INT. FALCONE’S CLUB – NIGHT 92
Flass approaches Falcone’s table. Sits.
FALCONE
I need you at the docks tomorrow.
FLASS
Problem?
FALCONE
Insurance. I don’t want any problems on this last shipment.
Flass shrugs.
FLASS
Sure. Word on the street is you got a beef with someone in the DA’s …
FALCONE
Is that right?
FLASS
And that you’ve offered a price on doing something about it.
FALCONE
What’s your point, Flass?
FLASS
You seen this girl? Cute little assistant DA … that’s a lot of heat to bring down, even in this town.
FALCONE
Never underestimate Gotham. Besides, people get mugged on the way home from work every day …
EXT. FALCONE’S BASEMENT CLUB, DOCK AREA – NIGHT 93
Wayne, opposite the club, has his hand under his hood, adjusting a directional microphone hooked over his ear.
FLASS
(over mike)
Sometimes it goes bad.
EXT. ROOFTOPS, GOTHAM – NIGHT 94
Moving in on a rooftop balustrade to discover Wayne, in black body suit and gauntlets, crouched, watching the police station across the street. He pulls on a black balaclava. Climbs through the shadows using Ninja spikes on his hands and feet.
INT. BULLPEN – CONTINUOUS 95
Gordon walks through the bullpen, pulling off his coat.
INT. GORDON’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS 96
Gordon slumps into his chair, back to the window. Reaches for the phone – the light goes out.
WAYNE
(o.s.)
Don’t turn around.
Gordon freezes – Wayne is behind him, pressing a stapler between Gordon’s shoulder blades as if it were a gun.
GORDON
What do you want?
WAYNE
You’re a good cop. One of the few.
Gordon narrows his eyes, puzzled.
Carmine Falcone brings in shipments of drugs every week, nobody takes him down. Why?
GORDON
He’s paid up with the right people.
WAYNE
What would it take to bring him down?
GORDON
Leverage on Judge Faden. And a DA brave enough to prosecute.
WAYNE
Rachel Dawes in the DA’s office.
GORDON
Who are you?
WAYNE
Watch for my sign.
GORDON
You’re just one man?
WAYNE
Now we are two.
GORDON
We?
No response. Gordon turns around. No one. He jumps to the window – looks down, looks up: a shadow slips onto the roof –
INT. BULLPEN – CONTINUOUS 97
Gordon races across the bullpen, drawing his gun, hits the stairwell – two uniforms see him go, run after him.
EXT. ROOFTOP – CONTINUOUS 98
Wayne moves to the edge of the roof – the gap is too big. He turns back – the door smashes open. Gordon’s gun is raised.
GORDON
FREEZE!
Wayne races for the gap – leaps … drops fast … misses the top storey – grabs the balcony below … it breaks away – drops him onto the one below. Winded, Wayne climbs onto the wall.
From the other roof, Gordon watches Wayne melt into the shadows. The Uniforms arrive either side.
UNIFORM 1
The hell was that?!
GORDON
(dismissive)
Some nut.
But Gordon’s expression is less certain.
INT. APPLIED SCIENCES DIVISION – MORNING 99
Fox watches Wayne approaching with a slight limp.
FOX
(smiles)
What’s it today? More ‘spalunking’?
WAYNE
Spe-lunking. And no, today it’s base-jumping.
FOX
Base-jumping? What, like parachuting?
WAYNE
Kind of. Do you have any lightweight fabrics?
Fox looks at Wayne over his glasses. Smiles.
FOX
Oh, yeah.
INT. SAME – MOMENTS LATER 100
Fox hands Wayne a sheet of black fabric.
FOX
Notice anything?
Wayne examines it, shrugs. Fox puts on a glove.
Memory fabric – flexible ordinarily, but put a current through it …
Fox grabs the fabric – which instantly pops into the rigid shape of a small one-man tent. Wayne raises his eyebrows.
… the molecules align and become rigid.
Wayne pushes on the tent, feeling its strength, fascinated.
WAYNE
What kind of shapes can you make?
Fox releases the tent, which instantly collapses.
FOX
It could be tailored to any structure based on a rigid skeleton.
Wayne lifts the black fabric, flicking it in a whipping motion. Thinking.
WAYNE
Too expensive for the army?
Fox takes it back from Wayne. Sardonic.
FOX
Guess they never thought about marketing to the billionaire base-jumping, spelunking market.
WAYNE
Look, Mr. Fox, if you’re uncomfortable –
FOX
Mr. Wayne, if you don’t tell me what you’re really doing, then when I get asked … I don’t have to lie. But don’t treat me like an idiot.
WAYNE
(nods)
Fair enough.
Wayne sees something behind Fox: a vehicle, covered by a tarp. Huge tires visible.
What’s that?
Fox, a twinkle in his eye, rolls up the memory fabric.
FOX
The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn’t be interested in that.
Wayne shoots Fox a look, and we are –
P.O.V.: RACING ALONG, INCHES ABOVE A TEST TRACK 101
INT. TUMBLER ON TEST TRACK – MOMENTS LATER 102
Wayne pilots using aircraft-like control sticks. Fox, in the passenger seat, hangs on as Wayne pushes the vehicle.
The Tumbler shoots past: low and wide, a cross between a Lamborghini Countach and a Humvee. Sandy camouflage, stealth-angled panelling and variable-angle flaps across the back.
Fox shouts over the noise of the engine.
FOX
She was built as a bridging vehicle! You hit that button –
Wayne reaches.
NO, NOT NOW!!
Wayne recoils.
It boosts her into a rampless jump! In combat, two of them jump a river towing cables, then you run a Bailey bridge across! Damn bridge never worked – but this baby works fine!
Wayne inspects the cockpit: a forward-slung ‘gunner’s’ driving position between their legs, video screens, electronic controls, windows with heads-up display. Wayne accelerates …
The Tumbler tears down the straightaway, skids to a halt.
INT. TUMBLER – CONTINUOUS 103
Fox jolts with the stop. Turns to Wayne, a little green.
FOX
What do you think?
Wayne turns to Fox with a slight smile.
WAYNE
Does it come in black?
INT. BATCAVE – DAY 104
Close on: the cowl. Black, with a slight graphite sheen. Dramatic, iconic even without its ears.
A baseball bat smashes into the crown, cracking it in two. Alfred picks the pieces off the table, frowning.
ALFRED
Problems with the graphite mixture, apparently. The next ten thousand will be up to specifications.
Wayne looks up from adjusting a servo-mounted microphone.
WAYNE
At least they gave us a discount.
ALFRED
Quite. In the mea
ntime, might I suggest, sir, that you try to avoid landing on your head?
Wayne shoots Alfred a look. Then fits the microphone into the horn-shaped ‘ear’ from the cowl.
INT. BATCAVE – DAY 105
Wayne takes the hi-tech harness for the grapple and cuts off the shoulder straps, leaving a belt with sliding attachments.
INT. SAME – LATER 106
Wayne lifts a gloved hand, metal contacts on the fingertips. With his other hand, he picks up a fabric glove, ribbons dangling from each finger. He thrusts the gloved hand into the fabric glove – the ribbons shoot out – rigid finger-extensions like the skeleton of a bat’s wing. Wayne fans the projections, testing.
INT. SAME – LATER 107
Wayne grinds metal at a lathe. Alfred approaches with a Thermos. Wayne stops grinding, blows on his handiwork … Alfred looks at the steel carved into a bat’s wing.
ALFRED
Why the bat, Master Wayne?
WAYNE
Bats frighten me. (Slight smile.) And it’s time my enemies shared my dread.
Wayne tilts the crude Batarang, watching light dance across the brushed steel. He throws it whistling into darkness …
EXT. DOCKS – NIGHT 108
Down in the stacks, Thugs unload boxes from an open container. Headlights light them up – everyone freezes. A sedan pulls up. Flass emerges. Approaches one of the Thugs holding a box. Opens it, yanks out a stuffed toy. A bear.
FLASS
Cute.
Flass rips open the toy, pulls a plastic package from inside.
(Mock surprise.) Oh? What have we here?
Nobody reacts. Flass hands the toy back to the Thug. Who tosses it onto a pile of bears. Next to it is a pile of rabbits.
Flass heads over to a limousine. Gets in.
INT. LIMO – CONTINUOUS 109
Falcone sits, looking at a stuffed rabbit. Flass gets in.
FLASS
Looks fine out there. (Looks at rabbit.) So the bears go straight to the dealers?
FALCONE
And the rabbits go to our man in the Narrows …
Flass looks at the rabbit.
FLASS
What’s the difference?
Falcone looks at Flass.
FALCONE
Ignorance is bliss, my friend. Don’t burden yourself with the secrets of scary people.
FLASS
Scarier than you?
FALCONE
(smiles)
Considerably scarier than me.
EXT. THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 110
A Thug hands a box to a Second Thug, who walks away along the corridor of containers. The First Thug turns back to the darkness of the open container, reaches in –
He is yanked into the darkness with an echoing cry.
Second Thug turns, stares uneasily down the deserted corridor to the black mouth of the open container …
SECOND THUG
Steiss?
No reply. He puts down his box. Draws his gun. A Third Thug comes around the corner.
THIRD THUG
Come on, we gotta –
He sees the Second Thug’s gun. Draws his own. They move cautiously towards the open container …
The Thugs peer into the blackness of the open container. Behind them, a lamp hanging above the corridor shatters – the Thugs turn, startled, to see another lamp go dark – then another and another, darkness advancing towards them.
As the closest lamp shatters, a glint of metal drops to the ground … the Second Thug bends, picks it up, staring –
A bat-shaped, brushed-steel plate. The Second Thug looks up, confused, but the Third Thug is staring above him.
SECOND THUG
What?
The Second Thug looks up himself: a dark shape hanging from a crane directly above him …
A giant Bat, wings folded, head pointed towards the ground.
What the hell –?
The Bat drops – wings whip out, rigid – catch the air – flipping the shape downwards – enveloping the Second Thug in darkness. The Third Thug bolts, racing between containers, arms pumping.
He sprints headlong down the narrow corridor, skids around a corner, races towards –
Blackness sideswipes the Third Thug, spinning him off his feet, whipping him into darkness with a piercing scream …
EXT. TRUCK OUTSIDE THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 111
Other Thugs react to the scream …
INT. LIMO, DOCKS – CONTINUOUS 112
Falcone and Flass hear the scream. Flass jumps out.
EXT. THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 113
Thugs, guns drawn, advance into the stacks …
EXT. THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 114
A Fourth Thug whips around a corner to see a Jumpy Thug covering the other end of the corridor …
The Fourth Thug nods, steps backwards. Movement in the shadow behind him … Batman is already in frame – his arm flashes forward with his cloak, wraps the Thug’s neck, yanks him backwards into the shadows …
Jumpy Thug opens fire, strobing the stacks, revealing indistinct glimpses of movement.
Elsewhere in the stacks, Thugs react to the gunfire …
Jumpy Thug fires blindly at strobing shadows – glimpses of –a dark, cloaked figure moving from shadow to shadow. Jumpy Thug empties the clip. Fumbles for another …
JUMPY THUG
WHERE ARE YOU?!
A whispered word at his ear:
BATMAN
Here.
Batman’s face, upside down, at the Thug’s shoulder – Jumpy Thug screams as he is enfolded by darkness.
Flass stands outside the stacks, gun drawn, listening. He moves back to the limo.
INT. LIMO – CONTINUOUS 115
Flass pokes his head in.
FALCONE
What the hell’s going on?!
FLASS
You’ve got a problem out there. Bail.
Falcone reaches for the floor, pulls out a shotgun.
EXT. OUTSIDE THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 116
Flass pauses, listening to the shouts and gunfire. Then moves off into the night.
EXT. THE STACKS – CONTINUOUS 117
Falcone advances through the stacks, shotgun in hand … he rounds a corner to see:
Five Thugs, various weapons in hand, in a loose defensive ring, peering out into the darkness …
A shadow drops into the center of their ring –
Thugs fly backwards – Falcone glimpses a dark shape spinning in the middle, taking them out one by one … Falcone bolts –
INT. LIMO – CONTINUOUS 118
Falcone jumps in, clutching his shotgun. Taps it against the partition.
FALCONE
Let’s go.
Nothing. He lowers the partition: the Driver is unconscious.
A thump jolts the limo – Falcone flinches – his head whips around looking through the windows as thumps pound the car …
Falcone whips the shotgun from side to side, aiming at shadows – some real, most imagined. The thumps stop. He is breathing now … scared … eyes darting …
(Under his breath.) What the hell are you?
Silence …
Smash!! Glass shatters – black-clad arms shoot down through the sun-roof – grab Falcone by the lapels and yank him up through the opening – bringing him nose-to-nose with …
The Batman. Crouched, panther-like on the roof of the limo, magnificent cloak billowing around … Falcone’s terrified eyes gaze at the eyes staring from the black cowl …
BATMAN
I’m Batman.
Falcone screams …
EXT. ALLEY – MOMENTS LATER 119
The scream echoes down the alley. The Homeless Man looks up from his brazier, curious. He moves to the corner, peering around to see –
Batman standing, iconic, on the roof of the limo, cloak billowing … the Homeless Man’s eyes go wide. Batman turns his head towards the Homeless Man –
BATMAN
Nice coa
t.
– and flies up from the limo, disappearing into the shadows high above …
The Homeless Man looks down at his coat, then back up to the shadows …
HOMELESS MAN
(quiet)
Thanks.
INT. MONORAIL TRAIN – NIGHT 120
Rachel stares out at the lights of Gotham. The car is filthy, covered in graffiti. A Thin Man sits at one end. Talking on his phone. The train pulls into a station. Rachel rises.
EXT. STAIRS DOWN TO THE CAR PARK – CONTINUOUS 121
As Rachel makes her way down the dimly lit stairs, she becomes aware of the Thin Man walking behind her and instinctively pulls her bag close.
A Hefty Man appears at the bottom of the stairs. He lingers, half blocking the exit. Rachel slips her hand into her purse as the Thin Man accelerates behind her.
Near the bottom, Rachel bolts – Hefty grabs her arm, spinning her back, tossing her up the steps towards the Thin Man.
Rachel smacks the Thin Man in the head with her purse – Hefty grabs her ankle – Rachel spins around, yanking her hand out of her purse holding a taser …
RACHEL
Hold it!
Behind her: a black shape whips around the Thin Man, tearing him sideways off his feet in a spasm of shadow …
Hefty’s eyes go wide as, behind Rachel, he sees a black demon-like shape with what look like horns envelope his partner … He bolts, racing off down the street … Rachel looks at her taser with surprised satisfaction, then back at Hefty’s fleeing form.
That’s right! You better run!
Rachel turns to look up the stairs and screams –
Crouched on the railings behind her, dark cloak blowing, the black demon-like shape …
THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY: The Complete Screenplays with Storyboards Page 7