The Batman (2022) / Fridge

Remember that spoilers are unmarked in Headscratchers and Fridge!

Fridge Brilliance:

You can tell this Batman hasn't worked out the "Bruce Wayne" persona yet, because his body language is the same both in and out of the suit; stiff as a board, awkwardly glowering, staring at everyone instead of talking. It's implied Mayor Mitchell's son put it together that they're the same person because Batman looked at him the same way at both his father's murder scene and his father's funeral.
The shot of Bruce in his drifter outfit with a big crowd of people in costumes on Halloween night symbolizes how he's also in costume too. Because Batman is his true identity and Bruce Wayne is merely a mask.
The Riddler and Batman are presented as parallels to each other in many ways, and one aspect is how they both use stealth. Batman dresses in black and uses the darkness as a tool so he can go unseen. The Riddler, meanwhile, wears a costume you can buy at any army surplus store. Outside the costume, he looks like an ordinary nerdy guy you wouldn't look twice at, which he also uses to his advantage.
Ironically, the Riddler’s plan to flood Gotham would do exactly the opposite of his plan to target the rich and powerful through sheer Fridge Logic: the buildings most likely to survive are skyscrapers and penthouses, typically owned by the rich and powerful, whereas most buildings which lower income people live in would likely be far shorter, dooming them to the flood waters. This is best exemplified by the Penguin looking down at the flooded city from the safety and comfort of Falcone's newly vacated headquarters while the traumatized civilians are huddling on the rooftops waiting for the National Guard helicopters to rescue them.
The upside-down shot of Batman doing The Slow Walk toward the Penguin's car works on a symbolic level, given that bats are known for hanging upside down.
The Collective Identity that the Riddler's followers use at the climax of the film is a clever way of emphasizing the Joker Immunity nature of the Riddler (and future Batman villains), as well as explaining why Batman has a Thou Shalt Not Kill rule despite living in a city of serial killers and terrorists. Anyone could be the Riddler. It doesn't matter if Edward Nashton is killed or arrested. He’s gained enough notoriety to inspire future copycats to continue his agenda, and his costume is cheap enough for anyone to make. For Batman to fight this seemingly immortal foe, he has to be a symbol of hope to give people something positive to look up to, rather than remain a feared vigilante who inspires future killers like the Riddler.
Falcone wears incredibly dark sunglasses even at night. While he can (or rather, has to in order for the plot to continue after Selina attacks him) see without them, this heavily implies one of two things: they’re part of his image, or they indicate he has major vision problems. Given how he established himself from corruptly cooperating with the police and DA, it makes sense: he’s overcompensating the process of establishing his image as a Don. Given one of Riddler’s clues-to DA Gil, who essentially created Falcone none the less-is how “justice is blind”, his possible vision problems also mirror how he’s backed by the corrupted form of justice in Gotham.
While it initially doesn't make sense that even the Riddler doesn't realize that Bruce and Batman are one and the same, especially considering that Bruce's mannerisms don't change much in or out of costume, bear in mind that Bruce has been described as a recluse by Alfred. Even if his behavior is obvious, nobody sees him often enough outside costume to make that realization. Indeed, Bruce only ever makes 2 public appearances as 'Bruce Wayne' outside of Wayne Manor in the film, the first at the funeral, wherein he makes it clear that he's only going because it affords him an opportunity to find the Riddler observing the aftermath of his crime, and he remains pointedly quiet and withdrawn for most of it, only speaking to Falcone and Cobblepot when he winds up getting too close to them and draws Falcone's attention, and to Bella Reál when she approaches him to ask for his aid in doing more for the city. On both occasions, Bruce uses a lower, slightly hesitant and withdrawn pitch to his speaking to sell the idea that he's a Shrinking Violet and avoid Falcone's goons recognising his voice as Batman. When Gordon and Martinez run into him he avoids speaking at all to avoid the same outcome. The second time he makes such an appearance is after the Riddler exposes the Awful Truth about his family and Alfred's hospitalised by his bomb, and it's arguable that Bruce is in such a bad state of mind that he's not keeping up pretences anymore, speaking more openly and naturally to Falcone this time, only able to keep his wits about him enough to go 'out of costume' because he recognises Falcone will be more forthcoming to Bruce than to Batman. Bruce lacks any of the ironclad defences and army of goons that Falcone has in the Iceberg Lounge, but unlike him, he's so reclusive to the public at all that the Riddler was forced to go for a similarly indirect method of trying to kill him, simply because he doesn't appear in public whenever possible.
While Batman's rigid and unmoving stance has the known effect of making him cold and intimidating, it also has a practical purpose for his investigations. Bruce reviews the footage from his contact lens cameras each morning, and the footage is easier to review for clues with as little movement as possible.
The finale of the Riddler causing Gotham to become flooded has two metaphorical meanings. It "washes away" the corruption of Gotham, and it gives it the chance for rebirth (aka renewal) through destruction. The irony is that he sees this as a destructive act, and while it is, it’s also an act that sets the stage for Batman's change of heart and the city rebuilding itself. He was very much Hoist by His Own Petard.
- The lyrics to "Something in the Way" literally foreshadows the Riddler's plot:
  Underneath the bridge
  Tarp has sprung a leak
For his first three victims, the Riddler attacks and kills them in person. However, he sends a bomb to Bruce instead. This is for the same reason he could not target Falcone directly. Both he and Bruce are described as recluses, meaning their public movements are unknown to the Riddler. Bruce spends most of his time in the Batcave without going to work, and Falcone hides in the Iceberg Lounge.
The Riddler targeted Bruce not simply because of the "sins of the father", but because Bruce's apathy was responsible for the Renewal fund's continued abuse. Bruce has two decades' worth of records for the Renewal fund, but they're all shoved in some filing cabinets and have likely never been looked at. Had he ever had the records reviewed, the corruption would have come to light far sooner.
- Its also unclear if he realizes how many more people the renewal fund could help from ever becoming criminals. In a very real sense the mismanagement of the orphanage alone will produce more criminals than Batman could ever stop.
In hindsight, it became clear that the Riddler thought he was helping Batman in his crusade against crime and corruption, with his riddles exposing the drug busting conspiracy and their ringleader, Carmine Falcone. So why doesn't Batman realize it until the Riddler flat out explains it to him? First, the fact the Riddler murdered people and half-orphaned the corrupt mayor's innocent boy would have colored Batman's perception of the Riddler as just a killer that needs to be brought to justice, since murder is murder (which is why Batman refuses to let Selina kill anyone in her quest for vengeance). Second, because the Riddler made Bruce Wayne one of his targets, and the fact that he seemed to know what Batman is about to do, Batman became paranoid that the Riddler knew his secret identity and was planning a mind game to utterly screw with him.
Bruce Wayne's background as the sheltered heir to a vast fortune actually ended up hindering him several times throughout his investigation. If he'd had even a cursory knowledge of Spanish, he would have instantly recognized that "el rata alada" was grammatically incorrect, and he did not even know what type of tool the Riddler had used to murder Don Mitchell nor its significance until it was pointed out to him by Martinez. This resonates with his alter ego's unintended influence on people like Riddler and his followers, and indicates how both Batman and Bruce Wayne need to refine their methods to truly help Gotham and its citizens.
- To be fair to him, Alfred does notice that "el" is grammatically incorrect, but both he and Bruce assume it's an error the Riddler made, instead of a deliberate pun. This could also reflect another aspect of Bruce's development as a crimefighter—realizing that the new supervillains appearing in Gotham are smarter and more precise than the petty criminals he usually fights, and that he'll have to push himself to think like they do in order to defeat them.
The scene of Riddler befriending the Joker is followed by Batman meeting with Selina one last time, further showing the parallels between them, as both started as vengeful loners who have now found a kindred spirit.
The Riddler's murder methods for his victims have an ironic Karmic Death twist to them:
- For Mayor Mitchell, he beats him to near death with a tucker, a carpet installer's tool used to lay or remove a carpet from the floor, representing how the Riddler is from the lower class and is uncovering the dirty truth that the mayor swept under the rug. Then he removes Mitchell's thumb, representing how he's liberating the truth from under the mayor's thumb, and suffocates his lying victim by wrapping his entire head with duct tape saying, "No More Lies."
- For Commissioner Savage, he straps his head to a custom maze cage full of hungry rats and no available food except Savage's face. This represents how deep the web of conspiracy is in Gotham, and Savage is going to suffer what its denizens suffered by having the rats, representing the criminal he spared for that phony drug busting, eat his face alive once they find their way to the center. The Riddler also injects Savage with rat poison, showing that he has no intention of letting the rats live either.
- For District Attorney Gil Colson, he straps a bomb collar around the D.A.'s neck and then sends him to the mayor's funeral for a live public trial for his crimes, crashing a vehicle spraypainted D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival) into the church. He sets up the phone on the palm of Colson's right hand so that, symbolically, Colson swears to "speak the truth" in this "court". The Riddler, acting as the prosecutor, forces the D.A. to answer for three things: first for justice denied, second for the price of bribes, and the third for the rat's name that he is protecting. Additionally, the bomb collar ready to blow his head off may also be a Visual Pun on the D.A. being Mr. Loose Lips and losing control of himself in this precarious situation.
- For Bruce Wayne, the Riddler simply sends him a package as a gift, a dark reflection of the letters he gives to Batman. While his letters to Batman turn out to be genuine tokens of offered friendship, the package for Bruce Wayne is a bomb meant to kill the elusive billionaire playboy, showing the Riddler's belief that Bruce is unworthy to be called an orphan, let alone an orphan who suffered at all. He could never see Bruce to be a friend of his, no matter how much they have in common (in more ways than he realizes), and thus he would of course send a false package like a false friend would. Of course, this also fuels Batman's paranoia that the Riddler knows his secret identity.
  - There's also the fact that a letter bomb is the only way the Riddler can actually realistically attempt to kill Bruce with his limited resources and the latter's reclusiveness. Unlike any of the other targets, Bruce lives alone in a penthouse suite atop the city, a location that the Riddler can’t approach in person to give him a more personalized/symbolic demise. Even Falcone, whom he spends a great deal of the movie exposing in order to kill him when he's most vulnerable and without protection, is somebody he was able to physically get close to due to the shadiness of his base of operations being centred in the lower sections of the town. A remote bomb being smuggled into the building is the only way that the Riddler can threaten Bruce's life, and even he seems to consider it a long shot. Unlike any of his other targets, his overall plan doesn't actually require Bruce to die, and he manages to somewhat achieve his goal of smearing mud on the Wayne name regardless through his viral messaging afterwards, upset that Bruce survived, but apparently aware such an indirect method might not kill him, and planning to proceed in either case. Noticeably, Bruce is the last 'victim' he sends a message to the Batman through, and the message essentially says 'see you in Arkham (when you catch me)', showing that he saved the murder attempt he had the least control over for last, so success or failure wouldn't impact his plans much either way.
- For Carmine Falcone, he plans his assassination site right underneath the lone lamppost outside the Iceberg Lounge, but only fires after Batman and Gordon expose Falcone as the ringleader and "rat" of the drug busting operation conspiracy, and specifically after the Penguin threatens to fire his gun at his former boss for betraying the mob's trust. The Riddler wants Falcone to die under the light of justice, losing his protection from the police and respect from the mob he once controlled.
- For Mayor-elect Bella Reál and Gotham itself, the Riddler plans to destroy the seawall and let the seawater flood Gotham, mocking Reál's campaign for real change (as he believes there can be no real change for Gotham except through destruction) and ridding the city of its filth with the same methods used to exterminate rats: drowning in their nests. Then he has his followers dress up like him and gun down the survivors, ensuring that the only people who will ultimately live are the Riddler's chosen people (a.k.a. himself). This assassination attempt symbolically fails along with Bruce Wayne's, because neither Bella Reál nor Bruce Wayne were corrupt people who deserve what's coming for them.
- Each death also has an ironic little twist depending on the (intended) victim's profession and/or role in the city. The Mayor is a politician, essentially both the 'head' of the city and, as its main political representative, its 'face'; he gets his head bashed in and covered up with tape, rendering him faceless and removing the city's 'head'. The Police Commissioner is supposed to lock criminals in jail; he gets his head locked in a 'cage' (essentially a mini-jail) and viciously torn into by 'rats' (often used to symbolize crime). The District Attorney prosecutes criminals and questions witnesses in court; he gets subjected to his own mini-trial, complete with cross-examination. Bruce Wayne is a playboy billionaire surrounded by wealth and possessions; his 'death' comes to him in the form of an explosive gift. Finally, Carmine Falcone is the overboss of the criminal underworld; his fate is to be violently gunned down in the street as if he were a nobody, or a random street criminal in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Riddler's Criminal Mind Games come to a stop with his attempted killing of Bruce Wayne, his last message simply saying 'See You in Hell'. At first, this seems to be because Riddler is taunting Batman with his knowledge of his Secret Identity, but on a repeat watch, it's actually because Batman already has all the clues he needs to solve the identity of the 'Rat with Wings'. Riddler just aired the Awful Truth about the Wayne Family's connections to Falcone after his letter bomb failed to kill Bruce, and how the Renewal fund has been funding criminal activity in Gotham for years. Riddler has been killing off all the corrupt governmental figures attached to the Maroni drugs bust, he confirmed (a little too vaguely) to Batman via their conversation through the URL code that Penguin wasn't the informant, he knows Batman will have discovered that the drug trades in Gotham are still ongoing by investigating the case, and he just revealed that Falcone is one of those who also profited from the corruption alongside his targets. To Riddler's mind, Batman should follow the money to Falcone and realize that he's the only common link remaining, the one who would have benefited most from Sal Maroni getting taken down, and thus the one who informed on him to take control over Gotham's underworld. What he doesn't see coming is that Batman will go get answers from Falcone as Bruce Wayne, and be too hurt by the revelations over his family's Dark Secret to do any impersonal investigating. Ultimately, because Riddler was too roundabout in his puzzles to Batman and overestimated the Batman's ability to decode the correct answers immediately, his plan hit a dead end until Selina's tangential investigation into the simpler murder of Annika unearthed the answer by chance.
- Also, at the time "See You In Hell" seems to be a taunting death threat. When he's imprisoned, however, the Riddler/Nashton tells Batman "I told you I'd see you in hell". He's actually referring to the location of his planned meeting with Batman: Arkham.
- There's also some literary symbolism in Riddler referring to Arkham as "Hell," and his intent that he and Batman would watch the Gotham's destruction safe within its walls. Better to rule in Hell then serve in Heaven.
Batman giving Colson the answer to a riddle and not having the Riddler accuse Colson of cheating seems like an Out-of-Character moment for the Riddler, until you remember that, at that point, Riddler believes he and Batman are on the same side. With this in mind, the "game" comes off more as an interrogation, with the Riddler acting as an intimidating "bad cop" while Batman, being the "good cop", allows Colson to elaborate on his answers.
- It also adds another level of creepiness to Riddler's (already) giddy attitude during Colson's riddles. It's not just that Riddler is gleeful about the possibility of Colson dying, it's probably because he's thinking "Ohmigosh Batman is PLAYING ALONG!"
Of course, the Riddler hadn't worked out that Batman was actually Bruce Wayne: he sends the letter-bomb alongside a letter to the Batman, which is covered in a fire-resistant wrapping. In other words, he fully expected that the Batman would have come to the scene of Bruce Wayne's murder after the fact, like he had come to all the others before.
Though subtle, this incarnation of Riddler has some comparisons with another less-physical but brilliantly-minded Batman villain, the Clock King. Specifically, most of his various Saw-esque traps and plans revolve around the concept of the victim's 'time running out' whilst they wait to die, analogous to his own experiences in the Orphanage of Fear wherein many of the children could do nothing but wait to die from their horrible living conditions.
- Mayor Mitchell has his head bashed in and is then slowly suffocated under a 'mask' of duct-tape whilst he's unable to defend himself, probably only barely aware of what's happening and unable to breathe properly once his air supply is sealed off.
- Commissioner Savage has a giant rat maze sealed around his head and is pinned down, able to do nothing but wait and watch the hungry rats navigating the maze towards his face and then die horribly in agony from them chewing on him, only getting finished off by an injection of arsenic because such a method of death was probably too time-consuming even for Riddler, karmic as it was.
- For District Attorney Gil Colson, he easily fits the theme, being fitted with an Explosive Leash and given a 2-minute window to solve Riddler's riddles, with the deranged villain aware that the final one is one only he will know the answer to, but will refuse to answer out of fear of Falcone's retribution against his loved ones, essentially placing him in a no-win situation where he can only wait for the clock to count down.
- For Bruce, his inability to easily reach him means he has to get somewhat creative with his, simply sending him a letter bomb and counting on the fact that there's a good chance even a recluse like Bruce will go through his mail eventually. Granted, even he seems to consider it a long shot, but he simply doesn't have very many options for getting to Bruce at all, let alone giving him a more 'appropriate' death.
- For Carmine, the second the Riddler set Batman on the trail of the 'Rat with Wings', his time as the leader of the Gotham underworld started to run out, Riddler being aware that Batman wouldn't stop the search until he discovered who he was, especially once he realised how linked it was to the inherent corruption in Gotham's system, and that criminal activities were still ongoing even after Sal Maroni's arrest. Once Gordon aired the truth, Falcone's power vanished and his own 'allies' turned on him, with it being clear that, despite what he claimed, certain criminals in Gotham's underworld would be out for his blood out of disgust for his dishonourable actions, and there was a good chance one of them would do him in eventually. There's also the fact that once he was exposed, it was only a matter of time before Batman dragged him out of the Iceberg Lounge's entrance and right into Riddler's crosshairs.
- For Bella Reál, she’s less a target for her own actions and more as the final blow against Gotham itself. Once the bombs go off, the city floods, and without intervention it would slowly destabilise over the coming months, its citizens turning on each other as their food and resources run low and the city slowly eats itself alive, waiting to die in horrible conditions without hope of relief like Riddler did. With Reál dead, there would be no unifying figure to calm and lead the citizens to start rebuilding the city, and it could have only slowly succumb to decay as the days go by.
The death of Falcone at the Riddler's hands signifies the fall of the mob (as we know it, at least) and the rise of Batman's Rogues Gallery, and while the Falcone crime family is still around, who's eyeing to take complete control of it? The Penguin. Indeed, crime in Gotham will never be the same again.
The Iceberg Lounge is the perfect symbolic place for the Maroni drug bust conspirators to hang out. The only visible part of an iceberg from the surface is a relatively small tip with the rest hidden below, just like how the supposed largest GCPD drug bust on Maroni is actually a small event covering up a huge network of corruption still continuing the drug operation. And Carmine Falcone, the mastermind of the phony drug bust, resides in 44 Below, just like how the real danger of an iceberg is just below the surface.
The ambiguity of whether Falcone, Maroni, or just a random mugger "who pulled the trigger too fast" was responsible for the Waynes' deaths perfectly captures the true spirit behind the tragedy of their murders. It's not the fact that these privileged upper-class citizens were victims of crime like anyone else, it’s the unending mystery behind what truly happened that night and why. No matter how hard Bruce digs, as Alfred did for twenty years, he may never get that closure and peace, which in turn motivates him to make sure it never happens to anyone else as Batman.
- It’s rather fortunate that the Wayne killer remains ambiguous. Bruce's sudden interest in his parents' deaths when Falcone and Alfred bring up potential suspects heavily implies that he’s thinking of delivering a special kind of vengeance upon the culprit, one that would break his moral code, and in the scene after Alfred stresses that no one knows who killed the Waynes, Selina indirectly learns that her mother was personally killed by Carmine Falcone, which naturally sends her on a single-minded quest of revenge to assassinate Falcone. Selina shows what would happen if Batman had known who the killer was.
- In every possible scenario of who killed the Waynes, Falcone is somehow involved. In Alfred's story, Falcone had the Waynes killed for potentially spilling the beans on him despite his blackmail. In Falcone's story, Maroni had the Waynes killed because he feared that Thomas Wayne would be in Falcone's pocket. In the Random Mugger theory, the mugger was born from a corrupt system in Gotham that Falcone helped create. In a sense, Falcone is the Wayne killer regardless of whether or not he literally gave the order or pulled the trigger, because he embodies all of Gotham's corruption that led to the murders, even looting the Wayne fortune shortly after their deaths that would have otherwise helped the poor and needy.
- Though it's never remarked upon, the Riddler's unearthing of the Wayne family's dirty laundry has also presented Bruce with a metaphorical riddle that he can never solve, no matter how hard he tries. The ambiguity behind the motives for their murder and the death of Falcone has left behind an eternal question about what was the ultimate cause behind their killing, thus giving Riddler a metaphorical 'victory' over Batman by creating a puzzle he can't solve, as other incarnations of the character are obsessed with doing— and fittingly, he will never know about it because of his warped perception towards both Bruce and Batman.
It's not stressed or dwelt upon, but it's frequently mentioned that Batman has been operating for two years now. A blink-and-you-miss-it comment in a news report is that the anniversary of the Wayne murders occurred around the same time as the murder of Mayor Mitchell. The clear implication is that Batman started operating on the anniversary of his parents' murder... and so did the Riddler.
It has been much discussed that the Riddler in this movie is somewhat different from his standard depiction as a egotistical narcissist who wants to prove himself superior to Batman. While that's true for most of the movie, by the end it's arguably not so much so. Before he reveals that he believes himself and Batman to be brothers in arms, the Riddler comments that people won't forget or ignore him from that point on — quite an egotistical comment from someone who apparently just wants to expose the corrupt underbelly of Gotham. Then, when Batman rejects him, after his breakdown he spitefully taunts Batman that he won't be able to stop his plan and will be crushed by it if he tries to — only to watch in rage as Batman, while not exactly stopping his plan, nevertheless thwarts his scheme to assassinate the new Mayor and make things worse, saves as many people as he can, establishes himself as a hero to the people of Gotham rather than just another crazy vigilante, and overall completely steals the Riddler's thunder. If the Riddler didn't have motivation to prove himself superior to Batman before, he sure does now...
- This also means that this movie turns out to be an origin story after all — only it's the Riddler's origin story, not Batman's.
At one point, Gordon wonders whether the Riddler will come after him for working on the Maroni case, only for Batman to assure him that he has nothing to worry about because he's not corrupt. As it turns out, despite what the Riddler thinks, neither do Bruce Wayne or Bella Reál — both are innocent, and thus are spared. Laser-Guided Karma is at work here.
- This also applies to Thomas Wayne, and to a lesser extent Martha, however; whether he intended it or not, Thomas Wayne caused a man's death through his foolish attempt to employ a violent criminal's services for his own ends, so death is in turn visited upon him. And while Martha herself was not responsible for either her mental condition or Thomas's actions, it was in her name that the reporter was murdered, and karma is not always forgiving...
- It even applies to Alfred to a degree — he did not support Thomas's idea of hiring Falcone, but neither stopped it nor revealed the truth. So he doesn't die, but he does get quite a bit of pain visited upon him.
Listen to Bruce Wayne's narration of his journal entries throughout the movie — it's dark, moody, kind of disturbing. Then listen to the Riddler's own journal. Someone who happened to stumble upon and read Bruce's journals at the same time might find it hard to tell who wrote which one...
In most adaptations, Gordon is completely incorruptible and morally pure, but this film emphasizes the moral and legal ambiguity of working with a violent vigilante. Several cops correctly say Batman is jeopardizing evidence, which could cause lots of problems in Gotham's already-corrupt courts. Gordon helps Batman abduct and question suspects, conduct unauthorized surveillance, and leaks vital evidence the cops can't legally use to the press, which gives Gordon the plausible deniability to act on it. Under normal circumstances, these would all be very bad things, but the movie implies it's the only way he can work around the system's corruption.
The color red is synonymous with Bruce's vengeful and rather selfish agenda as the Batman, but in the film's climax, he lights a red flare to help the trapped civilians in the now flooded Gotham stadium. He's no longer just a boogeyman waiting to strike in the dark. He's also a hero that brings light even in the darkest of times.
The Rule of Three with Batman entering the club is a good Show, Don't Tell sequence of how Batman handles a situation with and without prep time. On his first visit, he attempts to brute-force his way in, causing a fight to escalate, which blows his cover. The second time around, now armed with the knowledge that Falcone trusts Bruce Wayne due to his connections with Thomas Wayne, he avoids confrontation by appearing out of costume in plain sight. The final time, now familiar with the screening process of the twin bouncers, as well as the layout of the interior from both his prior visits and the footage from Selina's stakeout, he completely forgoes the process by sneaking his way in, locking one of the twins out and taking advantage of the interior to remain out of sight.
- Its also symbolic of Batman's Character Development as he starts to realize he can't fix Gotham through violence alone. The first time he visits the club he attempts to fight his way in, which fails almost immediately, while the methods he uses in his second and third visit are subtler and more indirect, and are far more successful for it.
The Arkham Inmate's horrifying appearance in the deleted scene makes sense considering nobody's meant to be able to figure out his true identity. Notice how his hair, teeth and fingertips have taken the most abuse.
In the opening sequence, the store robber (who robs a man but doesn't seem to hurt him), the graffiti artist, and the hesitant thug all retreat, but not the overconfident criminals predisposed to hurting people, who go right at The Batman. This foreshadows the end of the film, where it's shown that the Riddler's followers think of themselves as being "vengeance" akin to Batman and have been inspired by him. Batman's violence isn't stopping the people already committing it, it's amplifying it by giving them an environment of terror and paranoia. Batman only realizes this at the end and decides to change it by becoming a beacon of hope for Gotham, showing them a chance for the future and creating real change, marking his turn away from his vengeance.
While it's awesome to see violent criminals retreating from the Bat-Signal, the graffiti artist was just a vandal, whose crime wasn't hurting anyone. This likely serves as deliberate foreshadowing that Batman's terrifying presence is harming the city as well as doing good.
- Adding to this, the building they're vandalizing is the Bank of Gotham, implying grievances against the inequalities and injustices perpetuated by the city's rich, showing that Batman is striking fear into criminals but not initially looking into the broader causes of Gotham's crime wave. Furthermore, he initially identifies himself with vengeance, which is reactive, responding to wrongs that others have committed; the fact that he learns to use his skills to bring hope to Gotham shows that Batman has become more proactive in trying to help and inspire the city as a whole, not just targeting individual wrongdoers.
- It should perhaps also be noted that they're also chucking lit molotov cocktails in the bank, implying that they're going a little beyond mere vandalism; for all their potentially righteous anger, anyone in or near the bank if it catches fire might dispute the "isn't harming anyone" part.
There’s also symbolism in the fact that, while the stick-up artist and the vandal are freaked out by the Bat-Signal and the Joker thugs aren't, it's specifically the latter who Batman targets. He doesn't go after the vandal making a political statement (albeit a destructive one) or the presumably impoverished hoodlum holding up a bodega out of desperation; he's going after those who are themselves going out of their way to target and hurt innocent people for their own sadistic pleasure. Thus symbolizing that while Batman's actions might be having counterproductive effects, his intentions are still good and he’s at least aiming at the 'right' targets; he just needs to find a better and more productive way of doing so.
When Batman confronts Edward Nashton in Arkham, he's hidden in the dark. It's because he's nervous about how Riddler knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. When Eddie begins saying Bruce's name eerily, it makes him visibly uncomfortable. When he realizes that he doesn't know his secret identity, Batman gets closer to him and starts taunting him, now fully confident and relieved his secret is safe.
At first it might seem odd that Penguin, Selina, and the Riddler follower in the climax reference Batman's "I'm vengeance" line given that no one but Batman, the gang, and their victim were there to see it. Some viewers have speculated that Batman says it to everybody, but a more obvious explanation lies in the fact that one of the gang members has his phone pointed at Batman when he confronts the gang leader. Given that we've already seen the gang stream their random acts of violence, it's possible that the entire ordeal went viral.
A small detail: Alfred snarkily tells Bruce that he's become "quite the celebrity". Celebrities are considered influential figures, and Edward became the Riddler because he was influenced by Batman.
The beginning of the movie establishes that the Bat Signal is effectively another of Batman’s scare tactics; it makes criminals paranoid by showing that he’s aware of some crime and is now about to go stop it, making it seem like he could be anywhere. So naturally Edward Nashton and his followers, who are all inspired in some part by Batman’s vigilantism, take a similar approach in the end and all of them dress as the Riddler, making it seem like he’s everywhere.
Bella Real grabs Bruce at the Mayor's funeral and starts asking him to support her candidacy. This may make her seem rather heartless, until you remember that Bruce is a recluse, and she knows she'll probably never see him again. And the second she sees Bruce looking at the Mayor's son, and sees the look on Bruce's face, she gives him a few minutes. That may be a tactical decision, but it might be genuine compassion.
Nashton singing Ave Maria in falsetto during his interrogation takes on new significance when you note that as a child he was part of the choir that sang when Thomas Wayne announced the Renewal Project. What were they singing? Ave Maria. He's singing the part he learned as a child for that performance.
Eddie's line "What's black and blue and dead all over?" also describes his plan for Bella Reál — the black, probably-Democrat^note he wants to assassinate.
Riddler is a lot like Nolan's Joker. They're both insane terrorists who wear disguises and are forensically untraceable, broadcast their crimes, use "cheap" tools, have a relationship with Batman, and gnaw away at the rotten heart of Gotham City. The biggest differences? Joker saw Batman as the opposition, while Riddler saw him as inspiration (then the enemy). And more importantly, Joker was alone in the end. People only helped him out of coercion, self-interest, or delusion. Riddler inspires groupies to take up his mission, just like he was inspired by Batman.

Fridge Horror:

The "you are el rata alada" riddle has two answers, one pointing out the culprit (Falcone being the rat with "falcon" wings) and one to a URL address to the Riddler's special website for Batman. They are both correct answers and lead Batman to more of the Riddler's riddles... but then you realize that Riddler expected Batman to solve both sides of the riddle. The Riddler knew that Batman would eventually solve them and prepared accordingly, and if he anticipated such an event, then he's always one step ahead of Batman, no matter what the Caped Crusader does. This is where Riddler's seemingly dumb gimmick of leaving riddles to his crime is reconstructed as a terrifying, effective calling card. Solving the riddles doesn't mean that Batman is outsmarting his intellectual foe; it means that he's inadvertently playing right into the Riddler's hand, and there is no other way for Batman to avoid it.
Batman could’ve saved a lot more people much sooner just from the evidence in the first clue. If he had searched for where Riddler’s photos of the Iceberg Lounge were taken, he could’ve found Nashton’s apartment and potentially derailed the whole plan.
- It fits with the Riddler's motif. The best answer is always the one you least expect, often right under their noses. Batman and GCPD were so focused on the riddles themselves, they didn't realize of the more subtle riddles in between the lines.
It's rather fortunate that the Riddler didn't figure out Bruce Wayne is really Batman all along thanks to his Secret Identity Apathy. If the Riddler finds out that his (former) idol is really that very same rich orphan boy in the news media that he hated ever since his childhood days, he might think that Bruce Wayne deliberately dressed up as Batman to give people like him false hope of change and then take it away because he's part of that elite "corrupt" class. Instead of feeling empathy for Bruce's pain like Selina would, he might have escalated his attacks on Bruce and Batman, possibly even exposing his secret identity just to ruin Batman as a symbol for Gotham.
An early hint at Batman's initial modus operandi not being on the up and up: the method of intimidation he's established with the Bat-signal, the way it causes criminals to warily watch the shadows and run in terror, calls to mind the infamous panopticon.
How many people died when Batman caught up to Penguin? It was a really big explosion caused by crashing trucks, so the drivers of those trucks AT LEAST are casualties. Worse, at the end of their interrogation, both Gordon and Batman walk away and leave Cobblepot behind, despite him having tried to kill both of them and committing several counts of vehicular manslaughter. Because their investigation of the drug production factory was illegal as well as their interrogation and intimidation of Oz, they have no legal basis to hold him, even after he caused so much carnage. Even without Gotham's system being so corrupt, both Gordon and Batman have nobody but themselves to blame for being unable to lock Penguin up for his crimes this time... and it's implied they both know it. It's probably why they left him zip-tied as they drove off, because it was the only measure of retribution they could enact against him at that point.
The Riddler having followers who dress up like him (and look virtually identical to the real deal) would actually decrease faith in the authorities. How many people would even believe the cops got the right guy? And if the people know there are multiple Riddlers, wouldn't that paint the cops as ineffectual?
- Going off this, the fact that out of the five hundred followers Riddler had, only about a dozen or so actually show up to the arena. How many others are still out there in Gotham, waiting to follow in their leader’s footsteps?
  - Worse than that, how many live in other parts of the world, ready to spread the Riddler's chaos in their cities?
  - It's likely that not all of them are actively willing to go as far as Nashton and the Riddlers who show up at the arena. Some may agree with what they're doing but are to afraid of the consequences to do it themselves, others maybe didn't take them seriously.
Riddler describes the horrors of growing up as an orphan as 30 kids to a room, becoming a drophead at a young age to deal with the pain, rats chewing at your fingers in the night, and babies dying from the cold in the winter. When Batman and Gordon go to the orphanage, they find a room of dope heads. What if those same drug addicts are kids from that orphanage, grown up and staying at the only home they know? At the very least, some of them might have helped Riddler set up his projector screen preparations for Batman and Gordon, as the building likely wouldn't have been able to maintain that elaborate show for long given its poor conditions.
Riddler never intended to let Colson live, or rather, he knew he would die soon either way. Riddler already knew Falcone was the rat, but his goal was to expose Gotham's corruption to the public. If Colson gave away the name, Falcone and his goons (and possibly others within Gotham's criminal underworld) would come after him and his family as he said. But since he refused, Riddler blew him up so he still wins.
The implication that Bruce may have inherited his mother's (and maternal grandmother's) mental health issues, given that he deals with his parental loss by dressing up as a bat and beating up criminals out of vengeance. And keep in mind, Bruce is already considered an eccentric, elusive figure in Gotham that never seems to do anything meaningful. If the press finds out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, especially after the Riddler exposed Martha's mental health problems to the public, it's likely that he'd be thrown into Arkham as an insane patient alongside the Riddler and the Joker.
At the end of the movie, Selina decides to give up on Gotham and all its corruption, and move to Bludhaven. The only problem is that Bludhaven is usually depicted as an even worse Wretched Hive than Gotham.
- Though keep in mind, she's explicitly going there to knock off wealthy white-collar criminals.
When Batman confronts the Riddler at Arkham and we see he really doesn’t know his identity, it’s clear that the two main reasons why are because he can’t imagine the vigilante he admires so much being the same person as who he considers nothing more than a selfish rich playboy getting undeserved sympathy for his parents death, and because he doesn’t want to. But after that scene, his opinion of Batman has been severely decreased once he learns that he doesn’t agree with his methods and his plan, and once he realizes he didn’t figure out his entire plan he starts thinking less of his intelligence too. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that Riddler might start trying to piece together his identity after all, and considering who he just made friends with…
Fridge Tear Jerker: With Alfred's assertion that Thomas was going to turn himself in the night he was killed, the family's fateful trip to the opera / theater, in this continuity, was Thomas's transparent attempt at giving the family one last normal night.

Fridge / The Batman (2022)

Edit Locked

Fridge Brilliance:

Fridge Horror: