Batman Begins (2005)

“Crane believes the mind controls everything, and he wants to control your mind,” Roven says.

“Crane has obviously achieved a lot at quite a young age, and he’s very arrogant,” says Cillian Murphy, a rising young actor best known for his starring role in Danny Boyle’s bracing sci-fi thriller 28 Days Later. “He’s not physically imposing, so his way of countering his lack of physicality is through his intelligence and his fear toxin. It’s deeply rooted in getting revenge for being maligned when he was younger. He gets satisfaction from seeing people reduced to an almost catatonic state of fear, just as he was as a child.”

“We felt that Crane’s drive to manipulate people through fear presented a very interesting parallel to the journey that Bruce Wayne embarks on with the Batman persona,” says Nolan, who worked with Goyer to connect the Crane character, who made his first appearance in World’s Finest Comics #3 in 1941, with Arkham Asylum, an historically significant location in Batman lore.

Though Crane and his alter ego Scarecrow are important characters in Batman’s comic book mythology, this is the first time they are being portrayed on film. “Playing Crane’s metamorphosis into Scarecrow was really appealing,” says Murphy, who read all of the Batman comics in which Scarecrow appears after he was cast in the role.

“Cillian’s performance as Crane is incredibly creepy and chilling,” Thomas says. “He has an extraordinary screen presence, and there is something especially unnerving about his eyes when he is playing Crane. I wouldn’t want to be alone in a room with that character!”

Working in cahoots with Crane is Carmine Falcone, Gotham City’s most notorious crime boss, whose crew of thugs are routinely diagnosed by the not-so-good doctor as being criminally insane, therefore avoiding prosecution by the District Attorney’s office.

“Falcone represents all that’s bad about Gotham,” says Tom Wilkinson, who most recently starred in the Oscar-nominated dramas In the Bedroom and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “He owns the police force, he owns the politicians and he owns the judiciary. And he’s the first bad guy that the fledging Batman cuts his teeth on.”

But even with well-placed allies, years of training and an arsenal of weapons at his disposal, it won’t be easy for Barman to stop a man as powerful as Falcone...

...or the even greater and more sinister forces threatening to destroy Gotham City.

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