The Batman 2022: Cast, Plot, Box Office and Ending Explained

The Batman (2022), directed by Matt Reeves, follows Bruce Wayne, two years into his life as Gotham's vigilante, as he hunts a masked killer who murders the city's mayor on Halloween night and leaves riddles behind.

The killer calls himself the Riddler, and he leaves clues at each scene that point toward corruption inside the city. Batman works with Lieutenant Jim Gordon even though many officers in the police department resent a masked outsider at their crime scenes. That uneasy partnership drives the opening act, because Gordon is the one cop willing to let him in.

The search leads Batman to the Iceberg Lounge, a club run by the Penguin (Oz to his associates), and to Selina Kyle, a waitress whose roommate has gone missing. Her own reasons for digging into the same names pull her into Batman's orbit. The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 15 in the UK and M in Australia.

If you are placing it among the other films, our batman movies in order guide shows where it sits, and the batman movies hub lists every title in the series.

The full plot of The Batman (2022) is a chain of Riddler murders that exposes Gotham's corruption, the Wayne family's own part in it, and a flood that threatens the mayor-elect. Everything from here on is a spoiler.

The mayor's murder is only the first of several. The clues show that the mayor was having an affair and that many city officials take money from the crime boss Carmine Falcone. Batman and Selina Kyle meet while chasing the same leads, because her roommate Annika has vanished, and the two begin working toward the same answers. The Riddler then kills the police commissioner and kidnaps the district attorney, Gil Colson. Colson is fitted with a collar bomb, and the Riddler forces Batman to answer riddles to try to save him. Colson dies after refusing to name a police informant.

The Penguin is captured along the way, but he turns out not to be the informant. The trail instead runs to an orphanage once funded by the Wayne family, and Alfred is injured by a letter bomb. Evidence suggests that Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, hired Falcone to silence a journalist, and that Falcone may have had Bruce's parents killed.

Selina learns that Falcone is her father and that he killed Annika. She tries to kill him, but Batman stops her, and Gordon arrests Falcone. The Riddler then shoots Falcone with a sniper rifle, gives himself up, and is unmasked as the forensic accountant Edward Nashton. He is sent to Arkham State Hospital.

His plan is not over, though. Car bombs he planted breach the seawall and flood the city, and his online followers go after the mayor-elect, Bella Reál. Batman and Selina stop the attack and help rescue people trapped in the flooded arena. Afterward Nashton befriends another inmate at Arkham, Selina leaves Gotham, and Batman decides to bring hope to the city instead of seeking vengeance.

The Batman (2022) opened in Australia on March 2, 2022, in the UK on March 3 and in the US on March 4, so Australian audiences saw it first. All three dates are reported by TMDB and Wikipedia.

The staggered opening meant the film reached theaters across the three markets within three days. It is rated PG-13 in the US, 15 in the UK and M in Australia.

For the current streaming picture in each country, see where to watch batman.

The ending of The Batman (2022) sets up a Batman who chooses to be a symbol of hope instead of vengeance, and it leaves one Arkham inmate as a thread for a later story. Spoilers follow, and the reading is my opinion.

Here is what happens. Batman and Selina stop the Riddler's followers from killing the mayor-elect and help save people trapped in the flooded arena. Edward Nashton is held at Arkham, where he talks with another inmate. Selina leaves Gotham, and Batman chooses to act as a symbol of hope for the city.

Why does that matter? Because for most of the film Batman is pure intimidation, a figure who turns up in the dark and hits people. The Riddler's plot hurts him precisely because it uses his own crusade as inspiration: the killer's followers act in the name of exposing a rotten city, which is not so far from what Batman says he is doing. In my opinion, the flood sequence is where the film lets Batman see that, and leading people to safety is his answer. Compare this with batman begins, where Bruce Wayne starts out planning to take revenge on his parents' killer. Here the same man ends somewhere different.

What about the Arkham scene? Barry Keoghan is credited as the Unseen Arkham Prisoner, and the credited cast does not name the character. It could be argued that the conversation is a promise to fans rather than a plot point, but that is speculation. Whatever its meaning, it gives the sequel something to build on, and the latest on that film is at the batman part 2.

On Robert Pattinson: in my opinion, his Batman works because the film never asks him to be charming. His Bruce Wayne is closed off and tired, and the quiet beats with Jeffrey Wright's Gordon carry the emotion. Whether that suits you is a matter of taste, and our batman reviews page covers verdicts as they are published.

The Batman (2022) was filmed mainly in England, with additional location work in Scotland and Chicago. Principal photography began in London in January 2020, with soundstage work at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.

The filming locations are:

• London and Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, England
• Liverpool, England
• Scotland, including a cemetery
• Chicago, USA

Cinematographer Greig Fraser shot the film using Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft virtual production technology. For the earlier Warner Bros. films in the series, see the dark knight and the dark knight rises.

The Batman (2022) had a long production, an unusual working title and a change of lead actor along the way. These are the facts that come up most often.

• Principal photography began in January 2020 under the working title Vengeance and wrapped in March 2021.
• Filming stopped for several months during the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in September 2020.
• Cinematographer Greig Fraser shot the film using Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft virtual production technology.
• Robert Pattinson replaced Ben Affleck as Batman, with his casting reported in May 2019.
• Colin Farrell's Penguin makeup was reported to take two to four hours to apply.
• The film runs 177 minutes, 12 minutes longer than The Dark Knight Rises.

The working title Vengeance is a neat fit with the ending, where Batman decides against exactly that. Affleck had played the character in batman v superman: dawn of justice and Justice League, which the watch order lists as appearances.