The Batman
The Batman Plot
On Halloween, Gotham City mayor Don Mitchell Jr. is assassinated by the Riddler, a masked maniac. Bruce Wayne, a reclusive billionaire who has been operating as the vigilante Batman for two years, is investigating the murder alongside the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD). Lieutenant James Gordon discovers a note left for Batman by the Riddler. The Riddler kills Commissioner Pete Savage the next night and leaves another message for Batman.
The Riddler put a thumb drive in Mitchell’s car containing photographs of Mitchell with a lady, Annika Kosolov, at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub run by the Penguin, gangster Carmine Falcone’s lieutenant. Batman and Gordon uncover this. While the Penguin claims ignorance, Batman notes that Annika’s roommate and friend, Selina Kyle, works as a waiter at the club. When Annika vanishes, Batman sends Selina back to the Iceberg Lounge in search of information, where she discovers that Savage, like district attorney Gil Colson, is on Falcone’s payroll.
Colson is kidnapped by the Riddler, who straps a timed collar bomb to his neck and sends him to disrupt Mitchell’s funeral. When Batman arrives, the Riddler calls him on Colson’s phone, threatening to explode the bomb unless Colson can solve three riddles. Colson dies after refusing to answer the final question—the identity of the informant who provided the GCPD with information that led to a major narcotics arrest that put an end to mobster Salvatore Maroni’s organization. The Penguin could be the informant, so Batman and Gordon pursue him down to a heroin trade. They learn that Maroni’s operation has been handed to Falcone, with a large number of corrupt GCPD personnel involved. When Selina arrives to steal money and discovers Annika’s body in a car trunk, she unwittingly exposes them. Batman captures the Penguin after a vehicle pursuit, but discovers he is not the informant.
Following the Riddler’s trail, Batman and Gordon arrive at the ruins of an orphanage founded by Bruce’s dead parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, where they find that the Riddler has a grudge against the Waynes. Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s butler and carer, gets hospitalized after opening a letter bomb meant to Bruce. The Riddler reveals that Thomas, who was campaigning for mayor at the time of his murder, hired Falcone to assassinate a journalist for threatening to disclose details about Martha and her family’s mental illness history.
Bruce confronts Alfred, who claims that Thomas just asked Falcone to intimidate the journalist into silence, and that Thomas intended to turn himself and Falcone over to the authorities once he discovered Falcone murdered the journalist instead. To prevent this, Alfred believes Falcone assassinated Thomas and Martha.
Falcone is Selina’s inattentive father, as she explains to Batman. After realizing that he strangled Annika because Mitchell told her that Falcone was the informant, she intends to kill him. Although Batman and Gordon arrive in time to stop her, Falcone is killed by the Riddler as he is being detained. The Riddler is revealed to be forensic accountant Edward Nashton, and he is imprisoned at Arkham State Hospital, where he informs Batman that he was inspired by him when pursuing corrupt officials. Nashton has planted car bombs throughout Gotham and established an internet following with the intention of assassinating mayor-elect Bella Reál, according to Batman.
The bombs damage the seawall surrounding Gotham, causing the city to flood. Nashton’s followers attempt to assassinate Reál, but Batman and Selina intervene. Nashton befriends another convict in the aftermath,[a], while Selina decides that Gotham is beyond saving and flees. Batman lends a hand in the rehabilitation work and promises to instill hope in Gotham.