Elaine Best, Jonathan Bickerdike, Nick Bonathan, Emma Brassfield, Rob Bye, Chris Byrne, Duncan Capp, Paul Clancy, John Cluff, Chris Corbould, Steve Crawley, Lawrence Decker, Arnar Einarsson, Dave Eltham, Ryan Evans, Nick Finlayson, Michael Fox, Benedict Gillingham-Sutton, Claire Green, Darrell Guyon, Mark Haddenham, Alexis Haggar, James Hambidge, Laurence Harvey, Annika Hellgren, Kevin Herd, Dan Homewood, Chris Flimsy Howes, Peter Hutchinson, Stephen Hutchinson, Oliver Jarlett, Matthew Johnson, Tim Jordan, Dave Keen, James Kernot, Eggert Ketilsson, Paul Knowles, Rob Krenmuller, Stuart Leach, Matt Lewis, Ian Lowe, Jim Machin, Kristyan Mallett, Kerry-Ellen Maxwell, Huw Millar, Tom Murtagh, Roger Nichols, John Nolan, Peter Norcliffe, Peter Notley, Charlie Olsen, Don Parsons, Roy Quinn, Delroy Reid, Steve Salmon, Robin Schoonraad, Philip Sharpe, Andy Simm, Tony Smart, Andrew Smith, Henrik Svensson, Peter Tindall, John Van Der Pool, Mark Vanstone, Steven Warner, Conway Wickliffe, Mike Wild, David Williams, Carl Wilson, Michael Badley, Kristyan Mallett, Dan Martin, Paul Scotson, Bryan Stanislas, George Waite, Karl Wardle

Visual Effects by

Aurelia Abate, Diccon Alexander, Paul Alexiou, Craig Allison, Florent Andorra, Stephen Andrzejewski, Chris Armsden, Stewart Ash, François-Xavier Aubague, Andrew Baggarley, Tim Baier, Aaron Barclay, Judy Barr, David Basalla, Tim Baxter, Pete Bebb, Steven Begg, Alistair Bell, Michael Bell, Kieran Belshaw, Nicolas Bernard, Dan Bethell, Cheryl Bickerton, Senica Billingsley, Paul Birkett, Nic Birmingham, Nigel Blake, Vincent Blanqué, Robert Bloom, Ashley Bond, Nicolas Bonnell, Andrew Booth, Andy Borham, Kevin Boyd, Karen Brakenridge, Richard Briscoe, Andre Brizard, Jon R. Brown, Wendell Bruno, Danny Brunton, Pierre Buffin, Andrew Bunday, Derek Burgess, Chris Burn, Huseyin Caner, Duncan Capp, Alison Carter, Aaron Caskey, Martin Caulton, Olivier Cauwet, Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Chevallier, Rohan Claassen, Jeff Clifford, Emily Cobb, Debra Coleman, Peter Connelly, Bertrand Cordier, Michelle Corney, Will Correia, Alfonso Cottier, Hal Couzens, Dayne Cowan, Ciaran Crowley, Sean Danischevsky, Robin Deledicque, Theo Diamantis, Richard Diver, Harriet Donington, Nick Drew, Paul Driver, Warwick Drucker, Stefan Drury, Laura Dubsky, Katherine Durant, Jonathan East, Julia Egerton, Laurens Ehrmann, Yasmine El-Ghamrawy, Will Elsdale, Michael Elson, Simon Emanuel, Nadia Essid, Bruno Etchepare, Daniel Evans, Stuart Farley, Sean Farrow, Tim Field, Bryce Fishman, Anne Foged, James Foster, Paul J. Franklin, Alex Fry, James Furlong, Winston Gallagher, David Gibbons, Dan Glass, Toby Glover, Jonnie Godfrey, Adrian Graham, Jericho Green, Elysia Greening, Gavin Gregory, Lewis Guarniere, Ummi Gudjonsson, Alex Guri, James Guy, Frederique Gyuran, Venetia Hadley, Andy Hague, Mara Hamilton, Qian Han, Pete Hanson, Jeremy Hattingh, Sarah Hemsley, Sara Henschke, Jeremy Hey, Richard Higham, Martin Hill, Christopher Hobbs, Matthew Holben, Kyle Holden, Katja Hollmann, Kevin Holt, Rudi Holzapfel, Garrett Honn, Rob Hopper, Pete Howlett, Steven Hudosh, Robin Huffer, Michael Hull, Nicola Instone, Alex Ireland, Zoe Izzard, Graham Jack, Niklas Jacobson, Gemma James, Oliver James, Jody Johnson, Lorraine Johnson, Bryan Jones, Robert Jones, Pete Jopling, Samson Kao, Sarah Kayser, Victoria Keeling, Jordan Kirk, Ryan Knowles, Alec Knox, Anne Putnam Kolbe, Carsten Kolve, Arek Komorowski, Dean Koonjul, Joosten Kuypers, Serena Lam, Pedro Lara, Kimberly Lashbrook, Ryan Lastimosa, Kirsty Lawlor, Tracey Leadbetter, Philippa Leathers, Simon Leech, Cynthia Lerner, Luke Letkey, James Lewis, Mattias Lindahl, Bryan Litson, David Lloyd, Andrew Lockley, Sarah Lockwood, Steve Lynn, Alasdair MacCuish, Ian Mackinnon, Andrew MacLeod, Jason Madigan, Angela Magrath, Tony Man, Julian Mann, Simon Margetts, Greg Massie, Thomas Mawby, David Mayhew, Chris McBride, Alan McCabe, Jason McCallum, Gavin McCarron, Colin McEvoy, Ken McGaugh, Steve McGee, Steve McGillen, Sarah McLauchlan, Alasdair McNeill, Jan Meade, Evonne Merlicek, Charlotte Merrill, Laura Miles, Jessica Millar, Luke Millar, Warren J. Mills, Rafael Morant, Lea Morement, Ben Morgan, Saybian Morgan, Andrew Morley, Norah Mulroney, Jesh Krishna Murthy, Craig Narramore, Stuart Nelhams, Nick New, Charlie Noble, Rich Nosworthy, Collette Nunes, Dameon O Boyle, Giles O Brien, Alban Orlhiac, Alison Parraco, Martin Parsons, Adam Paschke, Joe Pavlo, Aleksandar Pejic, Peter Pelisek, Kevin Phelan, Stuart Pitcher, Marnie Pitts, Fred Place, Matthew Plummer, Thomas Proctor, Michael S. Pryor, Cristina Puente, Farhan Qureshi, Paul Raeburn, Max Rees, Graham Riddell, Michael Ridgwell, Ben Roberts, Katherine Roberts, Aled Robinson, Eric Robinson, Troy Robinson, Guillaume Rocheron, Craig Edward Rogers Jr., Tom Rolfe, Jackie Rowson, Patrick Russo, Duane Rutkowski, Nick Savy, Matthias Scharfenberg, David Scott, Robbie Scott, Nicolas Seck, Jarmila Seflova, Robert Sethi, Gaël Seydoux, Matthew Shaw, Dan Sheerin, Tom Sinden, Adri Siriwatt, Janek Sirrs, William Skellorn, Baptiste Sola, Drew Solodzuk, Sarah Soulsby, Jim Steel, Kev Stenning, Julien Stuart-Smith, Sebastian Sue, Christopher Sweet, Nicholas Symons, Giuseppe Tagliavini, Peter Talbot, Sky Tesi, Marios Theodosi, Richard Thomas, Zelda Tinska, Mathilde Tollec, James Tomlinson, Luigi Tommaseo, Jensen Toms, Gregory Tournier, Liam Tully, Matthew Twyford, Beck Veitch, Rainy Venne, David Vickery, Dominique Vidal, Eugénie von Tunzelmann, Bruce Wabbit, Victor Wade, Ellen Walder, Tara Walker, Tim Walton, Thomas Ward, Dan Warder, Ben Warner, Imery Watson, Roland Watson, Ollie Weigall, Mark H. Weingartner, Joern Weisspfennig, Melissa Widup, Guy Williams, Owen E. Williams, Robert A. Willis, Matt Willis-Jones, Dan Wills, Chris Wilson, Doug Winder, Oliver Winwood, Anthony Wonsoff, Daniel Wood, Jennifer Wood, Tom Wood, Melody Woodford, Alison Wortman, Ged Wright, Alex Wuttke, Anton Yri, Mike Zeller, George Zwier, Helena Brackley, Hayley Brazelton, Scott Chambers, Ian Cope, Martyn Drake, Thomas Guerrier, Peter Guyan, Mick Harper, Guy Hauldren, Malcolm Humphreys, Duncan Lees, Paul Maurice, Danielle Nadal, Noel O Malley, Chris Petts, Rob Rae

Stunts

Laura Albert, Clare Aldington, Wade Allen, Nina Armstrong, Rick Avery, Dean Bailey, Bruce Benson, Tony Brown, Bruce Cain, Frank P. Calzavara, Rudy J. Calzavara, Steve Caswell, Nick Chopping, Brian Christensen, Chumphae Chuchuen, Gary Connery, Ben Cooke, Scott Corgan, George Cottle, David Cronnelly, Tobiasz Daszkiewicz, Rich Denikas, Justo Dieguez, Levan Doran, Rick English, Bradley Farmer, Eddie J. Fernandez, James Fierro, Neil Finnighan, Glory Fioramonti, Pete Ford, David Forman, Glenn Foster, David Garrick, Andy Godbold, Steve Griffin, James Grogan, Mark Harper, Paul Herbert, Allan Hewitt, Steve Holladay, Sy Hollands, Jason Hunjan, Gary Hymes, Rowley Irlam, Terry Jackson, Phithak Jantharawijt, Paul Jennings, Vincent Keane, Maryann Kelman, Paul Kennington, Supoj Khaowwong, Adam Kirley, Mike Lambert, Crispin Layfield, Maurice Lee, Matthew LeFevour, Rick LeFevour, John Punch Lewis, Paul Lowe, Tom Lowell, Daniel Maldonado, James R. Mammoser, Kai Martin, Nick McKinless, Natalie M. Meyer, Peter Miles, Rick Miller, Mark Mottram, Ray Nicholas, Chris Nolte, Andy Norman, James O Donnell, Carl Paoli, Peter Pedrero, Bean Peel, Martin Pemberton, Linda Perlin, Mark Pestonji, Scott Philyaw, Randy Popplewell, Dominic Preece, Manop Ratcha-Asa, Gina Reale, Buster Reeves, Ken Remer, Wirayut Sapcharoet, Gordon Seed, Kent Shelton, C.C. Smiff, Kevin Sorensen, Matthew Stirling, John Street, Tom Struthers, Bobby Stuart, Larry C. Tankson, Narongsak Thongmee, Chaiyaporn Torphon, Vincent Wang, Reg Wayment, Bill Weston, Peter White, Rich Wilkie, Komkrib Krib Wongwirot, Saichia Wongwirot, Steen Young, Luke Kearney, Alberto Martello, Gary Robert, Matthew Stratton

Camera and Electrical Department

Steven A. Adelson, Wayne Baker, Hans Bjerno, Josh Bleibtreu, Andy Borham, Joe Buxton, Elli Cassata, Dawn Copeland, Chris Dame, Jaime Dawkins, Tim Dean, Hamish Doyne-Ditmas, Danny Espey, Mark Rocky Evans, Perry Evans, Warren Evans, Tony Fabian, Michael FitzMaurice, Fred Folmer, John P. Friday, Yuriy Fuks, Joe Gajewski, Billy Gamble, Zachary Gannaway, Alejandro Garcia, Kevin Gazdik, Cory Geryak, Simon Gilmour, Bob Gomez, Godi Már Gudbjörnsson, Paul Harford, Pier Hausemer, Simon Heck, Daniel Herman, Scott Hillier, Jesse Homan, Alex Howe, Regan Hudecek, Malcolm Huse, W.C. Chunky Huse, Therese Hvattum, Paul Hymns, David James, Timothy Jipping, Nikos Kalimerakis, George Kohut, Brad Larner, Matthew LeCrone, Morgan Michael Lewis, Matt Lopez-Dias, Clive Mackey, David Mackie, David Maund, Donna McLain, Jamie Mills, David Morenz, Peter Morenz, Karl Morgan, Jem Morton, Chris Mulsoff, Neil Munro, Gary Nolan, Russell O Connor, Staffan Sten Olsen, Kelly Paul, Ben Perry, Robert Petrin, Barney Piercy, Keith Pokorski, Stephanie Power, Kate Reid, John S. Robertson, Bryce Shields, David Sinfield, Ian Sinfield, Gary Smith, Adrian Spanna, Christy Taddeo, Scott Thiele, Colin Townsend, Martyn Welland, Zoe Whittaker, Haris Zambarloukos, Kevin Bassett, Ian Speed

Casting Department

Abigail Barbier, Louis Elman, Enero, Damian Fazio, Damian Fazio, Elaine Grainger, Julie Harkin, Wendy O Brien, Berenice Percival, Joan Philo, Helen Robinson, Rebecca Roper, Vincent Singleton, Chuck Douglas

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Jennifer Alford, Jeeda Barford, Camille Benda, Graham Churchyard, Stella Cottini, Nick Dudman, Peter Edmonds, Patt Foad, Birgitta Fredlund, Dan Grace, Laura Grace, Brendan Handscombe, Jenny Hawkins, Anna Jartin, Jennifer Jobst, Poppy Kay, Gabriella Loria, Clinton Lotter, Ann Maskrey, Janie Nugent, Helen O Donnell, Gina Marie Ome, Gina Panno, Nicholas Roche-Gordon, Guy Speranza, Nancy Takehara, Cathie Valdovino, Emma Walker, Scott Walker, Jane Blank, Kevin Giles, Kevin Harris

Editorial Department

Todd Baillere, Susan Bliss, Alison Carter, Lisa Clifford-Owen, Catrin Cooper, Mark Cullis, Justin Dennis, John Ensby, Steve Farman, Daniel Greenway, Peter Hunt, John Lee, Mark Miessner, Kevin Phelan, Katie Reynolds, Jennifer Stellema, Jon Thompson, Lee Twohey, Jason Wasserman, Natasha Westlake

Location Management

Sam Arnopp, Jo Beckett, Joanna Beckett, Tom Crooke, Raul Esparza III, Colin Giles, Robin Higgs, Richard Hill, Asa Hillsley, Chris Holt, Martin Joy, Steve Keane, Martha Lafage, Doron Levi, James R. McAllister, Patrick Muldoon, Ian Pollington, Nick Rafferty, Ben Rimmer, Maria C. Roxas, Mark Somner, Rich Wolgemuth, Michael Stapleton

Music Department

Pete Anthony, Roger Argente, Lorne Balfe, Becky Bentham, Mark Berrow, Maya Bickel, Richard Bissill, Tom Brown, Simon Changer, Al Clay, Gareth Cousins, Andrew Crowley, Peter Davies, Brad Dechter, Ramin Djawadi, Pete Eiseman-Renyard, Geoff Foster, Bruce Fowler, Gavin Greenaway, Max Herman, Jake Jackson, Skaila Kanga, Gary Kettel, Alex Kharlamov, Steven Kofsky, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, The London Session Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Steve Mair, Abhay Manusmare, Veigar Margeirsson, Aaron Martin, Everton Nelson, Dan Newell, Steven Price, Frank Ricotti, Richard Robson, Owen Slade, Steven L. Smith, Chris Tedesco, James Thatcher, Martin Tillman, Norman Treigle, Jonathan Tunnell, Helen Tunstall, Jake Walker, Allen Walley, Helen Werling, Mel Wesson, Mark Wherry, Jonathan Williams, Ian Wood, Gavyn Wright, Andrew Zack, Warren Zielinski, Hans Zimmer, Joe Zimmerman, Rachel Bolt, The Hollywood Studio Symphony, James Newton Howard, Paul Kegg, Mary Scully, Bruce White

Script and Continuity Department

Laura Miles, Annie Penn, Heather Pollock, Mary Tallman

Transportation Department

Jim Adams, Declan Barry, Michael R. Cairo, Calvin Chin, Roy Clarke, Jon Hinrik Gardarsson, Robert Gaskill, David Gwyther, Chris Hammond, Rob Hempenstall, David B. Hendrickson, Justin Hendrickson, Simon Hudnott, Thaddeus E. Larkowski, Darren Litten, John Lux Jr., Dennis McCarthy, Colin Morris, Enyo Mortty, Steinarr Logi Nesheim, Jack Sander

Additional Crew

Jeanette Agaronoff, Kamelya Alexan, Carolyn Allen, Danielle Anaïse, Christina Anderson, Caridad Angus, Annabel Arden, Daren Bailey, Siobhan Barnett, Kevin Bassett, Matt Betteridge, Erik Betts, Karen Bicknell, Mark Birmingham, Jon K. Björnsson, Drew Blair, Morne Botes, Rhidian Bridge, Francie Brown, George Burt, Victoria Cadiou, Valerie Carli, Gavin Carruthers, Milan Chakraborty, Leah Chalk, Malcolm Chalk, Neil Chaplin, Deborah Chung, Shawn Clark, Greg Corke, Ian Creed, Nicholas Daines, Dennis Davidson, Stanley A. Dellimore, Justin Dennis, Enfys Dickinson, Justin DiSandro, Matthew Eberle, Mikey Eberle, Basia Emano, Sam Engelen, Dave Evans, Nick Ferrin, Maisha Fishburne, Bryce Fishman, Cliff Fleming, Robert Gaskill, Donal Geraghty, Tim Gideon, Jordan Goldberg, Veloz Gomez, Oliver Greetham, Nicky Gregory, Jennifer Griffin, Andrew Haddock, P.J. Haines, Karon Hamlet, Robert Hampton, Brad Hansen, Tony Hawkins, Darren Helman, Laurence Helman, Alex Hobbs, Jeff Holtorf, Richard Hooper, Craig Hosking, Ryan Hosking, Sarah Hunt, Jörg Hüttner, Andrew Jack, Kelly Johnson, Rodney Johnson, Kelly Johnson-Beaven, C. David Jones, Gagga Jonsdottir, Claudia Kalindjian, Andrew Keilman, Adam Key, Corey Kloos, David Kreger, Irec Kriske, Patrick Kwok, Ron Landry, Sarah Leung, Tristan Lillingston, Sharon Lomasney, Lidia Lukes, Mary Luther, Andy Madden, Larry Madrid, David Mahmoudieh, John Malakoff, Mark Mallorca, Michelle Manas, Jeff Manimbo, Noah Lee Margetts, Zoe Margolis, Phoebe Masters, Becky Maxwell, Geoffrey McCarthy, Thomas J. McDonough, Lucy Morgan, Neil Morphew, Steve Morphew, Tristan Murphy, Daniel Naprous, Ruth Nicol, Sara Nudelman, Matthew Officer, Anji Oliver, Rosemary Orlando, Troy Osman, Deb K. Oyer, Joseph Palmer, Harriet Parry, Mitul Patel, Kathy Petty, Quentin Pierre, Neil Pierson, Wyatt Pow, Ben Pugh, Julie Rasmussen, Nerissa Reddick, Christina Rice, Claire Robertson, Brett Robinson, Adele Rogers, Ruben Sahagun, Rick Senat, Geoff Shaevitz, Bizhan Shahpar, Ericka N. Shane, Paul Sharpe, David Silver, James Smith, Jennifer Sokolov, Kelly Spearman, Andy Spellman, Nick Starr, Taylor Stewart, Nicole Sulkowski, Adrienne Swan, Crispin Swayne, Asako Takeuchi Glendenning, Adam Teeuw, Adam James Thompson, Sarah Louise Tidesley, Katharine Tidy, Paul Ton, Kevin Trehy, Carlo Treviso, Timothy Troy, Karen Turner, Fiona Vokes, Amber Waters, Marcin Wawrzyczek, Lauren Willems, Mike Woodley, Michelle Wraight, Douglas Yates, Kenneth Yoder, Cliff Zimowski, Neal Adams, Celia Barnett, John Calnan, Denys Cowan, Bill Finger, Sam Hamm, James Hoelzel, Jake Klemp, David Mazzucchelli, Frank Miller, Denny O Neil, Jerry Robinson, Paul Sacks, Richard Senior, Paul Shore, Jim Turner, Len Wein, Toby White, Richard Wild

Thanks

Paul Dini, Curt Geda, Boyd Kirkland, Simon P. Thorp, Bruce Timm

Genres

Action, Crime, Drama

Companies

Warner Bros., Syncopy, DC Comics

Countries

USA, UK

Languages

English, Mandarin

ContentRating

PG-13

ImDbRating

8.2

ImDb Rating Votes

1452029

Metacritic Rating

70

Short Description

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne from the death of his parents to his journey to become Batman and his fight to stop Ra s al Ghul and the Scarecrow from plunging Gotham City into chaos.

After Batman & Robin was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled future Batman films, including Joel Schumacher s planned Batman Unchained. Between 1998 and 2003, several filmmakers collaborated with Warner Bros. in attempting to reboot the franchise. After the studio rejected a Batman origin story reboot Joss Whedon pitched in December 2002, Warner Bros. hired Nolan in January 2003 to direct a new film as Nolan and Goyer began development on the film in early 2003. Aiming for a darker, more realistic tone compared to the previous films, a primary goal for their vision was to engage the audience s emotional investment in both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities of the lead character. The film, which was principally shot in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Chicago, relied heavily on traditional stunts and miniature effects, with computer-generated imagery being used in a minimal capacity compared to other action films. Comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.

Expectations for Batman Begins ranged from moderate to low, which originated from the poor reception of Batman & Robin that was credited with stalling the Batman film series in 1997. After premiering in Tokyo on May 31, 2005, the film was released on June 15, 2005. It received positive reviews from critics, who deemed the film an improvement over the Schumacher films. Critics praise for the tone, Bale s performance, action sequences, score, direction, and the emotional weight compared to previous Batman films, but criticism was directed at lack of screen time for the villains, the hand to hand combat scenes, and Holmes performance as Rachel Dawes. The film grossed over $371.9 million worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2005 and was the second highest grossing Batman film at the time behind Tim Burton s Batman (1989). Receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, the film evaluated Bale to leading man status while it made Nolan a high-profile director.

Since its release, Batman Begins has been critically reassessed and it has been considered to be one of the best superhero films ever made, one of the best Batman films ever made, and has often been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. It was credited for revitalizing the Batman character in popular culture, shifting its tone towards a darker and more serious tone and style. The film helped popularized the term reboot in Hollywood, inspiring studios and filmmakers to revived franchises with realistic and serious tones. It was followed by The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), with the three films constituting The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Box Office Budget

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$48,745,440

Box Office Gross USA

$206,863,479

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$373,672,993

Keywords

Superhero,social decay,origin of hero,dc comics,gotham