Other Titles • Batman Begins (2005) • Batman 5 • Batman: Intimidation • Batman: Intimidation Game (2003) • Batman Begins: The IMAX Experience • The Intimidation Game
“Earle is extremely competitive and aggressive; I think of him as a cross between Donald Trump and Bill Gates,” says Rutger Hauer, known for his memorable turns as magnificent bad guys in classic films like Blade Runner and The Hitcher, and more recently in the films Sin City and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. “He knows what he wants to accomplish with the company, and he’s filtered out who is working well for him – and who is not.”
Lucius Fox was a close friend of Thomas Wayne’s and does not share Earle’s appetite for earnings over intent. In his bid to take Wayne Enterprises public, Earle ungraciously dismisses Fox from his influential position on the board and relegates him to overseeing the company’s Applied Sciences division.
“Fox and Earle are like sandpaper rubbing against each other,” observes Morgan Freeman, an Academy Award recipient for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s drama Million Dollar Baby and an Oscar nominee for his roles in The Shawshank Redemption and Driving Miss Daisy. “I don’t think of Fox as being terribly ambitious or combative. He’s just really smart and well-educated. Earle has a great need to get rid of Fox, but he can’t just dump him; Fox knows too much. He has to keep him around so he can watch him. So he reduces him to being a warehouseman for all these wonderful toys.”
The Applied Sciences division is dedicated to engineering the design and production of high tech prototype materials, from cutting-edge weaponry to advanced military equipment. When Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham and begins assembling the tools to become Batman, he finds an ally in Fox, who provides him access to the resources available in Applied Sciences. Bruce begins experimenting with various military prototypes that Fox shows him, from body armor designed for combat to a rugged, tank-like vehicle nicknamed “The Tumbler.”
“A bond starts to develop between them because Fox sees that Bruce is ready to pick up the reigns of the company and put it back on its feet, back where it should be,” says Freeman, who admits that despite his character’s technological expertise, “Technology leaves me in the dark. I’ve had a computer since the early days of the PC, but I still can’t initialize a disk. That’s Greek to me.”
A supporting character from the comic book mythology, Lucius Fox was further developed by Nolan and Goyer specifically for Batman Begins. “We wanted to connect Bruce’s assembling the tools to become Batman with the process of trying to reclaim his father’s legacy and take Wayne Enterprises back into more positive directions,” Nolan explains. “Lucius Fox helps Bruce in his quest to become Batman without ever knowing exactly what Bruce’s specific mission is. There is a wonderful unspoken understanding between the two men.”
While Bruce Wayne harnesses his greatest fear and transforms it into a force for good, Dr. Jonathan Crane uses fear for purely personal gain. An accomplished young psychiatrist and the head of the prisoner population at Gotham’s Arkham Asylum mental facility, Crane’s specialty is the study of fears and phobias. He has developed a toxin through which he can tap into and unleash his patients’ worst fears, and as his alter-ego, the hideously-masked Scarecrow, he uses terror and paranoia as weapons against them.
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