The Riddler (Jim Carrey)

"Riddle me this, riddle me that. Who's afraid of the big black bat?"

- The Riddler to Batman.

The Riddler was the chosen alias of criminal genius Edward Nygma. After he was rejected by his idol, Bruce Wayne, for one of his inventions, Nygma turned to crime and used his scientific knowledge for evil. He is also the hidden main antagonist of Batman Forever.

Batman Forever
"I'm sucking up your IQ, vacumming the cortex, feeding off your brain."

- Edward Nygma sing-songingly taunting his boss, Fred Stickley, while utilizing his neural energy.



Good Behavior
Edward Nygma became a researcher under the employment of Wayne Enterprises, and developed a device to beam television directly to a person's brain. Bruce Wayne, Nygma's secret idol, was convinced that mind manipulation would raise too many questions, and turned the idea down, but Nygma continued to work on it after hours. When Fred Stickley, the head of the research department, discovered Nygma's clandestine overtime, Nygma knocked Stickley unconscious, tied him to a chair, used him to test his device, and discovered that he could use it to absorb people's knowledge. After he realized that Bruce Wayne was right about it being mind manipulation, Stickley fired Nygma, but Nygma murdered Stickley, altered the security tapes to make Stickley's death look like a suicide, and then resigned from Wayne Enterprises.

Betrayal
Nygma, who stalked Wayne and left riddles for him, was inspired and delighted by watching Two-Face's raid at the circus on live television and created his own alter-ego in the form of The Riddler, a master of puzzles and quizzes. Nygma perfected his brain-manipulation device into a system, "The Box", which beamed signals to and from the human brain in order to simulate an immersive television-viewing experience.

That had the side effect of allowing the Riddler to read viewers' minds, as well as augment his own intelligence. Using his device, the Riddler found Two-Face at his hideout, and proposed a deal that would benefit them both: they would mass-produce the brain-manipulation device to become Gotham's clever carbon-based lifeforms and discover Batman's true identity so that they could use it to their advantage to plot out his downfall. Seeing the advantage of the device, Two-Face agreed (due to his coin flip marking heads in favor of the deal), and they became partners-in-crime in order to fund mass-production of the device. With enough capital to start mass-production of his invention, the Riddler readopted his Edward Nygma identity, opened his own business company that was called NygmaTech, and sold thousands of his devices to many of Gotham's citizens, who found his inventions very impressive. The Riddler then built his main base of operations on Claw Island, which was ten miles away from Gotham City.

Since the Box was considered popular to many of Gotham's citizens, that allowed NygmaTech to gain more profit, and the Riddler started to feed on the citizens' minds every time they used his inventions to make himself more intelligent; and he even allowed Two-Face to receive his share of feeding off the citizens' minds, which made Two-Face more intelligent as well. Following his successful marketing of the invention, Nygma hosted a launch event for a set-top version of his device, to which many citizens attended, including Bruce Wayne himself. Nygma convinced an unwitting Bruce to try it, which resulted in Riddler and Two-Face inally discovering his alter ego as Batman, much to their delight.

On the night of Halloween, Riddler and Two-Face later converged upon Wayne Manor, where Riddler discovered the location of the Batcave. Riddler destroyed the Batcave and all of its equipment with bat shaped bombs while Two-Face shot at Bruce, which grazed his head with a bullet and left him unconscious. Two-Face attempted to finish Bruce off with a second bullet, but the Riddler talked him out of it, stated that "If you kill 'im, he won't learn nothin'." and left a final riddle for Bruce, while Two-Face ordered his thugs to kidnap Dr. Chase Meridian.

Evil Plan
After Bruce regained consciousness, he and Alfred Pennyworth eventually solved the greater riddle that was concealed in the riddles that were left for them when they noticed that each one had a number in it:

1. "If you look for numbers on my face, you won't find thirteen any place."

2. "Tear one off and scratch my head; what was once red is black instead."

3. "The eight of us go forth, not back, to protect our king from a foe's attack."

4. "We're five little items of an everyday sort; you'll find us all in 'a tennis court'."

Each number corresponded to a letter in the alphabet, with 1 and 8 that were digits for the number 18. 13 being "M", 18 for "R" and 5 for "E", M-R-E, or "Mr. E"- mystery, or enigma- Mr. E. Nygma. After he changed into Batman in the sole remaining Batsuit, a prototype with sonar-imaging lenses that were built into the cowl, Bruce asked Alfred whether he should use the Batboat or the Batwing. Dick Grayson suggested both as he entered the Batcave- and was dressed in a "Robin" costume of Alfred's design. Bruce decided that two against two were better odds, and finally agreed to Dick becoming a partner. Meanwhile, back at Claw Island, the captive Dr. Meridian told the Riddler that Batman would come for her, but upon expecting to see that he would be scoffing at it, Riddler instead admitted that he was actually counting on Batman to come as part of his plan.

Batman and Robin used both vehicles to enter the aquatic lair; however, both of their vehicles were destroyed by the Riddler and Two-Face. The heroes ended up swimming to an island that was made of metal, where they were then separated. Batman fought his way through the Riddler's deadly traps, while Robin finally fought Two-Face. Robin managed to send Two-Face over the edge of a ledge, where he clung on to for dear life. After he realized that he would rather have Two-Face arrested and locked up for life than kill him, Robin helped him up instead. Two-Face thanked Robin by pulling out a gun and trapped him. Meanwhile, Batman finally reached the Riddler, who sat in a large throne beneath the glass chamber that collected the brainwaves of Gotham's citizens, and was surrounded by obfuscating laser lights and holograms. Riddler revealed Chase and Robin, who were bound and gagged with duct tape and were imprisoned in large glass containers over a large, and deadly pit of water and metal spikes.

The Riddler challenged Batman with the greatest riddle of all ("Can Bruce Wayne and Batman ever truly co-exist?"), and gave him the choice of rescuing either Chase or Robin. Batman distracted the Prince of Puzzlers with a riddle of his own. Unable to resist, the Riddler took his hand off of the control that would drop the two, sat back down on his throne, and listened eagerly. Batman gave his Riddle: "I see without seeing. To me, darkness is as clear as daylight. What am I?". The Riddler scoffed and gave him the answer: "You're as blind as a bat!". The Dark Knight affirmed that answer, and activated the Batsuit's sonar-imaging lenses, which allowed him to accurately hurl a Batarang at the brain-wave hub, and shattered both it and the Riddler's massive intelligence. Before the Riddler collapsed, he sprung the trap doors in Robin's and Chase's cages, and sent them plummeting to their apparent doom. Fortunately, Batman rescued both of them before he was confronted by Two-Face.

Defeat
After Two-Face fell down into the pit to his death, Batman returned to the Riddler's destroyed lair and found Edward: his mind was enfeebled by the overload of brainwaves and his body was horribly scarred from the explosion of the brain-wave hub. Taking light to his former employee's plight, Batman finally answered Nygma's riddle and said: "I had to save them both. You see, I'm both Bruce Wayne and Batman. Not because I have to be, now, because I choose to be". Just as Batman moved closer to him, the Riddler screamed in terror as he experienced Bruce's memory of the first bat that ever terrified him.

With both of the villains defeated, Batman turned Nygma to the GCPD, who then sentenced him to be committed at Arkham Asylum for his crimes against Gotham, and his company was sunk. Chase was asked to consult on Nygma's case by Dr. Burton after she was told that he had screamed for hours that he knew who Batman was. After she wondered if the Riddler had indeed remembered the information that was taken from Bruce's brain that concerned Batman's identity, Chase went to his cell. Chase identified herself and then asked Riddler if he remembered her. When he answers affirmatively, the Riddler offered to reveal the identity of Batman to Chase if she said "please". Chase did so, and the Riddler responded by telling her that he himself was Batman, and as if to prove his point, he started to flap his arms as if to imitate a bat while he laughed manically; his stolen memories were scrambled upon the brain wave hub's destruction. At that point, Chase came out to tell Bruce that his secret was safe, and confirmed that Nygma was a complete lunatic.

Batman & Robin
A couple of years later, when Mr. Freeze was held at Arkham Asylum, one of Nygma's Riddler outfits was held in the Criminal Property Locker, along with one of Two-Face's, when Poison Ivy and Bane broke Freeze out.

Reception
The filmmakers claimed they were indeed aware of reports that Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones had "stolen the show." Jones quoted: "I don't want to be too fussy about language, but the idea of stealing scenes or stealing movies is nothing that I am comfortable with at all. I don't think that way. I look at the job at hand and try to do as well as I can with that job." Carrey stated: "I just hope I am doing it right; is it coming together? You can't think about that stuff because that would be, like, capsize time." Carrey was nominated for the MTV "Best Villain" Award along with Jones.

Gallery
See: The Riddler (Jim Carrey)/Gallery for additional images

Behind the Scenes

 * Before the release of Batman Returns, the Riddler was rumored to appear in the film with The Penguin and Catwoman. However, that rumor was false.


 * Rumors suggested that while Tim Burton was slated to direct a third Batman movie, his intention was to have Michael Keaton return as the title character, and use the Riddler (Edward Nygma) as the main villain. Robin Williams was the first choice for the role, but turned it down. Burton went on to cast Micky Dolenz, who screen-tested for the role. The Riddler was to be depicted as psychopathic, and oddly enough Burton's version of the character was rumored to have a question mark shaved on his head. Dolenz's involvement ended once Joel Schumacher was hired to direct, who instead decided to bank on Jim Carrey for the role as well as introduce Two-Face into the equation.


 * In reality, according to an interview with Janet Scott Batchler, Burton's only involvement with Batman Forever was approving Schumacher as director and Lee and Janet Scott Batchler as writers. Burton did not contribute any story ideas. Due to the character's popularity, the Batchler's decided to use the Riddler as a villain against Bruce Wayne and wrote their own origin for him. In the early drafts, Riddler's real name was Lyle Heckendorf and his rival company was called HeckTech. A scene in the early drafts that didn't make it into the final film featured Lyle stalking Bruce at the circus and stealing the clothes of a performing circus leprechaun. The leprechaun suit then formed the basis for the Riddler outfit. Once the script was written, Schumacher courted Robin Williams for the role, but Williams turned it down again.


 * Jim Carrey portrayed the Riddler with Frank Gorshin as his stated primary influence. Carrey also said that he was attracted to the "stalker" anglethat was added to the character in the script. Nygma was shown to be obsessed with his idol Bruce Wayne, and his turn to crime was a result of Wayne's rejection of his mind-manipulation invention. Throughout the film, Nygma obsessed over Wayne, even copied Wayne's appearance down to a facial mole, and prevented Two-Face from killing him. That version of the Riddler employed a device that was called "The Box", which was disguised as a 3D imagery device for TVs, that extracted victims' thoughts and transmitted them into the Riddler's head, which made him smarter and ultimately contributed to his mental breakdown. In the end, Batman destroyed the Box with a Batarang, and Riddler's intelligence (as well as his sanity) was lost.


 * Throughout the film, Riddler plants a series of riddles for Batman/Bruce to find, which lead to the disclosure of his identity. At the end of the film, Riddler was captured, taken to Arkham Asylum, and began to scream that he learned Batman's identity - himself. That incarnation influenced the one in New Batman Adventures, the continuation of Batman: The Animated Series: the producers decided to redesign the character to look more like Carrey. The storyline of the Riddler becoming supremely psychotic even served as the springboard for the character's actions in the 2003 LEGO fan film, Batman: Revenge (The Batman LEGO Film), although the film was not a sequel to Batman Forever. Though Two-Face had thugs throughout Batman Forever, the Riddler only had a group of Frogmen in a scene near the end of the film, who were captured by Batman in a net.


 * Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma / The Riddler: An employee at Wayne Enterprises nursing an obsession with Bruce Wayne and a high opinion of his own genius, though it is an accidental side effect of his experimentation with 3-D TV that causes him to be fired by his boss as the invention is too dangerous – it directly taps into the human brain. Traumatized by this and Wayne's rejection of his business proposal, he kills his boss and adopts a secret identity as a stalker of Wayne. In response to Wayne's saying that the mind-control aspect "raises too many questions", the compulsive Nygma becomes the villainous Riddler, leaving riddles and puzzles at scenes of crime while modelling himself on his idol in his public role as head of a successful new business empire (NygmaTech) to rival Wayne Enterprises. It was in October 1993 when Robin Williams stated that he was in talks for the role, and commented on his enthusiasm. Williams had previously expressed interest for the role of The Joker in Batman, although he lost out to Jack Nicholson and expressed interest in the role a second time in The Dark Knight, but lost out a second time to Heath Ledger, who was cast. Ultimately in June 1994, Carrey was cast after Williams had turned down the role. Schumacher had known Carrey since the mid-1980s, roughly ten years before he became commercially famous. After Carrey's role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Warner Brothers and Schumacher felt for him to be perfect for the part. Michael Jackson had previously opted hard to land the role, but was ignored. Matthew Broderick also expressed interest in the role. Carrey went through over 50 different spandex outfits and over 100 different props for his cane.


 * Schumacher commented on working with Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, and Jim Carrey: "I was told that Val was difficult and wasn't [right] for me. (...) Jim Carrey was a gentleman, and Tommy Lee was threatened by him. I'm tired of defending overpaid, over privileged actors. I pray I don't work with them again." Bob Kane remained on the set almost every single day during filming.


 * There was a scene in Batman Forever in which the Riddler punched someone in the face and hurt his hand from it. That could possibly have been a reference to the fight scene at the end of the 1966 Batman film, where The Riddler tried to punch Batman, but missed and hit one of the masts of the submarine instead.


 * Before the release of Batman & Robin, many fans suggested that the Riddler would have returned as a minor antagonist, like Catwoman; and with Bane as the central antagonist. However, that rumor was false.


 * In the planned sequel of Batman & Robin, that was named Batman Unchained, the Riddler would have returned as a hallucination by Scarecrow's Fear Gas. However, Riddler was alive at the end of Batman Forever, and for that reason, also, he could have returned alive in that planned sequel.
 * According to Joel Schumacher, in Batman Unchained, the story of the Mad Hatter and the story of the Clock King would have been similar to Riddler's story in Batman Forever.


 * Although the Riddler and Two-Face were a great team, it was shocking to most fans that Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey really didn't get along while they filmed.

See

 * The Riddler
 * The Riddler (Frank Gorshin)
 * The Riddler (John Astin)
 * The Riddler (DC Animated Universe)
 * The Riddler (Batman: Arkham Asylum)
 * Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith)