Every Fight Scene In The Batman Ranked Worst To Best
After years without a new solo live-action movie, "The Batman" has finally brought the Dark Knight back to the big screen in a major way. The film has earned rave reviews from critics for its stylish aesthetic, brilliant cinematography, and excellent performances from its ensemble of stars. It's already being hailed as one of the best "Batman" movies ever, and with a sequel surely on the way, this could be the start of a bold new direction for the franchise.
One of the things that sets "The Batman" apart from past live-action adaptations of the DC Comics hero is its heavy emphasis on detective work. Bruce Wayne first appeared in the "Detective Comics" series in 1939, and a lot of his time on the illustrated page is spent solving mysteries and investigating crime scenes. Past "Batman" movies have sacrificed a lot of those more cerebral plotlines in favor of flashy action scenes, and while that's not inherently a bad thing, it's fun to finally see a version of Batman who embraces his detective origins on the big screen.
Still, "The Batman" isn't wanting for exciting fight scenes and cinematic action set pieces. They may be a bit spread out, but Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight has plenty of brutal encounters with Gotham City's villains. From exciting car chases to bone-crunching street brawls, he gets his hands dirty in a number of ways, all in his crusade to help save his city from darkness and destruction. Here's every major fight scene in "The Batman" and how they measure up against each other.
8. Batman vs. Catwoman
Before they join forces and dive headfirst into vengeance-fueled sexual tension, Batman and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) have a brief battle at the scene of Mayor Mitchell's murder. The Dark Knight follows Catwoman from her apartment to the cruise scene, where she attempts to steal back her friend Annika's passport. After cracking the late mayor's safe, Selina is interrupted by Batman, prompting a scuffle.
While the fight itself doesn't last long, it's incredibly well choreographed and does a great job of setting up Bruce and Selina's dynamic. They both use their respective strengths to try to overcome the other — Catwoman with her superior agility and acrobatic prowess, and Batman with his sturdy, unshakeable physicality. It's also interesting that though Bruce knows very little about Selina at the time, he doesn't interrupt her with the intention of fighting. Throughout the film, Batman is largely motivated by a sense of duty, while Catwoman is motivated by emotion. These two opposing philosophies come out clearly in their fight, delivering both an exciting duel and a fun foreshadowing of what's to come.
The only reason this fight is ranked at the bottom of our list is because it's so very short. While it's good that Bruce and Selina are allies for most of the story, it would have been fun to see them pit their skills against each other a bit more.
7. Catwoman vs. Carmine Falcone
About halfway through "The Batman," Selina reveals her true backstory — she's the daughter of Gotham crime lord Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and her mother worked in his exclusive club within the Iceberg Lounge. Catwoman explains to Bruce how her mother was strangled to death when she was still a child and how Falcone made no claim to her in the aftermath. All that history built up a fierce hatred for the mob boss within Selina's heart, which is only magnified when he has her friend Annika killed.
With no priorities left other than revenge, Selina infiltrates Falcone's inner sanctum at the 44 Below club with the intention of killing him. What follows is a tense and claustrophobic fight scene in which Selina mixes martial arts and fast gunplay to take out a group of the mobster's henchmen, culminating in a brutal showdown with the man himself. In a display of abject cruelty, Falcone attempts to strangle the life out of his own daughter with a pool cue, revealing that he was the one who killed her mother. Fortunately, Catwoman survives the ordeal, and Falcone is quickly made to pay for his crimes.
Like her fight with Batman, Selina's battle in Falcone's lounge is pretty quick, but it's made great by fantastic choreography and tense direction. It's a testament to just how good the other fights in "The Batman" are that this one only makes it this high on the list.
6. Batman escaping from the GCPD
"The Batman" takes place in year two of Bruce Wayne's Gotham crusade, and as such, he already has a pretty solid working relationship with the city's police. Not everyone in the Gotham City Police Department trusts him, but his friendship with Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) is generally enough to earn him admittance to crime scenes and a bit of legal immunity. But when Batman's attempt to save District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) from one of the Riddler's bombs ends with the hostage dead and the Dark Knight unconscious, that delicate relationship with the cops starts to fragment. Still masked and comatose, Bruce is transported to a Gotham police station. The majority of the force wants to reveal his identity and unearth his connections to the Riddler through interrogation, but Gordon persuades them to give him a moment alone with the Dark Knight. Then, Gordon helps Batman escape.
The escape from the GCPD is one of "The Batman's" most exciting sequences, and though Bruce doesn't do much actual fighting, the scene still shines. Watching him grapple through floors upon floors of stampeding cops on his way to a rooftop escape is thrilling and beautifully shot, and it really hammers home how alone the Dark Knight is at that moment in the story. The whole sequence culminates in him taking flight from the top of the building and soaring down over the streets of Gotham — a moment that emphasizes both Batman's power and vulnerability (since, you know, he crashes).
5. The dance club brawl
After the mayor's murder, Batman goes on a hunt through the seedy streets of Gotham City in search of clues. He ends up knocking on the front door of the Iceberg Lounge — the Penguin's (Colin Farrell) illicit dance club — but the bouncers at the door aren't so keen to let him in. Never deterred by a little resistance, Batman fights his way through what feels like a small legion of guards, eventually getting the Penguin's attention and earning a proper sit-down.
The fight in the Iceberg Lounge is one of the most visually striking in the whole film, with the strobing red lights of the dance floor blaring bright and harsh over Batman and his assailants. There's something really exciting about a hero who generally sticks to the shadows boldly beating up bad guys in the middle of a crowded club, making the scene a powerful statement that Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne will truly stop at nothing in pursuit of his goals. He also gets to use his famous grappling hook in some pretty ingenious (and brutal) ways.
Batman's battle in the Iceberg Lounge is a great instance of visual and physical storytelling. With no lines, Bruce conveys the same message to the audience and the Penguin — he's not someone to be trifled with, and he cannot be intimidated. It's striking to watch, and it helps set up Bruce's character arc in a cool way.
4. Batman's return to the Iceberg Lounge
While Batman's first fight in the Iceberg Lounge is great, it doesn't quite measure up to his second. When Selina returns to 44 Below to kill her father, Batman follows close behind, this time with the lay of the land already well in mind. He sneaks into the Iceberg Lounge, cuts the power, and then makes his way to the club within the club. But standing between him and his destination is a platoon of Carmine Falcone's toughest fighters, leading to the epic hallway fight scene that became famous before the movie even premiered.
Illuminated only by muzzle flashes, Batman battles through a squad of guards in brutal fashion, taking point-blank gunfire to the chest and continuing to advance undeterred. It's perhaps the film's best visual representation of this unique version of the Dark Knight — not a prowler, not a lurker, but a shadowy colossus. At the beginning of the movie, he says the Bat-Signal conveys fear to criminals because they never know where he'll show up. In the hallway scene, he conveys fear with a different message: it doesn't matter if he's standing right in front of you — you still can't stop him.
As a fun bonus, the hallway scene in "The Batman" uses mostly practical effects, giving it an extra layer of grit that really plays on screen. The fight is a bit too short to rank any higher on this list, but its brevity is actually part of what makes it work so well.
3. The train station fight
While not quite as aesthetically distinct as either of the Iceberg Lounge fights, the first proper action sequence in "The Batman" ranks above them for a couple of reasons. First, it's a fantastic introduction to Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight. He doesn't drop down from the rooftops, nor does he sneak around picking guys off — he simply steps out of the shadows and takes down a whole gang with his bare hands. From his first few punches, it's clear that this Batman is on another level. He won't kill, sure, but there's a dark kind of catharsis apparent in his fighting style, which is largely thanks to the film's exquisite sound design.
The train station brawl is messy. Batman takes some heavy blows and even a bullet to the chest, but none of it is enough to keep him down. The cinematography here is also great, albeit less flamboyant than in some of the other fight scenes. The camera cuts between close-up, claustrophobic shots of individual blows landing and pulled-out angles of the whole fight, giving the viewer the feeling that they could be spectating a real melee. It's smartly done and extremely intense, and it sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the movie to follow.
2. The Batmobile chase
Prior to the big finale, which we'll get to in just a moment, Batman and Penguin's highway chase is both the longest and most bombastic action sequence in "The Batman." It was the centerpiece of most of the trailers, and when you see it in its entirety on the big screen, it's easy to see why. The Batmobile chase is everything it needs to be — exciting and beautifully shot with one of the best Batmobiles ever at the center of the action.
Before the car chase even begins, the action is already exciting. Catwoman interrupts a handoff between Penguin's men and some dirty cops and quickly takes down a couple of bad guys before Batman and Gordon show up. The trio is spotted, leading to a rainy shootout as Bruce sneaks back to the Batmobile. As soon as he starts revving the engine, the Penguin knows he needs to get out quickly, sparking a high-speed pursuit through Gotham. The chase features explosions, jumps, flips, and all other manner of vehicular stunts. It also ends with one of the coolest shots of the whole movie: Trapped upside down in his wrecked car, the Penguin watches as Batman slowly advances toward him, beaten down by the heavy rainfall and flanked by a wall of flame.
1. The Battle of Gotham Square Garden
Though there are great action scenes sprinkled throughout "The Batman," the film truly sticks the landing with its climactic showdown in Gotham Square Garden. With the city's seawall destroyed by the Riddler's bombs, the entire downtown area starts to flood, pushing citizens into the sports arena as they try to avoid the waters. However, the Riddler's online fan base is already there waiting for them, set up in the rafters with guns.
What follows is a tense scene of Batman and Catwoman fighting back-to-back against the terrorists high above the arena floor. There are a bunch of great individual moments in the fight, like Batman injecting himself with what appears to be an adrenaline shot to save Selina from an attacker and some more creative uses of the grappling hook. It's particularly fun to see the two heroes fight together in such a tense and prolonged situation, especially given all they've been through together leading up to this moment.
The Gotham Square Garden fight also ends with a pair of powerful shots for Bruce — the realization that he actually inspired Riddler's gang and his red-flared effort of rescuing the innocent bystanders trapped by the encroaching floodwaters. By the end of the scene, Batman has experienced a full character arc and realizes that vengeance isn't the same thing as heroism — he needs to inspire hope in the good just as much as he must instill fear in the corrupt.