49 Fun Facts About Batman (1989)

Who directed the 1989 Batman film?

Tim Burton was hired by Warner Bros. after Pee-wee's Big Adventure, but the studio only greenlit Batman once Beetlejuice became a hit in 1988.

Who plays the Joker in Batman (1989)?

Jack Nicholson. He had been the studio's first choice for the Joker since 1980, and a producer began courting him on the set of The Witches of Eastwick, three years before the film opened.

Why did fans protest when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman?

He did comedies. Fans who pictured the star of Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice in the cowl feared the film would be as camp as the 1960s television series.

Which producer suggested Michael Keaton after seeing his dramatic turn in Clean and Sober?

Jon Peters. He argued that Keaton had the right "edgy, tormented quality" for Bruce Wayne, and the director, who had just made Beetlejuice with him, agreed.

In Batman (1989), the Joker declares that 'this town needs' what?

An enema. He is ranting about Batman at the time, asking what kind of world it is when a man dressed as a bat gets all his press.

Who was originally cast as Batman's female lead before a horse-riding accident forced her out?

Sean Young. She was hurt in a fall from a horse, and the role was recast in a hurry with an actress who could join the production straight away.

Which actor talked Batman's director out of casting him as the Joker, then regretted it?

John Lithgow. He spent the meeting arguing that he was wrong for the Joker, and later owned up to the mistake: "I didn't realize it was such a big deal."

The Joker's actor cut his $10m fee to $6m in return for what?

A share of takings and merchandise. The gamble paid off many times over: his cut is put at anywhere from $50 million to $90 million, and he insisted on top billing as well.

Which fictional chemical company's vat turns Jack Napier into the Joker?

Axis Chemicals. It is one of the mob's front companies, and Napier is sent there to remove incriminating files when the real plan is for the police to shoot him.

What is the name of the Joker's poison, which makes victims die laughing?

Smylex is the Joker's toxin, hidden in cosmetics so that certain product combinations kill with a rictus grin; Batman passes his analysis to the press so the city can be warned.

Which mob boss sets Napier up on the chemical-plant break-in over an affair with his mistress?

Carl Grissom, played by Jack Palance, runs Gotham's rackets and sends Napier into a police trap after learning of the affair; the Joker later shoots him dead.

Which supermodel played Alicia Hunt, the mob boss's mistress?

Jerry Hall, then Mick Jagger's partner. Her Alicia is disfigured by the Joker, who shows her off as a piece of his art and later announces, quite unmoved, that she threw herself out of a window.

Which museum does the Joker lure the photojournalist to and have his henchmen vandalise?

The Flugelheim Museum is where the Joker's gang defaces the art to a blaring boombox; he spares only Francis Bacon's Figure with Meat, saying he kind of likes it.

Why does the Joker's 'devil in the pale moonlight' line jolt Bruce Wayne?

His parents' killer said it. The film makes the young Jack Napier the gunman, a change from the comics, where the Waynes are shot by a mugger named Joe Chill.

How does Bruce Wayne survive being shot by the Joker in Vicki's apartment?

A serving tray hidden under his shirt stops the bullet. Bruce had come to tell Vicki that he is Batman, and was in mid-sentence when the Joker rang the doorbell.

The Joker's parade with the promise of free money is held to celebrate what?

Gotham's bicentennial, the city's 200th-anniversary festival, is the occasion; the Joker's parade balloons spew poison gas until Batman's Batwing carries them away.

Which reporter, played by Robert Wuhl, was killed by the Joker's gas in the original script?

Alexander Knox. Wuhl says the filmmakers liked the character so much that they let him live, and he returned to the part thirty years on in TV's Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Which actor played Alfred in Batman (1989) and stayed in the role for three sequels?

Michael Gough. The director cast him out of fondness for his Hammer horror films, and only he and the actor playing Commissioner Gordon appeared in all four films of the series.

Which actor played Harvey Dent in Batman (1989), expecting to become Two-Face in a sequel?

Billy Dee Williams. The director wanted a black-and-white take on Two-Face, but Tommy Lee Jones got the part in Batman Forever; Williams finally voiced the villain in The Lego Batman Movie.

Confronting the Joker in Vicki's apartment, Bruce Wayne suddenly shouts which challenge?

"Let's get nuts!" He has just told the Joker about a mean kid who 'ended up with his lights out', and Keaton barked the same line again when he returned as Batman over thirty years later.

What does the Joker do to his henchman Bob after Batman steals the parade balloons?

Shoots him with his own gun. He says only 'Bob. Gun.' and fires; Bob was played by Tracey Walter, cast at the urging of his real-life friend, the film's Joker.

Where was Batman filmed from October 1988 to early 1989?

Pinewood Studios, England, hosted the shoot from October 1988 into early 1989; a sprawling Gotham City rose on its backlot, far from the Hollywood press the filmmakers wanted to avoid.

Which two English stately homes, one a rock-festival venue, doubled for Wayne Manor?

Knebworth House and Hatfield House, both in Hertfordshire. Knebworth, the festival site, got its Gothic turrets and domes from the Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who began remodelling the old manor house in 1843.

Which 1986 film had previously shot at the power station used for the Joker's chemical plant?

Aliens. Its alien-nest sets were still standing inside the disused Acton Lane Power Station in London, so Batman's crew redressed them as the chemical plant's interiors.

Batman (1989) won an Academy Award for its vision of Gotham City, in which category?

Best Art Direction. It went to production designer Anton Furst and set decorator Peter Young; a contract Furst then signed with another studio barred him from designing the sequel.

Which musician wrote and performed the songs for Batman (1989)?

Prince. The producers first wanted him for the Joker's songs and Michael Jackson for the love songs, with the film's composer blending the two; in the end he wrote and sang them all.

Who composed Batman's score, his third collaboration with the director after Pee-wee's Big Adventure?

Danny Elfman. A producer doubted the Oingo Boingo frontman until he heard the main title theme, which was later reworked to open Batman: The Animated Series.

The chart-topping single "Batdance" lifts many of its words from where?

The film's dialogue. Sampled lines from the cast run all through the track, and the film's popularity helped carry it to number one in the US, its singer's first chart-topper there since 1986.

Which singer duets on "The Arms of Orion" from Batman's soundtrack album?

Sheena Easton. She also wrote the song's lyric at the songwriter's suggestion, and the album's notes present it as a duet between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale.

Which two comics shaped the tone of Batman (1989)?

The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. The director, no comics reader, called the second the first comic he ever loved, because he could finally tell which panel to read next.

Which Batman co-creator worked as a consultant on the 1989 film?

Bob Kane. The studio hired him as creative consultant to counter the bad press swirling around the production, and he stayed on for all three sequels.

Before saying 'I'm Batman', what favour does Batman ask of a terrified mugger?

Tell all your friends about me. He has just promised the pleading man that he won't kill him, and the mugger can only gasp 'What are you?' in reply.

Why did screenwriter Sam Hamm have to stop rewriting Batman in 1988?

The Writers Guild of America strike of 1988 pulled Hamm off the project; Warren Skaaren took over the credited rewrites, with uncredited passes by Jonathan Gems and Charles McKeown.

In the climax, what does Batman tether to the Joker's leg as he climbs to his helicopter?

A stone gargoyle. It breaks from its mounting on the cathedral roof, and its weight drags the Joker off the helicopter's rope ladder to his death.

What does Batman give Gotham's police at the end of the 1989 film so they can call on him?

The Bat-Signal. It arrives with a letter promising that if the forces of evil rise again the city need only call; 'How do we call him?' asks a reporter, and the searchlight is unveiled.

Which one-word command makes protective plates close over the parked Batmobile?

Shields. Steel plates seal the cockpit at the word, so the car can be left while Batman and Vicki Vale escape on foot; "Shields open" releases it.

Which hero's 1989 film beat Batman to become the year's top earner worldwide?

Indiana Jones. The Last Crusade took about $474 million around the world to Batman's $411 million, though Batman earned more in North America, where it opened with a record $40 million weekend.

Batman stayed the highest-grossing superhero film until which later release overtook it?

Spider-Man. The 2002 film ended a thirteen-year reign, during which none of Batman's own three sequels managed to match its $411 million.

How did British film censors handle Batman's release in 1989?

Created a new 12 rating. Batman was the first film released with it, but for five years the rating existed only in cinemas, so on video such films had to move up to a 15 or down to a PG.

Which song from the soundtrack plays as the Joker's gang defaces the paintings in the museum?

"Partyman". Its writer came up with the song after meeting the film's Joker out of character on the set, and it became the album's second single.

What did Michael Keaton change to make his Batman seem a different man from Bruce Wayne?

He lowered his voice. The deeper register became a hallmark of the character on screen, and Christian Bale later used the same trick in his own Batman films.

Which two villains did Michael Keaton's Batman face in the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns?

The Penguin and Catwoman. Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer played them, and the director agreed to come back only once the studio had promised him greater creative control.

Which 2023 release saw Michael Keaton return as his version of Batman?

The Flash, released in June 2023, brought Keaton back as his Batman alongside Ezra Miller's Barry Allen; his scenes for the shelved Batgirl film never reached the public.

Which actress plays photojournalist Vicki Vale in Batman (1989)?

Kim Basinger. She joined at almost no notice after the original actress was hurt in a riding accident, and later won an Oscar for L.A. Confidential.

Which veteran character actor plays Commissioner Gordon in Batman (1989)?

Pat Hingle. Three different Batmen came and went across the four films of the series, but his Commissioner Gordon stayed through them all.

Who replaced Michael Keaton as Batman in the third film, Batman Forever?

Val Kilmer. He lasted a single film: by Batman & Robin in 1997 the cowl had passed again, to George Clooney, with a new director in charge of both sequels.

Which star did Ivan Reitman want as Batman, opposite Eddie Murphy's Robin, in an early version?

Bill Murray. Reitman, who had directed him in Meatballs, was one of several directors attached to an early script, Gremlins director Joe Dante among them, but that version was never filmed.

Batman grossed over $400m, yet its executive producers' percentage of what proved worthless?

Net profits. The studio's books still showed the blockbuster in the red, so their cut came to exactly nothing, a case of what is known as Hollywood accounting, and in 1992 the pair sued.

How does the Joker bring down the Batwing after it takes his parade balloons?

A shot from his revolver. He taunts the diving plane, 'Come to me', then fires, and the Batwing crashes in flames.