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Batman Returns Batman Returns is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to "Batman" (1989) and the second installment in the 1989–1997 "Batman" series. In the film, Batman comes into conflict with wealthy industrialist Max Shreck and malformed crime boss Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin, who seek power regardless of the cost to Gotham City. Their plans are complicated by Shreck's former secretary, Selina Kyle, who seeks revenge against him as Catwoman. The cast includes Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, and Michael Murphy. Burton had no interest in making a sequel to "Batman", believing that he was creatively restricted by the expectations of Warner Bros. He agreed to return in exchange for creative control, including replacing original writer Sam Hamm with Daniel Waters, and hiring many of his previous creative collaborators. Waters's script focused on characterization over an overarching plot, and Wesley Strick was hired to complete an uncredited re-write which, among other elements, provided a master plan for the Penguin. Filming took place between September 1991 and February 1992, on a $50–80million budget, on sets and sound stages at Warner Bros. Studios and the Universal Studios Lot in California. Special effects primarily involved practical applications and makeup, with some animatronics and computer-generated imagery.
The film's marketing campaign was substantial, including brand collaborations and a variety of merchandise, aiming to repeat "Batman" financial success. Released on June 19, 1992, "Batman Returns" broke several box-office records and earned $266.8million worldwide. However, it failed to replicate the success or longevity of "Batman" ($411.6million); this was blamed on the darker tone as well as violent and sexual elements, which alienated family audiences and led to a backlash against marketing partners for promoting the film to young children. Reviews were polarized about the film, but praised most of the main cast. After the relative failure of "Batman Returns", Burton was replaced as director of the third film, "Batman Forever" (1995), with Joel Schumacher to take the series in a family-friendly direction. Keaton chose not to reprise his role, disagreeing with Schumacher's vision. "Batman Forever" and its sequel, "Batman & Robin" (1997), were financial successes but fared less well critically. "Batman Returns" has been reassessed as one of the best "Batman" films in the decades since its release, and its incarnations of Catwoman and Penguin are considered iconic. A comic book, "Batman '89" (2021), continued the narrative of the original two Burton films, and Keaton reprised his version of Batman in "The Flash" (2023).
Plot. In Gotham City, two wealthy socialites, dismayed at the birth of their malformed and feral son Oswald, discard the infant in the sewers, where he is adopted by a family of penguins. Thirty-three years later, during the Christmas season, wealthy industrialist Max Shreck is abducted by the Red Triangle gang—a group of former circus workers connected to child disappearances across the country—and brought to their hideout in the Arctic exhibit at the derelict Gotham Zoo. Their leader, Oswald—now named the Penguin—blackmails Shreck with evidence of his corruption and murderous acts to compel his assistance in reintegrating Oswald into Gotham's elite. Shreck orchestrates a staged kidnapping of the mayor's infant child, allowing Oswald to rescue it and become a public hero. In exchange, Oswald requests access to the city's birth records, ostensibly to learn his true identity by researching Gotham's first-born sons. Shreck attempts to murder his timid secretary, Selina Kyle, by pushing her out of a window after she accidentally uncovers his scheme to construct a power plant that would secretly drain and store Gotham's electricity. Selina survives, returns home, angrily crafts a costume and adopts the name Catwoman. To Shreck's surprise, Selina returns to work with newfound confidence and assertiveness, immediately capturing the attention of visiting billionaire Bruce Wayne. As his alter ego, the vigilante Batman, Wayne investigates Oswald, suspecting a connection to the Red Triangle gang. To remove obstacles to his power plant, Shreck persuades Oswald to run for mayor and undermine the incumbent by unleashing Red Triangle on Gotham. Batman's attempts to stop the chaos lead to a confrontation with Catwoman. Meanwhile, Selina and Wayne start dating, while Catwoman teams up with Oswald to tarnish Batman's reputation.
During Gotham's Christmas-tree lighting, Oswald and Catwoman kidnap Gotham's beauty queen, the Ice Princess, and lure Batman to a rooftop above the ceremony. Oswald pushes the Ice Princess to her death with a swarm of bats, framing Batman. When Catwoman objects to the murder and rebuffs Oswald's romantic advances, he attacks her, sending her crashing through a glasshouse. Batman escapes in the Batmobile, unaware that the Red Triangle gang has sabotaged it, allowing Oswald to take it on a remote-controlled rampage. Before regaining control, Batman records Oswald's insulting tirade against Gotham's citizens and plays it during Oswald's mayoral rally, destroying his public image and forcing him to retreat to Gotham Zoo. There, Oswald renounces his humanity, fully embracing his identity as the Penguin, and sets his plan in motion to abduct and kill Gotham's first-born sons as revenge for his own abandonment.
Sometime later, as Alfred drives Wayne home, he spots Selina's silhouette but finds only a cat, which he takes with him. The Bat-Signal shines above the city as Catwoman gazes up at it. Cast. The cast of "Batman Returns" includes Andrew Bryniarski as Max's son Charles "Chip" Schreck and Cristi Conaway as the Ice Princess, Gotham's beauty queen-elect. Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger appear as Tucker and Esther Cobblepot, Oswald's wealthy, elite parents. Sean Whalen appears as a paperboy; Jan Hooks and Steve Witting play Jen and Josh, Oswald's mayoral image consultants. The Red Triangle gang includes the monkey-toting Organ Grinder (Vincent Schiavelli), the Poodle Lady (Anna Katarina), the Tattooed Strongman (Rick Zumwalt), the Sword Swallower (John Strong), the Knifethrower Dame (Erika Andersch), the Acrobatic Thug (Gregory Scott Cummins), the Terrifying Clown (Branscombe Richmond), the Fat Clown (Travis Mckenna), and the Thin Clown (Doug Jones). Production. Development. Following the success of "Batman" (1989), which became the fifth-highest-grossing film of its time, a sequel was considered inevitable. Warner Bros. Pictures was confident in its potential, with discussions about a follow-up beginning by late 1989 and plans to start filming in May of the next year. The studio wanted Robin Williams and Danny DeVito to play the rogues Riddler and Penguin, respectively, and had also invested $2million in acquiring the Gotham City sets at Pinewood Studios in England, intending to use them for at least two more sequels. These sets were kept under 24-hour surveillance as it was more cost-effective to maintain them than to build new ones. Despite pressure from Warner Bros. to finalize a script and begin production, director Tim Burton was hesitant about returning for a sequel. He called the idea "dumbfounded," particularly before analyzing the performance of the first film. Burton was generally skeptical of sequels, believing they were only worthwhile if they offered a chance to explore something new and different.
"Batman" writer Sam Hamm's initial story idea expanded the character of district attorney Harvey Dent, played in "Batman" by Billy Dee Williams, and his descent into the supervillain Two-Face. Warner Bros. wanted the main villain to be the Penguin, however, whom Hamm believed the studio saw as Batman's most prominent enemy after the Joker. Catwoman was added because Burton and Hamm were interested in the character. Hamm's drafts continued directly from "Batman", focusing on the relationship between Wayne and Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and their engagement. The Penguin was written as an avian-themed criminal who uses birds as weapons; Catwoman was more overtly sexualised, wore "bondage" gear, and nonchalantly murdered groups of men. The main narrative teamed Penguin and Catwoman to frame Batman for the murders of Gotham's wealthiest citizens in their pursuit of a secret treasure. Their quest leads them to Wayne Manor, and reveals the Waynes's secret history. Among other things, Hamm originated the Christmastime setting and introduced Robin, Batman's sidekick, although his idea for assault rifle-wielding Santas was abandoned. Hamm ensured that Batman did not kill anyone and focused on protecting Gotham's homeless. The two drafts produced by Hamm failed to renew Burton's interest, and Burton concentrated on directing "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and writing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) instead.
Burton was confirmed to direct the sequel in January 1991, with filming scheduled to begin later that year for a 1992 release date. He agreed to return in exchange for creative control on the sequel; Burton considered "Batman" the least favorite of his films, describing it as occasionally boring. According to Denise Di Novi, his long-time producer, "Only about 50% of "Batman" was [Burton]"; the studio wanted "Batman Returns" to be "more of a Tim Burton movie... [a] weirder movie but also more hip and fun." Burton replaced key "Batman" crew with some of his former collaborators, including cinematographer Stefan Czapsky, production designer Bo Welch, creature-effects supervisor Stan Winston, makeup artist Ve Neill, and art directors Tom Duffield and Rick Henrichs. Daniel Waters was hired to replace Hamm because Burton wanted someone with no emotional attachment to "Batman" and liked Waters's script for the dark comedy "Heathers" (1988), which matched Burton's intended tone and creative direction. Burton reportedly disliked "Batman" producer Jon Peters, demoted him to executive producer of "Batman Returns", and effectively barred him from the set. Warner Bros. was the production company and distributor, with production assistance from executive producer Peter Guber's and Peters's Polygram Pictures.
Writing. Waters began writing his first draft in mid-1990. Burton's only instructions were that the script have no connection to "Batman", outside of a singular reference to Vale as Wayne's ex-girlfriend, and that Catwoman have a greater characterization than sexy vixen. Waters did not like the 1989 film, and had no interest in following its narrative threads, acknowledging the comic-book histories of "Batman Returns" characters, or considering the opinions of their fans, saying: "We were really just about the art." Unlike Hamm, Waters was not opposed to Batman killing people, believing the character should reflect contemporary, darker times, and that the idea of a hero leaving captured villains for the authorities was outdated. Even so, Waters only had Batman kill when necessary so it would be more meaningful; he was unhappy with some of the unscripted on-screen deaths in the finished film, such as Batman blowing up a Red Triangle member. Much of Waters's "bitter and cynical" dialogue for Batman (such as Gotham City not deserving protection) was removed because Keaton said that Batman should rarely speak in costume and Burton wanted Batman to be driven by trauma not nihilism.
As a result, the script focused on villains. Burton said that he initially struggled to understand the appeal of the Penguin's comic-book counterpart; Batman, Catwoman, and the Joker had clear psychological profiles, but the Penguin was "just this guy with a cigarette and a top hat." The initial draft made the character resemble a stereotypical DeVito character (an abrasive gangster), but Waters and Burton agreed to make him more "animalistic". They decided to make the Penguin a tragic figure, abandoned as an infant by his parents—a reflection of Batman's childhood trauma of losing his parents. Political and social satire was added, influenced by two episodes of the 1960s television series, "Batman", ("Hizzoner the Penguin" and "Dizhonner the Penguin") in which the Penguin runs for mayor. Waters changed Hamm's Catwoman from a "fetishy sexual fantasy" "femme fatale" to a working-class, disenchanted secretary, writing her as an allegory of contemporary feminism. Although the character is influenced by feline mythology (such as cats having nine lives), Waters and Burton never intended the supernatural elements to be taken literally and planned for Catwoman to die with Shreck during the electrical explosion in the film's denouement.
Waters created Max Shreck—an original character named in honor of actor Max Schreck—to take the place of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Shreck was written satirically as an evil industrialist who orchestrates the Penguin's mayoral run, in order to convey the message that true villains do not always wear costumes. In one version of the script, Shreck was the Penguin's more-favored brother. With four central characters to depict, Waters and Burton decided to remove Robin, a garage mechanic who helps Batman after Penguin crashes the Batmobile. They were not particularly interested in retaining the character, whom Waters described as worthless. The Red Triangle gang, initially conceived as a troupe of performance artists, were changed to circus clowns at Burton's request. Waters said that his 160-page first draft was too outlandish and would have cost $400million to produce, leading him to become more restrained. His fifth (and final draft) focused more on characterization and interaction than on plot. Burton and Waters eventually fell out over disagreements about the script and Waters's refusal to implement requested changes. Burton hired Wesley Strick to refine Waters's work, streamline dialogue, and lighten the tone. Warner Bros. executives mandated that Strick introduce a master plan for the Penguin, resulting in the addition of the plot to kidnap Gotham's first-born sons and threaten the city with missiles. Waters said that the changes to his work were relatively minor, but he was baffled by the Penguin's master plan. He made a final revision to Strick's shooting screenplay and, although Strick was on set for four months of filming and agreed-upon rewriting, Waters was the only screenwriter credited.
Casting. Keaton reprised his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman for $10million, double his salary for "Batman". Burton wanted to cast Marlon Brando as the Penguin, but Warner Bros. preferred Dustin Hoffman. Christopher Lloyd and Robert De Niro were also considered, but Danny DeVito became the frontrunner when Waters re-envisioned the character as a deformed human-bird hybrid. DeVito was initially reluctant to accept the role until he was convinced by his close friend, Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in "Batman". To convey his vision, Burton gave DeVito a picture he had painted of a diminutive character sitting on a red-and-white striped ball with the caption, "my name is Jimmy, but my friends call me the hideous penguin boy." Casting Selina Kyle / Catwoman was difficult. Annette Bening initially secured the role, but had to drop out after becoming pregnant. Actresses lobbying for the part then included Ellen Barkin, Cher, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Julie Newmar, Lena Olin, Susan Sarandon, Raquel Welch, and Basinger. The most prominent candidate, however, was Sean Young (who was cast as Vale in "Batman" before she was injured). Young went to the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman costume for an impromptu audition for Burton, who reportedly hid under his desk (although Keaton and producer Mark Canton briefly met with her). She shared video of her efforts with "Entertainment Tonight". She also pitched in costume on The Joan Rivers Show. Warner Bros. said that Young did not fit their vision for Catwoman.
The role went to Pfeiffer who was described as a proven actress who got along with Burton (although some publications said that it would stretch her acting abilities). Pfeiffer had also been considered for Vale in "Batman", but Keaton vetoed the casting because they had been romantically involved and he believed that her presence would interfere with attempts to reconcile with his wife. She received a $3million salary ($2million more than Bening), plus a percentage of the gross profits. Pfeiffer trained for months in kickboxing with her stunt double, Kathy Long, mastering the whip and becoming proficient enough to perform her own stunts with the weapon. Shreck's appearance was modeled on Vincent Price in an (unnamed) older film, and Walken based his performance on moguls such as Sol Hurok and Samuel Goldwyn. He said, "I tend to play mostly villains and twisted people. Unsavory guys. I think it's my face, the way I look." Burgess Meredith (who played the Penguin in the 1960s TV series) was scheduled to make a cameo appearance as Penguin's father, Tucker Cobblepot, but became ill during filming. He was replaced by Paul Reubens; Diane Salinger played his wife, Esther. Both had starred in Burton's feature-film debut, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" (1985).
Although Robin was removed from the screenplay, the character's development was far enough along that Marlon Wayans was cast in the role (Burton had specifically wanted an African-American Robin) and costumes, sets, and action figures were made. In a 1998 interview, Wayans said that he still received residual checks as part of the two-film contract he signed. Early reports suggested that Nicholson had been asked to return as the Joker, but refused to film in England because of the salary tax on foreign talent. Nicholson denied being asked, however, believing that Warner Bros. would not want to replicate his generous compensation for "Batman". Filming. Principal photography began on September 3, 1991. Burton wanted to film in the United States with American actors because he believed that "Batman", which had been filmed in the United Kingdom, had "suffered from a British subtext." The economics of filming "Batman" in the United Kingdom had also changed, making it more cost-effective to remain in the U.S. This meant abandoning the Pinewood Studios sets in favor of Burton's new design. "Batman Returns" was filmed entirely on up to eight soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California, including Stage 16 (which housed the expansive Gotham Plaza set). An additional soundstage, Stage 12 at the Universal Studios Lot, was used for the Penguin's Arctic-exhibit lair.
Some sets were kept very cold for the live Emperor, black-footed, and King penguins. The birds were flown in on a refrigerated airplane for filming, and had a chilled waiting area containing a swimming pool stocked with half a ton of ice daily and fresh fish. DeVito said that he generally liked being on set but disliked the cold conditions, and was the only person somewhat comfortable because of his costume's heavy padding. To create the penguin army, the live penguins were supplemented with puppets, forty Emperor-penguin suits worn by little people, and Computer-generated imagery (CGI). People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) protested the use of real penguins, objecting to the birds being moved from their natural environment. Although the organization had reportedly said that the penguins were not mistreated during filming, it later complained that the birds did not get fresh drinking waterjust a small, chlorinated pool. PETA also objected to the penguins being fitted with appliances representing weapons and gadgets, which Warner Bros. said were lightweight plastic. Burton said that he did not like using real animals because he had an affinity for them, and ensured that the penguins were treated with care.
Walken described the filming as very collaborative, recalling that his suggestion to add a blueprint for Shreck's power plant resulted in a model being built within a few hours. The scene of Catwoman putting a live bird in her mouth was performed live, with no CGI enhancements. Pfeiffer said that, in retrospect, she would not have done the stunt as she had not considered the risks of injury or disease involved. For a scene in the sewers, monkey handlers positioned above and below managed the organ grinder monkey as it descended a set of stairs with a note for Penguin. When it saw DeVito in full costume and makeup, it leapt at his testicles. DeVito said, "The monkey looked at me, froze, and then leapt right at my balls...Thank god it was a padded costume." A scene of Shreck's superstore exploding caused minor injuries to four stuntmen. Principal photography ended on February 20, 1992, after 170 days. Post-production. Chris Lebenzon edited "Batman Returns" 126-minute theatrical cut. The final scene of Catwoman looking up at the Bat Signal was filmed during post-production, only two weeks before the film's release. Warner Bros. mandated the scene (depicting that the character survived) after test audiences responded positively to Pfeiffer's performance. Pfeiffer was unavailable to film the scene, and a stand-in was used. A scene of Penguin's gang destroying a store filled with Batman merchandise was removed. Warner Bros. provided a final budget for "Batman Returns" of $55million, although it has been reported (or estimated) as $50, $65, $75, or $80million.
Music. Danny Elfman was initially reluctant to score "Batman Returns" because he was unhappy that his "Batman" score was supplemented with pop music by Prince. Elfman built on many of his "Batman" themes, and said that he enjoyed working on the Penguin's themes the most because of the character's sympathetic aspects, such as his abandonment and death. Recorded with a studio orchestra on the Sony Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, Elfman's score includes vocals, harps, bells, xylophones, flutes, pianos, and chimes. The song "Face to Face", played during the costume-ball scene, was co-written and performed by the British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Burton and Elfman fell out during production due to the stress of finishing "Batman Returns" on time, but reconciled shortly afterward. Design and effects. "Batman" production designer Anton Furst was replaced by Bo Welch, who understood Burton's visual intentions after previous collaborations on "Beetlejuice" (1988) and "Edward Scissorhands" (1990). Furst, already occupied on another project, committed suicide in November 1991. Warner Bros. maintained a high level of security for "Batman Returns", requiring the art department to keep their window blinds closed. Cast and crew had to wear ID badges with the film's working title, "Dictel", a word coined by Welch and Burton meaning "dictatorial"; they were unhappy with the studio's "ridiculous gestapo" measures. Welch designed the Batboat vehicle, a programmable batarang, and the Penguin's weaponized umbrellas. He added features to the Batmobile, such as detaching much of its exterior to fit through tighter spaces; this version was called the "Batmissile".
Sets. The sets were redesigned in Welch's style, including the Batcave and Wayne Manor. They were spread across seven soundstages on the Warner Bros. lot (the largest of which had ceilings) and the largest set owned by Universal Pictures. "Batman Returns" was filmed on sets, although some panoramic shots (such as the camera traveling from the base of Shreck's department store to its cat-head-shaped office) were created with detailed miniatures. Welch found it difficult to create something new without deviating from Furst's award-winning work. The designs were intended to appear as a separate district of Gotham; if "Batman" took place on the East Side, "Batman Returns" was set on the West Side. Welch was influenced by German Expressionism, neo-fascist architecture (including Nazi Germany-era styles), American precisionism painters, and photos of the homeless living on the streets in affluent areas. He incorporated Burton's rough sketch of Catwoman, which had a "very S&M kind of look", by adding chains and steel elements which would appear to hold together a city on the verge of collapse. The key element for Welch came early in design, when he realized that he wanted to manipulate spaces to convey specific emotions (emphasizing vertical buildings to convey a "huge, overwhelmingly corrupt, decaying city" filled with small people): "The film is about this alienating, disparate world we live in." The wintertime setting took advantage of the contrast between black and white scene elements, influenced by "Citizen Kane" (1941) and "The Third Man" (1949).
Welch's concept designs began by carving out building shapes from cardboard with images of fascist sculptures and depression era machine-age art. The resulting -tall rough model represented Gotham Plaza, described as a futuristic, oppressive, and "demented caricature" of Rockefeller Center. It was designed overbuilt, emphasizing the generic-but-oppressive heart of Gotham's corruption. Despite complaints from the film's financiers about its necessity, Burton insisted on the location with a detailed church overshadowed by plain surroundings. Designs attempted to create the illusion of space; the Wayne Manor set was partially built (consisting primarily of a large staircase and fireplace) with a scale which implied that the rest of the structure was massive. Penguin's base was initially scheduled to be built in a standard tall Warner Bros. soundstage, but Welch thought that it lacked "majesty" and did not create enough contrast between itself and the "evil, filthy, little bug of a man". A -tall Universal stage was acquired for the production, its raised ceilings making it seem more realistic and less like a set. Minor modifications were made to the set throughout the film to make it appear to be gradually deteriorating. The location featured a water tank filled with of water surrounding a faux-ice island. Selina Kyle's apartment had a large steel beam running through its center to appear as if it had been built around a steel girder, which Welch said made it depressing and ironic. The wood used to build the sets was donated to Habitat for Humanity to help build low-cost homes for the poor.
Costumes and makeup. Bob Ringwood and Mary E. Vogt were the costume designers. They refined the Batsuit to create the illusion of mechanical parts built into the torso, intending Batman to resemble Darth Vader. Forty-eight foam-rubber Batsuits were made for "Batman Returns". They had a mechanical system of bolts and spikes beneath the breast plate to secure the cowl and cape because "otherwise, if [Keaton] turned around quickly the cape would stay where it was", due to its weight. Costumer Paul Barrett-Brown said that the suit had a "generous codpiece" for comfort, and initially included a zippered fly to allow Keaton to use the bathroom; the actor declined, however, because it could be seen by the camera from some angles. As with the "Batman" costume, Keaton could not turn his head; he compensated by making bolder, more powerful movements with his lower body. The Catwoman outfit was made from latex because it was designed to be "black and sexy and tight and shiny". The material was chosen because of its association with "erotic and sexual" situations, reflecting the character's transition from a repressed secretary to an extroverted, erotic female. Padding was added because Pfeiffer was less physically endowed than Bening; this worked to Pfeiffer's advantage, however, since Barrett-Brown said that if it was too tight it "would reveal the genital area so thoroughly that you'd get an X certificate." Ringwood and Vogt thought that if the latex material tore it would not be difficult to repair; forty to seventy backup Catwoman suits were made by Western Costume, the Warner Bros. costume department, and Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer Syren at a cost of $1,000 each. Other versions, made for Pfeiffer from a cast of her body, were so tight that she had to be covered in baby powder to wear them. Barrett-Brown said that because of the material, it was possible to get into the suit when dry; they could not re-use them, however, because of sweat and body oils. Vin Burnham constructed Catwoman's headpiece and mask.
Burton was influenced to add stitching by calico cats, but the stitching came apart. Ringwood and Vogt struggled with adding stitching to latex. They tried to sculpt stitching and glue it on, but did not like the look and went over the suit with liquid silicon while it was worn (which added a shine to everything). Pfeiffer said that the suit was like a second skin, but when worn for long periods it was uncomfortable; there was no way to use the restroom and it would stick to her skin, occasionally causing a rash. She found the mask similarly confining, describing it as choking her or "smashing my face", and would catch the claws on nearby objects. Stan Winston Studio created an "over-the-top Burtonesque" visual for the Penguin, without obscuring DeVito's face. Concept artist Mark McCreery drew a number of sketches for the look, from which Legacy Effects built noses on a lifecast of DeVito's face.
Concept artist Mark McCreery drew a number of sketches for the look, from which Legacy Effects built noses on a lifecast of DeVito's face. Ve Neill applied the makeup, made by John Rosengrant and Shane Mahan. The several pounds of facial prosthetics, body padding, and prosthetic hands took four-and-a-half hours to apply to DeVito, but was reduced to three hours by the end of filming. An air bladder was added to the costume to help reduce its weight. DeVito helped create the Penguin's black saliva with the makeup and effects teams, using a mild mouthwash and food coloring which he squirted into his mouth before filming, and said its taste was acceptable. Burton described DeVito as completely in-character in costume, and he "scared everybody". While re-dubbing some of his dialogue, DeVito struggled to get into character without the makeup and had it applied to improve his performance. Because of the secrecy surrounding his character's appearance before marketing, DeVito was not allowed to discuss it with others (including his family). A photo leaked to the press, and Warner Bros. Because of the secrecy surrounding his character's appearance before marketing, DeVito was not allowed to discuss it with others (including his family). A photo leaked to the press, and Warner Bros. employed a firm of private investigators in a failed attempt to track down the source.
Penguins. Stan Winston Studio provided animatronic penguins and costumes to supplement Penguin's army. Thirty animatronic versions were made: ten each of the black-footed, King, and Emperor penguins. Costumes worn by little people were slightly larger than the animatronics; the actors controlled walking, the mechanized heads were remote-controlled and the wings were puppeteered. Dyed black chicken feathers were used for the penguin bodies. McCreery's designs for the penguin army initially included a flamethrower, which was replaced with a rocket launcher. Mechanical-effects designers Richard Landon and Craig Caton-Largent supervised the manufacture of the animatronics, which required nearly 200 different mechanical parts to control the head, neck, eyes, beak, and wings. Boss Film Studios produced the CGI penguins. Release. Context. By the theatrical summer of 1992 (beginning the last week of May), the film industry was struggling with low ticket sales, rising production costs, and several box-office failures the previous year. Eighty-nine films were scheduled for release during the season, including "A League of Their Own", "Alien 3", "Encino Man", "Far and Away", "Patriot Games", and "Sister Act". Studios had to carefully schedule their releases to avoid competition from anticipated blockbusters, such as "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Batman Returns", as well as the 1992 Summer Olympics. "Batman Returns" was predicted to be the summer's biggest success, and other studios were reportedly concerned about releasing their films within even a few weeks of its premiere. Paramount Pictures increased the budget of "Patriot Games" by $14million just to make it more competitive with "Batman Returns" and "Lethal Weapon 3".
Marketing. Franchising had not been considered an important aspect of "Batman" prior to its release. However, after merchandise contributed about $500million to its $1.5billion total earnings, it was prioritized for "Batman Returns". Warner Bros. delayed major promotion until February 1992, to avoid over-saturation and the risk of driving away audiences. A 12-minute promotional reel debuted at WorldCon in September 1991, alongside a black-and-white poster of a silhouetted Batman, which was called "mundane" and uninspiring. A trailer was released in 5,000 theaters in February 1992 with a new poster of a snow-swept Batman logo. The campaign focused on the three central characters (Batman, Penguin, and Catwoman), which Warner Bros. believed would offset the loss of the popular Nicholson. Over two-thirds of the 300 posters Warner Bros. installed in public places were stolen. Warner Bros. eventually offered 200 limited-edition posters for $250, signed by Keaton, who donated his earnings to charity. Over $100million was expected to be spent on marketing, including $20million by Warner Bros. for commercials and trailers, and $60million by merchandising partners. The partners, which included McDonald's, Ralston Purina, Kmart, Target Corporation, Venture Stores, and Sears, planned to host about 300 in-store Batman shops. McDonald's converted 9,000 outlets into Gotham City restaurants, offering Batman-themed packaging and a cup lid which doubled as a flying disc. CBS aired a television special, "The Bat, The Cat, The Penguin... Batman Returns", and Choice Hotels sponsored the hour-long "The Making of Batman Returns". Television advertisements featured Batman and Catwoman fighting over a can of Diet Coke, and the Penguin (and his penguins) promoted Choice Hotels. Advertisements also appeared on billboards and in print (three consecutive pages in some newspapers), targeted at older audiences.
Box office. "Batman Returns" premiered on June 16, 1992, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard were closed for over 3,000 fans, 33 TV film crews, and 100 photographers. A party was held afterwards on the Stage 16 Gotham Plaza set for guests who included Keaton, Pfeiffer, DeVito, Burton, DiNovi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Faye Dunaway, James Caan, Mickey Rooney, Harvey Keitel, Christian Slater, James Woods, and Reubens. The film had a limited, preview release in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, June 18, earning $2million. It had a wide release the following day, and was shown on an above-average 3,000 screens in 2,644 theaters. "Batman Returns" earned $45.7million during its opening weekend (an average of $17,729 per theater), and was the number-one film—ahead of "Sister Act" fourth weekend ($7.8million) and "Patriot Games" third ($7.7million). This figure broke the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend, set by "Batman" ($42.7million). The film held this record until the release of "Jurassic Park" ($50.1million) the next year. Initial performance analysis suggested that "Batman Returns" could become one of the all-time highest-grossing films; Warner Bros. executive Robert Friedman said, "We opened it the first real weekend when kids are out of school. The audience is everybody, but the engine that drives the charge are kids under 20." According to "Patriot Games" producer Mace Neufeld, other films benefited from overflow audiences for "Batman Returns" who did not want to wait in long lines or were turned away from sold-out screenings.
"Batman Returns" earned $25.4million in its second weekend (a 44.3-percent drop) and was the number-one film again, ahead of the premiering "Unlawful Entry" ($10.1million) and "Sister Act" ($7.2million). By the film's third weekend, it was the second=fastest film to gross $100million (11 days), behind "Batman" (10 days). It remained the number-one film with a gross of $13.8million (a 45.6-percent drop), ahead of the premiering "A League of Their Own" ($13.7million) and "Boomerang" ($13.6million). "The Washington Post" called its week-over-week drops troublesome, and industry analysis suggested that "Batman Returns" would not replicate the longevity of "Batman"s theatrical run. "Batman Returns" never regained the number-one position after falling to numberfour over its fourth weekend, and left the top-ten highest-grossing films by its seventh. The film left theaters in late October after 18 weeks, with a total gross of $162.8million. It became the third-highest-grossing film of 1992, behind "" ($173.6million) and "Aladdin" ($217.3million).
"Batman Returns" earned an estimated $104million outside the U.S. and Canada, including a record-setting £2.8million opening weekend in the United Kingdom. This broke the record set by "" (1991), making it the first film to gross more than £1million in a single day. Worldwide, "Batman Returns" grossed $266.8million, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1992, ahead of "A Few Good Men" ($243.2million) and behind "Lethal Weapon 3" ($321.7million). Reception. Critical response. "Batman Returns" had a polarized reception from professional critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B on an A+-to-F scale. Several reviewers compared "Batman Returns" and "Batman"; some suggested that the sequel had faster pacing and more comedy and depth, avoiding "Batman" "dourness" and "tedium". Critics generally agreed that Burton's creative control made "Batman Returns" a more personal work than "Batman", something "fearlessly" different which could be judged on its own merits. Critics such as Kenneth Turan, however, said that Burton's innovative, impressive visuals made "Batman Returns" feel cheerless, claustrophobic and unexciting, and were often emphasized at the expense of the plot. According to Owen Gleiberman, Burton's fantastic elements were undermined because he did not establish a base of normality.
The plot had a mixed response. Some reviewers praised the first and second acts and interesting characters who could evoke audience emotion. Others said that it lacked suspense, thrills, or clever writing, overwhelmed by too many characters and near-constant banter. The ending was criticized for lackluster action and failing to bring the separate character threads to a satisfactory conclusion. According to Janet Maslin, Burton cared mainly about visuals and plot was a secondary consideration. Gene Siskel said that the emphasis on characterization was detrimental; the sympathetic villains left him hoping that Batman would not win, and each character would find emotional peace. Reviewers generally agreed that despite Keaton's abilities, his character was ignored by the script in favor of the villains; scenes without him were among the best. Todd McCarthy described Batman as a symbol of good rather than a psychologically complete character, and Ebert wrote that "Batman Returns" depicts being Batman as a curse instead of a heroic power fantasy. Peter Travers, however, said that Keaton's "manic depressive hero" was a deep, realized character in spite of the film's faster pace. DeVito was praised for his energy, unique characterization, and ability to convey his character's tragedy despite the costumes and prosthetics. Desson Howe said that Burton's focus on the Penguin indicated his sympathy for the character. Some reviewers considered DeVito an inferior followup to Nicholson's Joker, who evoked sympathy without instilling fear.
Pfeiffer received near-unanimous praise for the film's standout performance as a passionate, sexy, ambitious, intelligent, intimidating, and fierce embodiment of feminism who offered the only respite from the otherwise-dark tone. Jonathan Rosenbaum, however, said that she did not live up to Nicholson's villain. Turan called the scenes shared by Batman and Catwoman the film's most interesting, and Travers said that when they take off their masks at the end they look "lost and touchingly human". Burr described the ballroom scene (in which they realize each other's secret identities) as more emotional than anything in "Batman". Ebert noted that their sexual tension seemed to have been undercut for a younger audience. Walken's performance was described as "wonderfully debonair", funny and engaging, a villain who could have carried "Batman Returns" alone. Welch's production design was generally praised, offering a sleeker, brighter, more authoritarian visual style than Furst's "brooding", oppressive aesthetic. McCarthy described Welch's ability to realize Burton's imaginative universe as an achievement, although Gene Siskel described Welch as a "toy shop window decorator" compared to Furst. The costumes and makeup effects were also praised, with Maslin saying that those images would linger in the imagination long after the narrative was forgotten. Czapsky's cinematography was well-received, even giving a "lively" aesthetic to the subterranean sets. The film's violent, mature, sexual content, such as kidnappings and implied child murder, was criticized as inappropriate for younger audiences.
Accolades. At the 46th British Academy Film Awards, "Batman Returns" was nominated for Best Makeup (Ve Neill and Stan Winston) and Best Special Visual Effects (Michael Fink, Craig Barron, John Bruno, and Dennis Skotak). For the 65th Academy Awards, "Batman Returns" received two nomations: Best Makeup (Neill, Ronnie Specter, and Winston) and Best Visual Effects (Fink, Barron, Bruno, and Skotak), but lost both awards to "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Death Becomes Her" respectively. Neill and Winston received the Best Make-up award at the 19th Saturn Awards. The film received four other Saturn Award nominations for Best Fantasy Film, Best Supporting Actor (DeVito), Best Director (Burton), and Best Costume Design (Bob Ringwood, Mary Vogt, and Vin Burnham). DeVito was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards, and Pfeiffer for Most Desirable Female at the 1993 MTV Movie Awards. "Batman Returns" was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. After release. Performance analysis and aftermath.
The U.S. and Canadian box offices underperformed in 1992, with admissions down by up to five percent and about 290million tickets sold (compared to over 300million in each of the preceding four years). Industry professionals blamed the drop on the lack of quality of the films being released, considering them too derivative or dull to attract audiences. Even films considered successful had significant box-office drops week over week from apparently-negative word of mouth. Industry executive Frank Price said that the releases were not attracting the younger audiences and children which were vital to a film's success. Rising ticket prices, competition from the Olympics, and an economic recession were also considered contributing factors to the declining figures. "Batman Returns" and "Lethal Weapon 3" contributed to Warner Bros. best first half-year in its history, and were expected to return over $200million to the studio from the box office. "Batman Returns" was considered a disappointment as a sequel to the fifth-highest-grossing film ever made, however, and fell about $114.8million short of "Batman"s $411.6million theatrical gross. By July 1992, anonymous Warner Bros. executives reportedly said about the film, "It's too dark. It's not a lot of fun."
Despite its PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association, warning parents that a film may contain strong content unsuitable for children, Warner Bros. received thousands of complaint letters from audiences, particularly parents, who disliked "Batman Returns" violent and sexualized content. Waters recalled the aftermath of one screening: "It's like kids crying, people acting like they've been punched in the stomach and like they've been mugged." He had anticipated, and enjoyed, some backlash, but acknowledged he may have made some mistakes. McDonald's was criticized for its child-centered promotion and toys, and discontinued its "Batman Returns" campaign in September 1992. Burton said that he preferred "Batman Returns" to "Batman", and thought it was less dark than its predecessor, despite the backlash. Although much of Hamm's work was replaced, he defended Burton and Waters, saying that except from the merchandise, "Batman Returns" was never presented as child-friendly. Warner Bros. decided to continue the series without Burton (described as "too dark and odd for them"), replacing him with Joel Schumacher. A rival studio executive said, "If you bring back Burton and Keaton, you're stuck with their vision. You can't expect "Honey, I Shrunk the Batman"" (referring to the 1989 science-fiction comedy, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"). Warner Bros. was sued by executive producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan, who alleged that they had originally purchased the film-adaptation rights to the Batman character but were denied their share of the profits from "Batman" and "Batman Returns" by the studio's Hollywood accounting: a method used by studios to artificially inflate a film's production costs, making it appear unprofitable and limiting royalty (or tax) payments. The court decided in the studio's favor, citing a lack of evidence.
Home media. "Batman Returns" was released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 21, 1992. Its VHS version had a lower-than-average price, to encourage sales and rentals. The film was expected to sell millions of copies and be a well-performing rental, but its success would be restricted by its content, which would appeal less to children (the main audience driving purchases). Elfman's score was released in 1992 on compact disc (CD), and an expanded soundtrack was released in 2010. "Batman Returns" was released on DVD in 1997, with no additional features. An anthology DVD box set was released in October 2005, with all the films in the Burton-Schumacher Batman film series. The "Batman Returns" segment had commentary by Burton, "The Bat, The Cat, and The Penguin" special about the making of the film, part four of the documentary "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight", notes on the development of costumes, make-up and special effects, and the music video for "Face to Face". The same anthology was released on Blu-ray in 2009 with a standalone "Batman Returns" Blu-ray release. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released in 2019; restored from the original 35mm negative, it included the anthology's special features. A 4K collector's edition was released in 2022 with a SteelBook case (with original cover art), character cards, a double-sided poster, and previously released special features.
Other media. About 120 products were marketed with "Batman Returns", including action figures and toys by Kenner Products, Catwoman-themed clothing, toothbrushes, roller skates, T-shirts, underwear, sunglasses, towels, beanbags, mugs, weightlifting gloves, throw pillows, cookie cutters, commemorative coins, playing cards, costume jewelry, cereal, a radio-controlled Batmobile, and tortilla chips shaped like the Batman logo. Although there were about the same number of products marketed for "Batman", there were fewer licensees so Warner Bros. could have more oversight. The release of "" later in 1992 was anticipated to extend merchandising success long after "Batman Returns" had left theaters. Warner Bros. used holographic labels developed by American Bank Note Holographics to detect counterfeit products. The film's novelization, by Craig Shaw Gardner, was published in July 1992. A roller coaster () was built at Six Flags Great America at a cost of $8million, and was later replicated at other Six Flags parks with a Batman stunt show. Several video-game adaptations titled "Batman Returns" were released by a number of developers on almost all available platforms; the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version was the most successful.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Penguin's first comic-book appearance, DeVito wrote "Bird Cat Love" a 2021 comic book story about the Penguin and Catwoman falling in love and ending the COVID-19 pandemic. "Batman '89", a comic-book series first released in 2022, continues the narrative of Burton's original two films and ignores the Schumacher sequels. Set a few years after the events of "Batman Returns", "Batman '89" depicts the transformation of district attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face and introduces Robin. The series was written by Hamm, with art by Joe Quinones. The Red Triangle Gang made their first appearance outside "Batman Returns" in the 2022 comic book "Robin" #15. A holiday book was released in 2022, "Batman Returns: One Dark Christmas Eve: The Illustrated Holiday Classic", by Ivan Cohen. Thematic analysis. Duality.
Commercialism and loneliness. Crow saw "Batman Returns" as a denouncement of Batman's real-world cultural popularity and merchandising (especially in the wake of the previous film), and noted that a scene of a store filled with Batman merchandise being destroyed was removed from the film. Crow and Mooney wrote that "Batman Returns" is "saturated with Christmas energy"; it rejects the season's conventional norms and becomes an anti-Christmas film, however, critiquing its over-commercialism and lack of true goodwill. Shreck cynically exploits Christmas tropes for his own ends (falsely portraying himself as selfless and benevolent), and the perversions of Penguin's Red Triangle gang are a more overt rejection of the holiday. The film focuses on loneliness and isolation during Christmastime; Wayne is introduced sitting alone in his vast mansion, inert until the Bat-Signal shines in the sky. He makes a connection with Kyle, but what they share cannot overcome their differences and he ends the film as he began italone. Critic Todd McCarthy identified isolation as a theme common to much of Burton's work, which is emphasized in the three main characters.
Rebecca Roiphe and Daniel Cooper wrote that "Batman Returns" was not antisemitic, but had antisemitic imagery. The Penguin, they believed, embodied Jewish stereotypes such as "... his hooked nose, pale face and lust for herring" and was "unathletic and seemingly unthreatening but who, in fact, wants to murder every firstborn child of the gentile community." The character joins forces with Shreck (who has a Jewish-sounding name) to disrupt and taint Christmas and Christian traditions. Sexuality and misogyny. "Batman Returns" has overtly sexual elements. Critic Tom Breihan described Catwoman's vinyl catsuit as "pure BDSM", including the whip she wields as a weapon. The dialogue is replete with double entendres, particularly by Penguin and Catwoman; in her fights with Batman, she sensuously licks his face. Selina / Catwoman is marginalized by the central male characters, however; Shreck pushes her out of a window, the Penguin tries to kill her when she spurns his advances, and Batman attempts to capture her. She fashions a catsuit to regain order, sanity, and power, but it is gradually damaged over the course of the film and her sanity decays with it. Catwoman's final choice is to reject Batman's offer of a happy ending by
abandoning her revenge against Shreck; to surrender herself to Batman's will would allow another man to control her. Power and politics. Power is a central theme for several characters; Shreck says, "There's no such thing as too much power; if my life has a meaning that's the meaning." He uses his money to gain power, and Batman uses his fortune to fund his war against crime (unlike Penguin, who was abandoned because he did not fit the image expected by his wealthy parents). Kyle gains power by donning the Catwoman costume and embracing her anger and sexuality. Shreck convinces Penguin to run for mayor to further his own goals, and the Penguin seeks out the acceptance and respect it would give him. Critic Caryn James wrote that "Batman Returns" has "sharp political jabs" which implies that money and image are more important than anything else. In "Batman", the Joker buys citizen support by throwing them piles of money; in the sequel, Shreck and Penguin gain the support of the populace with spectacle, pandering, and corporate showmanship. The Penguin describes how he and Shreck are both seen as monsters, but Shreck is a "well-respected monster and I, to date, am not." James said that the Penguin wants to change the superficial perception of himself because he wants to be accepted, but has no interest in being lovable. Only when the fickle voters turn on him, however, does he resort to his plan to kill infants who had the chances he never had. Crow believed that Burton was the most sympathetic to Penguin, and spent the most time on the character.
Legacy. Cultural influence. Retrospectives in the 2010s and 2020s noted that "Batman Returns" had developed an enduring legacy since its release, with "Comic Book Resources" describing it as the most iconic comic-book film ever made. Although initially criticized for its mix of the superhero and film noir genres, the film established trends toward dark tones and complex characters which have since become an expectation of many blockbusters. Some writers said that its "disturbing imagery", exploration of morality, and satire of corporate politics seemed even more relevant in the present day, as did the themes of prejudice and feminism explored in Catwoman. Burton said that he believed "Batman Returns" was exploring new territory at the time, but it might be considered "tame" by modern standards. According to "the Ringer", Burton's "weird and unsettling" sequel enabled future auteurs such as Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson, and Sam Raimi to move into mainstream films. "Collider" described the film as the first "anti-blockbuster", defying expectations and delivering a superhero film with little action set during Christmas (despite its July release). The film's performances, score, and visual aesthetic are considered iconic, influencing Batman-related media and incarnations of the characters for decades (such as the "Batman Arkham" video games). "The Batman" (2022) director Matt Reeves and Batman actor Robert Pattinson called "Batman Returns" their favorite "Batman" film, with Reeves ranking it alongside "The Dark Knight" (2008), and director Robert Eggers said that it visually inspired his film "Nosferatu" (2024).
Pfeiffer's Catwoman is considered iconic, a feat of characterization and performance which influenced subsequent female-superhero-led films. Her performance is generally regarded as the best cinematic adaptation of the character (influencing future portrayals such as Zoë Kravitz's in "The Batman"), one of the best comic book film characters, and among the greatest cinematic villains. In 2022, "Variety" ranked Pfeiffer's Catwoman as the second-best superhero performance of the preceding fifty years, behind Heath Ledger. DeVito's performance as the Penguin is also considered iconic, and has been listed by some publications as one of the best cinematic Batman villains. Modern reception. In the years since its release, "Batman Returns" has been positively reappraised. It is now regarded as among the best superhero films ever made, the best sequels, and the best "Batman" films made. "Screen Rant" called it the best Batman film of the 20th century and, in 2018, "Total Film" named it the best Batman film. "Batman Returns" was number401 on "Empire"s 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. Some publications have identified "Batman Returns" as part of Burton's unofficial Christmas trilogy, bookended by "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and it has become an alternative-holiday film along with films such as "Die Hard" (1988). Some publications have also listed it as one of the best Christmas films.
The film's writer Daniel Waters recalled being told that "Batman Returns" was a "great movie for people who don't like Batman". Although the film was criticized for depicting Batman killing people, Waters said, "To me, Batman not killing [the Joker (played by Heath Ledger)] at the end of "The Dark Knight" after proving he can get out of any prison, it's like 'Come on. Kill Heath Ledger. He believed that the reception to "Batman Returns" was improving with time, especially after the release of "The Batman" in 2022. Critic Brian Tallerico said that the elements which originally upset critics and audiences are what makes it still "revelatory... It's one of the best and strangest movies of its kind ever made." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has an approval rating from reviews by critics, with an average score of . According to the website's critical consensus, "Director Tim Burton's dark, brooding atmosphere, Michael Keaton's work as the tormented hero, and the flawless casting of Danny DeVito as The Penguin and Christopher Walken as, well, Christopher Walken make the sequel better than the first." The film has a score of 68 out of 100 on Metacritic (based on 23 critics), indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Sequels. Following the reception of "Batman Returns", Warner Bros. intended to continue the series without Burton. Burton considered making a third film, but the studio encouraged him to make something else and he realized they did not want him to return for a sequel. The studio replaced Burton with Schumacher, who could make something more family- and merchandise-friendly. Although Burton and Keaton said they were supportive of the new director, Keaton also left the series because "[the film] just wasn't any good, man." Industry press suggested that Keaton had also asked for a $15million salary and a percentage of the profits, although his producing partner Harry Colomby said that money was not the issue. Burton was an executive producer for the third film, "Batman Forever" (1995), which had a more mixed reception than "Batman Returns" but was a financial success. The fourth and final film, "Batman & Robin" (1997), was a financial and critical failure and is regarded as one of the worst blockbuster films ever made. It stalled the Batman film series for eight years until the reboot, "Batman Begins" (2005).
By the mid-1990s, Burton and Waters were signed to direct a Catwoman-centered film starring Pfeiffer. Waters's plot depicted Catwoman as an amnesiac after her injuries at the end of "Batman Returns", who ends up in the Las Vegas-like Oasisburg and confronts publicly-virtuous male superheroes who are secretly corrupt. Burton and Pfeiffer took on other projects in the interim, and lost interest in the film. Warner Bros. eventually developed "Catwoman" (2004), starring Halle Berry, which was critically panned and is considered one of the worst comic-book films ever made. Keaton was scheduled to reprise his version of Batman in "Batgirl", a proposed 2022 film that was filmed but cancelled by Warner Bros. parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. He appeared as Batman in "The Flash" (2023).
Batman & Robin (film) Batman & Robin is a 1997 American superhero film based on the DC Comics characters Batman and Robin by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. It is the fourth and final installment of Warner Bros.' initial "Batman" film series, a sequel to "Batman Forever" (1995), and the only film in the series made without the involvement of Tim Burton in any capacity. Directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Akiva Goldsman, it stars George Clooney as Bruce Wayne / Batman (replacing Val Kilmer) and Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson / Robin, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, and Alicia Silverstone. The film follows the eponymous characters as they attempt to prevent Mr. Freeze (Schwarzenegger) and Poison Ivy (Thurman) from taking over the world, while at the same time struggling to keep their partnership together. Warner Bros. fast-tracked development for "Batman & Robin" following the box office success of "Batman Forever". Schumacher and Goldsman conceived the storyline during pre-production on "A Time to Kill"; Schumacher was given a mandate to make the film more toyetic than its predecessor. After Val Kilmer decided not to reprise the role of Batman, Schumacher was interested in casting William Baldwin before George Clooney won the role. Principal photography began in September 1996 and wrapped in January 1997, two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule.
"Batman & Robin" premiered in Los Angeles on June 12, 1997, and went into general release on June 20. It grossed $238 million worldwide against a production budget of $125–160 million, and was considered a box office disappointment at the time. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. The film's poor reception caused Warner Bros. to cancel future "Batman" films, including Schumacher's planned "Batman Unchained". One of the songs recorded for the film, "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by the Smashing Pumpkins, won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. Plot. Batman and his partner, Robin, encounter a new villain, Mr. Freeze, who has left a string of diamond thefts in his wake. During a confrontation at the natural history museum, Freeze steals a large diamond and flees, freezing Robin and leaving Batman unable to pursue him. Later, Batman and Robin learn that Freeze was originally Doctor Victor Fries, a scientist working to develop a cure for a disease known as MacGregor's syndrome, hoping to heal his terminally ill wife, Nora. After a lab accident, Fries was rendered unable to live at average temperatures and forced to wear a cryogenic suit powered by diamonds for survival.
At a Wayne Enterprises lab in Brazil, botanist Doctor Pamela Isley is working under the deranged Doctor Jason Woodrue, who has turned her research on plants into the supersoldier drug Venom. After witnessing Woodrue use the formula to turn serial killer Antonio Diego into the hulking Bane, she threatens to expose Woodrue's experiments. Woodrue attempts to kill her by overturning a shelf of various toxins; instead, Isley is mutated by the toxins into Poison Ivy, who kills Woodrue with a poisonous kiss, destroys the lab and escapes to Gotham City with Bane, concocting a plot to use Wayne's money to support her research. Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth's niece, Barbara Wilson, makes a surprise visit and is invited by Bruce to stay at Wayne Manor until she goes back to school. Wayne Enterprises presents a new telescope for Gotham Observatory at a press conference interrupted by Ivy. She proposes a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, knowing it could result in genocide. Batman and Robin decide to lure Freeze out using the Wayne Family diamonds and present them at a Wayne Enterprises charity event. Ivy attends the event and decides to use her abilities to seduce Batman and Robin. Freeze crashes the party but is defeated and incarcerated at Arkham Asylum. Ivy takes an interest in Freeze and helps him escape. Dick discovers that Barbara has been participating in drag races to raise money for Alfred, who is dying of MacGregor's syndrome; a fact he kept from Bruce and Dick, but his niece is secretly aware of his situation and is trying to find treatment for him.
Batman, Robin, and the police arrive at Freeze's lair in response to his escape, discovering Nora preserved in a cryogenic chamber and that Freeze has developed a cure for the early stages of MacGregor's syndrome. The villains soon secretly arrive to recover Freeze's diamonds and Nora. Wanting Freeze for herself, Ivy cuts off the power to Nora's chamber, steals the diamonds, and seduces Robin, escalating tensions between him and Batman. At her hideout, Ivy convinces Freeze that Batman was responsible for her attempt at Nora's life and he then resolves to make humanity suffer for revenge, with Ivy plotting to repopulate Earth using her mutant plants afterward. Freeze and Bane commandeer Gotham Observatory and convert the new telescope into a giant freeze ray, while Ivy uses the Bat-Signal to contact Robin. Robin attempts to go after Ivy alone, but Batman convinces him not to fall for Ivy's seduction. Barbara discovers the Batcave, where an artificial intelligence version of Alfred reveals he has made a suit for Barbara. Barbara dons the suit and becomes Batgirl, arriving at Ivy's lair in time to help Batman and Robin subdue her.
Freeze begins to freeze Gotham over whilst Batman, Robin, and Batgirl head to Gotham Observatory together to stop him. Batman defeats Freeze in combat, while Batgirl and Robin incapacitate Bane and thaw the city. Freeze accuses Batman of taking Nora's life, only to be shown a recording of Ivy admitting to the crime. Batman reveals that Nora survived and offers Freeze the chance to continue his research on MacGregor's syndrome in exchange for his cure. Freeze accepts and returns to Arkham, where he is imprisoned in the same cell as Ivy, upon whom he plans to take revenge. Alfred is cured and Bruce and Dick agree to let Barbara join them in fighting crime. Cast. John Glover portrays Dr. Jason Woodrue, a deranged scientist with a desire for world domination via his Venom-powered "supersoldiers", of whom Bane, portrayed by Robert Swenson, becomes Poison Ivy's bodyguard and muscle. Michael Reid MacKay plays Bane before he is injected with Venom. Vivica A. Fox and Vendela Kirsebom play Mr. Freeze's assistant and Nora Fries, Freeze's cryogenically frozen wife, respectively. Elizabeth Sanders appears as Gossip Gerty, Gotham's top gossip columnist. Michael Paul Chan and Kimberly Scott both appear as telescope scientists. Jesse Ventura and Ralf Moeller appear as Arkham Asylum guards. Coolio makes a cameo appearance, later stating that he was to reprise his role as Scarecrow in the ultimately cancelled sequel "Batman Unchained".
Production. Development. With the box office success of "Batman Forever" in June 1995, Warner Bros. immediately commissioned a sequel. They hired director Joel Schumacher and writer Akiva Goldsman to reprise their duties the following August and decided it was best to fast-track production for a June 1997 target release date, which is a break from the usual three-year gap between films. Schumacher wanted to pay homage to the work of the classic "Batman" comic books of his childhood. The storyline of "Batman & Robin" was conceived by Schumacher and Goldsman during pre-production on "A Time to Kill". Portions of Mr. Freeze's backstory were based on the " episode ", written by Paul Dini. Goldsman, however, expressed concerns about the script during pre-production discussions with Schumacher. Schumacher stated that he was given the mandate by the studio to make the film more toyetic, even when compared to "Batman Forever". The studio reportedly included toy companies in pre-production meetings; Mr. Freeze's blaster was specifically designed by toy manufacturers. Batman creator Bob Kane acted as an official consultant and was heavily involved in the production; he gave input on the film's script as well as on set.
While Chris O'Donnell reprised the role of Robin, Val Kilmer decided not to reprise the role of Batman from "Batman Forever". Schumacher admitted that he had difficulty working with Kilmer on "Batman Forever". "He sort of quit," Schumacher said, "and we sort of fired him." Schumacher would later go on to say that Kilmer wanted to work on "The Island of Dr. Moreau" because Marlon Brando was cast in the film. Kilmer said that he was not aware of the fast-track production and was already committed to "The Saint" and "Heat". David Duchovny stated he was considered for the role of Batman, joking that the reason why he was not chosen was because his nose was too big. George Clooney's casting as Batman was suggested by Warner Bros. executive Bob Daly. Schumacher originally had interest in casting William Baldwin in Kilmer's place, but chose Clooney after seeing his performance in "From Dusk till Dawn". Schumacher felt that Clooney "brought a real humanity and humor to the piece, an accessibility that I don't think anybody else has been able to offer" and that he strongly resembled the character from the comic books. Schumacher also believed that Clooney could provide a lighter interpretation of the character than Kilmer and Michael Keaton. As a consequence of time constraints, the costume department repurposed the costume worn by Val Kilmer in "Batman Forever" for the third act of the film.
Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, and reportedly Patrick Stewart were considered for the role of Mr. Freeze, before the script was rewritten to accommodate Arnold Schwarzenegger's casting. Schumacher later denied that Stewart was ever considered. Schumacher decided that Mr. Freeze had to be "big and strong like he was chiseled out of a glacier". Mr. Freeze's armor was made by armorer Terry English, who estimated that the costume cost some $1.5 million to develop and make. To prepare for the role, Schwarzenegger wore a bald cap after declining to shave his head, wore a blue LED in his mouth, and had acrylic paint applied. The blue LEDs had to be wrapped in balloons after battery acid started leaking into Schwarzenegger's mouth. His prosthetic makeup and wardrobe took six hours to apply each day. The extensive time spent on Schwarzenegger's costume significantly restricted his shooting time as his contract was limited to 12 work hours a day. Schwarzenegger was paid a $25 million salary for the role. Beside Uma Thurman, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, and Julia Roberts were considered for the role of Poison Ivy. Schumacher first became aware of Thurman through an earlier role as Venus in "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". Thurman ultimately took the role of Poison Ivy because she liked the femme fatale characterization of the character. Alicia Silverstone was the only choice for the role of Batgirl. Prior to filming, she was reported to have lost at least 10 pounds for the role. Silverstone would later recount the body shaming she encountered during promotion of the film.
Filming and visual effects. Principal photography was set to commence in August 1996, but did not begin until September 12, 1996. "Batman & Robin" finished filming in late January 1997, two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule. The shooting schedule allowed Clooney to simultaneously work on the television series "ER" without any scheduling conflicts. O'Donnell said that despite spending much time with Schwarzenegger off of set and during promotion for the film, they did not work a single day together during production; this was achieved by using stand-ins when one of the actors was unavailable. Stunt coordinator Alex Field taught Silverstone to ride a motorcycle so that she could play Batgirl. Filming was temporarily halted in the fall of 1996 when Mr. Freeze's blaster prop disappeared from the film set; a police investigation was subsequently opened, culminating in the raid of a film memorabilia collector's home. High public interest in the film caused security issues on set; according to producer Peter MacGregor-Scott, paparazzi regularly disrupted the set, and photographs of Schwarzenegger taken during filming sold for $10,000.
When comparing work on "Batman Forever", O'Donnell explained that "things felt much sharper and more focused, and it just felt like everything got a little softer on the second one. The first one, I felt like I was making a movie. The second one, I felt like I was making a toy commercial." He also complained about the Robin costume, saying that it was more involved and less comfortable than the one that he wore in "Batman Forever", with a glued-on mask that caused sweat to pool on his face. According to John Glover, who played Dr. Jason Woodrue, "Joel [Schumacher] would sit on a crane with a megaphone and yell before each take, 'Remember, everyone, this is a cartoon'. It was hard to act because that kind of set the tone for the film." Several different stunt doubles were used for the roles of Batman, Robin, and Mr. Freeze, some specialized in ice skating, aerial gymnastics, and driving.
Music. Elliot Goldenthal returned to score "Batman & Robin" after collaborating with Schumacher on "Batman Forever". The soundtrack features a variety of genres by various bands and performers, showcasing alternative rock on the lead single "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by The Smashing Pumpkins, and with the songs "Lazy Eye" by Goo Goo Dolls and R.E.M.'s "Revolution". R&B singer R. Kelly wrote "Gotham City" for the soundtrack, which was featured in the end credits and was chosen as one of the singles, reaching the top 10 in the United States and the United Kingdom. Eric Benét and Meshell Ndegeocello also contributed R&B songs. Also included was the single, "Look into My Eyes" by the hip hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, which reached the top 5. Other songs featured included electronic dance elements, including those by Moloko and Arkarna. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 1997, two weeks and three days ahead of the film's premiere in the United States. The orchestral score for the film was never commercially released.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the soundtrack a "C" and called it "as incoherent as the Batman films themselves". Retrospectively, Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com described the soundtrack as a "colorful sampling of popular music at the time that feels messy, complicated, and comforting all at the same time". Filmtracks.com deemed the orchestral score an improvement over that of its predecessor "Batman Forever", noting that, while borrowing several themes from the previous film, Goldenthal successfully "expands upon the statements of his title theme and action material so that they are fleshed out into more accessibly enjoyable music". Nevertheless, the website compared Goldenthal's work negatively to Danny Elfman's scores for "Batman" and "Batman Returns". In an interview with "IGN", composer Hans Zimmer, who contributed the score to Christopher Nolan's trilogy of "Batman" films, called Goldenthal's theme "the most glorious statement of Batman I'd ever heard". "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by The Smashing Pumpkins won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards.
Release. "Batman & Robin" had its premiere on June 12, 1997, in Westwood, Los Angeles. The film marked the United Kingdom's then-"biggest and most expensive" movie premiere. The event was held at Battersea Power Station in London, with the building decorated to look like Gotham City and Wayne Manor. Expected to be among the tent poles of the summer movie season, the film opened in the United States on June 20, 1997, in 2,934 theaters, where it remained for an average of approximately 6.2 weeks. The film was released on DVD four months later on October 22, 1997. A special edition DVD was released in 2005 that included a documentary series about the production of the film series, "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight". Marketing. The theatrical trailer for "Batman & Robin" debuted on the February 19, 1997, episode of "Entertainment Tonight". Warner Bros. spent $125 million to market and promote the film, in addition to its $160 million production budget. Several Six Flags amusement parks introduced new roller coasters themed to the film. opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1997, and a Mr. Freeze-themed roller coaster opened at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis in 1998. Taco Bell launched a $20 million promotional campaign for the film, selling Batman-themed cups, collector toys, and figurines. Themed trading cards produced by Fleer and SkyBox International were also sold, some signed by Clooney, Schwarzenegger, Thurman, Silverstone, O'Donnell, and Schumacher. An eponymous tie-in video game developed by Probe Entertainment was released for the PlayStation on August 5, 1998, to mixed reviews.
Reception. Box office. "Batman & Robin" was released on June 20, 1997, in the United States and Canada, grossing $42,872,605 in its opening weekend. That made it the third-highest opening weekend gross of 1997, behind "Men in Black" and ', and the seventh-highest non-holiday opening weekend of all time as of its release. The film would hold the record for having the highest opening weekend for an Arnold Schwarzenegger film until 2003 when it was surpassed by '. Its opening weekend gross also remained George Clooney's highest until the release of "Gravity" in 2013. It reached the number one spot at the box office during its opening weekend, beating out "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "". This would become Schwarzenegger's most recent film to achieve this feat for five years until "Collateral Damage" opened in 2002. "Batman & Robin" declined by 63% in its second week, which was credited to poor word of mouth and early competition with "Face/Off", "Hercules", and "Men in Black". In the UK, it had the second-highest opening ever behind "Independence Day" with a gross of £4,940,566 ($8.2 million) for the weekend.
The film went on to gross $107.4 million in the United States and Canada and $130.9 million internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $238.3 million. It grossed substantially less than the previous film in the series, and finished outside of the top ten films of 1997. With a production budget of $125–160 million, the film was considered to have under-performed at the box-office, although it was estimated to have at least broken even. Schumacher criticized "prejudicial prerelease buzz" online and false news reports as a cause for the film's poor commercial performance. Warner Bros. acknowledged "Batman & Robin"s shortcomings in the domestic market but pointed out its success in other markets. In his book "Batman: the Complete History", Les Daniels analyzed the film's relatively strong performance outside of the United States, speculating that "nuances of languages or personality were likely to be lost in translation and admittedly eye-popping spectacle seemed sufficient." Critical response. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Jay Boyar of "Orlando Sentinel" believed "Batman & Robin" to be the least distinctive chapter in the series, calling it a "bat-smorgasbord of action, camp, pathos, spectacle and whatever" and blaming its blandness on the studio's increased involvement in its production. In his "thumbs down" review, Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" found the film to be "wonderful to look at" although it had "nothing authentic at its core", criticizing its toyetic approach. Writing for the "Chicago Tribune", Gene Siskel, who gave positive reviews to the previous "Batman" films, also gave "Batman & Robin" a "thumbs down" rating, calling it a "sniggering, exhausting, overproduced extravaganza". While commending the film's visuals, Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" called the film "indifferently acted" and "far too slick for even a toehold's worth of connection", believing that it "killed" the "Batman" film series. Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" disapproved of Schumacher's direction and Akiva Goldsman's script, calling it an "emptily flashy, meandering fashion show of a summer flick" and also believing that it should mark the end to the series. Andrew Johnston, writing in "Time Out", remarked, "It's hard to tell who "B&R" is intended for. Anyone who knows the character from the comics or the superb on Fox will be alienated. And though Schumacher treats the Adam West version as gospel, that show's campy humor is completely incompatible with these production values." James Berardinelli questioned the "random amount of rubber nipples and camera angle close-ups of the Dynamic Duo's butts and Bat-crotches".
In his review for the "San Francisco Chronicle", Mick LaSalle said that the film failed to "convincingly inhabit the grandeur of its art direction and special effects", criticizing George Clooney as "the big zero of the film", who "should go down in history as the George Lazenby of the series". While deeming Clooney "the most ideal Batman to date" in a physical sense, Todd McCarthy of "Variety" found the character uninteresting and Clooney "unable to compensate onscreen for the lack of dimension on paper". Conversely, he described Thurman and Schwarzenegger's performances as the villainous duo as the "highlights of the film", pointing out Thurman's "comic wit conspicuously lacking elsewhere in the picture". Writing for "Star Tribune", Jeff Strickler criticized its "almost embarrassingly mundane" dialogue and called Schwarzenegger "wasted" in the role of Mr. Freeze and his character "drably written". Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" gave a more positive review and praised Thurman's performance as "perfect", comparing it to Mae West's "[mix of] true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen", but criticizing Silverstone and Clooney's performances. Steven Rea of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" found Thurman at times "amusing" and similarly described her performance as "Mae West with moss".
Legacy. "Batman & Robin" is considered to be one of the worst superhero films and among the worst films ever made. In 2009, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that "Batman & Robin" may be the most important comic book film ever made in that it was "so bad that it demanded a new way of doing things" and created the opportunity to make "X-Men" (2000) and "Spider-Man" (2002) in a way that respected the source material to a higher degree. In an interview with "Vice" 20 years after its release, director Joel Schumacher apologized for the film while taking full responsibility for its poor reputation, stating, "I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that. A lot of it was my choice. No one is responsible for my mistakes but me." He added, "I was scum. It was like I had murdered a baby", recounting his initial reaction to the overwhelmingly negative public response. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also apologized, saying, "we didn't mean for it to be bad. I swear, nobody was like, 'This will be bad.'" and elaborating that the film was initially intended to be darker in tone.
Retrospectively, George Clooney has spoken critically of and apologized for his involvement in the film, saying in 2005, "I think we might have killed the franchise", and calling it "a waste of money". In 2015, while promoting Disney's "Tomorrowland" at New York Comic Con, Clooney said that he had met former Batman actor Adam West and apologized to him for the film. Furthermore, when asked during a 2015 interview on "The Graham Norton Show" about whether he had ever had to apologize for "Batman & Robin", Clooney responded, "I always apologize for "Batman & Robin"". In late 2020, he told Howard Stern that it was "physically" painful to watch his work in the role: "The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman — who's won the Oscar for writing since then — he wrote the screenplay. And it's a terrible screenplay, he'll tell you. I'm terrible in it, I'll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he'd say, 'Yeah, it didn't work.' We all whiffed on that one." In 2021, Clooney said he refuses let his wife to watch the film. In April 2023, Clooney was asked about what his biggest regret, he responded "I regret doing fucking Batman". Conversely, in an interview with "Empire" in 2012, Arnold Schwarzenegger stated that, despite its poor reception, he did not regret making the film, commenting about his role as Mr. Freeze and his involvement with the studio, "I felt that the character was interesting and two movies before that one Joel Schumacher was at his height. So the decision-making process was not off. At the same time I was doing "Eraser" over there and Warner Bros. begged me to do the movie." Similarly, 25 years after its theatrical release, Uma Thurman described her work on the film as a "fantastic experience".
The nipples seen on the character's costumes, first appearing in "Batman Forever" and accentuated for "Batman & Robin" at Schumacher's request, remain among the most defining aspects of the film. Recounting his involvement with the film, costume designer Jose Fernandez stated that he was opposed to "sharpening" the nipples, calling them "ridiculous". In 2022, Tim Burton commented about Warner Bros.' decision to replace him as director with Schumacher after "Batman Returns", "You complain about me, I'm too weird, I'm too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go fuck yourself." George Clooney's screen-worn suit was put up for auction by Heritage Auctions in 2022 with a starting bid of $40,000. A previous owner had estimated it to be worth $100,000 in 2006 when Clooney was at the height of his career. The suit would go on to sell for $57,500. In the 2009 film "Watchmen", director Zack Snyder and comic book artist Dave Gibbons chose to parody the molded muscle and nipple Batsuit design from "Batman & Robin" for the Ozymandias costume. The film is referenced in the ' episode "Legends of the Dark Mite!", when Bat-Mite briefly uses his powers to transform Batman's costume into the same suit shown in Schumacher's "Batman" films, before declaring it "too icky". Twenty-six years after the release of "Batman & Robin", Clooney made a cameo appearance as Bruce Wayne in the 2023 DC Extended Universe superhero film "The Flash". Clooney was asked to reprise the role when the film was already in post-production, agreeing to join after seeing a cut of the film; filming took place in secret six months before release and lasted half a day.
Canceled sequel. During the filming of "Batman & Robin", Warner Bros. was impressed with the dailies, prompting them to immediately hire Joel Schumacher to return as director for a fifth film. However, writer Akiva Goldsman turned down an offer to write the script. In late 1996, Warner Bros. and Schumacher hired Mark Protosevich to write the script for a fifth "Batman" film. A projected mid-1999 release date was announced. "Los Angeles Times" described their film as "continuing in the same vein with multiple villains and more silliness". Titled "Batman Unchained", Protosevich's script featured the Scarecrow as the main villain, who, through the use of his fear toxin, resurrects the Joker as a hallucination in Batman's mind. Harley Quinn would appear as a supporting character, written as the Joker's daughter. Schumacher approached Nicolas Cage to portray the Scarecrow while he was filming "Face/Off" and Courtney Love was considered for Harley Quinn. Schumacher said he begged the studio for him to do "The Dark Knight Returns" story for the "fifth film", but they wanted to keep the "family-friendly, toyethic thing".
Clooney, O'Donnell, Silverstone, and Coolio were set to reprise the roles of Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Scarecrow. It was hoped that the villains from previous films would make cameo appearances in the hallucinations caused by Scarecrow, culminating with Jack Nicholson reprising the role of the Joker. Following the poor critical and financial reception of "Batman & Robin", Clooney vowed never to reprise his role, and Warner Bros. cancelled any future "Batman" films, including Schumacher's planned "Batman Unchained". In a 2012 interview with "Access Hollywood", Chris O'Donnell claimed that a spin-off centered around the character of Robin was planned, but eventually scrapped due to "Batman & Robin"s poor commercial performance.
Batman Forever Batman Forever is a 1995 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. It is the third installment of the "Batman" film series, acting as a standalone sequel to "Batman Returns". Directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton and Peter MacGregor-Scott, it stars Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne / Batman, replacing Michael Keaton, alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O'Donnell. The film follows Batman as he attempts to prevent Two-Face (Jones) and the Riddler (Carrey) from uncovering his secret identity and extracting information from the minds of Gotham City's residents, while at the same time navigating his feelings for psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian (Kidman) and adopting orphaned acrobat Dick Grayson (O'Donnell)—who becomes his partner and best friend, Robin. Schumacher mostly eschewed the dark, dystopian atmosphere of Burton's films by drawing inspiration from the Batman comic books of the Dick Sprang era, as well as the 1960s television series. After Keaton chose not to reprise his role, William Baldwin and Ethan Hawke were considered as a replacement, before Val Kilmer joined the cast.
"Batman Forever" was released on June 16, 1995, to mixed reviews from critics, who praised the visuals, action sequences, and soundtrack, but criticized the screenplay and tonal departure from previous two films. The film was a box office success, grossing over $336 million worldwide and becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1995. It was followed by "Batman & Robin" in 1997, with Schumacher returning as the director, O'Donnell returning as Robin, and George Clooney replacing Kilmer as Batman. Plot. In Gotham City, Batman defuses a hostage situation orchestrated by the criminal Two-Face, formerly district attorney Harvey Dent, who escapes. Flashbacks reveal that Batman failed to prevent Dent's disfigurement with acid by mobster Sal Maroni, causing Dent to develop a split personality, make decisions based on the flip of a coin, and swear vengeance against Batman. Edward Nygma, an eccentric and egotistical researcher at Wayne Enterprises, approaches his employer, Bruce Wayne, to present an invention that can beam television signals directly into the brain, demanding immediate approval directly from Bruce. Bruce rejects the device, as he is irritated by Nygma and is concerned that the technology could manipulate minds. After killing his abusive supervisor and staging it as a suicide, Nygma resigns and plots revenge against Bruce, sending him riddles. Criminal psychologist Chase Meridian diagnoses Nygma as psychotic.
Bruce attends a circus with Chase. Two-Face hijacks the event and threatens to detonate a bomb unless Batman reveals his identity. Dick Grayson, the youngest member of the Flying Graysons family of acrobats, manages to throw the bomb into a river, but Two-Face kills his family in the process. Bruce invites the now-orphaned Dick to live at Wayne Manor as his ward, where he discovers that Bruce is Batman. Seeking to avenge the death of his family, Dick demands to join Batman in crime-fighting, hoping to kill Two-Face, but Bruce declines in order to help Dick move on instead, as he is considering retirement. Nygma becomes the Riddler and teams up with Two-Face. They commit a series of robberies to finance Nygma's new company and mass-produce his brainwave device dubbed the Box, which steals information from minds and transfers it to Nygma's, increasing his intelligence but also slowly causing him to lose his grip on reality. At a party hosted by Nygma, Batman pursues Two-Face and is almost killed until Dick saves him.
Batman visits Chase, who explains that she has fallen in love with Bruce, and Bruce reveals his secret identity to her. Having discovered Bruce's secret through the Box, on Halloween night, Two-Face and the Riddler destroy the Batcave, shoot Bruce, and abduct Chase. As Bruce recovers, he and his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, deduce that Nygma is the Riddler. Bruce finally accepts Dick as his best friend and partner, Robin. At the Riddler's lair, Robin defeats Two-Face but chooses to spare him, allowing Two-Face to capture Robin at gunpoint. The Riddler reveals his final riddle: Chase and Robin, representing the two sides of Batman's personality, are trapped in tubes above a deadly drop, and he only has the time to save one. Batman distracts the Riddler with a riddle himself, before destroying the Riddler's brainwave receiver with a Batarang, damaging the Riddler's mind and enabling Batman to rescue both when he sees the floor is an optical illusion. Two-Face corners them and flips his coin to decide their fate, but Batman throws a handful of identical coins in the air, causing Two-Face to fall to his death.
Committed to Arkham Asylum, Nygma exclaims that he is Batman, having become completely delusional due to his scrambled memories. Bruce resumes his crusade as Batman, with Robin as his partner. Cast. Additionally, United States Senator and Batman fan Patrick Leahy makes an uncredited appearance as himself. Production. Development. "Batman Returns" was released in 1992 with financial success and generally favorable reviews from critics, but Warner Bros. was disappointed with its box office run, having made $150 million less than the first film. After "Batman Returns" was deemed too dark and inappropriate for children, with McDonald's even recalling their Happy Meal tie-in, Warner Bros. decided that this was the primary cause of the film's financial results. After the film's release, Warner Bros. was not interested in Tim Burton's return as director. Burton noted he was unsure about returning to direct, writing: "I don't think Warner Bros. wanted me to direct a third "Batman". I even said that to them." Burton and Warner Bros. mutually agreed to part ways, though Burton would stay on as producer. John McTiernan turned down an offer to direct. In June 1993, Joel Schumacher was selected by Warner Bros. while he was filming "The Client", and with Burton's approval.
Lee and Janet Scott-Batchler, a husband-and-wife screenwriting team, were hired to write the script. Warner Bros. had lost a bidding war for their spec script titled "Smoke and Mirrors" to Disney's Hollywood Pictures. The project ultimately fell through, and Warner Bros. offered the Batchlers several of their film properties to write. Being familiar with the "Batman" comics from their childhood, the Batchlers chose to work on the next "Batman" film as their next project. In a meeting with Burton, they agreed that "the key element to Batman is his duality. And it's not just that Batman is Bruce Wayne." Their original script introduced a psychotic Riddler, real name Lyle Heckendorf, with a pet rat accompanying him. A scene cut from the final film included Heckendorf obtaining his costume from a fortune-telling leprechaun at the circus. Instead of NygmaTech, the company would have been named HeckTech. The story elements and much of the dialogue still remained in the finished film, though Schumacher felt it could be "lighte[ne]d down". Keaton initially approved the selection of Schumacher as director and planned on reprising his role as Batman from the first two films. Schumacher claims he originally had in mind an adaptation of Frank Miller's "" and Keaton claimed that he was enthusiastic about the idea. Warner Bros. rejected the idea as they wanted a sequel, not a prequel, though Schumacher was able to include very brief events in Bruce Wayne's childhood with some events of the comic "The Dark Knight Returns". Akiva Goldsman, who worked with Schumacher on "The Client", was brought in to rewrite the script, deleting the initial idea of bringing in the Scarecrow as a villain with Riddler, and the return of Catwoman. Burton, who now was more interested in directing "Ed Wood", later reflected he was taken aback by some of the focus group meetings for "Batman Forever", a title he hated. Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott represented the studio's aim in making a film for the MTV Generation, with full merchandising appeal.
Casting. Production went on fast track with Rene Russo cast as Chase Meridian, but Keaton decided not to reprise Batman because he did not like the direction the series was headed in, and rejected the script. Keaton also wanted to pursue "more interesting roles", turning down $15 million. A decision was made to go with a younger actor for Bruce Wayne, and an offer was made to Ethan Hawke, who turned it down, but eventually regretted the decision; he would eventually voice the character in the preschool animated series "Batwheels" in 2022. Schumacher had seen Val Kilmer in "Tombstone", but was also interested in William Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes (who would later voice Alfred Pennyworth in "The Lego Batman Movie" in 2017), and Daniel Day-Lewis. While Burton pushed for Johnny Depp to get the role, Kurt Russell was also considered. Kilmer, who as a child visited the studios where the 1960s series was recorded, and shortly before had visited a bat cave in Africa, was contacted by his agent for the role. Kilmer signed on without reading the script or knowing who the director was.
With Kilmer's casting, Warner Bros. dropped Russo, considering her too old to be paired with Kilmer. Jeanne Tripplehorn and Linda Hamilton were considered for the role, which was eventually recast with Nicole Kidman. Kidman later revealed she took the role because she "wanted to kiss Batman." Billy Dee Williams took the role of Harvey Dent in "Batman" on the possibility of portraying Two-Face in a sequel, but Schumacher cast Tommy Lee Jones in the role, although Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Martin Sheen and Robert De Niro were considered, after working with him on "The Client". Jones was reluctant to accept the role, but did so at his son's insistence. Robin Williams was in discussions to be the Riddler at one point, and was reportedly in competition for the role with John Malkovich. In June 1994, the role was given to Jim Carrey after Williams had reportedly turned it down. In a 2003 interview, Schumacher stated Michael Jackson had lobbied hard for the role, but was turned down before Carrey was cast. Brad Dourif (who was Burton's original choice to portray the Joker and Scarecrow after), Kelsey Grammer, Micky Dolenz, Matthew Broderick, Phil Hartman and Steve Martin were said to have been considered.
Robin had appeared in the shooting script for "Batman Returns" but was deleted due to having too many characters. Marlon Wayans had been cast in the role and signed on for a potential sequel, but when Schumacher took over, he decided to open up casting to other actors. Leonardo DiCaprio was considered, but decided not to pursue the role after a meeting with Schumacher. Among others, Matt Damon, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Worth, Toby Stephens, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Alan Cumming and Scott Speedman were considered. Chris O'Donnell was cast and Mitch Gaylord served as his stunt double, and also portrayed Mitch Grayson, Dick's older brother, created for the film. Schumacher attempted to create a cameo role for Bono as his MacPhisto character, but both came to agree it was not suitable for the film. Filming. Principal photography began on September 24, 1994, and wrapped on March 5, 1995. Schumacher hired Barbara Ling for production design, claiming that the film needed a "force" and good design. Ling could "advance on it". Schumacher wanted a design in no way connected to the previous films, and instead inspired by the images from the "Batman" comic books seen in the 1940s/early 1950s and New York City architecture in the 1930s, with a combination of modern Tokyo. He also wanted a "city with personality," with more statues, as well as various amounts of neon.
Difficulties and clashes. Schumacher and Kilmer clashed during the making of the film; Schumacher described Kilmer as "childish and impossible," reporting that he fought with various crewmen, and refused to speak to Schumacher for two weeks after the director told him to stop being rude. Schumacher also mentioned Tommy Lee Jones as a source of trouble: "Jim Carrey was a gentleman, and Tommy Lee was threatened by him. I'm tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors. I pray I don't work with them again." In a 2014 interview, Carrey acknowledged that Jones was not friendly to him, and recounted an incident wherein Jones told him: "I hate you. I really don't like you ... I cannot sanction your buffoonery." Design and visual effects. Rick Baker designed the prosthetic makeup. John Dykstra, Andrew Adamson and Jim Rygiel served as visual effects supervisors, with Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) and Pacific Data Images also contributing to visual effects work. R&H and PDI provided a CGI Batman for complicated stunts. For the costume design, producer Peter MacGregor-Scott claimed that 146 workers were at one point working together. Batman's costume was redesigned along the lines of a more "MTV organic, and edgier feel" to the suit. Sound design and mixing was created and supervised by Bruce Stambler and John Levesque, which included trips to caves to record bat sounds. A new Batmobile was designed for "Batman Forever", with two cars being constructed, one for stunt purposes and one for close-ups. Chris O'Donnell had the area around his eyes painted black and then the Robin mask glued on him. Swiss surrealist painter H. R. Giger provided his version for the Batmobile but it was considered too sinister for the film.
The film used some motion capture for certain visual effects. Warner Bros. had acquired motion capture technology from arcade video game company Acclaim Entertainment for use in the film's production. Music. Elliot Goldenthal was hired by Schumacher to compose the film score before the screenplay was written. In discussions with Schumacher, the director wanted Goldenthal to avoid taking inspiration from Danny Elfman, and requested an original composition. The film's promotional teaser trailer however used the main title theme from Elfman's score of 1989's "Batman". The soundtrack was commercially successful, selling almost as many copies as Prince's soundtrack to the 1989 "Batman" film. Only five of the songs on the soundtrack are actually featured in the movie. Hit singles from the soundtrack include "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 and "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, both of which were nominated for MTV Movie Awards. "Kiss from a Rose" (whose music video was also directed by Joel Schumacher) reached No. 1 in the U.S. charts as well. The soundtrack itself, featuring additional songs by The Flaming Lips, Brandy (both songs also included in the film), Method Man, Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence (of INXS), PJ Harvey and Massive Attack, was an attempt to (in producer Peter MacGregor-Scott's words) make the film more "pop".
Release. Marketing. In addition to a large line of toys, video games and action figures from Kenner, the McDonald's food chain released several collectibles and mugs to coincide with the release of the film. Peter David and Alan Grant wrote separate novelizations of the film. Dennis O'Neil authored a comic book adaptation, with art by Michal Dutkiewicz. Six Flags Great Adventure theme park re-themed their "Axis Chemical" arena, home of the Batman stunt show, to resemble "Batman Forever", and the new show featured props from the film. Six Flags Over Texas featured a one-time fireworks show to promote the movie, and replica busts of Batman, Robin, Two-Face, and the Riddler could be found in the Justice League store in the Looney Tunes U.S.A. section until they were removed in 2023. opened at Six Flags St. Louis to promote the movie. At Six Flags Over Georgia, The Mind Bender roller coaster was redesigned to look as though it were the creation of The Riddler and some images and props were used in the design of the roller coaster and its queue.
Video games. Video games based on the film were released. A video game of the same name, was released in 1995 for Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Game Gear, R-Zone and MS-DOS, it was followed by "Batman & Robin" for the PlayStation, to promote the release of the film. Two arcade versions, "", was released in 1996 and was ported to the three consoles, and a pinball machine based on the film was released in 1995 by Sega Pinball. Home media. "Batman Forever" was released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 31, 1995. Over 3 million VHS copies were sold during the first week of release. The film was then released on DVD on May 20, 1997. This release was a double sided disc containing both widescreen (1.85:1) and full screen (1.33:1) versions of the film. "Batman Forever" made its Blu-ray debut on April 20, 2010. This was followed by an Ultra HD Blu-ray release on June 4, 2019. Deleted scenes. "Batman Forever" went through a few major edits before its release. Originally darker than the final product, the film's original length was closer to two hours and forty minutes, according to Schumacher. There was talk of an extended cut being released to DVD for the film's tenth anniversary in 2005. While all four previous "Batman" films were given special-edition DVD releases on the same day as the "Batman Begins" DVD release, none of them were given extended cuts, although some scenes were in a deleted scenes section in the special features.
Reception. Box office. "Batman Forever" opened in a record 2,842 theaters and 4,300 screens in the United States and Canada on June 16, 1995, grossing $52.8 million in its opening weekend, taking "Jurassic Park"s record for having the highest opening-weekend gross of all time (it was surpassed two years later by 's $72.1 million). For six years, it had the largest opening weekend for a Warner Bros. film until 2001, when it was surpassed by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". The film also achieved the highest June opening weekend, holding that record until it was beaten by ' in 1999, which would then be overtaken by "Hulk" in 2003. It was the first film to gross $20 million in one day, on its opening day on Friday. The film also beat out "Congo" to reach the number one spot. It grossed $77.4 million in its first week, which was below the record $81.7 million set by "Jurassic Park". Additionally, the film held the record for having the highest opening weekend for a superhero film until it was taken by "X-Men" in 2000. That year, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" broke "Batman Forever"s record for scoring the biggest opening weekend for any film starring Jim Carrey. While the film was overtaken by "Pocahontas" during its second weekend, it still made $29.2 million. It then became the first film of 1995 to reach $100 million domestically. The film started its international roll out in Japan on June 17, 1995, and grossed $2.2 million in 5 days from 167 screens, which was only 80% of the gross of its predecessor "Batman Returns".
The film went on to gross $184 million in the United States and Canada, and $152.5 million in other countries, totaling $336.53 million. The film grossed more than "Batman Returns", and is the second-highest-grossing film from 1995 in the United States, behind "Toy Story", as well as the sixth-highest-grossing film of that year worldwide. Critical response. On Rotten Tomatoes, "Batman Forever" has an approval rating of 41% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Loud, excessively busy, and often boring, "Batman Forever" nonetheless has the charisma of Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones to offer mild relief." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote: ""Batman Forever" still gets in its licks. There's no fun machine this summer that packs more surprises." Travers criticized the film's excessive commercialism and felt that "the script misses the pain Tim Burton caught in a man tormented by the long-ago murder of his parents", but praised Kilmer's performance as having a "deftly understated [...] comic edge". James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" enjoyed the film, writing: "It's lighter, brighter, funnier, faster-paced, and a whole lot more colorful than before."
On the television program "Siskel & Ebert", Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" and Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" both gave the film mixed reviews, but with the former giving it a thumbs up and the latter a thumbs down. In his written review, Ebert wrote: "Is the movie better entertainment? Well, it's great bubblegum for the eyes. Younger children will be able to process it more easily; some kids were led bawling from "Batman Returns" where the PG-13 rating was a joke." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" had a mixed reaction, concluding: "a shot of Kilmer's rubber buns at one point is guaranteed to bring squeals from the audience." Brian Lowry of "Variety" believed: "One does have to question the logic behind adding nipples to the hard-rubber batsuit. Whose idea was that supposed to be anyway, Alfred's? Some of the computer-generated Gotham cityscapes appear too obviously fake. Elliot Goldenthal's score, while serviceable, also isn't as stirring as Danny Elfman's work in the first two films."
Some observers thought Schumacher, a gay man, added possible homoerotic innuendo in the storyline. Regarding the costume design, Schumacher stated: "I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from Ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically correct." O'Donnell felt: "it wasn't so much the nipples that bothered me. It was the codpiece. The press obviously played it up and made it a big deal, especially with Joel directing. I didn't think twice about the controversy, but going back and looking and seeing some of the pictures, it was very unusual." Accolades. At the 68th Academy Awards, "Batman Forever" was nominated for Cinematography (lost to "Braveheart"), Sound (Donald O. Mitchell, Frank A. Montaño, Michael Herbick and Petur Hliddal; lost to "Apollo 13") and Sound Effects Editing (John Leveque and Bruce Stambler; also lost to "Braveheart"). "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (lost to "Colors of the Wind" from "Pocahontas"), but was also nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song (lost to "Walk into the Wind" from "Showgirls").
At the 22nd Saturn Awards, the film was nominated for Best Fantasy Film (lost to "Babe"), Make-up (lost to "Seven"), Special Effects (lost to "Jumanji") and Costume Design (lost to "12 Monkeys"). Composer Elliot Goldenthal was given a Grammy Award nomination. "Batman Forever" received six nominations at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards, four of which were divided between two categories (Carrey and Lee Jones for Best Villain; and Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and U2's "Hold Me" in Best Song from a Movie). However, it won in just one category: Best Song from a Movie for Seal's "Kiss from a Rose". Legacy. Potential director's cut. Cuts were made to the film based on audience reactions during test screenings, like the rest of the "Batman" films. Photographs from these scenes have always been available since the film's release, shown in magazines such as "Starlog". Some excerpts from these scenes appear in the music video for "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me". In 2005, "Batman Forever" was the only film in the franchise to include a dedicated deleted scenes selection among its bonus content on the special edition DVD.
After Joel Schumacher died on June 22, 2020, media outlets started reporting the possible existence of an extended cut, with the first rumors being thrown in by American journalist Marc Bernardin. Bernardin claimed it to be darker and contain less camp than the theatrical cut. Some of the differences include Bruce having a vision of a human-sized bat, less of an emphasis on Dick Grayson, and a focus on Bruce's psychological issues with Chase. The cut uses about 50 minutes of additional footage. Warner Bros. confirmed that alternative test screening cuts existed after an interview with "Variety", although they have no plans to release it and are unsure about what, if any, footage remains. Later that year on August 7, Kilmer's appearance at DC FanDome fueled fan speculation about the release of a so-called "Schumacher Cut". "Batman Forever" screenwriter Akiva Goldsman revealed in a YouTube interview in April 2021 that he had recently seen the original cut of the film (dubbed "Preview Cut: One") and that he expects a rebirth coming up, suggesting all the footage needed to make the Schumacher cut still exists and that the release of a director's cut might be possible.
In July 2023, following a private screening of a workprint version by director Kevin Smith, Goldsman confirmed that the original cut does exist and even though Warner Bros. currently has no plans to release it, he said he was hopeful for a possible distribution in the future. Some of the aforementioned deleted scenes make up a portion of this footage. In July 2024, Goldsman reaffirmed the existence of the director's cut, while also declaring that work to restore it has been put on stall following Warner Bros. recent internal turmoils. "Batman '89". An alternate six-issue comic book continuation of "Batman Returns" titled "Batman '89", which ignores the events of "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin" and brings back Keaton's Batman along with Burton's dark setting seen in his first two Batman films, along with elements of his failed third "Batman" film (particularly, the return of Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent and transformation into Two-Face, the introductions of new versions of Robin and Barbara Gordon, and the return of Catwoman), was launched on August 10, 2021, with its issues releasing monthly before ending in January 2022. In response to a question as to whether Schumacher's Batman films are canon to the world of "Batman '89", the first two films' screenwriter Sam Hamm, who also serves as the comics' writer, confirmed that the latter two films take place in a diverging timeline and they are not building toward that fate.
Bidirectional text A bidirectional text contains two text directionalities, right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text direction in each row. An example is the RTL Hebrew name Sarah: , spelled sin (ש) on the right, resh (ר) in the middle, and heh (ה) on the left. Many computer programs failed to display this correctly, because they were designed to display text in one direction only. Some so-called right-to-left scripts such as the Persian script and Arabic are mostly, but not exclusively, right-to-left—mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right. That also happens if text from a left-to-right language such as English is embedded in them; or vice versa, if Arabic is embedded in a left-to-right script such as English. Bidirectional script support. Bidirectional script support is the capability of a computer system to correctly display bidirectional text. The term is often shortened to "BiDi" or "bidi".
Early computer installations were designed only to support a single writing system, typically for left-to-right scripts based on the Latin alphabet only. Adding new character sets and character encodings enabled a number of other left-to-right scripts to be supported, but did not easily support right-to-left scripts such as Arabic or Hebrew, and mixing the two was not practical. Right-to-left scripts were introduced through encodings like ISO/IEC 8859-6 and ISO/IEC 8859-8, storing the letters (usually) in writing and reading order. It is possible to simply flip the left-to-right display order to a right-to-left display order, but doing this sacrifices the ability to correctly display left-to-right scripts. With bidirectional script support, it is possible to mix characters from different scripts on the same page, regardless of writing direction. In particular, the Unicode standard provides foundations for complete BiDi support, with detailed rules as to how mixtures of left-to-right and right-to-left scripts are to be encoded and displayed.
Unicode bidi support. The Unicode standard calls for characters to be ordered 'logically', i.e. in the sequence they are intended to be interpreted, as opposed to 'visually', the sequence they appear. This distinction is relevant for bidi support because at any bidi transition, the visual presentation ceases to be the 'logical' one. Thus, in order to offer bidi support, Unicode prescribes an algorithm for how to convert the logical sequence of characters into the correct visual presentation. For this purpose, the Unicode encoding standard divides all its characters into one of four types: 'strong', 'weak', 'neutral', and 'explicit formatting'. Strong characters. Strong characters are those with a definite direction. Examples of this type of character include most alphabetic characters, syllabic characters, Han ideographs, non-European or non-Arabic digits, and punctuation characters that are specific to only those scripts. Weak characters. Weak characters are those with vague direction. Examples of this type of character include European digits, Eastern Arabic-Indic digits, arithmetic symbols, and currency symbols.
Neutral characters. Neutral characters have direction indeterminable without context. Examples include paragraph separators, tabs, and most other whitespace characters. Punctuation symbols that are common to many scripts, such as the colon, comma, full-stop, and the no-break-space also fall within this category. Explicit formatting. Explicit formatting characters, also referred to as "directional formatting characters", are special Unicode sequences that direct the algorithm to modify its default behavior. These characters are subdivided into "marks", "embeddings", "isolates", and "overrides". Their effects continue until the occurrence of either a paragraph separator, or a "pop" character. Marks. If a "weak" character is followed by another "weak" character, the algorithm will look at the first neighbouring "strong" character. Sometimes this leads to unintentional display errors. These errors are corrected or prevented with "pseudo-strong" characters. Such Unicode control characters are called "marks". The mark ( or ) is to be inserted into a location to make an enclosed weak character inherit its writing direction.
For example, to correctly display the for an English name brand (LTR) in an Arabic (RTL) passage, an LRM mark is inserted after the trademark symbol if the symbol is not followed by LTR text (e.g. "). If the LRM mark is not added, the weak character ™ will be neighbored by a strong LTR character and a strong RTL character. Hence, in an RTL context, it will be considered to be RTL, and displayed in an incorrect order (e.g. "). Embeddings. The "embedding" directional formatting characters are the classical Unicode method of explicit formatting, and as of Unicode 6.3, are being discouraged in favor of "isolates". An "embedding" signals that a piece of text is to be treated as directionally distinct. The text within the scope of the embedding formatting characters is not independent of the surrounding text. Also, characters within an embedding can affect the ordering of characters outside. Unicode 6.3 recognized that directional embeddings usually have too strong an effect on their surroundings and are thus unnecessarily difficult to use.
Isolates. The "isolate" directional formatting characters signal that a piece of text is to be treated as directionally isolated from its surroundings. As of Unicode 6.3, these are the formatting characters that are being encouraged in new documents – once target platforms are known to support them. These formatting characters were introduced after it became apparent that directional embeddings usually have too strong an effect on their surroundings and are thus unnecessarily difficult to use. Unlike the legacy 'embedding' directional formatting characters, 'isolate' characters have no effect on the ordering of the text outside their scope. Isolates can be nested, and may be placed within embeddings and overrides. Overrides. The "override" directional formatting characters allow for special cases, such as for part numbers (e.g. to force a part number made of mixed English, digits and Hebrew letters to be written from right to left), and are recommended to be avoided wherever possible. As is true of the other directional formatting characters, "overrides" can be nested one inside another, and in embeddings and isolates.
Using Unicode to override. Using will switch the text direction from left-to-right to right-to-left. Similarly, using will switch the text direction from right-to-left to left-to-right. Refer to the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. Pops. The "pop" directional formatting character, encoded at , terminates the scope of the most recent "embedding", "override", or "isolate". Runs. In the algorithm, each sequence of concatenated strong characters is called a "run". A "weak" character that is located between two "strong" characters with the same orientation will inherit their orientation. A "weak" character that is located between two "strong" characters with a different writing direction will inherit the main context's writing direction (in an LTR document the character will become LTR, in an RTL document, it will become RTL). Security. Unicode bidirectional characters are used in the Trojan Source vulnerability. Visual Studio Code highlights BiDi control characters since version 1.62 released in October 2021. Visual Studio highlights BiDi control characters since version 17.0.3 released on December 14, 2021.
Scripts using bidirectional text. Egyptian hieroglyphs. Egyptian hieroglyphs were written bidirectionally, where the signs that had a distinct "head" or "tail" faced the beginning of the line. Chinese characters and other CJK scripts. Chinese characters can be written in either direction as well as vertically (top to bottom then right to left), especially in signs (such as plaques), but the orientation of the individual characters does not change. This can often be seen on tour buses in China, where the company name customarily runs from the front of the vehicle to its rear — that is, from right to left on the right side of the bus, and from left to right on the left side of the bus. English texts on the right side of the vehicle are also quite commonly written in reverse order. (See pictures of tour bus and post vehicle below.) Likewise, other CJK scripts made up of the same square characters, such as the Japanese writing system and Korean writing system, can also be written in any direction, although horizontally left-to-right, top-to-bottom and vertically top-to-bottom right-to-left are the two most common forms.
Boustrophedon. Boustrophedon is a writing style found in ancient Greek inscriptions, in Old Sabaic (an Old South Arabian language) and in Hungarian runes. This method of writing alternates direction, and usually reverses the individual characters, on each successive line. Moon type. Moon type is an embossed adaptation of the Latin alphabet invented as a tactile alphabet for the blind. Initially the text changed direction (but not character orientation) at the end of the lines. Special embossed lines connected the end of a line and the beginning of the next. Around 1990, it changed to a left-to-right orientation.
Bernoulli's inequality In mathematics, Bernoulli's inequality (named after Jacob Bernoulli) is an inequality that approximates exponentiations of formula_1. It is often employed in real analysis. It has several useful variants: History. Jacob Bernoulli first published the inequality in his treatise "Positiones Arithmeticae de Seriebus Infinitis" (Basel, 1689), where he used the inequality often. According to Joseph E. Hofmann, Über die Exercitatio Geometrica des M. A. Ricci (1963), p. 177, the inequality is actually due to Sluse in his Mesolabum (1668 edition), Chapter IV "De maximis & minimis". Proof for integer exponent. The first case has a simple inductive proof: Suppose the statement is true for formula_21: Then it follows that Bernoulli's inequality can be proved for case 2, in which formula_24 is a non-negative integer and formula_25, using mathematical induction in the following form: For formula_28, is equivalent to formula_30 which is true. Similarly, for formula_31 we have Now suppose the statement is true for formula_21:
Then it follows that since formula_36 as well as formula_37. By the modified induction we conclude the statement is true for every non-negative integer formula_24. By noting that if formula_39, then formula_40 is negative gives case 3. Generalizations. Generalization of exponent. The exponent formula_24 can be generalized to an arbitrary real number as follows: if formula_42, then for formula_44 or formula_45, and for formula_19. The case formula_48 can be derived from the other case by noting that (using the main case result) formula_49 and by using the fact that formula_50 is monotonic. We can conclude that formula_51 for formula_52, therefore formula_53 for formula_54. The leftover case formula_55 is verified separately. The generalization for formula_52 can be proved by comparing derivatives. The strict versions of these inequalities require formula_5 and formula_58. Generalization of base. Instead of formula_59 the inequality holds also in the form formula_60 where formula_61 are real numbers, all greater than formula_62, all with the same sign. Bernoulli's inequality is a special case when formula_63. This generalized inequality can be proved by mathematical induction.
In the first step we take formula_64. In this case the inequality formula_65 is obviously true. In the second step we assume validity of the inequality for formula_24 numbers and deduce validity for formula_67 numbers. We assume thatformula_68is valid. After multiplying both sides with a positive number formula_69 we get: formula_70 As formula_71 all have the same sign, the products formula_72 are all positive numbers. So the quantity on the right-hand side can be bounded as follows:formula_73what was to be shown. Strengthened version. The following theorem presents a strengthened version of the Bernoulli inequality, incorporating additional terms to refine the estimate under specific conditions. Let the expoent formula_24 be a nonnegative integer and let formula_12 be a real number with formula_76 if formula_24 is odd and greater than 1. Then formula_78 with equality if and only if formula_79 or formula_80. Related inequalities. The following inequality estimates the formula_24-th power of formula_1 from the other side. For any real numbers formula_12 and formula_24 with formula_85, one has
where formula_87 2.718... This may be proved using the inequality Alternative form. An alternative form of Bernoulli's inequality for formula_89 and formula_90 is: This can be proved (for any integer formula_92) by using the formula for geometric series: (using formula_93) or equivalently formula_95 Alternative proofs. Arithmetic and geometric means. An elementary proof for formula_96 and formula_97 can be given using weighted AM-GM. Let formula_98 be two non-negative real constants. By weighted AM-GM on formula_99 with weights formula_98 respectively, we get Note that and so our inequality is equivalent to After substituting formula_105 (bearing in mind that this implies formula_96) our inequality turns into which is Bernoulli's inequality. Geometric series. Bernoulli's inequality is equivalent to and by the formula for geometric series (using "y" = 1 + "x") we get which leads to Now if formula_108 then by monotony of the powers each summand formula_109, and therefore their sum is greater formula_110 and hence the product on the LHS of ().
If formula_111 then by the same arguments formula_112 and thus all addends formula_113 are non-positive and hence so is their sum. Since the product of two non-positive numbers is non-negative, we get again Binomial theorem. One can prove Bernoulli's inequality for "x" ≥ 0 using the binomial theorem. It is true trivially for "r" = 0, so suppose "r" is a positive integer. Then formula_114 Clearly formula_115 and hence formula_116 as required. Using convexity. For formula_117 the function formula_118 is strictly convex. Therefore, for formula_119 holds formula_120 and the reversed inequality is valid for formula_121 and formula_122. Another way of using convexity is to re-cast the desired inequality to formula_123 for real formula_3 and real formula_125. This inequality can be proved using the fact that the formula_126 function is concave, and then using Jensen's inequality in the form formula_127 to give: formula_128 which is the desired inequality.
Benjamin Franklin-class submarine The "Benjamin Franklin" class of US ballistic missile submarines were in service from the 1960s–2000s. The class was an evolutionary development from the earlier of fleet ballistic missile submarine. Having quieter machinery and other improvements, it is considered a separate class. A subset of this class is the re-engineered 640 class starting with . The primary difference was that they were built under the new SUBSAFE rules after the loss of , earlier boats of the class had to be retrofitted to meet SUBSAFE requirements. The "Benjamin Franklin" class, together with the , , , and "James Madison" classes, comprised the "41 for Freedom" that was the Navy's primary contribution to the nuclear deterrent force through the late 1980s. This class and the "James Madison" class are combined with the "Lafayette"s in some references. Design. The "Benjamin Franklin"-class submarines were built with the Polaris A-3 ballistic missile, and in the early 1970s were converted to carry the Poseidon C-3 missile. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, six boats were further modified to carry the Trident I (C-4) missile, along with six "James Madison"-class boats. These were "Benjamin Franklin", "Simon Bolivar", "George Bancroft", "Henry L. Stimson", "Francis Scott Key", and "Mariano G. Vallejo".
Due to the loss of in April 1963, this class was designed to SUBSAFE standards and its equipment was similar to the fast attack submarines (SSNs). Previous US SSBNs except the "George Washington" class had equipment similar to the SSNs. This class can be distinguished by the fairwater planes' location halfway up the sail; the "Lafayette"s and "James Madison"s had the fairwater planes in the upper front portion of the sail. Two submarines of this class were converted for delivery of up to 66 SEALs or other Special Operations Forces each. In the early 1990s, to make room for the ballistic missile submarines within the limits set by the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty, the ballistic missile tubes of and were disabled. Those boats were redesignated special operations attack submarines and given attack submarine (SSN) hull classification symbols. They were equipped with dry deck shelters to accommodate SEAL Delivery Vehicles or other equipment. Fate. The "Benjamin Franklin"s were decommissioned between 1992 and 2002 due to a combination of SALT II treaty limitations as the SSBNs entered service, age, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. USS "Kamehameha" was decommissioned on 2 April 2002, the last ship of the "Benjamin Franklin" class to be decommissioned.