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"Hi, Freeze. I'm Batman."
George Clooney, as Batman

1997's Batman & Robin was the fourth and final film in the Batman Film Series. Like its predecessor, Batman Forever, it was headed by Joel Schumacher and retains that film's campier style, dual villains, and cartoonish aesthetic... and then some.

Following up the storyline from the previous movie, Batman (played by George Clooney) and Robin (played by Chris O'Donnell) are now a duo and do battle with the new cold-themed villain, Mr. Freeze (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger). The combative nature of their partnership is further tested by the emergence of a second villain, Poison Ivy (played by Uma Thurman), who has a grudge to bear against all mankind and drives a seductive wedge between the heroes. When Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze form an unusual partnership and plan to freeze Gotham and take over the world, the Dynamic Duo appears outmatched. Good thing Alfred's niece Barbara (played by Alicia Silverstone) is in town and he made her a form-fitting batsuit.

The film also stars Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth, Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon and Elle Macpherson as Julie Madison.

The Caped Crusader wouldn’t grace the silver screen again until 8 years later when Christopher Nolan rebooted the saga with The Dark Knight Trilogy.

Not to be confused with the Batman and Robin (Serial), the Grant Morrison comic series of the same title, or the Frank Miller series All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.


This film provides examples of:

  • Aborted Arc:
    • Julie Madison, Bruce's steady girlfriend in the film, was originally scripted to have a more prominent role where Poison Ivy actually killed her and motivated Bruce for revenge. This was cut by the time of filming, but the movie clearly still has elements of this in the screenplay and Julie abruptly vanishes from the film in the third act without even so much as a reference as to where she is.
    • In 2017, Coolio revealed his "Banker" character was actually the Scarecrow, who was planned to be the main villain of a fifth film. Of course, this never came to pass.
  • Adaptational Wimp:
    • The unpowered version of Dr Jason Woodrue depicted in this movie is far less of a threat than his comic book counterpart “The Floronic Man”, only serving to turn Pamela into Poison Ivy before being easily seduced and accordingly killed off by her.
    • This even happens to Bane. A far cry from the fearsome Genius Bruiser who nearly killed Batman in his first comic appearance, he's reduced to a near-brainless lackey of Freeze and Ivy who doesn't put up much of a fight against the main trio even while juiced up on Venom: and in the end, gets easily dispatched in one move by Robin and Batgirl, of all people.
    • As mentioned above, Banker, the head of the underground bike-race ring that Barbara partakes in, was supposed to have been the Scarecrow. Banker doesn't even raise to the level of this movie's Bane, much less Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Batgirl is a blonde here rather than a redhead (although this might be due to the character taking cues from Bette Kane). This Barbara is also Alfred's niece, instead of Jim Gordon's daughter, so she's not exactly the same character.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Barbara Gordon becomes Barbara Wilson, on account of being Alfred's niece instead of Jim Gordon's daughter.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy haven't had much meaningful interactions in the comics even up to now (aside from joining forces with a mob of other Batman villains to try to attack Batman all at once) and have almost no relationship to speak of even in most other Batman media. In this movie, the two of them are allies and Poison Ivy is the one who pulls the plug on Freeze's wife so she can have Freeze to herself.
  • Adapted Out: Ferris Boyle is omitted from this version of Freeze's origin, making the circumstances behind his transformation into a complete accident.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: During the heist on the Gotham Museum, one of the police officers asks Mr. Freeze to spare his life, but he takes none of it and freezes the officer in response.
    Police Officer: Please... show some mercy!
    Mr. Freeze: MERCY?! I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy. [fires his Freeze Ray at the officer]
    Police Officer: NO-! [freezes solid]
  • Almost Kiss: Poison Ivy and Robin almost kiss twice at Freeze’s hideout but are interrupted by Batman both times. Subverted once they are at Ivy’s lair and they finally kiss.
  • Alternate DVD Commentary: A RiffTrax has been made, with all the gags submitted by fans of the site. This was also the first of the Batman films DVD Podblast took on.
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Ivy-league Batgirl actually tells Poison Ivy to read a book sometime.
  • And Starring: The movie has “Jeep Swenson as Bane” in the end credits.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: There's actually a surprisingly deep quote in this movie which captures the existential nature of Batman's character.
    Alfred: Death and chance stole your parents. But rather than become a victim, you have done everything in your power to control the fates. For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world, an attempt to control death itself?
  • The Artifact: When Barbara/Batgirl fights Poison Ivy, she oddly seems really freaked out when Ivy draws a knife. This is because there was going to be a scene where Ivy stabs Julie Madison that was removed (thus explaining why Julie disappears for no apparent reason partway through the movie.)
  • Artistic License – Biology: The cops in Mr. Freeze's lair SCREAM "My lungs! My LUNGS are FREEZING!", courtesy of some freezing gas by the icy villain. How, pray tell, does Joel Schumacher explain their ability to form sounds, much less scream, when their lungs are freezing? How on earth does just one organ system in particular freeze out of the many in the human body? And how are you able to just get up from having your lungs frozen and continue like nothing happened immediately after someone turns off the gas?
  • Artistic License – History: Mr. Freeze's throwaway remark: "What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!" The dinosaurs were actually indirectly killed by an asteroid crashing into the Earth, and that the Ice Age didn't occur until sixty-three million years later, though the resulting Nuclear Winter was effectively an Ice Age that led to the extinction of the Dinosaurs within a few years of the impact.
  • Artistic License – Physics: All over the place. Prominent example being Batmand & Robin surfing through the sky on the escape pod doors. At one point late in the movie, the heroes have to scale a wall that looks hundreds of feet tall. They do so using their grappling hooks. Aside from the question of where the hell all the hundreds of feet of cable are when they aren't using the grappling hooks, there's no way you could shoot straight up and have the hook actually go that high without gravity getting in the way.
  • Asshole Victim: The two guards Ivy kills to spring Freeze from Arkham.
  • Auction of Evil: Near the start of the film, Dr. Jason Woodrue (Floronic Man in the comics) holds an auction for Bane and his "Venom" super soldier serum. Too bad that Pamela Isley, after having an entire shelf of chemicals dumped on her, turned into Poison Ivy and gave him a Kiss of Death before taking Bane with her as she burns down the lab.
  • Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The only reason this movie seems to be rated PG-13 instead of PG is because of Poison Ivy's endless and blatant sexual innuendo.
  • Award-Bait Song: Gotham City by R. Kelly. Its remix, featuring rapper Stringz, is slightly less pretentious but is not included on the soundtrack.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Bat and Freeze suits were notoriously difficult to move in, specifically the neck (Batman wouldn't be able to turn his head until the Dark Knight Saga). Though you can see hints of this in the previous films, with two characters in stiff suits, it becomes much more prominent.
  • Awkward Kiss: Zigzagged with Poison Ivy and Robin. Robin has been in love with Ivy for most of the film while Poison Ivy has been trying to kill Robin with her poisoned kiss. She eventually succeeds in getting Robin to share a kiss with her after luring him to her lair and gaining his trust by telling him what she and Freeze have planned. After the kiss though she kills the mood by taunting him, believing he will die, only for him to take off his rubber lips and reveal he was immune to her poison. This development shocks Ivy as she realizes she just explained everything to Robin and revealed she didn't really love him. She regains herself shortly after and shoves Robin into her pond as revenge for humiliating her and stealing a kiss from her.
  • Bachelor Auction: In a gender inversion, Batman and Robin are at an auction and try to outbid each other for Poison Ivy, with Batman winning and paying for it with his Bat credit card.
  • Backstab Backfire: Poison Ivy betrays both Freeze and Robin, neither working out well for her.
    • She betrays Freeze by pulling the plug of his wife's life support and leaving her to die so that she can have Freeze for herself — and even lying to Freeze about who "deactivated" her. Batman manages to save Freeze's wife though and records Ivy's confession of the attempted murder and shows it to Freeze.
    • Ivy flirts with Robin for most of the film, making him think she loves him to get him to share a poison kiss with her. She finally manages to kiss him in her lair after gaining his trust by telling him what she and Freeze have planned and then mocks him immediately afterwards. Robin however reveals he was wearing rubber lips that protected him from her poison, meaning she just revealed her plan and exposed herself to Robin for nothing.
  • Bad Date: This is essentially how the final confrontation between Robin and Poison Ivy goes. Ivy spends a majority of the film flirting with Robin and convincing him she loves him, to tear him and Batman apart and eventually kill him with a poison kiss. However, they are constantly interrupted before they can kiss by Batman. Eventually, Ivy lures Robin to her lair under the pretense of her love for him and they meet in the center, finally isolated from anymore potential interruptions and essentially allowing them to finally have a real date together. The two cuddle on Ivy's throne while flirting together, with Robin trying to see if Ivy is really trustworthy and Ivy trying to seduce Robin for a kiss. Eventually, Ivy agrees to explain what she and Freeze have planned together in exchange for Robin kissing her "for luck". Ivy reveals her true colors immediately after they share a romantic and passionate kiss though, and condemns Robin to death, only for Robin to reveals he was playing her himself and protected himself from her poison, with her failing the Secret Test of Character he planned for her. As Robin smugly rubs in how he outsmarted Ivy, Ivy shoots Robin a dirty glare in humiliation over him outsmarting her and stealing a kiss from her, with the entire romantic mood between them destroyed. Ivy ends up shoving Robin into her lily pond in anger, and the plants attempt to drown Robin for angering her. Their "date" ends with Ivy strutting away, turning to Robin one last time with a smirk as he struggles for air to mockingly wave him goodbye while shouting a taunting "See ya!" to him, officially "breaking up" with him.
  • Bait the Dog: Poison Ivy seduces Robin by playing on his ego, telling him he can be his own man instead of just a sidekick, and makes him fall in love with her just to kiss him. Alone in her lair, she gets much closer to Robin, laying beside him on a throne and leaning in closer to him to tempt him. Her final plea to share a quick kiss with him is to call him "her love" with a seductive smile. As the two of them slowly lean in for a kiss, Ivy can't help but smirk evilly to herself.
  • Bald of Evil: Mr. Freeze lost his hair in the accident that turned him into a (literally) cold-blooded villain.
  • Ballroom Blitz: Bruce organizes a charity auction sale of diamonds in order to lure Mr. Freeze. Poison Ivy infiltrates the party in a pink gorilla costume, takes it off and seduces everybody with her love perfume, then Freeze crashes the party.
  • Batman Cold Open: Surprisingly averted. Batman and Robin are called to stop a very plot-relevant museum robbery by Mr. Freeze.
  • Bat Signal: Robin gets his coveted "Robin Signal" later on deployed by Poison Ivy to lure him into a deadly trap. Which is just what Batman had in mind.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game: Robin is able to outsmart Ivy and trick her into telling him her plan by pretending to still be in love with her like she pretended to love him until he could discover if she could truly be trusted and managed to use her own kiss against her in determining her trust. Slightly downplayed by Ivy ultimately getting the last laugh over Robin in their "relationship," shoving him into her pond to drown him and leaving him as a way of "breaking up with him," but Robin survives with the info and Ivy is defeated shortly afterwards.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Poison Ivy pulls the plug off the cryogenic pod of Mr. Freeze's wife because she wanted to have Mr. Freeze all to herself. She got more than she bargained for when Freeze is transferred to Arkham as her cellmate and that he plans to make her life a "living hell" for the attempted murder of his wife.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: Barbara Wilson uses one to escape her bedroom in the Wayne Manor so that she could go out on one of her nightly motorcycle races with the local Gotham City gangs.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Freeze and Poison Ivy work together to thwart Batman and Robin. While this alliance begins on the right foot, Poison Ivy eventually pulls the plug on the life support for Freeze's wife and blames Batman for it in order to manipulate Freeze.
  • The Big Damn Kiss: The kiss between Robin and Poison Ivy is played as this, being the climax of their "relationship" right before things fall apart between them. Poison Ivy has spent most of the film seducing Robin, making him fall in love with her and making him think she loves him too. Poison Ivy eventually lures Robin to her lair under the pretense of said-love for him, but while this appears like the two of them finally having a "proper date" together without interruptions, they both secretly are trying to get something out of the encounter; with Ivy wanting to kill Robin with a poison kiss and Robin wanting to test if Ivy's love for him is genuine with a Secret Test of Character. Once they meet in the center of the lair, Ivy's plants help set the romantic mood between them, and the two proceed to flirt heavily with each other and declare their love for each other. Eventually, Ivy convinces Robin to share one quick kiss with her "for luck" against Freeze, and as the two slowly lean towards each other, and the background music swells dramatically, gaining a dangerous tone as Ivy flashes a quick evil smirk, until they finally share a passionate kiss together. Immediately after the kiss though, they both reveal their lies and mistrust to each other, with Ivy showing her true colors and condemning Robin to death and Robin revealing he outsmarted Ivy and protected himself from her poison to steal a kiss from her, killing all the romantic atmosphere between them. After a moment of silence with Ivy glaring at Robin, she lunges at him and shoves him off her throne, with him splashing into her pond and the plants that were part of the romantic setting immediately turning on him and trying to drown him. Ivy leaves him too his fate, strutting away and mockingly waving him goodbye, while quickly taunting him "See ya!" as she does so to rub in that she's "breaking up with him". The moment almost plays out like a date gone wrong and a couple breaking up over a bad kiss.
  • Big "NO!":
    • The police officer at the start of the film when Mr. Freeze refuses his pleas for mercy.
    • Batman yells one to Robin just before he gets frozen by Mr. Freeze for his recklessness.
    • Robin delivers one when Batman disables his Redbird controls out of concern for the "Boy" Wonder's safety.
    • Poison Ivy does another one when her giant plant closes on her, trapping her, after Batgirl knocks her onto it during their fight.
  • Billed Above the Title: Schwarzenegger got top billing in the poster over George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell, who were playing the starring duo Batman and Robin respectively.
  • Bizarrchitecture: The Gotham Observatory is situated at the top of a giant fortress wall, with a statue holding up its hand...to hold the observatory.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity:
    • Mr. Freeze, despite being armed and fully powered, actually goes so far as to say "I'll kill you next time!" when Batman is stopped, panicked, and off-balance, and right after he has just shot Robin anyway. The question of "Why not just shoot him now?!" is never addressed.
    • A lesser example, after Poison Ivy's kiss fails to kill Robin, she shoves him into the pond to drown him instead of just kissing him again after he removed the rubber lips. Then instead of staying to make sure he died, she tries to leave while simply saying "See ya!" and treating it as a break-up instead of trying to kill her enemy.
  • Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Played with in a number of ways: Mr. Freeze is both extremely intelligent and able to physically dominate Batman on occasion; however, it's shown that without his super-refrigerated suit and a subzero environment, he becomes very weak and even near death. Also double-subverted by Bane, who is so stupid that he can only repeat a few words he hears and has muscles on top of muscles - but all that physical strength is the result of a nasty steroid formula that was pumped into Bane's normally scrawny body.
  • Brain Uploading: It turns out that Alfred has his brain already uploaded to the Bat-Computer. While this may seem prudent considering his imminent death, we are given no hints about this beforehand and it's only to justify Barbara having a pre-made Batgirl suit ready for her.
  • The Brute: Bane. Say what you will about how the character was written and performed, the appearance and feats are bang on.
  • Burning with Anger: Mr. Freeze appears to burn cold. His eyes and breath glow in the dark in the film's climax, coinciding with Nora's apparent death at the hands of Batman, which kicks off Freeze's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Call-Back:
    • Robin's first lines: "I want a car! Chicks dig the car." The second sentence is a close approximation to a line of Batman's in the previous film when he asked Chase Meridian, "It's the car, right? Chicks love the car."
    • Once again, Batman repeats "I'm Batman" when he first encounters Mr. Freeze (see page quote).
    • The expiration date of the BAT CREDIT CARD is "Forever."
    • The Batcave once again has an "intruder alert" alarm like Batman Forever. This time, its voice is provided by Alfred.
  • Came Back Strong: Poison Ivy. When Dr. Woodrue explains that he used her research to further his own experiments for world domination, Pamela is completely outraged and disgusted at how he's perverted her work, prompting him to try killing her by pushing a table of chemicals and assorted types of venom onto her. The toxins she's covered in then melt into the ground and completely swallow her up. After some time later she emerges back up, dripping with deadly allure.
  • The Cameo:
    • Coolio as Banker, who takes bets in illegal motorcycle races. He later revealed in 2017 that, had a fifth movie been made, that Banker would turned out to be an Early-Bird Cameo of the Scarecrow.
    • Vivica A. Fox as Ms. B. Haven, whom Freeze spurns in favor of Nora.
    • Patrick Leahy, Senator of Vermont and longtime Batman fan, appeared as himself at a celebrity auction, bidding on Poison Ivy.
  • Camp: Following in the footsteps of the previous film Batman Forever, but turned up to eleven. It backfired spectacularly.
  • Captain Obvious: After Robin and Batman have fought for a second time they talk about Poison Ivy, and Batman, the world's greatest detective gives us:
    Robin: I can't believe we were fighting over a bad guy.
    Batman: Bad? Yes. Guy? No.
  • Card-Carrying Villain:
    • Mr. Freeze, who even shouts "Kill the heroes!" It is also worth mentioning that his only non-ice-related pun in the whole film, if memory serves, is the one identifying himself and Poison Ivy as "Adam and Evil."
    • Poison Ivy indulges in this as well, bragging over the deaths she causes and even shouts "So many people to kill, so little time!"
  • Carrying the Antidote: Mr. Freeze has a partial cure for the disease his wife is suffering from in his suit. Batman needs it for Alfred, who suffers from the same disease.
  • Catch-22 Dilemma: When Robin meets with Poison Ivy in her lair they are both trying to get something from the other. Robin wants Poison Ivy to prove she can be trusted about loving him and promising to "turn over a new leaf" for him, while Poison Ivy is trying to seduce Robin to get him to share a Kiss of Death with her. Their conversation eventually reaches the point where Poison Ivy tells Robin to kiss her first before she tells him what she and Freeze have planned, and Robin tells her to tell him first before he kisses her. Ivy is ultimately the one to give in first, believing it won't matter if Robin knows the plan or not since he will die from her kiss regardless. Though Robin manages to outdo Ivy one more time by protecting his lips with rubber to survive her poison, managing to escape from her lair with both her plan and her kiss.
  • Chair Reveal: Poison Ivy invokes this on her plant throne when she calls Robin to her lair to seduce him, complete with a provocative recline befitting the villainess.
  • Charity Ball: Batman and Robin attend one in full costume and meet Poison Ivy there.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The satellite light relay system that's used to defrost Gotham City.
    • The giant telescope.
    • Freeze's mystery cure for MacGregor Syndrome.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Barbara's judo lessons come in handy as Batgirl.
  • Chewing the Scenery:
    • Robin's infamous "COWABUNGAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" as he slides off a rooftop, riding on a door, after jumping out of Mr Freeze's exploding rocket.
    • About 90% of Arnie's lines as Freeze, albeit in a strangely subdued way. Kinda like Freeze's supposed lack of emotions... except, apparently, for a horribly cheesy sense of humor.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Dr. Chase Meridian, Batman's/Bruce's love interest from Batman Forever, is nowhere to be seen or mentioned. What's especially strange about this example is that even Forever had references to Bruce's previous love interests in Batman and Batman Returns even though that film was made by a different crew and director... but despite the fact that & Robin was made by the same people as Forever, it totally writes off the previous film's love interest.
  • Clark Kenting: After Pamela Isley becomes Poison Ivy, she disguises herself in her civilian identity by wearing a wig to cover her new red hair and a pair of glasses. When she appears in public as Poison Ivy she disguises herself in several different costumes, different hair styles and a "mask" made out of ivy leaves. When she meets with Robin in her lair later, she has replaced her "mask" with red eyeshadow that match her hair and new red dress.
  • Clothing Damage: The chemical cocktail that Pamela Isley falls into not only turns her into Poison Ivy, it tears up her formerly frumpy clothes to make her sexier, naturally leaving enough clothing to keep her PG-13.
  • Cock Fight: Happens between Batman and Robin thanks to Poison Ivy's pheromones.
  • Cold Ham: Mr. Freeze definitely (yes, haha, cold).
  • Combat Stilettos: Poison Ivy and Batgirl wears thigh high boots with high heels during her fight.
  • Complexity Addiction: Mr. Freeze steals several massive (roughly the size of a fist) diamonds to power a freeze-ray that he then takes to the local observatory so as to freeze all of Gotham in order to ransom the city to fund his research for a cure to MacGregor's Syndrome. Why he doesn't fence the diamonds, or patent his cure to Stage One MacGregor's Syndrome, or even sell his freeze ray to fund his research, is never explained.Probable explanation 
  • Composite Character:
    • An odd case of Mr. Freeze being a composite of the Batman: The Animated Series interpretation that brought the character out of obscurity and the '60s TV series that originally named him. Someone decided it would be a good idea to mix the tragic backstory of the former with the cackling, pun-spouting Mad Scientist of the latter.
    • Bane here is closer to a character from the comics named Ivan, later known as Ivor. Like this Bane, Ivan doesn't speak much except for short and simple sentences. The scene where Ivy disguises herself with a wig and Bane/Ivan drives her from the airport comes from 1981's Batman #339. Just like Bane, Ivan is turned into a powerful half-man, half-plant (in 1982's Batman #344) that's enhanced with a formula that is based on Ivy's (which she developed to create carnivore plants).
    • Barbara Wilson/Batgirl is a composite of Barbara Gordon and Alfred's niece, Daphne (who first shows up in 1969's Batman #216).
  • Continuity Cameo: The man who turns Pamela Isley into Poison Ivy is Jason Woodrue, who in the comics is the Floronic Man, an enemy of the Atom.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The Riddler's and Two-Face's Batman Forever costumes are hung in plain sight within the closet at Arkham Asylum.
    • A more subtle callback to Forever can be found in the infamous Bat Credit Card scene. Take a close look at the card; its "good through" date is Forever.
    • Alfred makes a quip when the new Batmobile is revealed, something to the effect of "Do try and bring this one back in one piece, sir!", alluding to the tremendous amount of Bat-tech that the Caped Crusader destroyed over the course of three movies. It also alludes to the Riddler blowing up the Batcave and the Batmobile along with it in Forever.
    • The Batcave itself is also a visual continuity nod. While it's the same set from Forever with the same layout, it's been redesigned and expanded both because Bruce is no longer working alone and because of the damage inflicted by the Riddler's rampage.
    • The Lock-and-Load Montage at the beginning.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Mr. Freeze is trapped by an "ice beam" in Arkham Asylum, but it only seems to work in the area immediately surrounding his bed.
  • Conveniently Cellmates: At the end, former partners Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze are put in the same cell. It is implied in the original screenplay that Mr. Freeze bribed the guards to put him in Poison Ivy's cell.
  • Cool Car: Aside from their ostensibly commercial purposes, the Batmobile of this movie could certainly be one, and Robin's Redbird motorcycle ain't too shabby either.
  • Cosmopolitan Council: The super serum auction, the "Un-United Nations," has one of these, each displaying their own national stereotype. Please note the Token Evil American in the trope page.
  • Costume Porn:
    • At least according to the director, certain decisions shouldn't have been so controversial.
      Joel Schumacher: I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically erotic.
    • People, Batgirl's suit does have nipples. They're just not displayed nearly as prominently due to concerns over an "R" rating.
    • The metallic armor Mr. Freeze sports also counts. There were only two of them, handmade by a tinsmith with individual working pieces and weighing in at about one-hundred pounds each! There were likely pragmatic reasons for casting Arnold Schwarzenegger... somebody had to wear this thing.
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    • How prepared is Batman? He has pop-out ice-skates in his boots and a Bat-zamboni to drive around in.
    • Freeze had some spare cooling compound to "winterize pipes" just in case he needed to break out of a fortified cell.
    • Robin takes after Batman in this as well. After finally sharing a kiss with Poison Ivy in her lair he reveals he was wearing rubber lips to protect himself, just in case Batman’s theory about her poisoned kiss was correct.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Dr. Woodrue creates Bane to auction off to world dictators. Woodrue is also responsible for the transformation of Pamela Isley to Poison Ivy after having thought to have killed her, but that was largely by accident, and it doesn't end well for Woodrue.
  • Crowd Hockey: When Mr. Freeze is trying to steal a giant diamond and the heroes and henchman play actual hockey (complete with sticks and skates) to get it back.
  • Crusading Widow: Mr. Freeze partakes in villainy to provide enough material to study his wife's sickness.
  • Cryonics Failure: Zigzagged; Poison Ivy attempted to kill Nora by unplugging her cryotube, but Batman managed to save her life.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Batgirl arrives at Ivy’s lair she kicks her butt in less than five minutes and leaves her trapped in her own throne with no trouble at all.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Mr. Freeze decides to build a giant freeze ray out of several dozen very large and valuable diamonds in order to hold the city hostage for money rather than, well, fencing the diamonds over the black market.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: Exploited, as not only is Mr. Freeze unable to survive outside his suit for long due to his heat sensitivity, but Arkham Asylum's administrators build a Tailor-Made Prison out of some sort of refrigeration beam.
  • Dating Catwoman: Robin believes he is doing this with Poison Ivy. He is in love with Poison Ivy and thinks that she loves him too. Even after he finds out she is a villain who helped Freeze escape Arkham, he believes she loves him enough to change sides so they can be together. Actually, she is only flirting with him and pretends to love him to tear him and Batman apart. They officially "break up" after Robin comes to his senses and takes precautions against Ivy's kiss, and Ivy shoves him into the pond for his treachery.
  • Death by Falling Over: It was probably Dr Woodrue's intention to kill Pamela Isley this way. Instead, she became Poison Ivy.
  • Death Glare: Poison Ivy gives Robin a furious one when he reveals her kiss didn't work on him and he tricked her into revealing her plans. She then shoves him into the pond to drown him.
  • Declarative Finger: Mr. Freeze does it when told by Ivy that his wife is dead: "You LAWYE!"
  • Designated Girl Fight: Poison Ivy is reserved for Batgirl. She takes out both Robin and Batman with astonishing ease in her lair — should Barbara not have butted in and become Batgirl all by herself, Poison Ivy would actually have won.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Mr. Freeze, at least thrice:
    • After Ivy fools him into thinking that Batman pulled the plug on his cryogenically frozen wife. ("If I must suffer, humanity will suffer with me!")
    • After Batman defeats him in hand-to-hand combat, smashing his protective glass helmet (without which he will die) and leaving him lying on his back and cringing under a beam of sunlight. He decides to kill Batman along with himself, pressing a button on his armor that triggers the bombs that Bane had earlier placed around the observatory and screaming "FREEZE IN HELL, BATMAN!".
    • And once more after the bombs fail to kill anyone — including himself — Freeze bitterly demands Batman kill him, still believing him to be responsible for killing Nora. After Batman uses a video recorder device to reveal that Poison Ivy was in fact the one who did it, he breaks down howling in despair. Fortunately, he's snapped out of it by Batman revealing that he and Robin had in fact found and saved Nora in time, and in return for his help, promises Victor the means to legitimately continue his research from Arkham.
    Freeze: (painfully gasping for breath) Go on... kill me, too. Just as you killed my wife.
    Batman: I didn't kill your wife. (takes out the video recorder, and plays back footage from the Turkish Baths)
    Freeze: (stares at the screen in stunned horror, before breaking down completely)
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • After his kiss with Ivy, Robin one-ups her by pulling off his rubber lips that protected him while sitting right next to her, with their faces still inches apart. He could have kept them on and surprised her by tackling her, but instead he decided to taunt Ivy's failure to kill him, and was shoved into her pond and almost drowned as a result.
    • Ivy, for her part, could have grabbed Robin and forced a second kiss on him, but was so angry and humiliated that he outsmarted her and stole a kiss from her that she shoves him away to drown him instead. Then she leaves him to his fate instead of staying to finish the job, and taunts him with a smug "see ya!" like she was breaking up with him for humiliating her instead of trying to kill him for knowing too much.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Poison Ivy is an expert at this, using her beauty and love dust to make nearly any man fall for her and stop whatever they are doing just to be near her. Robin falls so hard for her that he completely forgets she's a villain and doesn't try to break away to help Batman fight Bane, although he later doesn't fall for her seduction as easily when he's trying to find out if she's really in love with him like she claims.
  • Double Entendre: Half of Poison Ivy's dialogue, and all of George Clooney's during his promotional work.
  • Double Standard: Both in-universe and in audience reactions, in regards to the presence and absence of "bat-nipples" in the character suits.
  • The Dragon: Bane to Poison Ivy.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Mr. Freeze to Poison Ivy.
  • Dragon Their Feet: Both Bane and Mr. Freeze are defeated 10-20 minutes after Poison Ivy.
  • Dressed All in Rubber: As Poison Ivy noticed, Batman wear a rubber suit ("There's something about an anatomically correct rubber suit that puts fire in a girl's lips"). She is herself dressed in a green latex catsuit at this moment.
  • Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Poison Ivy with her thigh high boots and opera gloves.
  • Drugged Lipstick: Poison Ivy actually has poisonous lips, and kills the mad doctor inadvertently responsible for her creation with a kiss. She tries to do the same to Robin later, but the rubber lips he's wearing protect him.
  • Dull Surprise: Alicia Silverstone's reaction to everything. George Clooney also doesn't show a lot of variety in emotion, mostly because he seems to realize what kind of movie he's in and acts accordingly.
  • Dumb Muscle: Bane. He can follow orders, but is unable to form sentences and just repeats a word or two that he hears someone else say.
  • Dutch Angle: The film has a lot of them, particularly when Poison Ivy breaks Mr. Freeze out of jail.
  • Dying Curse:
    • Poison Ivy literally yells "Curses!" just before she is eaten by her own Man-Eating Plant. Subverted because she's later shown to be fine.
    • Mr. Freeze himself yells "Freeze in Hell, Batman!" during his last attempt to kill himself and Batman.
  • Electronic Speech Impediment: A virtual version of Alfred Pennyworth the butler in the Batcave has a case of the Max Headroom electronic stutters.
  • Elite Mook: Bane is essentially relegated to this role, basically becoming a Dumb Muscle henchman for Poison Ivy.
  • Endless Winter: Mr. Freeze's plot is to freeze Gotham City using a massive version of his freeze ray.
  • Engineered Public Confession: "As I told Lady Freeze when I pulled her plug, this is a one-woman show."
  • Everyone Owns a Mac: The movie shows that the Bat-cave's computer is a Mac, it is seen running Mac OS 7 where Alfred's AI (a QuickTime video!) on the computer interacts with his niece.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Poison Ivy. Apparently knocking a nerdy scientist into an undisclosed combination of chemicals will cause her to turn into a hot chick.
  • Evil Is Hammy: In typical Batman fashion.
  • Evil Plan: Mr. Freeze's plan is to use a diamond-powered ice ray to blackmail Gotham into giving him the research money he needs to Find the Cure! for his wife's condition. Poison Ivy wants to reclaim the world for the plants of the world, but that quickly falls by the wayside in favor of getting Freeze for herself, which she tries to do by means of trying to kill Nora and blaming her deactivation on Batman, resulting in Freeze deciding to try to ice the whole city in revenge.
  • Exact Words: Poison Ivy asks Robin to kiss her for luck before he leaves her lair to stop Freeze. She doesn’t say until after the kiss that it’s for "bad" luck.
  • Extreme Close-Up: Robin confronts Poison Ivy in her lair, trying to determine if she can be trusted and if her love for him is real like she claims, as Ivy is begging Robin to kiss her just once before he leaves to confront Mr. Freeze. The screen changes to focus entirely on her lips as she whispers "for luck" to him, and stays there for a moment as her lips curl into a seductive smile.
  • Fanservice: Batgirl suiting up with prominent shots of her crotch, boobs, and ass. Contrary to popular belief, her suit actually does carry some form of the Bat-Nipples found on Batman and Robin's suits, though due to concerns regarding the film's rating, they're not nearly as prominent. The suit-ups of the men include their manly chests and their manly sculpted butts, so there's enough suit-up service to go around.
  • Feather Boa Constrictor: Poison Ivy has a Boa on her shoulders when she revives at the start of the film.
  • Female Gaze: The movie provides the audience with loving close-ups of the dynamic duo's chest, crotch and rear every time they suited up.
  • Floating Head Syndrome: The primary poster, as seen above.
  • Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Like Batman Forever, the movie ends with Batman and co. running past a light to the camera in homage to the beginning of the 1960's series.
  • Foot Bath Treatment: During the fight against Mr. Freeze in the museum, Robin gets frozen solid but survives. After the battle, he's seen in Wayne Manor with his feet in a bucket of warm water to help him recover.
  • Forceful Kiss: Poison Ivy does this to most of her victims. She forces a kiss on Dr. Woodrue when she first emerges (though he quickly returns the kiss), and later on, both guards at Arkham when busting out Freeze. The only one this doesn't happen to is Robin, who kisses her willingly after her seductions.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • When Batman and Robin head out to stop Mr. Freeze in the opener, Alfred starts to tremble in a very ill manner.
    • In Ivy’s lair, Robin is much more focused and careful around Ivy than he is previously, even refusing to kiss her until she cooperates and proves she can be trusted. This shows that he’s taken precautions against her and is no longer as in love with her as he seems to be.
  • Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Including the nipples.
    Poison Ivy: There's something about an anatomically correct rubber suit that puts fire in a girl's lips.
  • For the Evulz: Mr. Freeze seems to fall into this at times. It's about the only possible explanation for choosing to spare Batman after freezing Robin early in the film.
  • Fourth-Date Marriage: Robin falls completely in love with Poison Ivy in the short time he knows her. Their "dates" include him bidding for her against Batman, being seduced by her at Freeze's hideout when he was supposed to arrest her and meeting her at her hideout where they finally share their first kiss. The last of these is when Robin tells her he "wants them to be together". Justified, as Poison Ivy had been using her pheromones on Robin to seduce him, amplifying his crush on her into being blindingly in love. Subverted as Robin never actually asks Ivy to marry him, nor does Ivy accept any proposals from him, they just flirt heavily and say they love each other. But it is heavily implied that had Ivy passed Robin's Secret Test of Character and proven her love to him was real he would have asked her to marry him afterwards.
  • Freak Lab Accident: The origin for both Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, although the latter isn't really an "accident".
  • Freeze Ray: Mr. Freeze creates a much larger version of his usual freezing weapons with the Gotham Observatory's telescope, which he then uses to freeze the entire city.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: Although Dr. Pamela Isley works with this as a mindset, after becoming Poison Ivy, she considers herself a living embodiment of the phenomenon and goes to extreme lengths to perpetuate it. Also tinted with misandry, as she plays on men's affections using pheromone control and largely sees them either as disposable tools or as obstacles to overcome in pursuit of her goal.
  • Girl of the Week: Unlike the other three films, in which Bruce's Girl of the Movie was a main character for that film, Julie Madison is a minor character who exists entirely to create minor tension as Bruce deals with Poison Ivy's pheromones infecting him outside of battle. Bruce's extreme reluctance to marry her led to many jokes by comic fans that she was a beard. Her Aborted Arc leads to her being a far more minor character than someone being Bruce Wayne's steady love interest would seem to entail.
  • Harmless Freezing: Subverted. One of the few rules in this movie is that you seem to be perfectly fine if frozen by Freeze's gun for under 11 minutes, but will instantly die at 11:01. The stakes in the climax involve the Bat-Family beating the clock to thaw Gotham before the entire population freezes to death.
  • Healthcare Motivation: Freeze wants to find a cure for his wife's McGregor syndrome while he keeps her as a Human Popsicle.
  • Hidden Depths: While the film as a whole is incredibly shallow, it does give Alfred far more exposition than any of the previous Batman films, features some surprisingly thoughtful dialogue between him and Bruce, and allows Michael Gough to really show off his acting chops.
  • Hockey Fight: Inverted. You would expect the dynamic duo to punch out their opponents, but instead they play an impromptu hockey game with a diamond.
  • Hoist by Her Own Petard: Batgirl beats Poison Ivy in combat and kicks her back onto her own Rose Throne. The throne then growls and closes on her, trapping her inside and apparently doing a number on her beauty. For extra irony, Ivy uses the throne as part of her seduction of Robin to kill him, even leaving a space for him to sit next to her, but after Ivy realizes Robin has tricked her, she angrily shoves him from the throne and out of its range of harm.
  • Hollywood Science: One of the two villains has a diamond-created laser-powered cooling system necessary for his survival. Laser cooling doesn't work that way. It is for cooling groups of atoms from "cold" to "very cold". It wouldn't work for anything like the setup in the movie.
  • Hulk Speak: When not repeating words from others, Bane will simply utter his own name like a Pokémon.
    Bane: BAAAAANE!
  • Human Popsicle: Mr. Freeze's wife.
  • Hurricane of Puns:
    • Any scene with Mr. Freeze - puns make up almost the entirety of his dialogue, and most of them specifically ice puns. Unlike the other characters, he actually manages to make the puns sound like dialogue.
    • Poison Ivy and the Dynamic Duo don't exactly use them sparingly, either.
  • Ice Breaker: Bane slams a wall of reinforced steel with both fists but is unable to break it. All it takes is for Mr. Freeze to use his suit to freeze the water pipes and thus freeze the wall, thus making it easier to bust out.
  • An Ice Gun: Mr. Freeze's weapon, as in all of his incarnations.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: A literal example (done with lenses of course, as Arnie's are naturally green).
  • Idiot Ball:
    • After Robin and Ivy kiss and Ivy tells him that he'll die, proving Batman right and her love to Robin a lie, Robin removes the rubber lips that protected him and kept him safe from Ivy's kiss, as they are sitting right next to each other, instead of tackling her and arresting her while she's distracted or leaving immediately. Then Ivy, instead of grabbing him and forcing a second kiss on him, instead angrily shoves him off her throne and into the pond to drown him, then tries to leave while tauntingly saying bye, treating it almost like she's breaking up with Robin for tricking her instead of trying to kill him for knowing too much or humiliating her. Though the last one is somewhat justified as no one had survived a kiss from Ivy up to that point and she might have been too angry and humiliated to think straight and do the simpler task.
    • Poison Ivy boasting about killing Nora Fries for no logical reason except to set up her Engineered Public Confession later in the movie.
  • Immune to Mind Control:
    • When Poison Ivy tries to use her mind control pheromones on Mr. Freeze, he scoffs at the attempt, stating that it doesn't work on the "cold-hearted".
    • While initially susceptible to her influence, Batman also wills himself immune to Ivy's pheromone dust by recognizing and anticipating the dust's effects.
  • Impact Silhouette: Early in the film, Robin crashes through a wall in his motorcycle, somehow leaving a hole in the shape of the movie's Robin logo.
  • In Name Only:
    • The new character Batgirl introduced is considered by many fans to be this due to the liberties taken with her origin, changing her from Commissioner Gordon's daughter to Alfred's niece, and dropping any original characterization and Backstory.
    • Bane in the comics is a Genius Bruiser with a fairly detailed backstory and tends to be quite eloquent. The Bane in this movie is basically a Dumb Muscle Super-Soldier who communicates via grunts and snarls.
    • The version of Dr Woodrue shown here is nothing more than a Mad Scientist whose penchant is for botany. His comic counterpart "The Floronic Man" is a genuine supervillain with plant-based powers similar to Poison Ivy.
    • In 2017, Coolio revealed that Banker, the character he played who was the MC and bookie of the underground racing ring Barbara partakes in, was supposed to have been an Early-Bird Cameo for the Scarecrow. Since the fifth movie never got made, this version of Jonathan Crane was never a psychologist, teacher, or supervillain.
  • Incoming Ham: Mr. Freeze's "The Iceman Cometh!", Woodrue's "Ladies and gentlemen of the un-United Nations. And our mystery bidder." and Pamela turned into Poison Ivy's "Hello, Jason. I think I've had a change of heart. "
  • Incurable Cough of Death: The vaguely-defined MacGregor's Syndrome (see Soap Opera Disease below) has this and general weakness as the only visible symptoms. Until death, at least.
  • Indecisive Parody: Perhaps one of the film's biggest faults is that it couldn't seem to decide if it was a parody much like the 60's show (complete with Bat-credit card) or a somewhat serious take on the character. Mr. Freeze is a big offender. He makes his minions sing "I'm Mr. White Christmas, I'm Mr. Snow", has polar bear slippers, and makes bad ice puns, but then mourns his terminally-ill wife. It becomes distastefully offensive if you think about it too much.
  • Institutional Apparel: Mr. Freeze wears the old-school prison stripes uniform, which fits in perfectly with the campiness of the rest of the film.
  • Insult Backfire: When the Dynamic Duo confront Poison Ivy and Bane at Freeze's hideout, Poison Ivy takes a moment to briefly flirt with Batman. She is unaffected by his deadpan response and simply tries to lean in for a kiss:
    Batman: Why are all the gorgeous ones homicidal maniacs? Is it me?
    Poison Ivy: (whispers) Enough sweet talk.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: When Robin argues with Batman over intervening in his chase after Mr. Freeze, he points out that "[The Flying Graysons] had to trust each [other] to do their job. That's what being partners is about. Counting on someone is the way to win." Bruce later uses the exact same words to convince Robin to come back to his side and snap out of Poison Ivy's influence.
  • Juggle Fu: A segment in the museum in which Batman rescues a vase.
  • Just Between You and Me:
    • Late in the film, Robin and Poison Ivy trade evil plan details for a kiss.
      Poison Ivy: Kiss me and I'll tell you.
      Robin: Tell me and I'll kiss you.
    • And when battling Batgirl, Poison Ivy says "As I told Lady Freeze when I pulled her plug, this is a one-woman show!" Boy, did that come back to bite her...
  • Just Desserts: Subverted with Poison Ivy. During her half of the climax Batgirl kicks her into one of her carnivorous plants, and it devours her. However she is apparently regurgitated off-screen as she later seen in Arkham disheveled; thrashed, and a bit traumatized, but alive.
  • Karmic Death: Woodrue is killed by Poison Ivy's Kiss of Death, which contained her Venom drug used to create Bane.
  • Karmic Transformation: By subjecting Pamela Isley to the same chemicals that were used on Bane, including Venom, Woodrue essentially transformed her into Poison Ivy.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • While at Freeze's hideout, Ivy pulls the plug from his wife's life support tube, intending for her to die so that Ivy can have Freeze all to herself.
      Poison Ivy: I never was too good with competition. Who needs a frigid wife anyway?
    • After spending a majority of the film seducing Robin and making him believe she loves him, Ivy immediately taunts Robin after their kiss, condemning him to death with mock sadness. After Robin reveals he was unaffected by her kiss, she angrily shoves him off her throne and into her pond to have her plants drown him. As he struggles she just walks off and taunts him "See ya!" Her own way of breaking up with the guy she spent the film leading on.
  • Kill It with Fire: If Poison Ivy's Kiss of Death didn't kill Dr Woodrue for some reason (she pushes him over as he starts choking), then the fire that she started in his lab did.
  • Kinder and Cleaner: Since it is more campy than the first three films of the Batman Film Series, it naturally uses cleaner language.
  • Kiss Diss: Poison Ivy is on both the receiving and giving end of this at various points in the film during her seductions.
    • At Freeze's hideout, Poison Ivy turns her attention to Batman briefly after he accidentally interrupts her attempt to seduce and kiss Robin. She lays on top of him and after blowing her dust in his face and flirting with him for a moment starts leaning in to attempt to kiss him. However, Batman was already wise to her intensions and easily resists her advancements on him, shoving her off him before getting to his feet and grabbing her arm, declaring she's going to jail.
    • When Poison Ivy seduces Gordon into giving her the keys to the Bat-Signal, she initially leans in to deliver a Kiss of Death to him. But she stops short and decides that he's "far too old" for her and walks off, leaving him heartbroken.
    • When Robin arrives at Ivy's lair to meet with her, the two briefly flirt with each other before Robin asks her to give him a sign of trust, specifically asking her to tell him her plan. Ivy leans forward and tells Robin she will tell him if he kisses her first, obviously expecting him to jump at the offer. Robin however refuses and instead flips her offer, telling her to tell him the plan first and then he'll kiss her while staring her right in the eyes. Shortly afterwards when Ivy gives in to Robin's demands and tells him how Freeze is planning to destroy Gotham, Robin initially tries to leave without kissing Ivy, hurriedly declaring he needs to stop Freeze and turning away from her. But it ends up subverted when Ivy grabs him and pulls him back, "innocently begging" him to share one quick kiss with her "for luck", and the two share a passionate kiss together.
  • Kiss of Death: Poison Ivy's method of killing people. She uses this to kill her former boss Dr. Woodrue as revenge for trying to kill her, two policemen when she breaks Mr. Freeze out of Arkham, and once off-screen to a victim at the Gotham airport. She seduces Batman and Robin through the film to break them apart fighting over her and eventually planned to kill them by sharing a kiss with each of them. She eventually gets Robin alone in her lair and after explaining what she and Freeze have planned as a sign of trust she finally succeeds in kissing Robin, as a way of wishing him luck. But Robin had actually been one step ahead of her and wore rubber lips to protect himself in case her love for him was a lie, essentially stealing a kiss from her and being the only one in the film to survive a kiss with her.
  • Kung-Foley: Again, in fine Batman tradition, you cannot do anything quietly in a fight scene.
  • Lady in Red: Although Ivy wears a green outfit similar to her comic book design for most of the film, her final outfit that she wears in her lair is a red dress. She also is seen wearing a slightly different red outfit in promos for the film.
  • Lady Macbeth: Poison Ivy to Freeze, without the romantic undertones.
  • Large Ham: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman. Also, John Glover in his minor appearance as Dr. Woodrue. See Evil Is Hammy above.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Robin recklessly charges at Mr. Freeze during the opening battle and it inevitably leads to him being frozen solid.
  • Light and Mirrors Puzzle: There's a puzzle that involves using orbiting mirrors to thaw a frozen Gotham city. A scene very early in the movie has the Bat-signal reflected by several mirrors until it becomes visible in Bruce's study, so it doubles as Chekhov's Gun.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • Easily the lightest and softest Batman film in existence. Even Batman: The Movie is more violent.
    • On a more subtle note, this movie marks the end of Batman's long grieving period over his parents. This was touched on in a cut subplot from Batman Forever involving young Bruce dragging his parents to the cinema, inadvertently getting them killed by Jack Napier; in Thomas' diary, however, it mentions that he and Martha "have their hearts set on Zorro" and will take Bruce to see his preferred movie next week, thus absolving him. This catharsis, while unseen by the viewing public, remains in canonicity as the tone of B&R suggests that Bruce is building a new family with Alfred, Dick and Barbara. In an on-set interview with Disney Adventures magazine, Schumacher elaborated:
      "We're moving away from the self-absorbed, self-obsessed, 'my-parents-are-dead' Batman. George [Clooney] is 36, and I think by his age you would have come to terms with that."
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: Performed several times to show our heroes suiting up, including a shot from behind of the Dynamic Duo pulling up their pants.
  • Love Is in the Air: Poison Ivy uses her pheromone love dust to get anyone who smells it to fall in love with her. She conceals it in a small leaf hidden in her palm and blows it into the face of her victims.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Mr. Freeze's main motivation is finding a cure for his sick wife.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Robin starts with just a crush on Poison Ivy, but as she seduces him more, he falls more in love with her and makes increasingly dumb decisions. He openly ignores that she is a villain and believes she would change sides so they can be together, and when Batman deduces that she's been trying to kiss them to poison them, Robin just thinks he's jealous that Ivy loves Robin instead of him and fights him to defend her. Then when he sees the "Robin-signal," he's willing to go to it right away, thinking it is a sign of Ivy's love to him and not even wondering about how she got it. Luckily he finally wises up and listens to Batman before heading to Ivy's lair, taking precautions just in case Ivy isn't as in love with him as she says.
  • Love Redeems:
    • Poison Ivy invokes this while seducing Robin. After Robin learns that she is a villain he still easily falls in love with her, and she pretends to fall in love with him too, choosing him over Batman. Robin is so blinded by her charms that he is quick to believe her, and she promises that she will be by his side and "turn over a new leaf" so they can be together. In reality this is all averted, since Ivy never truly loved Robin at all, and Robin discovers this himself when Ivy reveals her true colors to him in her lair.
    • Mr. Freeze plays a more straight example. After Batman reveals that Poison Ivy was the one who tried to kill his wife, but he managed to save her in time, he appeals to Freeze's inner doctor to help him save Alfred's life. Touched by Batman's words and out of gratitude for saving his wife, Freeze gives him the cure to MacGregor's Syndrome so he can save Alfred, and Freeze is allowed to continue working on a cure for his wife while serving his sentence at Arkham.
  • Lover, Not a Fighter: Subverted (and lampshaded) somewhat by Poison Ivy. She's a lover in order to be a fighter, with her seductive charms and her poisonous lips being the only weapons she has on her person to effectively harm (and in turn, kill) her enemies, Batman & Robin.
  • Loves Me Not: Poison Ivy plucks a flower's petals during her captivity in Arkham Asylum while mentioning "loves me, loves me not", which really raises questions considering her self-proclaimed role as the defender of all plant life. In a twist, she doesn't finish the plucking, because Mr. Freeze appears (while completing the "loves me not" part of the phrase) in front of her.
  • MacGuffin Melee: Batman and Robin play literal hockey with a diamond that Freeze is trying to steal.
  • Madonna-Whore Complex: Seen in the two women who dominate Mr. Freeze’s character arc.
    • In his pre-villian life, Dr. Victor Fries placed his wife Nora into cryogenic hibernation to prevent her from succumbing to a fatal disease. While her backstory is not revealed in much detail, she was clearly the love of his life. Even in her current state he accords her a sense of reverence and is determined to find a cure.
    • His partner in crime, Poison Ivy, is very much the opposite; a scheming woman who uses her sexuality - among other things - to ensnare men to do her bidding. Views Nora as a threat, even in her suspended state. Upon finding out that she nearly killed Nora out of jealousy, Freeze vows to make her life a living hell.
    • Ivy herself also serves as a foil to the character’s previous civilian identity, Dr. Pamela Isley. In contrast to Ivy’s highly sexualized beauty and interest in men (at least as tools to get what she wants), Isley had something of a homely appearance and no romantic aspirations. While both were extremely dedicated to the plant world, Isley was a passionate scientist trying to prevent extinction, while Ivy used living plants for evil purposes.
  • Mad Scientist: Mr. Freeze and Dr. Woodrue. Depending on how one wants to stretch the definition, maybe also Pamela Isley.
  • Magical Security Camera: Mr. Freeze apparently had hidden cameras set up all over the place so he could watch footage of him giving his wife a snowflake necklace'. In another instance, Batman shows Mr. Freeze a recording of Poison Ivy stating that she (not Batman as she'd previously told Freeze) unplugged his wife's cryotube. It's a replay of the clip from the movie, with no sign that Batman's vantage point at that moment was up near the ceiling. The same recap also mentioned how the security camera at Fries's lab apparently follows the good doctor and zooms in at all the right moments, such as when he plunges into that milky liquid that turns him from Fries into Freeze.
  • Making a Spectacle of Yourself: Woodrue's crazy lens attachments. Costume-wise, he dresses similarly to the briefly-seen Dr. Burton in Batman Forever.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Poison Ivy seems to have one... though the movie can't make up its mind. She enters the scene sitting in it leisurely, yet when she is later kicked into the plant, she screams as it eats her, although she later appears disheveled but otherwise none the worse for wear.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Poison Ivy, considering the fact that she manipulated Mr. Freeze into believing that Batman killed his wife.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Literally everything in this movie was designed to be a toy. This one also dropped at the height of the original franchise's fame, so it was practically inescapable that summer.
    Poison Ivy: I'm a lover, not a fighter! That's why every Poison Ivy action figure comes with [Bane]!
  • Mineral MacGuffin: The diamonds needed by Mr. Freeze for his frost-beam.
  • Mishmash Museum: The Ancient Greek sculpture/Dinosaur/Big-freakin' diamond exhibit.
  • Mock Headroom: The Batcave's security system is personified as a digital form of Alfred (who "uploaded half his brain" to the Batcomputer), who speaks glitched.
  • Moment Killer:
    • Batman interrupts Poison Ivy’s seductions of Robin twice at Freeze’s hideout. The first is an accident, with Bane throwing him down at them and startling them both, but the second is to purposely stop them from kissing, which Robin doesn’t take well.
    • Ivy and Robin later kill the mood themselves in Ivy's lair. After the two of them spend some time flirting and Ivy gains Robin's trust by telling him what she and Freeze have planned, they slowly lean in and share a passionate kiss. Ivy pulls away and immediately kills the romantic mood by revealing her true colors and condemning Robin to death in false sadness. Robin then kills it further by revealing he was wearing rubber lips the whole time, making him immune to her poison and showing he didn't actually fully trust Ivy after all. With both of their lies and deception now exposed to each other and the romantic mood completely ruined, Ivy glares angrily at Robin for outsmarting her and stealing a kiss from her, and shoves him into her pond to drown him, officially “breaking up with him” and ending their "relationship."
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • The movies see-saws between ridiculously stupid super-hero antics and bad acting, and a plotline about the importance of family, featuring Micheal Gough's touching performance as a dying Alfred. The mood whiplash is extreme.
    • Also worth mentioning is a scene with Mister Freeze, of all people. During a calm moment in his cell, he carves a small ice sculpture of his wife and puts together a makeshift "music box" using a large alarm clock.
    • Freeze's transformation into a grief-stricken maniac taking out the (apparent) death of Nora on Gotham City, then maybe the entire world, is a dark downward spiral where even his trademark "ice" wordplay is less joking than grim, until he activates his freezing ray with the utterly silly, "Let's kick some ICE!"
  • More than Mind Control: Poison Ivy's pheromones makes male victims easily susceptible to her charms and beauty and makes an average man easily fall in love with her, but they can't force someone to actually do anything, just make them more open to Ivy's influence. Mr. Freeze is completely immune to her pheromones, and Batman is able to resist both them and Ivy's seductions. Robin is more susceptible to them due to a weaker will and less experience, even to the point that he doesn't need them to be in love with Ivy; their last scene of flirting in Ivy's lair is without her pheromones influencing him.
  • Motivational Kiss: Poison Ivy asks Robin to kiss her as one, for luck in his battle against Freeze. This is just an excuse for her to use her poison kiss on him however, and she specifies immediately afterwards that the kiss was for bad luck. Double Subverted when Robin reveals he was wearing rubber lips to protect himself, and thus wasn't poisoned by their kiss.
    Poison Ivy: One kiss, my love... for luck. [she and Robin lean in and share a passionate kiss] Bad luck, I'm afraid.
  • Mouthscreen: When Poison Ivy is seducing Robin in her lair there's a close up shot of her lips as she whispers "for luck" when requesting a kiss, and lingers for a bit afterwards as she smiles. It is implied that this is a brief POV shot from Robin's perspective, with him staring at Ivy's lips and unable to resist from kissing them anymore.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Poison Ivy deactivates Mr. Freeze's ill wife Nora from her life support system and blames it on the heroes — and in the process, she's able to convince him to take revenge on all of humanity by freezing the world and leaving her and him as the only people alive. Freeze learns, once his plan is undone, that the good guys actually saved his wife and that Ivy was the one who tried to kill her, prompting a Heel–Face Turn. Clearly, she is seriously into him.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • A reference to Superman early in the film when Batman complains, "This is why Superman works alone." This was possibly an attempt to mirror a joke that referenced Metropolis in Batman Forever.
    • Naturally, the Batman credit card is good through Forever.
    • Jason Woodrue was the name of another plant-themed supervillain — the Floronic Man, effectively an evil version of Swamp Thing. His presence is probably in reference to Batman: Shadow of the Bat annual #3, which was published a couple of years before and established Poison Ivy's Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin, revealing Woodrue played a role in it.
    • Julie Madison is the name of Bruce's first love interest in the Batman comics, a socialite engaged to Bruce that eventually becomes an actress and ends her engagement because she wants Bruce to do more with his life than be a playboy.
    • Freeze's "ice beam" at Arkham may be a reference to the climate-controlled lair in Freeze's first live-action appearance.
    • Batman, Robin, and Batgirl running in front of the Bat-Signal. Doubles as Continuity Nod.
    • While brooding in his cell, Freeze crafts a miniature snow globe/music box out of ice and a clock. He kept a similar snow globe in Batman: The Animated Series.
    • Robin's costume resembles his Nightwing costume in the comics, only red and with a cape. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Nightwing's costume became red in The New 52.
    • Poison Ivy's outfit during the party (where she fills the room with her love dust) consisting of green tights and a green corset is clearly based on her classic costume.
    • In the shooting screenplay, Batgirl would make references to the 1966 TV series; she sings "Batgirl! Batgirl! Batgirl!" to the tune of the opening theme song, as well shouting "POW!", "WHAT!", and "KAZOW!" during her and Robin's fight against Mr. Freeze's henchmen in the observatory.
    • Robin in this film inherited the Post-Crisis Jason Todd's brash attitude and recklessness.
  • Named by the Adaptation: Before the Venom, Bane was a diminutive criminal named Antonio Diego.
  • Near-Villain Victory: Poison Ivy nearly achieves her goals. The only complication she suffers is Robin surviving her kiss, which she deals with by shoving him into her pond to drown him instead. Then she defeats Batman by having her vines restrain him and begin crushing him. She manages to defeat the Dynamic Duo in seconds and is about to leave to join Mr. Freeze; if not for Batgirl’s arrival she would have completely won.
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: Robin reveals he managed to outsmart Poison Ivy by pretending to be in love with her until she reveals her true colors to him. Tricking her into revealing her plan to him and managing to steal a kiss from her by covering his lips with a rubber, thus being the only character in the film to survive an onscreen kiss with her. Shortly after he makes this reveal though, Poison Ivy simply shoves him into her pond where her plants try to drown him before he can even attempt to do anything else and she walks off while mockingly waving him goodbye, incapacitating him for the rest of the scene. To add further insult to injury, she makes sure she has the last laugh in their "relationship" by taunting Robin "See ya!" as she struts past him, rubbing it in that she's "breaking up with him". Immediately afterwards, Batman intercepts Poison Ivy as she tries to leave, revealing that he followed Robin to her lair and that they set their own trap for her, which she walked right into and getting her to gasp in shock at seeing him. However, as soon as Batman reveals himself, Poison Ivy immediately overcomes her shock and has her plants restrain and begin crushing Batman, with his ambush on her completely failing.
  • Never Recycle Your Schemes: Robin heads to Poison Ivy's lair, pretending to be under her spell. Ivy has poisonous lips and has been trying to kiss Batman and Robin the whole film. Ivy kisses Robin, at which point he pulls off rubber coating on his lips, demonstrating how he survived the kiss. Ivy then pushes him into a sea of vines that try and drown him instead of having the vines hold him in place so she could kiss him again.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • At Freeze’s lair, Bane throws Batman over a walkway and he lands right next to Robin and Poison Ivy, startling both of them just as they were leaning in for a kiss. Thus, Bane inadvertently saves Robin.
    • At Ivy’s lair, her smugness and need to brag proves to Robin that she never really loved him, failing his Secret Test of Character. Then she brags to Batgirl about how she was the one who tried to kill Freeze’s wife, which Batman records and shows to Freeze as evidence.
  • No Fourth Wall: Batman, Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze all break the fourth wall at least once during the film. In fact, Batman's first line is a quip into the camera.
    Batman: This is why Superman works alone.
  • No OSHA Compliance:
    • The lab Fries worked in (before becoming Mr. Freeze) seriously needs a safety inspection. He gets knocked into a vat of liquid nitrogen, which horribly mutates him, but didn't really pose enough of a risk to warrant a decent railing. And don't even get started on the electronic equipment that randomly crapped out and sent him flying into the vat.
    • The building where the telescope (and later the giant freeze ray) is located is resting high up on the hands of a giant statue with no extra support. It gets points for style, but it's definitely not a safe or practical place to put something that important.
  • No Prison Segregation: Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy share a cell by the end of the film. Justified in the comic adaptation, where it's explained that Freeze bribed some of the guards so he can have his revenge for Ivy nearly killing his wife.
  • No-Sell:
    • Mr. Freeze deeply inhales Poison Ivy's spray, identifies it, then mocks that the pheromone has no effect on him. One brief moment of actual well-done interplay in the film.
    • Robin is the only one to survive a kiss with Poison Ivy, because he protects himself with rubber lips. Despite the fact it's stated in the film that Poison Ivy's kiss kills the victim due to them swallowing poison (probably via saliva transfer), meaning that protecting your lips would really do nothing.
  • Nostalgic Musicbox: Mr. Freeze makes one in his cell at Arkham Asylum from a nearby clock and tumbler glass, with a miniature statue of his wife carved from an icicle inside. Among how loud and brash the rest of the film is, it's a surprisingly moving and thoughtful call-back to "Heart Of Ice".
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Barbara was born and raised in England yet never displays even a hint of an accent, which is especially strange considering Alicia Silverstone is the daughter of two British immigrants.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: Although Robin is very distracted by Poison Ivy for most of the film, he plays this straight when he meets her in her lair. He is very focused on discovering her plan and determining if she can be trusted. When Ivy puts her hand on his back and leans in, offering to tell him her plan if he kisses her first, he refuses and swaps the offer, promising to kiss her only if she tells him first. Even when it seems like he finally gives in to Ivy's seductions when she pulls him back and he kisses her it was all actually part of his plan to see if she really loved him.
  • Not Good with Rejection:
    • Dr. Woodrue says this himself after Pamela refuses his offer to join him, then tries to kill her by pushing her into the chemicals that turn her into Poison Ivy.
    • Ironically, Poison Ivy herself. When Batman resists her advances on him she stops trying to flirt with him and just has Bane try to kill him. Later, when Robin reveals that he survived her kiss by wearing rubber lips and tricked her into revealing her plan, she angrily pushes him off her throne and into the pond to drown him instead of trying to kiss him again.
  • Not Quite Flight: Mr. Freeze of all people turns out to be capable of falling with style. While his Powered Armor is too heavy to fly, it does have mechanical wings he uses to glide to safety after a fall from a great height. When Batman latches onto him, Freeze simply detaches the wings and instead uses the blast from his freeze ray to slow his descent.
  • Not-So-Final Confession: After Ivy finally kisses Robin she taunts him that it is time to die, smirking at him as she says goodbye in mock sadness. Robin was protected by his rubber lips, however, turning her taunt into a confession and revealing her love as a lie. Ivy is shocked by this development.
  • Not Worth Killing: Poison Ivy is about to kiss Commissioner Gordon before deciding to spare him, saying that he's way too old for her.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Pamela when Woodrue drops a group of chemicals on her to kill her.
    • Woodrue when Poison Ivy gives him the kiss of death.
    • Two of Mr. Freeze's mooks when they realize that they're about to crash into a group of buildings during their escape from the charity ball.
    • Mr. Freeze says "Uh-oh!" when Batman escapes the frozen Batmobile and comes straight for him.
    • "Huh. Reinforced steel."
    • Poison Ivy's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates when Robin removes his rubber lips and she realizes she just both told him her plan and confessed that her love was a lie, though her shock quickly changes to anger.
    • Dr. Lee and his assistant gasp in shock when the observatory's telescope is about to crash into them.
    • Mr. Freeze when Batman places his buckle heater on him in the observatory.
    • Poison Ivy again when she realizes that Mr. Freeze is her new cellmate, out to make her life "a living hell" for the attempted murder of his wife.
  • Out-Gambitted: Ivy plans to use her seductions and love dust to tear Batman and Robin apart and eventually kill them with her poisoned kiss. She eventually gets Robin all alone and finally succeeds in kissing him by telling him what she and Freeze have planned to gain his trust. However, Robin has finally wised up to her seductions and uses their encounter in her lair to trick her into revealing her plan to him by pretending to still be blindingly in love with her, wearing a pair of rubber lips to survive a kiss with her and discover that her love for him was a lie. Ivy is beaten at her own game by Robin, pretending to love her like she did with him, and to top it all off, he steals a kiss from her.
  • Override Command: Batman uses a voice activated override to shut down Robin's motorcycle and stop him from doing a dangerous stunt.
  • Paid Harem: Mr. Freeze has Ms. B. Haven.note  Given Freeze's obsession with his comatose wife, it's pretty clear she's only there because arm candy is the expected thing.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Poison Ivy’s idea of a "mask" is putting leaves on her eyebrows. She later gets rid of this "mask" for her last outfit, and replaces it with heavy eyeshadow instead.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Peg. Yes, Peg.
  • People Jars: Mr. Freeze's wife suffers from a fatal disease called MacGregor's Syndrome. He keeps her in suspended animation in a liquid-filled tube while he works on a cure.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Whether he's explaining that life-long butler and friend Alfred is dying, or trying to thaw out the entire city with less than 10 minutes before they all die, it seems that George Clooney is never without a grin on his face.
  • Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Mr. Freeze thinks the Ice Age killed the dinosaurs—a bit of a suspect statement coming from a scientist, even if paleontology isn't his field. He is wrong, but that doesn't stop the line from being one of the most memorable.
  • Planimal: Poison Ivy tries to create creatures like this so plants can finally fight back against humans. She even shows a first example of her creations to Mr. Freeze.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The reason for Batgirl being changed from Commissioner Gordon's daughter to Alfred's niece was apparently because the producers didn't think audiences would buy Alicia Silverstone as Pat Hingle's daughter. (Why they didn't just cast another actress whom audiences would buy remains a mystery.)
  • Precision F-Strike: Batgirl utters "Damn" when she discovers the targeting mirrors on the telescope have been frozen by Mr. Freeze.
  • Prison Rape: The movie ends with Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze sharing the same cell. With Ivy having betrayed Freeze and attempting to kill his wife, Freeze vows to make Ivy suffer for the rest of their sentence with a lot of lecherousness in his tone.
  • Punch Catch: While Robin is fighting Bane, he throws a punch at Bane's head. Bane catches his hand and throws him down a flight of stairs.
  • Pungeon Master:
    • Mr. Freeze gives most of the puns, especially about ice. It seems to be an irresistible impulse for him; even in the end, he can't resist a physician pun while forking over the medicine for Alfred.
    • Poison Ivy does this, too, though half of hers are also thinly-veiled innuendos.
  • Punny Name: Vivica A. Fox's character, Ms. B. Haven.
  • Put Their Heads Together: Mr. Freeze does it to a pair of Arkham Asylum guards while trying to escape.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Batgirl gives a great one to Poison Ivy.
      Batgirl: Using feminine wiles to get what you want? Trading on your looks? Read a book, sister. That passive-aggressive number went out long ago. Chicks like you give women a bad name.
    • Earlier, Pamela gives one to Woodrue before she becomes Poison Ivy. After he reveals that he used her research to further his experiments with Bane, Pamela is outraged. At this point she's still a good Well-Intentioned Extremist who only wants to give plants a better edge, but Woodrue corrupting her work for his dreams of world domination disgusts her. She promises to have his credentials revoked and to have him expelled from any area of academia, and he proceeds to try to kill her. She survives, however, and morphs into Poison Ivy, getting revenge by giving Woodrue the Kiss of Death.
  • Real Time: The observatory climax unfolds in 11 real-time minutes starting when Mr. Freeze engulfs the city with his ice cannon to when the Batheroes successfully thaw the city, with 11 minutes having been established as how long it takes for his freezing process to become fatal.
  • Reckless Sidekick: Dick Grayson. In the first major action sequence, Dick's insistence on going after Mr. Freeze led to him getting frozen and Batman having to choose between going after Freeze or thawing Robin. Dick receives an ass-chewing from Bruce afterward, and the conflict between the two continues for the good part of the movie. Later on, when he confronts Poison Ivy in her lair, he tricks her into telling him her plan by pretending to still be in love with her, and survives her kiss by wearing rubber lips. But, once Ivy taunts Robin over this, he removes his rubber lips to one-up her and show he stole a kiss from her, instead of keeping them for protection and tackling Ivy when she doesn't expect it. Ivy becomes enraged and shoves him into her pond, where he is almost drowned by her vines.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: Most of Elliot Goldenthal's score is directly lifted from Batman Forever, as the opening theme is the same as the previous one, just slowed down; the themes for Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy are modified versions of Two-Face's and Chase Meridian's respective themes. Goldenthal even once again recycled music from Demolition Man as the fight music is once again from there, as are the themes for both the "freezing of Gotham" scene and the reveal of frozen Nora Fries.
  • Related in the Adaptation: Barbara is now Alfred's niece rather than Jim Gordon's daughter.
  • Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Even in comparison to Batman Forever (which had already dialed back from the grim tone of the Tim Burton movies), this movie further leans towards camp and lightheartedness.
  • Riddle for the Ages: Who was the unseen "Mystery Bidder" who won Dr Woodrue's super serum auction?
  • Rule of Cool: The only explanation for a lot of the absurdities we see in the movie. Why does Mr.Freeze have a rocket ship (that he somehow built himself)? Why does Batman have a Batcard? Why does the Batmobile have a bunch of superfluous flashing lights? Why is the Gotham Observatory being held up by a gigantic statue? And so on.
  • Scenery Porn: As much as polarizing this movie is, the sets are gorgeous, and Gotham looks so bizarre but so intrincate, it's a mix of gorgeous and mad architecture.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: At one point the film says that Mr.Freeze's suit uses diamonds to keep him at "zero degrees". While they don't say if they mean Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin, the first two aren't very impressive (a normal freezer can keep something at 0 degrees celsius or colder.) If they did mean zero Kelvin i.e absolute zero, that poses a bunch of other physics problems (Freeze shouldn't be able to move, for one, as any movement would increase the temperature at least somewhat.
  • Sculpted Physique: takes this aesthetic and runs with it for the design of the Dynamic Duo's costumes, including the bat-nipples.
  • Secretly Dying: Alfred is secretly dying from MacGregor's Syndrome, the same disease that Nora Fries has. Despite his attempts to hide it, Bruce and Barbara are able to figure it out, though Robin has to be told.
  • Secret Test of Character: Robin uses his kiss with Poison Ivy as one for her. If it is just a regular kiss then she really is in love with him and is "turning over a new leaf," but if she is trying to kill him like Batman thinks, then he is protected with his rubber lips. Ivy fails the test when she reveals her true colors after the kiss and taunts Robin.
  • Seduction-Proof Marriage: Mr. Freeze is completely devoted to his Human Popsicle ill wife Nora. His entire driving motivation to be a supervillain is to find a way to save her. He easily dismisses the flirtations of one of his henchwomen, and he's the only man who is not visibly affected by Ivy's pheromone dust, much to Ivy's anger. Freeze attributes his immunity to Ivy's pheromones to his condition rather than his love for Nora, however.
  • Sequel Logo in Ruins: The movie opens with the WB logo morphing into a frozen Bat logo, signifying Mr. Freeze as one of the main villains, which is then shattered by the animated credits.
  • Sexophone: Poison Ivy's recurring leitmotif is built around a saxophone-based piece, usually when she appears in the room and goes into seduction mode. It starts off bold, sultry and alluring before trailing off into eerie, dark territory and rising to a crescendo at the end. Elliot Goldenthal's music reflects the actions on screen. The hapless victim becomes seduced by Ivy's charms (sax) and they share a kiss (foreboding drone), whereupon the poison slowly works it's way through the body and kills him (crescendo).
  • Ship Sinking: By the end of the film, Poison Ivy doesn't end up with either Mr. Freeze or Robin. Freeze learns that she tried to kill his wife and promises to make her life in Arkham a "living hell," and Robin learns that her love for him is a lie when she taunts him after their first kiss, with Ivy officially ending their relationship by trying to drown him.
  • Shoot the Messenger: Freeze uses his ice gun on his henchman, Frosty, when the latter attempts to inform Freeze about the charity ball on the newspaper while the latter is watching clips of him and his wife.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In one scene, you can see gang members who wear the same outfits as the main characters from A Clockwork Orange.
    • A more subtle (if that's the word) Kubrick homage in the same scene has another gang dressed in foppish attire. One of them has an eye patch and powdered wig like the Chevalier in Barry Lyndon.
    • The scene of Ivy debuting at the charity ball, first by hiding among the performers in an ape costume and slowly taking it off is a homage to Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus in the number "Hot Voodoo".
    • Alfred channels Max Headroom when addressing Barbara in the Batcave.
    • Mr. Freeze sadly looking at a tiny music-box sculpture of Nora in his Arkham cell is an homage to TAS's "Heart of Ice."
    • "We're Gonna Need A Bigger Cave."
  • Show Within a Show: The comic book adaptation frames the entire comic as a movie being shot, opening with Actor!Batman and Actor!Robin in front of a green screen as a director calls "Action!"
  • Shut Up, Kirk!: Poison Ivy does this when she is seducing Robin:
    • At Freeze's hideout she ambushes Robin after he is knocked aside by Bane. Robin attempts to arrest her, but she is unintimidated by him and instead blows some of her pheromones in his face to silence him and offers him a kiss.
    • After finally kissing Robin in her lair she taunts him that it was for "bad" luck and condemns him to death in mock "sadness". But when Robin reveals he was wearing rubber lips and is immune to her poison, she just glares at him before shoving him into her lily pond to have her plants drown him. As Robin struggles for air, Ivy walks away with a smirk and taunts him "See ya!" and mockingly waving him goodbye, getting the last laugh in their "relationship" after all.
  • Sky Surfing: Early in the film, Batman and Robin surf debris to the ground when they escape Mr. Freeze's rocket. Robin even shouts "Cowabunga!" in a Shout-Out to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Smug Snake: Dr. Jason Woodrue as well as Poison Ivy, the supervillain he creates.
  • Soap Opera Disease: It gets a name, MacGregor's, but nothing else besides its fatality and multi-stage process is established. Oh, and it's named for Peter McGregor-Scott, the film's producer, though film producers aren't usually known to be toxic.
  • Soft Water: Freeze demolishes a wall by freezing its water pipes, (what, you expected them to follow other laws of physics?) only to reveal an absolutely massive drop to water. Freeze, Ivy, and Bane jump without any hesitation, only Freeze just commenting that he hopes Bane can swim.
  • So Last Season: Robin is presented as this in-universe. Compared to his appearances in Forever, he's pretty close-to useless in most of the film's encounters, and mostly just acts as a whiny, incompetent dead weight. The one meaningful contribution he has to defeating the villains — namely, finding out from Ivy what Mr Freeze's plan is — is made redundant by both Batman and Batgirl being there anyway, and any time he tries to do something useful in the climax (attempting to hack the telescope's systems, save Batgirl from falling off the telescope platform, and go for Bane's Venom hose), he immediately gets outdone by her doing them instead.
    Robin: I'm on it!
    Batgirl: No, I'm on it.
  • So What Do We Do Now?: Robin and Batgirl are watching Batman and two scientists falling down a cliff with a giant telescope:
    Batgirl: What should we do now?
    Robin: Pray.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Bane's design incorporates a spiked collar and spiked gauntlets.
  • Staredown Faceoff: Robin and Poison Ivy have this with each other in her lair, while the two of them act like it is a romantic Held Gaze. The two stare intensely at each other from across the room once Ivy reveals herself, and as Robin slowly makes his way towards her until he lays beside her on her throne. They continue to stare at each other after this with their faces lingering only inches apart from each other. Ivy leans forward even closer to Robin and stares down at him when telling Robin to kiss her and she'll tell him what she and Freeze planned. The screen then gives an Extreme Close-Up of both of them, with Ivy being seen in the foreground of Robin's close-up and Robin in the foreground of Ivy's immediately after, showing just how close the two of them are to each other, and a silent moment passes between them as they stare each other down, both demanding something first before giving the other what they want, until Ivy gives in to Robin's demand first.
  • The Starscream: One of the many possibilities to explain why Poison Ivy's throne bed collapses on her.
  • Stunned Silence: After Robin reveals he wasn't poisoned by Ivy's kiss because he was wearing rubber lips to protect himself, Ivy just stares in shock at the rubber lip he removed with wide eyes, realizing she just confessed her plan and true intentions to Robin for nothing. She doesn't say anything for several moments as she continues to just stare, before turning her gaze to Robin himself and glaring at him in rage before sprinting forward and shoving him away from her.
  • Stupid Evil:
    • Dr. Woodrue. He just let Poison Ivy take his face and kiss him without resisting, complaining, or noting something might be wrong, and making contact with her would be a bad idea.
    • Hey, Freeze. Considering that you can only survive in extremely low temperatures, and you clearly don't make much of an effort to keep your mooks warm... why do you even have a "Cold/Heat" switch in your own hideout?
    • Poison Ivy boasting about killing Nora Fries for no logical reason except to set up her Engineered Public Confession later in the movie.
    • A double example back to back. After Robin and Ivy kiss and Ivy tells him that he'll die, proving Batman right and her love to Robin a lie, Robin removes the rubber lips that protected him and kept him safe from Ivy's kiss, as they are sitting right next to each other, instead of tackling her and arresting her while she's distracted or leaving immediately. Then Ivy, instead of grabbing him and forcing a second kiss on him, instead angrily shoves him off her throne and into the pond to drown him, then tries to leave while tauntingly saying bye, treating it almost like she's breaking up with Robin for tricking her instead of trying to kill him for knowing too much or humiliating her. Though the last one is somewhat justified as no one had survived a kiss from Ivy up to that point and she might have been too angry and humiliated to think straight and do the simpler task.
  • Super Hero Movie Villains Die: Averted. Unless you assume that Bane is killed when the tower collapses, this is the first (and for now, the only) live action Batman film where none of the main villains die.
  • Super Serum: Bane is created by Dr. Woodrue using a super soldier serum "codenamed venom, to which [he adds his] very own recipe of steroids and toxins." Woodrue's goal was to sell Bane or his services on an international market as a Super-Soldier.
  • Supervillain Lair: Mr. Freeze has his lair in a giant ice cream factory in the middle of the city in plain sight. Poison Ivy just takes over an abandoned Turkish Bath, but converts it into a violent garden to make it more suitable for her. Then when Mr. Freeze moves in, he naturally decks out his own room in his thematic trappings.
  • Super Window Jump: Batgirl crashes through the ceiling window of Ivy's hideout to stop her escape.
  • Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Incriminating speeches made by the villains is sometimes replayed using the same shot that was used earlier in the movie, surveillance-free.
  • Tainted Veins: Bane when given the Venom injections. Poison Ivy's kisses create the same effect on the people she poisons, though as Venom was one of the things she was poisoned with, it's a similar effect.
  • Take Over the World:
    • Ultimate goal of Poison Ivy, and later the goal of Mr. Freeze after a little prodding. Let's break down the eventual plan: 1) Freeze Gotham city using a giant telescope as a laser. 2) Freeze the rest of the world... somehow. 3) Unleash a strain of carnivorous plants to 4) Unfreeze the world so Ivy and Freeze can repopulate the globe together as Adam and Evil.
    • This is also Dr. Woodrue's goal as well, before Poison Ivy gives him her signature Kiss of Death (he's definitely dead, since she torches his lab right after).
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Poison Ivy is involved with a few.
    • After Pamela Isley first becomes Poison Ivy, the first thing she does is take revenge on Dr. Woodrue for his attempt to kill her. She easily seduces him and forces a deep kiss on him, only to mockingly reveal that she is poison as he begins choking to death before gently pushing him backwards and letting him fall over dead.
    • After seducing Robin and tricking him into thinking she's in love with him, Poison Ivy finally manages to kiss him when they’re alone in her lair and immediately shows her true colors, taunting him and telling him it's time to die in mock sadness. However, Poison Ivy is actually the one who suffers from this, not Robin. Robin tricks her into revealing her plan to him first and stays long enough just to share a kiss with her as a test of her love, which she fails. So after all Ivy's seductions Robin still manages to outsmart her and steal a kiss from her, which he reveals by removing his rubber lips right after she taunts him, turning her taunt into a confession.
  • Taking You with Me: At the end of the film, Mr. Freeze uses the bombs in the observatory in an attempt to kill Batman and himself with it. It doesn't work.
  • Terrible Trio: Mr. Freeze (brains), Poison Ivy (beauty), and Bane (brawn).
  • Test Kiss: An extreme example done by Robin. In Ivy's lair he allows Ivy to kiss him to settle once and for all if she really does love him or if she is trying to kill him. It turns out to be the latter but Robin thankfully wears rubber lips for protection.
  • That's Gotta Hurt: When watching a video of Mr. Freeze falling into liquid nitrogen during his research, Dick says this verbatim.
  • Thematic Sequel Logo Change: Robin's new Nightwing inspired logo is overlaid onto Batman's to represent their equal billing.
  • Third Line, Some Waiting: The Batgirl plot happens, for the most part, independently from most of the film.
  • Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!:
    Mr. Freeze: I will blanket the city in endless winter. First Gotham and then... the world!
  • Too Dumb to Live: Dr. Woodrue just let Poison Ivy take his face and kiss him without resisting, complaining, or noting something might be wrong, and making contact with her would be a bad idea.
  • Tonight, Someone Kisses: An interesting double-whammy featured in one of the trailers depicts Poison Ivy kissing Robin, interspersed with Bruce Wayne's warning of her desire to kill him. Given that fans would know Ivy's most famous characteristic is her poison kiss, Robin sharing one with her would likely be the death of the hapless hero. In the film proper, the kiss does happen, but the death doesn't, since Robin came prepared.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: Robin, especially in comparison to his earnest and sympathetic role in the previous film.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Nora's snowflake necklace, which Victor gave her on their wedding day. After she unplugged Nora's cryotube, Poison Ivy gave Mr. Freeze Nora's necklace as "proof" that Batman killed her.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    • When Robin reveals he tricked Ivy into confessing her plan to him and sharing a kiss with him, Ivy just stares in Stunned Silence at the rubber lip he removed before slowly turning and glaring at Robin, clearly enraged at being outsmarted by him. She then shoves Robin off her and he splashes into her pond where her plants attempt to drown him as revenge. This satisfies Poison Ivy, and she happily walks away from Robin to leave him to drown, mockingly waving him goodbye and cheerfully telling him "See ya!" in a smug victorious tone.
    • Mr. Freeze also has this expression when he declares to Ivy in Arkham as her cellmate that he will make her life "a living hell" for trying to kill his wife.
  • Trashcan Bonfire: Used twice:
    • When Poison Ivy and Bane break into a gang's hideout, there's a trashcan with a fire inside in the middle of the area.
    • At the beginning of the motorcycle race, there are several in the background behind the gang members.
  • Tricked-Out Shoes: The infamous "Batman on Ice" scene, where ice-skate blades coming out of Batman's and Robin's shoe soles (activated by them tapping their feet together) to pursue Mr. Freeze's mooks over floor he iced.
  • The Unreveal: We never find out who the "mystery bidder" is that gets the winning bid on Bane (and whom Woodrue refers to as "your supreme ruthlessness"). Presumably, it was meant to be a Sequel Hook of some sort.
  • Underwear of Power: This is obvious in Batman and Robin, but also exclusive for the first time in Batgirl as previous versions do not feature panties on her costume.
  • Unrelated in the Adaptation: Due to Barbra now being Alfred's niece she has no relation to Jim Gordon, while in almost every other media she is his daughter.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Mr. Freeze is tricked by Poison Ivy into thinking that Batman killed his wife.
  • The Vamp: Poison Ivy. Yes, making her a camp vamp.
  • "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Poison Ivy" by Meshell Ndegeocello. While it's a cover of a 50's R&B hit, the original may have inspired the character in the first place.
  • Villain Team-Up: Repeating the previous films' formula, though with less successful results.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Poison Ivy doesn't hide some interest in the Dynamic Duo... even if only to kill them.
  • Villainous Crush: Poison Ivy has one on Mr. Freeze, another villain. She even tries to kill his cryogenically frozen wife so they can be together. She also invokes this during her seduction of Robin, tricking him into thinking that she loves him enough to switch sides.
  • Vine Tentacles: The only plant-manipulating ability Poison Ivy shows is when she uses the vines in her lair to snag Batman by his ankles.
  • Virtual Ghost: A strange subversion with Alfred to Barbara in the Bat Cave, despite not being dead.
  • Villainous Face Hold: Poison Ivy does these while she is seducing her victims, with them often being too enamored with her to resist her.
    • She lifts up Dr. Woodrue by his chin and pulls him towards her to deliver her Kiss of Death to him.
    • She grabs both of the Arkham guards by the face and pulls them into quick but deep kisses.
    • During her first attempt at seducing Robin at Freeze's hideout, after she blows her pheromone dust in his face and offers him a kiss, she is next seen holding him by the chin as she slowly leans in to kiss him, until they are both startled by Batman's accidental interruption and she releases Robin.
    • During her final seduction of Robin at her lair, after she makes her final plea to Robin, begging to give her just one kiss "for luck", and Robin silently agrees, Ivy gently places a hand on his cheek before they both slowly lean in and Ivy briefly flashes a victoriously evil smirk until they share a passionate kiss.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: Mr. Freeze zaps Robin, forcing Batman into a Sadistic Choice: "Chase the villain or save the boy." He concludes, "Emotion makes you weak. That's why the day is mine. I'll kill you next time."
  • Weakened by the Light: Mr. Freeze, at the end of the movie. It isn't entirely the sunlight as much as it is the warmth of the sun's rays after his freeze suit malfunctions.
  • Whammy Bid: When Batman and Robin start a bidding war over Poison Ivy at the bachelorette auction, Bruce comes out on top by whipping out $7,000,000 with his Bat Credit Card.
    Batman: Never leave the cave without it.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • The "mystery bidder" and the former tenants of Poison Ivy's hideout.
    • Also, Bruce Wayne's girlfriend. She only has two short scenes, both of them are about Bruce's adherence to his bachelor lifestyle, and then she is never mentioned again and has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. (The real reason she doesn't show up later in the movie is because Poison Ivy shanks her in a deleted scene.)
  • When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Mr. Freeze freezes Gotham City solid 11 minutes before midnight. All of the citizens will die unless they're thawed out within 11 minutes, i.e. by midnight.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: After Ivy gives Robin her deadly kiss, he reveals that he was wearing rubber lips which he proceeds to peel off. This actually made him vulnerable for Ivy to just plant another kiss on him for real and kill at that moment, but instead she just shoves him away out of anger.
  • World of Pun: Practically all the lines from the main villains are "plant" or "ice" puns.
    "Allow me to break the ice."
    "I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy!"
    "FREEZE IN HELL, BATMAN!"
    "Freeze well!"
    "What killed the Dinosaurs? The Ice Age!"
    "I've got some... wild oats to sow."
    "Sorry, my vines have a crush on you!"
  • Worf Effect: Poison Ivy suffers this against Batgirl. Ivy has been giving the Dynamic Duo a hard time throughout the film and finally defeats them both within seconds in her lair, shoving Robin into her pond to drown him and having her plants restrain and crush Batman. Then Batgirl arrives at her lair and defeats Ivy no problem, despite having no prior experience.

"All right, everyone! Chill!"

 
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Mr. Freeze

Arnold Schwarzenegger's portrayal of Mr. Freeze in the film Batman & Robin has him pepper his lines with a slew of ice-related puns.

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