- Bruce Wayne: “I want to borrow it. For spelunking. You know, cave-diving.”
- Lucius Fox : “You get a lot of gunfire down in those caves?”
- ―Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox after Fox has shown him the nomex survival suit[src]
The Batsuit in Christopher Nolan's Batman film series served as Batman's "Armor".
In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne asks Lucius Fox to find him some sort of armor. Fox brings him a prototype armor suit that was rejected by the army. After receiving the suit, Bruce sprays it with black rubber and adds a bat symbol.
Batsuit
Batman Begins
Specifications
The Batsuit is the costume Batman wears to conceal his identity and to frighten criminals. This particular incarnation of the Batsuit is given the most complete description ever seen in a Batman film and possibly the comic books. The suit is derived from Lucius Fox's Research and Development program, within Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division. It is described by Fox as a "Nomex survival suit" originally intended for advanced military use, but, with its $300,000 price tag, was considered to be too expensive for the United States Army and military in general. Based on an advanced infantry armor system constructed from Nomex, the first layer of protection is an undersuit with built-in temperature regulators designed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature in almost any condition. The second layer of protection consists of armor built over the chest, calves, thighs, arms, and back. This armor features a kevlar bi-weave that can stop slashing weapons and can also deflect any bullet short of a straight shot impact, and reinforced joints that allow maximum flexibility and mobility. The armor was then coated with a black latex material to dampen Bruce's heat signature, making him difficult to detect with night-vision equipment. Made of a graphite material, the cowl acts as a protective helmet. The cowl's Kevlar lining is supposed to be bulletproof. A manufacturing defect in the graphite used in the production of the first shipment of the cowl's components made its outer shell incapable of withstanding blunt trauma (a flaw Alfred demonstrates to Bruce Wayne using a baseball bat). Batman apparently takes on Falcone and his henchmen at the docks with the defective helmet. The second shipment was supposed to fix this problem. An advanced eavesdropping device is concealed within the cowl's right ear and enables Batman to listen in on conversations from a distance.
Batman's cape is made of "memory cloth," also developed by Lucius Fox. It is essentially flexible in its normal state, but becomes semi-rigid in a fixed form (Batman's wings in the movie) when an electric current is passed through it from the microcircuits in his right glove. Bruce also adds metal gauntlets with scallops on the forearms, an innovation derived from his experience as a pupil of Ra's al Ghul's organization, the League of Shadows. Mainly used to block against knives or other stabbing weapons, Bruce managed to surprise Ra's by breaking the blade of his ninjaken in multiple places with the gauntlets.
Drawbacks
Although supposedly designed for maximum flexibility and movement, the Nomex armor does restrict Batman's movement somewhat, slowing him down in combat. The design of the mask and cape also restricted his neck movement, making it impossible for him to turn his head, and forcing him to rely on peripheral vision. For these reasons, Bruce asked Lucius to design a new suit with faster, freer movement in mind. (See below)
The Dark Knight Suit design
Batman's Bat-Sonar Lenses
- Lucius Fox: “You want to be able to turn your head.”
- Bruce Wayne: “Sure would make backing out of the driveway easier.”
- ―Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne[src]
Batman in his second Batsuit.
Specifications
The Batsuit is changed in the next film The Dark Knight. In this new design, the bodysuit is made of hardened kevlar plates on a titanium-dipped fiber and is broken into multiple pieces of armor over a more flexible bodysuit for greater mobility. The cowl of the Batsuit, which in previous film incarnations has been attached to the shoulder and neck, is now a separate component inspired by the design of motorcycle helmets, allowing the wearer to freely swivel and move his neck without moving the rest of his upper torso as was characteristic in all the previous cinematic versions of the Batsuit. Also, a strong electric current runs through it that prevents anyone except Bruce Wayne from removing it, further protecting his identity. But in The Dark Knight Rises, Batman's cowl is shattered by Bane.
In this Batsuit, the iconic blades on the sides of Batman's gauntlets are now retractable and are capable of firing outwards as projectiles. The bat emblem is smaller than the one in Batman Begins and it is more similar to the Batman logo used in the posters.
Furthermore, unlike the Batsuit in Batman Begins, this suit does not have an external 'memory cloth' cape, but, rather, a concealed cape in compartments behind the shoulder blades, which eject, connecting to the suits limbs to provide a hang-glider-like functionality with a bat-motif design.
The Batsuit also has "sonar-vision", where signals emitted by mobile phones are converted into images in a similar way to sonar. In order to view the-said images, white lenses fold down from Batman's cowl to cover his eyes. Aesthetically, this gives Batman, for the first time in a live action film, the "white-eyed" appearance he is always depicted with in the comic-books and animated series. Fox ran the machine to enable the "sonar-vision", but since it went against Fox's morals to spy on 30 million people, Batman built a self-destruct mechanism to allow Lucius to destroy the machine, so it is most likely the "white eyes" will never appear again. The suit also is used in The Dark Knight Rises, where Bruce is shown to have multiple copies of the suit.
Drawbacks
As a trade-off, the flexible armor leaves Batman more vulnerable to injury from bullets or knives in favor of increased flexibility and lighter weight.
Equipment
Utility Belt
Batman Begins Utility harness
The Utility Belt is a specialized belt Batman wears to equip his crime-fighting gear. The utility belt is a modified climbing harness, with magnetized impact-resistant pouches, and canisters attached to the belt at ergonomic points for ease of reach. It carries a magnetic gas-powered grapple gun, an encrypted cell phone, Batarangs, a medical kit, smoke bombs, mini explosives, periscope, remote control for the Batmobile (The Tumbler), mini-cam, money, and other unspecified equipment. Batman removed the belt's shoulder and chest straps because they constricted his movements.
Batarang
Batman Begins Batarang
A Batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang. Although Batarangs are named after boomerangs, they are more similar to shurikens, fitting with Batman's training as a ninja.
Grapple Gun
Batman Begins Grappling Gun
The grapple gun is a special item Batman uses to scale up or rappel down tall buildings, or swing between Gotham City skyscrapers on successive lines.
Similar to a grappling hook and speargun, the line gun uses a strong clamp attached to a high-tensil wire for scaling surfaces and/or traversing gaps. It can be recovered by releasing the clamp and rewinding the cable. It was based from one that is designed as compact climbing gear for commando units.
It is propelled with compressed air, and works with a magnetic grappling iron. The thin climbing cable was tested on a load-carrying capacity of 350 lbs.
Memoryweave Cloth Cape
The Memory cloth is a piece of equipment that Bruce is shown by Lucius Fox at Applied Sciences. The item itself is normally soft and light, but when an electric current is passed through it the cape takes a rigid shape. Bruce takes it, and the gloves then cuts the cape to resemble bats wings.
Lucius Showing Bruce the memory cloth.
Other
- A HF Transponder that Batman uses to summon bats. Equipped in the left heel of his boot, when used at a lower frequency the sound can cause people to have incapacitating headaches.
- Pnuematic Mangler
- Sticky Bomb Gun
- EMP Rifle
Gallery
- Batsuit (Nolan Films)/Gallery
Trivia
Legacy and Cameo-appearances
- Bruce Wayne’s updated 2010 Batsuit, first shown in the Batman Incorporated storyline, was concepted by artist David Finch as an amalgam from the Batsuits in Tim Burton's and Christopher Nolan's Batman films.