The Batman And Gordon Moment That Makes No Sense To Fans
The following article contains spoilers for "The Batman."
Early in "The Batman," we're introduced to the titular character in a way that few adaptations have shown him before. After beating up some thugs about to rough up an innocent man, Batman (Robert Pattinson) arrives at a crime scene involving the death of the mayor. He's slow and methodical. He carefully paces around the room, taking in every detail until James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) hands him an envelope addressed to him. Inside is a card from the maniacal Riddler (Paul Dano), who's about to send Batman down a twisted path that will lead him to Gotham's ruin.
The friendship between Batman and Gordon becomes of the utmost importance throughout the film. Even though other police officers don't want anything to do with the Caped Crusader, Gordon grants him access to crime scenes to surveil. The two play off one another, working together to decipher the Riddler's cryptic messages. And at one point, Gordon even gives Batman the opportunity he needs to escape from the police station unharmed.
As has been the case in so many other instances, the two are an ideal pair. However, that hasn't stopped some of the movie's fans from focusing on one moment from "The Batman" that makes less sense the more you think about it.
Why would Batman let Gordon upload the drive onto his personal computer?
After the mayor's death, Batman and Gordon manage to track down a thumb drive containing images of the mayor with a mysterious young woman who's not his wife. Nearly as soon as they plug the drive into Gordon's personal computer, it automatically sends out the photos to all of the pertinent members of the press and people in Gotham's high society. And the worst part of it all is that the pictures are sent from Gordon's account, so everyone will see that he's the one who sent them out.
At first glance, it may come across as an honest mistake. But honestly, if any two people should know better than to plug a strange thumb drive into a personal computer, it would be Batman and Gordon. Redditor u/hockeyfan33333 pointed this out to legions of other Batman fans, writing, "He may be the world's greatest detective but he's s*** at cybersecurity. He just sat there and watched Gordon plug a deranged serial killer's thumb drive into his work laptop!"
It certainly would make sense for the Gotham P.D. to have to take at least one cybersecurity course in the 21st century. Others were led into thinking about what kind of damage control Gordon had to do afterward once the pictures leaked. u/Bossmonkey mused, "I'm sure there was a cut scene afterwards where Gordon had to do a 8 hour course on cybersecurity." One would assume between the two of them they would have the wherewithal to plug the drive into a computer that's not connected to the internet, but things had gotten pretty tense over the course of the previous day. It must have slipped their minds.
It's not the only mistake Batman makes
It's vital to remember that Batman is only in his second year as Gotham's Dark Knight. He's still getting the hang of things, so a mistake or two should be expected to an extent. He's still in the process of becoming the world's greatest detective — the moniker he earns in the comics. However, he really needs to pick up a few detective courses considering the number of times he makes a rookie mistake like the thumb drive incident.
Fans also took to Reddit to discuss how both Bruce Wayne and Gordon didn't see the mistake and clue present in "You are el rata alada" riddle." As Penguin (Colin Farrell) points out, the correct Spanish diction would be "You are la rata alada." This wasn't a simple mistake on Riddler's part. He intentionally used the "el" so that the first part of the sentence sounds out "URL," meaning a web address.
Fans were quick to pick up on the mistake, such as u/KemoFlash, who wrote, "Also needs to brush up on his Spanish. Even Penguin knows his el's and la's." Others think it shouldn't have taken as long for Bruce to get it, as another user stated, "It really bothered me that Alfred literally told him that the Spanish wasn't correct and he just disregarded that this genius level villain who has perfectly planned out everything made a 'mistake'. Penguin saying it wasn't even a big revelation." The real question is how long was Riddler prepared to hang out by his computer waiting for Batman to log on.