Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Your angel of death awaits..."''|'''The Phantasm'''}}

 

 

As Batman continues his war on Gotham City's underworld, he finds himself facing a foe who wants to take that war to a whole new level: The Phantasm, a mysterious masked figure who has been killing off Gotham's high-profile mob bosses one by one. Since The Phantasm has a similar appearance to Batman and targets criminals like Batman does, it's not long before The Caped Crusader is blamed for the killings, resulting in the police moving to arrest the vigilante.

The film was not successful at the box office upon release (due to lack of promotion), but it gained massive critical acclaim and saw much greater success on video. Until [[Dark Knight Trilogy|Christopher Nolan's Batman films]] came along, many fans considered it to be the best Batman film ever made (and some fans still do).

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* [[Ascended Extra]]: Not in the film itself, but in the novelization, which ties up a dangling plot thread by giving some extra scenes to a character who's only in the film for less than a minute.

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: Some elements of the story are loosely taken from ''[[Batman Year Two]]''. The flashback scene where Bruce goes after some crooks before cooking up his Batman persona is also a reference to Year One.

* [[Award Bait Song]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJxbQVnVe8 "I Never Even Told You", sung by Tia Carrere.]

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Salvatore Valestra. It's essentially the most mob-bossiest mob boss name ever. ''Damn''.

* [[Berserk Button]]: "Don't ''touch'' me, old man! [[Mood Whiplash|I don't know where you've been!]]"

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Batman showing up in the Batwing to confront The Phantasm.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: ''Averted'', particularly during the sequence where Batman is cornered by the cops at a construction site and nearly killed in an explosion, and in the climatic fight scene with the Joker, where both them end up torn and bloodied; at one point, Batman kicks the Joker in the face and ''knocks one of his teeth out''.

* {{spoiler|[[Cast as a Mask]]: Stacey Keach plays The Phantasm, but not his secret identity. Deliberate misdirection since he also plays Andrea's father.}}

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: The Joker during his brief fight with {{spoiler|Andrea}}.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: It's a widely held consensus that this is easily the most [[Maturity Is Serious Business|mature]] of the DCAU Batman adaptations. (And that's saying something!) It's only logical since the show had the same amount of finesse with handling adult issues but keeping it at a PG-rating, or at least trying to.

* [[Expy]]: The Phantasm is heavily inspired by the Reaper, a violent vigilante from ''Batman: Year Two''.

* [[False Reassurance]]: Pretty obvious it's false, [[The Joker|considering the source]], but during the final battle:

'''Joker''': Oh, me? You won't hear a giggle out of me. ''[he presses a hidden button and [[Crazy Prepared|his robot "wife" laughs maniacally and attacks with a kitchen knife]]]'' }}

* [[Femme Fatale]]: {{spoiler|Andrea.}}

** Joker confronting Reeves in his office hints that they know a good deal about the Beaumonts. {{spoiler|Joker puts the pieces together about the Phantasm's identity in this scene and later tries to kill Andrea with a booby trap phone call (calling his intended target "toots" and "boopsie"). The reason he does not suspect Andrea's father is also foreshadowed in all of this - because Joker was the one to kill him all those years ago.}}

** Bruce's proposal to Andrea is interrupted by a swarm of bats erupting from the cave below them.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: In classic ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' fashion, this film manages to get away with a number of things such as alluding to Bruce having sex with Andrea, the Joker making sexual jokes at his robot wife, etc. The list goes on and on. ''Awesomely''.

* [[Groin Attack]]: {{spoiler|Andrea}} to the ''Joker'', no less.

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: {{spoiler|Andrea}}. Alfred notes that when consoling Bruce.

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Andrea Beaumont. Bruce was actually prepared to marry her. Incidentally, a socialite who he previously dated, and then calls him out for not bothering to phone her near the beginning of the film, is also a redhead.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Despite mounting pressure from all sides, Gordon remains firm in his support for Batman and refuses to partake in a manhunt for him.

* [[Hypocrite]]: Batman confronted Andrea what she knows, but she claimed ignorance and wants him to leave. Before leaving, he spitefully asks her whether she's still following her dad's orders. She retorts that he's the only one in the room being controlled by his parents - she knows who he really is after seeing him near the tombstone of Bruce's parents. But as soon as he's gone, she collapses onto her bed, sobbing uncontrollably. {{spoiler|She probably said that so Batman/Bruce wouldn't interfere.}}

** Later in the movie, this exchange may qualify:

'''{{spoiler|Andrea}}:''' If anyone knows the answer to that, Bruce, it's you. }}

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: Andrea trying to justify her actions.

** {{spoiler|Arthur Reeves had his own reason for selling out Andrea and her father to the mob.}}

* [[Joker Immunity]]

* [[Kung Foley]]: Immediately following Bruce's first night trying his hand at this whole vigilante gig, we see him practicing Jujitsu in his front yard accompanied with full sound effects.

* [[Laughing Mad]]: Joker constantly laughs throughout the film, but the most notable instance of Laughing Mad is {{spoiler|right when, shortly after being captured by Phantasm/Andrea Beaumont and Batman, and certainly going to die at the former's hand, the bombs across the abandoned future fair grounds explode and start demolishing the fairgrounds, making any chances of him dying even more likely, the Joker starts breaking down into uncontrollable laughter.}}

* [[Left Hanging]]: The Phantasm appears to have super strength, super speed, and smoke-related teleportation and makes it pretty clear in a couple instances that the last one is a bona fide superpower. The movie never explains how the Phantasm is able to do ''any'' of this.

* [[Monster Clown]]: [[The Joker]], who else?

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: A slight version occurs when Sal Valestra tries to convince the Joker to take out Batman. The Joker pokes fun at the old man and seems to ignore him the entire time. Then we find out he murdered the old guy and propped him up in a chair to lure The Phantasm into a trap.

** In that whole scene he goes through some.

** Later on, when the Phantasm shows up to get Valestra but instead finds a camera set up by the Joker, this trope is fully reinstated:

** When The Joker is meeting with {{spoiler|Arthur Reeves}}, he goes from intimidating, to nonchalant, to full-on psychopathic in about 2 and a half-minutes.

* [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya]] [[You Killed My Father]] [[Prepare to Die]]: Yes, the movie has all three of these tropes in one. Turns out, {{spoiler|Andrea is The Phantasm, her father was killed by The Joker when he was still just a regular mob enforcer (she'd already killed all but one of the bosses who'd ordered the hit) and she attempts to kill him}}.

* [[New Old Flame]]: Andrea Beaumont

* [[Not So Different]]: The Phantasm thinks this of Batman and {{spoiler|herself}}. Alfred agrees, to a point.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Bruce gets one when examining a group photo of Sal Valestra's old gang. One of the men looks familiar. With a red pen, he draws a grin and...

** Arthur when he realizes Joker is in his office.

* [[Only a Model]]

'''Batman:''' [[Insult Backfire|Well, you're wrong!]] }}

** There's also Alfred's despairing utterance of "My ''God!'' the first time Bruce puts on the mask.

* {{spoiler|[[Samus Is a Girl]]}}

* [[Scare Chord]]: We get one of these about halfway through the film, although the moment was creepy enough without it.

* [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]: Valestra offers the Joker a [[Briefcase Full of Money]] to take out Batman. The response?

** However, this led Valestra do to something completely stupid:

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** Bruce taking out a motorcyclist on foot is a direct reference to ''[[Akira]]''.

* [[Suit-Up of Destiny]]: When Batman first puts on the cowl. It is a moment so utterly awesome and epic that ''Alfred'' is shocked.

* [[Talking to the Dead]]: Andrea to her mother, Bruce to his parents.

'''Andrea:''' I don't. Mother was asking. }}

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]:

* [[The Unfought]]: Batman and the Phantasm only meet once, and their tussle is over almost before it begins thanks to the police. Shame.

* [[Wham! Line]]: Well, it's the voice more than the line itself - Although his involvement in the movie is not a secret now, [[The Joker]]'s appearance out of the blue halfway through the film had this effect initially:

* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: Bruce.

* [[You Look Familiar|You Sound Familiar]]: Andrea is voiced by Dana Delaney, who later became more famous as the voice of Lois Lane in ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]''. In fact [[Word of God]] has stated that it was her stellar performance here that caused them to pursue her for the role of Lois in the first place. Bruce even had a brief relationship with Lois.

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]

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