Fridge moments in Batman Forever.
Fridge Brilliance
- The title doesn't make much sense until you realize that the Riddler's question mark is a major icon of the movie. Bruce addresses that if he finds happiness with someone he may be willing to give up being Batman, so the title of the movie could more accurately be "Batman, Forever?" An interesting case of the absolute lack of a Title Drop.
- The title drop happens in a deleted scene where Bruce finds his father's journal, discovers that it wasn't his fault his parents were murdered (they were going to the theater anyway), finds peace, and goes on with his mission, declaring to Alfred "I'm Batman... forever."
- There is a scene in the finished movie where Bruce relates to Chase how he fell into the Batcave as a small boy after running away from home on a dark and stormy night clutching his dead father's journal (which admittedly loses relevance without the above scene) and remarks "I fell...forever". That is as close to a Title Drop as the movie gets, and basically what it means is Bruce thinks he is doomed to be Batman and is still falling through the metaphorical darkness. The central theme of the movie reflects this as Bruce is wondering if he can retire as Batman.
- While unrelated, the word "forever" was also used in another dialogue. When Two-Face thought he killed Batman, he says "Farewell, forever, to that pointed-eared night rat!"
- Everyone points out it's impossible not to compare the inverted cone shape of The Box to a food blender, but this might be because Edward Nygma used an actual blender in his factory prototype (it even has a handle on the side). After all, its shape was perfect for what he needed and it was cheap to get (if he didn't already have it lying around) since Stickley wasn't exactly backing him.
- Dick Grayson (as Robin) announces that he is going to help Batman rescue Chase and says: "I can't promise you I won't kill Harvey." Up to this point, Dick had been referring to Harvey Dent exclusively as "Two-Face"... so the fact that he is willing to think of his would-be victim as a human being rather than a villainous monster indicates that he probably won't kill him after all.
- Two-Face reflipping his coin in that fight scene. He's not reflipping it to get a different result. He's reflipping it every time Bruce comes within range.
- That scene can also be seen as him flipping the coin for each person he sees in the house at that moment, Alfred, Chase, and Bruce.
- As mentioned above on this page, Forever makes Batman's killing-of-mooks in the Burton films, despite going against Batman lore, intentional actions of canonicity, so that when he gives Dick Grayson words on why murdering Two-Face will do more harm to him than good, he isn't just preaching, he's relating from his own experience.
- There's an infamous sequence in which Two-Face tricks Batman into a car chase. Batman gets away from him (using, yes, the ability to drive up walls), and nothing in particular seems to happen. However, Two-Face's first appearance in this scene is disguised as a woman pushing a cart in front of the Batmobile. This seems trivial, but notice the parallelism between this sudden stop and the one in Batman Returns, this time for an actual old woman, while Batman is being framed as a mad criminal. This echoing of that incident by Two-Face indicates that he was more than aware of it before being scarred. And, his whole character becomes much deeper. He's now out to rectify his mistake by letting a madman loose in Gotham, but once he gets scarred as a result of Batman's failure, he can no longer be objective ("Emotion is always the enemy of true justice.") and must rely on the coin flip. In one, fell swoop, a subplot from one movie becomes more significant, an action scene from another has a point, and a character becomes more than a one-note joke. That's some intense fridge brilliance.
- As a certain videogame would point out years later, the Riddler/Two-Face partnership is full of this: Riddler's endless questions and Two-Face's coin to answer them. They are each other's perfect Foil.
- So it's been pointed out that, when we see Two-Face in his lair, eagle-eyed viewers can spot the Riddler in the background, waiting for his cue to enter the scene. Not only that, but people ask why his Boxes were already in the lair when he needed them? A series of mistakes on the filmmaker's part? Possibly...or, riddle me this: the Riddler already knew where Two-Face was hiding, so he broke in before Two-Face got there, and had the Boxes with him at the time, also explaining why he stood in the background watching this all play out so he could make his grand entrance (the main problem with this take is the clear absence of the Boxes earlier in the scene, meaning both interpretations leave us with a production error).
- Of course Bruce Wayne insisted on Stickley's family being paid his death benefits, even though Wayne Enterprises officially didn't permit that in cases of suicide. He didn't believe for one second that Stickley killed himself. Figuring out that The Riddler was Edward Nygma proved he was correct in not denying those benefits.Bruce: Stickley's suicide was obviously a computer-generated forgery.
Alfred: You really are quite bright despite what people say. - The scene with Dick doing his laundry seems to be a goofy way to establish his martial arts skill, as he's using a clothesline with a drier right behind him. However, he's still a kid from a traveling circus and is probably more used to doing his laundry by hand because of not always having machines available.
- Edward's more manic personality under his Riddler persona, which involves him often slipping into ridiculous voices and cartoonish body gestures, is likely simply because Jim Carrey was given free rein to let loose with what he does best. However, in character, one could see how the guy who invented and tested on himself a device that beams television directly into the brain might tend to adopt the personalities of different characters from the shows he watches. This isn't dissimilar from the TV-warped psyche of Carrey's later role, Chip Douglas.
- The Riddler claims he found Two-Face's lair with his Box, presumably by scanning for Dent's brain waves. If Nygma could find Two-Face this way, why couldn't he use this same method to find Batman and uncover his secret identity much earlier in the film? It would only work with Two-Face as he's the only person in town with dual brain patterns!
- When Two-Face is left at Robin's mercy, he exclaims, "Finally, justice is served! Let us die!" Is this Two-Face accepting defeat, or is it Harvey begging Robin to kill his second personality, and put him out of his misery?
Fridge Heartwarming
- Chase's major character development moment in the novelization. After revealing her love for Bruce to Batman and Batman leaves, Chase pulls out a tape recorder, disclosing she knows Bruce and Batman are the same person, having figured it out after seeing Bruce fight Two-Face's thugs at the circus. After some introspection, Chase throws her tape recorder into her fireplace. She acknowledges she was being manipulative, spending time with Bruce/Batman to underhandedly use the opportunity to study him when he was in pain and needed her help.
- In the film, it looks like Bruce is willing to hang up the cape and cowl just because Chase now wants him instead of his alter ego. In the novel, unbeknownst to Chase, Batman sees Chase destroy her tape recorder from another building's roof. With this additional scene, Bruce's "Batman is no more" moment has a new meaning, as Bruce now feels assured in telling Chase the truth.
Fridge Sadness
- Chase's introduction in the novelization has her getting purse-snatched and pursuing the thief before getting assisted by none other than Dick Grayson. Chase meets Dick and his father John, who scolds Dick for his recklessness; Dick says it's no different than how they always risk their lives on the trapeze. When Chase reveals she's a psychologist and wishes to learn more about people who are willing to put themselves in danger, John leaves with Dick, not wanting his son to get psychoanalyzed. With this new intro for Chase, her seeing Dick and John again later at the circus becomes more devastating as she witnesses Dick become an orphan.