The Batman is a 2022 neo-noir superhero thriller film directed by Matt Reeves, who co-wrote the script with Peter Craig and Mattson Tomlin. Produced by DC Films, it follows on the titular vigilante's investigation into the Riddler's string of murders, leading him to a conspiracy that runs deep into the heart of Gotham City.
The film was released to commercial success and acclaim from both critics and audiences. Particular praise was given to the noir-inspired visuals and tone, representation of the comics' detective and mystery elements, complex characters, and Robert Pattinson's lead performance.
On Halloween of 2022 in Gotham City, Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. is murdered in his home by the enigmatic serial killer known as the Riddler. After his body is found, an investigation is carried out by the vigilante detective known as the Batman and police lieutenant Jim Gordon. The pair discover ciphers and puzzles left behind by the Riddler addressed to the Batman, which the Batman solves with the help of his butler in civilian life, Alfred. Gordon and the Batman find evidence of Mitchell cheating on his wife at the Iceberg Lounge, which the Riddler then sends to the press.
Selina infiltrates Mitchell's home
The Batman goes to the Lounge speak to its owner, the Penguin, and while their conversation proves fruitless, Batman notices barmaid Selina Kyle intently listening in on them. He follows her home, where she dons a leather outfit and mask before making her way to Mitchell's mansion, where the Batman finally confronts her. He discovers the woman Mitchell was cheating with, Annika Kosolov, was an Estonian prostitute, and Selina's roommate and lover. When they return to her apartment and found it ransacked with Annika gone, they see on the news that the Riddler has killed police commissioner Pete Savage, followed by a televised message from the Riddler, in which he tells Gotham's citizens that he plans to expose and dismantle the corruption that plagues the city through his killing spree.
Selina agrees to help the Batman infiltrate the Iceberg Lounge to help him learn more about its patrons, if he helps her find Annika. Wearing a video-recording contact lens and an earpiece connected to Batman, Selina's infiltration of the Lounge allows him to discover that D.A. Gil Colson is involved in this conspiracy, and knows about a confidential informant in a massive drug bust that led to the takedown of Salvatore Maroni's drug operation. The Batman presses Selina to get Colson to tell more, and presses even harder when he discovers she knows gangster Carmine Falcone, making her uncomfortable enough to remove the contact lens and earpiece and leave Batman alone.
The Batman tries to save Colson
The next day, Mayor Mitchell's funeral is crashed by Colson, who had been captured earlier by the Riddler and forced had a bomb fastened around his neck and a ringing phone taped to his hand, with instructions for the Batman to call him. The Batman arrives and answers the Riddler's video call, helping Colson navigate the Riddler's game of riddles to help him survive. However, he refuses to give up the informant out of fear for his family, and the bomb is detonated.
Gordon and the Batman decide that the Penguin must be the informant, and after discovering Maroni's drug operation hadn't been shut down after all, they capture and interrogate him. In their interrogation, they realize they misread the Riddler's clues, which leads them to the Gotham Orphanage, the Riddler's old home. There they discovered that the Riddler harbors a grudge against the Batman's late father, Thomas Wayne, and that Bruce Wayne, the Batman himself, is his next target. The Batman races to his home of Wayne Tower, only to find the Riddler had sent a packaged explosive to the tower an hour earlier and hospitalized Alfred.
The truth about the Waynes
With Bruce at his lowest point, the Riddler leaks to the press that Thomas allegedly hired Carmine Falcone to murder a journalist who planned to send the truth about his wife's history of mental illness to the press. Bruce briefly questions his motives and methods as the Batman, as his parents' murder was the inciting incident for him becoming a vigilante. When speaking to Alfred in the hospital, he's told that his father did have dealings with Falcone, but he was shocked by the journalist's murder, and Falcone may have ordered he and his wife's murders to cover up his involvement.
While thinking this over, Bruce is summoned as the Batman by Selina, who reveals Falcone is her father. She had also discovered that he strangled Annika after Mitchell told her that he was the informant, and was controlling Gotham from the inside out through his drug ring. Selina goes to the Iceberg Lounge to kill Falcone, but the Batman stops her just in time. He attempts to take him in to be put on trial, but the Riddler fatally shoots Falcone from his nearby apartment, and is himself arrested and unmasked as forensics accountant Edward Nashton.
Edward Nashton finally meets the Batman
Once incarcerated in Arkham State Hospital, Edward meets with the Batman, and reveals he had been inspired by his violent crusade to commit these murders and expose Gotham's corruption. He believes that by leaving clues and puzzles, he was in fact helping the Batman uncover the Falcone conspiracy, and that they had been working together unmasking it to the public. When the Batman angrily rejects him, Edward reveals he has placed several car bombs along the city seawall, which soon explode and begin flooding the city, all while his internet following infiltrate the crowded Gotham Square Garden to kill the newly elected mayor.
Batman helps in the recovery efforts from the flood
The Batman races to the Garden to stop Edward's followers as the flood waters rise, with the help of Gordon and Selina. After taking them all down, the Batman realizes that his brutal tactics have been inspiring criminals instead of stopping them, and decided to become a symbol of hope for the city. He aids in the recovery efforts as the flood waters rise, and manages to help save several civilians. In the immediate aftermath, Edward acquires a new ally in Arkham, the Penguin prepares to take control of Falcone's empire, and Selina says goodbye to the Batman, who prepares to protect Gotham from the troubles it's sure to face in the coming months.
Before The Batman: An Original Movie Novel was released one month before The Batman and is meant to be a prequel to its events, but its events are contradicted by other media in The Batman Saga and it can be considered apocryphal.
Co-writer Mattson Tomlin went uncredited for his contributions to the film.
Tomlin later used undeveloped ideas for the film in his limited comic series, Batman: The Imposter.[5]
The Riddler's website in the movie, rataalada.com, is a real website that sometimes challenges visitors with riddles for the reward of promotional material that is often canon to The Batman Saga.[6]
Paul Dano, who played the Riddler in the film, wrote a prequel comic entitled The Riddler: Year One that expands on his character's backstory, based on notes he took during production of The Batman.
In his performance as the title character, Pattinson took inspiration from the storyline "Shaman".[7]
The cover of The Batman: The Official Script Book
The entire screenplay of the film was published as The Batman: The Official Script Book, including a deleted scene where Lt. Gordon calls his daughter Barbara.[9]
Two different identification cards are found when the Riddler is arrested by the GCPD. While one shows his actual name "Edward Nashton", the other ID card says "Patrick Parker", an alias taken from an unsourced edit to the Wikipedia article about the Riddler.[10]
