Batman Begins (2005)

Says Pfister, “You very rarely drive a car more than 50 or 60 miles an hour in a chase sequence. We had the Batmobile up to 105 miles an hour. It was amazing to us, and it nearly outran a helicopter – particularly flying sideways, the helicopter couldn’t even keep up with the Batmobile.”

Additionally, the crew utilized a combination of the arm and the lever head attached to a motorcycle with a sidecar, and a camera was mounted to the front of a police car that one of the stunt men drove and kept within a few feet of all the big action sequences. Pfister and Nolan also used a space cam and a helicopter to capture spectacular aerial footage of the Batmobile driving around Chicago and on the open highway.

The massive amounts of planning, work and dedication devoted to developing and executing the Batmobile earned it a special place in the filmmakers’ hearts. “For a long time there was actually going to be a moment at the end of the movie where we were going to destroy the Batmobile,” recalls producer Emma Thomas. “But in the end we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it – the Batmobile had become like a character to us.”

Batman’s image invokes something primal, almost bestial, striking terrible fear in the hearts of those the Dark Knight has sworn to defeat. It was imperative to the filmmakers that their Batsuit enable Christian Bale to strike that menacing chord. “I looked at the great comics and graphic novels through the history of Batman to try and distill the essence of what those extraordinary pictures and drawings were saying about what Batman should look like,” says Nolan. “Each artist interprets the costume differently, but there are these common aspects that define the essence of the character.”

The Batman Begins filmmakers wanted to create a very mobile Batsuit, as opposed to previous suits, which were quite stiff and thus physically restrictive. The newly designed suit allows Bale to perform all of the demanding action that the film’s stunts and martial arts fight sequences called for.

“A major consideration with the Batsuit was that Chris didn’t want it designed just to look at, but to be very functional in execution,” says costume designer Lindy Hemming (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lara Croft Tomb Raider). “He wanted the legs to be supple so that he could crouch down when necessary, and he very much wanted Christian to be able to move his head and not have to do the superhero movement of turning the shoulders and the head at once.” (Full head movement was not possible in previous feature film incarnations of the Batsuit.) 

In Batman Begins, the Batsuit is born when Bruce Wayne modifies a prototype he discovers in Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Sciences division: the Nomax Survival Suit, nearly impervious body armor designed for soldiers to wear in combat. 

The Batsuit designed by Hemming and her team is comprised of a neoprene undersuit, much like a diver’s wet suit, with molded cream latex sections adhered to it. “The suit is made of waterproof armor with components inside that maintain the body temperature and keep the muscles from freezing up, so it’s multi-functional,” says Hemming. There are seven separate latex sections of the Batsuit: the knees, calves, legs, arms, torso, spine and cowl. 

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