The Caped Crusader (2014) reboot for batman, second installment of dc cinematic uni, set before man of steel
Directed by Wally Pfister
Cast:
Bruce Wayne/Batman: Max Irons
Alfred Pennyworth: Jeremy Irons
Detective James Gordon: Jake Gyllenhaal
Vicki Vale: Hayden Penettiere
Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin: Bob Hoskins
Roman Sionis/Black Mask: Matthew Willig
Carmine Falcone: Robert De Niro
Detective Harvey Bullock: Donal Logue
Ralph Bowman/Nightwing: Ian Somerhalder
Lieutenant Renee Montaya: Marisa Ramirez
District Attorney Harvey Dent: Michael Ealy
Thomas Wayne: Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Martha Wayne: Genesis Rodriguez
Dr. Jonathan Crane:
Dr. Pamela Isley: Meghan Ory
Detective Edward Nigma: Neil Patrick Harris
Spencer Richards:
Plot:
"The Caped Crusader" begins at Gotham City Hall , where a 10 year old Bruce Wayne goes to observe a debate between his father and mayor of Gotham, Thomas Wayne, against a young and upcoming Gotham politician, Oswald Cobblepot. The debate is largely based on the concern amongst the citizens that the crime rates are at an all time high, leaving the citizens of Gotham going against the belief of Mayor Wayne to put on a crime control, while Cobblepot's unrealistic belief of a crime free Gotham starts to win over the citizens. Sensing the wave of all the citizens votes going in Cobblepot's favor, Mayor Wayne starts digging up evidence of possible corruption within Cobblepot's rise to power. With Mayor Wayne's accusations of corruption towards Cobblepot being true, he heads down to arrange a meeting with Carmine Falcone and negotiates a deal that when Cobblepot becomes mayor, the Falcone crime family will have a blind eye on them, in return, Falcone hires a hit man to kill the Wayne family after their charity event later that evening. At the charity event, all of Mayor Wayne's board members from his company, Wayne Industries, begin talking about Mayor Wayne losing the election to Cobblepot. After overhearing this, Mayor Wayne becomes enraged and goes after his corrupt Vice President, Spencer Richards and altercation ensues. With all of Gotham elite watching in shock, Martha Wayne, takes herself, her husband, and Bruce to take a walk to the car and head back to Wayne Manor. On the way to the car, the hit man Falcone hired, Victor Zsasz, kills Bruce's parents but fails to kill Bruce as he ran away and hides from Zsasz. A shaken Bruce Wayne weeps at his parents death as GCPD arrive to the crime scene. The head detective of the case, Harvey Bullock, goes over to try and comfort Bruce but to no prevail. Bullock calls in the Wayne's beloved butler, Alfred Pennyworth to come and take Bruce back to Wayne Manor. A couple days later Cobblepot wins the mayoral election by default and Alfred begins to have suspicions and heads to Detective Bullock, but the meeting doesn't produce anything as they need evidence to link Cobblepot and Falcone.
11 years later, a college bound Bruce Wayne learns that he has inherited Wayne Industries. Through corruption, black market dealing, as well as under the table dealing during Bruce's tenure as head of Wayne Industries, the company was viewed as on the most corrupt powers in the world. Although through no fault of his own, Bruce is accused and arrested on the charges of conspiracy to the murder of his parents, charges brought by Mayor Cobblepot, stating that Bruce hired someone to kill his parents to inherit their empire. In reality, Mr. Richards and Cobblepot worked together to sabotage and frame Bruce for the crime, though Bruce had no prior knowledge of this.
After serving 5 years in jail, Bruce is released on condition that he helps new District Attorney Harvey Dent and newly transferred Detective James Gordon access indict all of the corruption in Gotham that is driven by Mayor Cobblepot's relations with Falcones, and Mr. Richards. Bruce makes his first public appearance at the opening of the new Wayne Industries Tower and the media goes into a frenzy upon Bruce's return. Mr. Richards takes Bruce into Wayne Towers to escape from all the chaos Bruce's return has caused. During a conversation, Mr. Richards agrees to hire Bruce off the books, so that the media wouldn't go into another frenzy. Bruce is assigned to Wayne Industries War and Special Weapons sector. Bruce goes to headquarters and meets Dick Grayson, the only other Wayne Industries employee assigned to the War and Special Weapons sectors. After a couple weeks Bruce begins looking around for evidence to supply Gordon and Dent with the evidence they need but comes to find nothing. After searching around, Bruce runs into files about a special RX-2 weapon division that was abandoned long ago by the government. Bruce goes down to the RX-2 warehouse and finds special suits of armor that were made for the super soldier program. Back at MCU, Gordon gets introduced to his new partner , Detective Bullock by Harvey Dent. They go out on patrol and start scoping out Falcones drug money drop off points and find out that Falcone has been funding Wayne Industries weapon program. Bruce, Dent, Gordon, and Bullock all arrange a meeting to oversee any progress in the case, and they find that there isn't anything they are finding. Bruce convinces the group to let him go to Falcone's home and talk to him. Later that night Bruce gets drop off at Carmine's, Falcone's restaurant, to confront him about his connections with Cobblepot and Falcone. Falcone tells Bruce that there is no way Gotham will be saved from the rut that it is in and then mentions to Bruce that his parents murder was all Cobblepot's doing. An enraged Bruce leaves the restaurant and then gets mugged by Falcones henchmen. Alfred comes and finds Bruce, through a tracking device on his phone, and takes him back to Wayne Manor. The next morning Bruce tells Alfred of all the corruption and poverty he saw first hand while confronting Falcone, leaving Alfred with no choice but to help Bruce. because of Falcone. With illegal acts needed to be committed to save Gotham, he decides to become an outside of the law vigilante and bring in all on Gotham's crime underworld to justice. Over the next couple of weeks Alfred, much to his dismay, helps Bruce starts to refine his fighting skills that he learned while in prison and helps Bruce become affiliated with Gotham to realize how much trouble Gotham actually is. Bruce then breaks into the RX-2 ware house and takes three different suits and begins molding a full body armor suit. One day while working in the ware house Grayson sneaks up on him and starts to scold him him about how his actions could get back to Mr. Richards and they can all get killed. Bruce shows him his plans and a step by step process to rid Gotham of all the corruption, now on aboard, Grayson starts to help design his armor. Mayor Cobblepot steps into his office and finds Falcone and Mr. Richards to discuss a recent drug bust by another gang called the Black Skulls, but they all come to an agreement that they are nothing to worry about.
Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce struggles to find a symbol that represents his cause and for Gotham. Bruce sees a bat and follows it until it reaches the opening of a cave to which Bruce and Alfred both enter. After a herd of bats come flying around the whole cave, Bruce finally finds the symbol he wants to use. Back at the ware house, Bruce puts the finishing touches on his exoskeleton suit , he adds an emblem of a bat, to the suit to let it represent the symbol of Gotham. With the armor suit ready to go Bruce gains intelligence that a supposed drug deal going down in an abandoned house between Richards men and and Falcone's. Bruce infiltrates it later that night but comes to realize that there was no drug deal going on and gets ambushed, but by the Black Skulls. Bruce gets saved by Grayson, who is also in a body armor suit, and they barely escape with their lives. The next day Bruce confronts Dick about not risking his life to fight as a team and Dick refuses not to help Bruce on his journey to save Gotham. Seeing that Dick has the same fire and passion that he has, Bruce agrees to have him as a partner. After busting two drug money houses, Gordon and Bullock, start to get the assumption that there is another party involved that they can't find. Telling Bruce this information, he, later that night with Grayson head to a supposed planned meeting between Cobblepot, Falcone, and Richards located at the Gotham Pier. After getting through the groups personal security located all around the pier, Bruce (using sonar he put in the ears of his cowl) finds that all three of them are plotting a way to kill Bullock, Dent, and Gordon using money to bait the Black Skulls into committing the crime, then turning on them and killing all of the Black Skulls for the robbery that happened previously. Also in their plot is to kill Bruce at a Wayne Tower event later that week. Armed with all this knowledge, Bruce and Dick, approach the group, to no prevail as the only one that gets captured and put on a headlight near the pier is Falcone and some of his henchmen to show Gotham that no one is above or below the law. The next day the Gotham media goes into a frenzy over the mysterious vigilantes that took down Falcone for the moment. A Gotham Times reporter, Vicki Vale, is assigned the story and is given the daunting task of uncovering the identity of the masked vigilante, given the alias of Batman. After going to the insanity plea, Falcone is transferred to Arkham Asylum where he is treated by a multitude of doctors, namely including the corrupt Arkham supervisors who work with Cobblepot, Dr. Jonathan Crane and Dr. Pamela Isley. Vale heads to Arkham to interview Falcone but nothing comes out of the interview, as Crane's medication has Falcone in a unstable mindset, so she leaves very frustrated. Next Vale visits Dent, but she also can't get any information as Dent claims he has no knowledge of the case. Vale begins researching the Falcone's crime family history and sees that Cobblepot and Falcone have had a connection right around the time Bruce's parents were killed, noting that the killer was affiliated with Falcone. She goes to MCU to interview Bullock, who at the time had the Wayne case. Vale and Bullock get into a heated exchange over why the case should be still open. Bullock argues that the killer was captured and indicted, but Vale argues that he should've investigated it deeper to have indicted Cobblepot and Falcone before so Gotham wouldn't be in the state it is now. After Gordon intervenes the arguments before it escalates, Vale heads to Wayne Manor. Alfred delivers her to Bruce and they begin speaking about his parents. With Bruce feeling overwhelmed with the questions Vicki is asking, he leaves the room asking Vale to leave as well. Leaving Wayne Manor, Vale goes back to her boss with a story linking Falcone and Cobblepot, but her editor tells her he will not publish due to the fact that Falcone and Cobblepot have people within the media and will hunt down and kill who ever made the article, which one of the co workers overhears. Later that night at Carmine's, the GCT worker goes to Arkham and tells Falcone that a reporter had a story that links Falcone and Cobblepot to the Wayne's murder. In addition, GCPD Lieutenant Renee Montoya informs Cobblepot that the ongoing investigation with Dent and Bullock is to get him out of office, into jail, and have Dent replace him as mayor, keep Falcone in prison, and have Mr. Richards indicted on charges of racketeering so Bruce can take over as the rightful owner of his family's company. On her way back home from work two Black Skulls members, who were hired by Cobblepot to kidnap Vale. Fortunately Batman and Grayson, now under the alias Nightwing, rescue her and provide her with more evidence to link Falcone, Richards, and Cobblepot. After hearing how the failed mugging occurred, a flustered and desperate Cobblepot heads to Arkham to visit Falcone. Falcone hears what Cobblepot has to say, and agrees that they have to take action to put an end to all those who oppose them. The plan they come up with is to have The Black Skulls kidnap Vicki Vale and Nightwing, so Batman would appear, as well as have Falcones men kidnap Barbara and Nancy Gordon, Gordon's wife and daughter as well as Spencer Richards. With Gordon and Bullock sure to call in back up to help, they will run into the Batman and either kill him or arrest him since there is a warrant out for his arrest. During the assumed chaos between Batman and the GCPD, Falcones men and the Black Skulls can kill Bullock, Gordon, Barbara, Nancy, Vale, Richards, and Nightwing but have Black Skulls kill Falcones men so they is no link with all the murders.
Bruce comes home only to find his house ravaged, Alfred battered, and as well as Nightwing gone. A half conscious Alfred explains to Bruce what actually happened, springing Bruce to don the cape and cowl to go and save Nightwing as well as Vale. Keeping in my mind that gel will need all the help he can get, Bruce goes down to the Bat Cave and enters a Black Knight Tank, nicknamed the Batmobile by Bruce, and heads to MCU. Meanwhile at MCU, Gordon receives a call from an escaped Falcone that he has kidnapped his family. Batman pulls up in front of MCU and shoots his canon at a parked SWAT carrier to gain the attention of all enforcers inside MCU. Knowing he will need all the backup he can get, he draws every single enforcer in MCU on a highway chase on the way to the warehouse where Falcone is holding them. After arriving and getting through most of the henchmen on site, he goes after Cobblepot but gets attack by the Black Skulls and restrained to watch his partners murder first hand. Cobblepot kills Mr. Richards by stabbing him continuously with a serrated blade on the tip of his umbrella. Cobblepot gets shot at by the leader of the Black Skulls, Roman Sionis or his alias Black Mask, who planned to usher in a new era of organized crime by killing Falcone and Cobblepot. Nightwing and Batman escape their capture and Nightwing goes right after Black Mask and Falcones men. Gordon and Bullock show up to the scene and begin to fight on the side of Batman, even though they know the policy is to arrest him right on the spot. Among the chaos Nightwing gets ambushed and fatally wounded by Black Mask. Black Mask then kills a hiding Cobblepot, but fails to kill Falcone as he escapes. Black Mask takes Vale and runs towards the roof of the building as Batman follows. With Falcones men and the Black Skulls held in check by Gordon, Bullock, and the rest of the GCPD, Gordon's family is now safe and Gordon goes on the hunt for Batman. On the roof Batman confronts Black Mask, and a battle ensued between the two. Struggling to defeat Batman, Black Mask tries to kill Vale but to no prevail. An enraged Batman leaves Black Mask nearly dead but spares his life, and escapes before Gordon could be hot on his trail again.
At the end of the "Caped Crusader", we see Vicki Vale publishes her story about Cobblepot's/Falcone connection with the Wayne murders.
Bruce buys a controlling stake in the now publicly traded Wayne Industries, and is able to buy Alfred's majority shares of Wayne Industries, making him the majority owner once again. Back at MCU, Gordon tells Bullock that he will stop at nothing to clean Gotham but also to bring the Batman into custody. Later in the night we see Batman looking over Gotham as its personal protector.
In a mid-credits scene, a Wayne Industries employee, Dr. Edward Nigma reviews an immense amount of information on the Batman.
I want opinions! Casting changes, plot changes, let me know! Meant so that a young batman and young superman can square off in batman vs superman dawn of Justice!
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