Christian Bale credited as playing...
Bruce Wayne • Batman
- Rachel Dawes: Wait! You could die. At least tell me your name.
- [pause]
- Bruce Wayne: ... It's not who I am underneath... but what I *do*... that defines me.
- Rachel Dawes: ... Bruce?
- [Batman turns and leaps off the roof without answering her]
- Bruce Wayne: [as Wayne Manor is burning down] What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family... my father built...
- Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir.
- Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I failed.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
- Alfred Pennyworth: You still haven't given up on me?
- Alfred Pennyworth: Never.
- Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
- Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Why bats, Master Wayne?
- Bruce Wayne: Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread.
- Batman: [taps the Bat-signal] Nice.
- Jim Gordon: I couldn't find any mob bosses.
- Batman: Well, Sergeant?
- Jim Gordon: Oh, it's Lieutenant now. You really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets.
- Batman: But?
- Jim Gordon: We still haven't picked up Crane or half the inmates of Arkham that he freed.
- Batman: We will. We *can* bring Gotham back.
- Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
- Batman: Escalation?
- Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
- Batman: And?
- Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
- [pulling out a file]
- Jim Gordon: Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
- [shows Batman a plastic evidence bag containing a Joker card]
- Batman: I'll look into it.
- [turns away and walks to the edge of the roof]
- Jim Gordon: I never said thank you.
- Batman: [looks back at Gordon] And you'll never have to.
- Bruce Wayne: You're vigilantes.
- Henri Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.
- Bruce Wayne: Which is?
- Henri Ducard: Legend, Mr. Wayne.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Are you coming back to Gotham for long, sir?
- Bruce Wayne: As long as it takes. I'm gonna show the people of Gotham their city doesn't belong to the criminals and the corrupt.
- Alfred Pennyworth: In the depression, your father nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises combating poverty. He believed that his example could inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city.
- Bruce Wayne: Did it?
- Alfred Pennyworth: In a way. Their murder shocked the wealthy and the powerful into action.
- Bruce Wayne: People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol... as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.
- Alfred Pennyworth: What symbol?
- Bruce Wayne: Something elemental, something terrifying.
- Alfred Pennyworth: I assume that as you're taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals.
- Bruce Wayne: You're thinking about Rachel?
- Alfred Pennyworth: Actually, sir, I was thinking of myself.
- Enormous Prisoner: You are in hell, little man!
- [punches Bruce Wayne]
- Enormous Prisoner: And I am the devil!
- [punches him again]
- Bruce Wayne: You're not the devil. You're practice.
- Henri Ducard: Your parents' death was not your fault.
- [Bruce attacks Ducard with his sword and is blocked]
- Henri Ducard: It was your father's.
- [Bruce furiously attacks Ducard, but is easily defeated]
- Henri Ducard: Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.
- Bruce Wayne: The man had a gun!
- Henri Ducard: Would that have stopped you?
- Bruce Wayne: I've had training!
- Henri Ducard: The training is nothing! The *will* is everything!
- [Ducard bests Bruce once again]
- Henri Ducard: The will to act.
- Carmine Falcone: You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne.
- [one of Falcone's attendant bodyguards gives Bruce a rough going-over to check for weapons but comes up with nothing]
- Carmine Falcone: No gun? I'm insulted! You could have just sent a thank-you note.
- Bruce Wayne: I didn't come here to thank you. I came here to show you that not everyone in Gotham's afraid of you.
- Carmine Falcone: Only those who know me, kid. Look around you: you'll see two councilmen, a union official, a couple off-duty cops, and a judge.
- [Pulls out a gun and points it at Bruce]
- Carmine Falcone: Now, I wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off right here and right now in front of 'em. Now, that's power you can't buy! That's the power of fear.
- Bruce Wayne: I'm not afraid of you.
- Carmine Falcone: Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through - you haven't thought about your lady-friend down at the D.A.'s office. You haven't thought about your old butler. Bang!
- [Falcone pulls the trigger, but the hammer falls on an empty chamber with a click; he puts the gun away]
- Carmine Falcone: People from your world have so *much* to lose. Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life, but you don't. You've never tasted desperate. You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham; you'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name. So, don't-don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand. Alright.
- [Falcone gives his bodyguards a signal to remove Bruce; they take hold of him, and he struggles against their grip]
- Carmine Falcone: Yeah, you got spirit, kid; I'll give you that. More than your old man, anyway. In the joint, Chill told me, uh, told me about the night he killed your parents. He said your father begged for mercy. Begged. Like a dog.
- Bruce Wayne: [as Alfred opens the curtains] Bats are *nocturnal*.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Bats may be, but even for billionaire playboys, three o'clock is pushing it. The price of leading a double life, I fear. Your theatrics made an impression.
- [shows the newspaper to Bruce]
- Bruce Wayne: Theatricality and deception are powerful weapons, Alfred. It's a good start.
- Alfred Pennyworth: [Pointing at the new bruises forming] If those are to be the first of many injuries to come, it would be wise to find a suitable excuse. Polo, for instance.
- Bruce Wayne: I'm not learning polo, Alfred.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Strange injuries; a non-existent social life; these things beg the question as to what exactly does Bruce Wayne do with his time and his money.
- Bruce Wayne: And what does someone like me do?
- Alfred Pennyworth: Drive sports cars, date movie stars, buy things that are not for sale... who knows, Master Wayne? You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident.
- Lucius Fox: [Bruce points to the Tumbler] The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.
- [Cuts to Bruce test driving the Tumbler on an indoor course, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing the vehicle]
- Lucius Fox: She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables. Over here on the throttle, flip that open and throttle up. This will boost you into a ram-less jump.
- [Bruce goes to flip the throttle]
- Lucius Fox: Not now! Not... not now, Sir!
- [Bruce flips it back]
- The Tumbler: Afterburner disengaged.
- Lucius Fox: We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine.
- [Bruce brings the Tumbler to a stop. He is very impressed]
- Lucius Fox: So what do you think?
- Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?
- Bruce Wayne: [Playing drunk to get everyone out of the line of fire] Everyone. Everybody.
- [clinks his glass]
- Bruce Wayne: I, uh... I wanna thank you all for coming here tonight and drinking all of my booze.
- [the guests laugh]
- Bruce Wayne: No, really. Uh... There's a thing about being a Wayne that... you're never short of a few freeloaders, like yourselves, to fill up your mansion with, so, here's to you people. Thank you.
- Fredericks: That's enough, Bruce.
- Bruce Wayne: Mm... I'm not finished. To all of you, uh, all you phonies; all of you two-faced friends; you sycophantic suck-ups who smile through your teeth at me, please leave me in peace. Please go. Stop smiling. It's not a joke. Please leave. The party's over. Get out.
- Fredericks: [as the guests start leaving] The apple has fallen very far from the tree, Mr. Wayne.
- Bruce Wayne: [about the prototype Batsuit] Tear resistant?
- Lucius Fox: This sucker will stop a knife.
- Bruce Wayne: Bulletproof?
- Lucius Fox: Anything but a straight shot.
- Bruce Wayne: Why didn't they put it into production?
- Lucius Fox: Bean counters didn't think a soldier's life was worth 300 grand. So, what's your interest in it, Mr. Wayne?
- Bruce Wayne: I wanna borrow it. For, uh, spelunking.
- Lucius Fox: Spelunking?
- Bruce Wayne: Yeah, you know, cave diving.
- Lucius Fox: You expecting to run into much gunfire in these caves?
- Bruce Wayne: Look, I'd rather Mr. Earle didn't know about me borrowing...
- Lucius Fox: Mr. Wayne, the way I see it, all this stuff is yours anyway.
- Henri Ducard: Are you ready to begin?
- Bruce Wayne: I-I can barely stand...
- Henri Ducard: [kicks him] Death does not wait for you to be ready! Death is not considerate, or fair! And make no mistake: here, you face Death.
- Batman: [meeting Gordon carrying an unconscious Rachel out of Arkham] How is she?
- Jim Gordon: [handing Rachel over] She's fading. We gotta go. I'll get my car.
- Batman: I brought mine.
- Jim Gordon: Yours?
- [Batmobile blasts out and races by]
- Jim Gordon: I've gotta get me one of those.
- Henri Ducard: When you lived among the criminals, did you start to pity them?
- Bruce Wayne: The first time I stole so that I wouldn't starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. And when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them.