Script To Screen: “Batman”
The Final Struggle in the 1989 movie Batman.
Plot Summary: The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker.
INT. BELFRY — THAT MOMENT
The Joker, hearing something beneath the trapdoor, begins
to move the second bell over it. However, his curiosity
gets the better of him and he lifts the trap a fraction
of an inch. He opens the trap fully, no Batman.
JOKER
I must have belled the bat!
Joker LAUGHS then stops and looks around slowly.
JOKER
There ain’t any more of you up
here, are there? — Daddy or Momma
bat?
The Joker LAUGHS, CRAZILY.
BATMAN (O.S.)
My parents are dead. But you
remember that, don’t you, Jack?
Joker turns quickly to see Batman standing with cape un-
furled. A rappeling line hangs from his belt and out
onto the parapet. A small pulley on the belt. The
Joker CACKLES.
JOKER
You climbed up the outside with
a rope!
(LAUGHTER)
You little monkey! God, look at
you. You’re a mess.
(laughs)
They’re gonna be real mad at the
costume shop when they see what
you did to their suit.
Batman steps toward him. Joker steps back into the
half-dark.
BATMAN
(wicked smile)
Yeah, and they asked me to bring
your face back to the shop for
some work. Even if I have to tear
it off.
JOKER
You maniac, it was you who dropped
me in the tanks. You made me.
BATMAN
I made you. And you made me.
JOKER
What is this? I say you made me
and you have to say I made you?
How childish can you get? You’re
insane.
BATMAN
(the voice of doom)
Are we going to kill each other,
Jack?
JOKER (O.S.)
(slightly nervous)
Jack? Jack’s out, I’m running his
body while he’s gone.
BATMAN
Well, when you see him — tell him
I’m gonna kick his ass!
Batman steps in Joker’s direction. From out of the dark-
ness Joker swings a huge BELL which SMASHES INTO BATMAN.
He is knocked over backwards out onto the parapet, he
nearly falls over the edge.
BATMAN’S POV OF GROUND ZERO — NIGHT
A frightening view thirty stories down toward death.
EXT. CATHEDRAL — NIGHT
Batman catches himself just before he topples over.
INT. BELFRY — NIGHT
Joker creeps around alone. Not sure if Batman fell. He
hides, flattened up against an archway inside the belfry.
SOUND OF CHOPPER in distance. Joker hears it.
JOKER
(into his radio)
Step on it. I’ll be on the roof.
SUDDENLY, Batman appears behind Joker’s shoulder. He
jerks an arm around Joker’s neck, pinning him against
archway.
BATMAN
Have you danced with the devil in
the pale moonlight?
Joker jumps off the ground. He tries to get away.
Batman wraps his other arm around and, “click,” hand-
cuffs himself to the Joker.
BATMAN
Well, now’s your big chance.
Joker struggles. He twists and turns the handcuffs but
can’t shift them. He can hardly move.
JOKER
(pulling a Joker
flower from his coat)
That was dumb. Now I’m going to
have to operate.
Joker SQUIRTS acid on the handcuffs.
Batman slips his arms back around Joker, pulling him into
the open. They stand tethered face-to-face. Joker hits
Batman hard, Batman returns the blow, Joker hits again,
and Batman returns.
The Joker gives a tremendous tug and the SIZZLING HAND-
CUFFS BREAK. He runs to the wooden louvers.
Joker breaks a 2 by 4 from the wooden framework of belfry
and SMASHES Batman with it.
Batman goes down. Joker hits him again. HELICOPTER AP-
PROACHES and dangles ladder over parapet. Joker STEPS
OUT onto parapet. He grabs for the dangling ladder.
Batman looks up from where he has fallen.
HIS POV
UP INTO belfry where there are thousands of Bats stirring.
ON BATMAN
He activates a sonar device on his belt. A SHRILL WHINE
lifts into the air.
CUT TO:
EXT. BELLTOWER PARAPET — THAT MOMENT
Helicopter HOVERS at the side of the belltower. Joker
steps up onto the wall between two GARGOYLES and puts
his foot onto one of the rungs of the ladder. He looks
up as he hears UNEARTHLY SCREAMING FROM BELFRY.
EXT. BELLTOWER PARAPET — THAT MOMENT
Suddenly the AIR IS FULL OF BATS, diving and flapping
all over the place. The NOISE from Batman’s belt CLIMBS
IN PITCH. As it does so the bats fly faster. They swarm
above Joker in an ever thickening black cloud.
EXT. BELLTOWER PARAPET — MOMENTS LATER
The swarm of bats sweeps out and engulfs him. He SCREAMS,
tries to beat them off.
ON BATS
Suddenly Batman steps through the cloud.
He grabs Joker. Pulling him off the ladder. Batman
lifts him bodily up off the ground by front of his coat.
He pushes him back against a Gargoyle.
Joker struggles and the Gargoyle crumbles and Joker
slips backward. Joker knows he’s a dead man, and he
smiles. He grabs for Batman’s cowl and grips it as he
falls.
JOKER
I saved the last dance for you.
Both of them tumble down into the endless darkness.
EXT. CATHEDRAL TOWER — NIGHT
Two bodies fall in pas de deux. Joker SCREAMS. SOUND OF
WIND RUSHING BY.
EXT. FALLING POV — NIGHT
CAMERA FALLS DOWNWARD. Lights float lazily up AT us from
the onrushing street below.
EXT. FALLING — NIGHT — TIGHT
BATMAN FIRES a hook and a line back up at the roof.
ON HOOK
It lands on roof and skitters along looking for a crevice
to hook on.
ON JOKER
He stares back at Batman as he drifts away. JOKER’S
LAUGHING ALL THE WAY DOWN.
ON HOOK
SKITTERING.
ON BATMAN
He spreads his cape, slowing down a bit.
ON GARGOYLE
Hook skitters to it and seizes on its grimacing jaws.
ON JOKER (SLOW MOTION)
He plummets to earth CRASHING ON CATHEDRAL STEPS.
LAUGHTER STOPS!
ON BATMAN (SLOW MOTION)
HE FALLS, TURNS UPSIDE-DOWN AND STOPS in mid-air.
Coming to the end of a long tether from the top of the
tower. He bounces a bit and hangs upside-down. Like a
bat. A SCREAM fills the air.
EXT. CHURCH STEPS — OVERHEAD ANGLE
We’re looking DOWN AT the Joker, whose body lies splayed
and broken on the steps. We DRIFT DOWNWARD, CLOSER,
until his FACE FILLS THE SCREEN, his chilling grin still
intact.
The Joker’s expression is almost childlike, as he stares
aimlessly at the stars.
The scene from the movie:
Lots of differences especially in dialogue suggesting there was a great deal of improvisation going on. Which ones are the most significant changes?
By the way, one of the few hard copy scripts I’ve saved is the very first version of this project written by Sam Hamm which you can read here.
Any of you prefer this version of Batman to The Dark Knight? If so, I’d love to hear why.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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