2. Blowing Up Axis Chemical In Batman (1989)
It's one of those fanboy debates that will never end -- just how big an act of blasphemy was it for Batman to kill in Tim Burton's films? Most fans tend to focus their ire on Batman Returns' infamously silly
"bomb down the pants" scene, but probably the most flagrant bit of disregard for human life in the Burton films comes in 1989's Batman, when Batman sends the Batmobile into Axis Chemical for the specific purpose of blowing it up...and presumably,
everyone inside with it. This isn't just an issue of collateral damage, of Batman going into battle and possibly racking up a few casualties in the thick of it. Joker has publicly announced his plan to lead a murderous parade through the streets of Gotham City, and Batman's response is to go blow up his factory/home base, with the clear intention of killing him. (When Joker flies by in his helicopter and yells "Missed me!", Batman's annoyed stoicism reads primarily as, "Damnit! I thought all those bombs would do the trick!"). Putting aside the questionable morals of this whole act (fair enough, Batman in Burton's films is more like the '39 Batman who carried guns and sometimes killed crooks, and those Joker thugs are necessary casualties in the fight to save the city), this bit of pyrotechnics just seems unnessecary. Presumably Batman has known for a good, long while now that Axis Chemicals was Joker's hideout, since after all, he was the guy who cracked the Joker's poisonous code a half hour ago in screen time. Why not get that information to the police, and have them raid the joint? (Sam Hamm's first draft script for the film actually included a beat where
Gordon and his men are about to raid the plant when it blows, but this was cut, presumably as part of the Burton/Schumacher film's co-ordinated effort to make Gordon into a complete moron.) Heck, why doesn't Batman himself just raid the plant a whole heck of a lot earlier?? Waiting for your arch nemesis to make a big public announcement as the signal to, y'know, knock over his joint doesn't seem like the smartest big of strategic thinking in Batman's history.