Instead of following the lead of the previous Batman films and going totally modernist or totally art deco, Nolan said that he and Crowley “wanted something that reflects the reality of a large modern city, which is a tremendous variety of architectures, a tremendous variety of periods in which things are built. We wanted to have a history to the place, as well as a contemporary feel.”107 Crowley sought to make Gotham City look like a place where audience members might actually live. “Gotham had to feel familiar,” said Crowley. “I really wanted it to feel huge, like the biggest city in America.” Not wanting Gotham City to be solely composed of computer-generated shots, Crowley built miniatures for many parts of the city. Digital effects were then used to extend the miniatures,108 creating a vision of Gotham City than Nolan called “an exaggerated, contemporary New York, an overwhelming metropolis that completely immerses you to the point that you don’t feel its boundaries.”109
“Chris had clear ideas about realism and real cities like New York and its history,” said Crowley. “He was trying to find ‘a New York on steroids’ as he put it, and that’s what he asked me to come up with. I spent many hours wandering around New York, because there’s that chaos you don’t see in any other American city. And if people can accept that more and more chaos is OK, they’ll understand that Gotham City could possibly exist.”110 In the end, the Gotham City Crowley created was described by Nolan as “New York cubed.”111
Recalling Tim Burton’s Batman, Nolan said, “In Tim’s film, Gotham itself is a very stylized place that Batman fits into. What I wanted to do was have Batman as an extraordinary figure in an ordinary world. So our Gotham is based more on a recognizable contemporary American city.”112
The same quest for realism that infused the production design also carried over into Nolan’s ideas about the Batmobile. “The creative mandate was really to do something fresh and original,” said Nolan, “And that was coming straight from the studio, and it was the reason I wanted to get involved with the project—because it’s pretty rare to have an iconic figure that’s now owned and controlled by a studio that’s asking you to do something different with it. But that really was the mandate. And for me, what that became was my desire to do something I hadn’t seen before, which is a superhero story that is told in a realistic fashion and doesn’t step outside itself and acknowledge the form or the medium that it’s come from, but one in which the audience is hopefully just immersed in the reality of what’s going on.”113
Having designed a three-dimensional Batmobile model in Nolan’s garage, Crowley now had the challenge of creating an actual, life-size working vehicle. He turned to Andy Smith and Chris Corbould, the special effects geniuses who modified Aston Martins and Jaguars to race across an Icelandic ice field for the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.114 Smith was also part of the team that engineered the first Batmobile for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman.115 The Batmobile, according to Crowley, “had dated itself sufficiently that we could start from scratch, and we had to start from scratch, because everyone was fed up with it.”116 Crowley showed his model to Corbould and Smith, and they set to work.
“Andy sourced everything: both the bodywork and the chassis have been made from scratch,” said Corbould. “The only thing that was brought in were the engine components. The Batmobile has aerodynamic flaps, because the storyline requires it to jump reasonably sized distances, like 20-30 feet. It also has guns and a jet out the back. It isn’t a killing machine as such; it doesn’t fire guns at people to try and kill them. The guns are more of a way of getting out of tricky situations, like blowing a wall out of the way rather than shooting people.”117
The new Batmobile had no front axel, which enabled the vehicle to make extremely tight turns. Nolan wanted the wheels to be held from the side, which at first was considered impossible. But Smith and special effects supervisor Chris Corbould devised a way to make it work.118 “There’s nothing holding the wheels in the conventional way that wheels are held on a normal car. We built one prototype and modified it and came up with a very good system—due to an increase in rear wheel diameter we turned the engine and gearbox around and went with a live axel. The design gives the vehicle an almost insect-like waist because it twists in the middle when being driven hard.”119 Equipped with a 5.7 liter, 350 cubic inch, 340-horsepower engine with approximately 400 pounds of torque, the Batmobile was 9 feet, 4 inches at its widest point, 15 feet long and weighed 2.5 tons. It accelerated from 0-60 in under 5 seconds and was capable of jumping 4 to 6 feet in height, up to a distance of 60 feet, and peel off as soon as it hit the ground.120
Depending on the driving performance the filmmakers were trying to capture, the treads of the tires 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 monster truck tires, with treads ranging from fully-skinned to semi- skinned to bald.121
A total of eight Batmobiles were created for the production, at a cost of $250,000 apiece.122 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, which could be catapulted from a cannon for specific action sequences.123
“I never expected them to be able to build a version of the Batmobile that could actually do all the things that it’s supposed to be able to do in the film, but they did it,” said Nolan. “It’s a monster, it’s a beast, and it’s beautifully designed.”124 In August of 2004, Warner Bros. took the new Batmobile from Chicago to New York to display it at the Licensing 2004 International trade show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The car’s appearance underscored how important merchandising remained to the Batman franchise.125
The next challenge for Nolan and company was to design a new Batsuit, one that would look like the first prototype of an evolving design, and one that would hopefully be more flexible than the stiff Batsuits used previously. “I didn’t think we could push the suit too far,” said Crowley, “because you can’t push the fans too far.”126 To oversee the creation of the new Batsuit, Nolan and Crowley turned to another veteran of the James Bond films, Lindy Hemming.
“A major consideration with the Batsuit was that Chris didn’t want it designed just to look at, but to be very functional in execution,” said Hemming. “He wanted the legs to be supple so that he could crouch down when necessary, and he very much wanted Christian to be able to move his head and not have to do the superhero movement of turning the shoulders and the head at once.”127
Hemming set up her workshop at London’s Shepperton Studios, where her costume department was given the nickname “Cape Town.” The workshop was composed of portacabins that contained an 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.128
Hemming and her team designed a Batsuit comprised of a neoprene undersuit, much like a diver’s wet suit, with seven separate molded latex sections glued to it: the knees, calves, legs, arms, torso, spine and cowl. “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,” said Hemming.129
Months before filming began, Christian Bale arrived at Cape Town to be molded for the Batsuit. The challenge for Hemming was that he had not yet begun training to build his body up for the role.130 Nonetheless, a full body cast was taken, from which a plastic model of Bale was produced. Clay muscles were then sculpted onto the plastic model to approximate the shape they expected Bale would be by the time filming began. Plastiline was added to give the model a smoother surface, and then molds of Bale’s body were made from the model. They were then ta
ken to the foam lab to be injected with a latex foam mixture. Hours of research went into getting the mixture just right. It had to be light and flexible, but at the same time durable. It also needed to be as black as possible, but the more black pigment that was added, the weaker the foam. After finding just the right balance, the full body molds were injected with the foam, cooked in a large oven, and then the pieces were de-molded and trimmed with fine scissors to make it appear as if they had been cut by lasers.131
The cowl presented a special challenge. Previous cowls restricted the wearer’s head movement. Hemming worked with Nolan and sculptor Julian Murray to devise a way to make the cowl thin enough to permit movement and supple enough to prevent it from wrinkling up when Bale turned his head. The result was a sleek, almost panther-like silhouette that was supposed to allow for more natural movement, though Bale later complained that he was still unable to turn his head freely.132
Nolan was especially keen to get the right look for Batman’s cape. “There are wonderful illustrations of Batman striking iconic poses with his cape flowing, and we wanted to capture that element into our portrayal of the character,” said Nolan.133 “Chris didn’t want that armored feeling,” said Hemming. “He wanted to take the romanticism of the cloak from the comics, and he wanted him to be able to emerge from the darkness and fade into the darkness in places on the screen—it’s almost like parts of him vanish.”134
Hemming knew that to achieve this effect, Batman would need a matte black cape, not a shiny one. To attain that distinct look, the costumers invented their own fabric. They began by taking parachute nylon, which was very lightweight, and flocking it electro-statically with a process used in the making of London police force helmets. Hemming contacted police technicians to teach her team how to flock the nylon. It was achieved by brushing the material with glue and running a 60,000 volt static electric charge underneath it. Fine hairs were then dropped onto the fabric, and held in place by the electric charge.135
With the suit completed, it was now time to try it on Bale. After losing 63 pounds for The Machinist, the actor trained to build his body up to Batman proportions. “I finished The Machinist in July, and we had to start shooting this film at the end of February,” Bale told Starlog magazine’s Joe Nazzaro. “So, yes, I had a considerable amount of work to do. This part demands that you be in decent shape, and I also needed to be ready for being in that suit 12 hours a day. I was eating like crazy, trying to put on pounds and pounds, and I actually went way overboard. By the time I arrived in England, Chris stared at me in shock and said, ‘My God, you look like some kind of grizzly bear!’ because I arrived with long hair and a beard. I had put on exactly 100 pounds from the day of finishing The Machinist to arriving in England in January, and that wasn’t a healthy way to go. I could lift a lot of weights, but if you had asked me to run across the room, I would have been exhausted. So when I got here, I started running and doing stuff like that, and I brought my weight back down again.”136
Christian Bale, bulked up and suited up as Batman in Batman Begins (Warner Bros./Photofest, © Warner Bros. Photographer: David James).
Two months before arriving in England, Bale began learning the fighting method that director Christopher Nolan and fight arranger David Forman had chosen for Batman.137 They wanted one that was quick and lethal, marrying the intensity of street fighting with the discipline of martial arts.138 “For Batman, everything is about function, it’s about the most effective way of doing something, so we needed a style that is brutal, economical and real,” said Nolan.139 “We’ve gotten comfortable seeing fighting portrayed in this graceful, dance-like fashion to the point where the violence loses its threat. I wanted to take it back to a grittier place, where you feel the punches a bit more.”140
Nolan and Forman decided on the Keysi Fighting Method, also known as KFM, a relatively new style developed in Spain in the 1950s by Justo Diéguez Serrano. Based on natural fighting instincts and tightly controlled, efficient movements, Keysi is an intuitive, low-grounded fighting method that requires superior leg and upper body strength, with a strong emphasis on mental focus and awareness. Unlike other martial arts developed for sport, KFM is ideal for combat in close quarters and can be applied to fighting in any environment, even against multiple attackers from all directions.141 “A big part of the Batman persona is the aggressive, animalistic way he attacks his enemies,” said Bale. “I wanted to show how devastating he is when he charges forward and attacks people, and his resilience in taking blows as well.”142 The Keysi Fighting Method, said Bale, “is a very intuitive kind of martial art, but also very, very brutal. It’s all about going for the break straightaway. It’s quite instinctive and it adapts to many different situations. So it truly looks as though this is Batman’s own style that he’s come up with.”143 Forman was impressed with Bale’s ability, saying, “Christian is an excellent student. We were very surprised at how quickly he absorbed the information when we gave him his first lesson.”144
Lindy Hemming was concerned when she saw the now-buff actor. “We always knew that when Christian came back from training, he would have developed into a different shape,” said Hemming. “He did get enormously bigger, and when he first came back, we were like, ‘Oh no. It’s never going to fit!’” After his training slimmed him back down, the suit did fit Bale, but despite the efforts of Hemming’s costume department to make it more wearer-friendly, it was still uncomfortable. It took three people to suit the actor up every day. Once he was inside the costume, overheating was a major concern. At times Bale wore a “cool suit” which had tiny plastic tubes running through the inside of it, similar to what high-altitude pilots and astronauts use as a cooling system.145 “When you first put it on, you feel like you’re scuba diving or something, and it feels kinda claustrophobic,” said Bale. “I think that they made a lot of advances in the actual make-up of the suit...So I think I, by far, have had the easiest time of anybody, short of probably Adam West who I think was trotting around in some kind of cotton get-up or something. They really came up with some good stuff. And it’s much more mobile than any of the other suits have been.”146
Bale liked that the suit made him look like a dangerous jungle creature. “The suit gives you this huge neck, like a Mike Tyson neck, which you really rarely see amongst humans,” said Bale. “It’s more like a panther. It gives you this real feral look, as though you’re going to pounce on somebody any moment.”147 Although Bale could do more in his suit than previous Batman actors, he still had difficulty raising his arms very high, and he needed help when it came time for toilet breaks.148 Bale also found the cowl particularly uncomfortable. It fit so tightly that after about twenty minutes, it gave him a terrific headache. But when that happened, and the discomfort sent him into a foul mood, he refused to take the cowl off, preferring to use that anger in his performance. “I wasn’t going to be some little acting ninny who says, ‘I can’t deal with it anymore. Take it off,’” said Bale. “I used the pain as fuel for the character’s anger. Batman’s meant to be fierce, and you become a beast in that suit, as Batman should be—not a man in a suit, but a different creature.”149
“Christian had a very controlled and specific approach to how he wanted to portray the aggression and the animal-like quality of this character,” said Nolan. “He spent a long time looking at graphic novels and illustrations of Batman, to form his own sense of how he should move and communicate with the other characters. I think that his portrayal is very striking in its intensity and its seriousness.”150
Despite the discomfort, Bale said, “It’s one hell of an honor to wear that Batsuit.” And Christopher Nolan noticed that “everybody on set felt quite a charge when Christian would walk on in the Batsuit. It was quite shocking and quite striking. You felt it in your bones.”151
INTIMIDATING CIRCUMSTANCES
For months, websites reported the new film’s title as The Intimidation Game, but that was just a code name used by the studio while the film was in deve
lopment, meant to throw Batman fans off the scent.152 It didn’t work; fans quickly deduced that The Intimidation Game was the new Batman film. To further throw fans off, once filming began, call sheets and marker signs carried the title Flora’s Wedding to turn away gawkers; Flora is the name of Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’s daughter.
On March 4, 2004, Daily Variety reported that the new Batman film had begun shooting in Iceland.153 The first sequence filmed was Bruce Wayne’s swordfight with Ducard, staged on a frozen lake atop the Vatnajokull Glacier in the South East of Iceland, the largest glacier in Europe.154 The area was so remote that the film’s construction crew had to build a road in order to access the icy location.155 Normally, this kind of sequence would have been handled by a second unit, with the stunt coordinator directing a couple of stunt doubles through the moves. Nolan, however, chose not to use a second unit director; when this Batman film was finished, every frame of film on the screen would bear his own personal stamp.156
In preparation for the sword duel, fight arranger David Forman and his team spent weeks rehearsing with Christian Bale and Liam Neeson at an ice rink. The actors were trained in the art of wielding Samurai swords, defending against blade attacks with forearm gauntlets, and—as Bale put it—“practicing how to fight while standing on ice without falling on your ass all the time.”157
Filming on the ice was dangerous. The film’s safety team only allowed six people at a time—including the two actors—to be on the frozen surface.158 “Every so often between set-ups we’d see ice crumbling away at the head of this glacier and bits of rock and muck falling off, and we knew this thing was a big living force that was moving towards us,” said Neeson.159
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