Batman: Arkham Origins

***Batman: Arkham Origins*** is a 2013 action/adventure/crime film developed by WB Montreal and distributed by Warner Bros. and DC entertainment. The movie is based on the DC Comics character Batman and his supporting cast. Despite being the third installment in the *Batman: Arkham* series, the film is set in Batman's second year of crime fighting, making it set eight years before the events of the first film, *Batman: Arkham Asylum*. The movie follows a younger, less-refined Bruce Wayne/Batman, and its main plot consists of Black Mask setting out a bounty to kill Batman, which leads eight of the world's greatest assassins to Gotham City during Christmas Eve. It also introduces Batman to the madness of The Joker.

## *Batman: Arkham Origins*

### Genre

ActionAdventure

Crime

### Written by

Dooma WendschuhRyan Galletta

Cory May

Geoff Johns

### Box Office

$66.89 billion

The film's production mainly took place in New York, but also in Chicago, to bring to life Gotham City and to make it feel similar to the other films. The movie's development began in 2011 after *Batman: Arkham City*, where it was announced that a third film would be installed in the series, but set eight years prior to *Arkham Asylum*. An entirely new cast and crew were assembled, because director Sefton Hill and his team at Rocksteady (the crew responsible for the original three films) were busy developing and filming *Batman: Arkham Knight.* The film also collaborated with writer Geoff Johns, who worked on *Arkham Knight* as well.

*Arkham Origins* premiered in theatres world wide on October 25, 2013. Unlike the other two films that came before it, *Batman: Arkham Origins* received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. It was praised for its voice acting, storyline, and score, but was criticized for being too similar in tone to its predecessor, *Batman: Arkham City,* as well as for teasing storylines throughout the movie but never coming back to them.

That being said, *Batman: Arkham Origins* was still praised by fans as a unique twist on the story and many fans commented on the admiration of the film being a prequel, but managing to steer away from being an origin story.

## **Synopsis**

On Christmas Eve, the brutal and sadistic crime lord known as Black Mask sets a bounty out on Gotham City’s new protector: the infamous vigilante known as Batman. Attracting some of the heroes’ deadliest foes, Batman is hot on the trail to investigate. However, as he uncovers the terrifying truth, he discovers he may also need his allies to aid him in his mission to fight crime and protect Gotham.

## **Cast**

* Roger Craig Smith as Bruce Wayne/Batman
* Troy Baker as Joker
* JB Blanc as Bane
* Brian Bloom as Black Mask
* Steve Blum as Electrocutioner and Loose Lips
* Michael Cornacchia as Thugs and Prisoners
* Robert Costanzo as Harvey Bullock
* Quinton Flynn as Alberto Falcone
* Chris Fries as Howard Branden
* Michael Gough as Jim Gordon
* Kelly Hu as Lady Shiva
* Martin Jarvis as Alfred Pennyworth
* Peter MacNicol as Mad Hatter
* Nolan North as Penguin
* Khary Payton as Killer Croc and Martin Joseph
* CCH Pounder as Amanda Waller
* Mark Rolston as Deathstroke
* Rosa Salazar as Copperhead
* Tara Strong as Harleen Quinzel
* Wally Wingert as Enigma (Riddler)
* Matthew Mercer as Anarky
* Kelsey Lansdowne as Barbara Gordon
* Crispin Freeman as Firefly

## **Plot**

On Christmas Eve, Bruce Wayne overhears police communication that Black Mask has taken Commissioner Loeb to the local Black Gate Prison, where a breakout is currently taking place. Bruce suits up and heads there, finding Black Mask along with one of his thugs, the giant reptile-like Waylon Jones, also known as Killer Croc. The pair release another criminal, a date-obsessed killer named Calendar Man, whom Batman had previously helped capture, from a gas chamber where he was to be executed.

Black Mask states that he plans to set up a clean slate for himself, and throws Loeb into the chamber instead, killing him before the criminals leave. Batman follows them out, but Black Mask is able to escape via helicopter, leaving Killer Croc behind to fight Batman. While Batman emerges victorious, Killer Croc reveals that his boss had set a $50 million bounty on The Bat’s head, with 8 of the world’s top assassins vying to claim the prize by the end of the night. The GCPD arrive and Captain James Gordon, one of the department’s few honest officers, witnesses Batman for the first time with his own eyes as he escapes in his plane, the Batwing.

Bruce arrives back at the Batcave and analyses a drone he recovered from the prison and he learns the identities of the assassins he is now up against: Killer Croc, mercenary Deathstroke, pyro-maniac Firefly, venomous Copperhead, marksman Deadshot, pit-fighter with shocking abilities Electrocutioner, chemically-enhanced super-solider Bane, and none other than Bruce’s former fellow pupil, Lady Shiva. Batman determines that the drone belonged to The Penguin and interrogates some of his men to determine the crime lord’s location. On his way, he encounters the riddle-loving hacker he had met prior to the events of the movie, now known to Batman as Edward Nigma, an alias for the former head of the GCPD cybercrime division, also called “The Riddler”.

The Riddler is revealed to be working for Black Mask to disable the radio towers in the city, to distract Batman and give his assassins an easier way to kill him. Batman eventually tracks Penguin down to his hideout, a derelict shift called “The Final Offer”, where he is forced to fight through one of the assassins, Electrocutioner, before finding and interrogating The Penguin, who reveals that there was a double murder at one of Black Mask’s safehouses, Lacey Tower. Suddenly, Batman is ambushed by Deathstroke, and the two battle, with Batman emerging victorious. However, the distraction allows Penguin to escape to his saferoom, leaving Batman to head out to investigate the murders at Lacey Tower. On his way out, Batman is stopped by a transmission from another vigilante, Anarky, who threatens to take matters into his own hands to stop the corruption in Gotham.

Batman learns that the police have IDed the murder victims inside Black Mask’s safehouse: Tiffany Ambrose, Roman Sionis’s girlfriend, and the crime lord himself. However, upon investigating the crime scene, Batman determines the murders to have occurred days ago, leading him to conclude the body is not Black Mask’s (since he saw him earlier that night), but it is meant to appear to be, with Penguin set up as the killer. Batman learns through his investigation that Ambrose was afraid of somebody named “The Joker”, connecting that figure to the murder. Obtaining DNA evidence from the scene, Batman leaves to infiltrate the GCPD building to compare the samples against the police department’s database.

There, Batman overhears Captain James Gordon arguing with his daughter, Barbara, about whether or not Batman is a hero or a menace, with Barbara believing the former while her father thinks he should be operating within the confines of the law. Batman incapacitates the guards inside the building and makes his way to the server room. There he finds Barbara, who helps Batman plan out a way to remotely access the criminal database from his Batcomputer. Batman sets off to find the telecom wires to create the connection, but encounters Jim Gordon on the way. While Batman pleads with Gordon to trust that their on the same side, he isn’t convinced, and Batman is forced to escape from arriving reinforcements. Batman then enters the sewers and follows the telecom wires to an underground data center, where he finds Black Mask’s men.

After dispatching them, he is able to connect to the database to learn that The Joker was planning to kill Black Mask, but Sionis used a decoy, which The Joker killed, allowing Sionis to get the jump on them and attack. The Joker emerged victorious however, and captured Black Mask, before setting the safehouse aflame. Batman determines The Joker’s next step is to use The Black Mask to bypass the security at the mob-owned Gotham Merchants Bank. After making his way to the bank, Batman finds Black Mask and asks him where The Joker is. He responds by revealing a hostage: Roman Sionis, revealing the man who had been donning The Black Mask all night was none other than The Joker himself.

After loading an ambulance full of money, The Joker takes off his mask to reveal his true face, that of a demented clown. Ending the pair’s first introduction, The Joker throws the bank manager to the ground and she dies of some sort of uncontrollable laughter with a disfiguring smile, as the clown and his men escape the bank with Roman Sionis. Batman tracks Joker down to The Black Mask’s steel mill, but only finds the captured Sionis inside. After freeing him from captivity, Batman is ambushed by Copperhead, who injects him with a toxin that gives him hallucinations. But he is able to fight them off and work with Alfred who synthesizes and delivers an antidote, which Batman retrieves and uses to fight the effects of the poison, and defeat Copperhead, learning from her that The Joker plans to meet with the remaining assassins.

Batman tracks them to the Royal Hotel and observes the meeting. During the meeting, The Joker kills Electrocutioner as punishment for failing to kill Batman. He then sends the others off to kill The Bat, but Bane stays behind, believing Batman will now come for The Joker, so he might as well just wait. This turns out to be a wise move, as Batman arrives shortly after. Bane makes short work of The Bat, manhandling him and dragging him to The Joker. Batman tries to attack The Joker, but Bane stops him, and tosses him through a nearby window. The pair then proceed to fight, with Bane using his super solider serum, venom, to overpower his body to gain the upper hand. Alfred looks to even the odds by calling in the GCPD S.W.A.T. Team, but this only causes Bane to flee, but not before Batman plants a tracking device on him.

Joker is then blasted off of the hotel’s roof, but Batman, not wanting to allow his death, saves him from the fall, much to the surprise of The Joker. Batman goes to detain The Joker, but the S.W.A.T. Team arrives. Batman slips away by using the Batwing and Joker is taken into police custody. In Black Gate prison, The Joker is psychoanalyzed by Dr. Harleen Quinzel, initiating a journey into his own mind. He relives the moment that turned him into The Joker, a failed break-in of Ace Chemicals while disguised as a figure called “The Red Hood”. During the break-in, he was discovered by Batman, who caused him to fall into a vat of chemicals, dying his skin white and his hair green, as well as causing him to go mad after his one bad day that pushed him over the edge.

As he realizes his connection to Batman, Dr. Quinzel realizes hers with The Joker, who affectionately refers to her as “Harley”. Batman arrives back at the Batcave and has his own mental struggle, reliving his own trauma that led to him taking on his mantle. Although Alfred snaps him out of it and tries to get Batman to take a break now that The Joker is behind bars, he refuses, knowing that while Bane is still out there, he cannot rest. Batman overhears police communication that they killed an overpowered muscular criminal, and Batman heads off to the GCPD morgue to confirm it to be Bane. When he reaches the morgue, Batman learns that the body is not Bane’s, but another venom user.

However, just then, the tracker that he planted on Bane begins to give off a signal, and he follows it. At its location, Batman finds a hideout, but Bane has already left. He finds evidence that Bane had been tracking his movements and also may suspect that he and famous billionaire Bruce Wayne are in fact one in the same. Batman destroys this evidence and leaves, warning Alfred to secure himself in the Batcave as Wayne Manor is not safe. On his way, Batman learns that Firefly has taken hostages on pioneer’s bridge to draw him out, and he’s forced to head there to save them. Batman is able to distract Firefly with the Batwing and he enters a room beneath the bridge to meet with Jim Gordon.

Gordon blames Batman for ultimately causing the issue at hand but Batman warns him about Firefly rigging the bridge with explosives and advises him to call off his officers to keep them out of harm’s way. Batman defuses all of the bombs, save for one. He is then forced to fight Firefly to distract him while Gordon and his team move in to disable that last bomb. Batman defeats Firefly and leaves him strung up for the GCPD to retrieve. Afterwards, Batman and Gordon share a quick moment, where they both realize, they might have more to gain if they work together in the future before Batman leaves in the Batwing to return to the Batcave. On his way, he calls Alfred, but the call is interrupted by Bane, who reveals that he has infiltrated the Batcave. Batman arrives to find the Batcave in flames, and Alfred barely alive. Batman is able to use the Electrocutioner’s gloves to defibrillate his old friend’s heart, narrowly saving his life. Now realizing that his crime fighting has not only put himself at risk, but his loved one as well, Bruce decides that he’s made a mistake, and calls it quits.

Alfred has a change of heart, and reaffirms him, encouraging him that if Bruce allows his allies to help him, he can succeed. The pair then overhear The Joker has staged a riot at Black Gate, and Alfred states that the police need Bruce, to which he replies, “No. They need us”. Inside the prison, Batman finds Joker and Bane, and discovers Joker’s ultimate plan: to force Batman to break his moral code by killing one of the two criminals. Through an elaborate electric chair tied to a heart monitor on Bane, either Bane’s heart stops or the electric chair kills Joker. Batman refuses and Joker forces his hand by capturing Gordon and threatening his life as well. Batman is able to outsmart the clown, however, by stopping Bane’s heart using the electric gloves, disabling the chair, and allowing Gordon to escape. But this unfortunately allows The Joker to escape as well. Batman then resuscitates Bane, who injects himself with a prototype chemical called

TN-1, similar to venom but far more powerful. This transforms him into an even more giant creature, which Batman is narrowly able to defeat. Luckily, the TN-1 influence causes Bane to lose his memory of Batman’s secret identity, and afterwards Batman heads out to find The Joker. On the way, Batman is captured by Killer Croc but is saved by a nearby Gordon, causing Croc to flee. The pair then rescue Black Gate warden Martin Joseph, and the trio find The Joker in a nearby chapel. Batman reveals to Joker that Bane is still alive, and he wasn’t able to get Batman to kill. Joker then tries again by goading Batman into killing him, but he resists, mercilessly beating the clown instead, leaving him incapacitated.

Gordon arrives and states that, although his daughter believes Batman is a hero, he’s still required to take him in along with The Joker. When Gordon receives a call on his radio however, Batman is able to slip into the shadows. Afterwards, the police detain The Joker and take him back into custody, while Gordon accepts that Batman is giving the city something to believe in.