All language subtitles for Gotham.S01E00.The.Legend.Reborn.HDTV.x264-BATV

Man: Listen, kid.
You seem like a nice guy,

but this is not a city
or a job for nice guys.

"Gotham's" a show very much
about the origin stories

of some of the great super
villains of the DC mythology.

McKenzie: So you see a young Catwoman,

you see a young Poison Ivy,

a young Penguin, Riddler,
possibly the Joker.

You see all of these legendary characters,

but you're seeing them
at a point in their lives

which has not really been explored before.

Part of this fun is that

we don't want to just
regurgitate a comic book.

We need to elevate it.

We need to make it something
it's never been before

while still staying true to the DNA.

It really pays due homage

to everything anyone knows
about Gotham in the past

and gets crazier and crazier.

sync and corrections by madhatters
- www.addic7ed.com -

The idea for this show

came from trying to find a fresh
way into the D.C. mythology,

and it seemed like the perfect place

to start was the city of Gotham.

What the show looks at
is why a town like that

will eventually need a
vigilante to help them.

What makes a town so crazy,

what makes a town so out of control

that villains begin to wear costumes?

Heller: The basic premise of the
series is a "what if?" Really.

It's what if James Gordon
was the rookie detective

that investigated the death
of Bruce Wayne's parents?

And once you make that connection

between those two iconic characters,

the story kind of rolls on from there.

Johns: So, you meet this young detective

who is out to uncover
corruption and do the right thing

in a city that doesn't

necessarily want you to do the right thing

or need you to do the right thing.

When we start the series,

James is more or less
straight out of the military.

Has not been in Gotham in a decade or more.

He left when he was a kid.

He's a little bit of a fish out of water.

He doesn't exactly know
what's going on in Gotham,

and he's figuring it out moment to moment.

Everybody down!

Hold your fire! I got this!

He'll make mistakes, he'll
trust the wrong people,

follow his heart, and at times

that will lead him into
dangerous situations.

As an actor, that's a very
relatable place to start.

Ben McKenzie is perfect
for the role of Gordon

because he has a kind of
natural integrity and strength...

an old-fashioned set of values

that really shines through his performance.

Sir, look at me.

Not at them, look at me.

[Grunts]

My name's Jim.

Jim Gordon.

This is one of the iconic figures

in comic-book law enforcement.

It's daunting to play
him, to be honest with you.

It's a little bit scary.

And yet it's thrilling.

[Grunting]

Heller: In this telling
of the Gotham story,

James Gordon is partnered
with Harvey bullock.

Johns: Harvey bullock's
a detective in the comics.

He's never been realized in live action,

and donal logue is the first
person to ever play him,

and he's absolutely perfect for the role.

What the hell are you doing?

We had the drop on him.

Yeah, well, he's dropped, isn't he?

You could've gotten hurt. Rookie mistake.

Somebody takes a cop's gun, you shoot him.

That's basic.

He's been around Gotham for
just years and years and years,

and so, in order to survive in this city

he's had to kind of develop
his own brand of morality.

Hey!

Huh?

How you doing?

James' relationship with
Harvey bullock is very complex.

Harvey's been whittled down to
expect very little of the city.

The case is closed. Forget about it.

Even if the real killers
are still out there?

Yes.

This is very perilous
stuff you're messing with.

Logue: He's introducing Gordon to Gotham,

and Gotham is nothing like
Gordon's ever seen before.

When I started work on the show

and started digging into the origin stories

of these great villains,

one of the things I realized was

there really is not a lot
known about the early history.

We've never really seen
where the penguin comes from

or why he does what he does,

or the Riddler, or even Catwoman.

Cannon: Who were the
super villains in this city

and how did they become that way?

Maybe they were just like me and you.

Why on earth would that real person

turn into this crazy psychopath?

[Laughs]

These quintessential characters

that we've all grown up with,

you finally get to see and understand

how they ended up where they ended up.

Anyone ever tell you when you walk,

you look just like a penguin?

No. Nobody's ever told me that.

I love origin stories.

I love origin stories.

Being able to see how
these wonderful characters

that we've all grown up with started

is so interesting and so much fun.

Boy?

Sorry.

If you let this hair
go frizzy, you will be.

Johns: The great thing about
Jada Pinkett's character,

Fish Mooney,

is that it's created
completely for this show.

It's a brand-new character.

Smith: Fish Mooney is an up and comer

in the criminal world of Gotham,

and she has a mind to take over Gotham,

so we'll see how that goes.

[Laughs]

There used to be some discipline.

Falcone is getting old and soft.

It's time.

Somebody has to take over.
It might as well be me.

She has a kind of ferocity
that's natural to her...

a sharpness and an intelligence
and a way of looking at people

that is both seductive and devouring.

You don't get a lot of opportunity

to have a playground for your shadow.

That is what makes this character so fun.

Harvey.

[Chuckles] Fish.

Jada Pinkett Smith is creating

a brand-new character

in this beautifully nuanced

and complicated and sexy and dark way.

Who's the friend?

Detective James Gordon, ma'am.

Hmm.

Well, aren't you a cool glass of milk?

The first time that
fish meets James Gordon,

she knows right away he's a problem,

and so there's this
very interesting tension

between the two of them.

You have a little danger in your eye.

I wonder what you plan to do with that.

You'll have to wait and see.

I hate surprises.

From episode to episode,

we'll be introducing characters

that are sort of legends in this universe,

so you really have to tune in each week

to watch who's gonna show up next.

We might meet a character

who we think is the nicest
character in the world,

and they turn out to be the worst villain

in all of Gotham city or vice versa.

You know, we might meet somebody

that's completely corrupted,
and by the end of this,

but they're one of the most heroic people,

and you can never tell in Gotham.

It changes people.

Woman: The acting was
fine, the music was lovely.

Boy: I agree with that. It was kinda lame.

Man: There's no such word as "kinda."
It was totally lame. [Laughs]

- You two are so judgment...
- Give me your money!

Stay calm, Bruce.

[Grunts]
[Gasps]

[Gasps]

McKenzie: I think one of the things

that's interesting about "Gotham"

is you're taking the same
scene that you've seen before

that starts off the movies
with the murder of the waynes,

but instead of jumping forward
to when Bruce is now a man,

and he takes on the cape and the mask,

instead, you stay in the present.

Logue: It begins with the
murder of Bruce Wayne's parents,

finding these bodies in an alley,

and then saying, "where
do we go from here?"

The ramifications are deep and wide.

John: It's interesting
to watch a young Bruce

and a young Jim Gordon connect so early on.

It's something we've
never really seen before,

and that will be explored in "Gotham."

I promise you, I will
find the man who did this.

He's also making a promise to himself.

"I will navigate my way through this

and I will do it honorably
and with dignity."

I think audiences always seem to gravitate

towards characters with
incredible integrity.

One of the most interesting
things about James Gordon

is really in his
relationship with Bruce Wayne.

The cool thing about the show
is it's all the psychology

that goes on behind Bruce Wayne's mind

to become this awesome character,

to become this vigilante
that fights crime for Gotham.

Why were you up on the roof?

I'm learning to conquer fear.

Fear doesn't need conquering.

Fear tells you where the edge is.

Fear is a good thing.

And you think I haven't
told him that, do you?

Bruce Wayne's relationship
with Alfred is very unique.

Even though Alfred is his subordinate,

he has to help guide him
into manhood carefully

because he does work for him,

and not only that, but he
has such respect for him.

Heller: It's really a story of a young boy

willing himself to become a superhero.

How does he do that?

He's not really sure why he's doing that,

but he is compelled to do it.

I'm going to find out who
killed your parents, and why.

I'm glad he's still alive.

I want to see him again.

When we begin the series,
Gotham city is struggling.

It's in the midst of a crime wave.

It's battling corruption.

The Waynes were very important
people in Gotham city,

so their death creates a power vacuum

that is filled by various people

with rather less philanthropic
notions of how to run Gotham.

Logue: With the murder of the Waynes,

they were like the mama, papa bear

that kept everything together,

and now Gotham is in danger

of falling into this abyss
of pure chaotic anarchy.

Citizens of Gotham, we will not,

we cannot let these
killers and these robbers

and these rapists and these thugs win.

Not on my watch.

There's a lot of tension throughout Gotham.

You've got tension between the
Falcone family and the maronis.

You got tension between
fish Mooney and the cops.

You've got tension between
the Major Crimes Unit

and the Homicide Division
in the Gotham P.D.

Well, well, well,

if it isn't Montoya and
Allen, Major Crimes Unit.

Any leads?

Just getting started.

I'll be straight.

You want us to take it off your hands?

Come on, bullock. You know
you're scared of this case.

There's tension kind of all across the city

and between every
character that's involved.

Gotham is on a knife edge.

What do you suppose bringing down city hall

and the police force will
do, even if you could?

McKenzie: The Falcone
crime family runs the city.

They have relationships with everyone

from law enforcement to the judicial branch

to the mayor's office and all the way down.

It's a world in which
everyone is on the take,

and the only man who can kind
of break that downward spiral

is the last good man
in Gotham, James Gordon.

I made a promise to Bruce
Wayne, and I can't deliver.

But you will. Maybe I'm out of my depth.

Hey.

I very much doubt you're out of your depth.

James and Barbara have a natural

sort of emotional and sexual chemistry.

Seemingly everything is
going very, very well.

She's a beautiful woman
with a lot of means.

Her father is very wealthy.

He's one of the members
of Gotham high society.

But Barbara's hiding things from James,

including secrets about her past.

James Gordon is not a good
guy. You deserve better.

James Gordon is the most
honest man I've ever met.

You sure you know what he's capable of?

Yes, thank you. I know him.

Does he know you like I know you?

Their relationship gets
compromised very quickly

when Renee Montoya accuses
James of being corrupt

and creates a rift in their relationship

that will only widen as
the series goes forward.

B., I know when you're lying.

Heller: Gotham is a corrupt place.

It's a place where you can't trust anyone.

You can't trust the mayor,

you can't trust the police force.

Smith: Gotham law enforcement

is pretty much under the thumb
of the underworld right now,

which is basically run by
Falcone at this point in time.

That might change. I'm working hard at it.

Heller: There is a split in the underworld

between the Maroni family
and the Falcone family,

so a character like Penguin, for instance,

is able to come in and play
both sides against each other.

Why snitch on your own boss?

I confess that...

that poor orphan boy pricked my conscience.

I've done my civic duty.

Good day to you both.

Oswald starts off as a
grunt for Fish Mooney,

and when Bruce Wayne's
parents are murdered,

he sees that as an
opportunity to make his move,

to finally become someone
of power and of status.

He's learned to play good people

off of bad people off of good people.

It's fascinating.

It was Gilzean. He's the snitch.

[Clicks tongue]

No.

Gilzean is loyal.
So am I.

I would open a vein right here
and now if you asked me to.

Go on, then.

Open one.

McKenzie: I think Robin Lord
Taylor's portrayal of Penguin

is going to be a real revelation to people
because what he's doing is not

just playing sort of a
villainous, evil mastermind,

but he's sort of sympathetic.

He's sort of likeable in his sad, pathetic,

sort of henchman way.

Falcone is losing his grip,
and his rivals are hungry.

I-I can see it coming.

I'm clever that way, and I can help you.

Shut up!

Smith: I think that these characters

explore different aspects of humanity.

You have the Gordon character

who is, you know, I
call him the white night.

And then you have Bullock,

who's kind of walking that line,

that gray area of what is
right and what is wrong.

And then you just have your just
straight out psychotic villains

like myself and Penguin.

[Laughs]

Gotham in this series is more vibrant

and crowded and archaic
than people will be expecting

if they're used to the
Gotham of the movies.

Cannon: We talked about
a city out of control,

and our fantasy of 1970s New York

in the films of Sidney
Lumet and William Friedkin...

graffiti everywhere, cops
everywhere, corruption.

New York in the '70s just
kept getting worse and worse

and crazier and crazier.

That's the Gotham that
we're looking at today.

Gelfman: We're not saying that the show

takes place at any particular time.

We're trying to make it sort
of a little bit timeless.

You sort of see these cars,

and you imagine a chase
scene from "Bullitt"

or from "French connection."

And yet, at the same
time, it's present day.

You know, there are cellphones.

It's of our world, but
it's still beyond our world.

Kraner: The audience has
an image of Gotham already,

so we want to make them feel at home,

but we also want to take a fresh approach.

We do a lot of research.

We look at the comic books,

we look at films together.

Things like "Blade Runner,"

some of the classic film noir stuff,

just because they're beautifully
designed and they're dark.

And out of that come my sketches,

my models,

and eventually my working drawings

that get developed into
actual sets or locations

that we choose

because they fit within the framework

of that world that
we're now, at that point,

describing to each other.

I think what I'm most
excited for viewers to see

is the police precinct set.

It's very rich and layered,

and I think that's a very exciting set.

Kraner: It's sometimes a long road

from initial conception to completion.

That happened today with our main set...

the precinct set.

We started on that about 10 weeks ago,

and here today, the lights come on

and the smoke rolls in and it looks great.

The biggest challenge is
really the amount of work to do

in the time we're given.

It's a two-story set.

There's a lot of rigging involved

when you get above one story,

so there's a little more
engineering going on.

We're also shooting on rooftops.

That is a certain amount of
engineering and safety involved,

as well as the look.

Gotham, to a degree, really is New York,

and New York is Gotham, so
we had to shoot in New York.

And the energy of the city,

I think it's feeding into the production.

I think it's feeding into our show.

The scenes play out very gritty

and very real on the rooftops.

Stop!

I can't imagine shooting
the show anywhere else.

The vibrancy of New York City street life

infuses everything that we do,

and you really feel it when
you're out on the streets.

I think the alley fight is gonna
be one of my favorites on this.

Ben did a great job.

He picks things up really quick.

He's a great athlete,

and I'm just looking forward
to seeing the final product.

Now, it may be 20 degrees

and it may be raining and sleeting,

and wind may be almost
literally knocking you over,

but that's the kind
of in-your-face world

that we're portraying onscreen,

so we want to take
advantage of New York City

and everything it has to offer,

and then we want to enjoy

being inside a
temperature-controlled studio,

as well.

Danny Cannon loves to
shoot as much as possible,

as we call it, in camera.

It's for real, so visual effects

we're using to extend
the world that we create.

Cannon: Visual effects
should always be invisible.

Emotionally, they take a lot away

because people know what
they're watching isn't real.

One of the things I insisted on
at the beginning of this project

was to do our own helicopter shoot

so that we could create the city of Gotham

from something that I shot specifically.

Visual effects then really helped me

by putting foreground in

so it looked like I was
coming in between things.

We don't want it to
look like New York City,

so what we're doing is
we're taking those aerials

and we're adding elements to
make it feel like it's Gotham,

so we're adding Gothic spires,

some art deco buildings,

and we're adding a great
deal of atmosphere to them.

The pilot episode opens

with a young girl on the rooftop

of a building in downtown Gotham.

We built parts of that roof... gargoyles,

things that are fantasy...
that probably wouldn't be there.

It would be extended by visual effects

to create the rest of Gotham around it.

A common misperception among people

is that special effects is visual effects.

Visual effects is anything
you treat visually.

Special effects is anything
that's done on set practically.

Some of the effects we have
every day are some rain effects,

a lot of smoke and
atmosphere and some gunfire,

some gun squibs, hits, sparks, water.

We actually had a barge on the water

with a little mini bag
to catch the stunt double,

and then now we're gonna be over here

doing that underwater scene.

I have to match the
color of the river water,

so I'm getting crystal
clear pool water delivered,

and I have to make this clear water murky,

but not too murky.

Mahoney: They set up the tank,
we set up our green screen,

and it looks great.
We've got some temp versions of it

already, and it worked really well.

C.G. and special effects are used
just to help us tell the story.

We're shooting in New York,

so we have the beauty
and grandeur of New York

as an integral part of the show,
and we just turn that notch up to 11.

Johns: It doesn't look like
we're just in another city.

It feels like Gotham.

There's a slight twist to it all.

The reality's, like, heightened.

There's a timelessness to it

that Bruno and Danny created
that's really magical.

The great thing about Gotham

is it encompasses so many different worlds.

So the tone is both fun and dark.

It's sexy but dangerous.

It's brutal but sensual.

It's a world of craziness
and a world of beauty,

and the show encapsulates all of that.

Gotham has always been a city
with the dial turned up to 11.

Logue: Every city's got its dark side.

That's what Gotham is,

and we're gonna explore it

through the eyes of detective Jim Gordon,

who becomes a legend in the
Gotham city police department.

But this is when he just starts out,

before he realizes the nature

and the weight of the
adversary he's up against.

Watching Gotham just tip
ever so slightly over the edge

into absolute chaos will be
a really fascinating journey.

You've killed people before.

That was war.

This is war! We're at war!

Sometimes in war, you got to do
a bad thing to do good, right?

Heller: The series is
gonna mix the elements

of a police procedural

with a much more serialized narrative

about the creation of
the great DC villains.

Johns: It's not just about the cops,

it's not just about Jim Gordon,

but about the madness that springs

from this horrible crime.

People are starting to
lose faith in law and order.

Criminals are starting to run the streets.

The craziness and the kind
of theatrical projection

that villains have in the DC world

are just starting to show their faces.

I love the mythology of characters,

and so, to be able to see
how Penguin and the Riddler

and all these characters got their start

is just really exciting.

We're trying to find the balance

between the fantastic
world of the comic books

along with the actual real human pathos.

However dark and scary the
world might be right now,

there will be light.

As you continue to peel back the layers,

there's so much mystery there.

You can never be sure who's
a friend and who's an enemy.

There's romance, there's action,

there's kind of battle
between good and evil.

Stop! Stop or I'll shoot!

[Gunshot]

Heller: It's not a comic-book
world. It's a mythic world.

It's a dramatic world

full of adventure and
sex and violence and fun.

How you doing?

I been better.

There's a war coming... a terrible war.

There... there will be chaos.

Rivers of blood in the streets.

sync and corrections by madhatters
- www.addic7ed.com -