While Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” takes some clear influences from Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed “Dark Knight” trilogy, one way that his take on a rookie Batman departs from that of Nolan or any other film incarnation of the superhero is his “DIY” aesthetic, as production designer James Chinlund described it.
Nolan’s Batman — played by Christian Bale — had the help of Lucius Fox and Wayne Enterprises to design his state-of-the-art tech to fight Bane, Scarecrow and the Joker, highlighted by an intimidating Batmobile that Wayne Enterprises had built as a prototype for the military.
But when designing the Batmobile that would be driven by Robert Pattinson in “The Batman,” Chinlund told TechRadar that his team and Reeves agreed from the beginning that they should take the polar opposite approach.
“Bruce is early in his development. He does it all himself. He’s not connected to Wayne Industries in the same way. This is a Bruce Wayne being built from the ground up,” he said. “We approached everything we did in the same way. We had that in mind for the car and for the suit. We had that ethos. If Bruce couldn’t do it himself, it had no place.”
“The car was a real pinch-point for our anxiety,” he continued. “We had to create a Batmobile that was impactful and exciting for the fans, but was also very grounded. We weren’t going to blow people away with amazing shapes and rockets shooting out. It’s a car, not a military machine.”
So Pattinson’s Batmobile would get its thrills from being a muscle car rather than a gadget-filled vehicle. In arguably the most thrilling scene from “The Batman,” Bats tracks The Penguin in a rainy car chase that sees the Batmobile dodge obstacles and traffic before plowing straight through a fiery explosion to ram The Penguin off the road. In an interview with TheWrap, Chinlund said the Batmobile’s design was meant to draw attention to the car’s inner workings, especially its air intake system.
“For us, there’s what we were calling the furnace in the front of the car. Matt was excited about having this kind of ‘Christine’-like energy to the car that it had its own life,” Chinlund said. “And we created this jet engine intake idea at the front that was like as if it was breathing. I think you may see the vents open and close. And our hope was that we were creating lungs, essentially, they were sort of seeing it start to come to life.”
“The Batman” is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD and can be streamed on HBO Max.