Evolution of the Batmobile.

by Zeeshaan Rahman

Over the course of the years we’ve seen a change in the styles of vehicles chosen to represent each Batman, reflecting both the aesthetic of the respective film and that specific Batman’s personality. These parallels can be seen whether it was Robert Pattinson with his muscle car or Christian Bale and his tank (The Tumbler).

Batman Serial (Lambert Hillyer, 1943) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Lewis Wilson

The oldest and most forgotten of the Batman films featured and arguably the worst batmobile from the lot. Due to its lack of funding this so called ‘Batmobile’ was a 1939 convertible Cadillac which was also used as Bruce Wayne’s main mode of transportation. The hood up signified that the car was in ‘Batmobile mode’ and hood down was recognised as Bruce Wayne’s car. As it was a serial, it also had a quick tern-around meaning less care was put into mise-en-scene elements. The lack of imagination is what makes this the worst Batmobile out of the list. The car was even dubbed as ‘a factory-stock convertible’ to put into perspective the lack of funding that was put into the film. An attempt was made by utilising the hood of the car to change the identity of which character was being portrayed; however when compared to later instalments, it doesn’t reach the same standards that we are accustomed to today.

Batman (Tim Burton, 1989) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia. & Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Michael Keaton

In Tim Burton’s Batman, Burton introduced a more iconic design to the two-seater Batmobile with the long tube look and the extended wings at the back. The purely fictional car was created for the purpose of serving the movie without being based on any car in existence at the time. Equipped with a jet turbine and fueled with high octane (97% special gasoline paraffin mixture), this absolute menace of a car had a top speed of 330mph using its booster, achieving 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. Unlike the 1943 Serial batmobile where it was only used for transport, Tim Burton added an arsenal of weapons and gadgets to the car to make it the ultimate war machine ready to handle anything. Some of my favourite attachments to the car are: its two mounted Browning M1919 .30 calibre machine guns on the hood, grappling hook, and disk projectile launchers mounted to the side and a bomb dispenser. However my favourite upgrade of them all would have to be the “Cocoon-mode” armour which was a heavy armour that was deployed over the car while it was stationary which could defend against heavy and artillery and explosions.

Keaton’s Batman was the first to demonstrate similarities between both Batman and Batmobile. Dubbed as the fan favourite, this specific model has made appearances in different Batman adaptations from comic books to television shows to games (featured in Grand Theft Auto V: Online) and was the base design for the next two Batmobile iterations.

Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Val Kilmer

This version of the Batmobile follows a similar base design to Burton’s version, though it does try to take a new artistic approach with some of its features for the worst. Wherein Burton’s had a smooth aerodynamic exterior, Schumacher’s original model has an exoskeleton appearance to it. Apart from keeping the wings and the elongated shape, this Batmobile doesn’t have many more features which represent its prior counterpart. Due to the nature of Batman Forever’s content, we never see if this design of the Batmobile was also upgraded to have weapons or any defence mechanisms added to it. Viewers can only speculate that it was used for the purpose of transport and not to assist Batman in any other way, making it similar to the 1943 Serial and adding a sense of continuity from previous films. Unlike in the Serial, Bruce Wayne had a different mode of transport. This gives it that little edge over the Serial. Its ugly design, comically large third wing and its bright blue light under the exoskeleton, which takes away the whole point of how Keaton’s Batman uses discretion to his advantage, this makes it a very low ranking batmobile.

Unfortunately this is one of a couple instances where the Batmobile does not imitate the look or delivers to the audience the same sense of emotion when seeing Keaton’s Batman. Whereas Keaton brilliantly played his role as both Bruce Wayne and Batman bringing both of them to life in different ways, Bruce being calm and collected yet Batman being scary and unknown. Unfortunately Schumacher fails to copy these characteristics into his imagery when creating the Batmobile. What should have been a new fresh take by using Burton’s iconic template ended up being a cash grab for toy manufacturing companies. Both the large extra wing and bright lights felt uncomfortable to see in a serious Batman film, just as uncomfortable as it was to see that George Clooney’s nipples were a prominent feature to his suit.

Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: George Clooney

Schumacher returns directing a new Batman film with a new cast in which he uses both Burton’s and his own prior batmobile design from Batman Forever and mashed them together. Getting rid of the exoskeleton and bringing back a smooth exterior shell, while also having giant glowing lights coming from the wheels, sides and even the engine. The engine is showcased behind glass and glows bright red while it rotates when ignited. Though getting rid of Schumacher’s previous design of the ridiculously giant wing from the top helps to make the car stick out even though, they’ve gone for a small sleek car which was made to be discrete like in Burton’s. This Batmobile has elevated its two back side wings into the air to make it look just as cartoonish. The impracticality of the car doesn’t end with the giant wings, the car is missing a roof which makes Batman vulnerable to being shot in the face. Also the fact that the movie is named Batman and Robin yet the vehicle only has one seat is also a giant flaw in the car design.

Both of Schumacher’s Batmobiles were used for marketing purposes so that when the Batman toys came out they’d be more appealing to children rather than being practical in the films. Schumacher’s Batmobile in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were unnecessarily flashy which ended up taking away the “dark knight” feel that represents Batman.

Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia. , The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia. & The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Christian Bale

Stepping away from Burton’s sleek design, The Dark Knight Trilogy takes a daring step into using a tank-like vehicle and using that as the batmobile. Fortunately for Christopher it synched in nicely alongside how Christian Bale played his Batman along with all the situations he was roped along into. Like a tank, Bale’s Batman was destructive and always had the public’s opinion on him changing: whether it was that they needed him or didn’t. This reflects nicely on how his Tumbler was used, as what was initially designed for military practice was used to tear through the streets of Gotham either to evade the police at times or to do what was needed to stop the villain.

Nolan’s Tumbler, similar to Burton’s batmobile, was riddled with upgrades; both played crucial roles in their Batman films due to these upgrades. Whereas Burton’s batmobile had the cocoon mode to make itself impenetrable to weapons, Nolan’sTumbler was already a tank which didn’t need a special mode to make itself better for combat. The tires could rotate 360 degrees sideways taking out a need to drift and making it more efficient when turning corners to avoid unnecessary collisions. Nolan’s Tumbler was also equipped with a pod mode which would take Batmobile’s main driver’s seat and attached it to the wheel of the Batbike which could deploy underneath the Tumbler, this making it the ultimate mode for transportation as it could go from a tank needed in combat situations to a bike needed for high speed pursuit purposes, in a matter of seconds. As well as having upgrades to make the vehicle more efficient in terms of travel, it was also equipped with rockets, a stealth mode where the lights and engine would turn off and an electric motor would run making it silent and hard to find in dark places, a controlled jet engine which gave it the ability to do rampless jumps, explosive mines deployed from under the car, and two forward-firing machine guns. The use of a tank made it the first of the Batmobiles to take such a bold design making it highly recognisable within the Batman Fandom.

Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia. & Justice League (Zack Snyder, 2017) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Ben Affleck

Taking another bold approach to the Batmobile is Zack Snyder’s tank-like design, similar to Nolan’s in the sense that it’s a heavily armoured vehicle made for combat yet different to the point where it’s smaller, lighter, faster and has its two front guns mounted on top. Unfortunately this batmobile is accompanied by Ben Affleck’s Batman which doesn’t mirror the beauty of this car. Overall, due to its similarities to its Tumbler successor, this version is much less memorable than other batmobiles. The underrated vehicle still has a slick aerodynamic design to it making it more effective than the Tumbler in a chase as it doesn’t need to take the time to use the drop pod option.

The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) View on: IMDb. Lettrboxd Wikipedia.

Batman: Robert Pattinson

Matt Reeves, like Christopher Nolan, took a fresh take on the Batmobile where like his Batman he made his car more realistic. The Ford Mustang with a V8 engine and 700 horsepower plus 4 wheel drive reflects Robert Pattinson’s performance as Bruce Wayne: who is looked as a weak nobody who barely represented the Wayne name yet nightlighted as the Batman. The Batmobile was the same in the sense that they designed the car to look banged up on the outside with a worn down look, yet was packing so much engine power. Just like how Bruce Wayne doesn’t know how to play himself, the Batmobile looks more like a scrap car and a mixture of his identities through sporting the full front of the car which represents Batman and how he’s more comfortable as the Bat rather than Bruce yet having an exposed engine which represent Bruce and how he feels incomplete if he was not Batman.

Conclusion...

A variety of different Batmobiles have been on display over the years reflecting each director's work and their portrayal of the Batman. This is needed as Batman doesn’t only have one identity. The many different iterations of Batman in the comics have shown how Batman has evolved over time, that he is not just one idea, that he is made up of many different writers and artists. This goes the same for the directors envisioning him, they get free artistic control over all his gadgets, equipment, character and vehicles. Modern day society changes at drastic speed and it's the directors job to keep their characters up to date. The Batmobile playing a major part of the Batman series is a visual way to show how Batman is updated to stay within current times to keep Batman alive. Batman is known as the Billionaire with technological advancements which surpass current day standards and by directors using new designs for Batmobiles which keep having to be evolved to beat modern day standards. What would have been seen as impossible when Adam West’s Batman has a corded telephone attached to his Batmobile current technology has far surpassed that where even us as average people see that as obsolete technology.

Personally I believe the designs and ideas of the Batmobile have improved over the years as a whole however Tim Burton’s Batmobile remains as the icon which should represent them all when you think of Batman’s Batmobile.

by Zeeshaan Rahman, April 2022.