The Batman’s Vengeance Line Has Hidden Meaning, Reveals Matt Reeves

The Batman director Matt Reeves reveals the hidden meaning behind the movie’s “I’m vengeance” line. The new film stars Robert Pattinson as the legendary DC superhero, succeeding Ben Affleck in the role for a story that exists outside Warner Bros.’ DCEU continuity. After enduring extensive pandemic-related production delays, The Batman finally hits theaters today, March 4.

Based on The Batman trailer footage, Reeves’ film depicts a grittier version of Gotham City than its big-screen predecessors, and Pattinson’s Caped Crusader is accordingly in a particularly dark place. In just his second year of vigilantism, Bruce Wayne is confronting crime and corruption on a virtually insurmountable scale, with deadly villains rising to meet the challenge presented by his masked alter-ego. One popular trailer moment has Pattinson declare himself “vengeance” to a group of criminals he proceeds to pummel, shirking the declarative “I’m Batman” moment from previous film adaptations to instead reference a famous moment from Batman: The Animated Series.

In an appearance on The Ringer‘s Big Picture podcast, Reeves acknowledges that this is a callback to the beloved animated show, but also notes that the line carries a larger significance in the film. Discussing his overall intention with this project, he says The Batman is concerned with Bruce Wayne’s core motivation for his vigilantism, which the director locates as based in a desire to revisit his childhood trauma – something he will never be able to undo. Declaring himself vengeance instead of Batman, Reeves says, sets up his growth arc, over the course of which he will learn that he has to be more than his own desire for revenge. Check out Reeves’ explanation below:

As much as he wants to think he’s doing this to make the city better, it’s really for himself also, to make sense of his life. And I don’t think he understands the degree to which he’s driven in this way that’s really a personal vendetta. And that’s why he begins in this, when he doesn’t say, you know, ‘I’m Batman,’ like the Burton movies, he says, you know, ‘I’m vengeance,’ which does come from the comics and from the animated series. And I thought, well, what I’d love to do is I’d like to see him have an awakening over the course of the story, so he starts to understand that he has to be more, that he has to change, that it’s not enough to take this path of vengeance…

While fans were surely excited to see a reference to Batman: The Animated Series in the promotional material, the moment is clearly a foundational one for Reeves’ film that explains how Pattinson has described his character thus far. He’s dubbed The Batman‘s Bruce Wayne more weirdo than playboy, suggesting he is truly consumed by his alter-ego in a way that doesn’t allow him to build a personal life. This would also explain why he spends more time as Batman than Bruce in this film compared to past interpretations, and how that could potentially change in The Batman 2, after reaching the end of this story arc Reeves has laid out for his character.

While it should be interesting to see Pattinson’s hero grow in this way over the course of the film, fans are also very much looking forward to seeing Batman as vengeance, expecting some intense fight scenes. Reeves’ movie notably reinterprets Batman’s no-kill rule, suggesting that, rather than expressing his desire to evenly dispense justice, the Dark Knight wants to kill his foes, and only his willpower holds him back from doing so. This rough starting-point gives the DC hero plenty of room to grow over a potential The Batman movie trilogy, should those plans end up coming to fruition.

Source: The Ringer

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