Batman Returns

***Batman Returns*** is a 1992 action superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman, directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm. The film stars Michael Keaton reprising his role as the Caped Crusader, with Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Christopher Walken as the villainous Penguin, Catwoman, and Max Shreck, respectively. A direct sequel to 1989’s *Batman*, the film revolves around Batman as he fights to expose a scheme by the fiendish Penguin and corrupt businessman Max Shreck while also contending with the mysterious Catwoman.

*Batman Returns* was produced by Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton, with Warner Bros. as the production studio. It is the second entry in the studio’s long-running *Batman* film franchise. It premiered at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on June 16, 1992 and was released to American theaters on June 19.

Tim Burton initially did not want to return for a sequel, so Warner Bros. proceeded with production on a sequel with Sam Hamm returning to write the script. Burton was eventually convinced to direct after being given greater creative control, with Hamm being replaced by Daniel Waters. Filming began in June 1991, and took place at Warner Bros. and Universal Studios in Hollywood.

*Batman Returns* was positively received by critics, although it was not as much of a financial success as its predecessor. It was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup, as well as two BAFTA Awards. The film was somewhat controversial due to its dark and disturbing tone, graphic violence, and strong sexual innuendo despite having a PG-13 rating. As such, Warner Bros. moved ahead on the next film with Burton replaced as director by Joel Schumacher, but remaining attached as a producer. In response to the controversy, the tone of the next film was softened and it was made more appealing to younger audiences. *Batman Forever* did not bring back any of the cast of the first two films aside from Michael Gough and Pat Hingle. It was itself followed by a sequel, *Batman & Robin*, in 1997. While Schumacher’s films were originally intended as a continuation of Burton's films, they were considerably distinct in tone and style and much less positively received. For this reason, they have subsequently been declared as occurring in a separate universe from the Burton films, which did not receive a continuation until 2021, when DC published the *Batman '89* comic series. This comic picks up after the events of *Batman Returns*, bringing back characters such as Catwoman and Harvey Dent. Furthermore, Michael Keaton will be reprising his role as Batman once more in *The Flash* in 2022.

## Plot

On Christmas Day, wealthy Gotham City socialite Esther Cobblepot gives birth to a hideously deformed baby boy, Oswald. She and her husband, Tucker, are repulsed by their son's grotesque appearance and savage personality, and decide to dispose of him. Pushing Oswald in a stroller, they bring him through the park before dumping his cradle into the sewer. The cradle floats through the sewers beneath the city before washing up in the penguin habitat at the Gotham Zoo, where it is discovered by the penguins living there.

33 years later, business mogul Max Shreck is planning to construct a new power plant in Gotham, but is opposed by the mayor. Shreck and the mayor attend the city's annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, but while Shreck delivers a speech the ceremony is suddenly crashed by the Red Triangle Circus Gang. The criminals demand Shreck, but his son Chip holds them off and allows his father to escape. The Bat-Signal is activated and witnessed by Bruce Wayne as he sits in solitude in Wayne Manor. Batman soon arrives in the Batmobile and takes down the gang members. He at one point saves Shreck's meek secretary Selina Kyle from a taser-wielding clown, after which she picks up the taser and decides to keep it for herself. While Batman is able to drive off the thugs, Shreck is captured during the confusion and brought to the penguin habitat at the now-abandoned Gotham Zoo. He finds himself surrounded by members of the Red Triangle Gang and meets their leader, the grotesquely deformed Penguin. The Penguin blackmails Shreck with evidence of his many crimes that he recovered from the sewer, and convinces him to orchestrate his return to the surface. Meanwhile, Selina returns to Shreck's office and uncovers documents that reveal that Shreck's new power plant will actually be draining Gotham's power rather than supplying it, placing the city at his mercy. Shreck arrives at the office and finds Selina there, then pushes her out of the window once he learns what she knows. Selina, however, survives the fall and awakens after being surrounded by countless stray cats. She returns to her apartment and has a mental breakdown, trashing it before sewing together a skintight black costume and taking up the mantle of Catwoman.

As the mayor speaks at a press conference, a member of the Red Triangle Gang shows up and kidnaps his infant child. However, in a staged performance, the Penguin rescues the baby and returns it to the mayor. He speaks before the people of Gotham and requests to be let into the Hall of Records so that he can find out who his parents are and learn his real name. Bruce begins to suspect that the Penguin's motives are not as sentimental as they seem, and begins researching the Red Triangle Gang. By digging through old newspaper articles, Bruce learns that the Red Triangle Circus troupe was shut down amid reports of children going missing during their performances, and that one specific member, who he suspects to be the Penguin himself, disappeared before he could be interrogated. Bruce later meets with Shreck at his office and voices his opposition to the power plant, with Selina making an appearance and feigning amnesia. Shreck simply remarks to Chip that he'll push Selina out of a higher window if she tries to blackmail him again. Bruce and Selina, meanwhile, become attracted to one another. The Penguin makes another public appearance at a cemetery, where he kneels before the graves of his parents. He reveals to the media that his real name is Oswald Cobblepot, and says he forgives his parents for what they did. Cashing in on Oswald's popularity among the citizens of Gotham, Shreck convinces him to run for mayor so that he will be able to complete his power plant without political opposition. In order to disgrace the current mayor and force a special election, Shreck has Oswald use the Red Triangle Gang to terrorize Gotham. Batman intervenes and fights off the gang members, but is confronted by Oswald, who confidently informs Batman that he cannot stop his plan. At the same time, Catwoman appears before the two just before one of Shreck's stores explodes after she had sabotaged it. Oswald escapes on his flying umbrella, while Batman pursues and fights with Catwoman. He defeats her by knocking her off of a rooftop, but she falls into the bed of a truck and survives the fall.

Catwoman approaches Oswald and proposes an alliance to deal with their common enemy: Batman. Oswald reveals he and his gang are already planning to rig the Batmobile to explode, but Catwoman says Batman will simply have more power as a martyr. Instead, she suggests that they frame him. Oswald likes the idea, and begins to formulate a new plan. Oswald kidnaps the Ice Princess before her appearance at the re-lighting ceremony for the Christmas tree, leaving a bloodstained Batarang that his gang had recovered earlier at the scene of the crime. Batman springs into action and goes after the Ice Princess, leaving the Batmobile behind. The Red Triangle Gang disables the vehicle's shields and implants a device into it which allows Oswald to override control. Batman finds the Ice Princess but is attacked by Catwoman. He fights her before she flees with the Ice Princess. Batman follows and finds the Ice Princess standing precariously near the edge of a rooftop, but Oswald throws an umbrella that releases a swarm of bats that pushes the Ice Princess off of the roof. The crowd below sees Batman standing on the rooftop and believes he pushed the Princess, and the police open fire on him against Commissioner Gordon's orders. Catwoman and Oswald meet again, with Oswald proposing that they "consummate" their "fiendish union." When Catwoman rejects his advances, Oswald becomes enraged and attaches her to his flying umbrella, then sends it soaring into the sky above. Selina frees herself and falls, but she survives after crashing into a greenhouse. Batman escapes to the Batmobile, but finds that Oswald is controlling it as he taunts him on a video screen. Oswald forces the Batmobile to cause a great deal of destruction as it drives through Gotham, but Batman manages to locate the control device and remove it.

Oswald holds a speech in Gotham and attacks the mayor for placing his trust in Batman, but Bruce and Alfred manage to hack into the sound system from the Batcave. Bruce broadcasts Oswald's disparaging remarks about the people of Gotham which he had recorded earlier over the speakers, causing the crowd to turn on him. Oswald opens fire on the hostile crowd with a machine gun attached to his umbrella and then flees back to the zoo. At his lair, he rejects his humanity and human name and once again calls himself the Penguin. His bid for mayor over, the Penguin decides to enact his original plan: the reason he sought access to the Hall of Records. He shows his henchmen a list of all the first-born sons of Gotham and explains his intention to kidnap and kill them all as revenge for his treatment by his parents. When one of the clowns questions the ethics of the plan, the Penguin simply shoots him with his umbrella and kicks his corpse into the surrounding water. Bruce and Selina attend Max Shreck's charity masquerade ball, and are the only two people there not wearing masks. As they dance together, Selina says she has plans for Shreck afterward, which Bruce misinterprets to mean she is romantically involved with him. Selina laughs and pulls out a gun, revealing that she intends to kill him. Bruce asks who she thinks she is, and she replies that she doesn't know anymore. As they continue to dance, Selina repeats a quote Batman had said to her, and Bruce replies with Catwoman's response from earlier. The two immediately realize each other's secret identities just as the Penguin crashes the party in a giant motorized duck. He reveals that his men are already carrying out his plan to kill the first-born sons of Gotham. He then tries to take Chip hostage, but Shreck convinces him to take him in his son's stead. The Penguin departs with Shreck, while Bruce leaves to stop his evil plan.

Batman intercepts the Red Triangle Gang as they go about kidnapping the children and stops them. He sends a letter to the Penguin informing him he has foiled his plan, driving him mad with rage. As revenge, the Penguin straps rockets to the backs of his penguins and, using a signal broadcast to devices on the penguins' heads, sends them to the surface to bomb the city and kill everyone in Gotham. Batman travels through the sewers in the Batski and heads for the Penguin's lair while Alfred manages to jam the signal from the Batcave and sends the penguins back to the sewer. As Batman closes in on his lair, the Penguin's henchmen all abandon him one-by-one. The Penguin tries to flee in the duck and makes it to the surface before the duck is rammed and destroyed by the Batski. Batman exits the vehicle, but the Penguin attacks him from behind. The Penguin unsheathes a blade from his umbrella and swings it at Batman, who dodges his strikes. He then reveals that he has summoned all of the penguins to the zoo and controls them with a remote control. The Penguin wrestles the control from Batman and defiantly presses the button that causes the penguin's rockets to launch at the zoo. However, a flock of bats is released from the Batski and flies at the Penguin, causing him to stumble backward and fall through a window into a lagoon of toxic water below as the rockets bombard the surrounding area. Batman descends into the penguin enclosure and confronts Catwoman, who has come to kill Shreck. Batman pleads with Selina to stop, unmasking himself in the process. Selina says she would love nothing more than to live with Bruce in his mansion, but angrily scratches Bruce's face and says she couldn't live with herself. Shreck pulls out a gun and shoots Batman, knocking him down. Selina says that she's already died three times and asks if Shreck has enough bullets to finish off her other six lives. Shreck shoots her four more times but runs out of bullets. Crazed and wounded, Selina approaches Shreck and pulls out the taser she acquired earlier, then kisses Shreck while holding it to their faces next to a junction box, causing a massive electrical explosion. Batman gets back to his feet and digs through the rubble, finding Shreck's charred corpse but no sign of Selina. As Batman searches, the Penguin emerges from the toxic water and weakly makes his way to his stash of umbrellas. He pulls out one and prepares to use it to kill Batman, only for the umbrella to be revealed as harmless. The Penguin laments that he "picked the cute one" and says that he will murder Batman momentarily, but first needs a glass of ice water. After he says this, the Penguin finally drops dead, and his beloved penguins lay his body to rest in the water.

While Alfred drives him through Gotham, Bruce sees what appears to be Catwoman's shadow in an alley and tells Alfred to pull over. However, all he finds in the alley is a cat, which he brings with him back to the car. As the Bat-Signal shines in the night sky, Catwoman looks on.