Batman Returns is a 1992 film based on the Batman character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Tim Burton directed the film, which has Michael Keaton reprising the role of Batman, as well as Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. The film's plot primarily concerns Bruce Wayne/Batman struggling to maintain order in Gotham City after the appearance of the villainous Penguin (DeVito) and the mysterious, equally deadly Catwoman (Pfeiffer).

Plot

Around Christmas time in Gotham City, the aristocratic Cobblepots give birth to a baby boy. Because the child is deformed, they lock him in a box, where he shows his first sign of homicidal tendencies when he kills the family cat. They drop their deformed infant baby in the sewers, abandoning him because of his ridiculous look.

Thirty-three years later, it is Christmas time again as the city is being run by the Mayor, who deals with the ambitious but ruthless business tycoon, Max Shreck. Gotham comes under attack by the "Red Triangle Circus Gang" in a recent ceremony, although the heist is disrupted by the crime-fighting Batman. Shreck's timid secretary, Selina Kyle, is caught in the fray, but is soon saved by Batman, after which she steals a stun gun from one of the gang members. Shreck is kidnapped by the Red Triangles and is brought to their leader, a short, deformed man known as "The Penguin." Penguin blackmails Shreck with incriminating evidence of his more dubious activities, prompting Shreck to agree to help Penguin run for Mayor of Gotham.

Shreck arranges for the Penguin to "rescue" the mayor's infant child from his own gang members. The plan works, and Penguin becomes a hero to all except a suspicious Bruce Wayne (Batman's alter ego). After finding out his original birthname of Oswald Cobblepot, (as well as many other names, which are for unknown purposes) Penguin eventually wins the approval of citizens of Gotham and intends to run for Mayor. Shreck, however, is soon troubled by Selina's discovery of a dark secret behind his new power plant. Shreck tries to murder her by pushing her out of a skyscraper, but Selina miraculously survives the attempt, and is revived on the ground by a group of cats. However, the incident leaves Selina mentally unstable and she develops multiple personality syndrome. Dazed, Selina goes back to her apartment, shakily going through the motions of her old personality. However, upon hearing an answering phone advert from her old employees (the words "Exclusively at Shreck's Department Stores" are the trigger), she goes berserk. She destroys her apartment and then crafts a homemade black vinyl costume disguise, becoming a vigilante figure named "Catwoman". Carrying a whip as her weapon of defense, she destroys Shreck's department store and battles with Batman on a rooftop, losing the second of her nine lives in the process. As a more assertive Selina, she then forms a romantic relationship with Bruce Wayne (each unaware of the other's alter-ego), while as Catwoman she allies herself with Penguin in order to get back at Batman for trying to kill her.

When the subsequent plan is put into action, Batman is framed for kidnapping and murder and finds himself trapped in the Batmobile under Penguin's control. Catwoman and Penguin's alliance falls apart when she rebuffs a sexual advance from him, and Penguin tries to kill Catwoman himself. However, she once again miraculously survives the attempt, counting as her third of nine lives. The Penguin's campaign to oust the current mayor is quickly destroyed when Bruce Wayne plays selected comments he made insulting the people of Gotham while controlling the Batmobile at one of Penguin's speeches, the most prominent phrase being, "You've got to admit, I played this stinking city like a harp from hell!" The people of Gotham get angry, forcing Penguin to defend himself with his gun umbrella. The police chase after him, but Penguin flees into the sewers, and reveals his original plan: to kidnap and kill the firstborn sons of Gotham's most prominent families in revenge (comparable to King Herod in the Bible).

Bruce meets Selina at a ball hosted by Shreck, where she reveals to him her intentions to kill Shreck. While dancing, the two subsequently discover the other's secret identity, but before they can leave to discuss this development, Penguin storms the hall with a shout of "You didn't invite me, so I crashed!" and tries to take Max's beloved son, Chip. Max successfully pleads with Penguin to take him instead. Batman attacks Penguin's Red Triangle Circus goons and puts a stop to the kidnappings. Penguin then dispatches an army of rocket-armed Penguins to bomb all of Gotham. Batman manages to jam the birds' control signals and turn them around so that they attack Penguin's base instead, apparently killing the Penguin and what is left of his gang inside.

Batman then discovers that Catwoman intends to kill Shreck inside Penguin's base. Shreck tries to bribe Batman, but Batman simply ignores him, and tries to talk Catwoman out of her planned murder. He promises they could live happily together, but Catwoman refuses to listen, and scratches him on the cheek with her claws. During this argument, Shreck draws a gun he took from a Red Triangle clown and fires it at Batman. Catwoman then starts to approach Shreck, who shoots her four times, knocking off four more lives, leaving Catwoman alive but wounded. Catwoman then exacts her revenge of Shreck by inserting the stolen stun gun into her mouth, activating the spark, and pressing her lips to Shreck's, while also ripping a cable out of Penguin's electrical generator with her free hand, sending the electricity everywhere. A huge explosion follows, and as the smoke clears away, Batman finds the charred corpse of Shreck. However, Selina/Catwoman is nowhere to be found. So preoccupied with finding her, he doesn't notice a gravely injured Penguin emerging from the water, ready to kill him. Ultimately though, he collapses from his wounds and dies, and six large Emperor Penguins emerge from the shadows and pull his body back into the water which becomes his grave.

Some time later, Bruce is driving around the city at night with his butler Alfred, when he thinks he sees Selina's shadow on a wall. Alfred stops the car and Bruce searches for Selina in vain. He does find Selina's cat, however, which he takes with him and leaves. The camera then pans up to the top of the city, amidst the sky scrapers. As the Bat-Signal lights up the night sky, we see the back of a dark shadowy figure that looks exactly like the presumed-dead Catwoman, which insinuates that the explosion simply knocked off one of her two remaining lives.

Reception

Batman Returns opened in the United States on June 19, 1992 and surpassed its predecessor's record for the most successful three-day opening in history, with receipts totaling $47.7 million; it would eventually gross $266 million worldwide, $145 million less than the original. Even though the film was considered by many to be "too dark," Burton thinks otherwise, feeling that Batman was far darker than Batman Returns. To this day, he favors Batman Returns between the two.

Batman Returns is currently the fourth highest grossing Batman film to date (when not adjusted for inflation) and was also the third highest grossing film of 1992 (behind Aladdin and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). Based on 42 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Batman Returns received an average 81% overall approval rating (the sixth highest for any Batman film, behind Batman Begins (84%), The Dark Knight (94%) and the animated films Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (86%), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (87%), and Batman: Subzero (89%)); the film received a 57% with the seven critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop."