20 Things You Somehow Missed In Batman Returns
15. Commissioner Gordon Is A Spectator (But He Is Involved)
Pat Hingle’s Commissioner Gordon is easily one of the most overlooked aspects of Batman Returns. In fact, even if you were watching film just to see him, you could very easily miss him!
His appearances are really reduced to cameos dotted throughout the film, firstly during The Red Triangle Circus Gang’s opening attack on Gotham Plaza, then in a brief newscast in which it appears that Batman has kidnapped the Ice Princess and, finally, in a brief but memorable sequence in which Gotham’s finest reactively shoot down Batman after the Ice Princess falls to her death.
The key events in these are the first in the last. We see that, in the interim period between Batman and Batman Returns, Gordon has come to trust and rely upon Batman, so much so that his first words in the film, shouted through a police radio back to headquarters are “What are you waiting for? The signal!”
Even better proof of his trust in Batman comes when he tries to hold his own officers back as they open fire on Batman following the death of the Ice Princess; he just cannot bring himself to believe that Batman would kill an innocent person (even though, as we all know, Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight and, to an extent, Val Kilmer’s Batman as well, were not too concerned about killing off bad guys).