The Batman throws everything from bullets to electric shocks at Robert Pattinson's Batsuit - but how powerful exactly is the superhero's armor?
Warning! SPOILERS for The Batman.
The latest outing for The Batman has Robert Pattinson's rendition of the Caped Crusader take a whole lot of damage, but Batman's armor is far more powerful than it looks. The Batsuit looks heavily damaged and homespun. It shows the bullet nicks and knife slashes of the superhero's first encounters with Gotham's rotten criminal underworld. However, the brand new take on the iconic costume has humble roots and an ingenuity that puts Bruce Wayne's famously sharp mind on display.
The Batman starts in the second year of Bruce Wayne's time as the superhero, during which Pattinson's bulletproof Batsuit withstands machine gunfire, punches, knives and massive electric shocks in his attempts to stop sadistic villain The Riddler, alongside Gotham's supporting players in the seedy characters department. The shady Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and even the Joker in the cell next to the Riddler in Arkham make appearances in the storyline, working as the several thorns in Batman's side. The armor takes an unbelievable amount of damage, which begs the question: what is it made of and how did Bruce Wayne assemble it?
Batman's armor is grounded in realism, taking its components from bulletproof vests and police department gear rather than fantasy elements and mystical materials. Bruce Wayne is first and foremost a genius-level detective, a fact The Batman truly brings to light by pitting him against the puzzle-loving Riddler. The ingenuity of Batman is showcased by his lack of resources and connections to supporting players in his heroic exploits. There is no Lucius Fox, who was a major character in Nolan's Batman trilogy, to arm him with experimental military castoffs, and his hand-stitched cowl was not sourced from a lucrative contractor. Instead, The Batman sees Bruce Wayne use his ingenuity to create a durable, symbolic armor of his own design.
The armor protects Bruce from direct hits with a shotgun and a knife in the film, with the confrontation in the movie's climax hitting Batman with sprays of bullets, knives, electric shocks, and what should have been a fatal shotgun blast to the chest by one of the Riddler's cronies. The costume was designed by Glyn Dillon and Dave Crossman, who said they wanted Pattinson's Batsuit to imitate a bulletproof vest in functionality and appearance. “[The costume designers] really looked at stuff from the Vietnam War, military tactical stuff that one guy could put together and allow him to fight better,” said producer Dylan Clark (via Den of Geek).
In the course of the film, the shotgun blast causes some damage to Batman. However, the armor still absorbs the energy of the shot at such close range. Nothing actually penetrates the homemade Batsuit. The immense damage he takes and yet keeps walking off is a testament to Bruce Wayne's ingenuity when left to his own devices. The armor is made from bits of hand-stitched leather and real-world tactical bulletproof vests. So far, nothing has caused any significant damage to the hero underneath the cowl, leaving its limits as one of The Batman's biggest unanswered questions. Perhaps he's left standing purely on madness and spite, driven by the drugging adrenaline in his veins. Perhaps it's plot armor. It's hard to say, but audiences may eventually find out where The Batman finds such tenacious armor with the movie's follow-up releases.
