Batman Begins: The Evolution of Bruce Wayne
A perfect case of foreshadowing.
Much has been said about Christopher Nolan’s original foray into the Dark Knight universe with what is possibly his best film to date, Batman Begins. But in my opinion, we should never stop discussing the definitive cinematic version of the Caped Crusader.
Before Begins was released, fans weren’t sure if this iteration was what they wanted, but it turns out it was what they needed. Shedding the silly installments from Burton and Schumacher, Christopher Nolan demonstrated that even superhero stories could and should be taken seriously.
What Nolan proved was that a superhero doesn’t need to be defined by his villains. Instead, a hero can be as deep and complex as the criminals he is fighting.
The writing in Batman Begins is extremely dense, yet it still somehow maintains a naturalness to it, which makes it get overlooked due to the global response to Begins’ massive sequel, The Dark Knight. While The Dark Knight is a terrific movie, it’s not a particularly great Batman movie. Unlike The Dark Knight, Batman Begins is buoyed by the fact that it spends a great deal of time focusing on Batman’s broken-spirited billionaire counterpart, Bruce Wayne. This anchors the story with an emotional core that is noticeably absent from its overblown sequel.
The thing that makes Batman Begins so great is that almost nothing in the film gets overlooked. Nearly every little detail in the first act comes back at the end, tying the story together. This sense of depth is displayed to great effect during one of the best character moments in the entire film, the scene that I have come to call the Brick by Brick scene.
This scene is particularly notable because it not only establishes the characters, but it helps lay a thematic foundation for the rest of the film. Three main points are highlighted in this scene, that later come full circle to highlight Bruce Wayne’s growth as a character.
The scene begins with Alfred Pennyworth escorting the young Bruce Wayne up to the master bedroom after returning to Gotham to attend the hearing of the man who murdered his parents, Joe Chill. As they ascend the massive granite staircase, Alfred says, “I’ve prepared the master bedroom.”
“No,” Bruce replies, “My room will be fine.”
“With all due respect, sir, Wayne Manor is your house.”
“No, Alfred, it’s my father’s house.”
“Your father is dead, Master Wayne.”
“This place is a mausoleum. When I have my way, I’ll pull the damn thing down, brick by brick.”
Alfred abruptly stops on the staircase and turns to face the young man.
“This house, Master Wayne, has sheltered six generations of the Wayne family.”
“Why do you give a damn, Alfred? It’s not your family.”
“I give a damn,” Alfred responds with a world-weary look, “because a good man once made me responsible, for what was most precious to him in the whole world.”
Alfred turns and begins marching back up the staircase. “Ms. Dawes has offered to drive you to the hearing. She probably hopes to talk you out of going.”
“Should I just bury the past out there with my parents, Alfred?”
“I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do with your past, sir, just know that there are those of us who care about what you do with your future.”
“Haven’t given up on me yet,” Bruce says matter of factly.
Alfred smiles and says, “Never.”
When Bruce finds himself alone in the master bedroom, he spends some time looking at a portrait of his parents before he opens a small black case that houses what used to be his father’s stethoscope. He recalls a memory of his childhood when his father, Thomas, showed his young son how the stethoscope worked. It reminds Bruce of the kindness of his father, but the memory isn’t enough to stop Bruce from opening his suitcase to reveal a gun that he plans on using to kill his parent’s murderer, Joe Chill.
During the ceremony at the League of Shadows, Ra’s Al Ghul explains that the criminal mind is not complicated. In much the same way, the Brick by Brick scene isn’t overly complicated. All it involves is walking, talking, and contemplation, but behind that simple facade, there is a lot to unpack from a writer’s perspective that gives context to the film as a whole.
As I mentioned, there are three points brought up during this scene that foreshadow the ending of the film.
The first point comes up near the end of the film after Ra’s Al Ghul’s ninjas have set fire to Wayne Manor. After allowing a beam of wood to fall on Bruce, which knocks him unconscious, Ra’s leaves Bruce behind to die from the flames. But, the one thing he didn’t take into account was Alfred.
When Alfred finds Bruce and derides him for not being able to lift a “bloody log,” he pulls Bruce through the flames and opens up the secret door, revealing the industrial elevator on the other side. As they rapidly descend, a flash of flames erupts over their heads, nearly killing them in the inferno. Once they reach the bottom, Bruce is nearly inconsolable.
“What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family…my father built…”
After checking Bruce for wounds, Alfred says, “The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir.”
“I wanted to save Gotham. I failed.”
“Why do we fall, sir?” Alfred asks, quoting a phrase he once heard Thomas say to his injured son. “So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
“Still haven’t given up on me.”
“Never!”
The impact of this dialogue exchange is powerful because it demonstrates that, while Bruce has grown as a person, Alfred is the same anchor that has been a constant in Bruce’s life. Alfred will never give up on Bruce, even when he’s making bad decisions.
The second point comes up after Batman has saved Gotham from Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows. We find Bruce at the site of his destroyed mansion where Rachel Dawes has come to visit him since she has learned that her childhood friend is the Batman, not the hollow playboy he led her on to believe.
She goes on to say, “The man I loved…the man who vanished…never came back at all. But maybe he’s still out there somewhere. Maybe someday, when Gotham no longer needs Batman. I’ll see him again.”
Heartbroken at the suggestion that they won’t be together until he can shed his Batman persona, Bruce takes her hand and leads her through what remains of the once great mansion.
As they walk Rachel says, “You proved me wrong, you know.”
“About what?”
“Your father would be very proud of you. Just like me.”
After Rachel turns to walk away, Bruce looks down and sees something in the rubble. After crouching down, he opens a charred case and finds his father’s old stethoscope, and just as he did when he was a young man, he re-sees the same memory he had before. This proves to Bruce that Rachel was right. His father would be proud. He realizes that he has come a long way since his hate-filled youth. This visual recollection is the second point that was foreshadowed in the Brick by Brick scene. At the two points in his life, the stethoscope held different meanings.
Bruce is the same person but he has become a much different man.
As he’s silently contemplating, Rachel turns and asks, “What will you do?”
With a warm smile, Bruce responds, “Rebuild it. Just the way it was, brick for brick.”
This sentence brings the Brick by Brick scene full circle. His words about tearing down the mansion brick by brick were almost prophetic in how his actions would be the cause for Wayne Manor’s eventual destruction.
But he would be the one to renew the Wayne legacy by rebuilding it from the ground up. Wayne’s past was about hate and destruction, whereas his future is made up of hope and principles.
It hit me recently how much of an impact these three little moments of foreshadowing have on the film as a whole and are part of what makes Batman Begins so great. While there are dozens of examples of impactful foreshadowing in Begins, these three stood out to me in a big way because of the way they helped shape Bruce’s past, present, and future.
The care that went into the ideas and themes of Batman Begins cannot be overstated, and prove that with careful contemplation a superhero can be relatable, interesting, and of course, super.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and at brettseegmiller.com. Thanks for reading!
