Childhood Bruce Wayne first appears in the film
Batman Begins. As a child, he falls into a well on his parents' estate and is rescued by his father
Thomas (
Linus Roache), but develops a
fear of bats after being attacked by a colony of them. Bruce tours a new monorail funded by his father, who explains that he nearly bankrupted his company
Wayne Enterprises to build it to help
Gotham City, which is experiencing an
economic depression. Bruce then accompanies his parents to see the opera
Mefistofele, but is frightened by a bat-like character in the production. As his parents take him home, they are confronted by a mugger named
Joe Chill (
Richard Brake), who shoots them both dead right in front of Bruce, leaving him deeply traumatized. Bruce is comforted by police officer
James Gordon (
Gary Oldman) as Chill is arrested, then raised by his parents' butler
Alfred Pennyworth (
Michael Caine).
Youth Fourteen years later, Bruce — still mourning his parents — plans to kill the recently paroled Chill. Before Bruce can take his revenge, however, Chill is murdered by an assassin working for mob boss
Carmine Falcone (
Tom Wilkinson), whom Chill was going to testify against. When Bruce tells his childhood sweetheart
Rachel Dawes (
Katie Holmes) what he had planned to do, she is disgusted and lectures him about the difference between justice and revenge, which motivates him to confront Falcone himself. Falcone dismisses Bruce, stating that he does not understand the criminal world, so Bruce leaves Gotham, intending to explore the world to find the means to fight injustice.
Training Over the next seven years, Bruce travels the world to study the criminal mind, often committing petty crimes himself to survive. After being arrested in
Bhutan for robbery and engaging in a prison fight, Bruce is approached by
Henri Ducard (
Liam Neeson), who invites him to join the
League of Shadows, an elite vigilante group. Bruce trains with Ducard and the League, conquering his fears, but refuses their final test: the execution of a thief. When Bruce learns that the League intends to destroy Gotham City, believing it to be beyond saving, he burns down the League's temple, killing their leader
Ra's al Ghul (
Ken Watanabe) but saving an unconscious Ducard.
Becoming Batman in
Batman Begins (2005) Bruce returns to Gotham, intending to use the martial arts skills he learned from the League to fight crime as a symbol of fear. Bruce takes an interest in
Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by the unscrupulous William Earle (
Rutger Hauer). Company archivist
Lucius Fox (
Morgan Freeman), a friend of Bruce's father, allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and a heavily armored vehicle, the
Tumbler. Bruce poses publicly as a shallow
playboy, while setting up a base in the
caves beneath
Wayne Manor and taking up the
vigilante identity of "
Batman", inspired by his childhood fear. He reaches out to Rachel, now the city's assistant district attorney, and Gordon, now a sergeant, to aid him in his fight against crime. While patrolling as Batman one night, Bruce intercepts a drug shipment from Falcone, ties him up, and provides incriminating evidence for Rachel and Gordon to use in arresting him.
Dr. Jonathan Crane (
Cillian Murphy),
Arkham Asylum's corrupt chief psychiatrist, doses Falcone with a
fear-inducing hallucinogen, driving him insane. Batman confronts Crane, who doses him with the hallucinogen as well, incapacitating him with visions of his parents' murder. Alfred rescues him, however, and Fox administers an antidote. When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, he reveals he has introduced his drug into Gotham's water supply. He drugs Rachel, but Batman subdues and interrogates Crane, who claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety, administering the antidote to her and giving her a vial for Gordon's use and another for mass production. At Bruce’s thirtieth birthday party, Ducard reappears and reveals himself as the true Ra’s al Ghul, explaining that the man previously believed to be Ra’s was merely a decoy. Having stolen a microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he intends to vaporize Gotham’s water supply, dispersing Crane’s toxin into the air and triggering mass hysteria that will lead to the city’s destruction. He further reveals that the League of Shadows engineered Gotham’s economic decline, indirectly contributing to the murder of Bruce’s parents by driving people like Chill to crime. Ra’s sets Wayne Manor on fire and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him. He then loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham’s monorail system, planning to release the toxin at the city’s central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob and indirectly reveals his identity to her. Meanwhile, Gordon uses the Tumbler’s cannons to destroy part of the track. Batman confronts Ra’s aboard the train, defeats him, and escapes, leaving his former mentor to perish as the train crashes. Bruce wins Rachel's respect and love, but she decides she cannot be with him as long as Gotham needs Batman. Batman becomes a public hero, and Bruce reveals he has purchased a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, firing Earle and replacing him with Fox. Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant and shows Batman the
Bat-Signal, and tells him of a criminal who leaves behind
Joker playing cards. Batman promises to look into it before disappearing into the night.
Fight against the Joker and fall from grace One year later, Batman has become a thorn in the side of Gotham's organized crime families, and inspired the public – to the point that several gun-toting vigilantes have begun dressing as him and attacking criminals in a misguided attempt to help his crusade. Batman stops a group of these vigilantes when they attack Crane and a group of mobsters, and apprehends the entire group. However, injuries suffered during the confrontation lead Bruce to design a new, more versatile suit of armor. In addition to the Bat-Signal, Gordon communicates with Batman via an encrypted
mobile phone signal. They contemplate bringing Gotham's new district attorney — and Rachel's boyfriend, Harvey Dent (
Aaron Eckhart) — in on their plan to eradicate the mob. While Bruce is Dent's rival for Rachel's affection, he is impressed by the D.A.'s dedication to fighting crime and hopes that Dent will become the city's protector, allowing him to give up being Batman and live a normal life with Rachel. Bruce travels to Hong Kong under the guise of a weekend fling with the Russian Ballet to apprehend the mob's accountant, Lau (
Chin Han), as Batman so Gordon and Dent can use him to confiscate the mob's money. Meanwhile, Batman and Gordon become aware of a murderous bank robber calling himself "
the Joker" (
Heath Ledger). Mob bosses
Sal Maroni (
Eric Roberts) and the Chechen (
Ritchie Coster) pay the Joker half of their money to kill Batman. The Joker publicly threatens to kill people every day until Batman reveals his true identity, and makes good on his threat by killing Commissioner
Gillian B. Loeb (
Colin MacFarlane) and, apparently, Gordon. Bruce decides to turn himself in to the police and shares another kiss with Rachel, who says that they cannot be together if he goes to prison. Before Bruce can give himself up, however, Dent publicly admits to being Batman to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker attempts to kill Dent during transport, but Gordon (who faked his death) and Batman intervene in time to apprehend him. With the Joker in custody, Batman and Gordon, now promoted to GCPD Commissioner, believe that the crisis is over, but become alarmed when Dent goes missing. Desperate to find Dent, Batman interrogates the Joker, who exposes Batman's
love triangle with Rachel and Dent, and reveals that they have been taken to opposite sides of the city, far enough apart that Batman would not have time to save both of them. Batman speeds off to save Rachel, while Gordon and the police head after Dent. Unbeknownst to them, however, the Joker had switched the locations, sending Batman after Dent and Gordon after Rachel. Batman rescues Dent just as both buildings explode, but Dent's face is disfigured, and Rachel is killed. Bruce is devastated by her death, taking solace only in the belief that she would have chosen him; to spare him pain, Alfred decides to burn a letter Rachel had given him in which she wrote that she had decided to marry Dent. Meanwhile, the Joker convinces Dent to take revenge against the people he blames for Rachel's death: Gordon and Batman. When the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital unless someone kills Coleman Reese (
Joshua Harto), a Wayne Enterprises
fiduciary who has deduced Batman's secret identity, Bruce risks his life to save him, persuading Reese to keep his secret. The Joker then kidnaps a busload of people and puts them on a ferry rigged to explode, threatening to kill them unless they remotely detonate another similarly rigged ferry full of prisoners, while his men hold another group of hostages at gunpoint. Batman persuades a reluctant Fox to use a sonar device to monitor all of Gotham so he can find the Joker. Batman frees the hostages and subdues the Joker, while neither group on the ferries destroys the other. The Joker nevertheless gloats that the citizens of Gotham will lose faith in humanity once they learn of Dent's murderous rampage as the vigilante "
Two-Face". Horrified, Batman goes to find Dent as the Joker is taken into custody. Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and his family hostage at the site of Rachel's death. Dent threatens to kill Gordon's son to inflict upon him the pain of losing a loved one, but Batman persuades him to pass judgment on the people he holds responsible for Rachel's death: Batman, himself, and Gordon. Dent flips his lucky coin to decide their fates, shooting Batman and sparing himself. As Dent is about to kill Gordon's son, Batman, who is wearing body armor, tackles him off a ledge to his death, saving the boy before falling and injuring his leg. Determined to preserve Dent's heroic image, Batman convinces Gordon to let him take the blame for Dent's crimes, and disappears into the night, now branded a murderer.
Reclusion Eight years later, Bruce has become a recluse, still mourning Rachel's death and rarely leaving Wayne Manor. In addition, Wayne Enterprises is losing money after Bruce discontinued a
fusion reactor project three years prior when he learned that it could be weaponized. However, his efforts to rid Gotham of crime have been successful. Using Dent's image as a martyred hero, Gordon and Gotham's politicians have eradicated organized crime in the city with the Dent Act, a bill that gives police increased authority. Bruce hosts "Harvey Dent Day" at Wayne Manor, but does not join the festivities. Cat burglar
Selina Kyle (
Anne Hathaway) steals a pearl necklace belonging to Bruce's late mother, and overpowers him when he tries to stop her. Bruce discovers that the real target was his fingerprints and not the necklace. Bruce tracks Selina to a gala and takes back the pearls, but Selina escapes again. Shortly afterward, Bruce is visited by police officer
John Blake (
Joseph Gordon Levitt), who tells him about an attack on Gordon by
Bane (
Tom Hardy), an excommunicated member of the League of Shadows. Blake also tells Bruce that he has deduced his secret identity as Batman and can relate to him; Blake, too, is an orphan by reason of violent crime, who has learned to hide his anger. He asks Bruce to return as Batman.
Returning as Batman Against Alfred's advice, Bruce resurfaces as Batman to pursue Bane, but the police opt to chase
him instead. When Bruce returns home, he gets into an argument with Alfred, who fears that Bruce will get himself killed. Alfred reveals that Rachel chose Dent over him and resigns from his service. Batman saves Selina from Bane and his men, escaping in the
Bat, a giant aerial craft made by Fox. Surprised that Batman is the "powerful friend" Bruce told her of, Selina informs him that she sold Bruce's fingerprints to John Daggett (
Ben Mendelsohn), Bruce's corrupt business rival. Bane uses Bruce's stolen fingerprints to make a series of transactions that bankrupt Bruce. Bruce is fired from Wayne Enterprises' Board of Trustees, but persuades CEO Miranda Tate (
Marion Cotillard) to prevent Daggett from taking over the company. Bane then kills Daggett, who had secretly been working with him. Bruce and Miranda spend the night together before Selina takes him to see Bane in his hideout. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham. Batman fights Bane, but Bane breaks his back and takes him to an underground prison in a Middle Eastern desert.
Imprisonment in the Pit The inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before escaping – the only prisoner to have done so. Bruce helplessly watches news coverage of Bane turning Gotham into a
no man's land – freeing its criminals, imprisoning police, and revealing the truth about Dent's crimes.
Apparent death of Batman Months later, a recovered Bruce escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham after Bane has taken over the city, planning to destroy it with the fusion reactor. Batman frees the police, and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Miranda intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself as
Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter, and pledging to complete her father's work and avenge his death. She activates the bomb's detonator, but Gordon blocks the signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Selina arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Selina pursue Talia, hoping to retrieve the bomb and return it to the reactor chamber, where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes. Before takeoff, Batman kisses Selina and subtly reveals his identity to Gordon. In the aftermath, Batman and Bruce are both presumed dead, with the former honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat Signal repaired, while Fox discovers that Bruce fixed the malfunctioning autopilot on the Bat. While vacationing in
Florence, Italy, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina. Blake resigns from the GCPD and receives a parcel from Bruce, leading to the Batcave. ==In other media==