‘The Batman’ Ending Explained: Robert Pattinson’s Batman Sets Up A Sequel (2024)

Vengeance is here, and it’s streaming on HBO Max. The Batman premiered on HBO Max on Monday, after just 45 days in theaters, bringing the masked vigilante to living rooms across the world.

Directed by Matt Reeves, who also co-wrote the script with Peter Craig, The Batman puts Robert Pattinson behind the mask, as the reclusive billionaire-turned-vigilante known as Bruce Wayne. Zoë Kravitz stars alongside Pattinson as Catwoman, a thief and nightclub waitress who crosses paths with Mr. Wayne and, thanks to mutual interests, ends up helping him chase justice.

You’ve seen this story half a dozen times, but you’ve never seen it quite like this. There are several different villains and storylines that make up The Batman, and, with a three-hour runtime, you can’t blame anyone for getting a little lost along the way.

Don’t worry, Decider is here to help. Read on for The Batman plot summary and The Batman ending explained.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATMAN? THE BATMAN PLOT SUMMARY:

The mayor of Gotham is murdered on Halloween night by a masked assailant who calls himself The Riddler (Paul Dano). The Gotham City Police Department investigate the murder, and Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and Batman find a message addressed to “The Batman.” After The Riddler strikes again, with another message, Batman and Gordon find a thumb drive in the mayor’s car full of photos of the mayor and a young woman named Annika, who works at a nightclub run by the mobster known as The Penguin (Colin Farrell). When Batman questions Penguin about Annika, he notices that one of the waitresses, Selina (Zoë Kravitz) recognizes her. Batman follows Selina and discovers that she is Annika’s roommate. Before he can question Annika, she goes missing.

Batman and Selina work together—Selina looking for her friend, and Batman looking for answers as to why the Riddler targeted the mayor. Using Selina as a spy, Batman discovers that many people in the city government, including district attorney Gil Colson, are corrupt and fear for their lives because The Riddler is going after corrupt officials involved in a historic bust of mobster Salvatore Maroni. According to Gil Colson, there is a “rat” who gave the GCPD information.

Selina has a run-in with mobster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), whom she seems to know. Soon after, the Riddler kidnaps Gil Colson, straps a bomb to his neck, and forces him to answer three riddles about the corrupt Maroni drug bust. Batman helps him answer the first two riddles, but on the third riddle, Colson refuses to give the name of the rat, claiming they would go after his family. He blows up and dies instead.

Batman and Gordon think the informant is the Penguin, and they corner him in the middle of a drug deal. Selina interrupts when she shows up to steal money, and the Penguin flees. After a big car chase, Batman and Gordon catch Penguin, but when they question him, they realize he is not the informant. They get a new clue from the Riddler that leads to an abandoned orphanage, where they learn that Riddler’s next victim is Bruce Wayne. Why? Because Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, was, apparently, corrupt. Batman races home to save his beloved butler Alfred (Andy Serkis), but he’s too late—Alfred opened a bomb in the mail addressed to Bruce. Alfred survives but is in the hospital.

Bruce confronts the mobster Carmine Falcone to find out if the rumors are true—was his father really corrupt? Falcone tells Bruce that his father hired Falcone to murder a journalist who had dirt on Bruce’s mother. He tells him that Penguin then murdered his father before he could become mayor, because he didn’t want a mayor in Falcone’s pocket. Alfred tells Bruce that this is not true—Thomas Wayne did hire Falcone to deal with the journalist, but he never wanted him to kill him. When Thomas found out what Falcone had done, he was ready to go to the police. Alfred suspects Falcone may have killed Bruce’s parents, but doesn’t know for sure.

Meanwhile, Selina finds out that Falcone—who is also her absent father—killed her roommate Annika, because the mayor accidentally told her who the rat was. And, surprise: The rat is Falcone, and the entire city is in his pocket. Annika goes after Falcone, but Batman stops her from killing him. However, before Falcone is arrested, a sniper shoots and kills him. The police go after the sniper and discover The Riddler. They arrest him and put him in a cell at Arkham State Hospital.

Riddler tells Batman he idolizes him, and he thinks Batman is on his side. He hints that they will both be safe from the destruction for the city he has planned. Batman discovers a clue that he missed—a plot by The Riddler to blow up the city seawalls, flood the city, and then murder everyone who is rushed to safety on Election night—including the incoming mayor.

THE BATMAN ENDING EXPLAINED:

Batman is unable to stop the Riddler’s evil plot in time. Instead, a bunch of people die, although, with some help from Selina, he does manage to save mayor-elect Bella Reál. Still, even in defeat, Batman continues to help save the victims that he can. When it’s over, Selina tells Batman that Gotham is beyond saving, and Batman replies that he has to try. The two part ways.

In one of the film’s final scenes, we see the Riddler moaning and groaning in his jail cell. A voice from the cell next to his tells the Riddler to cheer up, and hints that he has a friend. In case you didn’t guess from the maniacal laughter that follows, that friend is, of course, the Joker, played by Barry Keoghan. Sigh. It never ends! While there is not yet a confirmed sequel, it seems like Matt Reeves is setting up the Joker to be the villain in Batman, right? WRONG.

In an interview Reeves gave to Variety after the movie opened, he noted that, “It’s not an Easter egg scene. It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”

In fact, Reeves’ idea was that this scene would point to villainy persevering in Gotham, versus The Riddler and Joker teaming up in The Batman 2. Doesn’t mean they won’t, but basically the future is wide open. Oh, and if you want to see more of Keoghan’s Joker, check out the deleted Joker scene.

And that’s it—almost. While there is not a The Batman post-credits scene, there is a link to a mysterious website at the end of the credits. Decider’s Alex Zalben broke down exactly what that website is here. Goodbye, for real this time.