The next sequel to 1989’s Batman has the perfect opportunity to explain one plot element of The Tim Burton Batman films are part of multiple timelines with overlapping canon. One such continuity includes both 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, but expands on the iconic films with non-movie materials – including Sam Hamm and Joe Quinones’s Batman ’89 comics and John Jackson Miller’s 2024 novel Batman: Resurrection. Resurrection – which is set between Batman and Batman Returns – has made both films even better by providing additional connective tissue and deploying fascinating retcons.
Batman: Resurrection deals with the fallout of the live-action Batman movies. Resurrection explains how Joker could down the Batwing with a single shot of his oversized revolver, as well as exploring Max Shreck’s connection to Gotham’s underworld before Jack Napier’s transformation into the Joker tore Gotham City apart. Resurrection did not explain, however, one of the most dubious plot elements of Batman Returns.
How Did Penguin Get The Batmobile Blueprints?
In the second act of Batman Returns, The Penguin has somehow obtained the blueprints to the Batmobile, initially planning to simply detonate the car before instead deciding to take control of it, using it to frame Batman as an unhinged super-criminal like him. Returns never explains how Penguin obtained the blueprints, and given how crucial secrecy and security are to Batman, a proper explanation was perhaps needed. The closest thing viewers have to one is found in the film’s novelization by Craig Shaw Gardner.
A deleted scene from Batman Returns would have had Penguin's henchmen examine and photograph the Batmobile while it was parked, setting up its sabotage.
The Batman Returns novel reveals that the Penguin obtained the Batmobile’s blueprints from Max Shreck, who took them from a disgruntled mechanic who worked on the Batmobile. This explanation is questionable, as Returns implies that Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth are the designers, builders, and sole maintainers of the Batmobile. Moreover, for Batman to allow even a possibility of the Batmobile’s blueprints to fall into the hands of someone like Max Shreck would be uncharacteristically lax for someone as security-conscious as him.
Batman: Revolution Must Explain This Batman Returns Plot Hole
Despite adding more context to many scenes in the Burton Batman movies, Batman: Resurrection did not address this issue, but there is still another opportunity to make sense of it. John Jackson Miller’s forthcoming Batman: Revolution will be released in the fall of 2025, and it will be set between the events of Resurrection and Returns. Revolution is in the ideal position to provide a more sensible explanation for how The Penguin obtained the blueprints of the Batmobile in Batman Returns, especially since Batman: Resurrection already tied the Penguin more closely to events prior to the sequel movie.
Batman Returns
- Release Date
- June 19, 1992
- Runtime
- 126minutes
- Director
- Tim Burton
WHERE TO WATCH
Batman Returns sees the return of Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne after his victory over the Joker. This time, the Dark Knight faces a new threat in the form of The Penguin, an outcast who wants revenge on Gotham City. Featuring Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot, Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, and Christopher Walken as Max Schreck, Batman Returns is Tim Burton's second and final movie based on the iconic DC comics character.
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