Matt Reeves Says The Final Showdown In The Batman Took 80 Takes

A hero is only as good as their villain in a superhero story. Many of us tend to judge a film by the villain more than the person who is supposed to stop them. For Batman, the main villain has always been the Joker, and there are plenty of places (including the animated film "The Killing Joke") where it's made clear that one can't really exist without the other. However, when "The Batman" came out in 2022, another villain moved up my personal list of the best of Batman's rogues gallery.

Paul Dano's performance as the Riddler was just incredible and pretty terrifying. Enough so that when I happened to very randomly pass Dano at a film event, I found myself moving back a step. While I am very much aware that Dano is not his character, that wasn't long after I saw "The Batman," and his performance really shook me. Dano is a brilliant actor, of course, but his work here seemed effortless, and that's part of why it was so compelling and chilling. It wasn't effortless, however, according to Dano's recent interview in The Guardian, which featured a quote from writer/director Matt Reeves. In fact, there were a whole lot of takes for one of the craziest scenes in the film; the confrontation between Batman and the Riddler.

In the scene, Robert Pattinson's Batman visits Edward Nashton, aka Riddler, in Gotham State Hospital. Nashton tells him that his work as the caped crusader has inspired him and helped create his plan. When Batman rebuffs him, Nashton is wildly disappointed and upset. It's pretty horrifying to watch him have a complete meltdown and this was the scene where Reeves said they shot a lot of takes. The director explained: 

"Paul loves doing a lot of takes, as do I. We took two days on the final scene between him and Robert Pattinson as Batman, and we must have easily done 70 or 80 takes. Paul loves exploring. He's obsessive that way [...] There were all these moments as the Riddler where he'd be tickled by something and then fly into a rage, and you never knew from take to take where that switch would come. I'd be sitting there with the headphones on, trying to stifle my laughter because he'd always do something surprising. Paul would ask me: 'Was that crazy? Was that too much?' I'd say: 'No it's fantastic. Let's do another.'"

While that seems like an excessive amount of takes for a normal film, this scene was really raw and nuanced. We've all had that moment of feeling out of control of our emotions. Seeing Nashton lose it like that gives us a grim view of a worst-case scenario where you got something so wrong that it destroys who you think you are. I'd honestly love to see some of those outtakes, though I imagine it would give me nightmares. 

"The Batman" is currently streaming on Max.