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50 free Batman (1989) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Tim Burton's Batman arrived in June 1989 on a wave of Batmania, broke the opening-weekend record and turned a bat logo into the symbol of a summer. This quiz covers the whole story of the film: the decade it spent in development, the flood of protest letters when Michael Keaton was cast, the deal that made the Joker's actor one of the best-paid men in Hollywood history, the horse-riding accident that handed Vicki Vale to Kim Basinger, the chart-topping soundtrack, the orchestral score and the English backlot where the production designer built the ugliest city imaginable. Easy questions ask who played the Joker, what the Joker's poison was called and which chemical company he fell into; the hard end gets into the Batmobile's chassis, the cathedral finale that was rewritten without telling the director, who was nearly cast as Robin and which earlier film's sets were recycled for the villain's lair. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the film, the soundtrack and the Batmobile, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed the 1989 Batman film?
Tim Burton
Tim Burton was hired by Warner Bros. after Pee-wee's Big Adventure, but the studio only greenlit Batman once Beetlejuice became a hit in 1988.
Q 02Who plays the Joker in Batman (1989)?
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson was the producers' dream Joker from 1980, when one of them mocked up his face from The Shining in clown make-up; Robin Williams was also approached before Nicholson signed.
Q 03Roughly how many protest letters did Warner Bros. get from fans over Michael Keaton's casting?
50,000
50,000 letters of protest reached Warner Bros. after the Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice star was announced, fans fearing a campy, 1960s-style Batman.
Q 04Which producer suggested Michael Keaton after seeing his dramatic turn in Clean and Sober?
Jon Peters
Jon Peters, producing alongside Peter Guber, pushed for Michael Keaton after seeing him in Clean and Sober; the director, fresh from working with Keaton on Beetlejuice, agreed.
Q 05Which star turned down Batman in favour of Lethal Weapon 2?
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson was approached for the cape but committed to Lethal Weapon 2, released in 1989; Pierce Brosnan and Dennis Quaid were also considered.
Q 06Who was originally cast as the female lead before a horse-riding accident forced her out?
Sean Young
Sean Young had been cast as the photojournalist but was injured falling from a horse shortly before shooting, and her replacement was signed within days.
Q 07Which actor talked the director out of casting him as the Joker, then regretted it?
John Lithgow
John Lithgow, then starring in M. Butterfly on Broadway, spent his audition persuading the director he was wrong for the Joker, and later called it a big regret.
Q 08The Joker's actor cut his usual $10m fee to $6m in exchange for what?
A share of the film's earnings and merchandise
A share of the film's earnings and merchandise was what Nicholson took in exchange for cutting his fee to $6m; the deal earned him an estimated $60 million or more, plus top billing.
Q 09Which fictional chemical company's vat turns Jack Napier into the Joker?
Axis Chemicals
Axis Chemicals is the plant where Jack Napier falls into a vat of chemicals after Batman's grip slips; the film adapts the comics' Red Hood origin to Napier.
Q 10What is the name of the Joker's poison, which makes victims die laughing?
Smylex
Smylex is the Joker's toxin, hidden in cosmetics so that certain product combinations kill with a rictus grin; Batman passes his analysis to the press so the city can be warned.
Q 11Which mob boss sets Napier up on the chemical-plant break-in over an affair with his mistress?
Carl Grissom
Carl Grissom, played by Jack Palance, runs Gotham's rackets and sends Napier into a police trap after learning of the affair; the Joker later shoots him dead.
Q 12Which supermodel played Alicia Hunt, the mob boss's mistress?
Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall, then Mick Jagger's partner, played Alicia Hunt; after the Joker disfigures her she hides behind a porcelain mask, and he later claims she 'threw herself' from a window.
Q 13Which museum does the Joker lure the photojournalist to and have his henchmen vandalise?
The Flugelheim
Q 21The Joker's actor persuaded the filmmakers to cast which close friend as the Joker's henchman Bob?
Tracey Walter
Tracey Walter, a long-time friend of Nicholson's, played Bob the Goon, the loyal henchman whom the Joker abruptly shoots after the Batwing is brought down.
Q 22Where was Batman filmed from October 1988 to early 1989?
Pinewood Studios, England
Pinewood Studios, England, hosted the shoot from October 1988 into early 1989; a sprawling Gotham City rose on its backlot, far from the Hollywood press the filmmakers wanted to avoid.
Q 23Which two English stately homes doubled for Wayne Manor?
The Flugelheim Museum is where the Joker's gang defaces the art to a blaring boombox; he spares only Francis Bacon's Figure with Meat, saying he kind of likes it.
Q 14What does Bruce Wayne recognise in the Joker's 'danced with the devil in the pale moonlight' line?
The phrase used by the mugger who killed his parents
The phrase used by the mugger who killed his parents is the line; the film makes young Jack Napier the killer, a departure from the comics, where the gunman is Joe Chill.
Q 15How does Bruce Wayne survive being shot by the Joker in Vicki's apartment?
A serving tray hidden under his shirt
A serving tray hidden under his shirt takes the bullet; Bruce had come to tell Vicki his secret, and after playing dead he leaves her apartment with the dented tray.
Q 16The Joker's parade with the promise of free money is held to celebrate what?
Gotham's bicentennial
Gotham's bicentennial, the city's 200th-anniversary festival, is the occasion; the Joker's parade balloons spew poison gas until Batman's Batwing carries them away.
Q 17Which reporter, played by Robert Wuhl, was scripted to die of Joker gas but survived because the filmmakers liked him?
Alexander Knox
Alexander Knox, Robert Wuhl's wisecracking reporter, died of Joker gas in early drafts; Wuhl reprised him in 2019's Crisis on Infinite Earths, which labelled the film's world Earth-89.
Q 18Which Hammer horror veteran was cast as Alfred?
Michael Gough
Michael Gough, a veteran of Hammer's Horror of Dracula, played Alfred in all four films of the original series, outlasting both Keaton and the director.
Q 19Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent because the director planned what for a sequel?
An African-American Two-Face
An African-American Two-Face was the plan, with Williams's Dent to be scarred in a sequel; instead Tommy Lee Jones played Two-Face in 1995's Batman Forever.
Q 20Which actor plays the corrupt police lieutenant Eckhardt?
William Hootkins
William Hootkins, Porkins in Star Wars, plays the corrupt Lieutenant Eckhardt, who takes the mob's bribes and is shot dead by Napier at the chemical plant.
Knebworth House and Hatfield House
Knebworth House and Hatfield House, both in Hertfordshire, stood in for Wayne Manor: Knebworth's Gothic facade for the exteriors and Hatfield's rooms for the interiors.
Q 24Which 1986 film had previously shot at the power station used for the Joker's chemical plant?
Aliens
Aliens had used the disused Acton Lane Power Station in west London three years earlier; the same building became the Joker's chemical plant for Batman.
Q 25Which production designer built the film's Gotham City and won an Oscar for it?
Anton Furst
Anton Furst designed Gotham as a nightmarish New York where buildings grew unchecked, winning the Academy Award for Best Art Direction with set decorator Peter Young.
Q 26Which musician wrote and performed the film's songs?
Prince
The producers first wanted Prince for the Joker's songs and Michael Jackson for the romance numbers, with the composer blending the two.
Q 27Who composed the score, his third collaboration with the director after Pee-wee's Big Adventure?
Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman, the Oingo Boingo frontman, wrote the score after Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice; his brass-heavy Batman theme later opened Batman: The Animated Series.
Q 28Which single from the soundtrack album reached number one, his first since "Kiss"?
"Batdance"
"Batdance" topped the Hot 100 in August 1989, his first number one since "Kiss" in 1986; the collage of film dialogue and samples fronted an album that led the Billboard 200 for six weeks.
Q 29Which singer duets on "The Arms of Orion" from the soundtrack album?
Sheena Easton
Sheena Easton, who had earlier sung on his 'U Got the Look', joins him on 'The Arms of Orion'; the album's notes credit each track to a character, this one to Bruce and Vicki.
Q 30Which two comics are cited as the main influences on the film's serious tone?
The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke
The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke, Frank Miller's 1986 miniseries and Alan Moore's 1988 one-shot, gave the director, no comics reader himself, the grim tone he wanted.