Small Details You Missed About The New Batmobile
Hold onto your butts, Bat-fans.
Director Matt Reeves has shared images of the new Batmobile from the upcoming reboot The Batman, and we think it's pretty safe to say that they do not disappoint. In keeping with past iterations of the iconic vehicle, the new version looks very lean, very mean, and very fast.
The images, featuring Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight, are bathed in shadow, lit only by a dim street lamp — but that's fine, because the Batmobile's ferocious-looking red tail lights supply all the additional light we need to make out the shape of the vehicle. It appears to be one of a couple specific makes and models of muscle car, heavily modified; we'll get into all of the technical stuff momentarily. First, though, feast your eyes on this:
Pretend for a moment you're some lowlife, up to no good in Gotham City; maybe you're pulling off a jewelry store heist, or holding up an armored truck. Is this the absolute last thing you'd want to see, or what? Here's an overhead view:
Sleek, black, and obviously built for speed — like if a manta ray were an automobile. We're sure you're already sold, but wait, we saved the best for last:
Look. At. That. That, dear reader, is a car that absolutely nobody but Batman would be capable of driving for more than a block without wrapping it around the nearest telephone pole, sending it sky-high in a ball of rocket fuel-fed flames. Not only are Batman die-hards bound to be drooling puddles over these photos, but we're thinking that if you're a car person, your eyes are popping out of your head right now.
The new Batmobile has some very distinct influences
For starters, you've probably gotten the idea that Bruce Wayne did not build this car from scratch, and you'd be right. Our best guess: this vehicle began life as a 1970 Dodge Challenger, a legendary muscle car that made up for what it lacked in handling ability with raw, screaming power. There are a couple of other models it could be; the Pontiac GTOs of the late '60s come to mind. But given those deeply recessed headlights, extremely low profile, and distinctive curves, we're pretty sure that Wayne went with a Dodge.
You'll note, however, that there are a few modern touches. The trapezoidal taillights, along with the rear window-mounted third brake light, are obvious after-market modifications. Also, looking closely at the rear view, you'll notice that there's a small video display mounted in-dash; touchscreen GPS units were not in widespread use at the time The Batman is thought to be set (around the mid- to late- '00s), but this is Bruce Wayne we're talking about.
Finally, the engine. The freaking engine. It looks like an absolutely massive V10, with enormous vertical exhausts up each side. That big ring in the center? Afterburner, obviously; you don't want to stand anywhere near it, ever. Oh, and if you're wondering if any '60s or '70s muscle cars featured rear-mounted engines, the answer is, "No, not one of them." Why on Earth would Master Bruce have relocated the engine to the rear of the car? Why, to make room for something else under the hood, of course. Something, we're thinking, like a big, fat array of weapons and/or gadgets.
The new Batmobile is quite a bit different from past versions
Aside from that afterburner (which you know will just spit a stream of fire ten yards long), this Batmobile doesn't bear much resemblance to the iterations we've seen in the past. It's the only version we've ever seen that looks like a modified, commercially available vehicle; even the '60s Batmobile was based on the Lincoln Futura, a concept car that was never released to the public.
The Batmobile driven by Michael Keaton's Caped Crusader in 1989's Batman was quite obviously a custom design, with its enormous size necessary for concealing all of the "wonderful toys" (mostly of the explosive and/or ballistic variety) which it could deploy. With Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the Batmobile's design took an even harder turn into custom territory; dubbed the "Tumbler," it wasn't so much a car as it was a highly armored, customizable, multi-configuration assault vehicle of the type that any military worth its salt would shell out millions for.
In keeping with the DIY, repurposed aesthetic of the new Batsuit, though, this new Batmobile looks a bit like a first draft — an insanely fast, powerful, kickass first draft, but a first draft nonetheless. Perhaps Wayne will have upgraded by the time we see The Batman 2: Electric Boogaloo (or whatever the inevitable sequel is called). This version, though, looks absolutely ferocious — and if Bats' legions of fans hadn't whipped themselves up into a frenzy over this flick before, we think it's safe for them to start doing so now.
The Batman hits the big screen on June 25, 2021.