Batman Begins

Question: What does Ra's al Ghul say in a foreign language when he talks about invisbility?

Question: Shouldn't Bruce be as insane as Falcone? Unless the dosages delivered to Batman and Falcone, respectively, were different. Also, why didn't Rachel yell and scream and go crazy like Falcone did when he was hit?

Answer: Bruce is just as infected as Falcone, however he is rescued by Alfred shortly after he is poisoned and given an antidote by Lucius shortly after that. He is then bedridden for many hours. If he had not been saved as quickly as he was, he no doubt would have been a blubbering mass just like Falcone. The reason Rachel and even Bruce don't react the same as Falcone the moment they are poisoned comes down to how each individual person reacts to fear: Bruce tries to fight, Rachel faints, Falcone screams in horror.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: Also he had taken it before, earlier in the mountains.

Answer: Bruce was thoroughly trained to deal with fear. It's likely he'd be able to hold his mind together better than most.

JokerInTheBronx

Question: In the animated series Ra's Al Ghul's name is pronounced "Raishe" rhyming with race. In this movie it's pronounced "Raaz". Why the change?

Answer: "Rahz" or "Raaz" is how the name is pronounced in Arabic. The pronounciation in the animated series was purposfully done to shun the notion of Ra's being Arabic (having a terrorist be Arabic could cause problems for a children's cartoon.)

Question: In the movie "Batman", we discover that a young Jack Napier murdered Bruce's' parents and later became the Joker. So why in this movie did they change the killer to some low-life thug?

Answer: This is actually true to the comics, where a regular thug named Joe Chill was the killer of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne. There is no connection between this movie/series and Burton's "Batman"; they are separate takes on the same story, which is why things can be radically different. Burton chose to alter the storyline to give Batman an even greater reason to go after the Joker, that's his decision. Nolan chose otherwise in his presentation of the Batman legend, sticking to the original story.

Twotall

Question: Wouldn't the towers that hold up the train have cut Batman's cable long before he makes it to the train?

Answer: Batman fires the grappling cable into the side of the train carriage, not the bottom, so it does not touch the rails or the supports.

Sierra1

It is a three level train, the train is not on the upper track so YES, it should've cut Batman's cable at the first column.

Question: Does anybody know what Batman means by questioning whether he can beat two of Ra's al Ghul's pawns?

Answer: Ra's al Ghul initially left just two of his henchmen to fight Batman. Batman says "I can't beat two of your pawns?" as a way of rubbing it in Ghul's face that the two henchmen would not get the job done, which is why Ra's has more henchmen stay behind.

Phaneron

Answer: Watching this before without subtitles, I thought it was more interesting without the question mark. "I can't beat two of your pawns." After all, one star student SHOULDN'T be able to beat two second-tier ones. I liked the extra weight of the insurmountable odds "as you wish." Adding just one question mark changes this scene completely.

Question: Can someone please tell me how Chris Nolan was chosen to direct this film? He had only done 3 movies before and they weren't that big, so why did WB trust him with rebooting a series that hadn't had an entry in 7 years?

TRENCH117

Chosen answer: At the time Nolan was just coming off the double-whammy of Memento and Insomnia, both of which, while not huge blockbusters, attracted considerable critical acclaim and did reasonable box office, so his star was very much on the rise. He approached Warner Bros with his proposal for a reboot of the series - they were impressed by his grounded approach to the material and gave him the green light to proceed.

Tailkinker

Question: What is the significance of the meeting between Bruce and Ducard at the party right before Ducard torches Bruce's house? Was Ras Al Ghul really Ducard or was Ras Al Ghul even a real person?

Answer: Ducard is the real leader of the League of Shaddows. Whether he is Ras Al Ghul is debateable. The whole idea of theatricality is present. "Ras Al Ghul" is a figurehead, not necessarily a single man. This gives immortality in much the same way that Bruce mentioned that, as a symbol, he could be incorruptible and untouchable.

Garlonuss

Answer: Bruce does refer to Ducard directly as "Ra's" in this scene, stating it with some emphasis to show that he has come to the realization that Ducard is the leader of the League of Shadows: "Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity, *Ra's*?" Ducard does not challenge or deny the name, but the uncertainty still remains.

Answer: Ducard was always Ra's Al Ghul. The other guy was a cover/patsy to protect the real Ra's. He likely never planned on Bruce knowing that he was the leader of the league of shadows. When Bruce turned against him, he decided to tell him.

Question: What was in the picture that Batman gave to Rachel, and how would it have sped things up?

Answer: Pictures of Judge Faden with a woman who was not his wife, to be used as leverage to force him to hear the case against Falcone. A deleted scene shows Bruce gathering the photos himself but only the top one is shown in the final cut.

Phixius

Question: When training Bruce, why did Ducard say that the deaths of Bruce's parents was actually Thomas' fault? If anyone's to blame it was Joe Chill.

Answer: First, he follows it up by saying it's because Bruce's father failed to act against Joe (to try to stop him), implying that his father was weak and a coward. But overall Ducard's stance was crime cannot be tolerated. "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." The League had tried to destroy Gotham before with economics, but men like Thomas Wayne tried to help the poor and he was killed by the same people he tried to help. In Ducard's mind, had Thomas Wayne not tried to help the poor and criminals, he wouldn't have been shot.

Bishop73

Answer: He was trying to get Bruce angry, so he can learn to control it and use it whilst fighting.

lionhead

Chosen answer: It is possible to laser etch or engrave kevlar. The only real world problem Batman would run into doing this procedure would come from the fact that kevlar emits a very lethal cyanide gas when the laser begins melting the material. So laser etching with a respirator or allowing a machine to do the laser etching for him would allow Batman to create his custom logo onto his kevlar suit.

oddy knocky

Chosen answer: Starting at middle C on a piano move up one scale. He plays D and E together, moves up a scale and plays D and E together again, then backs down to play A and B together.

oddy knocky

Is this combination of notes an Easter egg of some kind?

Question: How did the League of Shadows use economics to attack Gotham?

Answer: By having their own people working inside the trading company, they would do a pump and dump. Take a small company, put the word out that it's the next big thing, watch the prices rise, then sell. Like insider trading, the millionaires become billionaires, while the billionaires become broke.

Answer: They used their influence to trigger the economic depression that was gripping Gotham when Bruce was a child.

TedStixon

What type of influence did they have?

It's never specified in the film, so any answer would be pure speculation. They merely say they attacked Gotham economically in the past. I'd presume they'd use power and threats to do things like tank companies, make people lose their jobs, increase homelessness, make it more difficult for people to get help, etc. Basically, just ruin the citizens financially.

TedStixon

Answer: The language Ken Watanabe speaks is absolutely not Urdu. For some insane, unknown reason, the subtitles show the mysterious language to be Urdu, but this couldn't be further from the truth. When questioned about the language used in the film, Ken Watanabe said that he used a self-invented gibberish. It sounded like someone pretending to speak Japanese, but it wasn't any real language.

Question: Why change Ra's group's name to League of Shadows? League of Assassins sounds better.

Rob245

Answer: The group has often gone by different names. For example, it was the Society of Shadows in Batman The Animated Series.

Question: A few times in the movie, you can see Illinois license plates. Is Gotham supposed to be in Illinois?

Answer: It's not exactly known where Gotham is suppose to take place but the movie was filmed in Chicago, Illinois.

Toolio

Answer: Actually in the DC universe, Gotham is meant to represent an over-the-top version of Chicago. Metropolis is the New York stand in.

Answer: Gotham is understood to be NYC on steroids and/or acid.

dizzyd

Answer: It is a mistake, Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. It's a short distance from Metropolis.

Greg Dwyer

True of the comics, but the Christopher Nolan Batman films are their own self-contained universe.

Jon Sandys

Question: When Batman is at the docks, where all the drugs are being delivered, Batman somehow manages to take out the driver of Falcone's car, without Falcone seeing him. Could someone please tell me how this would be possible?

Answer: We see Falcone get out of the car before Bruce attacks the final group of men; a couple of seconds later, he's deep into the maze of cargo containers, so there's clearly been a jump in time. Bruce simply took out the driver shortly after Falcone got out, then went back to assault the rest of the henchmen. You have to factor in the time jump for it to work, but it does fit together.

Tailkinker

Question: Why was scarecrow admitted to Arkham?

Answer: He was originally there as a doctor. When he was caught after trying to spread his fear gas around the city, he would have been found insane (especially after being dosed with his own gas) and sent to Arkham as a patient.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: Why would Falcone's assassin kill Chill in front of many cops? Why would she choose to go to jail just to protect one person who was already in jail? And if she was so intent on protecting him, why would she say "Falcone says hi"? That would just make Falcone even more indictable.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Falcone has the entire justice system of Gotham in his pocket. He'd believe he could beat any charge and probably convinced the assassin that he'd do the same for her.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: I have a few questions, regarding Scarecrow. The first, a simple question, but I'm curious: what effects were used for Scarecrow's voice, when the audience hears it from the perspective of one poisoned by his hallucinogen? And was it still Cillian Murphy doing the talking? While we're at it, why is it Crane seems almost eager to confront Batman when he says "He's here", "we'll soon find out", etc at Arkham Asylum, after gassing Rachel? He didn't seem nearly as frightened as Rachel or Falcone when he was subject to his fear toxin by Batman either. Lastly, what did he mean when he began to say "I'm here to help" to Rachel, before she used her taser? (01:14:55 - 01:50:40)

Answer: I'll answer these individually 1. What effects were used for Scarecrow's voice, when the audience hears it from the perspective of one poisoned by his hallucinogen? I'm not sure but it sounds like they distorted the pitch and speed of the vocals several times, layered them together, and added an echo effect. There is probably more to it than that. 2.And was it still Cillian Murphy doing the talking? Yes. There is one moment where it fades from Cillian Murphy's regular voice to the 'fear' voice where it is fairly clear that they are altering his vocals and not using another voice actor 3. While we're at it, why is it Crane seems almost eager to confront Batman when he says "He's here", "we'll soon find out", etc at Arkham Asylum, after gassing Rachel? He didn't seem nearly as frightened as Rachel or Falcone when he was subject to his fear toxin by Batman either.] I think these are both symptoms of his fascination with the concept of fear. He is fascinated with The Batman, who uses fear and symbolism as a weapon. He is also terrified of Batman but that terror excites him. This terror/excitement is most likely why he seems to be having a lesser reaction to the toxin. He is terrified yet elated because he is seeing this terror up close, and this time the terror wins out. 4. Lastly, what did he mean when he began to say "I'm here to help" to Rachel, before she used her taser?] He frequently uses his position as a psychoanalyst to comfort people into trusting him. He attempts this on Rachel but she does not fall for it.

Revealing mistake: Near the end of the scene, when Bruce and Fox are in the tumbler Fox says "We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine" then Bruce turns the wheel to the left but the tumbler turns right. (00:57:45)

More mistakes in Batman Begins

[The Batmobile drives past Gordon and runs over a car.]
Gordon: I've got to get me one of those.

More quotes from Batman Begins

Trivia: A pair of Batman pajama bottoms can be seen hanging from the line, in the scene where Batman talks to the little boy in the Narrows. (01:16:55)

Ariane Schultheis

More trivia for Batman Begins

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