Trivia / Batman Forever

• Actor-Inspired Element: Jim Carrey helped design a lot of his costumes.
• All-Star Cast: The movie had some of the biggest sluggers in the business on the cast at time of release, particularly Carrey, Kidman and Jones.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Val Kilmer jumped at the chance to play Batman, signing on without having read the script or knowing who the director was.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Folks, nowhere in this movie does Batman say "Chicks dig the car"; it's what Robin says in the Call-Back to this movie in Batman & Robin. What Batman actually says is:
  Batman: It's the car, right? Chicks love the car.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: U2's "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me". Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" technically doesn't count, as it was originally a single from his self-titled second album and had been featured in a separate film soundtrack prior to Forever's release.
• B-Team Sequel: Tim Burton had discussions about returning to direct a potential third Batman movie after Batman Returns, but left production after feeling that the studio wasn't too keen on his latest ideas. With Burton out, Danny Elfman also didn't return; Michael Keaton would end up leaving as well.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Not against the movie itself, but Tim Burton, the film's producer, hated the movie's title, saying that it "sounds like a tattoo that somebody would get when they're on drugs or something. Or something some kid would write in the yearbook", according to his 2000 autobiography, Burton on Burton.
  • Nicole Kidman didn't dislike making the movie overall but she did state she wished Chase had more depth and action scenes, saying "I wish I had more of a role, though. [...] It’s great being the girl in the Batman movie. But I’m an actor and you go, 'Gosh I want more to do.' So I would still love to do some sort of superhero movie where I get to do the cool stuff." She eventually got her wish after being cast as Atlanna in Aquaman (2018).
  • Val Kilmer enjoyed working on this film and everyone involved and would have been interested in returning once his schedule cleared up, but (fortunately for him) Batman & Robin continued without him. But he was quoted as saying "I've done an absurdly commercial cartoon and now I'm more likely to get hired for a job I couldn't get hired for before because I hadn't done enough movies. It's so rare when an actor gets hired because he's right for the role, it just doesn't figure into it." (In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Kilmer's character Perry shows up and says virtually the same thing to Robert Downey Jr..) He later stated that The Dark Knight Trilogy was the kind of Batman film he wanted to make.
• Dawson Casting: Even given Dick's Age Lift to late teens at the time Bruce took him in, Chris O'Donnell was still 25 at the time. Only two of the candidates listed further down under What Could Have Been would have been under 20 during filming.
• Deleted Scene: Many scenes were filmed but deleted from the film; other scenes had footage removed, and not all are present in the home video releases.
  • The escape of Two-Face from Arkham Asylum. René Auberjonois had another scene filmed here in the role of Doctor Burton, but his role was reduced in the final film. He discovers Two-Face's escape, encountering his psychologist hanged (non-fatally; we can still hear him struggling and trying to speak) in Two-Face's cell with "The Bat Must Die" written in blood on the wall. This was supposed to be the film's opening scene, but producers decided this was far too dark for a family audience. This scene appears in the comic adaptation and the novelization.
  • When Two-Face addresses the crowd from the helicopter in the opening action scene, the speech was truncated and several lines that appeared in the Theatrical Trailer were removed, including the line "If the Bat wants to play, we'll play!"
  • There was a sequence that contained an extended fight scene between Two-Face and Batman, where they both struggle for control of the helicopter. In this scene, Two-Face accuses Batman of being "a killer too" (a continuity reference to the previous Burton films). Two-face then manages to escape by the parachute, after Batman realizes he has locked the steering wheel into position. This sequence is included in rough form on the special-edition DVD; the "You're a killer too" line is referenced in the novel (in a different context).
  • A scene right before Edward Nygma arrived at Wayne Manor. It featured Bruce Wayne watching a local Gotham talk show with Chase Meridian as a guest, talking about Batman.
  • One scene right before Riddler and Two-face team up featured a little conversation with Dick and Bruce in the gym of the manor. This would explain why Dick suddenly has martial arts training. This scene appears in a rough edit on the special-edition DVD.
  • The scene where the Riddler fails to punch a security guard out. The guard is then brutally beaten by the Riddler using his cane.
  • One sequence came directly after the casino robbery, where Batman follows a robbery signal on a tracking device in the Batmobile. He shows up at the crime scene and finds he is at the wrong place (a beauty salon), in which a room full of girls laugh at him. The Riddler had been throwing Batman off the track by messing with the Batmobile's tracking device. This would explain why in the theatrical version Batman seems to give Riddler and Two-Face moments of free rein over the city. This scene appears in a rough edit on the special-edition DVD.
  • The construction of Nygma Tech was after Batman solves the third riddle and was more in-depth. There were scenes shot that appear in publicity stills of Edward Nygma with a hard hat helping with the construction of his headquarters on Claw Island.
  • Sugar and Spice try out the Riddler's device during the montage when it goes on sale. They are seated with the Riddler and Two-Face on the couch where Chase is handcuffed later in the film. This scene appears in the comic adaptation but not in the final film.
  • There was originally a scene after the montage of Alfred and Bruce examining the Nygma Tech "Box".
  • An extended scene established Bruce in the Batcave shortly after having discussed with Dick then that this would have saved his life after the battle with Two-Face in the subway system under construction. In this scene he is appreciated as the GNN news (Bruce watching in the Batcomputer) attacking Batman and Two-Face after the battle in the Subway and after that Bruce talking to Alfred turns into the dilemma of continuing to be Batman and try a normal life with Chase. Like the deleted Helicopter fight sequence, this scene also makes reference to Batman himself being "a killer", and in the original production screenplay, this scene was to contain footage from Batman Returns, specifically taken from the rooftop fight scene with Catwoman. This would explain why in the theatrical version Bruce turns off all the systems in the Batcave telling Dick he gives up being Batman. This scene appears in a rough form on the special-edition DVD.
  • Another scene in the Wayne Manor raid sequence was longer, featuring Bruce and Chase fighting Two-Face and his thugs.
  • The scene involving Chase Meridian on the couch originally included a longer ending where the Riddler injects her with a green sleeping agent so he can easily place her in the small tube with the trap door.
  • Bruce waking up after being shot in the head by Two-Face, temporarily forgetting his origin and life as the Dark Knight. Alfred takes him to the Batcave, which has been destroyed by the Riddler. They stand on the platform where the Batmobile was, and Alfred says, "Funny they did not know about the cave beneath the cave." The platform then rotates downward to another level where the sonar-modification equipment is kept, from the special Batsuit to the hi-tech weaponry. Bruce then discovers the cavern where he first saw the giant bat that inspired him to become Batman. Inside he finds his father's red diary which he had dropped when he first fell into the Batcave after his parents death. He reads the entry about him insisting his parents take him to the theater to see a show the same night they were killed. He realizes he had misread it, and his father had written 'even though Bruce insists, we wanted to see Zorro so his show will have to wait until next week'. Bruce realizes his parents death was not his fault after all. The giant bat then appears and Bruce raises his arms to match the wing anatomy of the bat and the shot shows that they are one. Bruce now remembers who he is and goes with Alfred to solve the riddles left throughout the film. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman admitted the scene was very theatrical on the special-edition DVD and felt it would have made a difference to the final cut. The bat was designed and created by Rick Baker, who was in charge of the make-up of Two-Face. This scene appears in a rough form on the special-edition DVD.
  • The fight scene between Two-Face and Robin on Claw Island was originally longer.
  • The original ending was similar in style to the previous Batman films, which had involved a scene with Alfred in the limousine, the camera tracking upward through the Gotham cityscape, followed by a rooftop shot involving a silhouetted hero (Batman in the original, Catwoman in Batman Returns) facing the Bat Signal. When Alfred drives Doctor Chase Meridian back to Gotham she asks him "Does it ever end, Alfred?" Alfred replies, "No, Doctor Meridian, not in this lifetime..." The Bat-Signal shines on the night sky and Batman is standing on a pillar looking ahead. Robin then comes into shot and joins his new partner. They both leap off the pillar, towards the camera. A rough edit of the first half of the scene appears on the special-edition DVD, but not in its entirety.
• Executive Meddling: After Batman Returns received backlash from parents over its dark tone, as well as complaints from McDonald's, who ended up cancelling their planned line of promotional Happy Meal toys over similar concerns about the film's tone, Warner Bros. took much stricter control over Batman Forever to push it in a more family friendly direction.
• Fake American: Jim Carrey, Canadian by birth, as Riddler. Also, Aussie Nicole Kidman.
• Flip-Flop of God: In several interviews interviews he did to promote the film and after that, Joel Schumacher said he never considered Forever as the third film of the Burton film series as he considered it as the first film of his film series instead, while Warner Bros. execs thought otherwise. Fans who liked the Burton films would've likely agreed with Schumacher, considering The Other Darrin for Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne as well as the inconsistencies surrounding the visions of the two directors. This was later supported Sam Hamm who says that the Schumacher films take place on Earth-97 as opposed to Earth-89, the designation used for the Batman Film Series in Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019). Given how Hamm is now writing the Batman '89 comic, which ignored the events of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, while the 2022 film, The Flash, will do the same by having Michael Keaton reprise his role, this would suggest that the Schumacher films are indeed seperate from the Burton films.
• Friendship on the Set: Val Kilmer befriended Jim Carrey while making the film, as they bonded over the fact that they had both lost their fathers. Carrey also befriended Nicole Kidman, who considers him her best male friend.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • The working relationship between director Joel Schumacher and actor Val Kilmer was said to be very, very bad. Tellingly, Joel does not talk much about Val in his audio commentary for the film.
  • There were reports that Tommy Lee Jones disliked Jim Carrey, so much so that he wouldn't even have lunch with him. According to Carrey, the first time he met Jones, the veteran actor growled, "I cannot sanction your buffoonery." Which is funny considering Jones would spend his entire screentime trying to out-ham the ham master Carrey. Of course, Carrey accidentally nailing Jones in the groin with a cane at one point probably didn't help either.
  • In one of his last interviews before he passed away, Schumacher said that Jones was jealous of Carrey's popularity on set, as Jones was used to being the Ensemble Dark Horse in films. He also had just won an Academy Award for his role in The Fugitive and gained a swelled head, and felt Carrey (who does not have the same honor) was beneath him.
• Licensed Game:
  • A 2-player Beat 'em Up with Batman and Robin for the SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive. There was also an arcade cabinet version which got ported to PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. That one utilized more conventional gameplay on par with the earlier Batman Returns beat 'em up. Both used digitized graphics in the style of Mortal Kombat (1992) or Donkey Kong Country. There were also 8-bit versions for Game Boy and Game Gear), as well as a PC version which was similar to the SNES game but with added CGI cutscenes. A 32X version was cancelled.
  • The 16-bit version is 2-player and allows you to control Batman and Robin. Both have their own unique moves, but you're limited to two per level (as selectable "gadgets"); you can unlock four new ones by finding the WayneTech "blueprints" scattered in the largest levels. Due to the dearth of memory on offer, there are about 5 or so regular enemies total, with two (the inmate and the clown) appearing only in their respective stages. Unlike most brawlers, each crook gets their own nickname. In Final Fight and Streets of Fury, no attempt was made to hide the fact that you keep fighting the same guy. Two-Face is fought twice, promptly keeling over once his stamina is drained (only for Batman to fail to apprehend him for some unexplainable reason), while the Riddler is fought countless times thanks to Nygma's "holograms." Two-Face's henchwenches also appear as sub-bosses, although Sugar is, depressingly, a palette swap of Spice. (So much for kick boxing with Drew Barrymore in an SNES game.) Interestingly, Two-Face does not have an Ambidextrous Sprite: his moves vary depending on which side is facing the screen.
• Missing Trailer Scene: In multiple trailers, there is a scene where Two-Face says "If the Bat wants to play, we'll play!" This line/scene never made into the theatrical release. The line was even used in the Genesis/SNES video game adaptation of the film.
• No Stunt Double: Val Kilmer did many of the fight scenes in the bat suit himself, including the opening scene where he fights Two-Face's henchmen.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • The title seems odd to many audience members until they realize it is in reference to a line of dialogue that was in a deleted scene.
  • When Bruce sees the Batsignal shining from Wayne Enterprises, sirens can be heard in the background, even though the signal turns out to be a false alarm Chase lit in order to get his attention. This was due to scene reshuffling that happened during post-production: Bruce seeing the Bat-signal initially led to Two-Face's heist at the bank, while the scene with Chase at the rooftop occurred after the circus incident.
    • Chase's line was also redubbed in this scene from saying she saw Two-Face's coin at the circus to seeing it at the bank, even though she's on the ground the whole time and Two-Face only flips his coin while inside the bank at its top floor.
• The Other Darrin: Two of them!
  • Michael Keaton briefly met with Joel Schumacher about reprising his role as Batman from the first two films, but decided not to join the project after deciding that he didn't like the direction in which Schumacher was looking to take the franchise. When asked about his decision to turn down the offer, Keaton responded with this.
    Keaton: To lighten up and brighten it up and be a cartoon was of no interest to me.
  • Tommy Lee Jones replaced Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Contrary to popular belief, Williams was only contracted for one Bat-film to begin with (that being, of course, Batman), and did not have his contract bought out, nor was he ever even approached about playing Two-Face (until The LEGO Batman Movie, at least).
  • In a brief third example, rather than use archive footage, the Wayne murder is re-shot with new actors.
• Playing Against Type: Tommy Lee Jones, who usually plays stoic Deadpan Snarker type characters, even in comedic movies where he's usually The Comically Serious, here plays Two-Face as an incredibly loony, off-the-wall villain in the 1960s Adam West Batman style.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Unlike Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher was a comic book fan.
  • Jim Carrey was a Batman fanboy as a child.
  • Chris O'Donnell was a fan of the Adam West TV series.
• Real-Life Relative: Chris O'Donnell's sister can be seen directly behind him in the party scene where Robin is first introduced to the public.
• Role Reprise: In the European French dub, instead of being voiced by Jim Carrey's official voice actor Emmanuel Curtil, the Riddler/Edward Nygma is voiced by Vincent Violette, reprising his role from Batman: The Animated Series.
• Sending Stuff to Save the Show: A small movement arose in 2021 to have the "Schumacher Cut" released following the one that successfully caused Zack Snyder's Justice League to be released, due to the amount of scenes that were cut from the film.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Tommy Lee Jones signed on as Two-Face because it was his son's favorite character.
• Throw It In!: As per usual with many of his roles, Jim Carrey improvised a lot of quirks and one-liners for The Riddler (such as the jogging at night joke) that weren't in the script. Schumacher would film two different takes for Carrey's scenes, letting him improvise in the second.
• Underage Casting: Nicole Kidman was 27 when she played Dr Chase Meridian and looked younger at times. She's far too young to be a renowned criminal psychologist who consults with the police; realistically she probably wouldn't have finished her PhD yet, plus it takes around a decade or more to become a qualified clinical psychologist, so it's highly unlikely she'd have her own practice or be experienced enough to be considered an expert in her field. Originally, Rene Russo was cast as Chase; at 39/40, her age was far more fitting for the character, but Russo got booted for being "too old".
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ethan Hawke and William Baldwin were initially approached for the role of Bruce Wayne before Val Kilmer was cast. However, Hawke turned down the offer due to fears of being typecast as the iconic comic book character. Hawke later admitted his regret at turning down the part due to the career opportunities that could've opened up for him. Baldwin would go on to voice the titular character in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and Hawke would voice Batman in Batwheels. Daniel Day-Lewis, Ralph Fiennes, Johnny Depp, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks and Keanu Reeves were also considered for the role of Batman before the casting of Kilmer. Reeves would later voice the character in DC League of Super-Pets.
  • Robin Williams was offered the part of Edward Nygma before the casting of Jim Carrey, but turned it down due to his anger at Warner Bros. for being previously used as bait to lure Jack Nicholson into committing to the Joker in Batman. Steve Martin was approached for the Riddler as well, but turned down the offer due to his reluctance to make movies after the death of his close friend, John Candy, and his divorce from his wife, Victoria Tennant. Micky Dolenz, Matthew Broderick and Michael Jackson were also considered for the role of the Riddler before the casting of Carrey.
  • Mel Gibson was originally offered the part of Harvey Dent before Tommy Lee Jones was cast. However, Gibson declined due to scheduling conflicts with Braveheart. Gibson was previously approached for Bruce Wayne in Batman. Al Pacino, Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro and Willem Dafoe were considered for Two-Face as well before the casting of Jones. Dafoe was previously considered for the Joker in Batman. Billy Dee Williams, who previously portrayed Harvey Dent in the Batman, reportedly had a clause put into his contract to reserve Two-Face for him in any potential sequels, which the studio had to buy out in order to cast Jones instead.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio and Marlon Wayans had discussions for the role of Dick Grayson before the casting of Chris O'Donnell. Wayans was originally cast as Robin when Tim Burton was attached to the film, but Joel Schumacher wasn't interested in portraying the character with a Race Lift. Danny Dyer, Milo Ventimiglia and Ben Affleck also auditioned for the part of Dick Grayson. Affleck would eventually go on to portray Batman in the DC Extended Universe. Ewan McGregor, Mark Wahlberg, Toby Stephens, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Scott Speedman were considered for the role of Dick Grayson as well before the casting of O'Donnell.
  • Rene Russo was originally chosen for the part of Chase Meridian before Nicole Kidman was cast. However, when Michael Keaton dropped out of the project, Russo was deemed "too old" to play the character and was subsequently sacked. Robin Wright, Linda Hamilton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Sandra Bullock and Cindy Crawford were also considered for the role of Chase Meridan before the casting of Kidman.
  • Michael Keaton briefly met with Schumacher about reprising his role as Batman from the first two films, but decided not to join the project after deciding that he didn't like the direction in which the studio was looking to take the franchise. When asked about his decision to turn down the offer, Keaton responded with this.
    Keaton: To lighten up and brighten it up and be a cartoon was of no interest to me.
  • Tim Burton had discussions about returning to direct a potential third Batman movie after Batman Returns, but left the production after feeling that the studio wasn't too keen on his latest ideas.
  • Initially, when he was first brought in to replace Burton, Schumacher wanted to adapt Batman: Year One as a prequel to Batman (1989), only to be shot down by the studio, who demanded a sequel to Batman Returns. Supposedly, this is also a partial reason for why Keaton left; he was in love with the idea of exploring the character’s origins and psychology (things that, in his opinion, were lacking in the previous film), and was disappointed in the studio’s insistence on yet another sequel where he would be outshined by the villains. Keaton would later go on to compare Batman Begins to where he wanted to take the series.
  • An early script for the film, written by Lee and Janet Scott Batchler (allegedly written with Keaton still in mind for the role) is substantially different in tone, despite maintaining many of the same story beats as the finished film. Bruce and Alfred's interactions are far lighter than the finished product, which featured rewrites by Akiva Goldsman to learn more heavily into drama (the "revenge has become your life" subplot). Bruce courts Chase Meridian by using the Riddler's puzzles as a pretext to meet her, and (in the draft) takes the riddles far less seriously. The Riddler himself (identified as "Lyle Heckendorf", who takes the alias of "E. Nigma") has more of a subplot, setting up how his brainwave experiment works (an additional scene would have shown him testing the device on his landlord, Mrs. Owens), and has a far more prominent lair in the final draft — when Batman enters Claw Island, he is confronted by a maze that features images of his past and his rogues' gallery (explicitly showing Joker, Penguin and Catwoman), based on Riddler's theft of his memory earlier in the film. The defacing of the "Lady of Gotham" statue is also far more prominent in the draft, and is repeatedly referred to afterwards via Continuity Nod to describe how Harvey's presence threatens the city.
  • The original version of ''Batman Forever'', before it was edited to make it more family-friendly. Most notable is the movie originally opens with Two-Face escaping Arkham with "The Bat Must Die" scribbled in blood on the wall (making the ending visit to Riddler in Arkham Book Ends), further developing Bruce's motivations for retiring from being Batman and an entire story beat after being shot in the head where he got Laser-Guided Amnesia of being Batman and has to revisit the cavern where he first encountered a swarm of bats (a traditional part of Batman lore). The novelization retains most of these sequences, several of the cut scenes appeared in the music videos for the movie, and the comic book adaptation includes a little more violence, specifically the large pools of blood around the fallen Graysons.
  • The cuts also would have changed the chronology of scenes in the finished cut: The Batsignal seen by Bruce at Wayne Enterprises is being helmed by Chase in the final cut, but it would've originally summoned him to the bank after Dent escaped Arkham in the deleted opener (which would explain the sirens Bruce hears when he sees it), and the scene with Chase on the roof would've been slotted before the Batmobile chase where it climbs the wall (with redubbing done to change the location where she noticed Two-Face's coin-flipping habit from the circus to the bank).
  • Early concepts of the final showdown on Claw Island had a huge, muscled, Riddler sitting on his throne when Batman finds him. The Riddler twists the two skulls on his armrests and the Riddler's muscled body is revealed to be a shell which splits in two, from which the real Riddler (wearing his white and green jumpsuit) steps out. This "Big Riddle" form of the Riddler was retained for the final showdown with him in the SNES and Genesis video game adaptations.
  • Two-Face’s henchmen Sugar and Spice were originally named Leather and Lace in the script. Their names were changed due to the fact that there were due to be McDonald’s toys of the characters.
• Working Title: Shot under the codename Blinko.
• You Look Familiar: Elizabeth Sanders-Kane, the then-wife of Batman co-creator Bob Kane, previously appeared as Gothamite #4 in Batman Returns. She played Gossip Gerty in this movie, as well as Batman & Robin.

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