Batman Forever (1995)

Batman Forever follows Batman as he protects Gotham City from two new villains while Bruce Wayne struggles with his past. Harvey Dent, once the district attorney, was scarred in an attack and is now the criminal Two-Face, and he wants Batman dead.

At Wayne Enterprises, an inventor named Edward Nygma pitches Bruce a brain wave device and is turned down. That rejection is the start of the Riddler, who teams up with Two-Face. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist Dr. Chase Meridian is drawn to both Batman and Bruce Wayne, and a young circus acrobat named Dick Grayson loses his family to Two-Face. That crowded set of arrivals is what the rest of the film builds on.

In Batman Forever, Batman defeats Two-Face and the Riddler, and Bruce Wayne takes Dick Grayson on as Robin. Batman first stops a hostage attack by Two-Face, who then plots his revenge, while Bruce turns down Nygma's mind reading invention and a furious Nygma becomes the Riddler.

The Riddler's device secretly drains brain power from its viewers and feeds his own intelligence. Two-Face attacks a circus and kills the Grayson family, which leaves young Dick Grayson orphaned. Bruce takes Dick in, and Dick wants revenge, so he soon becomes Robin. Chase Meridian presses Bruce about his double life while the two villains steal money and information.

The turning point comes when the Riddler learns Batman's real identity from the device. The villains raid Wayne Manor, wreck the Batcave and kidnap Chase. Batman and Robin follow them to the Riddler's island hideout, and Batman rescues Robin. Two-Face falls to his death after a coin trick backfires. The Riddler's machine then overloads and he goes insane, ending up in Arkham Asylum, where he claims to know who Batman is. Bruce, Chase and Dick are left to decide where their lives go next.

Batman Forever was a commercial hit: it earned more than $336 million worldwide on a $100 million budget, which is more than three times what it cost. It opened in US theaters on June 16, 1995, took $52.8 million in its opening weekend, and finished with $184 million domestic and $152 million international, according to Box Office Mojo. It reached Australia on June 29, 1995 and the UK on July 14, 1995.

The comparison with its neighbors is useful. Batman (1989) grossed more worldwide than Forever and cost far less to make, Batman Returns grossed less, and Batman and Robin grossed less again on a bigger budget. So, Forever earned less than the 1989 original, more than Returns, and cost more than either earlier Burton film. No premiere city or venue is on record for the film.

The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12 in the UK and PG in Australia. For streaming, US subscribers can find it on HBO Max and its Amazon and Cinemax channels, UK viewers on HBO Max, Sky Go and Now TV Cinema, and Australian viewers on HBO Max, as checked on November 3, 2026. The full country breakdown is at where to watch Batman, and the series totals are at Batman box office.

The ending of Batman Forever settles three things at once: Two-Face dies, the Riddler loses his mind, and Bruce Wayne chooses to keep fighting crime with Dick Grayson as his partner. Two-Face falls to his death in the final fight, and the Riddler's machine fails, leaving the Riddler locked in Arkham Asylum, where he insists he is Batman.

Why does the Riddler say that? The film has already established that his device read Batman's identity out of Bruce Wayne's mind, so the claim is the broken remains of real knowledge. In my opinion, the joke is that nobody in the asylum can use it, and the villain who beat Batman's secrecy ends up as the one person who cannot make anyone listen. It could be argued that this is the film's neatest idea, because it turns a mind reading gadget into a punchline about madness.

How does Two-Face actually go? He falls after a coin trick backfires, which is a fitting end for a man defined by chance, and it is the film's one clean piece of villain logic. Compare that with the Riddler, whose own invention overloads and unravels him. Both villains are undone by the tools they built their identities around, and that symmetry is Schumacher's main structural idea. It is also a different shape from Batman Returns, where Burton gave Penguin and Catwoman a tangled, shared downfall tied to Max Shreck's schemes rather than to a single gadget.

The human ending is Bruce and Dick. Bruce struggles with his past throughout the film, and Chase Meridian presses him about his double life, so taking Dick on as Robin is his answer. Dick arrives wanting revenge after Two-Face kills his family at the circus, and Bruce takes him in, which puts the new partnership on a very different footing from simple sidekick work. Perhaps the point is that he chooses a partner over carrying on alone, and that he sees his own grief reflected in the boy. Keep in mind that Burton stayed on as a producer while Schumacher directed, so the film carries the earlier series' Gotham, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon into a brighter, busier story.

That sets up Batman and Robin as the next step in the series, where the partnership is strained and the same director returns. If you are watching in release order, this ending is the natural hinge between the Burton films and the Schumacher pair.

Principal photography on Batman Forever ran from September 24, 1994 to March 5, 1995, a shoot of just over five months. The film reached US theaters about three and a half months after filming wrapped. No specific shooting locations have been confirmed for this film.

Batman Forever has several production details that explain how it differs from the films before it.

• Joel Schumacher replaced Tim Burton as director, and Burton stayed on as a producer.
• Michael Keaton did not return as Batman, and Val Kilmer was cast in the role.
• Robin Williams was in talks to play the Riddler before Jim Carrey took the role.
• Chris O'Donnell played Robin, with Mitch Gaylord as his stunt double.
• Principal photography ran from September 24, 1994 to March 5, 1995.
• The film opened domestically on June 16, 1995 and earned $52.8 million in its opening weekend.

For a ranking of the whole series, including how this film compares with Batman Returns, see Batman movies ranked.