Other Titles • Batman Begins (2005) • Batman 5 • Batman: Intimidation • Batman: Intimidation Game (2003) • Batman Begins: The IMAX Experience • The Intimidation Game
“Christian had a very controlled and specific approach to how he wanted to portray the aggression and the animal-like quality of this character,” says Nolan. “He spent a long time looking at graphic novels and illustrations of Batman, to form his own sense of how he should move and communicate with the other characters. I think that his portrayal is very striking in its intensity and its seriousness.”
“The first time I saw him in the suit I knew that he was meant to play Batman,” says producer Charles Roven. “He just takes on a completely different presence. He’s a fantastic actor and a tremendous guy in real life. But when he puts on the Batsuit, he becomes very intimidating.”
In creating his character, Bale thought of Batman as a creature, an image that was aided by his menacing guise. “The suit gives you this huge neck, like a Mike Tyson neck, which you really rarely see amongst humans. It’s more like a panther. It gives you this real feral look, as though you’re going to pounce on somebody any moment.”
“I was very surprised at how intimidating he becomes and how much it changes him,” agrees Gary Oldman of working with the Bat-suited Bale. “It was very disconcerting.”
“Everybody on set felt quite a charge when Christian would walk on in the Batsuit,” Nolan concludes. “It was quite shocking and quite striking. You felt it in your bones.”
Batman captures the imagination so strongly in part because he is a superhero with no super powers; he is a mere man striving to eradicate injustice, and so in order to gain an edge over the vast evil that he must overcome, he equips himself with an array of innovative tools and weapons.
It was important to Nolan that every piece of Batman’s arsenal have a clear and practical purpose. In the film, Bruce Wayne takes a gritty, do-it-yourself approach to developing his tools, including spray painting his suit matte black and grinding his own Batarangs. In this way, it’s possible for the first time to see the genesis of Batman’s weapons and gadgetry, from their crude beginning until they are refined enough to fully equip him to begin his crusade.
Originally a Wayne Enterprises prototype climbing harness, the Utility Belt was modified by Bruce Wayne, who removed the shoulder straps but retained the Belt’s convenient sliding attachments. Because Batman vowed never to take a life in the pursuit of justice, all of the apparatus in the Utility Belt are considered non-lethal deterrents.
The Utility Belt features a grappling gun with a magnetic grapple and monofilament decelerator climbing line; a flexible fiber optic periscope that allows Batman to see around corners; Batarangs, weapons with razor-sharp edges that can be thrown shuriken-style, with its sharp points imbedding in an intended target, or used like a boomerang (Batman’s gloves are Kevlar-reinforced so that the returning weapon doesn’t slice his fingers); ninja spikes that can be affixed to Batman’s hands and feet for scaling sheer walls; mini-mines and explosives; a mini cellular phone with an encrypted signal; and a medical kit containing antidotes to various nerve agents and toxins.
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