Why Christopher Nolan Changed One Bruce Wayne Origin Story Detail In Batman Begins

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Everyone knows Batman's origin story. Let's see if we can condense it into a few simple sentence fragments, the way that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's "All-Star Superman" did for its lead hero.

Rich couple. Mugging gone wrong. Orphaned son. A Dark Knight. 

People often complain that Batman movies put too much focus on the death of his parents. But while Thomas and Martha Wayne are (almost) always doomed as Bruce's origin story, different films offer different interpretations of it.

Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" wasn't the first film to show the Wayne murders, but it was the first to show how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) moved on from that tragedy to become Batman. The film bases its first act on Dennis O'Neil and Dick Giordano's 1989 comic, "The Man Who Falls," showing Bruce traveling the world and learning to be Batman before he returns to Gotham City. 

"The Man Who Falls," itself taking after Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns," showed that Bruce Wayne got an early glimpse at his destiny, even before his parents were murdered. When he was a child, he fell into a cave swarming with bats. "Batman Begins" also adapts this scene and it becomes critical to how the movie swings in its own direction. 

As in most versions, the Waynes die in "Batman Begins" when they're leaving a theater. But in most versions, they were seeing a movie (usually a Zorro picture, with 1940's "The Mark of Zorro" being a go-to choice). In "Batman Begins," they're seeing the opera "Mefistofele." Young Bruce (Gus Lewis), recalling his experience in the pit, is frightened by the dancers in black bat costumes. He and his parents duck out of the theater, walking right in the path of mugger Joe Chill. 

Speaking to the LA Times in 2008, director Christopher Nolan said changing Zorro to "Mefistofele" wasn't a careless change. For one, he wanted "Batman Begins" itself to feel operatic, so better to include an actual opera. 

"A character in a movie watching a movie is very different than a character in a comic book watching a movie. A comic book character reading a comic book is more analogous to a character in a movie watching a movie. It creates a deconstructionist thing that we were trying to avoid. That was one reason," Nolan added. Avoiding that "deconstructionist" metatext meant removing Bruce's childhood love of Zorro altogether.

Nolan's whole approach to "The Dark Knight" trilogy was to depict a Batman who could exist in reality, more or less. That's why, as he told the LA Times, they saved a theatrical villain like the Joker for movie #2.

"[The Joker in 'The Dark Knight'] is able to be quite theatrical because we set up Batman as an example of intense theatricality in Gotham. It starts to grow outward from Batman. But the premise we began with is that Batman was creating a wholly original thing," said Nolan.

In keeping his Batman a "wholly original" phenomenon, Nolan also wanted to remove the idea that Bruce Wayne had been inspired by someone else, even a fictional character. "We wanted nothing that would undermine the idea that Bruce came up with this crazy plan of putting on a mask all by himself. That allowed us to treat it on our own terms," he explained.

Bruce Wayne being a childhood fan of Zorro, and that inspiring how he becomes Batman, is an innately meta concept. Zorro, the character, inspired the creation of Batman by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, alongside other pulp heroes like the Shadow, the Spider, etc. Zorro is Don Diego de la Vega, a Spanish nobleman in 19th century California. While unmasked he's one of the elite, but he also spends his days as a masked and caped vigilante dressed all in black who protects people in need. Diego de la Vega is the original Bruce Wayne, even if he had a trusty horse Tornado instead of a Batmobile, and a sword instead of any Batarangs.

In 2008, the same year "The Dark Knight" hit theaters, the aforementioned Grant Morrison and artist Tony Daniel added a new wrinkle to Batman and Zorro. 1958's "Batman" #113 (by France Herron and Dick Sprang) featured Batman visiting an alien world, Zur-En-Arrh, and meeting the Batman of that planet who had a purple, red and yellow costume. The story implied the adventure was all a dream, but 50 years later, Morrison revived this forgotten story for the arc "Batman R.I.P."

Morrison rewrote the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh into an alternate personality of Bruce Wayne's, one that is whole committed to and more brutal about being Batman. Despite the bright costume, the Batman of Z.E.A. is a darker character than the original. So, why "Zur-En-Arrh"? It's a mangling of something Thomas Wayne said right before his death. Coming out of the theater, eight-year-old Bruce Wayne was so taken by Zorro he asked if the hero could exist in reality. His father responded, "They'd probably throw somebody like Zorro in Arkham."

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With what happened afterward, Bruce's conscious mind forgot those words, yet they hardened like cement in his subconscious.

Since Bruce Wayne wanted to be Zorro, you can read it that his parents' murder happening right after that forged a link between his trauma and imagination. He channels his grief into being Batman because his boyhood fantasy is inextricably linked to the most important moment of his life.

In "Batman Begins," though, Bruce isn't happy and excited coming out of the theater. He's not invigorated by memories of a hero, he's terrified by the images of that bat. Nolan explained to the LA Times, "We replaced the Zorro idea with the bats to cement that idea of fear and symbolism associated with bats."

Fear is the big theme of "Batman Begins" — the movie features the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) as Batman's first masked adversary, because he's a villain who is all about spreading fear. Fear is also key force in why Christian Bale's Bruce becomes Batman, alongside vengeance, justice, and hope.

Part of Bruce thinks it's his fault his parents died, because if he had been brave enough to sit through the opera, they would never have gone into that alley. When Alfred (Michael Caine) asks why Bruce has chosen a bat for his masked self, Bruce says it's because bats frighten him. He knows Batman will need to inspire fear in criminals so he chooses something he believes is scary himself.

Note another important moment in that Batman origin that "Begins" cuts. In the very first telling of Batman's origin story ("Detective Comics" #33 by Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, and Bob Kane), he decides "I shall become a bat!" when an actual bat flies through his window. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli recreated this scene in "Batman: Year One" — Bruce prays, asking his father how he can make criminals fear him. The bat appearing now strikes like an omen sent to remind Bruce of his childhood fear.

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In "Batman Begins," Bruce doesn't need that one dramatic moment of inspiration. His fear, including of bats, is always with him. Every night he spends as Batman is him wrestling with and overcoming that fear, again and again.