Batman Begins

Bruce Wayne:
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.

Bruce Wayne:
Me.

Henri Ducard:
You traveled the world... Now you must journey inwards... to what you really fear... it's inside you... there is no turning back. Your parents' death was not your fault. Your training is nothing. The will is everything. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely. Are you ready to begin?

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

Alfred Pennyworth:
Master Wayne, it's been a long time.

Bruce Wayne:
A guy dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.

Rachel Dawes:
What chance does Gotham have, when the good people do nothing?

Ra's Al Ghul:
Gotham must be destroyed.

Rachel Dawes:
I spent a lot of time being scared for you. And I heard you were back. But the man I loved, the man who vanished never came back.

Bruce Wayne:
As long as it takes. I'm gonna show the people of Gotham their city doesn't belong to the criminals and the corrupt.

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

Bruce:
Actually, there were seven of them.

Man:
I counted six, Mr. Wayne.

Bruce:
How do you know my name?

Man:
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?

Man:
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 and Ducard spar on a frozen lake]

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

Bruce:
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:
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?

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

Bruce:
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.

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:
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 abruptly turns the car down a side street, taking them through the poorer sections of Gotham:

Rachel:
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. [comes to a stop outside a bar] 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:
All these years, I wanted to kill him. [shows her the gun he planned to use on Chill] Now I can't.

[Rachel slaps him twice]

Rachel:
Your father would be ashamed of you.

Carmine Falcone:
You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne. [his men frisk Bruce] 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:
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. [draws a gun and points it at Bruce] Now I wouldn't have a second's hesitation in blowing your head off right here 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:
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. [gestures with his gun] 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 that you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand.

Batman:
[holds Gordon up with a gun] 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 DA brave enough to prosecute.

Batman:
Rachel Dawes.

Gordon:
Who are you?

Batman:
[reveals gun which is just a stapler] Watch for my sign. [retracts stapler, backs off]

Gordon:
You're just one man?

Batman:
Now we're two.

Gordon:
We?

[Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox visit a special garage at Wayne Enterprises]

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

Lucius Fox:
The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that. [cuts to Bruce driving it on a test track, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing how it works] 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. [Bruce goes to flip the throttle. The Tumbler accelerates] Not now! Not... not now, Sir!

Tumbler AI:
Afterburner disengaged.

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

Wayne:
Does it come in black?

[Rachel Dawes visits a hotel and sees Bruce going out soaking wet with two European models in underwear and bathrobes walking out

Rachel Dawes:
Bruce?

Bruce Wayne:
[tries to recognize] Rachel?

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

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

Dawes:
You were gone a long time.

Wayne:
I know. How are things.

Dawes:
Same. Job's getting worse.

Wayne:
[smiles] Can't change the world on your own.

Dawes:
[smiles] What choice do I have. When you're too busy 'swimming.'

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

Model #1:
[calls out] Come on Bruce, come on!

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

Dawes:
[smiles sympathetically] 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. [Walks away]

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:
Would you like to see my mask? I use it in my experiments. [opens his briefcase and shows Falcone a burlap hood] Probably not very frightening to a guy like you, but these crazies? They can't stand it. [pulls the mask over his head]

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

[Crane presses a hidden button on his briefcase and floods the room with his hallucinogenic toxin; Falcone begins screaming in terror]

Crane:
They scream, and they cry. Much as you're doing now.

[Rachel observes Falcone, truly insane and muttering "scarecrow" over and over; Dr. Crane walks in]

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?

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

Dawes:
What's "scarecrow"?

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

Dawes:
You enjoy the reversal?

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

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

[Gordon carries an unconscious Rachel]

Batman:
How is she?

Lt. James Gordon:
She's fading. We've got to go. [pause] I'll get my car.

Batman:
I brought mine.

Gordon:
Yours? [turns, sees Tumbler start up; it races past him, runs over a police car] I've gotta get me one of those.

[Tumbler races across river]

Policeman #1:
He is in a vehicle.

Dispatcher:
Make and color?

Policeman #1:
It's a black... [pause; sirens activate elsewhere] tank!

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

Crane:
Ra's! Ra's al Ghul!

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

Crane:
[Hallucinates Batman as a grotesque bat creature] Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...

Ducard:
Amusing, but pointless. None of these people have long to live. Your antics at the asylum have forced my hand.

Bruce Wayne:
So Crane was working for you.

Ducard:
His toxin is derived from the organic compound found in our blue flowers. He was able to weaponize it.

Wayne:
He's not a member of the League of Shadows?

Ducard:
Of course not. He thought our plan was to hold the city to ransom.

Wayne:
But really, you are going to release Crane's poison on the entire city.

Ducard:
Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear.

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

Ducard:
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. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.

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

Ducard:
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.

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

Ducard:
No one can save Gotham. [nods to henchmen, who begin vandalizing the house and set it on fire] 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.

Wayne:
You've attacked Gotham before?

Ducard:
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.

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

Alfred:
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.

Young Rachel:
Finders Keepers! And I found it.

Young Bruce:
In my garden.

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