No matter how large the various cinematographic ventures of Batman are, his narratives aren’t always exactly airtight, with many plot holes being discovered in his most famous films over the years. With each Batman film released, a new interpretation of Gotham City’s mythos is offered for audiences to chew on, with gripping narratives that often put the lives of the entire city at risk. Unfortunately, Batman’s on-screen stories don’t always make perfect sense, as some of them feature alarming discrepancies in logic or narrative.
Plot holes in Batman films come in many flavors. Sometimes these are narrative errors that are easy to see repeated in any other film, from continuity errors to character lapses in judgment or communication, simply to further the plot. Other times, the problems faced by Batman film writers are quite unique to The Dark Knight, with concepts like Bruce Wayne’s secret identity or the histories of Batman’s various villains all impeding sensible storytelling.
10
The Riddler Could Have Killed Batman Despite Seeing Him as an Ally
Batman
Leading to Matt Reeves’ climax Batman, an interesting revelation is made about the villain Edward Nygma, also known as The Riddler. Upon entering captivity, the Riddler soon makes it clear that he assumed Batman and he were part of a team, working together to eliminate corruption in Gotham City. Upon learning that his object of admiration does not feel the same way, he is quite devastated, exploding into hysteria inside his confined cell.
However, this motivation doesn’t exactly match up with some of the Riddler’s past actions. In particular, the Riddler’s handling of Colson is quite antagonistic towards his fellow vigilante, remotely activating the bomb collar and threatening to blow it up if Batman fails to solve the relevant riddle. In an even more overtly hostile film, The Riddler detonates Colson’s collar while Batman is just a step or two away, miraculously not killing him thanks to Robert Pattinson’s seemingly indestructible Batsuit, although it does send the Caped Crusader flying backwards.
9
How did Batman return to Gotham so quickly?
The Dark Knight Rises
Compared to most Batman films, The Dark Knight Rises is particularly famous for being full of plot holes. One of the worst occurs at the beginning of the film’s third act, after Bruce Wayne’s spine is broken in half by Bane. Bruce is thrown into the same prison Bane grew up in, forced to slowly recover and fight his way out. However, the time frame in which Bruce Wayne managed to do this is completely incongruous with Bane’s plans for Gotham.
Somehow, before Bane is able to significantly advance the next steps of his plan, Bruce is able to recover from his injury, train, undergo physical therapy, make several escape attempts, successfully escape, and return to Gotham despite of having zero resources. This is a busy schedule that seems incredulous even to Bruce Wayne – when he returned, Gotham should have already been a smoking ruin. Not to mention the bizarre nature of The Hole itself as an easily-escapable parkour course.
8
How did Joker’s henchmen get to the top of the cathedral?
Batman (1989)
In the frenetic pace and editing of fast-action climaxes, such as the Joker and Batman’s confrontation in a cathedral at the end of Tim Burton’s film Batman, it’s easy to lose some plot logic in the confusion. But the sequence contains not one, but two of the most maddening plot holes in the entire film. The first of these occurs when Batman comes face to face with some of the Joker’s henchmen on his way up, having already somehow defeated them both there.
How the Joker would have hired henchmen already on standby in the cathedral is a total mystery. The location wasn’t exactly pre-planned for the Clown Prince of Crime to end up in, and it’s never shown that he deliberately tells his men to meet him there. This logic puzzle is bad enough that a Batman The comic explains the plot hole by clarifying that the henchmen were already there on duty due to the tower’s view of Gotham’s skyline.
7
Wayne Manor is a dead giveaway for Batman’s secret identity
Batman Returns
Tim Burton also had some ideas for his Batman sequel that didn’t result in a foolproof story, as proven by details like Wayne Manor. In Batman Returns, it is revealed that the roof of Wayne Manor is adorned with an intricate network of enormous mirrors. These mirrors are arranged just like that, allowing the Bat-Signal to be visible to Bruce Wayne from within his terrain, even when not under the open night sky.
These mirrors aren’t exactly subtle accessories for Wayne Manor, being ugly, unsightly things that stand out against the Gothic architecture. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that these strange devices seem adapted to the Bat-Signal, leading to the obvious conclusion that Bruce Wayne himself is Batman. In this sense, maintaining Bruce Wayne’s secret identity hinders intelligent scenography.
6
What happened to the room full of people that the Joker was attacking?
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece Dark Knight trilogy, it’s hard to find any fault with a comic book movie as masterful as The Dark Knight. That said, the film has its narrative problems, as shown in one of the film’s most powerful scenes. The scene where Heath Ledger’s brilliant Joker interrupts a fundraising dinner is one of the most memorable moments, but it never has a satisfying payoff.
As Joker threatens Rachel by hanging her out of a window, Batman orders him to let her go, only for him to respond “Very poor choice of words“, literally doing this. While Batman races to save Rachel in the nick of time, Joker and his henchmen are left alone with a captive audience of dinner guests. How exactly this situation plays out is never resolved, as the next scene which is cut to is the famous “Some men just want to watch the world burn“dialogue. The back-to-back scenes are so good that it’s hard to notice this plot hole.
5
Batman doesn’t tell the SWAT team that the clowns are hostages
The Dark Knight
The Joker comes up with some truly insidious schemes in The Dark Knight intended to test the morality of the people of Gotham, but not everyone makes sense on paper anymore. In one case, Joker kidnaps several hostages and places them along a series of windows, forcing clown masks onto their heads and strapping guns to their hands. To the outside observer, these innocent prisoners look like dangerous armed men, ready to start shooting at any moment.
Of course, a SWAT team is sent in to prepare to deal with the apparent shooters, and only Batman knows the truth. However, instead of simply relaying this information to the SWAT team, Batman resorts to beating them up one by one, preventing any shots from being fired. There’s no reason the SWAT team wouldn’t take Batman seriously if he was simply straightforward with what was going on, and even if he wasn’t, it seems unlikely that a police sniper wouldn’t be able to literally notice the duct tape. tying the hostage’s hands.
4
Superman doesn’t simply explain the hostage situation to Batman
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Even though he shares a double bill with Superman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice counts as a Batman movie. One of the DCEU’s most controversial films, the superhero crossover film is famous for the “Martha” scene, in which Batman and Superman stop fighting only when they realize their mothers share the same name. However, all the “Martha” talk could have easily been avoided if Superman had simply been more open with the situation.
Superman only fights Batman a second time because Lex Luthor forces his hand, kidnapping Ma Kent and using her as leverage. It might be easy to assume that Superman couldn’t tell Batman what was going on because Luthor was somehow listening, but after the conversation with “Martha”, this is definitively proven not to be the case, as Batman ends up learning of the situation. hostages. anyway. Overall, the fight for the title of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice it was ridiculously avoidable.
3
Harvey Dent doesn’t recognize the Joker in a goofy nurse outfit
The Dark Knight
For how good a Batman movie is, The Dark Knight in fact, it’s filled with comedic beats and absurd logical leaps. One of the most hilarious comes just before Harvey Dent’s official transformation into Two-Face, leaving him scarred and trapped in a hospital that the Joker had promised to bomb. Joker infiltrates the hospital staff in a humorously poor nurse disguise, one of the few parts of the film played strictly for laughs.
However, somehow this comical disguise ends up fooling Harvey Dent. Despite his terrifying Joker makeup being clearly visible on the upper portion of his face, Harvey somehow doesn’t react to the Joker’s presence until he removes the face mask, immediately leaving the district attorney fired up in a blind rage, thrashing against the hospital bed restrictions. It’s an easy moment to miss, but it calls into question Harvey’s powers of perception.
2
Joker never discovers Batman’s secret identity, but knows he killed his parents
Batman (1989)
The second major plot hole that arose from the Joker and Batman’s rooftop confrontation in late 1989 Batman occurs during a tense exchange between the two once the party begins. One of the coolest movie changes made to Batman’s history is the fact that the Joker is the same bad guy responsible for the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Batman states this clearly to his archenemy shortly before his death, accusing him of “You killed my parents“.
Not only does this reveal Batman’s identity as Bruce Wayne, but the Joker seems to already know. The Joker simply responds “Hey, Bat-Brain, I was a kid when I killed your parents”, insinuating that the Clown Prince of Crime was aware of Batman’s true face the whole time. However, it was never directly stated how he came to know such an important secret.
1
The nuclear bomb should have still decimated Gotham
The Dark Knight Rises
Suspension of disbelief is an important factor in any superhero film, but Christopher Nolan’s Batman universe tended to be more grounded and realistic. This makes it all the more unsatisfying when the story fails not only to establish a consistent narrative, but to obey the laws of real-world physics. The nuclear detonation at the end of The Dark Knight Rises is a bitter example of this, fundamentally failing to understand the effects of a nuclear bomb. This is quite ironic considering Nolan was going to direct Oppenheimer.
The nuclear bomb destined for Gotham finally explodes after being sent into the bay by the Bat-Pod, apparently taking Batman with it. In just a minute and a half, the Bat-Pod is expected to have carried the bomb far enough out to sea to prevent the effects from reaching Gotham, not to mention also allowing Batman himself to secretly escape. In fact, Gotham would still have been hit by a nasty shockwave and a devastating blast of radiation if not for the nuclear fireball itself. This discrepancy is one of the worst plot holes of any Batman history.
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