Batman Begins (2005) quotes
After training with his mentor, Batman begins his fight to free crime-ridden Gotham City from the corruption that Scarecrow and the League of Shadows have cast upon it.
Wait! You could die. At least tell me your name.
– Rachel Dawes
[pause]
…It’s not who I am underneath… but what I *do*… that defines me.
– Bruce Wayne
…Bruce?
– Rachel Dawes
[Batman turns and leaps off the roof]
[taps the Bat-signal] Nice.
– Batman
I couldn’t find any mob bosses.
– Jim Gordon
Well, Sergeant?
– Batman
Oh, it’s Lieutenant now. You really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets.
– Jim Gordon
But?
– Batman
We still haven’t picked up Crane or half the inmates of Arkham that he freed.
– Jim Gordon
We will. We *can* bring Gotham back.
– Batman
What about escalation?
– Jim Gordon
Escalation?
– Batman
We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
– Jim Gordon
And?
– Batman
And, you’re wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
– Jim Gordon
[pulling out a file]
Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
– Jim Gordon
[shows Batman a plastic evidence bag containing a Joker card]
I’ll look into it.
– Batman
[turns away and walks to the edge of the roof]
I never said thank you.
– Jim Gordon
[looks back at Gordon] And you’ll never have to.
– Batman
Took quite a fall, didn’t we, Master Bruce?
– Alfred Pennyworth
And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
– Thomas Wayne
Took quite a fall, didn’t we, Master Bruce?
– Alfred Pennyworth
And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
– Thomas Wayne
But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just… poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.
– Henri Ducard
What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family… my father built…
– Bruce Wayne
The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir.
– Alfred Pennyworth
I wanted to save Gotham. I failed.
– Bruce Wayne
Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
– Alfred Pennyworth
You still haven’t given up on me?
– Bruce Wayne
Never.
– Alfred Pennyworth
You’re vigilantes.
– Bruce Wayne
No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.
– Henri Ducard
Which is?
– Bruce Wayne
Legend, Mr. Wayne.
– Henri Ducard
Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.
– Rachel Dawes
Are you coming back to Gotham for long, sir?
– Alfred Pennyworth
As long as it takes. I’m gonna show the people of Gotham their city doesn’t belong to the criminals and the corrupt.
– Bruce Wayne
In the depression, your father nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises combating poverty. He believed that his example could inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city.
– Alfred Pennyworth
Did it?
– Bruce Wayne
In a way. Their murder shocked the wealthy and the powerful into action.
– Alfred Pennyworth
People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol… as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.
– Bruce Wayne
What symbol?
– Alfred Pennyworth
Something elemental, something terrifying.
– Bruce Wayne
I assume that as you’re taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals.
– Alfred Pennyworth
You’re thinking about Rachel?
– Bruce Wayne
Actually, sir, I was thinking of myself.
– Alfred Pennyworth
But a criminal is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.
– Henri Ducard
But a criminal is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.
– Henri Ducard
What is the point of all those push-ups if you can’t even lift a bloody log?
– Alfred Pennyworth
Why bats, Master Wayne?
– Alfred Pennyworth
Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread.
– Bruce Wayne
I never said thank you.
– Jim Gordon
And you’ll never have to.
– Batman
Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
– Henri Ducard
That’s why it’s so important. It separates us from them.
– Bruce Wayne
When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.
– Ra’s al Ghul
You are in hell, little man!
– Enormous Prisoner
[punches Bruce Wayne]
And I am the devil!
– Enormous Prisoner
[punches him again]
You’re not the devil. You’re practice.
– Bruce Wayne
Nice car.
– Valet
You should see my other one.
– Bruce Wayne
You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.
– Henri Ducard
[screaming] WHERE ARE YOU?
– Jumpy Thug
[appears upside-down behind him, whispering] Here.
– Batman
Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.
– Bruce Wayne
Are you ready to begin?
– Henri Ducard
I-I can barely stand…
– Bruce Wayne
[kicks him] Death does not wait for you to be ready! Death is not considerate, or fair! And make no mistake: here, you face Death.
– Henri Ducard
Flass, I have kids to feed.
– Falafel Stand Vendor
What, they don’t like falafel?
– Flass