Batman Begins (2005) - Quotes

Taglines: This Summer, Evil Fears The Knight.

Taglines: The Legend Begins.

Batman: [knocks on new Bat-signal] Nice.

Gordon: Couldn't find any mob bosses.

Batman: Well, Sergeant?

Gordon: Oh, it's Lieutenant now. You really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets …

Batman: But?

Gordon: The Narrows is lost. And we still haven't picked up Crane or half the inmates of Arkham that he freed.

Batman: We will. We can bring Gotham back.

Gordon: And what about escalation?

Batman: Escalation?

Batman: And?

Gordon: [hands Batman a clear plastic evidence bag containing a playing card; Batman turns it over to reveal it is a [[w:Joker_(comics)|Joker] And you're wearing a mask ... and jumping off rooftops. Now take this guy. Armed robbery, double homicide. Got a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card. ] card]

Batman: [walks to edge of roof] I'll look into it.

Gordon: I never said thank you.

Batman: [looks at Gordon; spreads cape, leaps off roof] And you'll never have to.

Rachel Dawes: [she kisses Bruce] I never stopped thinking about you, about us, and when I heard you were back I started to hope. Then I found out about your mask.

Bruce Wayne: My mask's just a symbol, Rachel.

Rachel: No. This is your mask. Your real face is the one that criminals now fear. The man I loved — the man who vanished — he never came back at all. Maybe he's still out there somewhere. Maybe someday, when Gotham no longer needs the Batman, I'll see him again.

Jessica: The meeting's already started.

William Earle: [enters conference room, sees Fox distributing materials to board members seated around table] What meeting? Fox? I seem to remember firing you.

Lucius Fox: You did. I got another job: yours.

Earle: On whose authority?

Alfred Pennyworth: [driving Bruce Wayne] Batman may have made the front page, but Bruce Wayne got pushed to page eight.

Bruce Wayne: [Bruce reads headline, answers phone] Bruce Wayne.

Earle: What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?

Bruce: Well, the fact that I'm the owner.

Earle: What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.

Bruce: [speaks slightly louder] And I bought most of the shares - through various charitable foundations, and trusts, and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. Right, Mr. Fox?

Fox: [turns to Earle, takes off glasses] Right you are, Mister Wayne. Didn't you get the memo?

Henri Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: [pinning Batman down] Don't be afraid, Bruce. You are just an ordinary man in a cape! That's why you couldn't fight injustice, and that's why you can't stop this train!

Batman: [Ducard glances at the damaged controls] Who said anything about stopping it? You'll never learn to mind your surroundings!

Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?

Batman: [Batman escapes, leaving Ducard to his fate] I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you.

Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I've failed.

Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?

Alfred: Never.

Bruce Wayne: You're going to destroy millions of lives.

Henri Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: [[w:Sack of Rome (546)|We sacked Rome; [w:Black Death|loaded trade ships with plague rats; [w:Great Fire of London|burned London to the ground.] Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This was not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. ], ], ] Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.

Bruce: Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.

Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: You are defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost, but I believed in you. I took away your fear, and showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.

Bruce: I'll be standing where I belong: between you, and the people of Gotham.

Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: [nods to henchmen, who begin vandalizing the house and set it on fire] No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

Bruce: You've attacked Gotham before?

Ducard/Ra's al Ghul: Of course. Over the ages, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one - economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens. Such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger, and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself, and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time, no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.

Batman: [Gasses Crane with the fear toxin] Taste of your own medicine, doctor? What have you been doing here? What was your plan? Crane! Who are you working for?

Dr. Jonathan Crane: [hallucinating Batman as a monster] Ra's! Ra's al Ghul!

Batman: Ra's al Ghul is dead! Who are you working for? Crane!

Crane: Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...

Policeman #1: He is in a vehicle.

Dispatcher: Make and color?

Policeman #1: It's a black... tank!

Batman: I want you to do me a favor. I want you to tell all your friends about me.

Nick: What ARE you?!

Batman: I'm Batman.

Dr. Jonathan Crane: Miss Dawes, this is most irregular. I have nothing further to add to the report I filed with the judge.

Rachel Dawes: I have questions about your report.

Crane: Such as?

Rachel: Isn't it convenient for a 52-year-old man who has no history of mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown, just when he's about to be indicted?

Crane: [they look at Falcone, still muttering "Scarecrow"] Well, as you can see for yourself, there is nothing "convenient" about his symptoms.

Rachel: What's "scarecrow"?

Crane: [[Carl Jung|Jungian] Patients suffering delusional episodes often focus their paranoia on an external tormentor. Usually one conforming to ] archetypes. In this case, a scarecrow. Outside, he was a giant. In here, only the mind can grant you power.

Rachel: You enjoy the reversal?

Crane: I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do.

Rachel: I do what I do to keep thugs like Falcone behind bars, not in therapy.

Carmine Falcone: Yeah, Doctor Crane, I can’t take it anymore, it’s all too much. The walls are closing in. Blah, blah, blah. A couple days of this food, it’ll be true.

Dr. Jonathan Crane: What do you want?

Falcone: I want to know how you're gonna convince me to keep my mouth shut.

Crane: About what? You don't know anything.

Falcone: I know you don't want the cops to take a closer look at the drugs they seized. And I know about your experiments with the inmates of your nuthouse. See, I don't go into business with a guy without finding out his dirty secrets. And those goons you used? I own the muscle in this town. Now I've been bringing your stuff in for months, so whatever he's planning, it's big. And I want in.

Crane: Well, I already know what he'll say: that we should kill you.

Falcone: [laughs] No, even he can't get me in here. Not in my town.

Crane: [pulls the mask over his head] Would you like to see my mask? I use it in my experiments. Now, I'm probably not very frightening to a guy like you, but these crazies? They can't stand it.

Falcone: So when did the nut take over the nuthouse?

Crane: [releases fear toxin] They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now.

Rachel Dawes: Bruce?

Bruce Wayne: Rachel?

Rachel: I had heard you were back. What are you doing?

Bruce: Ugh, just swimming. Wow, it is good to see you.

Rachel: You were gone a long time.

Bruce: I know. How are things?

Rachel: Same. Job's getting worse.

Bruce: Can't change the world on your own.

Rachel: What choice do I have when you're too busy swimming?

Bruce: Rachel, all of, all this, it's not me. Inside, I am more.

Model #1: Come on Bruce, come on!

Model #2: We have some more hotels for you to buy.

Rachel: Bruce. Deep down, you may still be that same great kid you used to be, but it's not who you are underneath. It's what you do that defines you.

Bruce Wayne: [look at a very large and odd vehicle] What's that?

Lucius Fox: [cuts to Bruce driving it on a test track, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing how it works; Bruce goes to flip the throttle. The Tumbler accelerates] The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that. She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables. Over here on the throttle, flip that open and throttle up. This will boost you into a rampless jump. Not now! Not... not now, Sir!

Tumbler AI: Afterburner disengaged.

Fox: [Bruce swerves the Tumbler to a stop] We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine. So, what do you think?

Bruce: Does it come in black?

Batman: [holding a device to Gordon's neck] Don't turn around. You're a good cop, one of the few.

Sgt. James Gordon: What do you want?

Batman: Carmine Falcone brings in shipments of drugs every week. Nobody takes him down. Why?

Gordon: He's paid up with the right people.

Batman: What would it take to bring him down?

Gordon: Leverage on Judge Faden, and a D.A. brave enough to prosecute.

Batman: Rachel Dawes.

Gordon: Who are you?

Batman: [withdraws the device, a stapler] Watch for my sign.

Gordon: You're just one man?

Batman: Now we're two.

Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.

Bruce: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.

Carmine Falcone: [his men frisk Bruce] You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne. No gun? I'm insulted. You could've just sent a thank-you note.

Bruce: I didn't come here to thank you. I came here to show you that not everyone in Gotham's afraid of you.

Falcone: [draws a pistol and points it at Bruce] Only those who know me, kid. Take a look around you. You'll see two city councilmen, a union official, a couple of off-duty cops, and a judge. Now I wouldn't have a second's hesitation in blowing your head off, right here and right now, in front of them. That's power you can't buy! That's the power of fear.

Bruce: I'm not afraid of you.

Falcone: [gestures with his gun] Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through yet. You haven't thought about your lady friend, down at the DA's office. You haven't thought about your old butler. Bang! People from your world have so much to lose. Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life, but you don't. You've never tasted desperate. You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the prince of Gotham! You'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name! So don't, don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world you'll never understand, and you always fear what you don't understand.

Rachel Dawes: The D.A. couldn't understand why Judge Faden insisted on making the hearing public. Falcone paid him off to get Chill out in the open.

Bruce Wayne: Maybe I should be thanking him.

Rachel: You don't mean that.

Bruce: What if I do? My parents deserve justice.

Rachel: Well, you're not talking about justice, you're talking about revenge.

Bruce: Sometimes they're the same thing.

Rachel: No, they're never the same. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better, which is why we have an impartial system.

Bruce: Your system is broken.

Rachel: [driving past a homeless camp; stops outside a bar] Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. People talk about the depression as if it's history, and it's not. Things are worse than ever down here. Falcone floods our streets with crime and drugs, preying on the desperate, creating new Joe Chills every day. Falcone may not have killed your parents, Bruce, but he's destroying everything they stood for. You want to thank him for that? Here you go. We all know where to find him, but as long as he keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared, nobody will touch him. Good people like your parents who will stand against injustice, they're gone. What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?

Bruce: I'm not one of your good people, Rachel.

Rachel: What do you mean?

Bruce: [shows her the gun he planned to use on Chill] All these years, I wanted to kill him. Now I can't.

Rachel: Your father would be ashamed of you.

Alfred Pennyworth: I've prepared the master bedroom for you, sir.

Bruce Wayne: No. My room will be fine.

Alfred: With respect, Wayne Manor is your house.

Bruce: It's my father's house.

Alfred: Your father is dead.

Bruce: This place is a mausoleum. If I had my way, I'd pull the damn thing down, brick by brick.

Alfred: This house, Master Wayne, has sheltered six generations of your family.

Bruce: Why do you give a damn, Alfred? It's not your family.

Alfred: I give a damn, sir, because a good man once made me responsible for what was most precious to him in our world.

Bruce: You still haven't given up on me?

Alfred: Never.

Henri Ducard: You're stronger than your father.

Bruce Wayne: You didn't know my father.

Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain. I wasn't always here in the mountains. Once I had a wife, my great love. She was taken from me. Like you, I was forced to learn that there are those without decency that must be fought without hesitation, without pity. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me.

Bruce: What stopped it?

Ducard: Vengeance.

Bruce: That's no help to me.

Ducard: Why, Bruce? Why did you not avenge your parents?

Henri Ducard: [Bruce attacks him furiously] Your parents death was not your fault. It was your father's. Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.

Bruce Wayne: The man had a gun!

Ducard: Would that stop you?

Bruce: I've had training!

Ducard: [counterattacks, driving Bruce back] The training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act!

Ducard: What do you seek?

Bruce Wayne: I seek the means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

Henri Ducard: Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?

Bruce Wayne: Actually, there were seven of them.

Ducard: I counted six, Mr. Wayne.

Bruce: How do you know my name?

Ducard: The world is too small a place for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear no matter how low he chooses to sink.

Bruce: Who are you?

Ducard: My name is merely Ducard, but I speak for Ra’s Al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who can offer you a path.

Bruce: What makes you think I need a path?

Ducard: Someone like you is only here by choice. You have been exploring the criminal fraternity, but whatever your original intentions, you have become truly lost.

Bruce: And what path can Ra’s Al Ghul offer?

Ducard: The path of a man who shares his hatred of evil and wished to serve true justice. The path of the League of Shadows.

Bruce: You’re vigilantes.

Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.

Bruce: Which is?

Ducard: A legend, Mr. Wayne. Tomorrow, you will be released. If you are bored of brawling with thieves and want to achieve something, there is a rare blue flower that grows on the eastern slopes. Pick one of these flowers. If you can carry it to the top of the mountain, you may find what you were looking for in the first place.

Bruce: And what was I looking for?

Ducard: Only you can know that.

Bruce Wayne/Batman: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.

Bruce Wayne/Batman: [slurring; takes a drink; party guests leave, revealing Ra's al Ghul's men] Everyone? Everybody? I want to thank you all for coming here tonight and drinking all of my booze. No, really. That's the thing about being a Wayne: that you're never short of a few freeloaders like yourselves to fill up your mansion with. So here's to you people. Thank you. Um, I'm not finished. To all you phonies, you two-faced friends, you sycophantic suck-ups who smile through your teeth at me: please leave me in peace. Please go! Stop smiling. It's not a joke. Please leave. The party's over. Get out.

Bruce Wayne/Batman: They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I've looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge... Me.