Boy that Christopher Nolan does have a lot of time on his hands. Kevin Smith word had words with thee, Nolan. As if he hasn't given us enough with his trilogy of Batman films, he loaded the DVD release of his first big Hollywood film with as many supplementary materials as he could get his remarkably clammy hands on (this a rumour we're looking to start. Chris Nolan has sweaty palms. Please spread it as widely as possible before Interstellar comes out). A lot of detail went into Batman Begins, and it really shows when you comb through all the easter eggs. The DVD is pretty fully loaded as it stands, with documentaries on every aspect of the globe-spanning production, the filming, and the comic book source material. If somehow that doesn't manage to satiate your enormous Bat-appetite (battetite) then you can seek out all of the hidden stuff too, but be prepared for a long afternoon of wrestling with your DVD remote. Messing around in the "Inner Demons" comic you can read will reveal short clips of Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer talking about keeping the production a secret, test shots of Batman in action and more behind the scenes footage. The second disc is an embarrassment of niche riches, from factfiles about all the main players in Batman Begins to talks with the special effects coordinator, a rough guide to the memory fabric used for the Caped Crusader's...well, cape, art galleries, and more besides. Seriously, it's like stumbling across the Bat Cave, there's so much cool stuff on there. How to find it all: There's too much to repeat here, so try this complete guide
10. The Matrix's Red Pill And White Rabbit
When digital versatile discs first arrived on the scene, people thought they were a gimmick. A simple novelty that would provide no real challenge to the accepted format of VHS, which had already fought off the advances of Betamax and Laserdisc. No other form of home video could compete with the low low cost of VHS, even if they offered better picture and sound quality. Studios realised that they were going to have to offer something a little extra to get audiences on board with the DVD format, and it was with the release of 1999 surprise smash hit The Matrix that they began experimenting with how these "special features" would work. As the first DVD to reach 3 million sales in the US, we can safely say that the experiment worked. Like Batman Begins, the Wachowskis' first big budget film had an involved and complex production process as they worked to bring a fully realised vision of a stylish computer programme and a grubby dystopian future to life - whilst including filmmaking tricks like the slow-mo bullet time The Matrix became synonymous with. That meant there was a lot of behind the scenes footage and material that fans would just gobble up, and gobble up they did - so long as they could find it. Rather than simply dumping a load of documentaries and B-roll into a bonus features menu, they were scattered throughout other menus and the film itself. Locating and selecting red pills and following white rabbits would give viewers access to test footage of the bullet time camera rig, the short presentation the Wachowskis pitched the film with, and numerous other "making of" clips. Which are all pretty fascinating, if you can be bothered to look for them. How to find them: Just click 'em when they appear on screen.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
