Batman: The Movie (1966)

Film and Plot Synopsis

In Batman: The Movie, Batman and Robin are called back into action when The Joker, Catwoman, The Penguin, and The Riddler join forces to create the United Underworld. The Underworld latest plot not only threatens Gotham City, but potentially the world. However, the dynamic duo are willing to risk their lives, and maybe their hearts, in order to defeat the felonious fiends.

‘Batman: The Movie’ Movie Summary

Batman: The Movie begins with Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) responding to a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp (Reginald Denny) is in danger aboard his yacht. The dynamic duo take the Batcopter to reach the yacht at sea. When they catch up to the yacht, Batman descends on the bat-ladder to land on the yacht. However, the yacht mysteriously disappears as Batman nears the deck and the Dark Knight is lowered into the ocean by Robin. When he is pulled out of the sea, a shark has attacked Batman and has bitten his leg.

Batman uses his bat-shark repellent to get the shark to let go. The shark inexplicitly explodes. Puzzled, Batman and Robin head to Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon’s (Neil Hamilton) office, where they determine that the tip was a set-up by the United Underworld, a group of some of Batman’s most lethal enemies: The Joker (Cesar Romero), Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin).

The criminals have a plan to dehydrate some of the most influential people in Gotham City. To accomplish this goal, they have equipped themselves with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust. The dehydrator has been invented by Schmidlapp, who is not even aware he has been kidnapped. The United Underworld use a war-surplus submarine converted to look like a giant penguin as their base of operations, crewed with pirate-themed henchmen.

Batman and Robin learn that the yacht was in fact a hologram that was being projected from a nearby channel buoy. When the duo go to investigate the projector, they become trapped as the buoy turns into a giant magnet and their utility belts hold the heroes fast. Three torpedoes are launched by the Underworld, and the caped crusaders destroy two of them using their radio-detonators. The third is intercepted by a porpoise that sacrifices itself for the men who free themselves.

Later, Catwoman disguises herself as a Soviet journalist, Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff, or Kitka for short. She meets with Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego, and pretends to be kidnapped with him when the Underworld abducts the billionaire. There intention is to lure Batman out to save Wayne and kill him with another one of Penguin’s explosive animals.

Wayne escapes the Underworld’s headquarters but returns shortly afterwards outfitted as Batman and accompanied by Robin. The Underworld is gone, but they leave a bomb for Batman in the hopes that he is killed. Batman tries to dispose of the bomb, but he has difficulty with his task due to the large crowds of civilians around. Ultimately, he does get rid of the bomb safely.

Back at the Underworld, the Penguin disguises himself as the Commodore and convinces Batman to take him to the Batcave. The Penguin has dehydrated five of his henchmen and plans to hydrate them in Batman’s secret lair to kill Batman. His plan fails when he mistakenly uses heavy water to rehydrate the men, and they each disintegrate whenever they are hit.

Eventually, the Underworld use their weapon to dehydrate the entirety of the United World Organization’s Security Council. Batman and Robin pursue the Underworld in the Batboat. Robin uses a sonic charge weapon to disable the penguin submarine, which forces it to the surface. The heroes and villains have a classic 60’s era fist fight. Batman and Robin are victorious, but Bruce Wayne is devasted to learn the Kitka is actually Catwoman. Commodore Schmidlapp accidentally breaks the vials containing the powered Council members and sneezes on them, mixing the dust of each member together.

Batman creates a machine to re-separate each of the individual members’ dust molecules, even though Robin believes they should play god and manipulate them to help create world peace. Batman rehydrates all the members and discovers that they were only partially successful in separating the particles. However, all the members are alive and well. Batman and Robin leave via their bat-ropes out the window.

Additional Film Information

• Add the film to your collection today!
• Peruse IMDb’s article on Batman: The Movie
• Learn more Batman: The Movie information at Wikipedia
• Find out what people think about Batman: The Movie at Metacritic
• Read Batman: The Movie reviews from the folks at Rotten Tomatoes