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NOLAN: There's something incredibly primal
about the relationship...
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...between man and machine.
It's extraordinarily powerful.
3
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It's almost like the myth becoming reality.
4
00:00:37,037 --> 00:00:41,566
Well, you look at the comics themselves
and how much they've changed over the years.
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When you see it, you go,
"That's so cool! I wish I had one of those."
6
00:00:46,546 --> 00:00:52,042
We wanted to raise the bar and build
the best Batmobile there ever was.
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USLAN: The origin of Batman is so primal
and emotion filled.
8
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[GUNSHOTS]
9
00:01:30,256 --> 00:01:32,657
When Bruce Wayne was a young boy...
10
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...he saw his parents murdered
before his eyes.
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And at that moment, in the belief
that one person can make a difference...
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...he made a vow to get the bad guy
who did this...
13
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...and to get all the bad guys...
14
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...even if he had to spend the rest of his life
walking through hell...
15
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...to honor that commitment.
16
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As a man, I'm flesh and blood,
I can be ignored, I can be destroyed...
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...but as a symbol...
18
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As a symbol, I can be incorruptible.
19
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I can be everlasting.
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One of the attractions of Batman as a
superhero is that he doesn't have superpowers.
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RA'S AL GHUL:
You are just an ordinary man in a cape.
22
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- I never said thank you.
- And you'll never have to.
23
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WHITE:
He dedicated his life to fighting crime...
24
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...so no one else in Gotham City
would have to suffer the way he did.
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SCHUMACHER: He is an ordinary person
doing extraordinary things...
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...to stop injustice.
27
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The Batmobile is the way he gets there.
28
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I've got to get me one of those.
29
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The very first Batman story was in
Detective Comics, number 27, May 1939.
30
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And right from the get-go, Batman needed
to get from place to place in the city...
31
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...so he drove Bruce Wayne's red sedan.
32
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And in 1941, Bill Finger, the writer...
33
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...decided to take what Bob Kane
had been drawing...
34
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...and dub it the Batmobile,
and then working with Jerry Robinson...
35
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...craft it as something that began
to look a little darker...
36
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...a little bit more serious,
and a little bit more bat-like.
37
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The Batman! Come on.
38
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When the movie serial started,
you had real cars.
39
00:03:34,581 --> 00:03:35,708
Let's go.
40
00:03:35,882 --> 00:03:41,844
USLAN: The 1943 Batman movie serial
was a 1939 Cadillac...
41
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...which was the car
Bruce Wayne was driving.
42
00:03:43,923 --> 00:03:46,415
But it seemed like if the top was up,
it was the Batmobile.
43
00:03:46,593 --> 00:03:48,960
If the top was down,
it was Bruce Wayne's car.
44
00:03:49,128 --> 00:03:52,690
Come along, fella,
you're going with us to the Bat's cave.
45
00:03:52,865 --> 00:03:55,892
It didn't have any bat symbology...
46
00:03:56,069 --> 00:03:59,096
...they didn't have any budget
to build fins for it. It was very simple.
47
00:04:05,011 --> 00:04:08,106
DIDIO: When you hire a new artist for DC
to work on Batman...
48
00:04:08,281 --> 00:04:11,615
...one of the first things they want to do
is they want to invent the Batmobile.
49
00:04:17,590 --> 00:04:19,422
USLAN:
What was happening around 1950...
50
00:04:19,592 --> 00:04:22,790
...was an editorial decision
to modernize Batman.
51
00:04:22,962 --> 00:04:25,591
The existing Batmobile has a crash...
52
00:04:25,765 --> 00:04:27,927
...Batman breaks his leg,
and as he's recuperating...
53
00:04:28,101 --> 00:04:31,162
...he's sitting there drawing up plans
for a brand new Batmobile.
54
00:04:32,238 --> 00:04:37,575
The Batmobile elongated,
the Batface on it grew in size...
55
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...and was far more prominent...
56
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...and the various artists through the years
of the 1950s continued to modify that.
57
00:04:44,317 --> 00:04:46,149
It had different kinds of weapons...
58
00:04:46,319 --> 00:04:49,255
...different kinds of devices
from story to story...
59
00:04:49,422 --> 00:04:53,325
...depending on what the writer needed
to get him out of some kind of a fix.
60
00:05:02,669 --> 00:05:04,695
I actually have seen a Batmobile
in real life.
61
00:05:04,871 --> 00:05:08,933
I've actually seen the '60s
Adam West Batmobile.
62
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Still one of my favorites
just because it's the first one.
63
00:05:12,178 --> 00:05:16,479
The first iteration of the Batmobile
I ever saw was the TV show.
64
00:05:16,649 --> 00:05:19,278
I remember as a kid
that was a massively important part...
65
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...of what the appeal of Batman was.
66
00:05:21,521 --> 00:05:25,083
The TV Batmobile was created
by George Barris...
67
00:05:25,291 --> 00:05:29,888
...whose daytime job was customizing cars.
68
00:05:30,096 --> 00:05:34,158
BARRIS: The producer, William Dozier,
called me from 20th Century Fox...
69
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...says, "We're doing a Batman TV show...
70
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...and we'd like to create a Batmobile.
Now, you've got 15 days and $15,000."
71
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I said, "Wait a minute, 15 days?"
72
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But the challenge was worth it,
so I said, "Let's go for it."
73
00:05:47,413 --> 00:05:51,544
And of course the big part is
that Ford Motor Company...
74
00:05:51,718 --> 00:05:54,153
...had the basic car that we used.
75
00:05:54,320 --> 00:06:00,055
I bought the concept car, the Futura,
from Ford Motor Company for $1.
76
00:06:00,226 --> 00:06:04,357
It gave me pieces already
that I could make fit...
77
00:06:04,530 --> 00:06:06,158
...but this car had to be a star.
78
00:06:16,442 --> 00:06:21,608
What I had to create was a fantasy
and basically we started wrong.
79
00:06:21,781 --> 00:06:27,152
We had it in a dull gray primer
with a fading white stripe...
80
00:06:27,687 --> 00:06:32,352
...and we'd come out of the Batcave.
I said, "Stop. It ain't gonna work."
81
00:06:32,525 --> 00:06:36,292
So immediately I run it back to the shop,
I painted it a gloss black...
82
00:06:36,462 --> 00:06:39,557
...and then I went and got
sign painting glow paint.
83
00:06:39,732 --> 00:06:43,260
I went with red-orange because I wanted
to bring out the lines.
84
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Boom, I take that to the Batcave,
and out it comes and Dozier said:
85
00:06:47,473 --> 00:06:48,771
"Ah. That's more like it."
86
00:07:01,053 --> 00:07:03,488
When I first saw the Batmobile...
87
00:07:03,689 --> 00:07:06,090
...I was kind of in awe...
88
00:07:06,259 --> 00:07:11,994
...because it had so many wonderful gadgets
and things that it did.
89
00:07:12,198 --> 00:07:15,066
I feel that we had the first car phone.
90
00:07:15,234 --> 00:07:17,829
That was so my agent could reach me.
91
00:07:18,004 --> 00:07:21,406
This is supposed to be a jet-powered car.
92
00:07:21,574 --> 00:07:24,908
The actual tube is a 5 gallon paint can.
93
00:07:28,815 --> 00:07:33,276
I was a kid and I remember racing home
to see the first episode of that...
94
00:07:33,453 --> 00:07:34,944
...and it was a big deal.
95
00:07:35,121 --> 00:07:37,989
The Batman show breaks bigger than
anybody ever expected.
96
00:07:38,157 --> 00:07:40,626
WEST:
I drove the Batmobile most of the time...
97
00:07:40,793 --> 00:07:44,491
...and that's why Burt Ward, as Robin,
was white-knuckled...
98
00:07:44,664 --> 00:07:48,692
...because I did things with the Batmobile
maybe that shouldn't have been done.
99
00:07:48,868 --> 00:07:50,962
I would come toward camera...
100
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...swing the thing around
in a big splash of gravel...
101
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...trying not to hit anyone.
102
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Because the kids loved it.
103
00:07:57,944 --> 00:08:01,676
Come on, Robin. To the Batcave.
We haven't one moment to lose!
104
00:08:01,848 --> 00:08:05,478
The Batmobile represents freedom
in a way because, as a kid...
105
00:08:05,651 --> 00:08:08,780
...you completely lose yourself in the fantasy
of being that character...
106
00:08:08,955 --> 00:08:10,355
...getting to drive that car.
107
00:08:10,523 --> 00:08:13,516
I was probably 4 or 5
when I got a die-cast toy of it...
108
00:08:13,693 --> 00:08:17,061
...and it had the jet burner on the back
and some orange flames.
109
00:08:17,263 --> 00:08:21,064
I've got a couple of them. I've got the Matchbox
one since I was a kid. I still have it.
110
00:08:21,267 --> 00:08:24,499
I've got a 16th scale and a 32nd scale.
111
00:08:24,670 --> 00:08:27,401
My wife, when we were dating,
she walked into my place...
112
00:08:27,573 --> 00:08:30,008
...and she said,
"You're one of those guys that...
113
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...you know, you get nervous when you walk in
and see all the toys on your shelves."
114
00:08:35,081 --> 00:08:37,312
The number one car
is what we call the hero car.
115
00:08:37,483 --> 00:08:41,750
That is the original Batmobile
that the actual Futura was made from.
116
00:08:41,921 --> 00:08:46,017
That is the car that used a lot of close-ups
on the stars in the car.
117
00:08:46,192 --> 00:08:48,192
WOOD: The car has been rebuilt
a couple of times...
118
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...because when they wrecked it during
the filming of the TV show...
119
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...they didn't have a stunt car for this
until later on.
120
00:08:54,834 --> 00:09:00,205
We made five cars that were functional cars,
and two exhibition cars.
121
00:09:00,373 --> 00:09:02,933
I pulled molds off of the original car...
122
00:09:03,109 --> 00:09:05,874
...and all the expensive cars
were all made out of fiberglass...
123
00:09:06,045 --> 00:09:08,537
...on Ford Galaxy chassis.
124
00:09:08,714 --> 00:09:11,616
WOOD: They went on tour,
they went around to supermarkets.
125
00:09:11,817 --> 00:09:13,376
It brought hundreds of people.
126
00:09:13,553 --> 00:09:16,614
To this day, 60 years later,
these cars still draw crowds...
127
00:09:16,822 --> 00:09:18,723
...and they still go out on tour.
128
00:09:22,562 --> 00:09:27,626
One Halloween evening
I got permission to take the Batmobile...
129
00:09:27,833 --> 00:09:29,563
...and leave the studio...
130
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...so I went trick-or-treating,
in costume, in the Batmobile.
131
00:09:33,973 --> 00:09:38,206
I couldn't convince anyone to go with me.
They thought I was nuts.
132
00:09:38,444 --> 00:09:39,468
[CLICKING TONGUE]
133
00:09:39,645 --> 00:09:41,204
"Trick or treat."
134
00:09:41,380 --> 00:09:45,784
"Oh, my God! There's Batman,
and look, there's the Batmobile!"
135
00:09:45,952 --> 00:09:49,081
Oh. It was so funny.
136
00:09:49,255 --> 00:09:53,556
And it lasted about three houses,
then I had to come back.
137
00:09:54,093 --> 00:09:56,790
Well, we enjoyed driving it
many times for fun.
138
00:09:57,363 --> 00:10:01,926
Batchutes, these are real parachutes,
the ones used for race cars.
139
00:10:02,468 --> 00:10:06,235
I'm coming down the 101 Freeway
and I pop my Batchutes.
140
00:10:06,405 --> 00:10:08,397
Going the other way
was a highway patrolman.
141
00:10:09,909 --> 00:10:12,174
The Batmobile itself
that was in the TV show...
142
00:10:12,378 --> 00:10:15,007
...actually works its way
into the comic books themselves...
143
00:10:15,181 --> 00:10:18,379
...because the books want to be reflective
of the success the show was getting.
144
00:10:20,186 --> 00:10:22,849
Super Friends TV show
started in the 1970s.
145
00:10:23,022 --> 00:10:26,823
They also based their animated Batmobile
after the Lincoln Futura model.
146
00:10:28,027 --> 00:10:32,021
Throughout the 1970s, there had
to have been about a dozen variations...
147
00:10:32,198 --> 00:10:37,899
...and that continued through the 1980s.
There was no set template for a Batmobile.
148
00:10:41,407 --> 00:10:46,869
You could turn to 1986, Frank Miller
deconstructs Batman in graphic novel.
149
00:10:47,046 --> 00:10:49,174
He rethought what Batman was.
150
00:10:49,348 --> 00:10:53,547
It's a darker time, it's a very dystopian world.
151
00:10:53,719 --> 00:10:58,282
He needed something big and heavy
and that was this Batman Assault Tank.
152
00:10:58,457 --> 00:10:59,720
It was like, wow.
153
00:10:59,925 --> 00:11:02,622
This was the first time
we've really seen anything quite like that.
154
00:11:04,430 --> 00:11:07,457
I think when I think of the Batmobile
I always think of the classic...
155
00:11:07,633 --> 00:11:11,900
...Michael Keaton, the first Tim Burton movie,
really low to the ground.
156
00:11:12,071 --> 00:11:15,667
When Ben Melniker and I
acquired the rights to Batman in 1979...
157
00:11:15,841 --> 00:11:20,677
...it took 10 years before the first dark
and serious Batman movie came out...
158
00:11:20,846 --> 00:11:24,408
...in 1989, thanks largely
to the genius of two people:
159
00:11:24,583 --> 00:11:27,348
Tim Burton and my dear friend, Anton Furst.
160
00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,254
Up until that time, comic-book movies
were, I think, seen more as light.
161
00:11:32,458 --> 00:11:35,986
The only one that I can recall which
was a big movie, was Superman...
162
00:11:36,162 --> 00:11:40,224
...but, you know, Superman is a much more
positive, acceptable character...
163
00:11:40,399 --> 00:11:43,927
...for a big movie, rather than some
dark internalized guy...
164
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...who dresses up like a bat.
165
00:11:45,705 --> 00:11:48,869
So, I mean, it was--
It felt like kind of new territory...
166
00:11:49,041 --> 00:11:50,873
...for that kind of movie at the time.
167
00:11:55,347 --> 00:11:57,714
USLAN: To get an audience
to suspend its disbelief...
168
00:11:57,883 --> 00:12:00,352
...and buy into the fact
that there could be a guy...
169
00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:02,579
...seriously getting dressed as a bat...
170
00:12:02,755 --> 00:12:05,850
...that took a lot in order to accomplish that.
171
00:12:06,025 --> 00:12:10,019
Part of that is the effectiveness
of the Batmobile.
172
00:12:10,563 --> 00:12:12,964
I wasn't interested in making the TV show.
173
00:12:13,132 --> 00:12:16,125
I was much more interested
in making a darker version...
174
00:12:16,302 --> 00:12:18,794
...more what the roots
of the comic book was.
175
00:12:19,004 --> 00:12:22,099
Just going back to the psychology
of what the guy is trying to do...
176
00:12:22,274 --> 00:12:24,937
...he's trying to scare people,
he's trying to make a mythic...
177
00:12:25,111 --> 00:12:28,411
...almost supernatural persona...
178
00:12:28,581 --> 00:12:30,777
...because he is a real person
and he's just--
179
00:12:30,950 --> 00:12:32,885
You know,
he's trying to intimidate and frighten.
180
00:12:33,052 --> 00:12:36,386
So therefore, the intention
of the Batmobile was...
181
00:12:36,555 --> 00:12:39,821
...to look as imposing as possible.
182
00:12:40,025 --> 00:12:43,120
The Batmobile became an interesting problem
because which way were we to go?
183
00:12:43,295 --> 00:12:47,824
We didn't want to put it in any particular
period. We just went into pure expressions...
184
00:12:48,033 --> 00:12:52,562
...into the car and taking elements
of the Salt Flat races...
185
00:12:52,738 --> 00:12:55,606
...of the '30s and the Stingrays of the '50s.
186
00:12:56,542 --> 00:13:01,276
CROWLEY: He's also taken reference from
people who've broken land-speed records...
187
00:13:01,447 --> 00:13:04,611
...like the Bluebird, you know,
with the big jet engine.
188
00:13:04,784 --> 00:13:06,582
The science of the times is jets.
189
00:13:17,463 --> 00:13:22,128
We made a little clay maquette
to see that we got that right.
190
00:13:22,301 --> 00:13:25,271
We got the basics of it right,
then we did it full size.
191
00:13:36,315 --> 00:13:40,150
One of the funny things was Tim
came in and said, "It's really great.
192
00:13:40,319 --> 00:13:43,983
The only problem is," he said,
"how do they get in it?"
193
00:13:44,156 --> 00:13:46,887
There wasn't a door. I'd forgotten.
194
00:13:47,092 --> 00:13:49,186
I'd never thought of a door.
195
00:13:49,361 --> 00:13:50,590
[LAUGHS]
196
00:13:50,796 --> 00:13:52,230
So then John Evans and I told him:
197
00:13:52,398 --> 00:13:56,995
"Well, why don't we get the whole
canopy to move forward, like a jet?"
198
00:13:57,736 --> 00:13:59,500
The same time the body was being made...
199
00:13:59,672 --> 00:14:03,006
...the actual engineering side of it was made.
200
00:14:03,175 --> 00:14:05,371
SMITH: We've got two of them.
One was a Chevy Impala.
201
00:14:05,544 --> 00:14:10,608
The other one was the ugliest pink Oldsmobile
Cutlass convertible you'd ever seen.
202
00:14:10,816 --> 00:14:12,978
ACKLAND-SNOW:
They had what they call a box chassis...
203
00:14:13,152 --> 00:14:16,145
...so we could cut this
and extend the prop shaft...
204
00:14:16,322 --> 00:14:18,257
...and that's why we chose those cars.
205
00:14:18,424 --> 00:14:21,553
Plus, of course,
they didn't cost very much money.
206
00:14:21,727 --> 00:14:24,720
We've got to get them ready,
service them up to speed...
207
00:14:24,897 --> 00:14:27,492
...test them, and make sure it all works.
208
00:14:41,547 --> 00:14:44,449
ACKLAND-SNOW: Tim Burton said,
"What are you gonna do about headlights?"
209
00:14:44,650 --> 00:14:48,883
My wife had a Honda Civic
and the lights were that way...
210
00:14:49,054 --> 00:14:53,424
...and I thought, if you turn them upside down,
we put them there, and they worked.
211
00:14:53,592 --> 00:14:57,893
I turned up behind a Ferrari
in a traffic jam...
212
00:14:58,063 --> 00:15:01,192
...and I thought,
"Oh, look, there's a big red, round light."
213
00:15:01,367 --> 00:15:04,895
So I went to Ferrari, they said, "How many
do you want? I said, "Make it eight."
214
00:15:05,070 --> 00:15:06,971
I was in a traffic jam again.
215
00:15:07,172 --> 00:15:11,906
Right beside me was a Routemaster bus
with a big sort of filler cap...
216
00:15:12,077 --> 00:15:13,705
...and that's what you see on the car.
217
00:15:13,879 --> 00:15:16,576
We had a guy that used to bring
all this aviation scrap.
218
00:15:16,749 --> 00:15:19,378
The intake fan was off
the emergency generator...
219
00:15:19,551 --> 00:15:22,146
...that dropped down out of the wing
of a Vulcan bomber.
220
00:15:22,321 --> 00:15:26,725
The tailpipe was different. The tail end of the jet
was off a Bristol Viper jet.
221
00:15:26,892 --> 00:15:30,659
The design that we finally ended up with,
which I love, was just sort of unexpected.
222
00:15:30,829 --> 00:15:33,162
It made us kind of laugh
because it was tough...
223
00:15:33,332 --> 00:15:35,130
...but it was kind of perverse.
224
00:15:35,301 --> 00:15:38,294
It had a weird quality to it
that I can't quite put my finger on...
225
00:15:38,470 --> 00:15:41,565
...but it still had the bat kind of motif to it,
but something else.
226
00:15:41,740 --> 00:15:43,140
It just was an aggressive thing.
227
00:15:43,309 --> 00:15:45,904
And also just the right sort of
paint job and texture...
228
00:15:46,078 --> 00:15:48,240
...and a kind of gun-metal quality to it...
229
00:15:48,414 --> 00:15:52,249
...to give it that sort of scary,
kind of aggressive persona.
230
00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:06,023
It could actually go much faster
than the amount of room we had...
231
00:16:06,231 --> 00:16:09,998
...you know, just by the time it got up to speed,
you were off the studio lot.
232
00:16:11,537 --> 00:16:15,497
I actually drove it in the film at one point,
as well. I was Batman, yeah.
233
00:16:15,674 --> 00:16:18,269
Where he machine-gunned the door off,
that was me...
234
00:16:18,444 --> 00:16:20,606
...and one of the other guys, Barry Whitrod...
235
00:16:20,779 --> 00:16:23,510
...doing all the bullet hits
and working the guns.
236
00:16:23,682 --> 00:16:26,277
We actually had three of us
stuffed into that little car.
237
00:16:29,388 --> 00:16:31,186
When we shut the lid the first time out...
238
00:16:31,357 --> 00:16:33,485
...and he got in with the costume
and the door shut...
239
00:16:33,659 --> 00:16:36,959
...and his little ears were sticking out,
trapped in the door. Ha-ha-ha.
240
00:16:37,162 --> 00:16:39,791
ACKLAND-SNOW: Bob Ringwood,
who was the costume designer...
241
00:16:39,965 --> 00:16:44,369
...made what they call the Batmobile hood
where his ears are just three-eighths shorter.
242
00:16:44,536 --> 00:16:45,731
[CHATTERING]
243
00:16:45,904 --> 00:16:47,031
[CHUCKLING]
244
00:16:47,272 --> 00:16:48,672
BURTON:
I did drive it for a second.
245
00:16:48,807 --> 00:16:52,801
I don't think they wanted me to drive it,
given my driving record.
246
00:16:52,978 --> 00:16:55,470
I took it for like 50 yards or something...
247
00:16:55,647 --> 00:16:59,516
...but I was used to, like a Ford Fiesta,
so, you know...
248
00:16:59,685 --> 00:17:02,280
...it's a little different in terms of feel.
249
00:17:03,589 --> 00:17:05,387
- Get in the car.
- Which one?
250
00:17:09,061 --> 00:17:12,327
ACKLAND-SNOW: There was a paint
called Flip-flop, from Japan.
251
00:17:12,498 --> 00:17:16,594
When you sprayed, one way it was purple,
the other way it was black and a bit of blue...
252
00:17:16,802 --> 00:17:18,430
...and that's how we got that color.
253
00:17:18,604 --> 00:17:21,199
The trouble is it was very sensitive
if you scraped it.
254
00:17:21,373 --> 00:17:24,832
If you've seen the film, you'll see
Kim Basinger taking her shoes off.
255
00:17:25,310 --> 00:17:26,334
Let's go.
256
00:17:26,512 --> 00:17:28,105
ACKLAND-SNOW:
Why did she take them off?
257
00:17:28,313 --> 00:17:32,842
Because every time she used
to get out of the car, she used to scrape it.
258
00:17:33,018 --> 00:17:35,817
And the details involved with the car
are unbelievable.
259
00:17:37,122 --> 00:17:39,853
What we wanted to do is
get brutal violence into it...
260
00:17:40,025 --> 00:17:43,223
...and all the intimidation
that comes out of its image.
261
00:17:43,695 --> 00:17:46,756
What I really liked about that Batmobile
was the torpedo sense of it.
262
00:17:46,932 --> 00:17:49,265
It's just this relentless attacking machine...
263
00:17:49,435 --> 00:17:53,395
...and cleverness of what they did
for its handling serious turns...
264
00:17:53,572 --> 00:17:55,452
...by kicking out cables
to make it spin around.
265
00:17:55,607 --> 00:17:58,702
This is a Batman that had to be
taken immensely seriously...
266
00:17:58,877 --> 00:18:01,437
...because of the weaponry
that was presented for the Batmobile.
267
00:18:01,613 --> 00:18:04,742
It's everything that a young boy
would just love to drive.
268
00:18:37,783 --> 00:18:39,775
[ENGINE SPUTTERING]
269
00:18:42,955 --> 00:18:44,685
I need a new car.
270
00:18:44,890 --> 00:18:48,327
A little bit later on,
after our '89 Batman movie...
271
00:18:48,494 --> 00:18:50,258
...Batman: The Animated Series began...
272
00:18:50,429 --> 00:18:53,831
...and they introduced their own version
of the Batmobile...
273
00:18:53,999 --> 00:18:57,697
...which for purposes of animation,
couldn't be so detailed and complex.
274
00:18:57,903 --> 00:19:00,143
MURAKAMI: Everything about
Batman: The Animated Series...
275
00:19:00,205 --> 00:19:04,267
...was a reflection of 40 years' worth
of Batman to kind of look at.
276
00:19:04,476 --> 00:19:09,710
We were able to take those 40 years
and sort of distill it all down into one thing.
277
00:19:10,349 --> 00:19:14,343
And I think the Batmobile reflects that.
It was sort of lightning in a bottle.
278
00:19:19,558 --> 00:19:23,222
For a long time, that too became
a lot of people's true image...
279
00:19:23,428 --> 00:19:25,226
...of what the Batmobile would be.
280
00:19:26,798 --> 00:19:31,168
My favorite Batmobile
would have to be the Val Kilmer one.
281
00:19:36,141 --> 00:19:38,804
The first Batmobile was beautiful.
282
00:19:39,011 --> 00:19:44,348
And so I thought our job was to sort of
refine it and make it our Batmobile.
283
00:19:44,950 --> 00:19:48,148
The Batmobile Schumacher
designed for Batman Forever...
284
00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:53,657
...reflected a certainly more colorful Batman,
and it all was an integrated look and feel.
285
00:19:54,193 --> 00:19:57,357
It was a radical rethinking
of what Tim Burton had done.
286
00:19:57,529 --> 00:20:00,863
To tell you the truth, it actually
started as five separate designs...
287
00:20:01,033 --> 00:20:02,899
...that we built five models of...
288
00:20:03,068 --> 00:20:06,698
...and they all represented
sort of different aspects of design.
289
00:20:06,872 --> 00:20:08,898
Joel decided,
"This isn't the direction I wanna go.
290
00:20:09,107 --> 00:20:12,976
I wanna do something more organic
and something more animalistic."
291
00:20:13,178 --> 00:20:15,170
My first thought was Giger...
292
00:20:15,347 --> 00:20:19,842
...because of the sensuality and anatomy...
293
00:20:20,052 --> 00:20:23,887
...of every machine that he designs.
294
00:20:24,089 --> 00:20:26,024
So I got to talk to Mr. Giger...
295
00:20:26,225 --> 00:20:29,992
...and I asked him to design a Batmobile,
which he did.
296
00:20:35,534 --> 00:20:37,628
It was an incredible design.
297
00:20:37,869 --> 00:20:42,068
Almost a tarantula with not as many legs.
Just four legs.
298
00:20:42,274 --> 00:20:44,004
Or four wheels, I should say.
299
00:20:44,209 --> 00:20:48,010
And I really didn't know how
we could incorporate that into the movie...
300
00:20:48,213 --> 00:20:49,806
...or how it would quite function.
301
00:20:50,048 --> 00:20:52,381
LING: You would have had to probably
just do them as CGI...
302
00:20:52,551 --> 00:20:55,020
...and we wanted
to get a real visceral sense...
303
00:20:55,220 --> 00:20:57,553
...so that you're not just doing everything
in CGI.
304
00:20:57,723 --> 00:21:02,127
We wanted this to drive on streets
and feel that you could come around a corner.
305
00:21:02,427 --> 00:21:03,793
[TIRES SQUEALING]
306
00:21:08,033 --> 00:21:10,628
Out of the design process,
what became interesting...
307
00:21:10,836 --> 00:21:15,501
...was the idea that there's something
underneath this car.
308
00:21:15,674 --> 00:21:17,108
It's like a breathing machine.
309
00:21:17,309 --> 00:21:20,939
We wanted this to feel sexy and mean
at the same time.
310
00:21:21,346 --> 00:21:26,114
I didn't look at cars for influence as far
as design goes. I looked at a lot of animals.
311
00:21:26,285 --> 00:21:28,811
And a lot of microbiology as well.
312
00:21:29,054 --> 00:21:32,582
Jellyfish and creatures
that live deep in the ocean...
313
00:21:32,791 --> 00:21:34,271
...some of them look like spaceships.
314
00:21:34,459 --> 00:21:37,554
And just their forms and how fluid they are,
are so perfect.
315
00:21:37,763 --> 00:21:41,359
If you look at a bat's intrastructure,
the wings...
316
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,434
...you can see kind of their little bodies
through their bat wing.
317
00:21:45,070 --> 00:21:48,472
So investigation of the wing
kind of started playing with...
318
00:21:48,674 --> 00:21:50,870
...ideas of wrapped enclosures...
319
00:21:51,076 --> 00:21:55,070
...where you had an engine
that you then took wrappings around...
320
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:58,717
...so that you could see the engine
but you couldn't really see the engine.
321
00:21:58,950 --> 00:22:01,283
So it is a Gigeresque feeling.
322
00:22:01,453 --> 00:22:03,979
When I saw the sketch, it's like, it's not a car.
323
00:22:04,189 --> 00:22:06,852
It was an animal.
How am I gonna build that?
324
00:22:07,092 --> 00:22:09,527
FLATTERY: I would do a three view,
a front view, side view, rear view...
325
00:22:09,695 --> 00:22:12,028
...to execute a scale model.
326
00:22:27,212 --> 00:22:28,652
We didn't know how to go about this.
327
00:22:28,847 --> 00:22:31,146
Nothing like this had been sculpted
or built before.
328
00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:33,478
And we had to sculpt it in layers.
329
00:22:33,685 --> 00:22:35,620
You do the underlayer
and then pull that off...
330
00:22:35,821 --> 00:22:37,983
...and you sculpt the rib cage,
and then you tool that.
331
00:22:38,190 --> 00:22:40,421
So it all had to be done separately.
332
00:22:40,659 --> 00:22:43,925
We also had to figure out
how to pull molds off of clay...
333
00:22:44,162 --> 00:22:46,222
...without the clay being destroyed.
334
00:22:46,431 --> 00:22:49,890
And we had to trust
that it was gonna go together.
335
00:23:06,184 --> 00:23:09,348
When you're building a car like that,
you can't fit it on a normal car chassis.
336
00:23:09,554 --> 00:23:11,022
It was a scratch-built chassis.
337
00:23:11,223 --> 00:23:15,251
It was built by Tommy Fisher's effects guys,
and we did the body.
338
00:23:15,460 --> 00:23:17,656
They ultimately come together
and they're assembled...
339
00:23:17,863 --> 00:23:19,354
...and they become the vehicle.
340
00:23:19,564 --> 00:23:21,965
FLATTERY: Charley Zurian did most of the car
in carbon fiber.
341
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:26,797
Carbon fiber is used mainly
on race cars and jet fighters.
342
00:23:27,038 --> 00:23:30,372
FLATTERY: We needed the strength of what
carbon fiber could give us for the parts...
343
00:23:30,575 --> 00:23:33,670
...and it reduces weight by a ton.
344
00:23:33,879 --> 00:23:36,678
We built two, a stunt vehicle and a hero.
345
00:23:36,882 --> 00:23:39,122
Where you can close the canopy.
He has room for his ears.
346
00:23:46,758 --> 00:23:50,092
LING: Its fin would split
when it went to supersonic...
347
00:23:50,295 --> 00:23:53,231
...so the idea of that
is to keep the single fin...
348
00:23:53,432 --> 00:23:57,597
...and then as he's hitting, like, top speed,
you see this split open.
349
00:24:00,272 --> 00:24:03,504
FLATTERY: One of the distinctive features is
the bat symbol on the wheels.
350
00:24:03,742 --> 00:24:07,770
They devised a Sid gear
that goes about 6000 RPM in there...
351
00:24:07,979 --> 00:24:11,279
...to keep that symbol vertical.
352
00:24:11,483 --> 00:24:13,645
It was a really cool environment
inside the shop...
353
00:24:13,852 --> 00:24:17,016
...with a bunch of guys that,
like, build stuff, right?
354
00:24:17,255 --> 00:24:19,224
So you can imagine
what was going on in there.
355
00:24:19,424 --> 00:24:23,225
There was this one guy who built a go-cart
and he was driving it in the shop.
356
00:24:23,428 --> 00:24:26,828
ZURIAN: That's what you need are those kind
of guys, all with the same passion I have.
357
00:24:26,965 --> 00:24:30,766
When you can just take anything,
a vision you have, and actually go and build it.
358
00:24:30,936 --> 00:24:32,837
FLATTERY:
We rolled some tube stock and...
359
00:24:33,038 --> 00:24:36,167
You know, a tube inside of a tube,
welded a mini-bike to it...
360
00:24:36,374 --> 00:24:39,538
...and built this vehicle
that is a hoop that you ride in.
361
00:24:39,778 --> 00:24:40,837
That was fun.
362
00:24:41,046 --> 00:24:44,744
We used a hot-air balloon motor
for the flame.
363
00:24:44,950 --> 00:24:50,048
In order to get the flame to extend,
we used propane with nitrous oxide.
364
00:24:51,056 --> 00:24:54,151
FLATTERY: The first time that got tested
was in the shop on a bench top...
365
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,385
...and it was propped up
at a 30-degree angle...
366
00:24:56,628 --> 00:25:00,292
...and we lit that thing up and it set off
the whole sprinkler system in the building...
367
00:25:00,499 --> 00:25:02,730
...because the flame shot out so far.
368
00:25:02,901 --> 00:25:04,392
We dialed that back a little bit.
369
00:25:12,310 --> 00:25:14,110
ZURIAN:
Half the body is behind the rear axle.
370
00:25:14,279 --> 00:25:16,646
So when you turn the corner,
you gotta think twice.
371
00:25:16,848 --> 00:25:19,248
The front's going to the right,
the rear's going to the left.
372
00:25:19,417 --> 00:25:22,148
Joel still doesn't know this to this day,
but I ****** that car up...
373
00:25:22,354 --> 00:25:25,394
...two days before we were shooting it.
I was the first one to test drive it.
374
00:25:25,557 --> 00:25:27,557
I took it out on the street
in front of the shop...
375
00:25:27,792 --> 00:25:30,553
...and tested the braking system to make sure
we could get it to spin.
376
00:25:30,729 --> 00:25:32,857
If you look at the pedals,
there's three pedals.
377
00:25:33,064 --> 00:25:35,659
There's the gas, front brakes, rear brakes.
378
00:25:35,867 --> 00:25:38,860
I got going down the street at about 40
and then hit the brakes.
379
00:25:39,070 --> 00:25:40,868
It almost got all the way around.
380
00:25:41,072 --> 00:25:43,371
And it didn't make it,
it just hit the chain link.
381
00:25:43,575 --> 00:25:46,044
FLATTERY:
That wing was so long it just:
382
00:25:46,211 --> 00:25:47,338
[MAKES WHIRRING SOUND]
383
00:25:47,546 --> 00:25:49,310
It made a hellacious noise.
It was composite.
384
00:25:49,514 --> 00:25:51,914
So anywhere up and down the street
you could hear that thing.
385
00:25:52,083 --> 00:25:54,917
FLATTERY: I just wadded the whole wing up
and took off 2 feet of it.
386
00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:57,480
I was not everyone's favorite person
in the shop that day...
387
00:25:57,689 --> 00:25:59,885
...because it was a scramble to get it fixed.
388
00:26:03,728 --> 00:26:05,196
Whoo! Ha-ha-ha!
389
00:26:05,397 --> 00:26:09,732
I remember when any of my friends
brought their children...
390
00:26:09,935 --> 00:26:13,133
...or my godchildren to the set...
391
00:26:13,371 --> 00:26:16,569
...and I would let them sit in it,
they just freaked out.
392
00:26:16,775 --> 00:26:19,108
And then the big boys liked it too.
393
00:26:19,344 --> 00:26:22,837
I mean, everybody wanted to sit in it
and have their picture taken.
394
00:26:23,048 --> 00:26:24,072
It was fun.
395
00:26:48,406 --> 00:26:52,002
The Batmobile, to me, signifies "sexy."
396
00:26:52,243 --> 00:26:55,270
You get behind the wheel of a Batmobile,
you're ready to fight some crime.
397
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,279
I think the Batmobile is important
because it's a symbol.
398
00:26:58,483 --> 00:27:00,577
Worst car ever!
399
00:27:01,286 --> 00:27:04,415
I want a car. Chicks dig the car.
400
00:27:04,623 --> 00:27:08,958
In Batman and Robin,
I said I'd love to make this twice as big.
401
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:14,531
It was a totally new design. This was gonna
be very long, inspired by the '30s...
402
00:27:14,766 --> 00:27:18,259
...where the car just seems to come at you
forever and ever.
403
00:27:18,470 --> 00:27:20,905
I've never made a longer fender in my life,
to this day.
404
00:27:21,106 --> 00:27:24,146
BELKER: And then in the script,
it was written that it was a single-seater...
405
00:27:24,275 --> 00:27:26,972
...open this time, for the first time.
406
00:27:27,178 --> 00:27:31,115
A quarter-scale model is done
so you can work relatively fast and quick...
407
00:27:31,316 --> 00:27:33,547
...to get the shape all worked out.
408
00:27:33,785 --> 00:27:36,482
That data is picked by a computer...
409
00:27:36,688 --> 00:27:39,852
...so that surface will translate
into a 3D form.
410
00:27:40,058 --> 00:27:43,859
It was really the early 3D days
of working like that.
411
00:27:44,062 --> 00:27:47,032
Originally it had no fins.
We presented it to Joel.
412
00:27:47,232 --> 00:27:52,535
He just thought it needed
two giant, bat-inspired wings in the back.
413
00:27:52,737 --> 00:27:54,228
And it gets milled in full size.
414
00:27:54,472 --> 00:27:56,941
And the chassis and everything
was all done parallel.
415
00:27:57,142 --> 00:27:58,872
We did vehicle testing at Whiteman Airport.
416
00:27:59,077 --> 00:28:01,239
We wanted to make sure
that the chassis ran fine.
417
00:28:01,479 --> 00:28:03,971
We did burnouts, everything it had to do.
418
00:28:04,683 --> 00:28:07,653
That was fun. And it worked.
419
00:28:09,521 --> 00:28:11,761
The burners, that was kind of
an extensive development...
420
00:28:11,956 --> 00:28:14,721
...because we were trying to get
the smaller burners out the tail.
421
00:28:14,959 --> 00:28:17,554
There was no preexisting flame source.
We tried everything.
422
00:28:17,762 --> 00:28:20,061
Hacking on leaf burners, everything else.
423
00:28:20,265 --> 00:28:22,757
We actually had to end up
building those from scratch.
424
00:28:23,001 --> 00:28:25,527
So we had a propane flame
and the injection pump...
425
00:28:25,737 --> 00:28:29,572
...with metal in solution, metal salts,
so we could change the color of the flame.
426
00:28:29,774 --> 00:28:33,040
And it was so expensive.
I think that's why they did just one.
427
00:28:33,244 --> 00:28:37,841
ZURIAN: They took the gamble of doing
everything with one car, which is--It's a risk.
428
00:28:48,626 --> 00:28:52,427
So I didn't have to do any crazy stunts.
All of that was done in miniatures or in CG.
429
00:28:52,630 --> 00:28:56,123
When the thing jumps around
or drove along the arm...
430
00:28:56,367 --> 00:28:59,030
...that's a CG model, not a real model.
431
00:29:03,441 --> 00:29:06,741
DILLIN: The car has so many batteries
with all the neon that we run on it.
432
00:29:06,945 --> 00:29:09,505
Up in here in the side panels, they're LEDs.
433
00:29:11,649 --> 00:29:15,745
We found this guy
who had developed this luminous paper.
434
00:29:16,121 --> 00:29:18,056
LING:
We had gotten these backlit panels...
435
00:29:18,256 --> 00:29:20,782
...which are now kind of standard
in all cars almost...
436
00:29:21,025 --> 00:29:23,551
...of this cobalt blue lighting.
437
00:29:23,762 --> 00:29:28,598
You could see the rocket inside of its mouth,
so to speak.
438
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:32,760
And you also wanted it to look a little
like it's the bat logo...
439
00:29:32,971 --> 00:29:36,271
...but it could also be fangs.
440
00:29:36,474 --> 00:29:39,034
The wing had enough length to it...
441
00:29:39,244 --> 00:29:43,340
...you could actually see that it's almost like
it was a flying bat at the moment.
442
00:29:43,581 --> 00:29:46,642
And it had this incredible silhouette.
443
00:29:46,851 --> 00:29:49,548
ZURIAN: No conventional production tires
would fit that car.
444
00:29:49,754 --> 00:29:54,351
The tires we used were basically a prototype
that the manufacturer creates...
445
00:29:54,592 --> 00:29:57,619
...oversized, for this car company,
they're used for development.
446
00:29:57,829 --> 00:30:01,129
And since they come without tread,
it was an opportunity to cut tread.
447
00:30:01,332 --> 00:30:04,700
So I thought, let's try another bat logo.
448
00:30:04,936 --> 00:30:08,429
It was cool. As the car would roll,
it would leave a trail of bats behind it.
449
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,337
You could always tell where the car was
if you followed the bats.
450
00:30:15,146 --> 00:30:18,674
You look at the interpretation of Batman
in film and TV over the years...
451
00:30:18,850 --> 00:30:22,617
...and see how different they are.
Same thing in animation, same thing in comics.
452
00:30:22,787 --> 00:30:24,722
I worked on Batman: The Animated Series...
453
00:30:24,956 --> 00:30:28,950
...but it was the revamp of Batman
that I had a little bit more input on.
454
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,187
The biggest thing was trying to make
the Batmobile animatable...
455
00:30:32,397 --> 00:30:37,461
...but sleek, dark, and fit into the style
that we were going for for Batman.
456
00:30:39,504 --> 00:30:43,373
And then the Batman Beyond Batmobile,
we were just trying to make it just really weird.
457
00:30:43,608 --> 00:30:46,009
We were trying to make sort of a flying car.
458
00:30:46,211 --> 00:30:49,477
Because it was the future,
we didn't have to worry about it having wheels.
459
00:30:49,681 --> 00:30:51,401
It didn't have to function like a real car.
460
00:30:51,616 --> 00:30:55,212
It was kind of a cross between
a jet and a race car.
461
00:30:55,420 --> 00:30:57,514
In the story line of "Batman: Hush"...
462
00:30:57,722 --> 00:31:00,817
...you get a glimpse of a hall
in the Batcave...
463
00:31:01,025 --> 00:31:05,053
...that we had never seen before,
which has all the old Batmobiles.
464
00:31:05,263 --> 00:31:07,823
DIDIO: You looked at different interpretations
of the Batmobiles.
465
00:31:07,999 --> 00:31:09,839
It really did capture particular eras in time.
466
00:31:10,034 --> 00:31:13,869
And therefore validated almost every story
that was ever told for Batman.
467
00:31:15,340 --> 00:31:19,402
USLAN: In Batman: The Cult there was
a monster-truck version of the Batmobile...
468
00:31:19,644 --> 00:31:21,636
...that's kind of utterly bizarre.
469
00:31:21,846 --> 00:31:25,339
So there have been great variations
on a theme over the years.
470
00:31:26,718 --> 00:31:31,349
If Batman's going to be effective
as a crime fighter in a city...
471
00:31:31,556 --> 00:31:36,551
...he must have a vehicle
that will be an effective weapon.
472
00:31:39,931 --> 00:31:42,230
WHITE:
One of Batman's main tools is his car.
473
00:31:42,433 --> 00:31:47,303
And I think that really fits
into our American romance with the car...
474
00:31:47,538 --> 00:31:51,305
...and the idea that, "Wow, if I had a Batmobile,
I could do anything."
475
00:31:54,178 --> 00:31:57,205
- Nice car.
- You should see my other one.
476
00:31:57,415 --> 00:31:59,475
I would just watch my back
if I saw that coming.
477
00:31:59,717 --> 00:32:04,587
The Tumbler? It's just...
It represents, I guess, vengeance, justice.
478
00:32:04,789 --> 00:32:07,469
You know, like, if that's coming
and you're doing something wrong...
479
00:32:07,692 --> 00:32:08,921
...it's over for you.
480
00:32:09,127 --> 00:32:10,993
I liked how the Tumbler would actually...
481
00:32:11,229 --> 00:32:14,393
...when it was on top of the building,
would have that boost and jump.
482
00:32:14,599 --> 00:32:17,728
DIDIO: You've got fans who were kids
now becoming the artists.
483
00:32:17,936 --> 00:32:22,397
And what they're doing is they're reinterpreting
the Batmobile in a way that they wanna see it.
484
00:32:25,710 --> 00:32:29,579
NOLAN: If you took onboard the idea
that you were going to have to design...
485
00:32:29,781 --> 00:32:32,861
...this icon you grew up with,
I think you'd be paralyzed in a creative sense.
486
00:32:33,084 --> 00:32:36,020
We actually very much addressed it
from a story point of view.
487
00:32:36,254 --> 00:32:38,280
Like, okay, we have to have this vehicle.
488
00:32:38,456 --> 00:32:40,496
It has to be able to do certain things
in the story.
489
00:32:40,658 --> 00:32:42,422
And we have to have a credible design to it.
490
00:32:42,627 --> 00:32:45,461
And an explanation, visually,
of where it's come from.
491
00:32:45,663 --> 00:32:46,790
What's that?
492
00:32:46,998 --> 00:32:48,660
FOX:
Oh, the Tumbler?
493
00:32:49,634 --> 00:32:51,626
Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.
494
00:32:51,836 --> 00:32:53,998
[ENGINE REVVING]
495
00:32:54,238 --> 00:32:56,278
NOLAN:
I had this idea of really having something...
496
00:32:56,441 --> 00:32:58,603
...that had the profile of a Lamborghini...
497
00:32:58,810 --> 00:33:03,111
...but was combined with the weight and feel
of, like, a Humvee.
498
00:33:03,314 --> 00:33:08,014
It's not built with the trappings of,
quote-unquote, "previous Batmobiles."
499
00:33:08,252 --> 00:33:11,882
It doesn't have the bat symbols,
it doesn't take on any fins.
500
00:33:12,123 --> 00:33:16,959
Our approach was to try and build something
that could really work.
501
00:33:17,128 --> 00:33:18,928
We wanted to address
from the point of view...
502
00:33:19,063 --> 00:33:21,259
...of, yes,
if you had limitless financial resources...
503
00:33:21,466 --> 00:33:25,267
...and therefore a lot of power
in particular ways and material ways...
504
00:33:25,470 --> 00:33:30,374
...how could you focus that and apply that
to creating some very extraordinary gadgets...
505
00:33:30,575 --> 00:33:35,036
...all of which still are based on real science
and a real-world logic.
506
00:33:43,087 --> 00:33:44,919
So, what do you think?
507
00:33:45,356 --> 00:33:47,382
Does it come in black?
508
00:33:47,592 --> 00:33:49,720
I went down to the toy shop...
509
00:33:49,894 --> 00:33:52,329
...and bought a Humvee and a Lamborghini.
510
00:33:52,530 --> 00:33:55,728
I just got a saw and cut them up
and stuck them together.
511
00:33:55,933 --> 00:33:57,333
I thought, that looks a bit boring.
512
00:33:57,535 --> 00:34:02,405
So I got a P-38 cockpit and glued it all together.
That was a bit of a mess.
513
00:34:02,607 --> 00:34:06,601
NOLAN: I did some really awful,
little Plasticine models, you know...
514
00:34:06,844 --> 00:34:09,075
...to show Nathan kind of the size
I was talking about.
515
00:34:09,614 --> 00:34:12,880
CROWLEY: So I turned up
with my big glued-together plastic thing...
516
00:34:13,084 --> 00:34:16,111
...and he had his little clay thing,
and they both looked pretty bad.
517
00:34:16,354 --> 00:34:18,323
But it was a start.
518
00:34:20,558 --> 00:34:22,198
NOLAN:
So we bought a lot of model kits...
519
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,760
...started putting them together
in different configurations.
520
00:34:24,862 --> 00:34:28,822
Taking panels off stealth aircrafts
to get those angles.
521
00:34:29,033 --> 00:34:32,595
After five or six weeks we ended up with--
It was a model this big...
522
00:34:32,837 --> 00:34:35,272
...to scale, no drawings, nothing.
523
00:34:35,473 --> 00:34:40,537
It's not normal to start with such a prototype
from the guy directing the film.
524
00:34:40,745 --> 00:34:43,613
Never been presented a project that way.
525
00:34:43,848 --> 00:34:47,250
It would normally be concepts, drawings and...
526
00:34:47,452 --> 00:34:49,387
No, that's totally unique.
527
00:34:49,587 --> 00:34:52,921
Andy and his team, the first thing
they noticed was there's no front axle.
528
00:34:53,124 --> 00:34:55,524
SMITH: How's the steering work?
Where's the steering rack go?
529
00:34:55,660 --> 00:34:58,061
How is it gonna handle?
And he asked me, "Can you make that?"
530
00:34:58,229 --> 00:35:00,494
The answer was, "Yeah."
And then your mind starts racing.
531
00:35:00,731 --> 00:35:03,565
You go, I just said "yes."
And now I gotta back that up.
532
00:35:13,678 --> 00:35:16,739
Rear tires on the car
are a 44-inch monster-truck tire.
533
00:35:16,948 --> 00:35:21,079
Super Swampers, I think they're called.
They're very aggressive off-road tires.
534
00:35:21,285 --> 00:35:24,084
And the front ones
are roving dirt-track racing tires.
535
00:35:24,288 --> 00:35:26,416
SMITH:
I always use a Chevy V-8.
536
00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:27,648
[ENGINE REVVING]
537
00:35:27,825 --> 00:35:29,623
It's an automatic, three-speed.
538
00:35:33,531 --> 00:35:37,764
It was just a roll cage. Just to basically
get everything running and just get used to it.
539
00:35:37,935 --> 00:35:39,935
MAN: What do you think?
- I think that's excellent.
540
00:35:40,037 --> 00:35:42,529
Better stop before
I start having too much fun.
541
00:35:42,773 --> 00:35:45,902
We went away after and said,
"You know what? We can run with this."
542
00:35:46,110 --> 00:35:48,272
Let's make a hundred-mile-an-hour beast...
543
00:35:48,479 --> 00:35:52,473
...that can jump through the air, land,
and carry on driving.
544
00:35:52,683 --> 00:35:55,812
We kept jumping and jumping, landing,
to see where it broke.
545
00:35:56,020 --> 00:35:59,718
Strengthen it up, jump it again,
and find the next little bit where it broke.
546
00:35:59,957 --> 00:36:03,325
SMITH: When you jump the car, you would
think you'd wanna land it on the back wheels.
547
00:36:03,494 --> 00:36:07,192
You don't. That's catastrophic.
It slaps the front of the car down.
548
00:36:07,431 --> 00:36:10,424
You actually wanna bring it in
just on the front wheels.
549
00:36:11,969 --> 00:36:15,997
We broke a lot of stuff that ended in a shower
of springs and shock absorbers...
550
00:36:16,207 --> 00:36:20,235
...and parts rolling down the road that should
really not be rolling down the road, yeah.
551
00:36:21,546 --> 00:36:23,879
CORBOULD: We're trying to test it
to destruction, almost...
552
00:36:24,048 --> 00:36:26,643
...so that when we actually came out
the other end of it...
553
00:36:26,851 --> 00:36:31,380
...we could get on the set and be confident
that we could do anything that Chris wanted.
554
00:36:31,589 --> 00:36:35,082
We tried everything that we could
to make it as indestructible as we could.
555
00:37:11,229 --> 00:37:13,425
Pretty remarkable thing to see something...
556
00:37:13,631 --> 00:37:17,762
...that you had just put together
in this extremely crude free-form way...
557
00:37:18,002 --> 00:37:21,564
...rendered in such an exact set of details...
558
00:37:21,772 --> 00:37:24,139
...and made into something
that somebody could really drive.
559
00:37:24,375 --> 00:37:28,210
We built a special car just to get in and out.
560
00:37:28,379 --> 00:37:32,874
There was a Batmobile that I would pull up in.
I would drive that and park.
561
00:37:33,084 --> 00:37:35,610
The nose comes forward
and the seat comes up.
562
00:37:35,820 --> 00:37:39,154
He wanted it to open
like petals on a flower opening up.
563
00:37:39,390 --> 00:37:41,950
It all looked cool, exactly as it should,
but that was all.
564
00:37:42,159 --> 00:37:44,651
The actual performance vehicle
was real stripped-down...
565
00:37:45,229 --> 00:37:47,425
...and really bloody noisy inside.
566
00:37:47,598 --> 00:37:50,329
It's like having Ozzy Osbourne
screaming in your ear.
567
00:37:53,938 --> 00:37:57,397
I did drive the Tumbler on airstrips,
which was a hell of a lot of fun...
568
00:37:57,608 --> 00:38:00,048
...because that thing can get up
to really pretty good speeds.
569
00:38:00,244 --> 00:38:03,612
But you can hardly see anything,
so thank God there are stunt guys doing that...
570
00:38:03,814 --> 00:38:06,978
...because that would have been very
dangerous had I been the person in there.
571
00:38:09,487 --> 00:38:11,820
COTTLE: I drive really, really close
to the steering wheel.
572
00:38:11,989 --> 00:38:14,151
I always have done this.
I just feel more comfortable.
573
00:38:14,325 --> 00:38:17,818
Because of the small window
that I had to look out of...
574
00:38:18,062 --> 00:38:19,422
...we had some lipstick cameras...
575
00:38:19,597 --> 00:38:22,829
...that we placed on the outside of the car
with two monitors.
576
00:38:23,067 --> 00:38:25,593
If I couldn't see
what was directly in front of me...
577
00:38:25,803 --> 00:38:28,568
...I'd look to the monitors to make sure
everything was clear.
578
00:38:28,806 --> 00:38:31,674
[SIRENS WAILING]
579
00:38:31,876 --> 00:38:34,209
We smashed it through
everything I could think of.
580
00:38:34,445 --> 00:38:39,509
We drove it over the top of cars,
through walls, down steps, up steps.
581
00:38:41,652 --> 00:38:42,950
Oh!
582
00:38:44,455 --> 00:38:45,479
Sorry.
583
00:38:45,690 --> 00:38:49,650
Going through Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago
and George Cottle was topping 100.
584
00:38:49,860 --> 00:38:52,455
The camera car had a problem
keeping up with it.
585
00:38:52,663 --> 00:38:55,360
In fact, when we did Dark Knight,
the camera we had...
586
00:38:55,599 --> 00:38:58,125
...which is an ML55 Mercedes...
587
00:38:58,336 --> 00:39:01,670
...he had it supercharged for Dark Knight,
after Batman Begins...
588
00:39:01,872 --> 00:39:03,363
...so he could keep up with it.
589
00:39:03,607 --> 00:39:07,374
It didn't need a stunt car to fill in for it.
It was actually doing all its own stunts.
590
00:39:09,814 --> 00:39:13,216
We used explosion-proof tanks.
If they get punctured they don't explode.
591
00:39:13,417 --> 00:39:15,217
That stuff comes from when I built race cars.
592
00:39:15,386 --> 00:39:18,823
We always have racing seats and harnesses.
593
00:39:21,392 --> 00:39:25,227
The relationship between us building the car
and the driver driving it, it is a trust.
594
00:39:25,429 --> 00:39:29,025
You worry about what they're doing.
We constantly worry.
595
00:39:29,233 --> 00:39:32,362
George communicates very well.
If he's concerned about something, he'll say it.
596
00:39:32,536 --> 00:39:35,734
We'll fix it if it needs it.
We'll put his mind at rest. I worry about him.
597
00:39:35,940 --> 00:39:39,672
You know, he's like a son, you know,
every time you send him off.
598
00:39:50,087 --> 00:39:54,582
One time we did a jump and the car
bottomed out heavier than it should've done.
599
00:39:54,792 --> 00:39:58,661
So we scratched our heads a bit. We thought,
if we let the tub of the car hit the ground...
600
00:39:58,863 --> 00:40:00,195
...but we cushion that...
601
00:40:00,398 --> 00:40:02,697
So we built in this flap arrangement
under the car.
602
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:04,027
They're hinged steel plates.
603
00:40:04,201 --> 00:40:07,296
We run offroad
hydraulic bump stops on them.
604
00:40:07,471 --> 00:40:10,703
So the car hits the ground, but it's
cushioned when it hits the ground.
605
00:40:10,875 --> 00:40:11,899
It hits gently.
606
00:40:12,076 --> 00:40:14,545
That was the secret to getting that car
to jump.
607
00:40:19,583 --> 00:40:24,988
It was a location in Chicago
and we jumped, I think, 40 or 50 foot.
608
00:40:32,696 --> 00:40:34,665
Because Chris
then had it in his mind that:
609
00:40:34,832 --> 00:40:37,996
"This car can jump, okay, right.
You know, where can I take that?"
610
00:40:41,705 --> 00:40:45,836
The best stunt for me in the Batmobile
was the jumping over the moving car.
611
00:40:46,010 --> 00:40:47,911
SMITH: We built a ramp
that we can tow behind the car.
612
00:40:48,078 --> 00:40:49,838
We get on the move,
we practice and practice.
613
00:40:49,980 --> 00:40:52,020
Then we have to take that on set,
do it in a tunnel.
614
00:40:52,216 --> 00:40:55,482
COTTLE: I was worried I'd get too much height
and hit the ceiling.
615
00:40:55,653 --> 00:40:57,986
It was at night, as well,
so I could barely see the ramp...
616
00:40:58,155 --> 00:41:00,852
...and they say, "Oh, there's gonna
be explosion in the back.
617
00:41:01,025 --> 00:41:03,119
Would you be happy in an explosion
yourself?"
618
00:41:03,294 --> 00:41:04,854
I was like, "Yeah, absolutely," I said.
619
00:41:04,995 --> 00:41:07,624
"But only if you give me
the biggest button you have."
620
00:41:07,798 --> 00:41:09,767
As I hit the ramp
and as I was jumping...
621
00:41:09,934 --> 00:41:12,699
...I had to wait
until it was at the top of the arch...
622
00:41:12,870 --> 00:41:15,465
...just as I felt it come down,
I hit that button.
623
00:41:28,652 --> 00:41:30,892
It was meant to get blown up
at the end of Batman Begins.
624
00:41:31,021 --> 00:41:35,288
Chris Corbould eventually convinced me
not to. We'd all sort of fallen in love with it.
625
00:41:35,459 --> 00:41:37,792
CORBOULD: It was almost like
another character in the film.
626
00:41:37,962 --> 00:41:41,228
But the next time around,
Chris was adamant that it was gonna go.
627
00:41:41,398 --> 00:41:43,958
COMPUTER: Damage catastrophic.
Eject sequence initiated.
628
00:41:44,134 --> 00:41:46,296
SMITH: We didn't want the life
of the Batmobile to end there...
629
00:41:46,470 --> 00:41:49,497
...so we designed this ejection mode
to save his life.
630
00:41:49,673 --> 00:41:53,974
So if the Batmobile was dying,
it would save his life and continue the fight.
631
00:41:54,144 --> 00:41:55,703
COMPUTER:
Goodbye.
632
00:42:25,109 --> 00:42:27,189
NOLAN: The use of Tumbler
in The Dark Knight Rises...
633
00:42:27,344 --> 00:42:30,212
...is all about Bruce Wayne's power
being turned against him...
634
00:42:30,381 --> 00:42:31,542
...and turned against Gotham.
635
00:42:31,715 --> 00:42:35,277
So the idea of Batman having power
and power as responsibility...
636
00:42:35,452 --> 00:42:39,082
...has always been one of the underlying
themes of who the character is.
637
00:42:39,256 --> 00:42:42,886
And the technology he uses,
whether it's the Tumbler...
638
00:42:43,060 --> 00:42:45,928
...whether it's the surveillance technology
shown in The Dark Knight...
639
00:42:46,096 --> 00:42:47,928
I've gotta find this man, Lucius.
640
00:42:48,098 --> 00:42:49,532
At what cost?
641
00:42:49,700 --> 00:42:51,500
...those things have always come
with a price.
642
00:42:51,635 --> 00:42:52,915
Always comes a very heavy price.
643
00:42:53,070 --> 00:42:56,939
And so Batman always rides this line
between hero and vigilante.
644
00:42:57,107 --> 00:42:59,406
Between somebody
who's taking it upon himself...
645
00:42:59,577 --> 00:43:03,139
...to decide how to use the power
that these things give him.
646
00:43:03,347 --> 00:43:06,442
The Batmobile comes to have
a certain weight, a certain responsibility...
647
00:43:06,617 --> 00:43:10,213
...as far as it relates to the idea
of the power of Bruce Wayne...
648
00:43:10,387 --> 00:43:13,448
...the power of wealth,
the power of military might...
649
00:43:13,624 --> 00:43:15,224
...the power that he is able to wield...
650
00:43:15,392 --> 00:43:17,725
...and what would happen
if that were used against him.
651
00:44:03,474 --> 00:44:05,136
USLAN:
Graphic storytelling is an art...
652
00:44:05,309 --> 00:44:10,270
...that began with paintings in caves
thousands and thousands of years ago.
653
00:44:10,447 --> 00:44:12,473
Comic book art has been around,
in a sense...
654
00:44:12,650 --> 00:44:15,518
...since the hieroglyphics of Egypt.
655
00:44:15,686 --> 00:44:17,314
If you look at the conveyances...
656
00:44:17,488 --> 00:44:21,858
...that great heroes have had
at their beck and call...
657
00:44:22,026 --> 00:44:26,623
...the wonderful steeds of King Arthur
and the Knights of the Round Table...
658
00:44:27,431 --> 00:44:28,455
...it's noble.
659
00:44:28,632 --> 00:44:30,225
It's the noble steed.
660
00:44:30,434 --> 00:44:33,404
O'NEIL:
One of the Greek heroes rode Pegasus.
661
00:44:33,570 --> 00:44:37,837
Odin from Norse mythology
had an eight-legged horse.
662
00:44:38,008 --> 00:44:44,539
Giving the hero a unique conveyance
is one of those things that is in mythology.
663
00:44:46,016 --> 00:44:48,178
USLAN: When you look at comic books
and super heroes...
664
00:44:48,352 --> 00:44:51,322
...it's still really about the brave warrior...
665
00:44:51,488 --> 00:44:53,548
...and his battle against evil.
666
00:44:53,724 --> 00:44:57,092
And it's just told in modern day dress.
667
00:44:57,261 --> 00:45:00,197
It is our modern day mythology.
668
00:45:02,399 --> 00:45:05,392
Batman developed his own great steed.
669
00:45:05,569 --> 00:45:08,164
A car called the Batmobile.
670
00:45:08,338 --> 00:45:10,603
LEVITZ:
And even though the look has varied...
671
00:45:11,175 --> 00:45:14,373
...the essence of it has remained the same.
672
00:45:14,545 --> 00:45:18,175
Your mental image of it
is where you came in on the story.
673
00:45:18,348 --> 00:45:21,512
But yet you have a conversation
with someone...
674
00:45:21,685 --> 00:45:23,677
...and you're both talking
about the Batmobile...
675
00:45:23,854 --> 00:45:26,187
...and emotionally it's the same thing...
676
00:45:26,356 --> 00:45:30,555
...even if the visions in your heads
are radically different physical objects.
677
00:45:30,728 --> 00:45:34,756
Today is the first time in history
that they've all been together.
678
00:45:34,998 --> 00:45:36,398
Oh, God.
679
00:45:36,567 --> 00:45:37,728
All right.
680
00:45:37,901 --> 00:45:38,925
Look at those.
681
00:45:39,103 --> 00:45:40,765
Oh, man.
682
00:45:40,938 --> 00:45:43,373
Oh, man.
683
00:45:44,041 --> 00:45:45,475
Wow.
684
00:45:45,642 --> 00:45:48,522
FLATTERY: You can't help it when you're
a kid growing up on this TV show.
685
00:45:48,645 --> 00:45:51,925
That's what you watch the show for, is to
watch it come ripping out of the Batcave.
686
00:45:52,082 --> 00:45:56,918
This car is a big reason why
I became enthralled with entertainment...
687
00:45:57,087 --> 00:46:00,580
...the film industry, and wanting
to do vehicles in the film industry.
688
00:46:00,758 --> 00:46:03,318
Do you mind if I sit in this?
689
00:46:03,527 --> 00:46:05,087
Okay, if you're gonna sit over there...
690
00:46:05,229 --> 00:46:08,563
...you gotta say, "Atomic batteries to power,
turbines to speed."
691
00:46:08,732 --> 00:46:12,794
That's the Batphone, I mean,
that's Commissioner Gordon's hotline.
692
00:46:12,970 --> 00:46:16,532
[LAUGHING]
693
00:46:18,342 --> 00:46:20,334
- That's awesome.
- That is unbelievable.
694
00:46:20,577 --> 00:46:22,170
[ENGINE STARTS]
695
00:46:24,281 --> 00:46:27,046
[LAUGHING]
696
00:46:30,420 --> 00:46:31,683
You've got the light going!
697
00:46:31,855 --> 00:46:33,585
Oh, yeah!
698
00:46:33,757 --> 00:46:35,988
Oh, rev is good.
699
00:46:36,193 --> 00:46:38,185
[ENGINE REVVING]
700
00:46:39,696 --> 00:46:41,597
The first time it's been running
in 10 years.
701
00:46:41,765 --> 00:46:44,758
- It sounds unbelievable.
- Thank you.
702
00:46:47,271 --> 00:46:49,570
Oh, nice. That was awesome.
703
00:46:49,773 --> 00:46:51,605
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
704
00:47:06,490 --> 00:47:09,153
BARRIS: One of the biggest historical
events ever...
705
00:47:09,326 --> 00:47:14,492
...was when all of the Batmobiles
came up to Bob's Drive-in.
706
00:47:16,500 --> 00:47:20,870
Everyone's a little kid here today.
It's not just little kids, it's everyone.
707
00:47:21,038 --> 00:47:24,133
It really means a lot to see them all
here because they built these cars.
708
00:47:24,308 --> 00:47:25,867
They're real cars.
709
00:47:26,043 --> 00:47:29,844
WOMAN: I'll probably never see this again
so I made sure to come down here fast.
710
00:47:30,013 --> 00:47:32,744
I don't have a favorite.
I love every one of them.
711
00:47:32,916 --> 00:47:34,851
I'm actually visiting down here from Vegas...
712
00:47:35,018 --> 00:47:37,044
...and I just came on a good weekend,
I guess.
713
00:47:37,221 --> 00:47:39,986
Seeing the cars in person,
that's awesome.
714
00:47:40,157 --> 00:47:43,218
Larger than life. I had no idea
they were so huge.
715
00:47:43,393 --> 00:47:45,487
They're great! I want one for Christmas!
716
00:47:46,330 --> 00:47:48,210
I'm here just to enjoy the moment.
It's history.
717
00:47:48,365 --> 00:47:49,594
Seeing them all in one place.
718
00:47:49,766 --> 00:47:51,530
It's spectacular up close.
719
00:47:51,702 --> 00:47:55,264
I have a BMW. I'd like to drive the Batmobile
out of here though.
720
00:47:56,039 --> 00:47:59,669
I drive a 13- or 14-year-old Saturn.
721
00:47:59,843 --> 00:48:01,004
I drive a pickup truck.
722
00:48:01,178 --> 00:48:03,943
I've got a '71 Camaro
I bought when I was 19.
723
00:48:04,147 --> 00:48:06,548
I've just got a little Mini Cooper.
724
00:48:06,717 --> 00:48:08,083
I drive a Prius.
725
00:48:08,252 --> 00:48:09,618
I have a Toyota pickup.
726
00:48:09,786 --> 00:48:11,254
[CHUCKLES]
727
00:48:12,222 --> 00:48:13,622
But I'd like a Lamborghini.
728
00:48:13,790 --> 00:48:16,225
I have a Range Rover. A black Range Rover.
729
00:48:16,393 --> 00:48:17,588
I drive a Porsche.
730
00:48:17,761 --> 00:48:19,127
BMW 328.
731
00:48:19,296 --> 00:48:21,765
Porsche 4S, 9114S.
732
00:48:21,932 --> 00:48:23,958
Honda CRV.
733
00:48:24,468 --> 00:48:27,905
Boring ass car.
Like, go out in the parking lot...
734
00:48:28,071 --> 00:48:31,633
...there's at least 10 identical ones
in any parking lot I park in.
735
00:48:31,808 --> 00:48:33,140
I drive a lame ass car.
736
00:48:33,310 --> 00:48:35,279
[LAUGHS]
737
00:48:36,713 --> 00:48:38,045
I have a good number of vehicles.
738
00:48:38,215 --> 00:48:41,913
A good number of really cool fun cars.
739
00:48:42,085 --> 00:48:44,247
You know, people
had asked me what was your favorite...
740
00:48:44,421 --> 00:48:46,781
...and I couldn't pick.
It's like, what's your favorite kid?
741
00:48:46,924 --> 00:48:48,324
You can't pick that.
742
00:48:48,492 --> 00:48:51,894
And then something came along
and now I know the answer.
743
00:48:52,629 --> 00:48:54,154
It's that one.
744
00:48:54,331 --> 00:48:55,731
I saw it on eBay and I'm like:
745
00:48:55,899 --> 00:48:59,131
"A Keaton Batmobile,
a Tim Burton Batmobile, is for sale.
746
00:48:59,303 --> 00:49:02,102
And this one was actually used in a movie.
How is this possible?"
747
00:49:02,272 --> 00:49:04,002
I can't believe I'm driving a Batmobile.
748
00:49:04,207 --> 00:49:07,609
Every kid dreams of that. Every little boy
dreams of something like that.
749
00:49:07,778 --> 00:49:10,179
I mean, to me the most important things
in life are...
750
00:49:10,347 --> 00:49:13,943
...to take care of your family,
give to charity, save for the future.
751
00:49:14,117 --> 00:49:17,952
And if you're lucky enough to be able to do all
those things, you have a little extra cash--
752
00:49:18,121 --> 00:49:21,421
When this thing came up for sale,
how could I not do this?
753
00:49:21,591 --> 00:49:24,527
There's an opportunity of buying
the freaking Batmobile.
754
00:49:27,097 --> 00:49:30,761
I cannot think of another vehicle
on this planet besides a space shuttle...
755
00:49:30,934 --> 00:49:34,200
...that I would rather be behind the wheel of
and driving down the street.
756
00:49:34,371 --> 00:49:35,811
It doesn't get any better than that.
757
00:49:40,243 --> 00:49:42,769
I think it's very hard to say...
758
00:49:42,946 --> 00:49:47,441
...why the Batmobile resonates
to the extent that it does.
759
00:49:47,617 --> 00:49:52,715
Certainly the idea that you could relate
this vehicle to your family car as a kid...
760
00:49:52,889 --> 00:49:55,290
...or to the car that you might own
when you're a teenager...
761
00:49:55,459 --> 00:49:58,819
...learning to drive or whatever, that you
could put yourself in Batman's position...
762
00:49:58,962 --> 00:50:01,488
...and imagine having
this incredibly exotic vehicle.
763
00:50:01,665 --> 00:50:05,727
The idea of the power of a vehicle like that
is extremely primal.
764
00:50:05,902 --> 00:50:08,337
The Batmobile is a dream.
765
00:50:08,505 --> 00:50:13,034
It's part of the dream
of being something other.
766
00:50:13,210 --> 00:50:16,908
Something greater than self.
767
00:50:18,648 --> 00:50:20,173
WEST:
I get letters frequently...
768
00:50:20,350 --> 00:50:23,013
...from people who tell me how as a child...
769
00:50:23,186 --> 00:50:27,556
...they were inspired
by watching the show or seeing our movie.
770
00:50:27,724 --> 00:50:30,660
Now, the ones that really get to me
and impress me...
771
00:50:30,827 --> 00:50:33,058
...are those letters that I get
and comments...
772
00:50:33,230 --> 00:50:36,200
...by people who say,
"You know, I had no father."
773
00:50:36,366 --> 00:50:39,564
"My father left," or, "He passed away,"
or whatever.
774
00:50:39,736 --> 00:50:44,197
"And you became my father
all these years."
775
00:50:44,374 --> 00:50:48,106
And, you know,
that just touches your heart.
776
00:50:48,311 --> 00:50:50,871
Batman and the Batmobile...
777
00:50:51,048 --> 00:50:56,749
...symbolize the ability to have power
over that which we feel powerless against.
778
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:59,788
Two and a half years ago
I was diagnosed with cancer.
779
00:50:59,956 --> 00:51:02,187
It was a pretty aggressive treatment.
780
00:51:02,359 --> 00:51:04,521
A lot of radiation and chemo.
781
00:51:04,694 --> 00:51:07,391
I've known Andy for 25 years.
We've worked very closely together.
782
00:51:07,564 --> 00:51:09,444
And, you know,
Andy went through a tough period.
783
00:51:09,599 --> 00:51:14,060
He didn't have long left, which, you know,
is a powerful thing to go through your life.
784
00:51:14,237 --> 00:51:16,536
You meet extraordinary people.
785
00:51:16,706 --> 00:51:19,198
You meet people and you lose them.
786
00:51:19,376 --> 00:51:22,778
He then went on to say how great these
people were that helped him through it...
787
00:51:22,946 --> 00:51:25,466
...got him through it, you know,
and he's out the other end now.
788
00:51:25,615 --> 00:51:29,609
He's, you know, for all intents and
purposes clear of it. He's been clear of it.
789
00:51:29,786 --> 00:51:35,657
I'd love to give something back to all
those people that got me through that.
790
00:51:35,859 --> 00:51:40,888
The idea is to get a Batmobile to Children's
Hospital in Vancouver, the cancer unit.
791
00:51:41,064 --> 00:51:43,499
A positive thing like that
to get a smile on their face...
792
00:51:43,667 --> 00:51:47,229
...that helps in the whole process
because, you know--
793
00:51:47,404 --> 00:51:50,568
Something to look forward to,
something to brighten the day.
794
00:51:50,740 --> 00:51:54,370
What a rush! I'd dearly love to do that.
795
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,472
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
796
00:53:03,246 --> 00:53:06,011
SMITH: You see those children
in the radiation rooms going in and out.
797
00:53:06,183 --> 00:53:09,483
And ultimately it can go either way.
798
00:53:10,954 --> 00:53:13,954
It gives them a chance to forget about
everything maybe for a minute or two.
799
00:53:14,090 --> 00:53:16,025
And have good fun, be kids.
800
00:53:16,193 --> 00:53:18,958
If we can help with that
then that's what we'll do.
801
00:53:31,074 --> 00:53:33,942
LEVITZ:
The Batmobile is a dream made real.
802
00:53:34,110 --> 00:53:37,911
It's not about whether it's a toy,
it's not about whether it's a real car.
803
00:53:39,049 --> 00:53:42,713
It's about whether it's something
that can rumble in the back of your head...
804
00:53:42,886 --> 00:53:47,256
...and have that raw power
in your imagination.
805
00:53:47,424 --> 00:53:50,690
SMITH: One of the guys that worked for me
said, "You've got the coolest job in the world."
806
00:53:50,860 --> 00:53:55,525
And, yeah. You're building Batman's car.
That's every kid's dream.
807
00:53:55,699 --> 00:54:00,364
BARRIS: That car has changed
not only my life, but my family's life.
808
00:54:00,537 --> 00:54:02,438
I've been a fortunate kid.
809
00:54:02,606 --> 00:54:05,098
There was not one day
I didn't want to get up and go to work.
810
00:54:05,275 --> 00:54:07,608
It was like a dream come true
for a designer.
811
00:54:07,777 --> 00:54:10,076
I'm just dreaming I was driving it.
812
00:54:10,247 --> 00:54:13,046
SCHUMACHER:
I feel privileged that as filmmakers...
813
00:54:13,216 --> 00:54:15,481
...we're all fans
or we wouldn't be doing it.
814
00:54:15,652 --> 00:54:17,553
And then we get to pass that on.
815
00:54:26,830 --> 00:54:28,162
I think they're all iconic.
816
00:54:28,331 --> 00:54:30,994
It just depends what age you were
when you saw them.
817
00:54:31,167 --> 00:54:33,898
It's your Batmobile
that was the first one you saw.
818
00:54:34,137 --> 00:54:35,298
[CROWD CHEERING and APPLAUDING]
819
00:54:35,472 --> 00:54:37,312
NOLAN:
For me, as for a lot of people my age...
820
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:41,434
...you can't remember a time before the
Batmobile. You've always been aware of it.
821
00:54:55,558 --> 00:54:59,620
The Batmobile has become
a mythic kind of character in itself.
822
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:07,093
NOLAN: The Batmobile
is extraordinarily powerful and exotic.
823
00:55:07,270 --> 00:55:10,206
But you can imagine yourself driving it.
824
00:55:10,473 --> 00:55:12,374
[ENGINE REVVING]
825
00:58:12,355 --> 00:58:15,325
COMPUTER:
Eject sequence initiated. Goodbye.