History Headscratchers / BatmanForever

Funny moments in ''Film/BatmanForever''.

* When Riddler crashes Two-Face's hideout, he does some HamToHamCombat with Harvey, then proceeds to show off his Box tech on the girls. The thing is, the Boxes are 'already there', in the lair. Edward doesn't bring them in, and there's no scene cut to allow for him to go back and get them. And they're definitely not there beforehand, the wide shot shows the table that the Boxes appear on to be empty when Nygma arrives. It may be the best riddle in the movie.

* When Riddler crashes Two-Face's hideout, he does some HamToHamCombat with Harvey, then proceeds to show off his Box tech on the girls. The thing is, the Boxes are 'already there', in the lair. Edward doesn't bring them in, and there's no scene cut to allow for him to go back and get them. It may be the best riddle in the movie.

* Why cast a grown man to play a teenager? If you're going to choose an older actor to play Robin, why not cast a 16-18 year old for the part? I don't see Bruce talking to a 16-17 year old. I see 2 grown men.
** It was probably a casting choice made out of obligation. Maybe Creator/ChrisODonnell had a contract with Creator/WarnerBros or a producer thought a teenager would be too young to get into the type of peril we see Robin in given the parental backlash the last movie received. But really, they should have done some rewrites, because a lot the dialogue makes Dick out to be even younger, like 10-13.
** It actually makes sense. Making movies takes time and if you cast an actual teenager they're going to noticeably age, especially if you do a sequel. Casting an adult and passing it off as a late teen means the time skips are less noticeable because the actor doesn't noticeably age. They just forgot to clean up the dialogue a bit to reflect an older Robin.
** Dick was mentioned to be a college student, which would put him approximately between 18 and 22. Chris O’Donnell was in his mid 20s, so that makes only a few years age difference.

*** The question was not that but why Bruce Wayne took in just that one orphan and not any other orphan. Is he regularly a source for the police to drop off wards of the state?
*** He did it because both he and Dick have now seen their parents murdered by a maniac in front of their eyes. Bruce probably gives a lot of money and support to orphans and charities, but he took in Dick because what happened there hit close to home.

*** I thought that was answered in the movie? He's supposed to be [[DawsonCasting Under 21]] and the law of whatever state Gotham is in is that kids under 21 are supposed to have a guardian, no exceptions.
* Why did the security guards not mind being punched by the riddler?

** Parents don't have to be hovering over their kids' shoulders the whole time they're trick-or-treating. I don't know about your neighborhood, but in mine the parents often stood well back from their kids.
** In this tropers experience the presence of parents significantly hampers the feasibility of carrying out any nessecary tricks.
*** Besides, everyone knows rich people will have the most candy!
*** Not to mention this is Wayne Manor - justified or not, people would probably be more comfortable being there as the Wayne family were well known, well liked, and lacking in any sort of scandal. Given that this Bruce was also more aware of the need to be Bruce as well as Batman, he's probably also started to make efforts to avoid seeming like a complete idiot with no day job.
** The problem is, Wayne Manor seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Even if the Manor grounds are entirely safe (as it happens, they aren't), it still looks like its a mile or two away from the rest of civilization.
*** Not necessarily. It's not in a cramped cul du sac, sure, but it's not unheard of for well-to-do subdivisions (especially in rural areas) to have much larger property areas, meaning houses are much more scarce and spread out. Wayne Manor is certainly isolated, but there could still be other homes on the road en route to it.

* Edward's apartment and cubicle is adorned with bobbleheads and fortune teller machines of a guy that's dressed in a green suit with question marks all over it; He even takes the jacket and hat from the fortune teller machine when he meets up with Two-Face for the first time. Who is this guy?

* How did Nygma make any money on the Box? Since he designed it while he was working at Wayne Enterprises, wouldn't WE have held the patent on the thing?.

*** Stickley, Edward's boss, told him to terminate the project, so it was pretty clear that until it could be a proven money-maker, absolutely no one but Edward cared enough to patent it.
** The Novelization has some lawyers bring this up to Bruce, but he says taking Nygma to court would look too much like sour grapes. And, though this is implied and not stated outright, he wants to give Nygma enough rope to hang himself.

** Some people just like riddles? Maybe he had OCD or asperger's syndrome?
*** Either of those disorders would have been okay explanations, but the movie never brings either up or tries to tie the riddles into his pathos at all.
** Another question answered by the Novelization. He had an interest in riddles as a kid, and the school bully didn't like it when Edward stumped him with one. He beat him up so badly he accidentally cracked his skull and sent him into a coma. Earlier that day he'd read a newspaper report on the Waynes' murder, complete with a photograph of a crying Bruce, and thought Bruce might be similar to him. The last things he saw before going unconscious were his book of riddles, and the photograph, and when he finally awoke, he was never quite right again, and his ''interest'' in both of those things had turned into an ''obsession''.

* Batman states in the scene where Chase tries to seduce him that he knows Two-Face's obsession with his coin could be exploited as a weakness. So why does Batman not only wait half a dozen encounters with Two-Face later to use the trick, but wait until it was a lethal situation and decide not to follow up the distraction with one of the mook-rangling gadgets we've seen him use earlier in the movie that could safely rope Two-Face to one of the nearby steel beams?

*** But Two-Face wasn't going to even then. Batman had to remind him to use the coin, which he could have done at any time. Evidently all it takes is to say something, and Two-Face will stop what he's doing, thank you, and give it a flip.
*** Maybe, but he wouldn't have been standing in such a precarious position. As for not catching him afterwards, movie Batman is clearly much more ok with killing villains, or at least letting them die, than the comic book one. Also, he may have done it for Dick's sake. Speeches or not, the kid was obsessed with killing Two-Face. Yes, he seemingly got over it, but then Harvy immediately betrayed his trust, which could push him back into the obsession. Bruce decided to spare him the anguish and eliminate the dilemma.

** Something else that was used in early drafts and the Novelization: when he makes it to Riddler's throne room, he charges forward, but notices Two-Face just quietly chuckling, and stops, realizing something's wrong. He uses the sonar to discover that between him and the villains is the pit the leads to the ocean, and it's been disguised with a hologram. Without the sonar (and Harvey's inability to keep a poker face), he probably would have fallen in.
*** Which leads to another headscratcher. Harvey Dent, district attorney, can't keep a poker face for two minutes?
*** Harvey Dent, district attorney, probably could have. But this is Harvey Dent, Two-Face we're talking about. You know, the cackling, murderous madman?

** It's a movie shortcut. Running through the other options he would have got N.H.E or M.A.N (arguably at least meaning something) but M.R.E gives you a better standing since Mr. E is obviously more specific than MAN and when you say it outloud the "mystery" is a pretty easy conclusion to make. The point being we're not given Bruce's internal process but only the result of the deduction in the movie.

** There's a trope for this: BatDeduction

* Did Nigma disguise himself as his employer, or did he use some kind of video editing software to pull off that trick? As a kid, I assumed he dressed up as the boss and ran towards the window (while hamming it up). He seems crazy enough to do it.

** It's possible it might have been intended to be a use of his Box prototype. Rather than beam the television footage into a person, he imagine the suicide scenario and beamed the imagined memory onto the tape. Scientifically implausible? Sure. Accurate to comic book science? Definitely.

** Earlier script drafts written by Janet and Lee Batchler would have explained the situation better -- the Riddler's usage of brainwave tech is not only making him smarter, but actively ''deforming'' him, with several script notes indicating that it was beginning to change his head (a.k.a. the "Big Riddle" concept that was later turned as a shell the real Riddler was inside, which was also cut from the finished product). When Batman confronts the Riddler during the climax, the device he hits not only cuts off the latter's connection with the "datastream", but it also implies that Riddler's brainwaves are controlling the place, which leads the "solid" floor to disappear, revealing that it's only a series of unfinished girders across the area (it also explains why half the floor randomly disappears in the final film).

* Dick leaves Wayne Manor...only to show up later in full costume as Robin. What the hell prompted his change of heart? When did he decide to do this? What was he doing when Wayne Manor was attacked? [[WebVideo/RedLetterMedia There's a word for this - lazy]].

** It's been a long time since I've seen it but if I remember correctly, neither of them are shown committing any crimes themselves, they're just Two-Faces arm candy and likely aren't much of a threat. Secondly, they're the arm candy of a homicidal lunatic, if they were to start blabbing about Bruce being Batman, who would believe them? Especially after said homicidal lunatic paired up with another lunatic who has a grudge against Bruce.

* When/how did Two-Face rig the bank vault with the "Boiling acid!!!!!!" deathtrap? Were he and his goons doing that while they waited for Batman to show up? (And if so, they did it *very* well, leaving absolutely no sign of their tampering.) Or is it a standard security feature at the Second Bank of Gotham?

** I think antagonising Batman would've been the very last thing either of them wanted at that point.

* In the Nolan-verse a small number of savvy people have figured out who Batman is and Christian Bale's Batman didn't go to extraordinary efforts to stop it. Maybe it's the same here.

** They could always reveal Batman's real identity more subtly or talk to several people under other disguises (considering how cartoonish this movie is) to make them interested to the point there's a crowd of people interested in inspecting Wayne's Manor and find out if it's true or not. Otherwise I guess they just ScrewThisImOuttaHere and simply don't want to mess with Batman in case the plan backfires and move on with their lives.