Batman Begins (Movie)

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan, written by David S. Goyer, and stars Christian Bale as Batman. The film notably uses a higher number of practical special effects than most big-budget mainstream films.

Batman Begins was the fifth live-action Batman movie since 1989 and was a reboot to the superhero's film franchise. It tells the origin story of the character as he takes on crime for the first time in Gotham. It is a significantly darker film, studying the character's inner struggle between justice and vengeance.

Batman Begins was released on June 15, 2005. It recieved high praise from critics and general audiences, being considered by many as the best of the series, with praise for Bale's performance. The film is followed by a 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight, currently in pre-production.

Plot
The film opens with a young Bruce Wayne playing with his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes. In the course of a game, Bruce falls down a well where he is attacked by bats as they fly up and out of the well into the sky. Years later Bruce awakens from a nightmare of these events and is revealed to be a prisoner in an unnamed Asian country. After being attacked by six men in the breakfast queue, he is approached by Henri Ducard, who speaks for Ra's al Ghul leader of the League of Shadows. Ducard claims to understand what drives Bruce, and offers the younger man - who, in his relentless pursuit to understand the criminal mind, has lost his way - a purpose in life. Released the next day, Bruce travels to the top of the a mountain to reach the headquarters and begin his training with the League of Shadows. Earlier the 8-year-old Bruce is rescued by his kindly father, Thomas Wayne. Bruce begins having nightmares about bats. One night, the Waynes go to a production of the opera Mefistofele, where Bruce is frightened by the portrayals of bat-like demons. After begging his father, Bruce and the family exit into an alley where they are confronted by an armed mugger, Joe Chill, who shoots and kills both the Wayne parents, Thomas and Martha. Moments later, Bruce is comforted by James Gordon when Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb enters the scene to tell Bruce that Joe Chill has been arrested for the murder of his parents. Bruce is taken home by the family butler Alfred Pennyworth, who raises him in the absence of his parents. When Bruce is 22, Joe Chill is murdered immediately after agreeing to testify against mob boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce had been planning to kill Chill, but was robbed of the opportunity when Chill was killed by a female mob operative passing as a reporter. After realizing his own naivete to the differences between justice and vengeance, Bruce steals away on a cargo ship, and travels the world for seven years, seeking the means to fight injustice, but is immediately mistaken for a criminal by Asian police. After Bruce's training in the League of Shadows, Ra's and Ducard tell Bruce his purpose; that he must lead the League to destroy Gotham because that it is so full of crime. Bruce refuses to become a murderer and battles Ra's before making his escape. Ra's is killed in the battle, but Bruce manages to save an unconscious Ducard and return to Gotham City.

Things have gotten worse in Gotham, however; Falcone's crime syndicate dominates the city. Sgt. Jim Gordon is one of the few honest police officers in the city. Bruce stealthily enlists the help of the reluctant Gordon, and befriends an unjustly demoted senior company researcher, Lucius Fox of Wayne Enterprises, recruiting him as his armorer in order to gain body armor that makes up his costume and a prototype armored car. That night, a drug shipment overseen by Falcone is smashed apart by a presence who easily overpowers the thugs employed by Falcone. Falcone, terrified and alone, is trapped in his car, only to be brutally dragged out - and thus becomes the first person to come face to face with Batman. The police then arrive and arrest Falcone, who is helpless as he is tied to a light that in the night sky, shows a bat-like shadow. Later, easily overpowering one of the assassins targeting Rachel Dawes, he provides Rachel with evidence capable of indicting Falcone. And while Falcone is in jail, and his deal with dirty district attorney goes raw, Dr. Jonathon Crane introduces Faclone with "fear gas" that makes someone so afraid and panicked that he or she goes insane, seeing their worst fears take form through hallucinations. While investigating the "unusual" drugs in the shipment, Batman is stunned by Dr. Jonathan Crane ("The Scarecrow") - who sprays him with a highly potent fear nerve gas. Bruce is saved by an anti-toxin developed by Lucius. Crane later summons Rachel to Arkham Asylum and shows her that the panic and fear inducing toxin has been introduced into Gotham's water supply from Arkham for weeks, and once Rachel is infected, Crane demands to know who else suspects him. Rachel is saved by Batman, however, after administering the antidote. He later gives Rachel a vial for Gordon. That night, at Bruce's 30th birthday party, he is confronted by his enemy - Henri Ducard, who reveals himself to be the real Ra's Al Ghul, and has now arrived in Gotham personally to destroy the city - he has conspired with Crane to poison Gotham's water supply with the toxin, vaporizing it with a stolen device from Wayne Enterprises. As such, Ra's intends to spread the panic across Gotham. Bruce and Ra's fight while Ra's henchman begin to burn down Wayne Manor after Bruce tricks everyone to leave after being rude, pretending he was drunk to save them. Meanwhile, the other henchmen of Ra's Al Ghul release all the inmates at Arkham. Although Wayne Manor is destroyed, Bruce escapes the inferno thanks to the help of Alfred. Rachel and Gordon - both inoculated - quickly become the only two people in the Narrows not driven insane. Before going for Ghul, Batman lets Rachel know he's Bruce Wayne, by quoting a phrase she told him before. Then he enlists Gordon to drive the Batmobile to the central hub of the Gotham subway - Wayne Tower. Ra's has already boarded the train; his objective is to send the water varporizer on the train to a major water hub almost right under Wayne Tower, then vaporize nearly all of Gotham's water supply. Bruce confronts Ra's on the train as Batman. They battle and Batman eventually defeats Ra's, and as Gordon destroys the subway line - thus preventing the hub of the water supply from being vapourised - Batman escapes the subway car, leaving Ra's to crash into the tower and Ghul is (presumably) killed in the explosion. Following the battle, Batman becomes a public hero, and Bruce gains control of his company and installs Fox as the CEO, firing Mr. Earle, the previous CEO. However, Bruce is unable to hold onto Rachel, who, despite having fallen in love with Bruce, cannot reconcile him with Batman. Gordon still expresses some reservations about Batman's role as he may lead to a form of escalation in the type of crime that Gotham will face, even though Gordon made a Bat-Signal for Batman without any criminals on it. To prove his point about his reservations, Gordon explains that a new criminal that has "a taste for the theatrical" like Batman. He leaves a Joker playing card at all of his crime scenes. Batman promises to look into it.

Cast
Many characters in Batman Begins had been previously established in Batman canon.


 * Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman: Bruce Wayne is a Gothamite billionaire whose parents were killed by a mugger when he was 8 years old. Travelling the world for 8 years, he returns to Gotham. At night, Wayne becomes Batman, Gotham City's undercover vigilante protector, to defend the city from the crime that got his parents killed.
 * Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth: Alfred Pennyworth was the trusted butler to Bruce Wayne's parents, who continues his loyal service to their son after their deaths. He is Bruce Wayne's strongest confidante.
 * Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes: Rachel Dawes is a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who works as an assistant to Gotham City's District Attorney and fights against the corruption in the city.
 * Gary Oldman as James Gordon: James Gordon is a member of the Gotham City Police Department and one of the few uncorrupted cops in Gotham City.
 * Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow: Dr. Jonathan Crane is a psychiatrist who works at Arkham Asylum who has developed fear-inducing toxins to take on the persona of the Scarecrow.
 * Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox: Lucius Fox was a high-ranking Wayne Enterprises employee who was demoted to working in the company's Applied Science Division. Fox supplies Bruce Wayne with much of the gear necessary to carry out Batman's mission and is also promoted to CEO when Wayne re-possesses the company.
 * Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard / Ra's al Ghul: Ra's al Ghul is the leader of the League of Shadows who impersonates his own right-hand man, Henri Ducard, for misdirection and trains Bruce Wayne to become a warrior. His methods and ideology are more extreme than the one Wayne embraces.
 * Ken Watanabe as Ra's al Ghul (Decoy): The decoy Ra's al Ghul is a member of the League of Shadows who impersonates the role of leader for the organization, actually held by Ra's al Ghul under the guise of right-hand man Henri Ducard.
 * Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone: Carmine Falcone is a ruthless gangster who rules Gotham City with an iron fist, having many of the city's authorities in his pocket.
 * Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne: Thomas Wayne was Bruce Wayne's father, killed by Joe Chill when his son was 8 years old.
 * Sara Stewart as Martha Wayne: Martha Wayne was Bruce Wayne's mother, killed by Joe Chill when her son was 8 years old.
 * Rutger Hauer as Mr. Earle: Mr. Earle was the CEO of Wayne Enterprises who makes the company go public in the long-term absence of Bruce Wayne.
 * Tim Booth as Victor Zsasz: Victor Zsasz is one of the many detainees of Arkham Asylum who goes loose in Gotham City's Narrows following Batman's showdown with Ra's al Ghul.

In September 2003, director Christopher Nolan was reported to be considering Billy Crudup, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, Hugh Dancy, Joshua Jackson, and Cillian Murphy for the role of Bruce Wayne. On September 11, 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures announced by press release that Christian Bale had been cast as the next Batman. Director Nolan said of Bale, "He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for." Since he had lost a great deal of weight in preparation for his role in The Machinist, Christian Bale hired a personal trainer to help him gain 100 pounds in the span of only a couple of months to help him physically prepare for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. This effectively shattered the record of 70 pounds set by Vincent D'Onofrio in 1987 for his role in Full Metal Jacket. At first he went well over the weight required (taking literally Nolan's instructions to "get as big as you can"), and when he was first introduced to the crew there was concern over whether he'd look right for the part. However, Bale worked hard to lose the excess weight, and was ready in time for filming.

Actor Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) was cast to portray "the Scarecrow" in the film. On the same day of Murphy's announcement, Michael Caine said in an interview that Nolan was considering Viggo Mortensen for the role of the film's villain, not yet announced. Actor Chris Cooper had been offered the role of Jim Gordon, but turned it down since the character did not meet his expectations.

Development
Following the failure of Batman and Robin in 1997, the fifth Batman film lanquished in development hell, with a Year One adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky and Wolfgang Petersen's Batman vs. Superman coming close to production. In January 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures hired Memento director Christopher Nolan to helm an untitled Batman film. In March 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures hired David S. Goyer to write the script for the untitled Batman project. In April 2003, Christopher Nolan was attached to helm The Prestige under Warner Bros. and Disney, indicating a possible delay in developing the new Batman film. In a July 2003 interview, however, Nolan said that the Batman film was in the early stages of production. In September 2003, Warner Bros. and director Christopher Nolan announced a production start in early 2004 for a 2005 release date.

Influences
In the "Genesis of the Bat" featurette on the Batman Begins DVD, the film's overall look, feel and story was revealed to have been inspired by several works. Bob Schreck, DC Comics' Batman editor, said that DC Comics president Paul Levitz, director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer had joined forces to search through Batman comics spanning thirty years. Nolan stated that the "jumping off point" for him was Batman: The Man Who Falls, a short story about the death of Bruce Wayne's parents and Bruce's travels thorough the world. The early scene in Batman Begins of young Bruce Wayne falling into a well was directly adapted from Falls. The group also drew June 1971's Batman #232: "Daughter of the Demon" ("the classic arc that introduced Ra's al Ghul") and "the two or three best Scarecrow ever done" to help write the film's main villains. Though the Scarecrow stories were mentioned more ambiguously, the film's line, "Dr. Crane isn't here right now…" was first used in the story "Choices" from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special (December 1993) by Jeph Loeb. Goyer said that the story Batman: The Long Halloween was influential when writing, with the character of Carmine Falcone being one of many elements which were used from Halloween's "sober, serious approach." The film also took inspiration from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Sergeant James Gordon in Batman Begins was based on his comic book incarnation in Year One. Frank Miller's idea of a corrupt police force was what the writers believed led to Gordon and Gotham City's need for Batman. Other influences include the scene where Batman calls upon a flock of bats to aid his escape, and the denouement where Batman first hears of the Joker.

In addition to drawing from Batman canon, director Christopher Nolan used the science fiction film Blade Runner as a source of inspiration for Batman Begins. The director screened Blade Runner to cinematographer Wally Pfister and 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.

Filming
In January 2004, the untitled Batman project was scheduled to film in London, New York, and Iceland. In February 2004, crews transformed the restaurant Plateau in Canary Wharf for a hotel restaurant scene. In the same month, an airship hangar at Cardington, Bedfordshire was rented by Warner Bros. for constructing a set in time for filming in April 2004. Filming began on March in Iceland, and Nolan refused a second unit, to keep his vision consistent.

Film score
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard composed the score for Batman Begins. Normally on a collaboration both composers would work on cues individually and then swap shortly before recording. However for Batman Begins the two composers reportedly worked together on all of the film's cues. The score makes use of two very different styles of music for Batman and Bruce Wayne. The Batman cues are darker in tone, making heavy use of electronics and low brass and strings. The Batman theme consists of two long notes with a minor third between them. There is also a percussive sound, reminiscent of wings flapping, which is heard throughout the film, most clearly in the opening moments of Vespertilio. Wayne's cues are lighter and more tonal, while his theme is found on the upper strings.

Gotham City
Director Christopher Nolan said that when he worked with production designer Nathan Crowley to determine the look of Gotham City, he wanted to avoid any "reductive notions". Nolan said that he wanted Gotham City to have a large, modern metropolitan area that would reflect the various periods of architecture that the city had gone through. In designing Gotham City, elements were drawn from New York City, Chicago, and Tokyo, the latter for its elevated freeways and monorails. In Batman Begins, the Narrows was based on the slummish nature of the walled city of Kalhoon in Hong Kong. The long Tumbler chase scene took place on Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago. In addition, Wayne Tower in Batman Begins was graphed from the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Nolan said that in the continuity, Gotham City is located somewhere around New Jersey and New York.

Batmobile
In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne acquires a mothballed Wayne Enterprises military vehicle, called the Tumbler, to serve as his Batmobile. Originally sporting military camouflage paint, Bruce Wayne requests from Lucius Fox to have the Tumbler painted black. The Tumbler possesses a jet engine which can propel the vehicle in the air over a short distance. The vehicle has two driving positions: one for actual driving, and one for flying via propulsion. Stealth capabilities are also built into the Tumbler, which includes a silent, electric motor drive that helps render the vehicle "invisible" at night.

Nathan Crowley, one of the production designers for Batman Begins, started the process of designing the Tumbler for the film by model bashing. One of the parts that Crowley used to create the vehicle was the nose cone of a P-38 Lightning model to serve as the chassis for the Tumbler's jet 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, which was a process that lasted 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 mph, go from 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds, possess a steering system to make sharp turns at city corners, and to withstand a self-propelled launch of up to 30 feet. On the very 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 racing tires by Hoosier, rear 4x4 mud tires by Interco., 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 completed, four street-ready race cars were constructed, with each vehicle possessing 65 carbon fiber panels and costing $250,000 each 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. Due to the poor visibility inside the vehicle by the driver, 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 1:5 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 scene in Batman Begins where the Tumbler flies through the waterfall was the actual race car.

Batsuit
In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne physically becomes Batman by wearing a fictional Nomax Survival Suit created by the Applied Science Division of Wayne Enterprises. Wayne modifies the undersuit by adding defensive gauntlets, Kevlar gloves, a cowl, and a cape. The cowl has a composite-graphite exterior with the interior containing microphones and a radio antenna. The cape is made of memory fiber, another fictional product of Wayne Enterprises' Applied Science Division, which allows the fabric to become stiff via electrical charge and enable the cape user to glide, mimicking the skeletal structure of a Bat's wings. Batman also has multiple gadgets on his utility belt, including a magnetic grappling gun. In addition, the Batsuit has a sonic device built into the heel of one of the boots to attract bats to use for distraction.

The filmmakers intended to create a very mobile Batsuit that would allow the wearer to move easily in order to fight and crouch. Previous film incarnations of the Batsuit had been stiff and restricted movement, especially restricting full head movement. Lindy Hemming, the costume designer for Batman Begins, and her crew worked on the Batsuit at a 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. Batman actor 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 smoothen 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 Defense. 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.

For the film, three people were needed to dress Christian Bale up in the Batsuit. Bale often had to wear the Batsuit for hours at a time, so overheating became an issue. Plastic tubes were occasionally routed into the Batsuit as Bale wore it, to provide a "cool suit" similar to those worn by high-altitude pilots and astronauts. To portray Batman best, Bale studied graphic novels and illustrations of the superhero. Nolan said that Bale succeeded in his intimidating pose, mentioning, "Everyone on set felt quite a charge when Christian would walk on in the Batsuit." Bale had a love-hate relationship with the suit, which had often sent him into foul moods, helping him transform into Batman. Bale said, "Batman's meant to be fierce, and you become a beast in that suit, as Batman should be — not a man in a suit, but a different creature."

Box office performance
Batman Begins opened on June 15, 2005 in 3,858 theaters, bringing in a total of $48,745,440 over the weekend. The film went on to gross $205,343,774 domestically and $371,853,783 worldwide. Batman Begins was the second most fiscally successful Batman film behind the 1989 Batman, which had grossed $411,348,924 worldwide. Batman Begins was the fifth most successful film in summer 2005 behind Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Wedding Crashers and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Batman Begins was very well reviewed by the majority of professional critics. The film received a "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 84% overall approval in 235 reviews from critics. The film scored a 70% on Metacritic with critic reviews and 86% with 552 votes by Metacritic users.. Roger Ebert, who had panned all previous live-action Batman movies, gave Batman Begins 4 stars out of 4, calling it "the Batman movie I've been waiting for". Empire magazine declared Batman Begins the second best film of 2005.

Christian Bale received much praise for his performance, though Katie Holmes was panned as the weak link in the cast.

Taking ticket price inflation into account, Begins is only ahead of 1997's Batman and Robin, which had an adjusted U.S. gross of $150 million. (The inflation-adjusted U.S. gross of the other movies would be as follows: Batman $403 million, Batman Returns $251 million and Batman Forever $271 million).

Awards and nominations
At the 78th Academy Awards, Wally Pfister was nominated for Achievement in Cinematography, and was also nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers in 2005. Nathan Crowley was nominated at the 2005 BAFTA Awards for the Excellence in Production Design Award, Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects, and Best Production Design, and Best Sound. It also received various minor awards.


 * 2005 Costume Designers Guild Awards Nominated - Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Fantasy (Lindy Hemming)
 * 2005 Hollywood Film Festival Won - Sound of the Year (David Evans)
 * 2005 Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA Awards) Nominated - Best Supporting Actor in a Feature Film (Cillian Murphy)/ Audience Award - Best International Actor (Christian Bale)/ Nominated - Audience Award - International Film Award
 * 2005 Online Film Critics Society (OFCS Awards)/ Nominated - Best Original Score (James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer)
 * 2005 Visual Effects Society (VES Awards)/ Nominated - Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture (Alex Wuttke, Pete Bebb, Dayne Cowan, Imery Watson) - For the Gotham City monorail chase
 * 2005 World Soundtrack Awards/ Nominated - Best Original Soundtrack of the Year (James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer)
 * 2006 MTV Movie Awards/ Nominated - Best Movie, Best Villain (Cillian Murphy)/ Won - Best Hero (Christian Bale)
 * 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards/ Nominated - Worst Supporting Actress (Katie Holmes)

Departure from canon
In the film, Ra's al Ghul's organization is called the League of Shadows. In the DC Universe, the organization is known as the League of Assassins, and also called Brotherhood of the Demon in an early issue. In addition, the character Ra's al Ghul was introduced in the film before Robin had yet to appear, which was reversed in the Batman comics. Furthermore, Ra's al Ghul was Arabian in the comics, where the real Ra's al Ghul, who used an Arabian decoy for misdirection, was actually European.

In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne's personal history differed from comic canon. In the comics, Bruce Wayne's decision to wage war on crime followed almost immediately from the deaths of his parents. Wayne had spent his entire childhood and young adulthood honing his mind and body to the task. In the film, Bruce Wayne didn't begin his training until reaching adulthood and despite hatred for Joe Chill, had no aspirations towards fighting crime until later. Bruce's motivations to use the bat as his totem differed markedly as well. In most of the comics continuities, a chance encounter with a bat (flew into his study window etc.) after his training had been completed caused Bruce to take on the personality of "Batman". In the movie, though, this stemmed from his childhood phobia of bats, which he was forced to confront during his training. At the end of Batman Begins, Batman told Ra's al Ghul prior to the crash of the train they were riding that he wouldn't kill the villain, but he didn't have to save him, either. In the comics, Batman followed the moral code of preserving the lives of even his most ruthless foes, though darker comics such as Batman: A Death in the Family and various films depart slightly from this.

DVD & HD-DVD release
The Batman Begins DVD was released on October 18, 2005 in both single disc and two disc "deluxe" editions. In addition to the film disc, the deluxe edition contains a second disc of bonus materials and a small paperback booklet containing Detective Comics #27, Batman: The Man Who Falls and an excerpt from Batman: The Long Halloween.

Owing to the popularity of the film, DVD sales were high and for several weeks after the film's release to DVD, many retailers had only very small batches in stock, with some stores being unable to keep a continuous stock on the shelves. The deluxe edition proved to be the more popular of the two releases initially, making it more difficult to find. This led to rumors that it would only be available in limited numbers for a short period of time, and that many retailers would soon no longer be able to get any more of them. As of May 2006, most retailers appear to still have a stock of the deluxe release, and many retailers, including Amazon, even sell the item at a discount. Recently another version of the film has come to market as a sort of "compromise" release, as it contains the two-disc set from the deluxe edition package but without the paperback booklet.

Batman Begins was released on HD-DVD on October 10, 2006.

Soundtrack
The Batman Begins soundtrack was released on June 15, 2005. The soundtrack drew from the film score, composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, as well as contributions by Ramin Djawadi and Mel Wesson. The songs in the soundtrack were titled with Latin names: the first song, "Vespertilio", is taken from the Latin word for bat, and the rest of the songs are titled after different species of bats.

Video game
On June 15, 2005, a video game adaptation was released onto the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance & PlayStation Portable consoles. It featured all of the principal cast members and their likenesses reprising their roles from the film, with the exception of Gary Oldman. It was released on the same day as the movie.

The game falls into the 'stealth-action' genre, where Batman mainly stays in the shadows, avoiding his enemies and then triggering events (such as throwing a batarang at a light) to spook the enemies into fighting against him. The gameplay is similar to the Splinter Cell series.

Sequel
The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, continues the rebooted continuity of the film franchise. Christopher Nolan returns to direct the sequel with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman reprising their roles from Batman Begins. Heath Ledger was cast to play the Joker, whose presence in the continuity was hinted at the end of Batman Begins when policeman Gordon gives Batman a Joker playing card left by a criminal with "a taste for the theatrical". According to Nolan, Harvey Dent will also be introduced in the sequel. Principal photography for the sequel begins on March 2007, and The Dark Knight is targeted for a June 2008 release.