Batman Begins

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and produced by Nolan and David S. Gower wrote. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe and Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne/Batman in supporting roles. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne’s journey from the death of his parents to becoming 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 canceled future Batman films, including Joel Schumacher’s planned Batman Unchained. Between 1998 and 2003, several filmmakers collaborated with Warner Bros. in an effort to relaunch 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. Nolan and Gower began developing the film in early 2003. Aiming for a darker, more realistic tone than the previous films, a primary goal of their approach was to engage the audience’s emotional investment in the identities of both the main characters, Batman and Bruce Wayne. The character film, which was shot primarily in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Chicago, relied heavily on traditional stunts and miniature effects, with computer-generated imagery used in a minimal capacity compared to other action films. Comic book stories such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One, and Batman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.
Anticipation for Batman Begins was moderate to low, stemming from the poor reception of Batman & Robin which was credited with ending the Batman film series in 1997. After premiering in Tokyo on May 31, 2005, the film was released on June 15, 2005. It received highly positive reviews from critics, who considered the film an improvement over Schumacher’s films, praising the more mature tone and character-driven storyline, Bale’s acting, musical score, direction, deep psychological focus and added layers. The title character’s depth of purpose and emotional weight compared to previous Batman films. The film grossed over $371.9 million worldwide, the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2005 and the second-highest-grossing Batman film after Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). Earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, the film elevated Bale to leading man status while making Nolan a high-profile director.

Released

Since its release, Batman Begins has often been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. It was credited with reviving the Batman character in popular culture, shifting its tone towards a darker and more serious tone and style. The film helped popularize the term reboot in Hollywood, inspiring studios and filmmakers to revive franchises with a realistic and serious tone. It was followed by The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), three films forming The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Details

In Gotham City, a young Bruce Wayne falls into a well and is attacked by bats, scaring them. While attending the opera with his parents, Bruce is spooked by performers disguised as bats and asked to leave. Outside, mugger Joe Chill kills Bruce’s parents in front of him. Orphaned Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Fourteen years later, Chill is paroled after testifying against Mafia boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce wants to kill Chill to avenge his parents, but one of Falcone’s assassins does it first. Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes scolds him for acting outside the justice system. After encountering Falcone, who says that true power comes from fear, Bruce spends the next seven years traveling the world, training for combat, and immersing himself in the criminal underworld.
In a prison in Bhutan, he is contacted by Henri Ducard, who recruits him into the League of Shadows led by Ra’s al Ghul. The League believes Gotham is beyond preservation and wants to destroy it. After completing his training, Bruce rejects the League and its mandate that killing is necessary, burning down their temple during his escape. Ra’s falls to his death in the wreckage, while Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard. Intent on fighting crime, Bruce returns to Gotham and takes an interest in his family’s company, Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by businessman William Earle. Company archivist Lucius Fox, a friend of Bruce’s father, allows Bruce access to prototype defense technology, including a protective bodysuit and the Tumbler, an armored vehicle. Bruce openly poses as a shallow playboy while setting up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor and adopting the vigilante identity of “Batman” inspired by his childhood fears, which he has now conquered.
Intercepting a drug shipment, Batman provides evidence against Rachel, now a Gotham assistant district attorney, and enlists Sergeant James Gordon, one of Gotham’s few honest police officers, to arrest him. In prison, Falcone meets Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychologist whom he helps smuggle drugs into Gotham. Wearing a scarecrow mask, Crane sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen, which drives him insane and transfers him to Arkham Asylum. While investigating his crime, Batman is sprayed with hallucinogen and set on fire by Crane. Batman manages to escape and is saved by Alfred, who gives him an antidote to hallucinogens made by Fox. When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, he reveals that he introduced his drug into Gotham’s water supply. Crane then drugs Rachel with hallucinogens. Batman later subdues Crane and sprays him with his own chemical. During interrogation, Crane claims to work for Ra’s Al Ghul.
Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety, administers the antidote, and gives her two vials: one for Gordon and the other for mass production. At Bruce’s birthday party, Ducard reappears and reveals himself as the true Ra’s Al Ghul; Dead Ra’s was a hoax. After stealing a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham’s water supply, making Crane’s medicine airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He burns down Wayne Manor and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him. Ra’s loads the emitter onto Gotham’s monorail train to release the drug into the city’s central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drug-addicted mob and reveals his identity to her. He confronts Ra’s on the train while Gordon uses Tumbler’s cannon to destroy a section of the track. Refusing to save Ra’s again, Batman escapes the train and is killed in the crash.
Bruce gains Rachel’s respect. However, she decides she can’t be with him, telling him they can be together if Gotham no longer needs Batman. Batman becomes a public hero. After purchasing a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, Bruce fires Earle and replaces him with Fox. Sergeant Gordon is promoted to lieutenant, shows Batman the bat-signal and tells him about a criminal who plays cards behind the Joker.

Cast and characters

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman:
A billionaire socialite who, after witnessing the death of his parents in a robbery at age 8, travels the world seven years before returning home to inherit his family company Wayne Enterprises while working nights as a bat-masked vigilante to bring justice to the criminal underworld. . Gotham City. Bell was relatively unknown at the time of casting. Before he was confirmed on September 11, 2003, Darren Aronofsky expressed interest in the role as he was planning his own film adaptation, alongside David Boreanaz, Heath Ledger, who later played the Joker in The Dark Knight, and Cillian Murphy, who later played Dr. . Jonathan will play Crane/Scarecrow, they were also interested. Josh Hartnett met with Nolan about the role, but decided against pursuing it. Bell, Bailey, and Murphy auditioned using a Batman Forever gold suit donated by Val Kilmer, but lost the cape, and Amy Adams served as a casting reader for the casting. Bruce Wayne/Batman on behalf of the casting director. Bale felt that previous films underutilized Batman’s character, instead overplaying the villain. In order to do his best impersonation as Batman, Bell studied graphic novels and superhero illustrations. Director Nolan says of Bale, “The balance of dark and light we were looking for was just right.” Because he lost a lot of weight in preparation for his role in The Machinist, Bale hired a personal trainer to help him physically prepare, helping him gain 100 pounds (45 kg) of muscle in just a few months. Introduction. Realizing she was over 30 pounds (14 kg), she lost the extra weight when filming began. Bell trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the film.
Gus Lewis as young Bruce Wayne.
Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:
A loyal butler to Bruce’s parents, who continues to serve their son loyally as his closest confidant after their deaths. Nolan offered the role to Anthony Hopkins but he turned it down. Nolan visited Cain’s country home to personally deliver the script to him, explaining what his role would be and describing Alfred as “Batman’s godfather”. Nolan felt Cain 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, Cain developed his own backstory, with Alfred working in the Special Air Service before becoming Wayne’s butler. After being injured, Thomas Wayne invited him to the position of butler to the Wayne household because, “He wanted a butler, but someone a little 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 degenerate, who goes undercover as an ally of the League and trains Bruce in martial arts, later reveals himself in the film’s climax. Writer David Gower stated that he felt he was the most complex of all Batman villains, comparing him to Osama bin Laden; “He’s not crazy like all the other Batman villains. He’s not bent on revenge; he’s actually trying to heal the world. He’s doing it in a very drastic way.” Gary Oldman was the 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 discussed casting her in the role, but they both decided she was too young for the part. Viggo Mortensen was also considered for the role. Neeson is usually cast as a mentor, so the revelation that his character was the main villain was intended to shock audiences.
Katie Holmes as Rachel Dewes:
Bruce’s childhood friend and love interest who works as Gotham City’s assistant district attorney and fights corruption in the city. Nolan found an “extraordinary 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 the young Rachel Dawes.
Gary Oldman as James Gordon:
One of the few unrepentant Gotham City police officers who was on duty the night Bruce’s parents were killed and thus, shares a special bond with the adult Bruce and 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 it would be refreshing for Oldman, who is known for his villainous portrayals. , instead to play the role “I embody the themes of the movie which are 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. Gower said Oldman closely resembled Gordon as drawn by David Mazzucchelli in Batman: Year One.
Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow:
A corrupt psychopharmacologist serves as the chief administrator of Arkham Asylum. An expert in the psychology of fear, he secretly develops a fear-inducing toxin and plots with Ra’s al Ghul to expose the Gotham population. Nolan decided against casting an Irish actor like Murphy as Batman, before casting him as the Scarecrow. Murphy read numerous comics featuring the Scarecrow and negotiated with Nolan to make the character less dramatic. “I wanted to avoid the Worzel Gummidge look, because he’s not a very physically imposing person—he’s more interested in mind manipulation and what it can do,” Murphy explained.
Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone:
Gotham’s most powerful mafia boss, who shares a prison cell with Joe Chill after murdering Bruce’s parents. Later, after killing Chill for his decision to testify against their relationship, he spends several months smuggling Crane’s fear toxin through his drug shipment and trading it with Dr. Jonathan Crane and Ra’s al Ghul to mix it up. with city water supply.
Rutger Hauer as William Earle:
CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who took the company public during Bruce’s long-term absence.
Ken Watanabe as Al Ghul in Ra’s Decoy:
A member of the League of Shadows was assigned to impersonate Ra’s al Ghul during Bruce’s training.
Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:
A high-ranking employee of Wayne Enterprises, he is promoted to work in the company’s applied science department, where he conducts advanced studies in biochemistry and mechanical engineering and supplies Bruce with many of the tools needed to carry out Batman’s mission. When Bruce takes control of the company at the end of the film, he is promoted to CEO.
Other cast members include Mark Boone Jr. as Arnold Fluss, Gordon’s corrupt partner; Linus Roche as Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s late father; Larry Holden as District Attorney Carl Finch; Police Commissioner Gillian B. Colin McFarlane as Loeb; Christine Adams as Jessica, William Earl’s secretary; Vincent Wong as an old Asian prisoner; Sarah Stewart as Martha Wayne, Bruce’s late mother; Richard Brake as Joe Chill, Owens’ killer; Gerard Murphy as corrupt High Court Judge Faden; Charles Edwards as a Wayne Enterprises executive; Tim Booth as Victor Zsasz; Red Sherbedzija as a homeless man who is the last person seen by Bruce as he leaves Gotham and sees Batman, Richard Cooper and Andrew Plevin as the first civilian as a uniformed cop, Joe Martin as a police prison officer, and Shane Rimmer and Jeremy Renner. Theobald (star and co-producer of Nolan’s 1998 film The Following) as a Gotham Water Board technician. Jack Gleeson, who previously co-starred with Bale in 2002’s Rain of Fire and later found fame playing 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. Gul’s people; Gleason was cast on Bell’s recommendation. Actors John Foo, Joey Ansah, Spencer Wilding, Dave Legeno, Khan Bonfils, Mark Strange, Grant Guiry, Rodney Ryan and Dean Alexandru play members of the League of Shadows. Hayden Nickell made his acting debut as James Gordon Jr.

Box Office

Batman Begins topped its opening weekend, grossing $48 million, which was viewed as “strong but underwhelming by today’s instant blockbuster standards”. The film had a five-day gross of $72.9 million, beating Batman Forever (1995) as the franchise high. Batman Begins also broke the five-day opening record in 55 IMAX theaters, grossing $3.16 million. Polled moviegoers rated the film an A, and according to studio polls, Batman Begins was considered the best of all the Batman films. The audience demographic was 57 percent male and 54 percent over the age of 25.
The film dropped 43 percent in its opening weekend to $28 million, retaining its top spot the other weekend. Batman Begins grossed $205 million in North America and had a worldwide total of $371.8 million since its original release. It grossed $1.6 million more than its 2012 re-release, bringing its 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 surpassed its sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which grossed $1 billion. Batman Begins averaged $12,634 per theater in its opening weekend. It was released in more theaters, but sold fewer tickets than any other previous Batman movie except Batman and Robin. Batman Begins was the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2005 in the United States.

About

Directed by	Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by	·         Christopher Nolan ·         David S. Goyer
Story by	David S. Goyer
Based on	Characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics
Produced by	·         Charles Roven ·         Emma Thomas ·         Larry Franco
Starring	·         Christian Bale ·         Michael Caine ·         Liam Neeson ·         Katie Holmes ·         Gary Oldman ·         Cillian Murphy ·         Tom Wilkinson ·         Rutger Hauer ·         Ken Watanabe ·         Morgan Freeman
Cinematography	Wally Pfister
Edited by	Lee Smith
Music by	·         Hans Zimmer ·         James Newton Howard
Production companies	·         Warner Bros. Pictures ·         DC Comics ·         Legendary Pictures ·         Syncopy ·         Patalex III Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	·         May 31, 2005 (Tokyo) ·         June 15, 2005 (United States) ·         June 17, 2005 (United Kingdom)
Running time	140 minutes
Countries	·         United Kingdom ·         United States
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Box office	$373.7 million

 

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