The Big Question The Batman Fans Have About Bruce's Drifter Outfit
He doesn't get to demonstrate it in the movies too much, but one of Batman's most valuable skills is his mastery of disguise. That puts him squarely in the tradition of his detective forefathers like Sherlock Holmes or The Shadow, and it's an important part of the character's comic book mythos. On the page, Batman even has a recurring underworld persona he uses to gather information: "Matches" Malone. However, on the screen, Batman tends to stick to his tried-and-true cape and cowl when he's not pretending to be billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.
However, "The Batman" does feature a sequence with Batman (Robert Pattinson) going "undercover," so to speak, when he puts on what has become known as his "drifter" disguise to follow Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) into the 44 Below club owned by Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell).
As you might imagine, this sequence has provoked a little bit of debate among fans of "The Batman" regarding its internal logic, and whether or not such a disguise was really the right tactical call for the situation.
Fans wonder if he keeps his Batman costume under his jacket
It's standard superhero practice to keep their costume on under their street clothes in case of emergency. But traditionally, Batman doesn't tend to pull open his shirt and head for the nearest phone booth as often as some of his superhero counterparts. Such an action would seem especially out of place in the relatively realistic world of "The Batman," but some fans on Reddit seem to think that Batman has his Batsuit on underneath his "drifter" outfit.
"I don't think he takes anything off, apart from the cowl and the cape," u/hadrijana wrote. "His drifter outfit is plenty baggy enough to cover the armor." Redditor u/Mountain_Apartment_6 added, "Yeah, looking at his shoulders in the drifter get up, it looks like he might have the armor on under the jacket at least part of the time."
The specifics of how Batman changes in and out of his costume isn't explicitly addressed in "The Batman," but these fans appear to have figured out the general broad strokes of his methodology — even if we still don't know where he keeps his cape and cowl.