Facts About The Batmobile

The Batmobile is an integral part of the Batman legend, and in accordance with director Christopher Nolan’s credo that every aspect of the film be firmly rooted in reality, the vehicle driven by the Dark Knight in Batman Begins was conceived in such a way that ensured that its design be absolutely in tune with the narrative.

About five or six versions of the Batmobile were made over a period of about eight weeks.

While most film vehicles are comprised of a pre-existing car frame with a plastic shell placed over it, Andrew Smith’s team custom-made every aspect of the Batmobile, from the wheels to the chassis to the bodywork.

The Batmobile is equipped with a 5.7 liter, 350 cubic inch, 340-horsepower engine with approximately 400 pounds of torque. 9 feet, 4 inches at its widest point, the vehicle is 15 feet long and weighs 2.5 tons. It accelerates from 0-60 in under 5 seconds and can jump 4-6 feet in height, up to a distance of 60 feet, and then peel off as soon as it hits the ground.

One of the most distinctive design features of the Batmobile is that it has no front axel, which enables the vehicle to make extremely tight turns. The design gives the vehicle an almost insect-like waist because it twists in the middle when being driven hard.

The Batmobile was outfitted with six monster truck tires. Depending on the driving performance that the filmmakers were trying to capture, the tire treads were shaved off mechanically and their pressure was adjusted to give the driver varied levels of grip for performing sliding stunts. There were three basic sets of tires, with treads ranging from fully-skinned to semi-skinned to bald.

A total of eight Batmobiles were created for the production. In addition to the five fully operational, gas-powered models, there was an electric version that featured a sliding top to enable Batman and his passengers to easily enter and exit the car. The stunt driver was hidden behind the main seat and drove the vehicle from a sideways position. There were also two “cannon” vehicles, which were lightweight and contained no engines, and could be catapulted from a cannon for specific action sequences.

Upwards of 30 drivers were used to create the car chase, which was staged on the streets of Chicago.

The whole body of the Batmobile rolls and flexes from side to side, making the vehicle up to six inches wider on either side because of the flexing movement.

During a chase sequence a car is rarely drive a car more than 50 or 60 miles an hour. The Batmobile was driven up to 105 miles an hour.

Facts About Batman’s Suit and Gadgets

Batman’s image invokes something primal, almost bestial, striking terrible fear in the hearts of those the Dark Knight has sworn to defeat. It was imperative to the filmmakers that their Batsuit enable Christian Bale to strike that menacing chord.

The Batman Begins filmmakers wanted to create a very mobile Batsuit, as opposed to previous suits, which were quite stiff and thus physically restrictive. The newly designed suit allows Bale to perform all of the demanding action that the film’s stunts and martial arts fight sequences called for.

The Batsuit designed by Lindy Hemming and her team is comprised of a neoprene undersuit, much like a diver’s wet suit, with molded cream latex sections adhered to it. “The suit is made of waterproof armor with components inside that maintain the body temperature and keep the muscles from freezing up, so it’s multi-functional,” says Hemming. There are seven separate latex sections of the Batsuit: the knees, calves, legs, arms, torso, spine and cowl.

The Batman Begins Costume FX workshop, codenamed “Cape Town” for security purposes, was located at Shepperton Studios in London. The workshop was a 24-hour security-controlled compound, comprised of a whole village of portacabins that contained administration office and canteen, as well as all the technical workshops, including the Sculpt Room, Dye and Laundry, Spray Room, Cutting and Sewing Room, Art Finishing Room, Mold Shop and Foam Lab. Upwards of 40 people worked on the Batsuits at the height of the Workshop’s output.

Bale gained back the 63 pounds that he had lost for a previous film role, then put on an additional 20 pounds of muscle to complete his Batman physique.

Once a full body cast was taken, a plastic model of Bale was produced from that mold and then sculpted with clay. Next, a specialized material called plastiline was added to achieve a smoother surface – if the suit were molded straight from clay, imperfections would be picked up that would be visible on-screen. After the plastiline molds were made, they were taken to the foam lab, where they were injected with a latex foam mixture.

In order to achieve the flowing appearance of Batman’s cape in the comic books along with the distinct look and feel, the team invented their own fabric – a parachute nylon that was electrostatically flocked to achieve a velvety finish.

It took three people to suit Bale up every day.

Because Batman vowed never to take a life in the pursuit of justice, all of the apparatus in the Utility Belt are considered non-lethal deterrents. The Utility Belt features a grappling gun with a magnetic grapple and monofilament decelerator climbing line; a flexible fiber optic periscope that allows Batman to see around corners; Batarangs, weapons with razor-sharp edges that can be thrown shuriken-style, with its sharp points imbedding in an intended target, or used like a boomerang (Batman’s gloves are Kevlar-reinforced so that the returning weapon doesn’t slice his fingers); ninja spikes that can be affixed to Batman’s hands and feet for scaling sheer walls; mini-mines and explosives; a mini cellular phone with an encrypted signal; and a medical kit containing antidotes to various nerve agents and toxins.

Another of Batman’s key tools are his scalloped brass forearm gauntlets, which are painted matte black like the rest of the Batsuit, and are used by the Dark Knight for climbing and defense against bladed weapons, so he can parry sword strikes without injury.

Batman uses a special sonic device, located in the heel of his boot, to call swarms of bats to a scene, either for protection or to create a terrifying distraction.

Facts About Fighting in Batman Begins

The director also wanted the combat to be more jarring and realistic than the graceful, ballet form of fighting that comes from wire work. “We’ve gotten comfortable seeing fighting portrayed in this graceful, dance-like fashion to the point where the violence loses its threat,” Nolan muses. “I wanted to take it back to a grittier place, where you feel the punches a bit more.”

Bale dedicated himself to five months of rigorous physical training to prepare for the demanding role.

The first fight sequence filmed was Bruce Wayne’s grueling swordfight with his mentor Ducard, which was staged on a frozen Icelandic lake beneath a towering glacier. Due to the danger of filming on the temperamental ice, the safety team allowed only six people, including Bale and Neeson, to be on the frozen surface at a time. “Thankfully, we got the whole thing in that one day, because by the next, there was no ice whatsoever. It had melted into a lake again,” commented Neeson.

In preparation for filming the backbreaking swordfight, Forman and his team spent weeks rehearsing with Bale and costar Liam Neeson at an ice rink.

Facts About the Production

Over the course of 129 shooting days, the production filmed on location in Iceland, Chicago and London.

Production commenced atop the Vatnajokull Glacier in the South East of Iceland. (The biggest glacier in Europe, the Vatnajokull glacier comprises one tenth of the country’s entire land mass.)

Because there is only one two-lane highway that runs through the country, the construction crew had to build a road in order to access the frozen lake and the areas used for staging the village and monastery façade.

Chicago was used not only as the basis for the design of Gotham, but also for filming scenes that depict many of the fictional city’s exteriors, including the spectacular chase sequence that features the Batmobile rocketing through an intricately choreographed ballet of traffic and crashing police cars.

The interiors and exteriors of Wayne Manor were filmed primarily at Britain’s Mentmore Towers, an estate built by the Rothschilds in the 1850s that is located about an hour and a half north of London.

The Batcave set was constructed at Shepperton. Approximately 250 feet long, 120 feet wide and 40 feet high, the Batcave housed 24 water pumps used to power 12,000 gallons of water through the set every minute, bringing to life the waterfall, a river and dank, dripping cave walls.

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