10 Batman Movie Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee

Batman has been one of the most esteemed and successful superheroes on the big screen in the last two decades or so, but his movies have not been immune to errors. From Christopher Nolan’s iconic trilogy to The Batman in 2022, the Dark Knight’s films have had some blunders that made it all the way through editing to release. The ones on this list are still visible today in the latest streaming version of the movies, showing that they haven’t been corrected at all. These are the kinds of visual goofs that are easy to miss on a first, second, or third viewing, but once they’re pointed out to you, they’re hard to miss ever again.

With that in mind, fans who are attached to the prestige of these movies may want to look away, but die-hard fans can celebrate the movies’ faults along with their high points. If anything, it’s humanizing to see these minute details and realize that even great movies are made one frame at a time. Here are ten of the best Batman movie mistakes of the last 20 years.

Ducard’s Unconscious Reactions

Batman Begins hits an action-packed climax very early when Bruce Wayne completes his training with the League of Shadows, but declines to join their ranks due to their philosophy on killing enemies. His refusal leads to an all-out fight, and Bruce triggers the explosives stored in this remote mountain hidoute, bringing it down around those left inside. His mentor, “Ducard” (Liam Neeson) is knocked unconscious. Bruce lifts him up and carries him out of the burning building, but they both slide to a treacherous cliff’s edge nearby. Bruce narrowly saves Ducard from slipping off the edge, and leaves him there, still unsconscious.

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This scene has two major issues that strain at viewers’ suspension of disbelief. First, as an unconscious Ducard slides toward the cliff on his belly, he keeps his head elevated so it doesn’t scrape along the ice. This one might be explained away by his armor holding him up, but even that’s a stretch. The more glaring visual gaffe comes when Ducard slides off the cliff and Bruce pulls him back up by his hand. The shot clearly shows that the two men are grasping their hands together, which shouldn’t be possible if Ducard is unconscious and limp.

Wayne Manor Fire

Later in the same movie, Ducard reveals himself to be Ra’s al Ghul and comes to Gotham to destroy it and seek revenge on Bruce. He confronts Bruce at Wayne Manor, setting it on fire before leaving to see the rest of his plans fulfilled. In their scuffle, Bruce is trapped under a wooden beam and left for dead, but Alfred returns just in time to lift the beam off of Bruce and get him out of the mansion before it collapses.

The issue here is the consistency of the fire. Focusing on the deadly wooden beam itself, it is already burning pretty well when it lands on Bruce, knocking him out and trapping him in the mansion. It’s still burning when Alfred enters the house later, however, in the shot where Alfred actually lifts the beam off of Bruce, it seems to be perfectly intact. Once Bruce is free, the beam is on fire again. It’s not the only prop with inconsistent flames, either — the table in the background with a globe on it seems to go back and forth between scorching flames and untouched.

Driving Speed

The shot above comes from The Dark Knight, when Harvey Dent is hunting down all the organized crime bosses he holds responsible for Rachel’s death. In the scene where he hides in Salvatore Maroni’s car waiting for him, the scenes outside of their respective windows are moving at vastly different paces. The scene was probably shot in a studio, with green screens in the windows to fill in the background later. Maroni’s window shows the car starting from a dead stop, while Dent’s window shows it moving at a high speed right away.

Many of the visual gaffes in Nolan’s trilogy relate to cars — particularly the Batmobile — so here’s one more from Batman Begins. When Bruce Wayne is driving his Rolls Royce at a recklessly high speed, if you look closely the speedometer on the dashboard shows zero. That’s yet another testament to Christian Bale’s acting ability.

Slow Ferries

One of the big climaxes of The Dark Knight happens on the two ferries carrying prisoners and civilians away from Gotham. The Joker gives each of them the power to blow up the other ferry, attempting to prove their selfish natures by pitting them against each other. The issue is that we see the ferries filling with people in daylight, and we see them pushing off from the harbor at dusk. When the moral quandary hits, it’s pitch black outside and we’re told it’s around midnight, yet the dock is still within view. If the ferries had really left at dusk, their journey would be over by then and this part of the Joker’s plot would have fallen short.

Rooftop Fight

In Nolan’s best Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman and Catwoman’s first big fight scene together really gets the hype started. This is around 53 minutes into the movie, when Catwoman is holding Daggett at gunpoint on a rooftop and Daggett’s goons are approaching to take her on. This fight is riddled with small errors if you squint closely, starting with the bruiser to on the far left right when the fighting breaks out. This guy clearly falls to the floor without being hit by anything, reminding the viewer that none of these punches are actually landing.

This scene culminates with a surprising continuity error with Catwoman’s shoes. So far, the movie has emphasized that she wears tall stiletto heels while burgling and fighting — she even uses the points to dispatch some of the attackers on the roof. However, at the end when she runs for Batman’s hovercraft to escape, it’s clear that she is wearing flats. Personally, I’m glad Anne Hathaway didn’t literally do this whole scene in heels, but once you notice it in this shot it’s hard to miss.

Stunt Explosion

Look, we can’t expect the League of Shadows to follow OSHA protocol, but the scene where they break into the bunker containing Gotham’s “infinite energy reactor” stretches the limits of credulity. Bane arrive and gives the nods for his henchmen to blow the wall open with explosives, and they all crouch down in place as one of them yells a warning. However, they don’t move away from the blast, and many of them are hit with the flying debris. If you look closely, you can see that these chunks of debris are bouncy, which is good for the actors but confusing for reactor containment.

Repetitive Car Chase

The League holds Gotham hostage with a weaponized reactor constantly moving through the city in an armored truck, and much of the climax of the film depicts characters trying to disable this mobile weapon as it swerves through the city streets. While Bane’s plan is to keep the reactor moving erratically, you begin to notice several of the same buildings and signs behind it during this big finale. Specifically, the armored truck passes by the same Jos A. Bank clothing store at least three times while Gordon is trying to disable it, and after Talia al Ghul has taken the wheel.

This might be the most forgivable gaffe on this list, especially knowing what comes next, but it’s still pretty funny when you begin to note the landmarks in the shot. Fans often debate which real-life city Gotham is most analogous to, but these shots make it clear with Saks 5th Avenue located right next door.

British Batman

Keeping with the traffic theme, The Batman (2022) had a couple of glaring moments where you could tell it was filmed in the U.K., not in the seediest city in the U.S. First, when Bruce arrives at Gotham City Hall, we see a wide shot of the building and all the milling traffic outside. Among the cars and crowds is a large commuter bus, but if you happen to pause here you’ll notice that the bus is facing the wrong way. It’s parked on the lefthand side of the road because British cars drive on the opposite side from Americans. British viewers even quickly recognized this as a Merseytravel bus from Liverpool, where the movie was filmed.

There’s one more issue like this at the very end of the movie, when Batman and Catwoman drive away from each other on motorcycles. The shot of Selena shows the distinctive “Give Way” sign that British streets have, again in the left lane, not the right. This is a adead giveaway that they’re not in the U.S., but it’s still impressive that only two of these clues slipped through. You have to imagine it was an arduous task to physically or digitally alter all these streets while filming.

Catwoman’s Claws

Another Catwoman issue crops up earlier when she brings Batman back to her apartment. Up to this point, we’ve seen her prowling at her work in the appropriate black leather gloves, but once she’s home, she takes them off. We can now see that her nails are extremely long and well manicured, which would not be practical to wear under her tight, dexterous gloves. Sadly, a cat burglar’s profession would probably preclude them from having long nails in the first place, but this is not just an issue for this movie. Catwoman is often depicted with fierce “claws” like this, which would make it harder for her to crack safes without leaving fingerprints behind.

Gordon’s Spotlight

Finally, a few scenes later, Batman and Gordon are watching the Penguin’s gang when Catwoman shows up to rob them, and all hell breaks loose. In this scene, Batman is shot and Selena is pinned down, so Gordon drives in to distract the gang members. They get into a shootout, with bullets riddling Gordon’s police cruiser as he fires back from the driver’s side door. There is a distinct shot of a bullet hitting the floodlight on Gordon’s car here, and an accompanying shattering sound to let us know it is broken. However, just a few shots later the light is intact and functional as Gordon chases down the criminals.

Batman movies ask a lot of their viewers, and if we’re willing to suspend our disbelief for grappling hooks and fear toxins, we should probably cut them a break on these visual inconsistencies as well — especially when it comes to practical special effects.

All four of the movies mentioned here are streaming now on Max, along with many other Batman titles.