10. THE BATMAN

My pitch for The Batman movie of this universe will center around Bruce Wayne's creeping sense of disillusionment for his life's mission as the titular character, and the eventual rediscovery of his purpose. It picks up soon after the events of Justice League, set in a world where the Batman has been active for just over 15 years. Most of the movie will be flashbacks to his early encounters with the rogues gallery present in Gotham Underground – Penguin, Riddler and Poison Ivy – as Bruce recounts them to his friend and confidante, paralleled with more recent clashes with them. This would introduce those characters in relation to Bruce's worldview and his grievance about how little has changed over the years despite his best efforts. We would get to see Bruce's evolution over the years, while also following a story in the present day.

This will be the first of a trilogy.

Present day

The first 10 minutes will be painfully, but intentionally, slow. We open on a nice apartment building in uptown Gotham City, middle of the day, as Bruce Wayne knocks on the door of one of the units. A voice inside tells him to enter. Inside, he meets an old family friend and a personal confidant of his, Dr Leslie Thompkins. The greyed semi-retired physician knows all about Bruce's secret life, and while she doesn't really approve of it, she has supportively lent an ear over the years. After a brief friendly back and forth, they chat about why Bruce is here today.

"I'm tired, Lee," Bruce says simply. "In a few years I'll be twice as old as when I first started. I've fought serial killers, gangsters, assassins, hell even a metahuman or two. I've brought a few protégés into the fold. And yet, Gotham is as much a sh-thole as it has always been."

Leslie relishes the idea of Bruce calling it quits on the whole vigilantism thing, but she knows better about this stubborn man. She begins to ask him several questions to get a sense of his state of mind.

"Let's start with why you say you're here. The Penguin gentleman, Oswald Cobblepot."

"Yep."

Two weeks ago

At this point, the movie will launch straight into a flashback of a high-intensity heist scene, orchestrated by Cobblepot and carried out by his henchmen in plague masks, on the pharmaceutical industrial complex. The plan is going well until the Batman shows up. Later, Batman pays the Penguin a visit at the Iceberg Lounge, kicking everyone else out of the exclusive club. After the events of Gotham Underground, the Penguin has become even more emboldened with the new territory left behind by Black Mask that his own crew has now cannibalised.

Cobblepot proudly reveals his plan, which is to hold the city ransom through a monopoly of vaccine production for a virus he wants to spread. Of course, he's made sure the police cannot do anything about it, and Batman himself can string him up all he wants but the scheme is already in motion. By sheer luck, a Superman clone had wreaked havoc on Metropolis a while ago and the Bat had left Gotham to handle that, so that made it an opportune time for Cobblepot.

Batman turns to leave, presumably to head for the factories where the vaccine is being mass-produced, but not before getting into a fight with the Penguin's guards. He slams a guy through a glass partition, and we cut back to Dr Thompkins' study.

Present day

"But Cobblepot wasn't working alone, was he," Leslie guessed.

"He got a little help from his trusty appendage. Eddie Nashton. I'm convinced they were lovers at some point. Not that I care, but it does present a particularly nasty brew of psychoses."

"You're one to talk."

"Gunpowder. It amazes me that this lunatic serial killer isn't behind bars for good. If it were completely up to me, Nashton would be spending the rest of his days on solitary confinement in an Arkham cell, his twisted mind decaying from disuse. Again, I guess being more-than pals with one of the richest oligarchs in Gotham would have its perks. How he got there is still a mystery to me."

"And you enjoy a good mystery, don't you Bruce."

"My entire life's work began with desperately trying to solve a riddle."

"Yes, the riddle of who killed your parents. It's deeply tragic, Bruce, and I respect your pain. But everyone's sick of your origin story by now."

Bruce lowers his eyes and gives a faint smile. It quickly turns somber as we flash back to one of the vaccine-producing factories. It turned out the Riddler had somehow lined the factory floor with rows and rows of doctors from nearby hospitals, forced to do the labor of producing the vaccine. The factory was of course rigged with explosives. Any dawdling on the doctors' part – or any interference on the Batman's part – and the whole place goes down.

"Does it get to you? Having to be responsible for so many lives?"

"Can't say it doesn't," Bruce replies quietly. "But I don't usually have time to think about it."

Two weeks ago

Edward Nashton, infamous as the Riddler, had left clues about where the explosives were set up, how they would be triggered and how to disarm them. Such was his modus operandi, as it has always been. He can't help but show off how much smarter he is than everyone else, even if it means risking the entire plan. Racing against time, Batman finally figures out how to dismantle the explosives and get the doctors safely out before facing the Riddler himself.

Present day

"Criminals," Bruce says to Leslie. "They're a cowardly, superstitious lot. It's in their nature."

"I've always wondered, this whole thing with violence. Where do you draw the line? What motivates you to do one thing, but then stop yourself from doing another? What gives you the right to decide what is the 'right' amount of violence, the means regardless of the ends?"

Asked by anyone else, these questions would come across critical or accusatory. But Leslie puts them forward in such an earnest manner that Bruce feels a tinge of guilt.

Bruce is silent for some time before replying simply, "Compassion."

Two weeks ago

The Riddler, in turn, had not been alone and unprotected at the lab where Batman found him. When Bruce tries to approach, he suddenly finds himself restrained by vines that silently curl around his limbs. Batman turns to see Pamela Isley, the misanthropic botanist with the metahuman ability to control plant life.

Bruce knows Pamela to have a gentle nature, whose fanaticism only comes to the fore when she believes the natural environment is being threatened. In his run-ins with her, she has been more of a misguided eco-terrorist than an agent of chaos. That's not to say she hasn't done any significant, lasting damage. Cobblepot and Nashton have befriended her over the years, and now she shares the same passion of protecting them as she does with plant life.

Batman employs a softer approach when dealing with Pamela. He believes that among the three, the young woman has the greatest chance of redemption, although by now she's had more than a decade to fail to prove it. Despite this subtle show of kindness, Pamela's retaliation continues to be hard-hitting as always. Batman finds himself strung up by a multitude of vines that bind him tighter and tighter.

Present day

"Nothing has changed," Bruce tells Leslie.

Winter 2004

We flash back to a much earlier time, when Bruce was still in his early years as the Bat vigilante. He was still largely unknown to the general public, although the criminal underworld was learning of his fearsome reputation. His costume was a little different then, resembling more of the first Batsuit from DC #27, and his gadgets and car were from earlier iterations.

In this separate, earlier story, Batman is making his way stealthily through the Falcone manor, where a grand dinner party is going on in the dining hall. Although we don't see the patriarch of the crime family, we do see Oswald Cobblepot among the myriad of high society guests. Batman quietly neutralizes the big-sized men in white suits standing guard, before kicking down the door and unleashing smoke grenades, taking out the lights with batarangs.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have eaten well," Batman roars through the microphone in his rebreather mask as chaos erupts among the dinner guests. This valiance was coming from a younger, bolder revolutionist Bruce Wayne. "You've eaten through Gotham's wealth, and eaten up its spirit. Your feast... is almost over."

Cobblepot was the only one who seemed prepared for this, almost immediately putting on a small beaked plague mask and backing into a corner as far away from the rest of the guests as possible, brandishing his bladed umbrella.

"From this moment on," Batman continues, setting the large main table on fire. "None of you are safe."

Someone manages to break a glass window and let the smoke out, and the emergency lights finally come on, but by then the Batman was already gone.

Cut to shortly after, where Penguin and Riddler had also teamed up to prey on the poor and vulnerable, while keeping ahead of the police with a series of horrific murders. Bruce recalls his own unrelenting fury in pursuit of the villainous pair.

Present day

"Nothing has changed," Bruce reiterates to Leslie.

"Nothing has changed, in the last 15 years?"

"Well. That's not entirely true."

"Something has changed?" Leslie asks in her usual earnest tone.

"Someone. Victor's changed."

"Victor."

"Victor Reyes. Former criminal hustler in the cryogenic suit."

"And you believe he's changed?"

Pause. "I actually do."

Flashback to another incident many years ago.

Summer 2009

Victor F. Reyes, a middle-aged scientist whose entire life's work had revolved around the study of cryogenics, was heartbroken when Nureen, his wife of more than 20 years starts to succumb to an incurable illness. As the head researcher at a cryogenics facility, he had stored Nureen's almost lifeless body in a secret cryogen chamber down in the basement, in the hopes of reanimating her when a cure is discovered. The chamber had remained unknown to the world for almost 7 years, during which time Victor had participated in various illegal activities in order to raise enough money to fund research for the cure. One day, Nureen's chamber was discovered and the facility's owner marches into Victor's lab to fire him.

Upon hearing this, Victor flew into a rage, and threw a metal chair at the owner, which missed and instead collided with some chemical tanks, shattering them and releasing vapor. Victor is doused in a barrage of chemicals, turning his body unfit for survival at normal human temperatures. He was forced to quickly fashion a protective suit using parts found in the lab to keep himself from dying. Later the police came to take Nureen's body away, and Victor himself was conveyed to the hospital where he later escaped with the suit.

Victor used the money he had profited from his shady dealings to upgrade the suit with cryogenic weaponry and attacks the location where Nureen's body was kept, still in the preservation chamber. The police officers and medical staff there were not able to stop him from getting to the chamber. This was when the Batman showed up and engages "Mr. Freeze" in battle for the first time.

Autum 2010

Flash-forward some time to the climax of the final clash between the two. In defeat, Victor surrendered and told Batman that he was through with this life. The state court had finally reached a decision to let Nureen out from the cryogenic chamber and let her die naturally. Batman replied that he would not let that happen, and leaves.

The next day, Wayne Technologies announced that it was launching a cryogenics division and would buy Nureen's chamber from the city for research. Bruce had found a legal loophole that would keep Nureen alive for a very long time. Victor never terrorized the city again since then.

Present day

"Victor taught me acceptance."

"This was a man who did everything he could to save the love of his life, wasn't he," Leslie observes.

"I thought I was protecting Gotham from yet another monster," Bruce sighs. "I wonder sometimes if I would do the same things he did, if I were in his shoes. I mean I did go after the monster who killed my…" He catches himself and grins. "It's really always about my parents, isn't it."

"Looks like you've found acceptance, Bruce," Leslie says comfortingly. "Maybe you've finally overcome your own monsters."

Bruce is silent.

"Mid-life anxiety can also be set off by matters of the heart," Leslie says after a few quiet seconds, watching her young friend closely. Bruce blinks slowly as if controlling an impulse, his face turning into a scowl. "Is it Ms Kyle?"

From the armchair, Bruce gazes out of the window into the city.

One month ago

Flashback to the night of the chase scene in Justice League, just before Lois Lane called about Clark's disappearance. Batman is incapacitating a band of armed thugs in an abandoned construction site. As the last of them falls to the ground, Batman hears the faintest sound and turns just in time to catch a whip aimed right at him. Selina Kyle, a black woman in her dark skintight suit and masquerade mask, stands not far away, slyly challenging Batman to a playful duel.

Selina has long shed her thievish ways and has been known to help the less fortunate street dwellers, especially exploited young women. Despite her small, agile frame, she can be vicious in her methods. But this time she has gone too far in Bruce's eyes.

"What have you done, Selina," Batman growls.

"Just what needed to be done," Selina purrs.

Not long ago, Roman Sionis, aka the Black Mask, was found dead. Rumour had it that he was assassinated by Catwoman. Sionis' death sparked the events of Gotham Underground, turning the city into a frenzy as rival gangs fought for control over his territory. Faced with insurmountable chaos, Commissioner James Gordon had to turn to Penguin and his friends to restore stability.

As far as Bruce was concerned, Selina had never resorted to murder before.

Summer 2008

Flash back to a almost a decade earlier when they had first met. Selina still wore a deep violet skinsuit, attempting a solo jewel heist when Batman drops in. They engage in a fierce but almost flirtatious skirmish. Something about this nimble, adept thief had an effect on Bruce.

They continued to clash, and at time work together, for years but Selina somehow always managed to get away. Not that she was invulnerable; just a year ago, Sionis had discovered her true identity, and as someone whose plans have been muddled by the Catwoman numerous times before, he had his gangsters round up Selina's sister, brother-in-law and best friend Holly Robinson before torturing them. By the time Selina arrived, her brother-in-law had been killed, her sister hysterical and Holly maimed beyond recognition.

So it comes to no surprise to Bruce that Selina would set out to retaliate against Black Mask and his gang. But the probability was that she wasn't dumb enough to try it on her own and actually kill the crime lord.

Present Day

"Why does it matter so much to you whether or not Selina may have committed murder?" Leslie asks. "What are you projecting onto her?"

Bruce thinks for a bit and replies, "There was a time when things were diamond absolutes. And then the curtain, the veil fell around me. And what I saw wasn't that they were inalienable by themselves, but that they had to be held up and fought for. The Batman is their champion."

"And you believe the Batman preserves the universal right to life by not taking a life. What about all the lives you are sacrificing in pursuit of that? There are always the stubborn few who psychiatric refuge can only tether so much."

"I cannot tell you just how many times I have questioned that myself. How close I've come to the line, over and over and over again."

"What stopped you, all those times?"

"The fear of being the monster that made me."

"What about Bruce Wayne?"

Bruce half-smiles. "Bruce Wayne is the mask I must wear. He is the life I must live in order for the Batman to carry out the mission."

"And what is the mission?"

At this point, Bruce simply gazes down at the carpet and after some silence replies, "I have to go."

He thanks Leslie, who gives a concerned but understanding nod, and walks out.

Final act, present day

The final act of this film would be Bruce back in the Batcave, having a surgical discussion with Alfred that reveals what's been going on in the background. This is inter-spliced with scenes of how the Batman had individually but almost simultaneously neutralized each villain, Godfather-style, bringing order back to Gotham.

Pamela Isley returns home to find her apartment teeming with fauna, as hidden automated sprays release a calming agent that both pacifies her and indulges the plant life.

Edward Nashton, back in his base of operations, comes across a printed letter on the windowsill. In it is a riddle which he reads out loud.

'I am not a mystery

Do not try to solve me

When you try to look for me

You might lose entirely

What am I?'

Edward's face contorts in glee at the prospect of this challenge. But we cut to soon after as he is trashing the room, manically screaming the words of the riddle at the top of his lungs as he desperately tries to solve it. Bruce knows he never can because of his mental blind spot to the answer: Reality.

Oswald Cobblepot is sitting alone at his table in the Iceberg Lounge, when all the lights go off except for the one above him. In the darkness we hear scuffles and gunshots. Oswald, still seated, calmly reaches for his umbrella, but retracts his hand when he finds it extremely cold. He turns to see the Batman, who tells him that the Black Mask territory belongs to someone else now.

"You a mob boss now, freak?" Oswald sneers incredulously.

"No. But I know a guy."

Victor Reyes walks into frame, brandishing a cryogen gun at the Penguin.

"More than a decade ago, my wife lost her right to life," Victor says, steely but with a tinge of sadness. "I was emotional and myopic in my actions. I did some terrible things. But she still had a chance, a sliver. The courts were debating whether or not to allow her body to remain in cryostasis. Not long after, they were utterly and irrevocably convinced to let her waste away. Someone had convinced them. Someone who would stand to profit from monopolizing the technology."

Victor bends down and whispers into Oswald's ear. "Do you know who that was?" He jams the cryogen gun into the Penguin's neck. "Batman found out and told me. It was you wasn't it, Cobblepot."

Oswald starts to hyperventilate and wheeze, although it sounds like he is cackling with laughter. Batman turns to leave, but Oswald calls out, "You'll pay for this, freak! I will hunt you down and eat you alive!"

Batman stops.

"Do you know how many times I've heard that?" Batman asks rhetorically in a low growl. "Every night. Over and over, for so many years. I always hear the same thing. 'This is the end for you, Batman'. Every, damn, night." Batman half-turns to look back. "And yet… I'm still here." He melds into the darkness as Victor pulls Oswald's head back. We hear a bone-chilling scream.

There's still one last thread Batman has to pull on. He is standing on the roof another tall building in the night. So silently that even he barely picked it up, Selina swings into view in her current Catwoman costume and cracks her whip at Batman, who swiftly catches it.

"You didn't do it, did you," Bruce asks.

"Do what?" Selina asks faux-innocently.

"Sionis. You didn't kill him. You made it look like you did."

Even through the mask Selina's sudden fury shone through. "I wish I did. I came so close. But I couldn't do it. And guess why. It's you, you overgrown rat. You got into my head. You act like you're a demon, breathing fire down the necks of these scum. But you're really just another self-righteous hero, a knight slaying dragons in the cover of darkness."

We see Roman Sionis, alone and almost naked in a filthy underground dungeon somewhere, shivering and looking gaunt. He's far from the arrogant well-fed criminal kingpin he used to be.

"I'm not a hero," Bruce replies. "At least not this time. This time, you're the hero."

"And it's all your fault."

"Hand him over to me."

"What are you going to do with him?"

"I'll think of something." Batman extends a grapple gun, fires it and swings away into the night.

Mid-credits:

"Master Wayne," Alfred says, bringing a tray of food down to the Batcave.

Bruce is staring intently at the large computer monitor. Alfred sets the tray on a table and looks at the screen as well. On screen is grainy cctv footage of a young man in his mid-twenties seemingly fighting a band of thugs.

"I see you've found him, sir. Where is he now?" Alfred asks.

Bruce, without looking away from the screen, replies, "Bludhaven."