The Batman vs. Dracula (Movie)

"You're the second batman I've met tonight, and you're both a pain in the neck!"

- The Joker

Synopsis
At Arkham Asylum, the Penguin is told by another prisoner that a large amount of money is hidden in Gotham Cemetery, in a crypt behind a tombstone with a cross. After the prisoner mentions he told the Joker, an alarm sounds and a guard yells that the Joker has escaped. Penguin uses the confusion to break out as well.

Penguin meets up with Joker on his way to the graveyard and they strike a deal - but Joker loses no time in double-crossing Penguin and knocking him out with an electrified Joy Buzzer. As Penguin watches, he sees The Batman following Joker.

Penguin reaches the graveyard, but it turns out that many of the tombstones have crosses. Meanwhile, The Batman and Joker fight, ending in Joker's apparent death, falling in water and being electrocuted by his own Joy Buzzers.

While in the graveyard, Penguin finds a crypt and cuts loose a suspended coffin. In the process, he cuts his hand on the blade of his umbrella and the blood drips onto the corpse inside. As Penguin leaves the crypt, the corpse reanimates and gains new flesh and organs.

Penguin hears the corpse and sees Count Dracula rise. He runs trying to escape but Dracula follows the scent and trail of blood from Penguin's cut. Dracula finds the night watchman and drains his blood. Penguin is surprised when he sees the watchman become a vampire, protesting that a dead man can't do that. Dracula replies that he is undead.

Dracula hypnotizes Penguin into becoming his servant to show him Gotham so he can feed. Dracula notes that Transylvania has changed, and is informed by Penguin that he is in Gotham City. Dracula concludes that he has been moved since his death. On a flashback, a group of angry people, led by a well-dressed and seemingly very educated man (probably Abraham Van Helsing), march upon the castle Dracula. The leader drives the stake through Dracula's heart in order to finally destroy him. However, the leader knows that he has merely incapacitated the vampire, paralyzing him in a death-like state. Soon, he arranged the vampire's body to be transferred out of Transylvania, buried in America, on land that would eventually become Gotham City.

Bruce has an interview with Vicki Vale at a restaurant. On his return to Wayne Manor, he tells Alfred that he invited her to the corporate dinner and a dinner on Saturday.

As the Batman patrols the city, a woman is robbed, but when the crook is stopped before the Batman can arrive, he decides he's not needed. Hearing the woman scream again, he sees that the night watchman is a vampire. The crook and the woman have also become vampires. The Batman fights them but is unable to defeat them and forces them to retreat. Penguin then wakes up Dracula who now looks more human, having fed on some people, with plans to turn Gotham into a city of vampires.

Batman does not believe what he has seen, but knows something is wrong. At the party Bruce meets Dracula under the name of Alucard. Dracula takes an interest in Vicki Vale and says he is studying the Batman. When a waiter comes by with a tray of garlic shrimp he is noticeably disturbed. Bruce notices this and offers him some, but Dracula hypnotises him and leaves. A moment later the hypnotised Bruce leaves Vicki and wanders over to the balcony, where Dracula is waiting to bite him. However, just before Dracula is to bite his victim, Alfred arrives, prompting Dracula to disappear and Bruce to snap out of the trance. Dracula meanwhile feeds on one of the waiters. Alfred discovers the waiter is a vampire and narrowly avoids being attacked. Bruce meanwhile deduces "Alucard"'s true identity: Dracula.

After an intensive research with Alfred in the Batcave, Batman begins to realize that many of Dracula's legends were true events. Also realizing that Gotham citizens' disappearances are because of Dracula, he and Alfred realize that the vampires' number will grow exponentially into an army in a matter of weeks. Rather than killing the vampires, Bruce decides to find a way to revert Dracula's victims to normal again, since vampirism seems to be transmitted as a disease, and normally there's a chance to treat it. Bruce and Alfred headed toward the manor's library for its collection of medical textbooks and researches belonged to Bruce's father himself, Dr. Thomas Wayne.

The next morning it is reported that The Batman is causing people to disappear and is attacked that night on patrol. As Batman traces the city's number of disappearances, he discovers that the first attack occurred at Gotham Cemetery, where a watchman has disappeared. After realizing that vampirism is plaguing the city, Alfred not only arms the mansion with relics and herbs known to ward off the creatures, but also Batman's own arsenal as well. At night, while investigating at the cemetery, the Gotham P.D. SWAT unit members are also at the scene. As he escapes, the police members are taken by Dracula. Batman encounters Dracula on a rooftop. Dracula, admittedly admiring the Dark Knight, offers him a chance of immortality. Batman understands what this offer would really mean to him and refuses, and tries to fight, but is unable to defeat him and is severely injured. Fortunately, Dracula retreats when the sun rises, but not before Dracula promises to the Dark Knight that he will kill him because of the rejection. Bruce wakes up later on in his bed after having a nightmare in which he sees his parents killed after finished watching the movie The Cloaked Rider and sees the Batman as a vampire. The young billionaire wakes up, in fear of his own persona as The Batman and Dracula's evil.

Joker shows up at the graveyard after a fisherman took him to a boat and demands his share from Penguin. He chases Penguin into the crypt where he opens Dracula's coffin and is attacked. Later, in a bloodbank, a nurse is attacked and The Batman finds Joker feasting on the blood from the numerous vials on the shelves. The two fight until they knock over the shelves. While Joker is distracted drinking blood raining down from a collapsed set of shelves, The Batman hits him with garlic bombs.

Batman takes him inside the Batcave and gets to work curing vampirism, which the computer identifies as a form of virus infecting a host's cellular structure, and also obtaining the whereabouts of the Prince of Darkness from the Clown Prince of Crime. The Joker, despite his hatred toward the vampire lord, is unable to tell his location, due to the fact that the vampire has completely taken control of his will, as the Joker is now his vassal. Unfortunately, as the Dark Knight works toward discovering the cure and locating Dracula and his victims, he stands up Vicki who is at a train station where she meets Dracula. Bruce tries to call her but gets no answer. He finishes work on the cure in the form of a vaccine, using it to cure Joker. He has lost his memory of what happened at the crypt, however using what the Joker remembered prior to being bitten, Batman is able to deduce Dracula's location. Batman then proceeds to mass produce the vaccine and plan his attack.

Inside the crypt Dracula takes the ashes of his former wife, Carmilla, who was killed when exposed to the sun as she was also a vampire, and places them on a slab suspended above Vicki. He then begins to use her soul to reanimate her.

The Batman enters the crypt at Gotham Cemetery, and discovers a catacomb underneath it, which explains how Dracula was able to bypass the Christian relics above it. During the Dark Knight's attack, Batman cures all the vampires with the vaccine. Batman is about to fire a projectile carrying the last vial of the vaccine to the vampire lord when Dracula hypnotizes the Dark Knight and makes him unable to fire and destroy him. After hearing Dracula mockingly laugh at him, and remembering the childhood tragedy that inspired him to become Batman, the Dark Knight willfully breaks free of the vampire lord's control. He then rescues Vicki and fights with Dracula. Batman learns that the caves lead to the Batcave and uses explosives to delay Dracula and enter the Batcave. He is beaten, however, and Dracula plans to kill him rather than turn him into a vampire.

Alfred stabs a vial of the vaccine into Dracula but it does not work, as Dracula is the original - "evil incarnate". Batman then activates a device from Wayne Industries that can store and emit sunlight as well as turn it into energy. Dracula realizes too late that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman steps away from the sunlight which then dissolves Dracula, leaving only a skull with fangs. Alfred proceeds to sweep his remains into the dustbin.

In the meantime, Penguin is chasing Vicki, and is just about to catch her when he is freed from his hypnosis and they finally discover the gold. He is overjoyed but is then caught by police. News reporters state that the people were under Penguin's control and Penguin keeps saying they were vampires as he is taken away. Vicki sees The Batman, who arrives to check on the victims, and smiles knowing he saved the city. The Batman swung proudly throughout the city, knowing that he has just defeated an ultimate evil, and resumes his patrol, ready to defend Gotham against any others that might threaten its safety.

Related Articles

 * Batman (2004 TV Series)
 * Earth-The Batman