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Batman (1989 film)

BatmanDirected byTim BurtonScreenplay byStory bySam HammBased onProduced byStarringCinematographyRoger PrattEdited byRay LovejoyMusic byDanny ElfmanDistributed byWarner Bros.126 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget�48 millionBox office1.6 million
Batman is a 1989 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It is the first installment of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series. The film stars Jack Nicholson as the Joker and Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman, alongside Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance. The film takes place early in the title character's war on crime, and depicts his conflict with the Joker.

After Burton was hired as director in 1986, Steve Englehart and Julie Hickson wrote film treatments before Sam Hamm wrote the first screenplay. Batman was not greenlit until after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). Numerous A-list actors were considered for the role of Batman before Keaton was cast. Keaton's casting was controversial since, by 1988, he had become typecast as a comedic actor and many observers doubted he could portray a serious role. Nicholson accepted the role of the Joker under strict conditions that dictated top billing, a portion of the film's earnings (including associated merchandise), and his own shooting schedule.

The tone and themes of the film were partly influenced by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The film primarily adapts and diverts from the "Red Hood" origin story for the Joker, having Batman inadvertently cause gangster Jack Napier to fall into Axis Chemical acid, triggering his transformation into the psychopathic Joker. Filming took place at Pinewood Studios from October 1988 to January 1989. The budget escalated from million to million, while the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced Hamm to drop out. Warren Skaaren did rewrites, with additional uncredited drafts done by Charles McKeown and Jonathan Gems.

Batman was both critically and financially successful, earning over 0 million in box office totals. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination for Nicholson's performance, and won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. It also inspired the equally successful Batman: The Animated Series, paving the way for the DC animated universe, and has influenced Hollywood's modern marketing and development techniques of the superhero film genre. The film was followed by three sequels: Batman Returns (1992), with both Burton and Keaton returning; Batman Forever (1995), and Batman & Robin (1997).

Plot
As Gotham City approaches its bicentennial, Mayor Borg orders district attorney Harvey Dent and police Commissioner Gordon to make the city safer by incarcerating mob boss Carl Grissom. Meanwhile, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate sightings of a masked vigilante called "Batman" who is targeting the city's criminals. Both attend a fundraiser hosted by billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, who is secretly Batman, having chosen this path after witnessing a mugger murder his parents when he was a child. During the event, Bruce becomes infatuated with Vale, but interrupts their meeting to secretly pursue Gordon when he leaves on police business.

Grissom sends his sociopathic second-in-command Jack Napier to raid Axis Chemicals to retrieve incriminating evidence, though it is a cover to have Napier murdered for sleeping with his mistress Alicia Hunt. Although corrupt police lieutenant Max Eckhardt arranges the hit on Napier by conducting an unauthorized police operation, Gordon arrives, takes command, and orders officers to capture Napier alive as a potential witness. Batman also arrives to catch Napier, who kills Eckhardt as revenge for double-crossing him. During a scuffle with Batman, Napier topples off a catwalk and falls into a vat of acidic chemicals. Although presumed dead, Napier survives with various disfigurements including chalk white skin and emerald green hair and nails. He undergoes surgery from a surgeon to repair the damage, but ends up with a rictus grin. Driven insane by his new appearance, Napier, now calling himself "the Joker", kills Grissom at his estate, massacres Grissom's associates and takes over his operations.

Batman researches a way to stop the Joker from terrorizing Gotham with hygiene products laced with "Smylex" � a deadly chemical which causes victims to literally die laughing with the same maniacal grin as the Joker. The Joker soon develops limerence with Vicki and lures her to the Gotham Museum of Art, where his henchmen destroy the works of art within. Batman arrives and rescues Vicki before taking her to his Batcave, providing her with all of his research on Smylex that will allow the city's residents to escape the toxin. Conflicted with his love for her, Bruce visits her apartment intending to reveal his secret identity, only for the Joker to interrupt the meeting. The Joker confronts Bruce with the question "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" which the latter recalls being used by the mugger who killed his parents. The Joker then shoots Bruce, but he survives thanks to a serving tray hidden underneath his shirt, and escapes while the Joker is distracted. At the Batcave, Bruce reminisces on his parents' murder, and realizes that the Joker was their killer.

Vicki is taken to the Batcave by Bruce's butler, Alfred, who had been coaxing the relationship between the pair to bring out Bruce's human side. After exposing his secret to Vicki, Bruce reveals he cannot focus on their relationship with the Joker on the loose, and departs to destroy the Axis plant used to create Smylex. Meanwhile, the Joker lures Gotham's citizens to a parade with the promise of free money, in order to dose them with Smylex gas held within giant parade balloons. Batman foils his plan by using his Batwing to remove the balloons, but the Joker shoots him down. The Batwing crashes in front of a cathedral, and the Joker takes Vicki hostage within it. Batman pursues the Joker to the top of the cathedral, and in the ensuing fight, he reveals that he knows Napier killed his parents and, thus, indirectly created Batman before the latter created the Joker, leading the Joker to realize Batman is Bruce. The Joker eventually pulls Batman and Vicki over the balcony of the cathedral, leaving them hanging while he attempts to escape by calling in a helicopter piloted by his goons, who throw down a ladder for him to climb. However, Batman uses a grappling hook to attach the Joker's leg to a gargoyle. Unable to bear its immense weight, the Joker falls to his death while Batman and Vicki make it to safety.

Sometime later, Gordon announces that the police have arrested all of the Joker's men and unveils the Bat-Signal. Dent reads a note from Batman, promising that he will defend Gotham should crime strike again, and asks them to use the Bat-Signal to summon him in times of need. Alfred takes Vicki to Wayne Manor, explaining that Bruce will be a little late. She responds that she is not surprised, as Batman looks at the signal's projection from a rooftop, standing watch over the city.

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