Tear Jerker / The Batman (2022)

"I realize now there’s something I haven't got past. This fear... of ever going through any of that again. Of losing somebody I care about."

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• For the first half of the film, we see Bruce just being a broken mess overall. He looks haggard and worn down, a sign that he's begun to dedicate so much time to being a crime fighter at night that he's basically decided that there's no need for him to be "Bruce Wayne" during the day, which only leads to people seeing him as a recluse who still mourns his parents.
  • Alfred even calls him out on this when Bruce shows a bit of annoyance that he scheduled a meeting to happen at his house, pointing out that it's affecting how he can continue his family's legacy.
  • This small exchange.
    Bruce: Alfred. Stop. You're not my father.
    Alfred: ...I’m well aware.
  • What makes this moment worse is that after Alfred has been hospitalized by the Riddler's attempt to kill Bruce, the nurse asks Bruce if Alfred has any next of kin they can contact. He solemnly responds that they're all that the other has left.
    Bruce: ...No. It's just me.
  • The simple shot of Alfred looking over at the footage of Don Mitchell's son (who had seen his father dead) and tearing up slowly, arguably being reminded of when Bruce witnessed his parents' deaths.
  • The strain in Alfred's relationship with Bruce. It's mitigated by a few heartwarming scenes, but the Servile Snarker we've seen in Michael Gough, Michael Caine, and Jeremy Irons is completely absent in this movie. The easy camraderie we're used to seeing between Bruce and Alfred is gone, replaced by an old man desperately trying to keep his surrogate son from killing himself.
• Batman's investigation of the first murder scene concludes with him finding a bloodied footprint on the ground, too small to have belonged to an adult, let alone a possible suspect. The camera lingers on Bruce just long enough that you can see the gears in his head turning, just before Gordon confirms the worst of his suspicions.
  Gordon: Yeah... the kid found him.
  • His return to the Batcave afterwards, punctuated by Nirvana's "Something in the Way", is a somber, almost pitiful motorcycle ride, as he reflects on if being Batman is even doing anything good for Gotham. As he narrates his thoughts in his journal, Bruce sounds so tired and defeated at letting another young boy be orphaned by crime just as he was 20 years ago.
    Batman: I wish I could say I'm making a difference. But I don't know. Murder, robberies, assault; two years later, they're all up... and now this. The city's eating itself. Maybe it's beyond saving... but I have to try.
• During the funeral scene, Bruce completely freezes up when he sees the young son of the deceased mourning. The empathy Bruce feels must be immeasurable.
• While the entirety of the game the Riddler plays with Colson (and Batman) is nail-biting, there's something somber in Colson immediately accepting his fate once he's prompted to name the rat who sold out Salvatore Maroni, refusing to answer in order to protect his family and crumpling into tears all the while. As the Riddler counts down the bomb's final seconds, you can hear Colson weeping his final words:
  "Oh, God, have mercy on me…!"
• Selina Kyle is extremely distraught when her roommate Annika goes missing, and gets even worse when she finds her corpse. Batman has to stop her from killing the murderer, who is her own father.
  • She tracks down Kenzie, a cop under Falcone's payroll, who she drags to the Batsignal building and beats to a pulp while awaiting the Batman. Catwoman then lets Batman and Gordon listen to Annika's final words through a voicemail. As Falcone chokes her to death, she lets out an awful, bloodcurdling scream, leaving the two speechless. Although she's already heard the message, it still brings Selina to tears, and she clearly hates having to listen to even a single second of it.
  • Really, Annika's fate in general is a massive one. Dragged into a conspiracy involving her own boss and the city's elite by no choice of her own, she's clearly terrified for her own life and Selina's life once the news of the Mayor's death breaks. Then, she's coerced into telling her employer what she's learned, convinced she can trust him...only to be brutally murdered by him as she begs for mercy. The poor girl didn't deserve any of this.
• Waking up at the police station after Riddler successfully blows up the DA, Batman confronts the chief of police, Bock, sounding visibly distraught at the fact that not only had he failed to save Colson, but that Bock is putting the blame squarely on his shoulders.
  Bock: You protecting this guy, Jim? He interfered in an active hostage situation, Colson's blood is on his hands!
  Batman: Maybe it's on yours.
  Bock: ...What'd you say?
  Batman: He would rather die than talk... what was he afraid of? You?!
  • Gordon holds Batman back from lashing out at the cops who are against him. While Gordon makes it clear shortly after that he's still on his side, Batman is shocked, thinking his Only Friend has just betrayed him.
    The Batman: ...You too, now?
• As bad as the reveal that Thomas Wayne was involved in the death of a nosy reporter who was threatening to uncover the truth about Martha's mental health struggles was for Bruce, consider it from Martha's point of view. From Riddler's dialogue, it's implied that she's the one who either found the bodies of her parents or even witnessed it. Afterwards, she spent years in and out of institutions (whether it was to help her or cover the secret of her parents' murder-suicide is left up to interpretation). Now someone was threatening to destroy the happiness she had found with her husband and son...for no other reason than to sling mud. No wonder Thomas felt compelled to turn to Falcone for help.
• Racing to Wayne Tower to save Alfred from the Riddler's bomb, Bruce calls Dory and pleads to speak to Alfred to warn him. His discovery that he's too late is itself heartwrenching, but there's also the fact that when he frantically begs for Alfred to be put on the phone, it's the most... normal that Bruce sounds throughout the whole movie.
  Batman: Dory! I need to speak with Alfred! … Listen to me! Something terrible is about to happen!
  • The way they set up the bombing: Bruce calls Alfred while driving back to Wayne Tower. We hear the phone ringing, and see Alfred standing nearby, opening the mail. The phone rings and rings, and we're wondering why a dutiful butler like Alfred isn't answering. Then he finds the package that we know for certain contains the Riddler's bomb. His slow opening of the package is intercut with Bruce, who is screaming — whether for his car to go faster, or for someone to answer the phone — only for Dory to answer. Bruce frantically tells her that he needs to notify Alfred of an immediate danger, and Dory weakly says…the danger already took place. Bruce comes up on the tower... with smoke billowing out of it. As Bruce watches on in utter horror, Dory explains that the explosion happened an hour ago.
• Before going to visit Alfred, Bruce opens a chained door in his house. It's unclear whose room it is, but if it's his parents' old room, he might have locked it to avoid looking at a painful remnant of their legacy. If it's his room, then it gives the implication that he hasn't been there for years, because he didn't get to continue being a child after his parents' deaths.
• Bruce' first words to Alfred after he wakes in the hospital are accusing his butler of lying to him his whole life. Alfred's warm, loving smile fades away instantly as he realizes he finally has to give Bruce the hard truth. When Bruce confronts him over his father's alleged involvement in the journalist’s murder, Alfred insists through tears that Thomas was as much of a good man as he had believed.
  • Alfred even comforts Bruce over the fact that when he was young, he would blame himself over the death of his parents. Bruce was just a young child when he said this, and Alfred's tone makes it clear that it killed him to hear that.
  • Alfred, freakin' Alfred, one of the most iconic surrogate parents in fiction, sorrowfully tells Bruce he wasn't good enough to be his father figure. It's sadder when you realized how at the beginning in the film he doesn't get angry when Bruce said he wasn't his dad; he truly felt the same way.
  • Bruce tells Alfred that he's not afraid to die... but states that he did feel fear for the first time since the Waynes' murders: his fear of losing Alfred.
  • The heartbreak on Bruce's face as he watches the Riddler exposing Thomas Wayne go viral, which leads to the above scene with Alfred.
• Edward Nashton is a murderous, vile narcissist, but his backstory is awful. The orphanage he lived in didn't get the help needed. This led to children becoming drug addicts at incredibly young ages, rats infesting the building and gnawing at their fingers as they slept, and winters so harsh that at least one baby died every year, all while the media ignored their plight to focus on Bruce Wayne due to his affluent status. No wonder Nashton turned out completely unstable.
  • Most versions have Eddie's obsession with riddles and puzzles stemm from a pathological need to prove he's smarter than everyone including (especially) Batman. Here, his Freudian Excuse is given as these games being the only escape he had from the hellish existence that was life at the orphanage.
• Riddler talks to his followers that the knows the “truth” about Bella Reál’s desire to better Gotham through renewal, in that it’s all a lie. However, from what is seen about her, she genuinely wants to rid the city of corruption, so Riddler’s group is about to assassinate an innocent woman trying to help the citizens. It shows that the people of Gotham have become so cynical, they can’t fathom the idea of a person in power wanting to improve the welfare of everyone with no strings attached.
• Surprisingly, Cobblepot's role in the ending is one. After spending the entire film as a smug criminal and Butt-Monkey, we can’t help but feel sorry for him with how things slowly turned out for him. Finding out Falcone, someone Cobblepot trusted and had a friendship with, was nothing more than a rat who was more than willing to throw anyone under for his own gain must have been a hard pill to swallow, and it is very clear Cobblepot was hurt by this betrayal. His final shot of the film is also very somber. Cobblepot appears to now run the criminal empire left by Falcone, yet rather than be happy and celebrate like most would do given the opportunity, Cobblepot instead looks very sad and uncertain. It's clear this isn't how he wanted things to go, and he isn't sure what the future holds for him. You almost want to hug the guy.
  • Before you see Cobblepot in the loft, you see the flooded ruins of a nightclub. It's the Iceberg Lounge. Having your slice of Gotham ruined like this would certainly hurt.
• In the climax, Batman unmasks one of Riddler’s followers and he claims to be “vengeance”. It is in this moment Bruce realizes how his obsession with revenge and the culture of fear that he has built around the Batman has only made things worse for Gotham by inspiring the very types of criminals that he has vowed to fight. Unless he can change for the better and begin his first steps towards becoming the symbol of hope that Gotham needs, he will only drag the city further down into chaos.
• Batman helps a wounded young girl onto an airlift gurney. She is terrified and refuses to leave his side. Bruce is startled by this at first, but comforts her soon after. He soon realizes that this is exactly the kind of reaction he needs, and he looks on at her in a melancholy way as the airlift ascends. It's a powerful scene that will easily move one to tears, and that the following quote is heard over it will truly get the waterworks going:
  Batman: Our scars can destroy us, even after the physical wounds have healed. But if we survive them, they can transform us. They can give us the power to endure, and the strength to fight.
  • As Batman watches her be airlifted away, he starts visibly shaking and stumbles back a step, the physical stress he had to endure for the entire week finally catching up to him as his adrenaline wears off. It's a sobering reminder that while one of the most prolific vigilantes of his kind, Batman is only human.
• In the end, despite growing to care deeply for one another, Catwoman and Batman don't end up together. Selina thinks Gotham is beyond saving and asks Batman to come with her. He declines, but tells her to take care of herself. The film ends with them coming to a crossroads and going their separate ways, with Batman staring at her in his rearview mirror until she disappears into the morning fog.
  • And as soon as she's gone, Batman stares in the rearview mirror a moment longer, as if recognizing that his chance is forever missed, and then he turns to face forward and confront the future. Batman will endure, and he will become the hero that Gotham deserves and needs...but he will never be happy.
    Selina: Who am I kidding? You're already spoken for. You should go.
    Batman: Selina... take care of yourself.
  • All of the above is scored to the breathtaking "All's Well That Ends Farewell" by Michael Giacchino.

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