Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman)

"..It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature."

- Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy was an arch-nemesis of Batman, Robin and Batgirl.

History
Poison Ivy was originally a botanical scientist named Pamela Isley, who specialized in several types of flowers in a lab in South America, with her work sponsored and funded by Wayne Enterprises. She attempted several experiments including using a South American rattlesnake and other venomous fluids to give flowers the chance to fight back against, "the thoughtless ravages of man," but each one failed.

Her employer and co-worker, Dr. Jason Woodrue, was constantly taking her venom samples back to his area of the lab for reasons unknown to her.

Wanting to find out once and for all what he was up to, she crept into his lab and watched in horror as he used some of her venom to create a powerful super-soldier called Bane.

Dr. Woodrue spots her, and, after dragging her back to her lab, tells her that Wayne Enterprises cut off their funding, but had it not been for Pamela's research, he would never have succeeded. He asks her to join him, but Pamela refuses saying that he has corrupted her research for world domination.

Unfortunately, Woodrue, who is apparently not good at rejection, decides to kill Pamela by pushing her into her table of animal plant toxins, along with her rattlesnake and the same venom that created Bane.

He leaves her to allow the poisons and toxins burn a grave for her deep within the earth she loves so much, unaware that they was creating the most deadliest villainess of all mankind.

Transformation
Sometime later, Woodrue entered the former Dr. Isley's dormant area of the lab, conversing with the winning bidder of Bane on his cell-phone. Suddenly, Pamela's grave begins to stir, and in a pink eruption, the so-called dead scientist re-emerges as a seductively beautiful red-haired woman. Dr. Woodrue fell to his knees at her sight. He had expected her to be dead.

The former Isley seemingly shrugged off her apparent death as a good night's rest, while her dumbstruck boss looked on. In her words, "The animal-plant toxins had a rather unique effect on me. They replaced my blood with aloe, my skin with chlorophyll, and filled my lips...." --she then took Woodrue by the cheeks and chin and pulled him towards her; Isley kissed him passionately and he eagerly kissed her back. When she broke away from him, Isley then finished -- "with venom. Oh, and Jason, one other thing. I probably should've mentioned this earlier. I'm...poison". As she said this, she pushed him backwards, with Woodrue choking and then finally dying.

Her revenge complete, Isley then trashed her part of the lab, shattering vials, spilling chemicals and finally starting a fire, all the while proclaiming herself "Mother Nature" deciding that she would use her new persona for floral world domination. Catching the logo of her now-former work sponsor on a nearby vial, she plots the next step of her plan. With Bane in tow, she heads for Gotham City leaving the whole lab to burn to the ground.

Arrival in Gotham
A week later, Isley arrived at Gotham airport, putting ten security guards in hospital and leaving a businessman dead by her poisoned kiss and stealing his limousine. Heading towards Gotham, with Bane as her chauffer, she hears on the radio that Bruce Wayne is unveilling a special telescope at Gotham Observatory, so she puts on a wig and disguises herself in her previous identity Pamela Isley and decides to go there.

She sneaks in while Bruce is taking a press conference and despite her rude entrance, her pollen charms the philanthropist as he greets her warmly, asking what he can do for her.

After introducing herself to Bruce, she tells him that she had already been working for him in South America. Bruce explains they cut their funding because of Woodrue's military activities.

Isley hands him a propsal stating how Wayne Enterprises can stop all actions that pollute the environment. Bruce admires her intentions but tells her that by using these actions, it would cause millions of people to die of cold and hunger alone. He hands it back to her stating that people come first.

Isley responds by calling them "mammals" and threatens them, saying that plants will reclaim this planet and there will be no one to protect them. Everyone laughs and Gossip Gerty, one of the journalists, says that Batman and Robin protect them even from plants and flowers.

Bruce hands her an invitation to the "Save the Rainforest" charity ball at the Gotham Plaza, with Batman and Robin as the special guests.

After saying a rueful goodbye to Bruce, Isley leaves and starts plotting how to get the Dynamic Duo out of the way so that Gotham would be hers for the greening.

Crashing the Party
At Gotham Plaza, dances are taking place. Batman and Robin are there with many rich business men who are bidding money for several beautiful flower girls such as Lily and Magnolia.

Suddenly the original music dies down and all the people turn to see a pink furry gorilla dancing to some new music while removing it's hands and pulling off it's head to real a beautiful woman with roses and ivy leaves in her hair and wearing an green leaf eye mask.

It is Isley who then holds out her hand and blows in their faces a strange pink dust. She finally takes off the whole costume to reveal an emerald green Ivy leaf swimsuit with green tights and shoes.

She winks at the audience and suddenly drops backwards while all the dancers catch her and lead her towards the main stage.

Isley reveals herself to the awestruck audience as Poison Ivy, she then takes the diamond necklace called the Eye of Isis from Commissioner Gordon that was being donated to the charity and promises a weekend of her company of everything they've seen plus everything they don't.

The bids get higher and higher with the audience and the Dynamic Duo trying to outbid each other, it finally ends with Batman bidding 7 million dollars. Ivy is starting to enjoy her plan coming together, but it is soon interrupted by a villain named Mr. Freeze who breaks in and starts freezing everyone in sight. Ivy watches him in admiration.

While Batman and Robin are dealing with his henchmen, Freeze goes over to her and demands that she hands over her diamond. She tries to use her dust on him, but when it doesn't work, she lets him take the necklace.

After thanking her, Freeze leaves and Robin stares at Ivy while she blows him a kiss, Batman immediately drags him away. Gordon tells her that she has just met one of the most sinister men in Gotham City. Ivy thinks that Freeze could be useful in her next plan and takes a Gotham snow globe to remind her of their meeting. She turns to Bane who is dressed as another gorilla and they leave with work to do.

Headquarters
After going through the alley ways and streets, Ivy recalls how resistant the Dynamic Duo were to her Thermal Dust, but next time she would give them a stronger dose. She spots a old run down place called Turkish Bath in Blossom Lane that has been spray painted and boarded up with signs. Bane rips away the boards and the two barge in to meet a group of Golums who sitting around a huge fire in the middle of the room.

Ivy states that the place may need fixing up, but it has a homely charm to it. The Golum leader looks at her and begins to compliment her saying she's even good enough to eat.

Ivy sets down a challenge to come and get her which he willing accepts and sends his gang to her. She sends Bane who sends them all flying by stepping hard on a plank that they were all standing on. All the gang flees for their lives.

The two villains redecorate by removing posters, the wooden roof and turning on a water pipe to allow water to get in. Ivy then plants her own seeds that instantly grow in many exotic plants that fill the whole place.

She sits on a makeshift throne telling Bane that Freeze has a ruthless charm that she would be able to use to her advantage in her plan.

The Alliance with Mr.Freeze
Ivy goes to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where Mr.Freeze has been locked up for his crimes. She arrives under the alias of Freeze's sister and is immediately let in by the villain's guards who are amazed by her beauty. She blows thermal dust at them and instantly kills them with her poisoned kiss.

Freeze looks at her in admiration, Ivy goes over to Freeze and gives him her proposal of forming an alliance. The cold hearted villain accepts, but asks what she wants in return. Ivy doesn't answer, but opens the door to let in Bane who has brought back his special cryo-suit.

After getting dressed, Freeze realises that his diamond enhanced lasers in the suit are running out and he needs the diamonds from his Snowy Cones factory hideout. Ivy agrees to help him and notices the other guards coming in. She orders Bane to get them out of here, but the room is reinforced steel.

Freeze uses what's left of his energy to freeze the pipes in his cell, which completely shatters the walls. He gives out his instructions to his new friends telling them to retrieve his wife Nora from his lair while he grabs his diamonds and weapons.

Ivy is angry at this which assumes that she thinks she may be a thorn in her side. The three of them dive in the waters below with the guards shooting at them to no avail.

Double cross
Ivy enters the hideout with Mr. Freeze and Bane and they all enter a shaft where Nora (Mr. Freeze's wife) is above them with Batman and Robin examining her. Freeze reveals his wife to Ivy who then tells him to retrieve his diamonds while she rescues her and distracts the Dynamic Duo. She blows her dust through the vent and the heroes proceed to go after her.

After being tossed by Bane, Robin is flung down the steps where Ivy is waiting. She tries to seduce Robin and poison kiss him. However, Bane knocks Batman into where they are, which distracts her. She turns her attention to Batman who instantly refuses and attempts to arrest her. Bane suddenly appears again and holds Batman while Ivy makes her escape.

Batman and Robin continue to fight Bane until finally Ivy blows more Thermal Dust in Robin's face and tells him to leave Batman and work alone. The Dark Knight however knocks out Bane and again stops the seductive villainess from kissing him, explaining how her kiss poisons people.

Robin takes this as jealously and Ivy watches as the two heroes turn on each other resulting in Robin being flipped into a vat of ice cream. She once again makes her escape with Bane close behind her.

Ivy goes to the room where Freeze's wife is being kept and pulls out the plug of her cyrogenic tank, leaving her to die. She tells her: "I've never been good with competition, who needs a frigid wife anyway?"

A deadly plan is formed
Back at Ivy's Turkish Bath hideout, Ivy meets Freeze who has already settled in and turned part of the hideout cold for his survival. The moment he sees her, Freeze demands where his wife is.

Ivy tells him that Batman killed her. At first he doesn't believe her untill she shows him the snowflake necklace that he had given to Nora as a gift. Ivy pretends that she's sorry about what has happened.

Freeze is furious and immediately swears vengence on Batman and Robin. But Ivy suggests that the society that made them what they are shouldn't go unpunished. Freeze picks up Ivy's snowglobe and says that he will blanket the city in endless winter first Gotham and then the entire world.

Ivy is delighted and shows Freeze one of her Animal Plant Hybreds that they will overrun the world and make them rulers of them who will be the only people left in the world.

Freeze agrees and tells Ivy to distract the Dynamic Duo while he prepares to freeze Gotham City.

Once again, Ivy goes to the Gotham Observatory again under her identity of Pamela Isley. She tricks Commissioner Gordon into handing her the keys to the police station to get the Batsignal.

When they arrive Ivy has Bane pull it out of it's place and carry it back to her lair where she changes it to a Robin signal, while Bane goes with Freeze to help him.

Defeat
Robin after seeing the signal arrives at the Turkish Bath house. After going through several entrances made from flowers that close up behind him, he sees a giant animal plant behind a giant pond in the middle of the room.

The petals of the plant suddenly open to reveal Poison Ivy who looks even more beautiful than ever. Robin goes over to her and asks if they are going to be together that she should give him a sign of trust. After getting nowhere with attempting to kiss him again Ivy reveals the plan to him, but gives him one last kiss for luck.

With a sly smile on her face she plants the poisoned kiss on his lips and sneers: "Bad luck I'm afraid, time to die little Robin." But to her surprise Robin peels off one of his rubber lips that counteracted her poison so it wouldn't enter his body. Furious, Ivy shoves him into the pond where several plants bind him up and precedes to make her escape. She walks straight into Batman who had been following Robin and attempts to arrest her again. The villainess sends her vines to bind Batman up as well. She tries to leave once again to meet Bane and Freeze at the observatory.

Suddenly a caped figure crashes through the window and lands right in front of her. The figure is Batgirl, the Dynamic Duo's new partner. A fierce battle ensues with Ivy being struck down with the heroine's Judo style of fighting. She attempts to tie her up with vines and then stab her with a knife telling her: "As I told Lady Fries when I pulled her plug, this is a one woman show." Batgirl responds by kicking her into the giant plant where the petals close in around her and supposedly crush her.

The Terrific Trio leave her there for the police and go to Gotham Observatory to stop Freeze and Bane. Following the defeat of Bane and a fierce battle with Freeze, Batman shows him as recorded confession of Poison Ivy attempting to kill his wife, but he had restored her systems and was still alive. Ivy is later shown at Arkham Asylum looking miserable and disheveled from being inside the plant. She plays "Loves me not" with one of her plants. Freeze, who has finally surrendered to the authorities after giving Batman a cure to help save "a dying friend" (Alfred Pennyworth) and being assured that his wife would be moved to Arkham Labs where he would be able to continue his research, suddenly appears in her cell and tells the terrified villainess that he is her new cell mate who will make her life a living hell for what she did to his wife, much to Ivy's distraught.

Powers and abilities
It is unclear whether she could control plants, because in the scene before she is beaten by Batgirl, she exclaimed "My vines have a crush on you!", pointed to Batman and then her vines wrapped him up and tried to suffocate him. So it is unclear whether she could control plants or her vines are just bred to be able to attack at a whim. Her subsequent defeat also throws doubt in whether she could control plants, as Batgirl physically kicks her back onto her 'flower bed' and is non-fatally crushed by the bed's petals. It is completely ambiguous as whether this was a defense mechanism, perhaps a further deadlier trap for the seduced Robin or the Animal-Plant hybrids attempting to overthrow their mistress. She could also blow plant pheromones into the face of her victims in order to seduce them into following her orders and make them vulnerable to her advances and poisonous kiss. This, along with her natural beauty, made her a very dangerous seductress. Very few could resist her charms. Not even Batman and Robin were immune to her affections.

Her full luscious lips held a hidden poison in them which permeated the cells in her victim’s lips. Ivy would indulge the victim with a tender kiss, causing them in turn to unwittingly swallow a potent dose of her toxin as they secreted from her lips and onto theirs. The poison would work instantaneously when it reached their vital organs, crippling their body from within. Her signature "poison kiss" was always fatal in its execution. To that extent it was her genuinely preferred method of killing, having left a string of murders in her wake and made numerous attempts to seduce Batman & Robin and entice them into a kiss. The different victims of the kiss suffered slowly or succumbed to it quickly; it usually depended on either the person or the potency Ivy administered. Despite this, many were more than willing to suffer this passionate poison.

Weapons, equipment, and technology
Poison Ivy bred Animal-Plant Hybrids.

Behind the scenes
She was played by actress Uma Thurman. Thurman’s performance in the campy film received universal critical and fan acclaim, in which people regarded her as the only reason to watch this film. The New York Times wrote in a positive review, “like Mae West, she mixes true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen”. A similar positive comparison was made by the Houston Chronicle: “Thurman, to arrive at a ’40s femme fatale, sometimes seems to be doing Mae West by way of Jessica Rabbit”. In addition, the San Francisco Chronicle points out “Poison Ivy is the film's best creation. She's a radical environmentalist who gets bitten by snakes and buried in vines only to rise up, gorgeous and redheaded, like Botticelli's Venus. Like America's original femme fatale, Beatrice in Hawthorne's ‘Rappaccini's Daughter,’ Ivy has a poisonous kiss. Like Dietrich in ‘Blonde Venus,’ she shows up at a ritzy affair in a gorilla suit.” She has won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for 'Best Actress - Sci-Fi' in her role as Poison Ivy, and was also nominated for Favourite Movie Actress in the Kids' Choice Awards, only to have lost to her co-star Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl. However, she was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress in the Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzie Awards), but fortunately, she lost to to her co-star Alicia Silverstone for the second time. Her performance as Poison Ivy remains to be one of her best and memorable performances of all time.

Appearances

 * Batman & Robin
 * Batman & Robin (Book)