Sean McCabe was a stunt performer and coordinator who was one of Michael Keaton's stunt doubles in Batman. Mostly performed traditional stunts like taking falls or acting as a stand-in.
Bat-History[]
During pre-production, a wardrobe test on McCabe was done in front of the mural in Grissom's Office. The mural wardrobe test photos taken by Murray Close wound up being published in Batman: Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, while the actual publicity portraits by Herb Ritts of Keaton, taken during the start of filming were not used by Topps for the magazine. These test photos also found their way to trading cards.
Filming[]
In the opening rooftop fight, McCabe fell backward for the simulated gunshots. Keaton performed severals takes of the kick toward Eddie, but injured his leg.[1] McCabe had to step in and complete the roped-Batarang throw against Nick to finish the day's filming. McCabe performed the glide down toward Napier, its likely the insert shot of Batman releasing the line from the Utility Belt was done by Carl Newman. The film then cuts to a shot of McCabe kicking the gun from the hand of Jack Nicholson's stand-in on the catwalk. McCabe is believed to have acted as a stand-in at the chemical plant when Batman pretends to surrender to the police, throwing two smoke capsules down with both rather than a single device in Keaton's right hand as seen in the final cut. B-Roll of this alternative scene is shown in Batman: The Making of a Hero. After the smoke enshrouds Batman, McCabe fires the grappling hook and performs the vertical wire ascent up through the smoke. McCabe also took the fall in the alley fight with the Joker Goons. During the start of filming McCabe had been the primary stunt performer and fight double, but one of the biker extras played by Dave Lea impressed Jon Peters so much he decided to make him the main fight double due to his martial arts background. McCabe also performed over the shoulder shots of Batman blocking Tracey Walter's jabs with a knife in a alternative scene. 2nd unit director Peter MacDonald shot a replacement scene shown in the theatrical cut of a Swordsman played by Sken Kaewpadung fighting Dave Lea. Newman performed only special movements, like full body shots at a distance of walking, cape fwaping and swooshing, but inevitably the stuntmen were also required to perform similar actions at certain times when Keaton and Newman were unavailable. William Todd-Jones assisted with McCabe's batsuit maintenance and helping keep consistency with established characterization. Some of the most notable stunts performed by McCabe were the Flugelheim Museum skylight crash and the Foefie Gauntlet zipline slide toward the doorway. McCabe also performed the most dangerous stunt in the movie, when Batman braces against the wall while the giant bell destroys the stairwell of the rotting cathedral. The fiberglass bell weighed over a ton would've killed him if it touched him.[2] By the time of the goon fights in the belfry overseen by Peter MacDonald, McCabe was performing only the dangerous falls, like when Clive Curtis throws Batman through splintering wooden scaffolding and steps. When Vicki falls from the ledge and Batman catches her, this was achieved by Sean McCabe acting in reverse, lifting the stunt woman with the aid of a wire rig.
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