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Batman Begins
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Batman Begins (Film)
The legend begins.
Falcone: What the hell are you?!
Batman: I'm Batman!

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and adapted from the Batman comics. The first live-action film starring the Caped Crusader since 1997's Batman & Robin, and a Continuity Reboot for the franchise, it marked the start of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy.

The film opens In Medias Res with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) incarcerated in a prison in Bhutan, where a man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) arranges for Bruce's release and offers him a place in Ra's al Ghul's League of Shadows. Ducard trains Bruce in the way of the Ninja — and in overcoming fear — while Bruce explains his Backstory. Upon discovering that Ra's intends to have Bruce lead the League of Shadows into Gotham City so the League can destroy it, Bruce renounces the League and lays waste to its mountaintop temple.

Bruce returns to Gotham after his training comes to its abrupt end; he vows to take back the city from the criminals and prove that Gotham is not beyond saving. To accomplish his goals, Bruce combines his League of Shadows training, obscene wealth, old fear of bats, and access to his company's R&D projects to turn himself into a vigilante crimefighter. The Batman makes his grand entrance by bringing mafioso Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) to justice, but in doing so, he discovers that Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) has disturbing plans for Gotham City involving large quantities of a fear toxin — and that Crane works on orders from someone far more dangerous than Falcone...

The cast also features Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, in addition to Ken Watanabe, Rutger Hauer and Colin McFarlane.

Followed by The Dark Knight.

It's not who I am underneath, but what I trope, that defines me:

    open/close all folders 

     A-D 
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • Flass tells Gordon that him insisting on being the Token Good Cop makes Dirty Cops like himself nervous. Gordon retorts, "I'm no rat!" then mutters, "In a town this bent, who's there to rat to, anyway?" which makes Flass crack up.
    • When Bruce puts on his little show to kick out the guests from his birthday party to protect them from the League, Ducard grins and admits it was rather amusing.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • Falcone in the comics had a cordial relationship with Thomas Wayne, feeling genuine gratitude toward Wayne for saving his life in he past and even attending his funeral to pay his respects after he died. This angle is eschewed in the film, with Falcone even mocking Thomas' death right to Bruce's face.
    • Also in the comics, Falcone had somewhat of a soft spot towards Bruce due to his father saving him. In the film, Falcone couldn't give less of a damn about Bruce and even threatens to shoot him before he instead tells him to piss off.
  • Alliterative Title: Batman Begins.
  • All of Them: Bruce, in response to a homeless guy asking who was going to come looking for Bruce: "Everyone."
    Bruce Wayne: Be careful who sees you with that. They're going to come looking for me.
    Homeless Man: Who?
    Bruce Wayne: Everyone.
  • All Psychology Is Freudian: Jonathan Crane is all over the place. He could well be a behavioral or biological psychologist, considering how he was using his fear gas. But the only psychology we see him actually deliver is total bullshit designed to get Rachel off his back, and that name-checks Jungian theories.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Ra's al Ghul and his men walk right into the manor as guests at Bruce's birthday party. When he realizes who they are, he's quick to get everyone else out. Good thing, too, as they burn the house down immediately after.
  • Always a Bigger Fish: Though Falcone's a feared crime kingpin whose control over Gotham's elite means he owns the city from the shadows, he turns out to be fairly low on the totem pole. He's just another thug who answers to Ra's, Crane and the League of Shadows, and the only real danger he poses to them is his incomplete but still damaging knowledge of their plans. Once they decide he's a liability Crane deals with him quickly and he's out of action for the rest of the film.
  • Anachronic Order: Played with. Bruce's backstory up until his final exam with the League of Shadows is told non-linearly through a series of flashbacks during his Training Montage. Once the backstory catches up with Bruce in the mid-east prison, everything is in chronological order.
  • Answer Cut: Lucius Fox takes over Earle's job as CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and Earle asks "on whose authority?" Cut to Bruce Wayne reading a newspaper.
  • Arc Words:
    • "Don't be afraid".
    • "Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up"
    • "You always fear what you don't understand"
    • "All that is necessary" or "What is necessary"
    • "You never did learn to mind your surroundings""
    • Bruce: "You still haven't given up on me?" Alfred: "Never."
    • "It's not who you are underneath. It's what you do that defines you." Rachel says this to Bruce after he returns to Gotham from his training and later when Rachel asks Batman his name he says "It's not who I am underneath. But what I do that defines me." to reveal his identity to her.
  • Artistic License – Biology: After Bruce falls into a frozen lake during a training session, Ducard tells him to focus on keeping his chest warm because his extremities "will take care of themselves." This is the exact opposite of how the human body works when cold, and Christopher Nolan himself worried people would freeze to death in real life by taking Ducard's advice.
  • Artistic License – Law: As pointed out here, senior executives of publically traded companies like William Earle cannot simply be fired on the spot without being tangled in bureaucratic red tape and legal disputes. As Earle never committed anything villainous or even criminally liable, he would have a field day suing Wayne Enterprises for unfair dismissal.
  • Artistic License – Physics: The microwaving of Gotham's water supply to such a temperature that the steam bursts pipes. Why worry about the Scarecrow's fear drug? Worry about how many citizens got steam-cooked...
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: During the scene where Bruce Wayne meets Ra's Al Ghul (actually his decoy), we see him communicate in what is supposed to sound like Tibetan (as the league's headquarters is in the Himalayas). In actuality, Ken Watanabe isn't speaking in any known language, though according to some release's subtitles, it's supposed to be Urdu.
  • As Long as There Is Evil: Ra's Al Ghul cites civilization's cyclic decay into criminality as the reason for the League of Shadows' existence.
  • Assurance Backfire: When rushing Rachel Dawes back to the Batcave to get her an antidote to the Scarecrow's fear toxin, Batman tells her to stay calm, before informing her that she's been poisoned, which causes her to visibly panic.
  • At the Opera Tonight: The movie eschews sending the Wayne family to the usual movie (Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro (1940)) and instead has Thomas and Martha Wayne mugged and killed leaving the opera early. (The opera in question is Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito, which shows thought from the writers: a lazy writer would probably have gone with Die Fledermaus for the name, but Mefistofele is much more thematically appropriate.)
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Most of the gear from Applied Sciences that Bruce uses to become Batman is very powerful. The Nomex survival suit can stop a knife and anything but a straight shot, but the U.S. Army decided that soldiers' lives weren't worth the $300,000 price tag per unit, rendering it too expensive to be viable for mass production. It's well within the means of a multi-billionaire on a crusade against injustice, however.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Ducard lists the various fighting styles that Bruce attempts to use when he first arrives at the monastery, as well as being able to pay attention to the immediate environment whilst fighting and using it against him.
  • Badass Boast:
    • A prisoner talks himself up to Bruce Wayne, but Bruce responds with a boast of his own:
      Prisoner: You are in Hell, little man, and I am the devil!
      Bruce Wayne: You're not the devil... you're practice.
    • "I'm Batman" — the ultimate badass boast.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Subverted. Bruce is about to assassinate Joe Chill when the mob assassinates him instead for becoming an informant. This is when Bruce realizes that crime has become so pervasive, killing one person won't resolve anything.
  • Ballroom Blitz: Rā's al Ghūl and his men crash Bruce Wayne's birthday party.
  • Bang, Bang, BANG: The shot produced by Joe Chill's revolver is a little bit louder than it really would be. Then again, it happens in a flashback, so more likely it being so loud reflects the trauma the incident had on Bruce.
  • Batman Gambit: Ironically, it is the League of Shadows who execute one when they release the prisoners in Arkham Asylum. As soon as the majority of the police force moves in to recapture the escapees, the League proceeds to gas the entire area with the fear compound.
  • Bat Scare: Used as a plot point when a young Bruce Wayne falls into a disused well and disturbs a colony of bats that live there. This causes him to develop a phobia of bats that he conquers when he becomes Batman. He later weaponizes it by including in his gadget repertoire a bat swarm lure, which he unleashes to escape from Arkham Asylum when surrounded by a mass police response to his appearance.
  • Bat Signal: Batman tells Gordon to "watch for [his] sign" in their first meeting; this sign turns out to be Falcone strung up to a spotlight, his cut coat resembling a bat. Gordon then turns this into the Bat-Signal at the end.
  • Batter Up!: Alfred tests out a sample Batman cowl by hitting it with a baseball bat; the cowl shatters, which Alfred determines is due to a problem with the graphite mixture.
  • Battle atop the Poles: Bruce Wayne spars opponents while balancing on wooden stakes during his Training from Hell by Ra's Al Ghul.
  • Beat: There's an absolutely hysterical one of these during the League of Shadows' attack on Arkham Asylum. Two patients are sitting in a cell together, when Batman breaks in through the door. He awkwardly moves between the two inmates with an apologetic "excuse me" (still in his Batman voice!) before leaving through the cell's window. There's a brief pause, and then the two prisoners just look at each other with expressions that scream "Oh, we're definitely in the right place."
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Falcone wants Crane to have him declared mentally unfit for trial. The League of Shadows having no further use for him, Crane obliges.
  • Bedlam House: Dr. Jonathan Crane uses Arkham as his personal lab and the inmates as the test subjects for his fear toxin. However, as the film is intended to be a more realistic depiction of the Batman franchise, Arkham is portrayed as a modern, clean, spacious, and well-lit facility rather than gloomy and gothic.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Ra's al Ghul reveals to Bruce that the League of Shadows are responsible for, among other things, the Sack of Rome, the Black Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the Wretched Hive of a Crapsack City that Gotham has become.
  • Beta Outfit: Bruce starts out with an armored Nomex suit, a climbing harness and a black ski mask before settling on the bat motif.
  • Big Damn Heroes: When Gordon calls for reinforcements in the fear gassed Narrows, Commissioner Loeb replies there is no else to help (he is wrong). At that exact moment, the Batmobile roars in to the rescue.
    Jim Gordon: We need reinforcements! TAC teams, SWATs, riot cops!
    Loeb: Gordon! Gordon! All the city's riot police are on the island with you.
    Jim Gordon: Well, they're completely incapacitated!
    Loeb: [talking to Gordon on walkie-talkie] Gordon... there's nobody left to send in.
  • A Birthday, Not a Break: Bruce Wayne has a party on his birthday. Unfortunately, Ra's al Ghul comes to his party, burns down his mansion, and attempts to drive all of Gotham insane, leaving Batman to stop him.
  • Bitch Slap: When Bruce reveals the revolver he had planned to kill Joe Chill with at the courtroom, Rachel gives him not one, but two of these.
  • Blackmail: Falcone attempts it on Crane. This results in the trope right below.
  • Blackmail Backfire: Falcone tries to blackmail Jonathan Crane but ends up getting a dose of fear toxin for it.
    Falcone: I want to know how you're gonna convince me to keep my mouth shut.
    Crane: About what? You don't know anything.
    Falcone: I know you wouldn't want the police to take a closer look at those drugs they seized. And I know about your experiments with the inmates of your nuthouse. See, I don't go into business with a guy without finding out his dirty secrets. And those goons you used –- I own the muscle in this town. Now, I've been bringing your stuff in for months, so whatever he's planning, it's big, and I want in.
    Crane: Well, I already know what he'll say: that we should kill you.
    Falcone: Even he can't get me in here. Not in my town.
    Crane: ...would you like to see my mask? I use it in my experiments. Probably not very frightening to a guy like you, but these crazies, they can't stand it.
    Falcone: So when did the nut take over the nuthouse?
    Cue Crane spraying the fear toxin in Falcone's face, making Falcone scream in terror.
    Scarecrow Crane: They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now.
  • Black-Tie Infiltration: The League of Shadows does this during Bruce's birthday party. Ra's al Ghul doesn't even attempt to disguise himself; he gives Mrs. Delane his name and asks to see Bruce.
  • Blade Brake: Batman uses his gauntlets for this effect while rescuing Ducard.
  • Blinded by the Light: Henri Ducard shows Bruce Wayne how to use a pinch of gunpowder to achieve this effect.
  • Blood from the Mouth: From the decoy Ra's al Ghul, during the destruction of the compound.
  • Body Double: How Ra's al Ghul appears immortal.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Despite having the advantage of surprise in his plans due to Bruce believing him dead, Ra's opts to show up to a Wayne Manor party, reveal himself as alive and the real Ra's, and explain his plan in minute detail to Bruce before leaving him in the burning Wayne Manor without bothering to confirm that he's actually dead, giving Bruce the information and opportunity to foil the plan. It is, however, also implied that he is pushing Bruce to "do what is necessary" (i.e., killing him to stop the plan), as when Bruce finally does get the better of him, he is proud rather than shocked. Unfortunately for him, Bruce has other plans.
  • Bookcase Passage: Activated by piano keys.
  • Brandishment Bluff: Batman sneaks into Gordon's office to introduce himself for the first time. To keep Gordon from turning around and seeing him, he imitates a Dramatic Gun Cock using a stapler pressed to the back of Gordon's head.
  • Break the Haughty: Happens twice to Carmine Falcone.
    • When Batman makes his first appearance. Compare the untouchable crime lord smugly lecturing his underlings not to probe too deeply into the "secrets of scary people" with the terrified old man cowering in the back of a limo trying to load a shotgun with shaking hands a few minutes later, and who then finds himself pulled through a sunroof, headbutted into unconsciousness, and tied to a spotlight surrounded by the drugs he was smuggling into the country.
    • Then in prison a few scenes later, Crane reduces him to a lunatic in an insane asylum mumbling "Scarecrow... Scarecrow...".
  • Break Them by Talking: Ra's al Ghul tries to disprove Bruce's idealism by telling just how corrupt Gotham really is while burning down Wayne Manor. Bruce disagrees and believes there is still hope for Gotham.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Before starting work on his Batman persona, Bruce pays a homeless man for his coat; while he plans to burn his, the homeless man insists he keep it, saying that it's a "nice coat" and repeating it to himself after Bruce leaves. When he publicly debuts as Batman to intercept one of Falcone's drug shipments, he sees the same homeless man and simply tells him, "Nice coat." He's quite delighted to hear it.
    • During Bruce's training, Ducard teaches him that theatricality and deception are powerful agents. This comes back to haunt Ra’s during the climax when he sees the Batsuit for the very first time. An equally incredulous and snarky Ra’s observes that Bruce took his advice about theatricality a bit…literally.
    • When Batman subdues Falcone for the police, he ties him to a searchlight shining up in the sky, with Falcone's body giving off the appearance of a makeshift bat-shadow in the sky. At the end of the film, Gordon builds an actual Bat-Signal to get Batman's attention, remarking that he "couldn't find any mob bosses".
  • Bridal Carry; Batman does this to Rachel. The scene was also the basis for one of the film posters, in which it was not clear if Rachel was dying or merely unconscious.
  • Buddy Snaps First: Bruce Wayne, fourteen years after his parents' murder, attends the court hearing of the culprit Joe Chill. Chill is able to get paroled and freed when he testifies against crime lord Carmine Falcone. Bruce, angered by this turn of events, has already hidden a gun inside of his coat sleeve and intends to kill Chill outside of the court hall in revenge. Fortunately, what saves Bruce from enacting his plan and ruining his own life is the sudden appearance of one of Falcone's henchpeople, as she emerges from the crowd of reporters covering the case, and fatally shoots Chill.
    Henchwoman: JOE! HEY JOE! Falcone says 'Hi'!
    [she shoots Joe Chill through the chest]
  • Bulk-Buy Only: A variant appears when Alfred comments that the components for Bruce's Batman mask (the ears and hood) will have to be ordered in large lots — ten thousand of each component — in order to avoid suspicion ("At least we'll have spares"). The first shipment of the mask proper turns out to be flawed and unusable, obliging them to order another ten thousand, albeit at a discount offered in apology for the flaw.
  • Bulletproof Vest: The movie establishes that the Batman's suit is a $300k body armor, so it's somewhat justified that it works pretty well. In The Dark Knight, Bruce asks Fox to redesign the suit to be more resistant to dog bites, realistically showing a common weakness in ballistic armor. In The Dark Knight, Gordon takes a bullet for the mayor while wearing a standard kevlar vest and is injured badly enough to convince everyone he's dead. He's away for some time before coming back into action.
  • Bullying a Dragon: When Falcone tries to blackmail Jonathan Crane. As noted above, it doesn't go well for Falcone.
  • Burying a Substitute: The film's novelization has Bruce Wayne burying the clothing he wore while training with the League of Shadows because it has some of Ducard/Ra's al Ghul's blood on it, and that bloodstain is the only thing he has to mark the Evil Mentor that was almost a second father to him.
  • …But He Sounds Handsome: Inverted; Bruce makes fun of his alter-ego while establishing his rich idiot persona.
    Bruce: Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.
  • Calling Card: The joker playing card seen in The Stinger.
  • Calling the Cops on the FBI: Scarecrow orders his men to call the cops when Batman shows up, knowing they'll go after the vigilante and let them go.
  • The Cameo:
    • Tim Booth from James has a small non-speaking role as lesser known Batman villain, Victor Zsaz.
    • Character actor John Nolan, the director's uncle, appears at Bruce Wayne's birthday party.
    • Actress Lucy Russell appears as a guest as a restaurant.
    • Actor Jeremy Theobald appears as a water board technician.
    • Actor Shane Rimmer appears as The Older Gotham Water Board Technician
  • Cathartic Exhalation: The engineers monitoring the water mains in response to the pressure drop.
  • Car Cushion: Batman lands on a car when he jumps from a the window in his burning suit.
  • Cassandra Truth: After gassing Crane, Batman asks who he is working for. Crane says "Ra's al Ghul," to which Batman replies, "Ra's al Ghul is dead! Who are you working for?!" Turns out Crane was telling the truth.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Averted, as Bruce has a Flashback Nightmare and simply wakes up breathing heavily.
  • Cave Behind the Falls: The Tumbler exits the Batcave by leaping through a waterfall.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Bruce is shown training with the League Of Assassins, which give him nearly superhuman skills like being able to vanish from view of Commissioner Gordon without the latter noticing or being able to lift overweight mob boss Carmine Falcone from the ground. The later movies downplay it a bit, showing that Bruce highly relies on intelligence and gadgets. Then again, in The Dark Knight Rises, he heals very fast from a broken spine and escapes the Hell Hole Prison by using sheer willpower.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The blue flower turns out to be a key ingredient in the League's fear toxin.
    • The fact that the monorail beams follow the same route as the water mains, and that the hub for both is located under Wayne Tower.
    • Subverted with the weak first batch of Batsuit masks. It seems like foreshadowing for Batman's mask breaking, but it never comes back up, unless it's meant to foreshadow events in The Dark Knight Rises.
    • All of the features that Fox describes when Bruce is trying out the Tumbler (its use to jump over rivers, and the rampless jump boosters) come in handy during the car chase and to get into the narrows after the cops have raised the bridges.
    • The secret elevator to the Batcave comes in handy during the climax.
  • *Click* Hello: Played with. When Batman covertly introduces himself to Jim Gordon at the GCPD, we're initially lead to believe that he's put a gun to the back of the sergeant's head, complete with an audible click, to keep him from raising the alarm. This being Batman however, it's soon revealed to be a bluff; he's actually holding a stapler.
  • Comforting Comforter: While a uniformed officer in this movie, Gordon wraps a coat around a young Bruce Wayne as he waits in the police station after the murder of his parents. This act of kindness affects Bruce so much, he mentions the incident to Gordon as his Internal Reveal of Batman's Secret Identity in the final film.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: Currently the last Batman movie to receive one. It's okay if you haven't heard of it; it didn't come out with much fanfare, and was more of an original story packaged with reprints of classic Batman stories.
  • Completely Unnecessary Translator: Ducard translates for Ra's al Ghul, who later speaks to Bruce in about five words of perfect, if clipped, English. May serve as foreshadowing that Ducard IS Ra's al Ghul, and that was a decoy. Using this trope allows him to literally speak for Ra's, while not revealing his identity.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Batman has the easiest time against dozens of gangsters and hundreds of cops, a much harder time against a few League of Shadow operatives, and the hardest time against just Ra's. Justified in that the League of Shadows has had the same combat training Batman did, and Ra's is the one who taught him.
  • Continuity Reboot: Following the original Batman (Film Series) movies directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, the series was rebooted in 2005 with Batman Begins, which is the first installment of The Dark Knight Trilogy. This movie retold Batman's origin story in a new, grounded, gritty and "realistic" style. It was possibly the first movie to really popularise the term "reboot", with the filmmakers stressing that it was not a Prequel to Batman (1989).
  • Continuity Snarl: Considering that Bruce Wayne's canonical birthday is February 19, the novelization reveals an apparent several-month gap between the Wayne Manor fire and the commencement of the rebuilding (which started in the fall with the sealing of the Batcave), as well as an apparent nine-and-a-half month gap between the end of this movie and the arrival of The Joker (which Batman was alerted to at 11:30 PM on December 1). It's worth noting that according to Nolan, The Dark Knight takes place (and was released) in July of 2008–and several months after the end of Begins.
  • Cover-Blowing Superpower: Ra's al Ghul confronts Bruce at his home while he's holding a party. Bruce has to find a way to evacuate the party without attacking.
  • Cover-up Purchase: Bruce and Alfred are ordering the components which will eventually be assembled into the batsuit:
    Alfred: Of course, they'll have to be large orders to avoid suspicion.
    Bruce: How large?
    Alfred: Say, ten thousand.
    Bruce: Least we'll have spares.
  • Crapsack World: Gotham is pictured as one. It's revealed that the League of Shadows are partly responsible for the current state of Gotham, having tried to destroy the city, which they perceived as a Wretched Hive, using economic means. Which mostly just made it more wretched.
    Rachel: Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. They talk about the Depression like it's history and it's not.
  • Create Your Own Hero: Not only did Henri Ducard provide Bruce the skills to become Batman but he reveals that the League of Shadows deliberately exacerbated the poverty and corruption within Gotham to "make everyone a criminal". In other words, if not for the League, Joe Chill probably never would have killed the Waynes and Bruce would have never ended up becoming Batman.
  • Creator Cameo: Producer Larry Franco appears as a cop during a chase scene.
  • Crime-Concealing Hobby: Discussed, as Alfred advises Bruce to get a hobby that will explain the injuries he receives as a vigilante crime fighter; he suggests polo.
  • Crimefighting with Cash: Bruce's suits and gadgets are mostly prototypes that his company shelved for various reasons.
  • Crooks Are Better Armed: The film justifies this trope, setting up a theme of escalation for The Dark Knight.
  • Cruel Mercy: Ducard tosses Bruce's mercy right back to his face when they meet again in the third act saying that it was a sign of weakness, so Bruce does it again in the final battle: he won't kill Ducard… but good luck getting out of the Runaway Train about to derail in a spectacular fashion without Bruce's help.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Bruce's fight in the prison near the beginning of the movie. He totally wipes the floor with "the Devil" and his pals.
  • Danger — Thin Ice: As part of Bruce's Training from Hell, Ducard breaks the ice underneath him and plunges him into the icy depths.
  • Darker and Edgier: This movie marked a definite shift away from the previous Batman films; the world of Batman goes from being camp and over-the-top to dark and gritty. Even the humor is much more toned down.
  • Darkness Equals Death: There's a good guy example in the sequence on the docks, where Batman pulls a mob goon into said dark space.
  • Death by Adaptation: Ra's al Ghul is immortal in the comics, by way of rejuvenating himself in the Lazarus Pits and stealing the bodies of his family members after his original body is killed and then cremated. In the films... not so much.
  • Death by Secret Identity: Ra's knows Bruce's identity as the Batman from the start, but ends up dead by the end of Begins.
  • Deceptive Disciple: Inverted, The League of Shadows plans to use Bruce and his connections to help burn Gotham to the ground. Bruce promptly turns against the group when he finds out.
  • Deducing the Secret Identity: The League of Shadows arrives at Wayne Manor to confront Bruce. It's never said how they figured out he was Batman, but the context of the movie implies that it was obvious to them; the oligarch that they trained in combat and tactics returns to his home city, and shortly afterward a masked vigilante utilizing the League's fighting style and tactics and armed with very expensive gear appears.
  • Devil Complex: During his brief time in a prison in Tibet, Bruce Wayne is attacked by the leader of the local prison gang, who boasts that "You are in Hell, little man, and I am the Devil!". Bruce finds the whole intimidation attempt comically overblown, and fights off both him and multiple other men simultaneously.
    Bruce: You're not the Devil. You're practice.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • Falcone names the trope himself after young Bruce's attempts to stand up to him fall flat.
      Bruce: I'm not afraid of you.
      Carmine: Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through. You haven't thought of your lady-friend down at the D.A.'s office. You haven't thought about your old butler. Bang! People from your world have so much to lose.
    • Falcone’s collaboration with the League of Shadows. Ducard establishes early in the film that Ra’s al Ghul is feared by the global criminal underworld. Falcone clearly knows his reputation and is left uneasy when Crane tells him Ra’s is coming to Gotham soon. Yet it doesn’t occur to Falcone to wonder why such an infamous anti-criminal zealot like Ra’s would be working with Gotham’s criminal kingpin.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Carmine Falcone seems to be the root of Gotham's problems, as The Don of the Gotham Mob, but he's really just a patsy for the League of Shadows, via the Scarecrow. He's captured and driven insane while his bosses continue their schemes.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Joe Chill's death scene looks remarkably like the death of JFK's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald: he's being escorted under guard when someone steps out of the crowd and shoots him in the chest.
  • Don't Think, Feel: Inverted. Bruce Wayne starts out driven by rage and guilt. The League of Shadows teaches him to use his head.
  • Dramatic Irony: In the final scene, neither Gordon or Batman know what to make of this new criminal running around leaving Joker playing cards at his crime scenes. The audience, on the other hand, knows exactly who that criminal is — and just how much trouble is now coming for Gotham and its defenders.
  • Dream Intro: The movie starts with a Flashback Nightmare by Bruce, retelling his first encounter with bats when he was a little kid. The nature of this sequence is slightly given away by the echoing voices.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The supposed leader of the League of Shadows is killed without fanfare.
  • Due to the Dead: At the end of the novelization, Bruce buries Ducard, or what was left of him after the monorail crashed, next to Thomas Wayne.

     E-H 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The odd, almost memetic, gravelly voice Christian Bale uses when Wayne is in his Batman persona is very pronounced in the two sequels, but in this film Bale hardly uses the gravelly voice at all, he mostly only speaks in a slight whisper.
    • The title doesn't have Dark Knight in it, unlike the two others. Conversely, this is the only film with Batman in the title.
    • Bruce is also more loose with his Thou Shalt Not Kill code. While he doesn't directly murder people, he seems to be okay with Murder by Inaction. Although this makes sense if you consider it is the beginning of his career as a hero and is still refining himself. He is more reckless and violent through the movie than what he would become later.
    • The chest-emblem on the main bat-suit does not match the film’s signature bat-symbol. Rather than having the main “Dark Knight” symbol of the trilogy, bat-suit’s chest-emblem looks similar to the future Batman: Arkham Series by Rocksteady. This would be fixed in the following film in which Batman gets a new suit with an emblem the matches the trilogy signature bat-symbol.
    • There's much more usage of comic-style visuals through the use of CGI to create the Narrows and the gothic-inspired monorail, which seem much closer to the stylized Gotham of the 90s films. The sequels would totally eliminate this (aided by the Narrows and the monorail both being destroyed in this film's climax) in favor of making a Gotham that looks completely like an ordinary modern city.
    • Related to the above, the film in general is much more fantastical. While Begins isn't too out there, it still features a secret mystical cult of ninjas, a specialized fear toxin that makes you hallucinate your worst fears and the aforementioned stylised Gotham City, making it a more elevated and "comic-booky-y" film than its two sequels, The Dark Knight especially. Even when the League of Shadows show up again in Rises they're more depicted as N.G.O. Superpower mercernaries rather than as ninjas.
  • Easter Egg: Take a look at the first letter of tracks 4-9 on the soundtrack. It spells "Batman"!
  • Establishing Character Moment: After the very first scene in which has young Bruce Wayne falling into a cave and being swarmed by bats (which as a kid, he was terrified of), we're treated to a prison scene which establishes the older Bruce Wayne as a badass, which has him taking down both a huge Chinese prisoner and every other prisoner who joins the fight. And then the guards have him dragged away, not to protect Bruce from them, but to protect them from him.
  • Europeans Are Kinky: When the two girls who accompany Bruce strip down in the middle of an upscale restaurant and start bathing in a fountain, he excuses their behavior to an outraged maitre'd with "They're European" and a shrug.
  • Event Title: Batman Begins.
  • Evil Evolves: A variation during the confrontation at Wayne Manor. Ra’s tells Bruce that the League of Shadows’ weapons have become more sophisticated over the centuries. The original attack on Gotham was a testbed for weaponized economics, which created the artificial depression. Following its failure, the League’s follow-up attack was built on Crane’s weaponization of the Bhutan blue flowers’ chemical properties.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Falcone works with Crane and Ra's al Ghul for the drugs they smuggle, unbeknownst that the latter two are actually aiming toward higher, more destructive goals. In addition, Crane thinks Ra's is holding the city ransom, not planning to destroy it without prompting as the case really is.
  • Evil Plan: The League of Shadows' plan to Mercy Kill Gotham, though Bruce defeats them early in the movie. But since he saved Henri Ducard, AKA Ra's al Ghul, they try to destroy Gotham again.
  • Exact Words:
    • Batman uses this to justify letting Ra's al Ghul die after defeating him on the monorail, giving him the choice between getting off the monorail and dying in the imminent crash.
      Batman: I won't kill you... [throws one Batarang out the window and detaches a monorail car with another before preparing to jump out] but I don't have to save you.
    • Earlier, Ducard tells Bruce that he's stronger than his father. Bruce remarks Ducard never knew his father. Ducard doesn't deny it, instead emphasizing Bruce's own anger and will in comparison to his father's. Ducard didn't know Thomas Wayne personally. But, he knew of him as one of Gotham's leading citizens when the League of Shadows struck Gotham 20 years earlier. He knows of him because the deaths of Thomas and Martha ironically and unwittingly derailed their original attack.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. Mob Boss Carmine Falcone tells a young Bruce Wayne that he's "taller than he looks in the tabloids." He then makes it clear however that he's not very impressed by Wayne's naive bravado.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Lucius Fox explains to Bruce that simply adding a hallucinogenic toxin to the water supply will not be enough to create an inhalable toxic fog that covers Gotham. He then recalls a specific illegal device that Wayne Enterprises has recently lost track of.
    Bruce: Somebody's planning to disperse the toxin using the water supply.
    Fox: The water supply won't help you disperse an inhalant...
    Bruce: What?
    Fox: Unless you have a microwave emitter powerful enough to vaporize all the water in the mains. A microwave emitter like the one Wayne Enterprises just misplaced.
  • Expospeak Gag: After Lucius Fox finishes explaining exactly how he derived the antidote for Crane's fear toxin to save Bruce's life:
    Lucius Fox: I analyzed your blood, isolating the receptor compounds and the protein-based catalyst.
    Bruce Wayne: Am I supposed to understand any of that?
    Lucius Fox: No. I just wanted you to know how hard it was. Bottom line, I synthesized an antidote.
    Bruce Wayne: Could you make more?
    Lucius Fox: You planning on gassing yourself again, Mr. Wayne?
    Bruce Wayne: Well, you know how it is, Mr. Fox. You're out at night, looking for kicks, someone's passing around the weaponized hallucinogens...
    Lucius Fox: I'll bring what I have. The antidote should inoculate you for now.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Trapped on a train that's about to crash and explode, Ra's al Ghul simply sits back and slowly closes his eyes.
  • Face Your Fears: A major theme. Ducard teaches Bruce to conquer his own fear, Falcone outright gloats about using fear to get his way, Batman actively exploits the fears in others and Scarecrow uses hallucinogens that cause his victims to be consumed by their fears.
  • Failed a Spot Check: This is part of what dooms Ra's al Ghul in the climax. After Batman shatters his mentor's sword cane, Bruce grabs one of the blade fragments and starts stabbing at the train controls. Clearly thinking his prodigal protégée is trying to stop the train, Ra's grabs Bruce and throws him out of the cab to continue their fight. Had Ra's stopped to inspect the controls, he'd have realized Bruce was actually locking in the controls to ensure the train couldn't be stopped; Bruce, having realized his Plan A was a bust, was now falling back on Plan B with Gordon and Batmobile down on the ground. By the time Batman clues Ra's in and he finally looks back at the controls, it's too late. Bruce even lampshades that his mentor broke one of his cardinal rules: always mind your surroundings.
  • Failed State: Invoked by the League of Shadows. R'as al-Ghul claims credit for attempting to weaponize economics to collapse Gotham City in the film's backstory, having viewed it as a Soiled City on a Hill. Thomas Wayne's philanthropic efforts, and then his death inspiring the rest of Gotham's Blue Bloods to contribute, threw a Spanner in the Works, prompting the main plot of the film, where the League weaponizes Jonathan "Scarecrow" Crane's fear toxin to achieve the same end.
  • Finish Him!: After being defeated at the end of the film, Ra's expects Bruce to kill him. He adheres to his one rule... by forcing Ra's to choose between getting off the monorail and dying in the imminent crash.
    Batman: You never learned to mind your surroundings!
    [Batman turns the tables and pins Ra's al Ghul to the ground]
    Ra's al Ghul: Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?
  • Firing Day: Lucius loses his job at Wayne Enterprises due to merging departments. Bruce later reinstates him by giving him Earle's job.
    Didn't you get the memo?
  • Flashback Nightmare: The opening of the movie shows Bruce dreaming of falling into a well and being surrounded by bats as a child.
  • Flight Is the Final Power: after spending the film learning to combine his martial arts training with high-tech weaponry, Batman surprises the League of Shadows with a new trick during their attack on Gotham City: a glider suit that gives him controlled flight, allowing him to pursue Ra's Al Ghul's train.
  • Flower from the Mountaintop: Inverted. Bruce has to pick a rare blue flower at the base of a mountain and then carry it to the monastery at the top. The blue flower is the basis for the League's hallucinogen.
  • Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Batman gliding off a rooftop and just past the camera, his cape cloaking it with black.
  • Foil: Bruce Wayne/Batman and the two main villains of the film are given intentional parallels and contrasts.
    • Against Jonathan Crane/the Scarecrow, the secondary villain: In a film telling Batman's origin story and emphasizing the role of weaponizing fear, the most iconic rogue in his gallery featured in the movie is the one who mirrors Batman by weaponizing fear. Crane and Wayne's surnames rhyme and they live double lives—Wayne, as a billionaire and heroic vigilante, and Crane as a psychiatrist and supervillain torturer. Both men use technology to empower themselves into something larger than life, with Crane's fear gas warping him into a mind-breaking terror while he wears a simple mask, and Wayne uses technology as part of a performance to make his actions seem impossible and inescapable, but not chemically overriding their minds—Crane makes artificial fear, while Wayne's weaponized fear comes from calculated talent. Wayne uses fear to strike terror into the hearts of criminals and deter crime, while Crane uses fear on anyone he likes to break their minds entirely, and either tortures the innocent or discards the guilty and denies their victims justice by doing so, using counsel that his patients are insane to divert them from prison. Crane is ultimately exposed by the events of the film, while Wayne maintains his double life. Wayne's worst moment of fear was triggered by the demon/bat dancers at the opera, and this got his parents killed by happenstance when they leave the theater. Crane's worst moment of fear comes when he is gassed on his own supply and witnesses Batman as a demonic thing that looks very much like the dancers.
    • Batman against Ra's Al-Ghul. Bruce Wayne trained under Ra's, and both are devoted to justice and ending corruption. Wayne splinters from Ra's and the League of Shadows when he learns their ethos is to kill criminals and to declare corrupt societies lost causes that must be burned to the ground, with Wayne's optimism and belief in positive change forever setting him against the agenda of destroying the flawed. Both men understand the value of theatrics and drama in elevating oneself beyond a man into a legend, as Bruce learned this from the League. Bruce becomes Batman, while Ra's becomes immortal with the use of stand-ins and legacy titles. Ra's is not the man presented as the leader of the League, but rather the number two, and is a title that can exist for generations. This also means both Ra's and Bruce Wayne have secret identities. Ra's Al Ghul lives a double life as Henri Ducard. At the end of the film, Ra's leaves Wayne to die but does not kill him and Wayne survives, while Batman leaves Ra's to die by refusing to save him, and Ra's does not survive.
  • Forensic Accounting:
    • The film has Rachel's boss stumble onto the League of Shadows' plan after he discovered a cargo ship had arrived in Gotham's port with one more cargo container than its manifest said it embarked with. Unfortunately a couple of Dirty Cops off him before he is able to tell anyone.
    • The film shows Alfred and Bruce trying to reduce the risk of this happening while gathering supplies to create his equipment. Someone ordering a single, very specific item would raise suspicion and leave an obvious trail. Someone ordering 10,000 of them is just a routine business order that no-one would pay attention to.
      Bruce Wayne: [after Alfred explains this to him, wryly] At least we'll have spares.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • During the flashback where Bruce returns to Wayne Manor for the first time as an adult, he tells Alfred that it just reminds him of the dead and he'd as soon see the whole place demolished. He comes around on that opinion, only for the Manor to be demolished by the villains in the lead-up to the film's climax.
    • Bruce's pretend-drunken rant mentions "two-faced friends" that "smile through their teeth".
    • Ducard's story during Bruce's early training about his late wife's murder. This becomes very important come The Dark Knight Rises.
    • The murder of DA Finch after he accidentally stumbles onto the League's secret weapon. This leaves the DA's Office vacant, leading to Harvey Dent's ascension in the interim between this film and The Dark Knight.
  • For Science!: Crane claims that his work revolves about that.
    Crane: I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do.
  • Funny Background Event: When Commissioner Loeb is talking to Gordon during the climax, he's using another cop's chest-mounted radio and we can see the poor guy being dragged back and forth as Loeb paces around.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Several songs on the soundtrack are named after species of bat, containing six listed in order as:
    Barbastella
    Artibeus
    Tadirida
    Macrotus
    Antrozous
    Nycteris
  • Fun with Homophones: The leitmotif for Ra’s al Ghul is titled Lasiurus, as in Lazarus.
  • Gaining the Will to Kill: After he has trained with the League of Shadows, Bruce's mentor asks him to do this as a show of his commitment after his last test. Namely, executing a prisoner who killed a fellow farmer for his land. Needless to say, the future Batman refuses, causing said mentor to later remark on his lack of 'courage to do all that is necessary' in comparison to himself and his plan to destroy Gotham to scare the rest of the cities in the nation into reforming. Towards the end, Batman does get Ra's at his mercy, and is asked again whether he now had that courage. He doesn't kill Ra's, but instead leaves him to die in the derailing monorail that he himself had set in motion. However Bruce seems perfectly fine with killing people indirectly since in the very scene where he refused to execute an individual he blew up the building everyone was in to get away, likely resulting in more than a few casualties including the person who was tied up to be executed.
  • Get into Jail Free: The movie opens with Bruce Wayne in a Chinese prison. It's pointed out that a man of his wealth and fame is only in a place like that by choice — Bruce is attempting to learn about the criminal mindset. However, Ducard regards this path as a dead end and quickly arranges his release so he can be tutored by the League of Shadows instead.
  • Gilligan Cut: Bruce spots a camouflage-painted military vehicle in the Applied Sciences department.
    Bruce Wayne: What's that?
    Lucius Fox: The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.
    [Cuts to Bruce driving the Tumbler around an open warehouse floor, with Fox riding shotgun and smiling nervously]
  • Go Among Mad People: Falcone is ready to go through this and slits his wrists to get sent to Arkham so he can blackmail Crane into helping him. Crane promptly fear-gases him, and the insanity stops being an act.
  • Golf Clubbing: Bruce's way of making a surprise entrance to Wayne Enterprises is to flirt with the secretary and then get caught by Earle teaching her Office Golf. Also how Alfred deals with a League of Shadows member when he rescues Bruce from his burning mansion.
  • Gone Horribly Right: In the backstory, Alfred states that Thomas Wayne nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises combating the economic depression. Thomas' hope was that his example would inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city. As Alfred ruefully reflects, the plan technically worked…because the subsequent murders of Thomas and Martha — at the hands of one of the very people they were trying to save no less — were what finally shocked Gotham’s wealthy and powerful into action.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: The titular character's wonderful toy allows him to latch onto a monorail car as it makes its way towards Wayne Tower in the finale of the film. It also established a bit of slightly more realistic tech to the gun; the gun fires the projectile but it is anchored to the suit and the belt has a motor for the ascension. Since his costume is likely built with a harness that means it isn't reliant on his physical strength to hold on and allows him to snatch mooks and pull them to the ceiling.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: The movie makes this a plot point; Ducard teaches Bruce Wayne that theatricality can be a powerful weapon, and Bruce Wayne, the character, starts Chewing the Scenery to intimidate criminals. He ends up facing Dr. Jonathan Crane, who dresses up as Scarecrow and uses similar tactics.
  • Hands-On Approach: Bruce seduces the secretary at Wayne Enterprises with this technique under the pretense of showing her how to play golf. He managed to do this in only a few seconds.
  • Hand Wave: Batman (who has a strict no-kill policy) gets into a high-speed chase on the freeway with the cops, causes more than a couple crashes and drives over several cop cars with the cops still inside, endangering dozens of civilian and police officer lives. Yet we know no one is hurt (very badly) because Alfred says: "It's a miracle no one was killed."
  • Happy Birthday to You!: A notable aversion, as the song is performed in its entirety with no alterations. This is unusual as the film was made in 2005, before the copyright expired.
  • Have You Told Anyone Else?: Non-lethal example. Carmine Falcone reveals to Dr Crane that he knows about the unethical medical experiments being carried out on the patients at Arkham asylum, implying that he's going to blackmail Crane if he doesn't cooperate. Crane responds by donning his Scarecrow mask, giving Falcone a dose of fear-inducing toxin, and torturing him into insanity. Later, Crane also menacingly asks that very question to Rachel when she visits Arkham Asylum and he sprays her with the fear gas upon finding out they've dumped it into Gotham's water supply.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: Happens when Joe Chill, who agrees to testify against Carmine Falcone in exchange for early parole, is assassinated by one of Falcone's goons immediately after the hearing.
  • He Knows Too Much:
    • Joe Chill is killed because he knows about Carmine Falcone's criminal activities.
    • Falcone himself got a face full of fear gas years later after trying to blackmail Dr. Crane with the information he had on Ra's operation.
  • Hellish Horse: How Scarecrow and the horse he stole from a mounted police officer appears to a young boy affected by the fear compound during the finale.
  • The Hero's Journey: Bruce leaves his home of Gotham as a college student, spends years wandering the world to understand the criminal mind until he's trained to use his new skills by the League of Shadows, and then returns to Gotham to utilize these skills to save the city from the corruption that drove him out in the first place.
  • High-Altitude Interrogation: Batman performs this on Flass, repeatedly dropping him mere inches away from the ground and then lifting him back up with his batclaw.
  • Historical In-Joke: Ra's says that the League has worked to restore the world to balance throughout history as human civilization achieved decadence around the world, and claims credit for the 410 AD sacking of Rome, the Black Plague, and the Great Fire of London.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • In his first scene, Carmine Falcone gives a young Bruce Wayne a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how he'll never understand Gotham's underworld. This leads Bruce to go soul-searching and world traveling, culminating in his becoming Batman and taking Falcone down. Underestimating Crane was also very unwise.
    • Jonathan Crane is poisoned with his own fear toxin after trying to hit Batman with it again.
    • The League fails in its plans because Batman used skills they taught him to save Gotham.
    • Ra's al Ghul jams the controls of the monorail train so that Batman can't stop it from reaching its destination. This also means it can't be stopped from crashing after Batman has Gordon destroy the track supports.
    • Earle gets bought out of controlling Wayne Enterprises through the exact same financial tricks that he attempted to take control in the first place.
  • Hollywood Fire: Bruce Wayne's mansion is burning hot enough to crack the ceiling beams, but falling beams are the only real danger.
  • Honor Before Reason: When Bruce is knocked unconscious in his home, Ra's leaves him rather than make sure he's dead, reasoning "Justice is balance. You burned my house and left me for dead. Consider us even." Tellingly, he does not seem surprised when Bruce reappears as Batman. That being said, Ra's is at least savvy enough to leave a League operative behind to ensure nobody gets out of the inferno. He just didn't anticipate Alfred returning and successfully rescuing Bruce (nor did he apparently realize the Batcave's existence and that it was an alternate avenue of escape.
  • Horrifying the Horror: Carmine Falcone has half of Gotham in his pocket and his corruption runs so deep that the District Attorney himself can't touch him. Falcone is still scared shitless of Ra's.
    Jonathan Crane: I am aware you are not intimidated by me, Mr. Falcone, but you know who I work for, and when he gets here-
    Falcone: [shocked] Wait, he's coming to Gotham?
    Crane: Yes he is, and when he gets here, he is not going to want to hear that you have endangered our operation just to get your thugs out of a little jail time.
  • Hollywood Science: The microwave device intended to vaporize all the water in Gotham City is turned on with people standing right next to it. Keeping in mind that people are 80% water, this is just one of the more obvious reasons why the city-threat plot device is implausible.
  • Hummer Dinger: The tumbler is essentially a wheeled tank (and described as such by one of the cops attempting to pursue it).

    I-M 
  • If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Downplayed when Henri Ducard and Ra's Al Ghul instructs Bruce Wayne to execute a criminal in order to complete his initiation into the League of Shadows (naturally, Bruce refuses). However, the League is not challenging him to prove that he's evilnote —they are asking him to prove his commitment to a cause they think is right.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: A word of advice to people like Joe Chill: if you're trying to rob a couple at gunpoint and just want to get your hands on whatever it is you want from them (e.g. wallets and jewelry), never put your finger on the trigger. There's a good chance your gun will go off if your finger twitches at the slightest movement.
  • Impersonating an Officer: As Ra's al Ghul puts it, Bruce Wayne is trying to defend "a city so corrupt [the League of Shadows] infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. Effortlessly." How effortlessly? The district attorney, Carl Finch, is shot dead by a henchman posing as a police officer. In the finale, Ra's sneaks the microwave emitter into the Narrows in a SWAT truck, and his henchmen are posing as SWAT officers.
  • In Medias Res: The film opens with Bruce Wayne being held in a Chinese prison, and we don't find out the circumstances leading up to it until later. This is in line with Nolan's style of non-chronological narratives.
  • Incomprehensible Entrance Exam: To join the League of Shadows, Bruce Wayne is told to retrieve a mysterious blue flower from a remote mountain and then deliver it to a secluded monastery with no indication of what the flower might be for or even what's expected of him there. For good measure, once he actually arrives there, he's made to participate in a fist-fight with his mentor, despite being exhausted to the point of collapse.
  • Insanity Defense: Dr. Jonathan Crane (aka The Scarecrow) helps mob boss Carmine Falcone by testifying to the insanity of Falcone's thugs and having them put in Arkham Asylum to avoid jail time. But while there, he does twisted experiments on them to drive them to insanity.
  • Institutional Apparel: The asylum inmates' orange jumpsuits.
  • Ironic Echo: Several of them.
    • "It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you." Said first by Rachel Dawes to Bruce Wayne when Bruce was trying to explain that his Millionaire Playboy persona was all an act. Bruce later repeats it to Rachel ("It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me"), as Batman, when she asks who he is.
    • "Mind your surroundings." Said first by Henri Ducard to Bruce Wayne while the two are sparring on ice in Bhutan ("Always mind your surroundings"). Said later by Ducard to Bruce while he is burning down Wayne Manor ("You never did learn to mind your surroundings"). Batman finally repeats it to Ducard ("You'll never learn to mind your surroundings!") when the train they're in has its rails out ahead of them and Ducard fails to notice this until it's pointed out.
    • "It's a bit technical, but the key thing is our company's future is secure." Said first by Earle to Bruce when they were discussing the purchases of stock in their company. Bruce later repeats it to Earle when trying to explain why he's taking a more active role in the company. Made better by the fact that Bruce says "my company".
    • "Didn't you get the memo?" Said first by Earle to Lucius when firing Lucius. After Bruce Wayne gives Earle's job to Lucius, Bruce Wayne explains why he has the authority to do so, (providing the above Ironic Echo) and once Bruce is finished talking, Lucius says "Right you are, Mr. Wayne" and then looks at Earle, takes off his glasses, and asks "Didn't you get the memo?" This provides two ironic echoes in a row.
    • "Don't be afraid, Bruce." Said first by a dying Thomas Wayne, trying to comfort Bruce. Later said by Ducard during the train fight when he pins Bruce/Batman and starts strangling him.
  • Irony:
    • It's poetic that the League of Shadows, a secret society of vigilantes, was ruined by arson, when they caused mass arson in the past themselves. Almost like they didn't learn anything from that, or have any foresight whatsoever...
    • Falcone once told Bruce that he doesn't understand fear; however, Bruce became Batman and put fear in Falcone and got him arrested. Later, Crane uses his fear toxin to permanently get rid of Falcone. Irony that Falcone never understood fear himself and this is what lead to downfall at the end and never came back again.
  • It Always Rains at Funerals: The aftermath of Bruce's parents' funeral is shown, along with their headstones. It is raining and the traditional black umbrellas abound.
  • It Is Beyond Saving: The League of Shadows believe Gotham is this, comparing it to ancient Rome in its decadence. The city has grown intolerably corrupt and must be destroyed, so that balance can be restored to the world.
  • Ivy League for Everyone: Given that Bruce Wayne is the richest man on the planet, it's no surprise that he attended Princeton, which he enjoyed, but noted that "they don't feel the same way."
  • Karmic Death: Ra's plan was to crash a train into Wayne Tower, poisoning the city's water supply and destroying the Waynes' legacy in one stroke. Bruce derails the train with him still in it and abandons him to his death.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Flass pickpockets money from a poor falafel vendor (and is implied to do so on a regular basis), even after the vendor says he has kids to feed. "What, they don't like falafel?"
    • A member of the League of Shadows, disguised as a SWAT team member, pushing away a frightened lost child.
    • Also Falcone, when he berates Bruce and has his goons beat him and throw him out of the restaurant they're in. He sneers about Bruce's father supposedly having "begged liked a dog" for mercy, which he only thinks is what happened. Just in case he was starting to look glamorous.
  • Kill It with Fire: Ra's Al Ghul attempts to do this when he burns down Wayne Manor near the end of Batman Begins and leaves Bruce to perish in the fire. Fortunately, Alfred saves Bruce.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: When Batman raids the Asylum, rather than fight him off while continuing to keep their operation a secret from the police, Crane simply calls the police to the Asylum and tells his guys to lure Batman to their position where the cops will deal with him (since he's considered a dangerous vigilante, and they have orders to arrest him), while Crane and his guys escape in the confusion. He doesn't care that the cops will almost certainly discover their operation dumping his toxin into the water supply afterward, because they've already dumped in more than enough to contaminate the entire water supply and Crane and his men will be long gone. Unfortunately for Crane, Batman manages to hit him with his own toxin first, which means Crane is too out of it to escape and is arrested.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • Flass is jumped by the Batman after the above Kick the Dog moment. Later, he is driven insane by the hallucinogens he helped​ sell into Gotham.
    • Falcone is first taken out by the young man he taunted and taught "the power of fear". Being humiliated and getting arrested, to stay out of jail, he feigns insanity. He is driven completely insane by the same poison he funneled into Gotham.
  • Left for Dead: Ra's Al Ghul leaves Wayne to die in his burning mansion. Too bad for him.
  • Lemming Cops: The car chase plays this straight: Despite Batman's "no killing" creed (which the cops don't know about), many cops engage him in a high speed chase through the Loop, along highways and through back streets, as he's trying to rush a dying Rachel to the Batcave so he can give her the antidote. Over the course of the chase, we have the Tumbler drive over and crush a police car to start things off. Then, in the later parts, you wonder why the dispatcher doesn't call off the chase even after Batman uses a combination of caltrops and quick maneuvers to take out several police cars with multi-car pileups. When Bruce does get back to the Batcave and is admonished by Alfred for his reckless driving, (Alfred has been following the news reports of the chase), Alfred tells him "It's a miracle no one was killed." Er, yeah.
  • Let the Past Burn: The film's Darkest Hour is when Ra's al Ghul incapacitates Bruce Wayne, then sets Wayne Manor on fire and leaves Bruce to die there. Continuing his father's legacy (in this case, making Gotham a better, safer city) is one of Bruce's major motivations. Bruce is convinced at that moment that he's completely ruined Dad's legacy, and the destruction of his father's house is a very concrete representation of that.
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: Batman in his cave, gearing up for the final battle.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: The League of Shadows and Crane do with this Falcone during their collaboration. Falcone is being used to smuggle in the League’s toxin, but he doesn’t know what the endgame is. Falcone still figures out enough of the plan (which dooms him when Crane invokes He Knows Too Much). Ironically, Crane himself also doesn't know the real endgame (i.e. destroy Gotham) either, as he's under the impression the League intends to hold the city for ransom.
  • The Lost Lenore: During their training session on the ice, Ducard reveals to Bruce this is why he joined the League of Shadows. His beloved wife was taken from him years ago and her murder made Ducard realize that there are monsters out in the world who must be fought without hesitation or pity. While it's treated as exposition and a character development moment for Ducard in this film, the full story of what happened to his wife is finally explored in The Dark Knight Rises.
  • Made in Country X: The parts for Batman's mask have to be reordered because the graphite content was wrong, making them fragile.
    Alfred: In the meantime, I suggest you avoid landing on your head.
  • Made of Iron: The bats that are summoned to keep the police distracted have no trouble breaking through glass windows.
  • Madness Mantra: "Scarecrow... Scarecrow..."
  • Majority-Share Dictator: At the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne has regained control of Wayne Enterprises by buying controlling interest in it, which he uses to fire CEO William Earle and rehire Lucius Fox into that position.
    William Earle: What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?
    Bruce Wayne: Well, the fact that I'm the owner.
    Earle: What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.
    Wayne: And I bought most of the shares—through various charitable foundations and trusts and so forth.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: When Dr. Jonathan Crane tells Falcone, that Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes is snooping on their operations, Falcone says that they should bribe her into silence, but when Crane says that won't work, he places a hit in her. When Crane says that murdering her might bring even more attention, he says that they could make it look like a mugging gone wrong.
  • Makes Us Even: Ducard says this when burns down Wayne Manor and leaves Bruce to die.
    Ducard: Justice is balance. You burned my house and left me for dead. Consider us even.
  • Mass Mercy Killer: Henri Ducard's justification — and by extension the League of Shadows' — for trying to destroy Gotham City hews close to this trope.
    Bruce: You're gonna destroy millions of lives.
    Ducard: Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This is not how man was supposed to live.
  • Meaningful Echo:
    • When Rachel asks who Batman is, he replies with the same words she previously had berated him with while he was acting like a vapid playboy, saying that despite his assertions he's not that person underneath, his actions are what should define him.
      Batman: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
      Rachel: Bruce?!
    • "Why do we fall, sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."
    • Also with Alfred, the same exchange occurs between him and Bruce in the anachronic opening, and after Wayne Manor burns, immediately after the above:
      Bruce: Still haven't given up on me?
      Alfred: Never.
  • Media Scrum:
    • When Bruce is being held at the police station after his parents' death, the police can be shown holding back the reporters who want to talk to him.
    • When Joe Chill is released, he is surrounded by a gaggle of reporters throwing questions at him...one of whom is an assassin for Falcone sent to kill him.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Ducard mocks Bruce's father for not defeating his murderer, protecting himself and Bruce's mother, and saving Bruce from emotional trauma and orphanhood. The possibility that Bruce's mother could have done anything whatsoever to protect herself, her husband and her child, let alone that she should have, is never even suggested. This despite the fact that the murderer had a gun and none of the Waynes were armed, so Martha probably stood about as much of a chance of defeating him as her larger and presumably stronger husband did. For the record, Bruce himself doesn't blame his father for failing not to die, but is mentioned as having strong survivors' guilt. Ducard, again, doesn't raise an eyebrow at hearing Bruce blame himself for what happened and his need to make up for it, despite the fact that Bruce was eight-years-old at the time.
  • Mercy Backfire: When Bruce Wayne breaks away from the League of Shadows for ordering him to commit murder, he saves the man who recruited him, Henri Ducard (aka Ra's Al Ghul under a pseudonym), from the destroyed League HQ. Henri later comes after Bruce for betraying the League when the League arrive in Gotham City with plans to destroy it.
  • Mercy Kill: Henri Ducard, alias Ra's al-Ghul claims that wiping out the citizens of Gotham is this.
  • Mind Rape: Crane subjects Falcone to this, successfully rendering him insane and unable to spill Ra's Al Ghul's secrets.
  • Money Is Not Power: Falcone says he runs the city with "power you can't buy... the power of fear" and demonstrates how he sees Bruce as some snot-nosed kid who can't handle the ugly side of life. In a twist of irony, Falcone learns that this power can't save him when scarier people start to show up.
  • Mook Horror Show: Whoever designed the predator levels of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City must have loved the warehouse scene. It's got Falcone's goons steadily getting more and more freaked out as Batman picks them off one by one.
  • Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Bruce Wayne reveals to Rachel Dawes that he was considering avenging his parents by shooting Joe Chill, who murdered them. Rachel then slaps Bruce twice.
    Rachel: Your father would be ashamed of you.
  • Mr. Exposition: A bit part exists to quickly recap the train situation as it's happening. After it blows up spectacularly, Gordon cheers, so anyone who hasn't been paying attention knows that it's a good thing.
  • Murder by Inaction: How Batman gets around the issue of not killing Ra's al Ghul: simply leaving him to die on the train while it crashes, though it's hinted that he was also giving Ra's every chance to escape by himself.
    Batman: I won't kill you... but I don't have to save you.
  • Multi Disciplinary Scientist: Dr. Jonathan Crane is described as a psychiatrist and in supplementary material as a psycho-pharmacologist.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Whilst being questioned by Batman, Crane throws out a line directly quoted from Batman: Haunted Knight.
    • Crane's method for widely distributing the fear toxin is through the pipes under Arkham Asylum, an approach the Scarecrow also used in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Dreams in Darkness".
    • Crane also gets gassed in Batman's presence and hallucinates him as a demonic creature in another Animated Series episode, "Nothing to Fear".
    • "I'm Batman", as delivered to Falcone.
    • If you pause and look carefully at the evidence bag with the Joker playing card at the end of the film, you can see that the name of the registering officer was J. Kerr, one of the Joker's known aliases in the comics.
    • When Bruce Wayne is "introduced" to Ra's al Ghul at his party, he finds himself facing a bald Asian League of Shadows member who could be a younger version of their supposed leader. In the comics, Ra's al Ghul has immortality because he uses the Lazarus Pit to rejuvenate his youth.
    • One cop says "Who is this guy?!", just like another cop in Tim Burton's film.

    N-R 
  • Near-Villain Victory: If Bruce hadn't been saved by Alfred from his mansion and Gordon hadn't been able to blow up the monorail tracks; Gotham's citizens would have all been driven insane or killed each other due to Scarecrow's fear toxin and Ra's al Ghul's plan.
  • Needle in a Stack of Needles:
    • Ducard's training, where he hides among his followers while Bruce stalks him, everyone dressed in ninja gear.
    • Batman's mask is ordered in several parts, each from a different overseas company in orders numbering thousands to avert suspicion.
      Bruce: Well, at least we'll have spares.
  • Never Found the Body: At the end, Ra's-Al Ghul is apparently killed when the train car he is in derails and crashes. He has so far not returned, but the fact that we never see his body (along with some of his defining characteristics from the comics) has fueled much fan speculation. The novelization of the film says, however, that his body was never found.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: A lot of promotional material made Scarecrow look like he would be the Big Bad, when in the full film, he's more of a secondary antagonist, acting as a go-between for the Falcone mob and the League of Shadows while advancing the latter's plans in secret.
  • New Tech Is Not Cheap: Used to justify why there's an entire branch full of hardware for Bruce to 'borrow' from Wayne Enterprises.
    Lucius: [This armor] will even stop a knife.
    Bruce: Why isn't it standard issue?
    Lucius: The military didn't think a soldier's life was worth 300 grand.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
    • Bruce's decision in the climax to leave Ra's to his death in the plunging train will come back to bite him in the ass a decade later.
    • Towards the end of the Second Act, Bruce taking out Crane and his goons at Arkham. Sure, it allows him to rescue Rachel and stops any more toxin from being dumped into the City's water supply. But with Crane's operations now exposed, it also forces Ra's to accelerate his timetable for destroying Gotham.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!:
    • Carmine Falcone's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Bruce Wayne gives him the idea of becoming Batman. For an extra kick in the teeth, Falcone becomes Bruce's first target after he comes back from his training and don the moniker of Batman. Leading to him being swiftly arrested with no chance of bail (since he was at the scene of the crime when the police arrived) despite all his earlier posturing of being untouchable.
    • Moreover, Falcone has Joe Chill shot before Bruce himself has a chance to, ensuring Bruce's anger will continue to seek an outlet.
  • No More for Me: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it version appears in the police chase scene. A lot attendant, upon seeing the Batmobile and the police cars enter the parking structure, looks down at his drink as if there's something wrong with it.
  • Non-Idle Rich: Thomas Wayne still works as a doctor despite his estate being worth billions. Bruce also qualifies, when he's not engaging in frivolous pursuits in order to maintain his image as a Millionaire Playboy.
  • Noose Necktie: Scarecrow has a noose around his neck which comes with his bag gas mask. Which might be a reference to his appearance in Season Three of Batman: The Animated Series
  • No-Sell: The angle in which Batman forcibly sprays Crane with his own fear toxin would have resulted in Batman getting a side-whiff too... if he wasn't still riding on the antidote that Lucius whipped up and dosed him with after his previous exposure.
  • No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: Rachel is offended that Bruce is still dwelling on the murder of his parents and had planned to murder Joe Chill, and she slaps him for it.
    Rachel: Your father would be ashamed of you.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: While Alfred is usually thought of as having an upper-class English accent, Caine decided that Alfred's sense of duty and loyalty towards Bruce Wayne reminded him of the comradeship that exists in the military, so he based the character's voice on that of a colonel he knew when he was in the army as an 18-year-old. Ultimately, his accent is more or less identical to his natural Cockney accent.
  • Nothing Can Save Us Now: The police commissioner responds to Lt. Gordon's pleas for reinforcements by saying there are no more reserves to send and no help is coming. However, just at that moment, Batman in the Batmobile roars into the crisis to save the day.
  • Not Quite Flight: Bruce develops a short-range glider due to his cape being made out of "memory cloth".
  • Not What It Looks Like: Alfred on top of Rachel in the car.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: The film shows Bruce learning the importance of doing such to maintain his cover; he also feigns a drunken temper tantrum in order to stealthily evacuate the guests from his manor.
  • Office Golf: Played for Laughs when Bruce Wayne walks into Wayne Enterprises and successfully charms the secretary in a matter of seconds.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Averted by Ra's al Ghul when Batman swoops down to confront him. In contrast with the terrified reactions of Batman's previous opponents, Ra's al Ghul nonchalantly remarks:
      Ra's al Ghul: Well, well. You took my advice about theatricality a bit... literally.
    • Also averted when he realizes Batman intends to crash the train, as well as leave him there. Ra's al Ghul just closes his eyes.
    • Played straight on the other hand by Crane. After getting hit with his own fear gas, just looking at Batman completely freaks him out.
    • Bruce Wayne actually has this reaction when a guest at his party introduces him to, what's his name, Ras?
    • Falcone's reaction to coming face to face with Batman.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Twice.
    • Wayne saving Ducard from the exploding house of the League of Shadows.
    • Wayne and Alfred making it into the elevator before the family building blows up.
  • Pet the Dog: Played with Ra's during Bruce's party. On one hand when Bruce begs him to spare his party guests, he allows him to "explain" the danger to them to get them to leave. However they're going back to Gotham which he was planning on destroying anyway, and the only way to do this is for Bruce to either reveal himself as Batman to all the wealthy people of Gotham, or make an ass of himself. He chooses the latter acting like a drunk jerk and kicking them all out, so all Ra's really did was add to Bruce's humiliation in a seemingly futile gesture anyway.
    • Played with Earle as well, he seems geniunely pleased that Bruce was still alive, welcomes back to the company with open arms and immediately gives him the position he requests in Applied Sciences on the spot, without even asking Lucius first (he tells Bruce he'll let Fox know he'll be working with him, implying Earle wasn't letting Fox have any say in the matter). On the other hand he immediately gets defensive about how he won't stop the company going public and only relaxes when Bruce assures him he has no objection on that Bruce just wants into the company, and it's possible he's only acting friendly to Bruce because as a major shareholder and the richest man in the city, as well as someone with a legit claim to the company it's in Earle's best interest to keep him happy and out of his way.
  • Plausible Deniability: Wayne Enterprises applied science head Lucius Fox invokes this when Bruce Wayne becomes concerned that his increasingly "unusual requests" for materials for his prototype Batsuit may cause Fox to out him: "Mr Wayne, if you don't want to tell me exactly what you're doing - when I'm asked, I don't have to lie. But don't think of me as an idiot."
  • Playing Card Motifs: Lieutenant Gordon hands Batman a Joker card found at the scene of a crime, Foreshadowing the Joker's prominent role in The Dark Knight.
  • Playing Drunk: Bruce is holding a social event in Wayne Manor when Ra's al Ghul threatens the entire building. Bruce, thinking quickly, pretends to be drunk and moody and insults everyone until they decide to leave.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Initially, Crane and the League of Shadows weren't going to pull a He Knows Too Much with Carmine Falcone after his arrest. Since they'd carefully kept Falcone Locked Out of the Loop, they thought he didn't know enough about their plans to compromise anything; they could just leave him stewing in Police custody (especially as he was almost certainly going to die anyway when the Fear Toxin was released across Gotham). However, that’s before Falcone reveals he’s figured out enough of the plan to pose a threat. Crane confirms Ra’s will order Falcone's death...which would have been a Mercy Kill compared to Carmine getting doused with Crane's Fear Toxin moments later.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
    • As Bruce approaches Joe Chill to kill him and he's swarmed by reporters, a female assassin emerges from the crowd with a gun:
      "Hey, Joe! Falcone says hi."
    • Crane before setting Batman on fire:
      "You look like a man who takes himself too seriously. In my professional opinion, you need to lighten up."
  • Prepare to Die: Ra's Al Ghul says this to Bruce in the video game.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Jim Gordon might not be a dirty cop, but he covers for the dirty cops on the force and does effectively nothing to curtail their illegal activities and participation with the mob, even angrily protesting "I'm no snitch!" when it's suggested that he might cooperate with those trying to stop said corruption. But he was kind to Bruce Wayne after his parents got shot, so obviously Batman knows he's a good person.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Courtesy of Ducard: "The training! is! nothing! Will! is everything!"
  • Put Them All Out of My Misery: Henri Ducard comes across as being evident from his Knight Templar attitude, and also being apparent from his earlier talk (if he means it) about how his wife was taken from him and he "learned the hard way that there are those in the world without decency, who must be fought without pity." The sign of Put Them All Out Of My Misery itself is in his conversation with Bruce Wayne about the prospect of destroying Gotham.
    Wayne: You're gonna destroy millions of lives.
    Ducard: Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.
    Wayne: Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.
    Ducard: You're defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and I showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.
    Wayne: I'll be standing where I belong. Between you and the people of Gotham.
    Ducard: No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.
    Wayne: You attacked Gotham before?
    Ducard: Of course. Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham we tried a new one, economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens, such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself, and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job.
  • Ramp Jump: The Batmobile. Its entrance into the Batcave is by jumping across a small chasm through a waterfall, and it has several scenes where it jumps and drives across rooftops. When they first show it, it's explained that it was designed to make a no-ramp jump for crossing rivers with a cable in order to build temporary bridges.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Falcone easily defangs Bruce Wayne's attempt to confront him and dresses him down for his delusions about the world:
    Falcone: Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life. But you don't. You've never tasted desperate! You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham; you'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name. So, don't-don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: Earle reassigned Fox to Applied Sciences to keep Fox from causing troubles for him. This makes Fox the most valuable person for Bruce as he's overseen the creation of most of the tech that Bruce needs for Batman. And at the end of the movie, Bruce appoints Fox new CEO to replace Earle.
  • Reassignment Backfire: When Bruce Wayne returns from his training with the League of Shadows, Fox's military prototypes catch his attention. After Bruce entrusts Fox with supplying him all the gear he needs in order to be Batman, Earle fires Fox for asking too many questions about a certain microwave emitter that was seized by the League of Shadows. At the end of the movie, Bruce has returned to being the head of Wayne Enterprises by buying back all of his company's shares, and also gives Fox a better job: Earle's. "Didn't you get the memo?"
  • Reconstruction: The film is a reconstruction of the idea of Batman, not only giving a plausible explanation for how Bruce Wayne acquired all of his Bat-themed crime fighting equipment and training, but also exploring the motivations behind what would drive a man to dress up in a rubber Batsuit to fight crime.
  • Recruited from the Gutter: An unusual example. Ra's al Ghul finds Bruce Wayne in a Third World prison and sets him on the path to becoming Batman, though they ultimately betray each other.
  • Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: During Batman's climax fight with Ra's Al Ghul, the train they're in is about to crash, and Batman has Ra's at his mercy. Rather than kill him or save him, Batman escapes, leaving Ra's to die on the train.
    Batman: I won't kill you... but I don't have to save you.
  • Resignations Not Accepted: Implied; when it looks like Bruce will refuse the League of Shadows Evil Plan, Ducard's voice takes on an urgent tone as he offers Bruce the sword, telling him there's no turning back.
  • The Reveal: Henri Ducard is actually Ra's al Ghul and though Bruce saved his life, The League of Shadows will still attempt to destroy Gotham under Ra's command.
  • Revenge Is Not Justice: Discussed, fourteen years after Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, he returns to Gotham City to attend the public trial of Joe Chill, who agreed to cooperate with Gotham's DA in taking down the Falcone crime family in exchange for early release from prison. When Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood friend and the DA's assistant, tries to dissuade Bruce from going (as she was the one who was going to drive him to the trial), Bruce firmly insists on going, as unbeknownst to Rachel, Bruce had fully intended on killing Joe Chill himself. Shortly after the trial's conclusion, one of Falcone's hitmen gets to Joe and kills him before Bruce could. Frustrated that Falcone had escaped justice again, Rachel and Bruce later discuss how Falcone managed to pull it off, which Bruce noted that he should thank Falcone for it, only for Rachel to point out that what he wanted was revenge, not justice, and imported the importance of an impartial judicial system, which Bruce complains as being broken. Disgusted, Rachel drives Bruce up to a diner that Falcone frequents, making sure to drive him by the countless homeless encampments along the way to show Bruce just how bad Gotham's crime families have been making things for Gotham citizens and how much they're destroying everything Bruce's parents have fought for, and pointing out that Joe Chill himself was a victim of Falcone's criminal empire, despite his crime. She then promptly slaps Bruce after he reveals the revolver he planned to kill Joe Chill with, and tells him how ashamed his parents would be of him. Bruce ultimately takes the lecture to heart, and it's the starting point on his journey to becoming The Dark Knight.
  • Riddle for the Ages: Downplayed with Joe Chill. Before he's gunned down at the courthouse, Chill expresses repentance and remorse for killing the Waynes. However, Carmine Falcone later refutes this; he tells Bruce that Chill mocked Thomas Wayne and bragged about murdering him. It's left up to the audience to decide whether Chill was genuinely repentant or not (although it's also implied Carmine was just saying that as one last Kick the Dog to Bruce as he was being shown to the door).
  • Ripping Off the String of Pearls: When Joe Chill robs the Waynes, he yanks Martha's pearls off her neck before shooting her.
  • Roof Hopping: Batman does this with a car (well, the Batmobile), much to the consternation of the police.
    Cop 1: Where's he going?
    Cop 2: He's on the roof.
    Cop 1: What street is he taking?
    Cop 2: He's not on a street. He's flying on rooftops!
  • Rule of Pool: Played With when Bruce and two dates enter a fancy restaurant. The two air-headed bimbos almost immediately take their shoes off and jump into the fountain fully clothed, with Bruce joining them after buying the hotel.
    Maitre D: Sir, the pool is for decoration, and your friends do not have swimwear.
    Bruce Wayne: Well, they're European.
    Maitre D: I'm going to have to ask you to leave. [Bruce writes him a check] It is not a question of money.
    Bruce Wayne: [gives him the check] Well, you see, I'm buying this hotel, and uh, setting some new rules about the pool area.
  • Rule of Scary:
    • Alfred asks Bruce "Why bats, Master Bruce?"
      Bruce Wayne: Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread.
    • Crane's scary scarecrow mask.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Bats at multiple points in the film. Batman goes from just being afraid of them, to surrounding himself with them in the batcave, to later summoning them against the SWAT officers when they surround the building he's in.
    Thomas Wayne: Do you want to know why they attacked you? It's because they were afraid of you. All creatures feel fear.
    Bruce Wayne: Even the scary ones?
    Thomas Wayne: ESPECIALLY the scary ones.
  • Runaway Train: The bad guys attempt to poison Gotham City by riding a monorail train into Gotham's central water source, while carrying a device that would cause fear-inducing gas to spew everywhere. Batman turns it into a runaway train by disabling the controls mid-fight with the big bad, knowing Gordon would blow up the rail supports and force the train to crash.

    S-Z 
  • Sackhead Slasher: This film's iteration of the Scarecrow just wears a burlap sack combined with a gas mask on his head along with ordinary civilian clothes rather than his full costume from the original comics.
  • Saved for the Sequel: The unresolved romance between Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes.
  • Save the Day, Turn Away: Inverted. Rachel leaves instead, because she realized that Bruce Wayne never came back to Gotham, only Batman.
  • Save the Villain: Bruce saves Henri Ducard when his lair explodes. Later, Henri Ducard returns as Ra's Al Ghul to destroy Gotham and tells Bruce that he warned him about compassion. After Ra's al Ghul and Batman's last battle, Batman leaves Ra's al Ghul to die as the monorail crashes.
  • Say Your Prayers: One could see Ra's/Ducard's Obi-Wan Moment as this as well.
  • Scare Chord: Batman gets a few when attacking the mooks on the dock in Batman Begins, followed by some serious "Psycho" Strings.
  • Scared of What's Behind You: When a pair of goons sent by Falcone attack Rachel, she fights with them and draws her taser. When one of the guys runs away, she thinks it's because of her, not having noticed that Batman is behind her and had effortlessly beaten down the other thug.
  • Scary Scarecrows: This version of The Scarecrow goes for the sackhead slasher look.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Mentioned in a conversation between mob boss Falcone and Dr. Crane regarding Rachel Dawes getting a little too close to their illegal operations.
    Crane: There's another problem. An attorney sniffing around at the DA's office.
    Falcone: [dismissively] Buy 'em off.
    Crane: Not this one.
    Falcone: Ah, an idealist, huh? Well, there's an answer for that too...
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: A heroic example of both happens at the same time at one point. When a maître d' tries to 86 him for letting his two companions skinny-dip in the hotel's pool area, Bruce simply buys him off.
    Bruce: Well, you see, I'm buying this hotel and... setting some new rules about the pool area.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: While having dinner at a fancy restaurant, Bruce's dates essentially strip and start bathing in the fountain. When asked to leave, Bruce simply buys the restaurant. Then as the new owner, changes the rules about what's allowed to happen in the fountain.
  • Secret-Keeper: Bruce ends up with three of them by film's end: Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox and Rachel Dawes.
  • Self-Deprecation: Bruce Wayne mentioned that Batman "clearly has issues". Justified since he kinda has to do that in order to maintain his secret identity as Batman, and he does have issues with bats.
  • Sequel Hook: In the final scene Gordon tells Batman that now that Gotham has a masked hero, masked villains are appearing too. He then provides him with evidence of one such villain: a Joker card.
  • The Shangri-La: The headquarters of the League of Shadows.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!:
    • During the climax when the Narrows is gassed over, the immune Rachel shepherds a little boy terrified out of his mind due to the fear gas. Scarecrow charges in and gives his villainous diatribe and freaks out the kid even more (see Hellish Horse above)... until Rachel shuts him up with her taser and sends him away screaming like a ninny.
    • During their fight aboard the train, Ra's dismisses Bruce's abilities, only for Bruce to shut him up with a pretty good rejoinder. It's made even better by the sudden look of apprehension on Ra's' face at how much he's underestimated his former student.
      Ra's al Ghul: Familiar. Don't you have anything new?!
      Bruce: How about this?! ( catches the blade of Ra's sword-cane between the spines on his vambrace and then pulls his arms apart, snapping it)
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Henri Ducard thinks Bruce Wayne's belief in Thou Shalt Not Kill is pointless and that criminals should be executed. Later, he tells Bruce that Gotham is too corrupt to save and believes that Gotham should be destroyed; rather than Bruce's belief that there are good people in Gotham who can fix it.
  • Simple Solution Won't Work: When Flass takes a bribe in front of Gordon, Flass wants to know if Gordon will report him. As Gordon bitterly notes, with how corrupt the police are and how many people are on someone's payroll, there's no point in it.
  • Smuggling with Dolls: The Mafia under Carmine Falcone are shown to be using stuffed animals to import street drugs and the League of Shadows' hallucinogens, with different types of animals going to different dealers.
  • So Proud of You: In a very subtle, twisted way, Ducard/Ra's comments "You've finally learned to do what is necessary," to Bruce when Bruce has him pinned and at his mercy while the train moves at full speed toward a plunge off the rails. Having tried to teach Bruce since his training days at the League of Shadows, he accepts his defeat and expects Batman to kill him to stop his plan. Bruce, however, rejects the approval by refusing to kill Ra's while still leaving him to die in the train crash.
  • Society Is to Blame: Touched upon when Bruce Wayne begins to sympathize with the criminal element when he encounters people who have to commit crime in order to survive (and, having cut himself off from home, having to do so himself), and then finds himself feeling a thrill when he expands his motivations from survival to profit. This is countered by Ducard, who notes that criminals look for, thrive on, and encourage society's tolerance and understanding of their motivations. Bruce eventually settles on something somewhere in the middle, and he tends to restrict his hunts to those who cannot claim it is society's fault.
  • Soft Glass: The bats that are summoned to keep the police distracted have no trouble breaking through glass windows. Batman is also able to crash through one of the monorail trains windows without any harm.
  • Soiled City on a Hill: Gotham City is this from the point of view of Henri Ducard and the League of Shadows, the latter being an ancient secret organization that takes upon itself to destroy societies and cities that, according to their standards, have become too corrupt and decadent. ("The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.") Next on their list: Gotham City.
  • Songs in the Key of Lock: Bruce and Alfred use a series of cords on a nearby piano to open the secret door to the Batcave inside Wayne Manor.
  • Spanner in the Works: The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne ended up being this for the League of Shadows. The League's plan to destroy Gotham through an artificially created economic depression was working perfectly up until the Wayne murders. Their deaths finally shocked Gotham's wealthy and powerful into action and the City recovered just enough to endure. The League had to wait nearly 20 years before trying again.
  • Start X to Stop X: Ra's explains to Bruce that the League of Shadows attempted to destroy Gotham by causing an economic collapse, ironically fueling the very same criminality and desperation-induced thievery that drove them to target Gotham in the first place.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: First subverted as Bruce Wayne stumbles out the window and falls (very painfully) down a stairwell after gaining Gordon's trust. So he asks Fox to develop his batsuit wings, so he can make a quicker and smoother exit by gliding off rooftops. Once he puts on the suit, he does this flawlessly several times throughout the rest of the movie.
  • Stealthy Mook: the League of Shadows gives their members martial arts, ideological indoctrination, and stealth as part of their training, and we see League members pop out of seemingly nowhere during Bruce Wayne's Training Montage.
  • A Storm Is Coming: Batman greets Gordon with this line after appearing suddenly on his back porch.
  • Superhero Origin: Deconstructed; notice that Joe Chill kills Bruce Wayne’s parents, but the police catch him quickly and he goes to prison. But then he gets out because he agrees to testify against Carmine Falcone, who orders Chill killed before he can say anything, and the cops—paid off by Falcone—are unwilling AND unable to deliver justice to him. Carmine Falcone gives Bruce Wayne a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that forces him to begin The Hero's Journey, then he is trained by the League of Shadows and outsmarts Earle to become the Batman. A possible explanation is that Gotham was a Cornered Rattlesnake and it is trying to produce a superhero to survive: Notice that all of the forces oppressing Gotham were Threshold Guardians that created the Super Hero that will fight them.
  • Superhero Paradox: It begins at the end of the movie, when Gordon wonders aloud about what the criminals will do to keep up with Batman being on the side of the police, and then mentions this weird new hitter going around who uses a playing card as his signature. Then, in The Dark Knight, escalation is the main theme. The cops and organized crime were locked in a stalemate. Then Batman came and tipped the scales, and the existing criminal element didn't stand a chance against him. The Joker is explicitly named as crime's response to the Batman, a monster that didn't — couldn't — exist before Batman did. Nobody's very pleased with the thought.
  • Super Prototype: The movie has most of Batman's gear be acquired from rejected R&D prototypes from Wayne Enterprises. The suit was rejected by the army because it was too expensive, while Bruce customizes the suit to his preferences along with combining the built-in harness to work with a Grappling-Hook Pistol. The Tumbler was designed for jumping gaps to lay cables for bridges, the bridge system didn't work right but the vehicle itself was an impressive high mobility tank. This set a precedent across different media that much of Batman's gear is him adopting and repurposing existing prototypes instead of custom building everything from scratch.
  • Suspect Is Hatless: During the Batmobile chase with the increasingly frantic cops.
    Cop: It's a black... tank!
  • Sword Cane: R'as al Ghul carries one in the finale.
  • Symbolic Weapon Discarding: After his parents' murder, Bruce Wayne acquires a revolver with the intent to shoot Joe Chill, only to see Chill shot by one of Falcone's agents. Later, Rachel angrily chastises him when he shows her the gun, saying his father would be ashamed of him. Shaken by the exchange and realizing that he almost became just like the man who killed his parents, he throws the gun into the harbor and confronts Falcone, which leads to his journey to eventually become Batman.
  • Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: Jonathan Crane develops and tests a potent Fear Toxin solely for profit and a sense of sadistic power, and each of his subsequent appearances in the Trilogy show him to be completely unrepentant. Ra's Al Ghul, however, is depicted as one of Bruce's former mentors and genuinely wanted him to join his mission, which he believes is necessary in its own way for civilization. He even sympathizes with Bruce over their similar pain.
  • Tagline: "Evil fears the Knight"
  • Take My Hand!: Bruce Wayne saves the unconscious Ducard in this manner. He can only use one arm because he is flat on his back, with the gauntlet on his other arm wedged into the ice to hold him in place. At least Bruce yells to let the audience know it was really hard.
  • Taking the Bullet: Thomas Wayne throws himself in front of his wife in the opera back alley to protect her from Joe Chill. Doesn't work.
  • Tanks, but No Tanks: Played for Laughs. This movie's version of the Batmobile is the Tumbler, a prototype bridge-deploying vehicle for use in combat zones; they never could get the bridge to work, but the Tumbler itself remains a fast, armored vehicle that excels in any terrain. When Batman first deploys it, some police are asked for the make and model of the vehicle. They can't come up with any description besides "a black... tank."
  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Batman gives Crane a dose of the same fear-inducing toxin that Crane had previously used to attack both Batman and Rachel. He even uses the trope phrase.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • Bruce Wayne says he ought to tear down Wayne Manor. The villains end up doing that for him.
    • "You think I can't defeat two of your pawns?" / "As you wish." More mooks promptly appear.
    • Ra's showing up at the birthday party and telling Bruce that he should have let him die. Guess what happens when Ra's gets trapped on the train later?
    • When Crane bluntly admits that Ra's would order Falcone killed for trying to blackmail them for a bigger piece of their operation, Falcone's reply is that "Not even he can get me here, not in my town." He's proven wrong literally seconds later even if it's a Mind Rape rather than a hit.
  • That Man Is Dead: Crane, after being exposed to fear gas.
    Crane:Doctor Crane is not here right now. But if you'd like to make an appointment...
  • Thememobile: The movie introduces The Tumbler as the Batmobile. In this case, it is only referred to as The Tumbler.
  • Think Nothing of It: Batman's "you will never have to [say thank you]" philosophy.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: One of these happens for Ra's al Ghul when he realizes that Batman isn't going to save him. His reaction has this expression written all over it.
  • That Man Is Dead: Crane, after being exposed to fear gas.
    Crane:Doctor Crane is not here right now. But if you'd like to make an appointment...
  • Thememobile: The movie introduces The Tumbler as the Batmobile. In this case, it is only referred to as The Tumbler.
  • Think Nothing of It: Batman's "you will never have to [say thank you]" philosophy.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: One of these happens for Ra's al Ghul when he realizes that Batman isn't going to save him. His reaction has this expression written all over it.
  • Three-Point Landing: Batman does this at some point.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: Alfred advises Bruce Wayne to pose as a Millionaire Playboy so no one will realise he's Batman. Cut to Bruce pulling up in a low-slung sports car with two beautiful women sharing the passenger seat (later they start publicly bathing in the restaurant's ornamental pool).
  • Thought You Were Dead: As Bruce Wayne spent several years Walking the Earth without contacting anyone back in Gotham, he has been pronounced legally dead and Alfred controls the Wayne estate. Alfred being Alfred, he is immediately willing to return it all to Bruce when he is back in Gotham.
  • Throat Light: When the city is hopped up on fear gas and they get a look at Batman, he's basically a bat-demon with a hellfire inner glow.
  • Throwing the Distraction: Specifically mentioned in-universe as a "cheap parlor trick" to distract and confuse one's enemies.
  • To Know Him, I Must Become Him: Though not in the context of literally becoming another person, Ra's Al Ghul says the following line to Bruce: "To conquer Fear, you must become Fear." Specifically, in order for one to conquer their fears, they have to become someone else's fear, and revel in making them afraid.
  • Too Clever by Half: This is what gets Carmine Falcone doused with Fear Toxin by Crane while in Police custody. Crane and the League were going to leave him to stew in prison since they thought he didn't know enough about the plan to compromise it. However, Falcone's own cleverness ultimately dooms him, because he's been careful to compile blackmail leverage on Crane as Betrayal Insurance in the event something like his arrest happened. With any other ordinary criminal, trying to leverage said insurance policy would have worked. With a psycho like Crane, not so much.
  • Training Montage: "The Will To Act" is downright epic.
  • Trainstopping: Subverted. When the monorail carrying the vaporizing device to the center of the network of water mains has to be stopped, Batman has the track destroyed instead of trying to stop the train.
  • Tranquil Fury: Bruce's reaction to Ducard's revelation that the League of Shadows was responsible for the Gotham Depression — meaning that they're not only responsible for the suffering and despair that's consumed Gotham over the last 20 years, but they indirectly responsible for the deaths of Bruce's parents.
  • Trashcan Bonfire: This is how Bruce Wayne disposes of his ID before heading off to the wilds of Asia. The homeless man warming himself there convinces Bruce not to burn his expensive longcoat too, but to give it to him instead (Bruce having already bought his jacket).
  • Trash the Set: Wayne Manor burns down. Though the mansion used for outside shots was not burnt, as it was an actual home of royalty.
  • Two Roads Before You: One to bats, one to just groups of people.
  • Ultimate Final Exam: In the final test of his worthiness to join the League of Shadows, Bruce is dosed with a hallucinogenic compound derived from the blue flower he retrieved from the mountain, and then challenged to find Henri Ducard in a crowd of masked League members before Ducard can find him - the challenge being to resist the hallucinations and maintain discipline while simultaneously avoiding discovery. For good measure, it's wrapped up with a Deadly Graduation in which Bruce is encouraged to murder a criminal.
  • Underground Railroad: A Historical In-Joke reference to the Civil War Underground Railroad is made when Bruce and Alfred are exploring the Batcave.
  • Unfazed Everyman: When the Tumbler parks by Wayne Tower, a bum walks up to it and comments "Nice ride!" Then it fires rockets into a nearby bridge support. The bum's response is to only stare at it like, "What was that?"
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Since it's Arkham Asylum, the sight of a man dressed as a bat blasting his way into your cell and through to the next one with miniature mines doesn't rate so much as a raised eyebrow from the two inhabitants of said cell.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Joe Chill for the League of Shadows. The mugger’s murder of the Waynes sets off a chain of events that completely derails the League’s original attack on Gotham (not to mention putting Bruce onto the path to becoming Batman and creating the League's worst enemy).
  • Vengeance Denied: Chill is killed by one of Carmine Falcone's men in order to keep Chill from testifying against Falcone. In other versions of the story, Batman's Rogues Gallery kill Chill when they realize Chill created their worst enemy.
  • Vigilante Execution: Done to Joe Chill. Subverted: the "vigilante" (really a hitwoman paid by Falcone) was stopping him from testifying against a mob boss, and the real enraged victim, Bruce Wayne, never got a chance to kill him. Bruce Wayne is also asked to do this to signify his graduation into the League of Shadows.
  • Villain Has a Point: Falcone's absolutely brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech makes Bruce realize how out of his element and league he is. Ironically he ends up providing Bruce with his core philosophies as Batman.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Batman disrupts Falcone's smuggling operation, he becomes progressively more disheveled and fearful as Batman takes his goons down. Later, when Crane confronts him in Arkham, Falcone is initially his usual self...sarcastic, confident...but he grows just a little uncertain when Crane starts talking about his mask. He plays it off with some humor, and then out comes the mask...
  • Villainous Face Hold: Inverted; Batman does this to terrorize Scarecrow. After forcing Scarecrow to inhale his own fear toxin, Batman grabs his jaw and back of the head, and interrogates him on his employer. During this process, Scarecrow hallucinates that Batman is made of tar.
  • Violence Really Is the Answer: The movie presents an example where he has no choice, as his mentor turned enemy explicitly states that he feels no gratitude that Bruce previously saved his life and vows to kill Bruce if he doesn't join his cause. Ultimately, Batman doesn't kill the villain but rather declines to save him, which is still at odds with Batman's code of ethics, at least the one established in the comics (especially as it was Batman's plan to stop the train that put the villain in a position which threatened his life).
  • Walking Disaster Area: Mentioned, as Gordon talks about escalation: "We start carrying semi-automatics; They start carrying automatics. We start wearing kevlar; They start using armor piercing rounds. And you're wearing a mask and jumping off rooftops; Take this guy, armed robbery, double homicide, taste for the theatrical, and leaves a calling card." [Card is flipped over, showing a joker]
  • Watching Troy Burn: Ra's Al Ghul burns down Wayne Manor while trying to destroy the city.
  • Water Source Tampering: A variant: Scarecrow laced Gotham's water supply with his fear toxin for months, without anyone realizing it. The toxin had no effect in this form. It needed to be absorbed through the lungs to have an effect—the bad guys' ultimate plan was to use a microwave emitter to vaporize Gotham's entire water supply, thereby exposing the whole city.
  • We Can Rule Together: Ra's al Ghul tries to get Bruce Wayne to join him in his homicidal crusade:
    Ra's al Ghul: You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.
    Batman: I'll be standing where I belong. Between you and the people of Gotham.
  • Well Entry: In a Flashback to his childhood, Bruce Wayne accidentally falls down an old, dry well on the grounds of the Wayne estate, and a swarm of bats emerge from a passage to the side. In the present day, Wayne rappels down into the well to explore this passage, which leads to a large cavern under the manor that he turns into the Batcave.
  • Wham Line: After Bruce sends Fox away from his party to take care of the antidotes before Ra's al Ghul touches down...
    Mrs. Delane: Bruce, there's somebody here you simply must meet.
    Bruce Wayne: Not now, Mrs. Delane.
    Mrs. Delane: Now, am I pronouncing this right — Mr. Ra's al Ghul?
  • Wham Shot: In the final scene, Gordon briefs Batman on this new crimminal who's popped up and is leaving calling cards at his crime scenes. Batman takes the evidence bag and flips it over, revealing Gordon was quite literal about the calling card. It's a playing card — or more specifically, a Joker playing card.
  • What the Hell Are You?: Falcone meets Batman, violence ensues.
Carmine Falcone: [frantically loading his shotgun] What the hell are you?
Batman: [breaks open the limo's sunroof and pulls Falcone out] I'm Batman.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Alfred admonishes Bruce for reckless driving when saving Rachel from the fear toxin.
      Alfred Pennyworth: When you told me your grand plan for saving Gotham, the only thing that stopped me from calling the men in the white coats was that you told me it wasn't about thrill-seeking.
      Bruce Wayne: It's not.
      Alfred Pennyworth: [pointing to news coverage of Batman leading the cops on a car chase and crushing a few cars] What do you call that?
      Bruce Wayne: Damn good television.
      Alfred Pennyworth: It's a miracle no one was killed.
      Bruce Wayne: I didn't have time to observe the rules of the road, Alfred.
    • Rachel gives Bruce a brief but angry "Reason You Suck" Speech and a slap when he reveals that he planned to avenge his parents by gunning down Chill in cold blood.
  • World of Bad Cops: Supposedly most of Gotham's police and judicial officials are portrayed as corrupt. Rachel, Gordon and Loeb are the only apparent exceptions to this.
    Batman: You're a good cop. One of the few.
  • Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Falcone taunts Bruce by telling him that he talked with Joe Chill about the murder of Bruce's parents, and Chill told him that Thomas Wayne died begging for his life like a dog. This is a lie (and Bruce knows it since he was there when it happened), plus a major Kick the Dog moment for Falcone.
  • Xanatos Gambit: When Batman encounters Ra's al Ghul in the train, Batman starts jabbing at the train's controls with a knife, to make it look like he's trying to stop the train (he actually locks the controls). However, he already sent Gordon ahead in the Batmobile to knock out an incoming segment in the train's elevated tracks, such that the train would be destroyed if it wasn't stopped.
    Ra's al Ghul: You're just an ordinary man in a cape. That's why you couldn't fight injustice, and that's why you can't stop this train.
    Batman: Who said anything about stopping it? [...] You'll never learn to mind your surroundings!
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Thanks to Batman rescuing Rachel at Arkham at the end of the Second Act, Crane’s poisoning of Gotham’s water supply is now exposed to the GCPD. While certainly a setback for the League of Shadows, Ra’s al Ghul rolls with the punches and simply moves up their timetable to that very evening. It certainly helps that the League was more or less ready to pull the trigger anyway (and as Crane points out, it’s already too late for the GCPD to do anything to stop what's coming.
  • You Are Too Late: Notably, one of the major themes of the movie is recognizing when it isn't too late to make a difference or turn things around, whatever naysayers may say.
  • You Cannot Kill an Idea: Bruce Wayne uses this sort of reasoning when devising his future role, as advised by Henri Ducard. A man acting just by himself as a man can be killed, bribed, or discouraged, but by becoming a 'symbol', the man becomes "more than just a man"; even if he dies, the symbol lives on to inspire others. Guess what symbol Bruce eventually settles on... It's heavily implied that Ra's Al Ghul has operated by the same principle.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: The League of Shadows manages to start spreading the toxin throughout Gotham (and are most of the way to blowing up its water mains) before they are defeated.
  • You Do NOT Want to Know: A frequent theme of this movie.
    Flass: The bears, they go straight to the dealers?
    Falcone: And the rabbits go to our man in the narrows.
    Flass: What's the difference?
    Falcone: Ignorance is bliss, my friend. Don't burden yourself with the secrets of scary people.
    Flass: Scarier than you?
    Falcone: Considerably scarier than me.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: By the time Batman captures Falcone it's clear that Ra's and Crane treated Falcone as an expendable goon in their operation, given that Falcone has to attempt extortion to get Crane's attention (and it doesn't go well). They were likely planning on abandoning him anyway; Batman just beat them to the punch.
  • You Killed My Father: Played with; turns out the League of Shadows created the economic depression that led to the crime wave that killed Bruce's parents. And averted with Joe Chill, who's shot dead by a mob assassin before Bruce has a chance to kill him.
  • Your Tradition Is Not Mine: This is Batman's origin story in this film. Recruited by the League of Shadows, Bruce Wayne quickly becomes their star pupil, believing he's finally found a group of people who share his passion for fighting crime and can give him the training and tools to do so effectively. However, he abandons them when he rejects their final exam, which required him to execute a captured and imprisoned murderer. The eventual discovery that they're a fundamentalist cult who may claim to fight crime, but whose real purpose is to burn down any civilization they view as having become too corrupt and decadent, didn't help either.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: Bruce acts as a drunken boor at his party, throwing out all the guests as they react in disgust. He was actually doing it for their own protection, as Ra's al Ghul had just shown up.

 
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The Power of Fear

Bruce Wayne confronts mob boss Carmine Falcone to try and prove that not everyone in Gotham was afraid of him, only to receive a lesson on the power of fear.

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The Power of Fear

Bruce Wayne confronts mob boss Carmine Falcone to try and prove that not everyone in Gotham was afraid of him, only to receive a lesson on the power of fear.

(Leave a comment)

How well does it match the trope?

4.87 (15 votes)

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