Batman 1989's New Sequel Explains 3 Key Movie Scenes 35 Years Later

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With the superhero genre now being defined by comic book style continuity and interconnectivity, the Burton Batman universe has retroactively become a steadily growing multi-media franchise, with the first two films – Batman and Batman Returns – inhabiting multiple timelines. One timeline ignores the Schumacher Batman films and continues the story of Michael Keaton’s Batman with comics like Batman ’89 and the recent novel Batman: Resurrection, by John Jackson Miller. Resurrection takes place between 1989’s Batman and Returns, and not only includes characters from both films but also recontextualizes key moments from the first movie, including the following three scenes.

Joker's "Go With A Smile" Line Is Now Even Darker

During the Joker’s horrific attack on Gotham City during its bicentennial celebration, the Joker refers to his plastic surgeon, whose botched attempt to patch his bullet-ravaged face together resulted in his signature ghastly grin. Right before the Joker deploys his lethal Smylex gas on a crowd of citizens, he says “But, as my plastic surgeon always said: if you gotta go, go with a smile.” The Joker, notably, spares his plastic surgeon in the film, yet the line implies that he killed him offscreen. Resurrection explains what happened to Joker’s surgeon, giving the line a far darker meaning.

Resurrection reveals that after killing Gotham’s other crime bosses, Joker and his men tracked down the surgeon – Dr. Davis – and kidnapped him, taking Davis to Axis Chemicals, where he was the first victim of the Joker’s Smylex toxin. Davis’s body was then painted and dressed to resemble the Joker, but his corpse would go on to be used again by Professor Hugo Strange, not Joker. Hugo Strange – who is a main villain in Resurrection – used Davis’s body to fool the police and Batman into thinking that the Joker faked his death while having Clayface assume the Joker’s identity.

Resurrection Reveals What Really Happened In The Flugelheim Museum

The Joker sets a trap for Vicki Vale in 1989’s Batman, luring her to the Flugelheim museum and sending her a gas mask. In one unsettling scene, Joker fills the museum with gas, affecting all guests and staff members except for Vale. While it is reasonable to assume the Joker killed everyone in the museum except for Vicki, the staff and patrons notably do not laugh or smile when they collapse, making it unclear if the Joker truly murdered them or used a non-lethal gas. Resurrection has “Hugh Auslander” (Hugo Strange) visit the Flugelheim, where he reveals what really happened.

Resurrection retroactively makes Hugo Strange a background character in 1989’s Batman by revealing that he was Joker’s scientist in Axis Chemicals.

Strange speaks to a waiter – seemingly the same one who served Vicki Vale in the film – who tells Strange that “people come for the ambiance,” leading Strange to think “and occasional knockout gas attacks,” confirming that the Joker did not actually kill anybody in the Flugelheim. The Joker most likely did not want to risk killing Vicki Vale if she did not put her mask on in time. Joker’s vandalization of the museum’s artwork is even crueler now, since the patrons and staff would have woken up to see the art they had been admiring now defaced.

How The Joker Shot Down The Batwing Is Properly Explained

During Batman’s parade sequence, Batman uses the Batwing to grab the Joker’s Smylex balloons and carry them safely away from the city before opening fire on the Joker and his gang with the aircraft’s weapons. Although the Batwing kills most if not all of Joker’s henchmen on the ground, it is perplexingly unable to hit the Joker himself, who uses a long-barreled gun to shoot down the Batwing with a single shot. Both of these surreal moments are explained in Resurrection.

Resurrection succinctly describes the Batwing’s targeting system as having little difficulty hitting multiple targets packed together – like the Joker’s henchmen – yet it was “somewhat of a blunt instrument” when it came to hitting single, surface-based, targets. While 1989’s Batman implied that the Joker fired an explosive round at the Batwing, Resurrection goes even further. The Joker shot down the Batwing with “an experimental military rifle shell that fried electronics,” making the moment fit the movie’s logic far better, considering the Joker’s access to experimental weaponry.

Batman is a 1989 superhero movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne. The film features Jack Nicholson's chilling portrayal as Jack Napier, who turns into the Joker and reigns terror on Gotham. Kim Basinger also stars in the film as Vicki Vale, along with Michael Gough as Bruce's trusty butler named Alfred.