The Batman, from director Matt Reeves, is the latest film to focus on DC's Dark Knight. Robert Pattinson now joins the likes of Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and the late Adam West in the cape-and-cowl brotherhood. To say anticipation is at a high is an understatement, with many people anxious to see what he brings to the oft-played role.
If we're being truthful, however, BatPatt is secondary to the real draw of the Batman films: The Bat vehicles. Perhaps slightly exaggerated, but not really all that far off. Twitter exploded when the first images of the latest Batmobile hit the net, accompanied by the hashtag opines of the social media community. Everything from engine type to horsepower is already being speculated on heavily, accompanying a dizzying array of blueprints and specs of previous iterations waiting to be Googled.
So where does the BatPattmobile stack up against its predecessors? Find out below (and ponder just how much money Bruce Wayne must spend on gas monthly)!
1. Batmobile in Batman: The Movie
The OG is the best G, hands down. The wings on the back. The red striping. The bubble seating. The vast array of bat gadgets. Bat symbols on the door and hubcaps. The instantly iconic afterburner, a mainstay that has featured on every Batmobile since. The '66 model set the bar high, and arguably has not been surpassed since.
2. Batmobile in The Batman
The newest entry is also very nearly the best. This Batmobile is a Frankenstein's monster, with elements of a Dodge Charger (its main basis), Ford Mustang, and a Chevrolet Camaro seemingly pieced together. What it lacks in weaponry it makes up for in sheer force. Not unlike its owner, this Batmobile is the very definition of vengeance.
3. Batpod in The Dark Knight
Sleek, maneuverable, and, somewhat surprisingly, street legal, the Batpod was a hit the instant it launched out of the Tumbler. It had the look of a light cycle from Tron, but was actually custom-built, street legal, and functional in the real world (save for a few CGI tricks here and there). The best of the Bat two-wheelers.
4. Batmobile in Batman
Tim Burton's classic reignited Batman in the public eye. He was no longer the campy Batman of the TV show: this Batman was dark and menacing. To match this aesthetic, Burton's Batmobile was all-black, sleek, and stealthy like the protagonist. It is far and away the best version in the '89 to '97 series of films.
5. Tumbler in Batman Begins
The word that best describes the Tumbler is this: Imposing. Big, bulky, and militaristic, the Tumbler was a wholly original revamp of the classic Batmobile. Good thing this Hummer-like beast came in black.
6. Batmobile in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Zack Snyder's first venture into the Batverse would see a Batmobile that brought together the best parts of Burton and Nolan's versions. All-black, sleek, and winged paired with an imposing military look, allowing this Batmobile to find a balance between grounded and fantastical.
7. Batwing in Batman
The best of the Bat in flight, the cheesy moon silhouette shot aside. It looked amazing on screen, opening up the skies as a new realm in Batman's guarding of Gotham.
8. The Bat in The Dark Knight Rises
If the best description of Nolan’s Tumbler is imposing, then his Bat is downright frightening. Reminiscent of the gunship in Aliens, the Bat brings the Tumbler to the air, a winged apex predator primed to exact justice. One question - who did fix the autopilot?
9. Batskiboat in Batman Returns
A far cry from the 1966 version (see number 9 below), the Batskiboat fits well in Burton's vision of Batman's world. Like his Batmobile, the Batskiboat is long and black, with stabilizer "wings" that extend off of each side. It didn't really seem to stick in the public consciousness for long, perhaps due to it having nothing all that special or different from its land-linked siblings.
10. Batboat in Batman: The Movie
Garish. Campy. A perfect complement to the inanity of the movie itself. The boat mirrors the look of the Batmobile in some ways: the prominent fin, the bubble seating, the red beacon, and the bat-eyes at the front. The coloring, however, is radically different, to put it lightly. No black. No red trimming. Instead, the Batboat is a light blue, with decals of flames along the sides (think Greased Lightning from Grease) and a bat symbol on the fin. A fun entry, but definitely where we skew from dark and menacing to bubblegum.
11. Batcopter in Batman: The Movie
Like the Batboat from the same film, the Batcopter is so camp that Jason Voorhees can be seen stalking around it. Our heroes sit in the large, bubble cockpit, while the rest of the copter is painted red. Except for the two black bat wings on the sides, purely an artistic decision over a decidedly safer alternative (fun fact: the studio destroyed the wings over 40 years ago so they wouldn't be used again). Not the best on the list, of course, but guaranteed it is the only one that has a storage area for Bat Shark Repellent.
12. Batmobile in Batman & Robin
Narrowly edging its immediate predecessor, this Batmobile looks like an unholy marriage of Burton's Batmobile and Cruella De Vil's car from 101 Dalmatians. The batwings off the back look more like lightning bolts, a gaudy add-on as opposed to an integrated part of the body design like those before it. The edge over the previous Batmobile is negligible, at best: while both share bright lighting as accents, this version isn't overtaken by them. Considering that the majority of Batman's garage to that point lacked any fashionable lighting whatsoever, though, it's not a win.
13. Batmobile in Batman Forever
Joel Schumacher’s first Batman movie is god-awful, arguably worse than its much-derided sequel. It would make sense, then, that Batman's ride in the film is ghastly. That's putting it nicely. Kind of. Where to even begin. Representative of the "more is better" view of Schumacher for the movie, this Batmobile has not two pleasingly-integrated wings, but three - three - wings that flare out the back for what must be a good six feet. The black exterior, synonymous with most variations, is sparse. In its place are cutaways, literally everywhere, that are illuminated with bright, blue lights. Know what else has the same hideous blue lighting? The hubcaps. And not a little lighting. The entire hubcap, covering the whole tire, glows blue, save the obligatory bat symbol in the middle. The look may be great for toys, but as a means of stealthily patrolling the streets of Gotham? Good luck with that.