47 Fun Facts About Batman Begins

Who plays Bruce's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne?

Linus Roache plays Dr. Thomas Wayne, the physician who asks young Bruce 'why do we fall?' after the well accident and is later murdered in an alley beside his wife Martha.

Who plays Bruce Wayne?

Bale was relatively unknown when confirmed on September 11, 2003; Cillian Murphy and Henry Cavill were among the others who showed interest.

Which co-writer worked on the screenplay with Nolan?

Goyer signed on two months after Nolan was hired and returned for the sequels.

Which Wayne Enterprises division does Lucius Fox run?

Lucius Fox runs Applied Sciences, the dead-end division whose shelved prototypes, including the Tumbler and the Nomex survival suit, become Batman's gear.

Which actor plays Henri Ducard, revealed to be the true Ra's al Ghul?

Liam Neeson plays Ducard; Nolan counted on Neeson's reputation for mentor roles such as Qui-Gon Jinn to keep the Ra's al Ghul twist hidden.

Which actor plays Dr. Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow?

Cillian Murphy plays Crane; he had screen-tested for Bruce Wayne in the Batsuit, and Nolan liked him enough to offer him the Scarecrow instead.

Who plays Alfred Pennyworth?

Michael Caine plays Alfred; Nolan turned up at Caine's house with the script in person, and Caine became a fixture of Nolan's films from The Prestige to Tenet.

Which backstory did the actor playing Alfred invent for him?

The actor decided Alfred had served in the SAS as a sergeant, reasoning that Thomas Wayne would want 'a butler, but someone a bit tougher than that' to guard his family.

Which actor plays James Gordon?

Gary Oldman plays Gordon; Nolan liked the idea of casting a famous screen villain, from Léon and Air Force One, as the incorruptible cop.

Who plays Bruce's childhood friend, the assistant district attorney?

Katie Holmes plays Bruce's friend turned prosecutor; Maggie Gyllenhaal took over the part in The Dark Knight, and Amy Adams was the reader opposite the Bruce Wayne auditionees.

Which character was written into the film in place of Harvey Dent?

Rachel Dawes, an original character, took the slot; Goyer felt there was no room to do Harvey Dent justice, and Aaron Eckhart played Dent in The Dark Knight.

Who plays Lucius Fox?

Morgan Freeman plays Lucius Fox, the sidelined Wayne Enterprises engineer who supplies Bruce's gear and is made CEO after Bruce buys a controlling stake.

Which actor plays the decoy Ra's al Ghul during Bruce's training?

Ken Watanabe plays the decoy; the real Ra's al Ghul hides in plain sight as Bruce's mentor Ducard, a twist the film saves for the third act.

Which crime boss does Tom Wilkinson play?

Wilkinson's Carmine Falcone, drawn from Batman: The Long Halloween and Year One, tells young Bruce that real power comes from being feared.

Which actor plays William Earle, the CEO taking Wayne Enterprises public?

Rutger Hauer plays Earle; at the end Bruce reveals he has bought a controlling stake through charities and trusts, and hands Earle's job to Lucius Fox.

Which future Game of Thrones actor appears as a young admirer of Batman?

Jack Gleeson, later Joffrey in Game of Thrones, plays the boy in the Narrows who is thrilled to meet Batman; he had appeared as a child in Reign of Fire three years earlier.

Where does Bruce meet Ducard, who recruits him into the League of Shadows?

Bruce is in a prison in Bhutan, brawling with inmates, when Ducard visits his cell and offers him a path into the League of Shadows up the mountain.

Instead of a Zorro film, what outing unsettles young Bruce right before his parents' murder?

Nolan dropped the Zorro idea so that becoming a bat-themed hero would be entirely Bruce's own idea.

Where is the central hub that the League's monorail run targets in the climax?

The hub sits under Wayne Tower, the monorail's terminus; Batman fights Ra's aboard the train while Gordon wrecks the track with the Tumbler.

What clue does Gordon share in the final scene, setting up the sequel?

Newly promoted Lieutenant Gordon, standing by the Bat-Signal, hands Batman a Joker playing card left at a crime scene by a new criminal with 'a taste for the theatrical'.

Which comics story did Nolan call the film's 'jumping off point'?

The Man Who Falls, Denny O'Neil's 1989 story, strings together Bruce's years of training abroad, and its image of young Bruce falling into the cave gave the film its well scene.

Which 1978 film did Nolan cite as inspiration for the hero's growth and all-star supporting cast?

Nolan cited Richard Donner's Superman (1978) as the model for an origin story told with an all-star supporting cast around a lesser-known lead.

Which 1982 film did Nolan screen for his crew as a lesson in building a credible universe?

Nolan screened Ridley Scott's Blade Runner for his crew as the model for a dense, credible world 'that doesn't appear to have boundaries'.

Which glacier stood in for the Himalayan training scenes?

The League's mountain scenes were shot at Vatnajökull, Iceland, where the ice of the frozen-lake sword fight began breaking up as the crew filmed.

Which English country house stood in for Wayne Manor?

Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, a Rothschild mansion, served as Wayne Manor; Wollaton Hall in Nottingham took over in The Dark Knight Rises.

Which US city stood in for Gotham during the Tumbler chase?

The Tumbler chase ran through Chicago's Lower Wacker Drive, and the city raised the Franklin Street Bridge over the Chicago River for the Narrows sealing scene.

Which two composers wrote the score?

They wrote separate themes for Bruce Wayne and Batman, with Zimmer on action and Howard on drama.

Which Hong Kong slum inspired the design of the Narrows?

Production designer Nathan Crowley modelled the Narrows, Gotham's island slum, on Kowloon Walled City, the demolished ultra-dense enclave in Hong Kong.

Which model aircraft's nose cone became the chassis of the Tumbler's turbine in the design mock-ups?

Nathan Crowley kitbashed the Tumbler from model parts, using a P-38 Lightning's nose cone for the turbine; a full-size version was then carved from Styrofoam over two months.

What engine powered the street-ready Tumblers?

The four street-ready cars each ran a 5.7-litre Chevy V8 on 44-inch tyres; one special version carried a real jet engine fed by six propane tanks.

What happened on the Tumbler's first jump test?

The front end collapsed on the Tumbler's first jump test; the car was rebuilt and went on to make jumps of up to 30 feet under its own power.

Which government body shared the electrostatic flocking process used to make the cape?

The cape's parachute nylon was given a velvety electrostatic flocking that the British Ministry of Defence had developed for its own gear and shared with the production.

What was the codename of the secured Batsuit workshop at Shepperton Studios?

The secure Shepperton workshop went by 'Cape Town'; there Lindy Hemming's team built the suit from a neoprene undersuit with moulded latex sections.

Which self-defence system did the fight choreographers use?

Fight coordinators Dave Forman and Andy Norman drew on the Keysi Fighting Method, a close-quarters Spanish system built around elbow strikes and head-protecting guards.

Roughly how much weight did the star regain after The Machinist to play Batman?

After wasting to about 120 pounds for The Machinist, the star put back roughly 100 pounds within months, then had to shed some bulk before filming.

Which city hosted the world premiere on May 31, 2005?

The world premiere was held in Tokyo on May 31, 2005; the US release followed on June 15 in 3,858 theatres, including 55 IMAX screens.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide, including its 2012 re-release?

Batman Begins grossed about $375 million worldwide, including its 2012 re-release, against a $150 million budget, a total The Dark Knight would nearly triple.

For which Academy Award was the film nominated?

Wally Pfister earned the film's only Oscar nomination, for Best Cinematography, losing to Dion Beebe's Memoirs of a Geisha.

Which term did the film help popularise in Hollywood?

Batman Begins is widely credited with bringing 'reboot' into Hollywood's vocabulary, as a from-scratch restart of a franchise rather than a sequel or remake.

Which 1997 film's failure led Warner Bros. to shelve the franchise before Nolan's film?

Batman & Robin's critical and commercial failure in 1997 killed Joel Schumacher's planned follow-up, Batman Unchained, and froze the series for eight years.

Which director-writer's Batman origin pitch did Warner Bros. reject in December 2002?

Joss Whedon pitched an origin story in December 2002 and Warner Bros. passed, hiring Nolan the following month; Darren Aronofsky's earlier Batman: Year One with Frank Miller had also died.

Which location played Arkham Asylum's exterior?

The National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) building in Mill Hill, north London, played Arkham's exterior; St Pancras Chambers and Abbey Mills pumping station served for interiors.

Which grade did CinemaScore audiences give the film?

Roger Ebert called it 'the Batman movie I've been waiting for' and gave four stars.

Which airship hangar became a 900-foot sound stage for the Narrows?

The Narrows was built inside one of the two giant 1920s airship sheds at Cardington, Bedfordshire, which Nolan later reused for The Dark Knight and Inception.

Which actor plays the corrupt detective Arnold Flass?

Mark Boone Junior plays Flass, the bribe-taking detective Batman hoists upside down from a rooftop to learn where the drug shipments are going.

What must Bruce carry up the mountain to be admitted to the League of Shadows?

Ducard tells Bruce to pick a rare blue flower from the eastern slopes and carry it to the top of the mountain; the League later brews its fear toxin from the same flower.

How much did each of the four street-ready Tumblers cost to build?

Each of the four street-ready Tumblers cost about $250,000 and used 65 body panels; a separate oversized cockpit set was built for interior shots.