The Batman hit film theaters on Friday, with Robert Pattinson donning Bruce Wayne’s iconic cowl and brutalizing Gotham Metropolis’s criminals in an intense journey set early in his vigilante profession. In writer-director Matt Reeves‘ film, Batman faces off in opposition to the Riddler (Paul Dano) because the wildly creepy, puzzle-obsessed supervillain targets the town’s sleazy elites.

Teaming up with Selina Kyle (AKA Catwoman, performed by Zoë Kravitz) and GCPD Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), our hero unravels Riddler’s darkish plot to reveal the depths of the town’s corruption. It is a twisty-turny story, so let’s take a more in-depth take a look at the ending, a few of the main revelations, that chilling cameo and sequel potentialities. We even have a separate explainer for the post-credits Easter egg.

Be warned, SPOILERS are about to swoop in.

Gotham underwater

The Riddler permits himself to be arrested after exposing the depths of Gotham Metropolis’s corruption, however solely so he can watch his scheme’s ultimate act play out from the protection of his cell in Arkham Asylum. A sequence of vehicles are rigged to explode the seawall across the metropolis, flooding its streets and forcing everybody to flee to the venue the place new mayor Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) is celebrating her victory.

A bunch of the villain’s on-line followers don his Zodiac Killer-inspired costumes like his and infiltrate the occasion. They open fireplace on the trapped crowds, however Batman, Catwoman, Gordon and the town’s cops cease them in a fairly epic motion sequence.

Surprised after getting shot at point-blank vary, Batman jabs himself with adrenaline and virtually beats one of many goons to loss of life however is stopped earlier than he goes too far. After unmasking the man, Gordon asks who he’s. 

“Me, I am vengeance,” he responds, mirroring Batman’s slogan and making the hero notice he is been a bit too darkish and broody in his method to crime preventing.

Batman leaps into motion to cease folks from getting electrocuted within the flood waters, then rescues the brand new mayor and a bunch of others who obtained trapped underneath particles. As the facility goes out, he lights a flare (a Bat-flare?) and leads everybody to security, turning into a literal beacon of hope for the town.  

With the town flooded and underneath martial legislation, Selena tells Batman she’s going upstate or to Blüdhaven (a close-by metropolis that, within the comics, is historically stomping floor of Batman ally Nightwing, however that character hasn’t been established on this universe). She tries to influence Batman to go together with her to allow them to be broody vigilantes collectively, however he opts to remain in Gotham.

Joke(r)’s on you

Caught in Arkham, Riddler is understandably upset that his horrible plan did not play out totally. Nonetheless, he is greeted by a seemingly sympathetic fellow inmate (Barry Keoghan). We solely see him momentarily, however his facial scars and creepy chuckle trace at his identification.

“Sooner or later you are on high, the following you are a clown… there are worse issues to be,” he says. “Gotham loves a comeback story.”

“Riddle me this: the much less of them you may have, the extra one is value,” he asks Riddler, taking part in into his shtick.

“A pal,” the Riddler responds. Yay, villain buddies.

Keoghan’s character is credited as Unseen Arkham Inmate, however he is virtually actually this universe’s Joker. It is unclear if he is encountered Batman but or why he is in Arkham, however this seems to be setting some form of supervillain teamup in a sequel or no less than hinting that our hero will face a brand new form of menace on this universe. This film is reportedly the primary of a trilogy, and two HBO Max reveals (a police procedural set within the GCPD and a Penguin-centric crime sequence) are seemingly within the works.

Gotham conspiracy

The mayor, police commissioner and district lawyer endure horrible deaths as a part of Riddler’s insidious plot, because of their roles in a conspiracy to bust crime boss Sal Maroni. The villain’s puzzles ship Batman and Gordon on a hunt for an unidentified informant often called El Rata Alada — Spanish for The Winged Rat. Which sounds prefer it’s referring to a bat, nevertheless it’s revealed that Riddler is looking for a snitch whose identify is derived from a chicken — the tremendous sleazy mobster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

With Maroni off the streets, Falcone took over his drug operation. Those that helped him or regarded the opposite method obtained paid, and all people received. Besides Gotham, which become much more of a cesspool. So Riddler determined to disclose the depths of the town’s corruption as he broadcast his killings on-line. 

Earlier than Batman and the GCPD can take Falcone into custody, Selena confronts him with the revelation that he is her father and prepares to kill him. He turns the tables and taunts Selena by confessing to strangling her mom as he chokes her however is stopped by Batman. 

Falcone is then led exterior to be arrested, the place the Riddler weapons him down from afar — the supervillain needed to get the mobster into the open so he might kill him. This leaves an influence vacuum in Gotham’s felony underworld, which is able to most certainly be stuffed by Oz (AKA Penguin, performed by Colin Farell).

Wayne household secrets and techniques

Riddler additionally targets Bruce Wayne by sending him a bomb within the mail. It would not attain its supposed recipient (what sort of billionaire opens their very own letters?), as a substitute wounding devoted butler Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis).

Throughout considered one of Riddler’s broadcasts, he reveals a few of the darkness within the Waynes’ previous. Bruce’s late mom, Martha, was a member of the Arkham household whose dad and mom died in a murder-suicide, with the trauma main her to be institutionalised a number of instances rising up.

Martha apparently discovered stability when she married Thomas Wayne and had Bruce, however Thomas’ determination to run for mayor of Gotham led reporter Edward Elliot to dig into the household’s previous. 

This threatened to reveal Martha’s story, and Thomas went to Falcone for assist (as a result of going to a mobster for help all the time ends properly) and Elliot ended up lifeless. Falcone tells Bruce that Thomas had him kill Elliot, however Alfred gives a special model of occasions: Thomas requested Falcone to scare Elliot off the story, however Falcone killed the reporter and Thomas stated he was going to admit all the pieces to the police.

The Waynes had been killed shortly afterward — the homicide stays unsolved on this continuity — leaving the charity fund Thomas established to resume Gotham to be snatched by the town’s corrupt elites. 

This left Gotham’s poor in worse form than ever, however none extra so than younger Edward Nashton. The super-smart orphan grew up in squalor, and seeing Bruce incomes the town’s sympathy after Matha and Thomas had been killed stuffed him with a jealous rage, reasoning that the Wayne household fortune made shedding his dad and mom simpler than had been for others. And so Edward grew as much as be the Riddler.

Publish-credits Easter egg

The Batman would not have a post-credits scene, however there’s one final reference to the Riddler’s marketing campaign — we see a typed “?” adopted by “GOOD BYE” and www.rataalada.com appears to flash up on the display screen for the briefest of moments. That URL brings you to a viral advertising and marketing web site the place you reply a sequence of the villain’s questions.

Comedian inspiration

This film is conceptually and tonally much like iconic 1996 story The Lengthy Halloween, which sees Batman making an attempt to infer the identification of a serial killer who slays folks on holidays. He additionally works with Gordon and DA Harvey Dent to stop a gang struggle between the Falcone and Maroni crime households.

It acts as a followup to 1987 Batman origin story 12 months One, which The Batman director Reeves additionally cited as inspiration. Christopher Nolan’s Darkish Knight trilogy weaved in parts from 12 months One and The Lengthy Halloween as properly — they’re important studying for any Batman fan. They’ve additionally been tailored into animated motion pictures.

Martha Wayne is not historically a member of the Arkham household within the comics, however 2012 graphic novel Batman: Earth One takes place in a continuity the place she is. In quantity 1 of that story, Martha’s mom killed her father and left the household scandalized. Thomas Wayne additionally runs for mayor in opposition to Oswald Cobblepot, however he and Martha are killed by a mugger. Bruce’s relationship with Alfred is sort of much like the dynamic seen in The Batman too.

Earth One’s second quantity introduces a serial killer Riddler who vegetation a bomb to get Batman’s consideration, resembling The Batman’s model of the character. 

The concept of the Riddler flooding Gotham mirrors the superb 2013 storyline Zero 12 months, which takes place at a equally early level in Batman’s profession.

In an interview with CNET, director Reeves famous that 2000 story Ego influenced the film’s method to Bruce’s inside battle.  

“It obtained into the psychology of the beast inside being Batman, this drive for vengeance, this instinctual facet,” he stated.

Within the 2011 comics storyline Gates of Gotham, Edward Elliot was one of many folks chargeable for the development of Gotham Metropolis within the 1800s (together with Bruce’s ancestor Alan Wayne and Penguin’s ancestor Theodore Cobblepot). Elliot is the ancestor of Thomas Elliot, a childhood pal of Bruce whose jealousy led him to change into the supervillain Hush and launch a marketing campaign in opposition to Batman.

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