Batman Begins

The Batman film franchise is rebooted as DC get very upset at Marvel making lots of money.

Bridges are incredibly important in Batman begins, so important that this review will be split into 2 halves, starting with the Batmobile as there are plenty of photos of that on the internet and none at all of the actual bridges that appear in the film.

Potentially spoilers from here on

The Tumbler

So, you are asking yourselves, what does this black...tank have to do with bridges? Well, before being painted black the 'Tumbler', or Batmobile as it became, was of course a 'Bridge Builder'. This jet-powered experimental vehicle is capable of making rampless jumps (of up to 6 feet vertically and 40 feet horizontally), carrying with cables to form the basis of a temporary bridge. For reasons that are beyond me, Wayne Enterprise's Applied Sciences division scrapped the project left the vehicle sat in a warehouse.

1. Find somewhere to build a bridge. 2. Jump river/canyon/big hole with Batmobile carrying cables. 3. Land on other side. 4. Complete bridge from basic cable foundation.

Bruce Wayne gets his hands on it and then starts driving it round Gotham. Whilst never using the Batmobile for building bridges, he does use the rampless jumping facility as shown below when entering the batcave, and also when jumping the Gotham river when the bridges were raised (see later).

Obviously since this is a combat vehicle, there are a vast amount of weapons on the Batmobile, which both Batman and Gordon put to good use when saving the city (even if Gordon does destroy a bridge in the process, but then I guess some sacrifices must be made because, as we all know, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one).

The Bridges of Gotham City

Right, firstly as I mentioned right at the top, there are no pictures of the bridges in Batman Begins on the internet. To make do until the DVD is released and I can screencap a couple, here is a picture of Batman and a bridge from ' The Batman' animated series (not to be confused with 'The New Adventures of Batman' animated series, 'Batman Beyond' animated series, or 'Batman: The Animated Series' animated series):

Only having seen Batman Begins once at the moment, I cannot remember quite what the layout of Gotham is. From what I can figure out (and assuming it follows something similar to the comic continuity), Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is loacted on an island just off Gotham City, with numerous bridges connecting the two.

A second viewing confirms that Arkham is indeed on the island and the main city on the mainland. I got a little confused first time round, but the order of events is as follows:

1. All criminals in Arkham released.

2. Microwave thingy moved onto island as this is where the trainline starts.

3. Bridges raised to trap criminals on island.

4. Batman (in Batmobile) jumps from Gotham to island & gets on train.

5. Microwave thingy put on train and train travels across back to mainland towards Wyane Tower.

6. Gordon drives Batmobile back to mainland.

7. Gordon sacrifices rail-bridge to save the day.

Since the bridges are only ever seen at night (for drama), and with a lack of reference material available, it is quite hard to describe the appearance of the bridges. What is known is that they have the ability to be raised, which serves a dual role. Firstly, this will allow tall ships to pass down the river, and secondly (and as seen in the film), when all the crazy people escape from the asylum it is possible to limit their movements to the island.

This second use comes with a number of assumptions: that crazy people cannot swim, do not have the intelligence to think of stealing a boat or catch the train, and that the other people living on the island are expendable. But other than those things, it is a flawless plan.

- Damian

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