This Is Still the Best Version of Batman’s Batmobile in the Movies

The Batmobile has existed since the earliest days of Batman in the comics. Inevitably, given its enduring connection to the character and the fact that studios can make endless gobs of money selling new Batmobile toys, this form of transportation has constantly come back with each new big-screen incarnation of the Dark Knight. Whether it’s Zack Snyder, Joel Schumacher, or Matt Reeves behind the camera, the Batmobile is always around for this hero’s adventures.

However, in the pantheon of cinematic Batmobiles, there is only one that can lay claim to being the best ever put to the silver screen. This isn’t to say that any other version of this mechanical entity is subpar. It’s just that this particular incarnation of the Batmobile builds on all the visual and excitement possibilities of this vehicle more than any of its contemporaries.

The Batman and Its Superb Batmobile

It isn’t just “recency bias” that makes the Batmobile in The Batman the greatest Batmobile ever put to the silver screen (finally dethroning Tim Burton’s Batmobile for that honor). It’s also just the enjoyably stripped-down look of the car. This Batmobile has a scrappy aesthetic perfectly echoing Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne. This grimy, moody incarnation of the billionaire vigilante naturally rolls around town in something resembling a modified hot rod rather than the tank-like Tumbler that Christian Bale’s Batman fought crime in.

It’s easy to imagine Wayne spending afternoons underneath this Batmobile, wrench in hand, toiling away at leaky pipes or malfunctioning valves. In other words, this Batmobile looks like an underdog with its more compact size and humble appearance. That makes it an interesting contrast to the more grandiose Batmobiles that defined the Burton and Snyder eras of Batman movies. This Batmobile has a powerful engine roar, but it also looks like it could get run off the road. That makes action sequences involving the Batmobile extra involving to watch.

There’s also a fun sense of theatricality in the incorporation of red hues for the headlights and other lights blinking across the car’s body. When this vehicle is driving across Gotham’s nighttime landscape, those red touches make it stand out even more compared to the antagonistic cars adorned in entirely drab colors. Plus, they harken back to the red lines dotted across the black body of Adam West’s Batmobile. Never a bad thing to evoke memories of that genuinely glorious era of Bat-history. There’s an interesting blend of the past (those red colors) with bold new touches (like the exposed engine in the back) defining this Batmobile.

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Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile Got a Killer Chase Scene

Something else making this Batmobile the best version of the vehicle in the history of Batman movies? This automobile was the centerpiece of a killer action sequence featuring Pattinson’s Batman chasing down Colin Farrell’s Penguin. This skirmish is a fantastically-realized car chase that would make movies like Bullitt and Baby Driver proud. Not only is the editing and Michael Giacchino’s score sublime in this set piece, but the Batmobile is just exhilarating to watch. That roaring engine immediately gets the blood pumping and Reeves gets so many great images centered on this vehicle, such as the Batmobile lurching out of a fireball after being seemingly defeated.

In past Batman movies, there were plenty of enjoyable chase scenes and action beats involving the Batmobile. However, staging The Batman’s kind of intricate car chase sequence was always a challenge for these vehicles simply because of their enormous size. That’s why the greatest chase sequences in Christopher Nolan’s masterful Dark Knight trilogy involve the smaller, more compact Batpod in The Dark Knight. In The Batman, though, a Batmobile resembling a sports car opens up exciting visual and spectacle possibilities that no other prior incarnation of the vehicle could’ve imagined.

Best of all, this Batmobile doesn’t just remind viewers of the past (save for those red touches evoking Adam West’s awesome Batmobile). Joel Schumacher’s two Batmobile’s couldn’t help but feel like reruns of Burton’s Batmobile. Similarly, the DC Extended Universe Batmobile was also a reheated version of the Tumbler from Nolan’s three movies. The Batman’s Batmobile, though, exploded onto the screen with fiery personality and a distinctive look that both perfectly reflected Robert Pattinson’s Batman. It’s such a glorious vision of an age-old staple of the Batman mythos that it was inevitable it would become the best version of the Batmobile.

The Batman is now streaming on Max.