Line #87 Headscratchers/BatmanAndRobin


1	* With Batman, Robin and Batgirl heading to the Gotham Observatory to prevent Mr. Freeze from freezing the Earth, why would Mr. Freeze just send a lone thug? The previous scene with the ice thugs had a good amount of them accompanying Freeze and Bane to the Observatory. Why wouldn't Mr. Freeze send all of his thugs to stop the heroes?
2	* Why was Mr. Freeze carrying around two vials of [=MacGregor=]'s Syndrome medicine in his suit? What possible use could he have for them? Did he know Batman was going to ask for them?
3	** He was keeping them stored in the most reliable cooler he could think of?
4	** [[CutLexLuthorACheck Why didn't he just market this medicine for more research into finding a cure for the stage of the disease his wife has? And, for that matter, why didn't he market the cryogenic technology he used to preserve his wife? There's no excuse for this version of Freeze to have turned to crime and start holding cities to ransom and blow all that money on death rays and getaway rockets.]]
5	*** Why? Because he's nuts, obviously. Seriously, that's the reason, both in the film, the comics, and the animated series. He isn't quite as cracked up as guys like ComicBook/TheJoker or ComicBook/TwoFace but he's not exactly sane either. Even before the accident that turned him into Mr. Freeze, he was heavily obsessed with curing his wife's condition. After the accident, his obsession kicked into overdrive and he stopped caring about ''anything'' except curing his wife. The thing you have to understand about pathological obsessions is the sufferer's focus on what, in their minds, seems like the most direct route to their goal. Anything that deviates from that route or adds extra steps along the way is an unacceptable distraction, even if it would produce the same result with a fraction of the effort. Based on this, I'd say that at some point in Movie!Freeze's (or The Freezinator as I like to call him) history he was in a position where turning to crime seemed like his only option. For instance, after his accident Freeze may have become unemployable. Rumors of rank incompetence and lax safety standards would swirl around him, damaging his scientific reputation. Universities and private companies would be understandably reluctant to fund a project that already turned one person into a mutant freak, and no doubt they would balk at the expense of maintaining a constant sub-zero environment for Freeze and fuelling his diamond-powered suit. After getting rejected enough times and becoming increasingly desperate Freeze could easily have concluded that the only way to get the research money he needed was by stealing it or blackmailing the city for it. And once he goes that far, well, there's no turning back. If he developed the early-stage cure after turning to crime it makes sense that he wouldn't sell it to fund his research. In his (now slightly unhinged) mind, crime is the most direct route to curing his wife. Anything else, including using the early-stage cure to get legitimate funding, is an unacceptable distraction.
6	** Also, please note that he calls himself "Mr. Freeze" instead of "Dr. Fries". He feels that he has disgraced his profession and won't use his title of Doctor.
7	** The question is ''why'' would he keep them with him? They are of no use to Nora!
8	** A "first step" memento.
9	** So that, even if his lair is raided or his notes destroyed, he always has a sample to build on and continue his research.
10	* Batman and Robin have lasers to melt each other out of ice. [[ForgottenPhlebotinum Why didn't they think to fire one at Freeze's leg or the bulky power pack on the back of his suit?]]
11	** It might kill or seriously injure him, I'd imagine.
12	** And on the other hand, who says that they can harm anything or anyone with those lasers? All we see them do is heat up water really quickly and melt ice. Do you know what that would do if you applied it to the outside of Freeze's cold suit? Make it expend slightly more energy than normal to keep him cool. Well, Whoop-de-do.
13	** Uhm, power them up?
14	** In answer to that question, let me ask you this one... can you turn a laser pointer into a laser gun by hooking it up to a car battery?
15	* Where exactly was that bike race supposed to end if the bridge was out?
16	** I asked the same question when I saw this movie. Maybe the race track has multiple branching paths and the riders are supposed to guess which one is the shortest route, only some of them have a deadly surprise at the end.
17	** I assumed that it was supposed to end with all the racers dying. Then the bookie (who set the race up) leaves town with everyone's money, safe in the knowledge that the racers all fell to their deaths. It's not like anyone racing here would save a rival, after all.
18	** Ooooh, a little bit of Burton's Gotham shines through here. Well played.
19	** You're damn right Burton's Gotham shines through. Watch the scene before the race closely. That one biker gang was raising a small child in that shit-hole, and keeping feral women on leashes.
20	** Actually, in Schumacher's Gotham, crime seems to be even ''worse'' than in Burton's. In both movies, the city's gang problem seems to be totally out of control, with small armies of weird, neon thugs overrunning entire blocks.
21	* When did public appearances become acceptable for Batman? At the same time, innocent civilians became bait.
22	** Though using the civilians as bait is disagreeable if we're to assume that the series has progressed in real time, Batman's existence has been public knowledge for eight years. Public appearances aren't much of a stretch, especially if he wants to be at said appearance to stop the current biggest threat in the city.
23	** Maybe around the time when he [[Film/BatmanForever decided to attend a high-profile criminal trial in full gear and during daylight (as opposed to his usual preference for night patrols), no less]].
24	* Poison Ivy can kill with her lips but what about her tongue? Even if Robin was wearing rubber lips, her tongue could easily get in and still poison him.
25	** She's overly confident in her poisoned kiss. It's had an excellent track record so far, and rubber lips were the last thing she was expecting.
26	** Still, it'd have to be one heck of a prudent kiss!
27	** Since she states that the chemicals "filled [her] ''lips'' with venom" apparently we're supposed to assume that only her lips are poisonous and her tongue is harmless.
28	** What was to stop her from ''grabbing'' Robin's head and forcibly kissing him just after the lips are off? He was close enough, and he wasn't really paying attention to her.
29	** Because he could logically have overpowered her before she could. At that moment, the best thing to do was to dispose of him quickly without much of a physical battle, which she tries to do by pushing him into the pool and letting her plants handle him.
30	* Who the hell let Mr. Freeze keep his suit after going to prison the second time when he's shown that he can freeze people using that instead of the gun?
31	** Probably the same person who thought it was morally sound to arrange him a cell to share with someone (of the opposite sex, mind you) that he would logically want to torture and kill.
32	** Oh, and probably the same person who earlier gave him a sharp object to carve an ice statuette of his wife with.
33	** That's a shiv. He probably made it (albeit only to carve sculptures, not to kill people).
34	** But he also put the ice sculpture in a glass. Someone had to have known he had that. And the clock he used as the base.
35	** Letting a prisoner have access to a shiv is slightly less of an issue when the said prisoner is physically incapable of moving five feet away from his own bed.
36	** It's not a prison, it's a mental hospital. Anybody who works in one will tell you that glass and loose bits of metal are a HUGE no-no. Some aren't even allowed hardcover books because of the potential for weapons and/or self-injury.
37	** I assumed that instead of putting him in that cell with her, they were just giving him the chance to terrify Poison Ivy for a minute before he goes to his cell, in return for his cooperation and continued work on [=MacGregor=]'s Syndrome.
38	** He would most likely make life hell for her simply by making it ''really cold'' in her cell. Plants freeze and die in the winter, after all.
39	** But then it's still lethal...
40	** The guards would remember how Poison Ivy and Bane killed a number of their fellow guards when they busted Freeze out. They probably would enjoy watching her squirm.
41	** [[FridgeBrilliance Come to think of it,]] it ''is'' Gotham after all. The guards are probably all violent, sadistic lowlifes who got a job there because a mafia don is paying off the administration. Those two guards Ivy killed looked pretty shady.
42	** The novelization has Freeze say that he used some of his diamonds to bribe the Arkham guards to let him in for just long enough to kill her.
43	** Batman promised Freeze he'd have his wife moved to the Arkham labs so he could continue his research to cure her, meaning he's be walking between his cell and the labs constantly. Freeze needed a 50 below zero environment to survive; nobody else could survive at such a temperature, and his suit was his only means to walk around freely AND stay at 50 below, so if he was to continue his research, he would need his suit.
44	* Why would Batman guarantee his own exposure with a bat credit card joke?
45	** Bruce Wayne probably owns the bank that issued it.
46	** Or it was a joke.
47	** He uses it to make payments on his HeroInsurance.
48	** It's completely possible that the card doesn't trace back to an individual person. It's not uncommon for businesses and organizations to have bank or credit cards the same as a personal account would, and with Batman's trademark resourcefulness, money could change hands a dozen times between Bruce or Wayne Enterprises and "the Batman Fund."
49	** Bruce adds a credit card to Wayne Financial, in the name of Batman, with no expiry date, and a bit of obfuscation, which draws on his own considerable finances, or a ghost account in the name of Batman. As far as the credit card company is concerned, the transaction is valid, and money is paid to the seller.
50	* Uma Thurman is, like, 6 and a half feet tall, right? How did they manage to make her look like she was roughly the same height as the other actors, while she was wearing high heels?
51	** During fight scenes, correctly sized body doubles. During all other scenes, carefully hidden platform shoes and soapboxes for the other actors to stand on.
52	** Uma Thurman is 5'11". Tall (for a woman), but not as tall as stated.
53	* How exactly was Freeze hoping to freeze the whole world with his ray cannon? Even if we assume that it has an infinite range, the ray is straight, and ''the world is round''. Meaning he could only fire it as far as the horizon. If I'm not mistaken, for the telescope standing, say, a hundred meters high, it would make 50 kilometers or so. And that is, of course, if nobody simply sends a bomber and blasts the telescope. With a bomb. Which he has no protection from. I know, it will sound a tad redundant, but that was the stupidest EvilPlan ever!
54	** He was going to use the mirrors in space to reflect the beam.
55	** Wouldn't the beam freeze the mirrors themselves? Even if it wouldn't, it took him several minutes to freeze one city in his immediate vicinity. How long did he hope to remain unchecked before somebody just launches a missile at him?
56	** He wasn't going to freeze the world. His plan was just going to hold the city of Gotham hostage. Though I suppose if the US government refused to pay the ransom the thought of using the satellite mirrors would have occurred to him eventually.
57	** That was his plan ''before'' Ivy convinced him Nora was dead. Afterward, he wanted nothing but to destroy the world. Ivy planned to repopulate the world with her own plant creatures once the ice thawed.
58	* If Ivy planned on killing Nora and blaming it on Batman to piss off Freeze enough to destroy the world, why didn't she ''actually'' kill her rather than leaving her body someplace where she could be easily found and restored offscreen?
59	** Arrogance. Pure and simple.
60	** Given Ivy probably knows squat about how the cryo-chamber works, actually killing Nora would have been more trouble than it's worth. The cops were already raiding the place, so it's not like Freeze could go back and see if Ivy was telling the truth.
61	** Actually Ivy states that she "pulled Nora's plug" and we see her do just that. It seems she did intend on killing her and simply thought that while unplugged Nora would die or drown (clearly she had to be fumbling around with the body as she swiped her pendant). Ivy meant to kill her, but Batman managed to save her in time.
62	* Why doesn't Poison Ivy just kiss Robin again? He removed the top part of it and even if the lower part still had the rubber on it, his upper lip was still now not covered with rubber. Shouldn't she have just kissed him again instead of shoving him into the water?
63	** At first this seems like a really big plot hole until you realize one major thing: this was marketed as a family film, so do you ''really'' think they would make Poison Ivy kill Robin (even if it still makes almost no sense)?
64	** There are a few reasons for this, even if they are a bit of a stretch. First, this was the first time someone had survived Ivy's kiss and she was outsmarted by Robin. He tricked her into revealing her plan, and to add insult to injury he basically stole a kiss from her. She was too angry and humiliated to think straight and shoved him to let out her anger. Also, she appears to be NotGoodWithRejection. When Batman resisted her charms she tried to have Bane kill him so she could focus on Robin. Since Robin revealed he's seen through her charms she "breaks up with him" by shoving him into the pond to drown him instead of just kissing him again.
65	** The first kiss was consensual. For the second one she'd have to physically overpower Robin, and as she admits herself, she's not a fighter. Also, shoving him in the water would've worked just as well if not for Batman and Batgirl arriving.
66	* After getting strapped down, why is Antonio just obediently lying still on the operating table instead of, you know, trying to escape and avoid the excruciating pain he is going to be subjected to? Those shackles look big enough for his hands to squeeze through.
67	** He volunteered for the job. Why should he have left then?
68	** By "volunteer", Woodrue was probably exaggerating. That guy does '''not''' want to be there. However, maybe he knows he's got no choice. Goons carried him in rather easily, and are still right there waiting in case he tries to bolt.
69	* How was Freeze planning to freeze the entire world if sunlight can thaw the ice?
70	** If memory serves, the plan wasn't just to keep it frozen, just use the freeze as a way to kill everyone so Ivy could populate the world with her dumb plant monsters. So, had Batman not shown up in the eleven minutes it takes for the freezing victims to die, it wouldn't have mattered if sunlight thawed anything.
71	* Is Bane's mask ever taken off? If not, then how does he keep himself fed? Surely, smashing walls and strangling people would use up a lot of energy.
72	** Who says he never takes it off or eats? That's just [[LawOfConservationOfDetail one of those little details that are irrelevant to the plot]]; it's safe to assume he does these things off-screen.
73	** I presumed he (or maybe Poison Ivy) mixed up a nutrient solution, similar to those given to people in comas/unable to ingest food, and fed him through his Venom tubes offscreen.
74	** It's also possible that Woodrue designed the Venom to enhance Antonio's metabolism so he wouldn't have to worry about such things.
75	* How long was Bane just standing in the lab, roaring, and flexing, before Poison Ivy picked him up? Didn't Woodrue think about moving him somewhere safe?
76	** If he can loudly murder somebody in their own lab, he probably considered the entire facility "somewhere safe."
77	* Bane is brain-damaged and can barely walk straight. So how is he able to operate a moving vehicle and obey traffic laws like a normal person?
78	** It's possible that Ivy used her newfound pheromones to make Bane slightly more intelligent to do such things.
79	* If the Venom goes into Bane's bloodstream, why is there never any blood going through those tubes on his head? Shouldn't Antonio have bled to death after the tubes were pulled off, or even before he is transformed?
80	** Maybe there're one-way valves there.
81	* If Freeze is deathly allergic to warmth, why does he smoke a cigar and wear polar bear slippers that ''aren't'' frozen like his robe?
82	** Well, we already know he decks his clothes out in special gear to cool him down, so maybe he has Doctor Schoel's-like pads built into the slippers, except they keep the slippers cold. As for the cigar, a tiny bit of heat like on the tip probably isn't going to hurt him.
83	** Mr. Freeze would be an expert on the RuleOfCool.
84	** Slippers aren't going to do much since his mutated body doesn't radiate heat. The reason warm clothes or blankets work is that your own body heat is now being produced in a tighter environment where it has no place to go but back through your skin.
85	** The real-world reason Mr. Freeze is smoking a cigar is because Arnold Schwarzenegger was addicted to cigars during shooting and wouldn't stop smoking them, even on camera, so they were painted white.
86	* Why is Barbara Alfred's niece in this universe?
87	** My guess is, they couldn't think of another quick way to get her into the Batcave.
88	** Apparently because producers were convinced that audiences wouldn't buy Alicia Silverstone as Pat Hingle's daughter.
89	* Does Arkham usually put men and women in the same cell together? On top of that, the man has a grudge against this woman for trying to kill his wife. Is this a revenge thing for the guards? What guarantees Freeze won't kill her or do they care?
90	** As stated above, they most definitely don't care, or maybe Freeze bribed them to place him there.
91	* How did Batman and the police discover that the ice cream factory was Mr. Freeze's hideout?
92	** They only went there after they had captured Freeze and a dozen of his men at the charity ball. Likely one of the goons, or maybe Freeze himself for some reason, squealed.
93	** A better question is: why ''didn't'' they find out? It was such an obvious hideout, you'd have to be stupid not to realize he was in there.
94	* Mr. Freeze's plan was for the rocket to plummet down to Gotham and reduce it to a crater, slaughtering thousands of people according to Batman. Wouldn't that include Mr. Freeze's wife in his hideout, thus destroying his entire motivation and decided livelihood?
95	** And how did Freeze himself plan on surviving the explosion? When he leaves the rocket, he uses a glider to slowly descend back to Gotham, the city that he was trying to blow up.
96	** Batman was talking out of his ass. Of course, such a small rocket with no warhead wouldn't destroy Gotham. It would've just been a chunk of metal falling down. Sure, there'd be some damage, but definitely not city-wide.
97	** It wasn't Freeze's plan at all. The rocket was for a quick escape (though he didn't really seem to need it; that tank it came out of ''picks him up'' from his landing site). Freeze simply recklessly disregarded the rocket in favor of the glider and as stated above, Batman exaggerated the theoretical damage.
98	* What is Two-Face's suit doing in the property locker at Arkham? He died in that outfit in the last movie.
99	** A deleted scene from ''Film/BatmanForever'' deals with Harvey escaping Arkham. The outfit could be from the previous time he was caught.
100	* This is a minor one, but what purpose does Freeze's hench girl (Vivica A. Fox) serve? She doesn't strike me as a fighter. Why would Freeze keep her around? Also, if he's still faithful to his wife, why allow a woman in skimpy clothes to walk around in your lair? Not going to question how she isn't freezing to death in her outfit.
101	** Why wouldn't he allow her to wear what she wants? And she could do all kinds of things from dealing with the finances to doing food runs.
102	** It's also possible she ''is'' one of the hockey goons, but decided to wear something sexy during their downtime to impress Freeze since she seems to have such a huge crush on him.
103	** She might just be a singer, and/or a hooker for his goons.
104	* Poison Ivy was sitting in her chair/plant when she kisses Robin. She fights him and Batman. Then Batgirl comes in and they fight. Batgirl pushes her into the chair/plant which eats her... no reason was given as to why her chair just ate her...
105	** One of two things happened: when simply lounging inside the plant, Poison Ivy didn't put enough pressure on its trigger mechanism to close it, but when she fell into it, the mechanism triggered and, like a perfect reflex action, the plant closed instinctively. Another possible reason is that Poison Ivy simply lost control of the plant due to being beaten up from the fight and her mind being otherwise occupied.
106	** Ivy wanted her plants to gain the strength and intelligence of animals so that they would hate all humans and could defend themselves against the harm of mankind. While Ivy fought Batgirl, the plants' intellect reached maturity, so when she fell in, the flower throne, [[GoneHorriblyRight recognizing her as a human]], and/or [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness without any more need from the human that raised them]], [[TheStarscream turned on their mother]].
107	** Better question is: what DID happen there? The plant clearly didn't ''actually'' eat her - she's physically fine later. Hell, it didn't even have anything to eat her ''with'' - there was just a cushion in the middle and some petals that served as a cover. Why would them closing around her suddenly send her thrashing and wailing, and turn her into a complete wreck? It really looked less like it (tried to) eat her and more like it... violated her. I'm sorry, but WTF?
108	** Well, in real life, Venus Flytraps release digestive enzymes to break down their prey after they’ve been captured. Could be it was trying to do that to Poison Ivy (if she designed that thing to eat humans, pretty sure its digestive fluids would be quite potent). It would explain her disheveled appearance later (being partially digested alive wouldn't be pleasant I imagine). As for why that wasn’t shown… maybe the special effects team couldn’t get it to look right without looking obscene, so just cut after the plant trapped her.
109	* Gordon has ''keys'' to the Bat-Signal. Actually not a bad idea. But it does raise the question: where would the keys even go on a giant searchlight? Is there a locked safety over the lever or something?
110	** Some power switches, like the ones on ''very'' early computers, do require a key. They would go on a panel, right next to the "ON" switch. The key locks it in the OFF position.
111	* If this version of Mr. Freeze can survive outside of his suit as long as it's freezing cold in the surrounding area, why doesn't he move to Antarctica, so he'll never have to wear it (the implication seems to be it's really unpleasant to wear)?
112	** Because this version of Freeze is also trying to extort money to continue his research into a cure for his wife. Antarctica is already frozen, so his threat wouldn't be very frightening to the dozen or so other people who live there. And if he were to move there after he succeeded, it wouldn't be a very great place to settle down considering that his wife, if she were to be revived, is still a normal human.
113	* Why didn't just Woodrue just inject Venom into Antonio's system with a syringe? Wouldn't that be less risky than drilling holes into his head which could very easily have killed him (unless he has skills in trephination)?
114	* Kind of a meta-headscratcher, but what's with the keyboard in the Observatory? For those who don't know, we get a few shots of the keyboard when Batman is typing on it and, as [[https://www.reddit.com/r/batman/comments/8652w6/pretty_sure_i_found_the_biggest_mistake_in_batman/ this screenshot]] shows, it's a really weird prop where the letters are in really messed up layout (which doesn't even have all 26 letters!), the spacebar is at the top, there's only an up and down arrow key, and so on. Was it just some weird joke/EasterEgg they did?

Context Headscratchers / BatmanAndRobin