Editor's note: The below piece contains spoilers from The Batman.There's a lot to love about Matt Reeves' The Batman. From the jump, this is a movie that evokes a very specific mood that isn't only glimpsed in the copious amounts of dark, smudged makeup that Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne indiscriminately smears across his face, or the angsty musical backdrop anchored by Nirvana's "Something in the Way," which first debuted as part of the inaugural DC FanDome trailer well over a year ago (were we all ever that young and unknowing?). The latest Caped Crusader film has a distinct atmospheric quality wrapped up in all the choices Reeves as a director (and as co-writer alongside Peter Craig) elects to make, from keeping this new version of Gotham eternally drenched under some level of rainfall to crafting a villain like Paul Dano's Riddler out of a blend of films like Zodiac and Se7en and then dropping him into the landscape of an Internet-heavy age. The Batman takes us back to the beginnings of what Gotham was like when Bruce Wayne decided to don the cape and cowl, and by giving the audience a younger Batman — one who might not be the World's Greatest Detective but is already showing signs of becoming one — it allows the movie to unexpectedly find its way to one thing that a lot of superhero flicks in recent memory have been lacking in: the kind of sexy chemistry that practically makes the screen itself ignite, even in the midst of the darkest scenes.

Bear in mind that when we first encounter this version of Batman, he's still in the process of figuring out what kind of masked hero he wants to be — does he operate from a place of vengeance, or is the solution to improving Gotham's staggering crime rate actually found somewhere inside of hope? On a less philosophical level, he's not just young but still somewhat inexperienced; when he uses the flight suit hidden under his armor to jump from the top of the towering Gotham PD headquarters, he misjudges the timing on deploying his parachute, and the resulting fall he takes can only be described as watching the Bat totally eat shit before struggling to his feet and limping off into the darkness, pain reverberating from every step. Based on the number of times we see Pattinson's Bruce strip off his shirt, it's clear he's been taking hits and fighting to get back up again for a while now; a brief shot of one of the journals he's been keeping shows that this "Gotham Project" of his is about two years underway, and he's got the scars to show for it. It's Bruce Wayne's mission to clean up the streets of his home city and carry on his family's legacy, but that single-mindedness is also what blinds him to the utter force of nature that is waitress and cat burglar Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz).

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Image via Warner Bros.

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One of the best aspects of Pattinson's portrayal is how his Batman walks the line between greenness and hardened knowledge; he understands how certain criminal minds work, but only to an extent, and the self-appointed role he's taken on doesn't necessarily endear him to anyone at first contact when his very body language exudes an intense stiffness and rigidity. Some of that might be the Batsuit itself, which Pattinson can't seem to move in without emitting even the slightest creak, and the heavy weight of his boots is often used to announce him to potential foes long before he actually steps out from the shadows. Juxtaposed against his tension, Selina is a more fluid energy, as versatile with her body as the felines she harbors a soft spot for — but when the two of them are on-screen together, the results are dynamic and compelling.

The sexiness inherent between Pattinson's Batman and Kravitz's Catwoman doesn't really have anything to do with sexual intent or even the desire to strip down, and what physical interactions there are between them are limited and, in many ways, fairly innocent. Over the course of the story that plays out in The Batman, the two of them only kiss twice (with both of those smooches initiated by Selina herself), but the meeting in which the characters don't decisively lock lips proves to be their steamiest interaction, and it happens long before they ever share a passionate snog on top of that abandoned Gotham rooftop.

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Image via Warner Bros.

At an early point in The Batman, Bruce has followed Selina back to the scene of Riddler's initial crime — the murder of Gotham City mayor Don Mitchell. As Selina breaks into Mitchell's safe with the intent of retrieving a passport belonging to Annika (Hana Hrzic), her roommate and suspiciously close gal pal, Batman is close behind to surprise and ultimately confront her, and the two exchange a series of quick blows before he manages to pin her down against Mitchell's desk. Selina wrests free, but it's actually what happens next that plays out in an even more exciting fashion. A lone police officer patrolling the building nearly spots them, and thinking fast, the Bat pulls the Cat around the corner and steps back into the wall, hauling her back into his chest and covering her mouth with his hand so that they become one with the silent shadows. Initially, she struggles in his hold before realizing he's just saved them from being caught, and composer Michael Giacchino's score swells tellingly as Selina lets herself relax against the front of Bruce's body, their breaths gradually beginning to sync and fall into unison for a few tension-riddled seconds before the coast finally becomes clear.

The scene itself works thanks to a combination of factors, none of them having to do with any dialogue whatsoever — not only does the music shift to a sultrier series of notes, courtesy of Giacchino's composition, but Reeves makes the point to let his camera push in slowly on these two briefly trapped together in this shared embrace as their chests rise and fall, as twin respirations turn slower and slower and bodies start to become less primed to continue the fight. Although their clutching of one another starts from a place of necessity and vigilance, it morphs into them openly sensing one another for the first time, learning who the other one is in a span that seems to stretch on for much longer than it actually is — almost existing outside of time itself. Each half of this pair knows how to wear a different face in public, donning fake wigs or expensive suits in order to blend in less conspicuously, but it's incredibly fitting that the Bat and the Cat manage to have their first, truest encounter with one another when they're wrapped up together in the darkness — and it's an unexpectedly sexy moment that informs how the rest of their incredibly complicated relationship plays out over The Batman itself, up to and including those smooches of varying intensity.

The Batman is now available to stream on HBO Max.