Batman (film): Difference between revisions

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'''Batman:''' [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya|...I'm Batman.]] }}

 

 

 

 

 

 

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* [[Anti-Hero]]: Batman is not a stranger to this trope, but unlike most other incarnations, Burton's Batman has no problem with ''killing'' people (supervillains and Mooks alike), pushing him towards [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type IV-territory]].

* [[Art Attacker]]: The Joker describes himself as this: "I'm the world's first fully functioning homicidal artist. I make art until someone dies."

* [[Ass Shove]] / [[Toilet Humor]]: "This town needs an enema!"

* [[Ax Crazy]]: The Joker, as usual. Though the film implies that Jack Napier was crazy to begin with. (He seems positively genteel compared to [[The Dark Knight|Heath Ledger's interpretation of the character..]])

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Commissioner Gordon, although in subsequent films he suffers [[Badass Decay]].

* [[Berserk Button]]: '''''"HE STOLE MY BALLOONS!!!!!"'''''

* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: Anton Furst's Gotham practically exemplifies this.

* [[Board to Death]]: The Joker does this to his crime bosses.

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: The Joker gets a few ("Antoine got a little hot under the collar", "The pen is truly mightier than the sword").

* [[Buffy-Speak]]: After Batsy foils his scheme to poison the entire city with the Batplane, the usually eloquent Joker splutters: "Why didn't somebody tell me he had one of those....things?!"

* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: Played with.

'''Joker:''' I was a kid when I killed your parents. When I said "I made you", you gotta say "you made me"! How childish can you get? }}

* [[Camera Sniper]]: When Vicki spots Bruce visiting the spot where his parents died, the camera goes into this style.

* [[Captive Date]]: The Joker and Vicki Vale.

* [[Charity Ball]]: The Casino Night variant.

* [[Climbing Climax]]: The Joker is [[Genre Savvy|savvy enough]] to call ahead for a helicopter to pick him (and Vicki) up, but his escape fails big time. (The funny thing is that he pretty clearly made it up the cathedral in about five minutes - if he hadn't adjusted the time for when the helicopter should show up, he'd have made a clean getaway.)

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: The Joker, [[Stealth Pun|in spades]]. When addressing the public about Boss Grissom's death: "Yes, he was a thief. And a terrorist. On the other hand, he had a tremendous singing voice." That, and his boast about being a homicidal artist ("I make art until somebody dies.") His conversation with a charcoaled Rotelli is definite ''proof'' of Cloud CuckooInsanity:

** Then there's this exchange, when Vicki asks Joker what he wants.

'''Joker:''' ''(absolutely serious)'' Do I ''look'' like I'm joking? }}

*** The scariest aspect is that, no, he isn't joking. (Even makes reference to it when defacing the famous portrait of [[George Washington]].)

** Bruce Wayne himself indulges in this trope somewhat to strengthen his [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] persona:

** Vicki accuses Batman as one.

'''Batman:''' ''(confronts her)'' It's [[Crapsack World|not exactly a normal world]] is it? }}

* [[Companion Cube]]: The Batmobile, which gets several [[Awesome Moments]] whilst being remote controlled.

* [[Corpsing]]: One unfortunate news reporter does it before [[Die Laughing|dying]] from Smilex.

* [[Crapsack World]]: What Bruce thinks the world is, and its that world that killed his parents and the reason he's Batman.

'''Vicki:''' It doesn't have to be a perfect world. }}

* [[Create Your Own Villain]]: Despite changing the Joker into being the mugger who killed the Waynes, a lot of people really enjoyed the exchange Batman and the Joker had at the end where they wonder who really created who.

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Bob Kane's signature can be seen on the opinion cartoon handed to Knox. A more literal example is Burton playing one of the Joker's goons during the museum scene (or so rumor has it).

* [[Dead Line News]]: Some news anchors are discussing the Joker's act of chemical terrorism on Gotham, when suddenly a female anchor starts laughing uncontrollably, and then falls over dead with the victims' characteristic grin on her face.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Jack Napier is a good example of this before his "Jokerization."

** Bruce Wayne is no slouch himself.

'''Bruce''': ''*beat*'' Because I bought it in Japan. }}

* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: If you're seeing this movie for the first time and are familiar with its comic-book origins, you might be forgiven for thinking that [[Little Jimmy|Jimmy]] (the boy with the map whose parents are mugged in the opening sequence) is the child Bruce Wayne when you first see him. Only when his father calls him by name (telling him to put away the map) is the truth revealed - and then it becomes clear that the scene is ''not'' a flashback when Batman swoops down to avenge the mugging.

* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Commissioner Gordon. Understandable in the first, since Batman isn't working with the police, but he just keeps vanishing into the background as the films go on.

* [[Dirty Cop]]: Lt. Eckhardt, who is on Grissoom's payroll.

* [[Disney Villain Death]]: {{spoiler|The Joker. We even see exactly how far down he has to fall, as well as a close-up of his crushed corpse.}}

* [[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]: The Joker does this twice.

* [[Does Not Like Shoes]]: Justified, as Vicki is wearing high heels and the situation she was in made ditching them prudent. She also winds up shoeless at the film's climax, and also removes her shoes while on her date with Bruce. The [[Real Life]] reason for this was that Kim Basinger is only a little shorter than Michael Keaton. Combined with the fact that her character continually wears high heels throughout the film, Batman would end up looking comically short when standing next to her, hence it was necessary to have her lose the heels in certain scenes.

* [[Dull Surprise]]: Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale, especially when {{spoiler|she meets Bruce in the Batcave, and later when the Batplane gets shot down.}} [[Roger Ebert]] chided the former sequence, asking why Vicki's reaction was so mundane.

** Can be justified if you subscribe to the theory that Vicki had already figured out Bruce Wayne's secret while reading about his parents' murders with Allie at the office, and had obviously given herself time to come to terms with the truth before heading for Wayne Manor. (Indeed, sharp-eyed viewers will notice that Vicki is wearing a different outfit in the Batcave than at the office, proving that she at least took time out to change her clothes.)

* [[Electric Joy Buzzer]]: "Antoine got a little hot under the collar!"

* [[Elite Mook]]: The mook at the top of the bell tower smacks Batman around pretty well for a little while.

* [[Enemy Mime]]: The Joker's goons masquerade as mimes at the courthouse.

* [[Eureka Moment]]: Vicki may have had one after seeing the news clipping of the murder of Bruce's parents.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: The mob was legitimately horrified about Jack Napier/Joker's actions during the mob meeting.

** Jack's partner didn't anticipate him shooting at Bruce's parents.

* [[Evil Is Petty]]: To the Joker, anything can be countenanced by society - or, at least, ''should'' be countenanced - as long as it is [[Rule of Funny|funny]]; and if it is what one would presumably call a "misdeed," the question of whether it results in great suffering or mere irritation is simply irrelevant. So the Joker goes about doing every "naughty" thing he can think of, just to see what will happen as a result. For example: He electrocutes a fellow gangster just so he can make a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|bad pun]] and "comically" talk to the corpse. He hijacks a television broadcast with an irreverent "commercial" taunting Gothamites for having unwittingly bought poisoned household items. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|He sends the girl he lusts after a jack-in-the-box that pops up with a handful of dead flowers, which causes her to faint because she was expecting something far more deadly.]]

* [[Evil Is Stylish]]: The Joker is prominently obsessed with fashion.

* [[Failing a Taxi]]: The tourist family in the opening scene has things especially bad. They had succeeded in hailing a cab, but as the father was giving directions to the hotel they were planning on staying at, someone else butted in and boarded the cab before he could finish, even though they were there first. [[Wretched Hive|Gotham, huh?]]

* [[Famous Last Words]]: When Joker is about to make his escape via the chopper, he says "Sometimes I just kill myself." A few seconds later, his leg is attached to a Gargoyle, that promptly breaks off, and then he falls to his doom.

* [[Form-Fitting Wardrobe]]: The batsuit was made to look like it.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Entirely averted with Jack Napier. Bruce Wayne reviews Napier's personal history and learns that he was a complete psycho even before he made it to ''junior high''. At best, Bruce muses that he might have a ''Darwinian'' excuse ("He had a head full of bad wiring, I guess....").

** The earliest example is the muggers at the beginning. One isn't pleased his buddy turned a gun on the kid. Guess which one gets put through wall.

* [[Groin Attack]]: When Batman makes his way into the cathedral, the first of the Joker's goons tries a flying jump kick attack with spikes attached to his boots, but Batman subdues the goon by shooting a something that vaguely resembles a spatula out of his gauntlet which strikes the goon right in his groin, causing him to let out an audible "Uh!" just before he falls and grimaces. Later when the giant mook who resembles Ray Charles is giving Batman a humiliating beating, his last two moves appear to be punching Batman in the groin and then shoving his knee into his groin. Right before Batman kills him.

* [["Hey You!" Haymaker]]:

''[Batman smiles, then punches Joker in the face.]'' }}

* [[High Altitude Interrogation]]: Batman does this to a [[Bit Part Badguys|Bit Part Bad Guy]] at the beginning of the film.

'''Batman:''' I'm Batman. }}

** Interestingly for a trope that's generally used as a death threat, just before Batman holds the guy over the edge of the building, he tells the mook, "I'm not going to kill you."

* [[The Hyena]]: Joker

* [[I Have You Now, My Pretty]]: Joker's got to get Vicki to the church on time.

* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]: In the fight at the cathedral, Batman apparently has a gadget that was designed for the sole-purpose of crushing an opponents nuts. ''And he does that to one of the Joker's mooks.''

* [[Insult Misfire]]

* [[Ironic Echo]] / [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: "Eckhardt! Think about the future!"

* [[Joker Immunity]]: Averted brutally with the [[Trope Namer]]'s ''death'' -- just as he was about to escape.

* [[Just Between You and Me]]:

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Losing your balloons is a sad thing. We'll give you that, Joker, but shooting Bob afterwards was still a dick move.

** Also an [[Ironic Echo]]. Joker gave Bob a warning/death sentence earlier in the film when he imitated his own treacherous boss, calling Bob his "Number one guy". Now that's the Joker's kind of punchline.

* [[Kung Fu-Proof Mook]]: One of the Joker's mooks actually gives as good as he gets from Batman. Then Batman kills him.

* [[Lack of Empathy]]: {{spoiler|When Batman revealed to The Joker that he murdered his parents, thus meaning that The Joker made him first, The Joker mocks Batman for the way he explained it, cumulating in "How childish can you get!?"}}

** Then Bruce Wayne himself turns up and picks up a poker. "''Let's get nuts!''"

* [[Little No]]: Batman said it after Vicki Vale asked that all products are poisoned.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: The Joker has shades of this as it is implied that he created the binary compound (CIA files on a nerve agent classified DDID) for the Smilex poison.

* [[Malevolent Mugshot]]: Done a lot with the Joker's face.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: In the first film, Vicki Vale had covered a conflict in Corto Maltese, the name of the disputed territory in ''The Dark Knight Returns''. The Joker card in Jack Napier's "lucky deck" is patterned after the card the villain left to mark his crimes in his first comic book appearance.

* [[Neutral Female]]: Played with Vicki Vale. She does manage to save Batman from getting unmasked in the alley, and successfully distracts Joker while Batman is sneaking up on him. In all other cases, though, she's as useless as a snorkel in the Sahara.

* [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]]: Averted. When Batman takes on half-a-dozen of the Joker's goons in the alley, a sequence was filmed where Bob is actually able to hold his own in a knife-fight one-on-one with the Bat. For whatever reason, this was cut to Bob just abandoning the others and running.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Multiple examples.

** Those two muggers in the opening sequence, when they realize that Batman is, to say the least, [[Not Quite Dead]].

** Jack Napier, when he finds himself in Batman's clutches at the factory.

** Vinnie Ricorso on the steps of the courthouse. ("Hello, Vinnie....Time to pay the check!")

** Bob, when Batman calls him out with a "come here" finger-wiggle beckoning.

** Joker himself though does not really express his fear, this little dialogue, sums it all up when he finds out who Batman is.

Joker: *scared* Come on Bat brain I was a kid when I killed your parents. When I say you made me you gotta say I made you, how childish can you get? }}

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: Some of this can be heard a little more than midway through the film, as the Batmobile is speeding away from the city and toward the Batcave, as part of Danny Elfman's "Descent Into Mystery" suite. It is very hard to make out ''what'' is being chanted, but one of the first words heard sounds a bit like ''sanctus'' - a common enough term heard in Catholic Church music, as it means "holy." (A [[Mythology Gag]], perhaps?)

* [[The One Thing I Don't Hate About You]]:

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: John Dair (Vinnie Ricorso) was a British actor playing an Italian-American character. He lapses into his natural accent during his very last scene (when he is talking to the newspaper reporters on the steps of City Hall).

* [[Origin Story]]: Infamously gave a solid one to ''[[The Joker]]'', which caused a good bit of [[Broken Base|Base Breaking]] (since all other sources treat his origin as a total mystery).

* [[Parody Commercial]]: After the Deadline News incident listed above, the Joker hijacks the airwaves with this to reveal himself as responsible for the Smilex deaths, and to cheerily inform Gotham that more people are doomed because they're already unknowingly using the tainted products. ("And hair color so natural only your undertaker knows for sure!") He even spoofs the [[Brand X]] trope to prove his point.

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Alexander Knox, a newspaper reporter who collaborates with Vicki Vale, in the first film. He serves as a [[Heroic Bystander]] at one point, though he gets sidelined quickly. Accidentally. [[What an Idiot!|By Vicki.]]

* [[Plummet Perspective]]: Used to horrifying effect, with the Joker's point of view shot of how '''far''' he has to fall to his bone-shattering death on the pavement of Gotham in the first film. His blood-chilling scream made it all the more nightmarish. Almost makes you feel sorry for the bastard. And it was also used when the Joker and Vicki are climbing up the bell-towers interior: Joker throws one of Vicki's high heels over the side, and we get a shot showing it plummeting down the tower.

* [[Police Are Useless]]: Despite Joker being a known murderer and psychopath, and publicly broadcasting the time and place of his whereabouts for the evening, the police force take absolutely no measures to respond to this until ''after'' he has already killed ''dozens'' of Gothamites and proceeded with his escape plan. Sure certain Gotham police are corrupt, but surely that can't mean the entire force is so incompetent?

** This was explained in the shooting script and the novelization, both of which make clear that Joker had laced the police department's coffee with a paralytic (but non-lethal) toxin that physically incapacitated most of Gotham's finest.

* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: A number of changes between the film and the comic appear to have been made for the sake of drama and the tone they were trying to set. Notably, making The Joker and Joe Chill a [[Composite Character]], and making Batman use much more violent, possibly lethal methods, rather than having him hew to his [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] stance.

* [[Psychotic Smirk]]: [[The Joker]], and surprisingly, Batman too. Two notable examples: when he says, "I'm Batman" to the initial mook, then when Jack Napier comments "Nice outfit".

* [[Race Lift]]: Harvey Dent. Burton changed him from the brown-haired Caucasian he was in the comics to....Billy Dee Williams.

* [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]: While touring Bruce Wayne's mansion with Vicki during a charity party, Alexander Knox voices his opinion that Wayne is nothing but a vain, pompous fool. He does not know that at that very moment, Bruce is preparing to transform into Batman in order to go stop the mob from sanitizing its front company paper trail.

* [[Rooftop Confrontation]]

* [[Running Gag]]: A minor one: the news reporters look increasingly unkempt as the plot with the poisoned hygiene products unravels.

* [[Scary Black Man]]: The last of the goons Batman has to fight before getting to Joker himself. He actually manages to beat the living piss out of Bats at first, although to be fair our hero had already been seriously injured.

* [[She's Got Legs]]: Vicki Vale. They're the first thing Knox sees.

* [[Shock and Awe]]: Joker's lethal joy buzzer.

* [[Shoot the Television]]: Done twice by the Joker. The first is when he takes a boxing glove gun to the TV for mention of Batman in connection to an assassination that Joker pulled off on one of Grissom's underbosses, demanding to know, "What kind of a world we live in where a man dressed up as a bat gets all of my press?!" The second time, Joker shoots the television screen with a real gun after learning on the news that his poisoning scheme involving beauty products has been foiled by the Batman.

* [[Silly Song]]: "Partyman"

* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: Alexander Knox is set up as one, but he's mostly an aversion (if not an outright ''in''version). He fancies himself a great investigative reporter, even though he famously has a "useless reputation" and though [[All of the Other Reindeer|his coworkers at the Gotham Globe offices relentlessly mock him for being one of the few people in Gotham City who actually believes in Batman]]. In addition, when he meets Vicki Vale and is instantly smitten with her, he arrogantly asks if she has come to photograph him nude, and boasts that in that case she will need a long lens. But Vicki actually ends up ''liking'' Allie despite his more annoying qualities, and in the end he is vindicated when the people of Gotham come to realize that he was right about Batman after all. The nearest Knox gets to a [[Break the Haughty]] is when Vicki accidentally hits him with a car during a panicked stampede in the streets and he falls off the hood and into a pile of garbage in an alley.

* [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]]: In several scenes, what appeared to be background music turns out to be emanating from a boombox that the Joker has a mook follow him around with.

* [[The Starscream]]: Ostensibly Jack Napier, though it's hard to tell if it's a straight example or a subversion. While he was the one who killed Carl Grissom, he did not do so as part of a plot to take over. He killed Grissom ''out of revenge'', and then decided to take over his empire as an afterthought. Then again, comments Napier made in passing to both Alicia and Lieutenant Eckhardt suggest that he ''may'' have been plotting Grissom's murder sometime in the future, or at the very least was waiting for the old man to die.

* [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxySK01v1os Batdance]

* [[Tempting Fate]]: A crooked police lieutenant to Jack Napier near the film's beginning: "The future? You mean when you run the show? You ain't got no future, Jack!" (This culminates in an [[Ironic Echo]] at the factory, {{spoiler|when Napier kills the lieutenant with a single shot}}.)

* [[That Man Is Dead]]: Used in the reveal of the Joker's face. "Jack is dead, my friend. You can call me...Joker. And as you can see, I'm a whole lot happier."

** The original line was a lot more blunt and angrier, with the Joker stepping out of the shadows and shouting, [[Precision F-Strike|"DO I LOOK LIKE FUCKING JACK?!"]]

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: Averted, which may come as quite a shock to younger tropers more used to the modern ''Batman'' films where this trope is enforced. In fact, this movie is an attempt to return to the [[Characterization Marches On|earliest version]] of Batman's character, where he did kill.

** Most notable in the ending of the licensed NES game, where Batman ''[[OOC Is Serious Business|directly throws Joker off the cathedral roof to his death]]''. Something got lost in translation, perhaps?

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Half of Gotham seems to be this way. It was already common knowledge that the Joker had murdered many people, but that didn't stop them from diving at the cash he offered in public. He even said into a microphone, "Now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives," but they're too engrossed to listen. A minute later, many are dead. And some who aren't dead yet still grab for cash.

* [[Un Confession]]: Bruce Wayne tries to tell Vicki Vale that he's Batman, but he's interrupted by the arrival of the Joker.

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Bob is the kind of staunchly loyal henchman that most any villain would be grateful to have, which makes Joker's shooting of him a major [[Kick the Dog]] moment.

* [[Victoria's Secret Compartment]]: [[Stealth Pun|Vicky]] Vale unsuccessfully tries to hide the photo of Batman in her blouse.

* [[Villainy Discretion Shot]]: This is obvious in the first film with the Joker.

* [[Villainous Crush]]: Joker to Vicky Vale.

* [[Weaponized Car]]: The Batmobile.

* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: True of every incarnation of [[Batman]], but Jack Nicholson's Joker is the [[Trope Namer]].

** Sadly, we never got to see the second part of this. The Joker turns to his goons and says, "Well, don't just stand there--go ''ask'' him!!"

* [[White Mask of Doom]]: Alicia wears one after the Joker transforms her into a living "artistic masterpiece" (he [[Facial Horror|corrodes half of her face]]).

* [[Wicked Cultured]]: The Joker enjoys classical (or at least orchestral) music, and he plays it on three "romantic" occasions: Percy Faith's "A Summer Place" while meeting Vicki in a museum café; Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer" while bringing some flowers (which, in a vile twist, are already wilted) to Vicki's apartment; and a sentimental waltz while he is, uh, ravishing Vicki on the roof of the city's Gothic cathedral. Interestingly, the latter piece - Danny Elfman's "Waltz to the Death" - is actually quite beautiful and grand, and [[Light Is Not Good|would be completely innocent were it not exclusively associated with a disfigured mass murderer]]. He also quotes Edgar Allan Poe to Vicki in one scene - and, fittingly, it is a line from "The Raven," which is about a deceased sweetheart. (Joker had murdered his previous love interest, Alicia, in order to free himself up for Vicki.)

*** For the evulz, or to bring them up to his own twisted sense of aesthetic standard? After all, when he brings Alicia in, she says "Jack, you said I could watch you improve the paintings."

* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: Jack Napier's partner on the night Bruce's parents were murdered is either Bob the Goon or Joe Chill.

* [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]: In the fight at the Axis Chemical Plant, Batman ''deflects'' a ''bullet'' off of his ''steel gauntlet.'' I don't know which makes less sense; deflecting a bullet, or going around wearing steel gauntlets. Can bullets be deflected by steel anyway?

* {{spoiler|[[Would Hurt a Child]]: Jack Napier attempted to murder Bruce Wayne shortly after [[You Killed My Father|he murdered his parents]]. Although he ultimately didn't go through with it due to his accomplice, the mere fact that he attempted to do so, and gave a nightmarish grin while doing so indicates that Jack Napier had absolutely no problem hurting or murdering children.}}

* [[You Killed My Father|You Killed My Parents]]: [[The Joker]], while he was still Jack Napier, murdered young Bruce Wayne's parents while he was a child, and came very close to murdering Bruce Wayne himself as well that same time. The experience, just like in the comics (minus the Joker's involvement), turned Bruce Wayne into Batman, and during the final confrontation between himself and the Joker, he flat out tells Joker that Joker murdered his parents, meaning they created each other.

* [[You're Insane!]]: Ironically, the Joker invokes this on Carl Grissom. Judging by Grissom's behavior, it's easy to point out Grissom was crazier than Jack pre-Joker.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]