Son of
The Batman
After my first DCEU Batman movie pitch, in which Batman faced gang wars, Deathstroke, the Joker, and Jason Todd/ The Red Hood, we need to begin the next phase of Batman’s journey. Here's what needs to be done:
Continue the Bat family storyline, expanding Batman's story and arc.
Continue from the end twist where it was revealed to the audience Batman has a son, hidden from him by Ra’s al Ghul
Create a compelling villain, as our first villain: Red Hood, was very compelling and new villains will be held to that standard.
Deal with the fact that Ben Affleck is pretty old for a guy playing Batman
Also, Bruce failed to save his adopted son, Jason Todd last film. We need to build on this arc, giving him a second chamce to save a son.
Batman will have more of a family unit now and being less of a loner.
Villains Include:
Ra’s Al Ghul
Talia Al Ghul
Professor Hugo Strange
The Monster Men
The League of Assassins
Ventriloquist and Scar-Face
Amygdala
Copperhead
We begin in a shadowy cave, filled with bats. But, it's not Batman's cave. The cave is lit with a pale green glow. Bioluminescent chemicals within the pit at the center of the cave. It's a well, a well of evil, immortality, and madness. There is torch light as masked, hooded men, ninjas, walk a staircase carved in stone down a platform above the glowing pit. They pull levers, connected to chains, connected to an obsidian black sarcophagus now pulled out from beneath the surface of the water. On the sarcophagus is a demonic face. Ra’s al Ghul emerges and is clothed by his men. Later, in his palace, he is speaking to his daughter Talia, about how he has come to a realization: The Pit is no longer working. He is aging.
He has spent centuries fighting evil, but he has done nothing. Men kill in his name across the globe, but for every corruption destroyed, two more return. He is weary of the endless fight. He must find a heir. Someone to continue after him, and fight corruption as the leader of The League of Assassins. He needs to find a heir. Talia suggests herself, Ra's tells her that while she is a good daughter, unlike him, her appearance does not command respect, and would never be able to lead the league. Without him behind her, she would be nothing.
11 years later in Gotham
Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl on a stakeout. Batman is on one roof, Barbara and Dick on another. Barbara and Dick are making small talk. We learn Barbara is in college. It becomes apparent they used to date when things get awkward after Kory, a woman Dick is dating is mentioned. They stop talking as The Ventriloquist, guarded by the hulking Amygdala and Larissa Díaz, also known as Copperhead. Copperhead is a contortionist and a poison expert. Amygdala is a mindless hulking brute. Ventriloquist is meeting with a gang that controls this area of Gotham. He is silent, pulling out a stereotypical 1920s gangster dummy to speak for him.
The dummy, Scarface, tells the gangsters that now that Black Mask is dead [killed(shot out of a window by a missile launcher and blown up in mid air) in the events of Gotham City Sirens]he will be taking over the drug operations in this part of Gotham. The Batfamily swings down into action using their grappling guns, efficiently taking down the criminals. The gang is taken out, Batgirl fights Copperhead, Bruce and Nightwing battle the massive Amygdala. Bruce is thrown through a wall by Amygdala but managed to tranquilizer him. Scarface and Ventriloquist attempt to escape, but are surrounded. Ventriloquist apologizes for what he did, claiming the dummy made him do it. At the Batcave, Bruce talks to Alfred while being patched up from getting thrown through a wall. He mentions his grappling hook gun needs repairs and Alfred promises to look at it after he's done. Bruce then talks about how every few nights a new criminal shows up trying to become the next Black Mask or Joker. He comments he's getting old, and he can't take hits like he used too. Alfred jokingly suggests a new Robin, then quickly apologizes. Bruce tells him never again. Alfred tells him that he is getting older, and eventually he's not going to be able to keep getting back up every time he's knocked down. Bruce tells him that as long as Gotham needs him, he has to.
At Arkham asylum, the three criminals are being brought in. Professor Hugo Strange, Chief of psychiatry at Arkham is currently meeting with Riddler, answering every riddle asked correctly until Riddler asks “Riddle me this, who is Batman?” when he learns the news about the new patients and ends their session. He goes to examine Amygdala, describing him to fellow doctors as having been created during a failed surgery to cure his violent insanity. He instead became pure id. All that remains of his mind are humanity's worst impulses. However, the failed surgery also made him extremely susceptible to others influence, and a commanding person can control him easily. He orders that the doctors put him to sleep with anesthesia so that they may examine his brain.
The next day at Wayne Manor, Bruce, Alfred, and Dick prepare for a charity event happening to fund a new wing at Arkham. Barbara will also be there with her father Commissioner Gordon. We see Bruce is bandaged up from being thrown through a wall. During the charity event, Bruce encounters Professor Strange, admiring the bust of his father in his study(the one facing the chair with the window to the side). Strange thanks him for setting up the charity event, and also comments somewhat sinisterly that witnessing the death of his parents as a child must have affected him greatly, and that he looked Bruce up, and noticed he never went through any therapy for it. He offers to do some sessions with him as thanks for setting up the charity event. Bruce declines. He has his own ways of dealing with it. Strange tells him he should try something new, and that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. Strange then mentions if he needs coinciding about his former adopted son, Jason’s death, he could also speak about that to Strange. Bruce once again declines, a bit more forcefully. Strange asks if his multiple adoptions of orphans whose parents are killed has something to do with what happened to his parents.
That night, Bruce is having nightmares of his parents deaths in front of him, and images of himself beaten and bleeding on the ground as The Joker slaughters Dick, Barry Allen, Gordon, and Barbara with the help of Hugo Strange. He awakens to discovers Talia Al Ghul and an 11 year old boy in front of him. Talia informs Batman that the boy is his son: Damian. Bruce doesn't believe it at first. Talia explains that Ra's Al Ghul wanted a heir, someone to take control of the league after his death. He wanted Batman at first to continue his family line, but after Batman refused, he came up with a new idea. The League of Assassins secretly stole Bruce's genetic material and artificially made a baby, Damian.(we don't need to get into the specifics of how this happened)
Damian was created to be the next Ra's Al Ghul. He was raised from birth to be the world's greatest assassin, but Talia didn't want that life for him. She escaped with him from the league’s compound in Nanda Parbat, but agents of Ra’s Al Ghul are still after Damian. She wants Bruce to look after Damian and protect him. She then collapses from a stab wound. Damian cries out and runs to his mother’s aid, but she is dead. Bruce calls Alfred.
They discuss whether or not Damian is really his son. This could be a trap. Alfred agrees it could be a trap, but for now they should go with it. If it isn't a trap, it's a boy whose mother just died that needs help. No one was there for Bruce when his parents died, but they're here now for Damian. Bruce calls Barbara to do research into any league member activity recently around the world then goes to speak with his son.
Damian refers to him as detective and is pretty condescending, saying he needs all the caves resources to avenge his mother. He claims to have only come because his mother asked him too, and is only staying to avenge her. Bruce decides to try using the same methods he used on previous adopted sons, offering to help him, saying he can live at the mansion as long as he wants. We kinda see Damian is less like Dick Grayson, and more like a young Bruce Wayne if Bruce was raised by a James Bond villain. He then attempts to get to work on The Batcomputer, and Bruce activates the program used previously to scan for league members, finding nothing.
Commissioner Gordon is working on his office late at night. He hears a noise and surveys the room, finding nothing and returning to work. When he looks up again, Hugo Strange is there. Strange claims to need information on the Batman to in order to properly treat a patient. He wants to know what Gordon's view on Batman is. Gordon says he sees Batman as a man fighting to do what's right when no one else is because he's the only one who can. Strange thanks him go his opinion, but calls it nieve. He then leaves.
Batgirl does research in her college computer lab at night, when she is attacked by ninjas. She fights them through the computer lab and into the library before being tranquilized. At Arkham Hugo Strange oversees an operation done on one of the patients at the asylum. The operation is finished, and the patient is placed in an observation room while Strange waits for him to wake. To spread up the process, they release a gas Strange refers to theatrically as a fast acting steroid gas, with the street name: venom. He suddenly wakes, growing more muscular and violently screaming and running at the plate glass, punching into it in an attempt to escape. Hugo coins the term “monster man” to describe his experiment.
Strange speaks to his team of scientists, asking them to find a way to destroy the parts of the brain they need to to create a monster man without surgery, perhaps with a poison that attacks that part of the brain.
Batman introduces Damian, now living at Wayne manor to Nightwing. Dick/Nightwing will be watching Damian with Alfred while Bruce is out fighting crime. Damian asks to come, but Bruce tells him he needs to stay behind until they find out what's going on with the league of assassins. Before leaving, Bruce goes up to Damian's room in the manor to tell him that everything is going to be okay.
Dick speaks to Damian, asking him about what it was like to be raised by the league. He talks about how he was trained from birth to be the ultimate weapon, and the next Ra's al Ghul, and that he supposed now he will be trained to be the next Batman. We see more of Damian's human side shine through as he mentions some training in the league that sounds a bit like child abuse. Dick tries to push further but Damian claims it's no different than what is done here. Dick says that no one is abused with Bruce. He chose this life. He lost his parents and Bruce saved him from going down a dark path and brought the killer to justice. We see flashbacks to Haley's circus. Damian tells Dick that Ra's al Ghul finds broken people and forges them into weapons too. Throughout all of this Damian is having flashes of battling ninjas as Ra's al Ghul watches. Ra's yells at him to “finish him” as Damian stands over an injured Ninja.
Dick protests that weaponizing people is not what Batman is about until Damian tackles Dick to the ground, knocking him out by pushing into his pressure point. We see Alfred unconscious in another room.
Batman is fighting off a gang that was menacing a boy and his sister than zip lines away when shockwaves from an explosion nearby rock the alleyway. He runs towards a cloud of smoke about a block away. Batman discovers a burning building, along with 6 hulking monster men that appear to be transformed people. The savage creatures laugh or roar as they attack Batman. Batman is slammed into the ground by one. Another attempts to crush his spine but he escapes just in time, hopping onto an abandoned delivery truck in the street as he knocks them back with explosive batarangs. Batman tranquilizes two of them using the tranquilizers used on Amygdala earlier. Suddenly dozens more appear. It's the hardest fight he's ever fought. He runs, jumps, and dodges but he's out numbered. He takes down a few more as the monster men swarm him. Batman is bleeding and his suit is torn, he jumps into the abandoned truck and crashes into the creatures. He calls for Nightwing, Alfred, and Batgirl but gets no answer. Batman realizes as he battles the beasts that Hugo Strange and Ra's Al Ghul are both watching him at the battle site. Strange orders the monster men to finish Batman, and Bruce is knocked out.
Bruce wakes up in the bowels of Arkham asylum, strapped down in a hospital bed. His suit is missing, and he's in the asylums uniform. Hugo Strange watches him, wearing the Batsuit. He comments that he's wearing it to try and understand why Bruce does what he does. He wants to understand him. Why does he keep fighting even though he knows he cannot win? Why won't he kill? For what reason does he keep letting criminals like The Joker live to kill again? Bruce asks what the creatures he fought were and Strange describes them as his Monster Men. They are the dark side of humanity personified. He and Ra’s are going to turn the process that creates them into a virus, then release the virus to spread throughout the world. Everyone except for those that swear allegiance to the league in exchange for the vaccine will die. After this has happened, they will release a second virus to kill the Monster Men, leaving the planet a paradise for the few survivors.
Bruce says he’ll stop them, and Ra's al Ghul enters the room, telling Bruce that humanity is sick. Men like Joe Chill, his parents killer still exist today, in every city on earth. The League will purge this evil from humanity, and create a new world under League rule. Once the virus is unleashed, even Superman will fall to it. No one will be able to stop them. Bruce says that Nightwing, Damian, and Batgirl will come looking for him. Ra's reveals to Bruce that Damian has been working with them the entire time as a double agent. Damian and Talia both enter the room. Ra's refers to Dick and Barbara as Bruce’s “ disciples” and says they are both locked in Arkham, waiting to be infected. Strange comments it was his idea to use Damian, as he knew Bruce wouldn't be able to resist trying to help an orphaned boy. Ra's tells Bruce he should be thankful. They are creating a better world for their children and grandchildren. This is why Ra’s is doing this. He is dying. The process that keeps him immortal no longer works. This made him realize how little the league had really done over the centuries. He wants to create a better world for future generations before he dies. Damian will be king of the world in a crime free paradise.
Ra's leaves, ordering the others to follow. Damian lingers for a moment before running out as Ra's calls him again. As Professor Strange passes the cell of a man in a pig mask saying oink repeatedly, Ventriloquist, and Riddler he hears Riddler laugh at him due to the costume he is wearing. Riddler asks him “riddle me this? Who is Batman?” and Strange turns around as the Al Ghul family walks away. Bruce is trying to to cut himself loose from his bonds by using his momentum to push the bed to the far wall where cabinets may hide a sharp object. Hugo returns, saying in frustration that he needs to know the answer as he kicks the bed, pushing it into a cabinet. No matter how hard he tries to figure it out he can't understand him. He's studied his entire life from his birth to now and doesn't get it. He climbs on top of Bruce and begins punching him in the face until Bruce frees a hand using a knife he grabbed from a drawer to free his hand and grabs Hugo’s neck.
Two ninjas patrolling the halls of Arkham discover Strange de-clothed and tied to the hospital bed. The Al Ghul family is in the newly built wing of Arkham, where a bomb that will distribute the virus is being made by scientist. Talia speaks to her father, asking him if he is sure this is the right course of action. Billions will die. Ra's tells Talia not to question him. They are creating a new world for Damian. She apologizes and leaves.
Damian speaks to his mother, asking if his father has to die. She tells him not to question Ra's Al Ghul's wisdom. He knows far more than them. A ninja runs up to the nearby Ra's Al Ghul, who is watching as a large bomb is loaded into a truck. The ninja tells Ra's Batman freed himself and Strange is to blame. Strange tells Ra's that Batman doesn't care if he dies or not and has to be stopped before he ruins everything, repeating he doesn't care. Ra's says Strange must die for his idiocy and stabs him through the heart. Damian watches. Strange is shocked and falls to the floor. He then sends ninjas to guard Nightwing and Batgirl, discovering they're loose. Ra's leaves Talia to lead the ninjas on the hunt for Batman, taking Damian with him in the truck with the bomb.
Batman is watching from an air vent, and shoots a tracker onto the truck. He calls Gordon, telling him that a terrorist group is planning to unleash a chemical weapon somewhere in the city. They have to evacuate now. Gordon tells Batman his daughter is missing, and asks if it has anything to do with what's happening. Batman says no, and hangs up.
He then jumps down into the room Barbara and Dick are being held, where they are about to be injected, taking out the ninja guards, along with a monster man. Talia Al Ghul arrives and knocks him back with a kick before he can though. Bruce pleads with her to leave her father and join him, but she tells him that though he was once her beloved, now he must die, and attacks him with a sword. He flips, grabs her other sword and fights her, knocking her into a wall. He shoots a net batarang around her and promises to protect Damian, then frees Dick and Barbara. As they run down the halls to escape, criminals scream at them from their cells. We see Two-Face, a tally mark covered Zsasz, Magpie(played by Lady Gaga in a cameo appearance) Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and Copperhead.
Ra’s Al Ghul and Damian wait at Gotham's Airport, which has been taken over by ninjas. Ra’s private bomber jet is being loaded with the bomb, which they will drop on Gotham from the air. The Batmobile drives on rooftops above the streets Gotham as traffic tries to get out of the city. Looters rob stores and beak windows. Dick tells Bruce he's sorry about what happened, and knows Bruce thought he could help Damian. They all did.
They arrive outside the airport, it's pouring rain with lightening while they're taking out ninjas as they sneak through the building. The plane prepares to take off, and only Batman can make it on in time, crawling up the wheel and onto the plane. Alfred begins speaking to him through his cowl. He says he just woke up. He was unconscious. Damian knocked him out. Batman sends Alfred his coordinates, telling him to send the Batwing. Alfred says it should reach his coordinates in about 10 minutes. Bruce says he doesn't have 10 minutes.
He makes it to the large open area where the bomb will be dropped from, and Ra's watches him from a catwalk with Damian. Ra's sends a Damian down, tossing a sword to Bruce and telling Damian to kill his father. Bruce fights Damian, dodging his attacks and sword fighting his son as the bomber opens and the bomb is prepared to be dropped. Ra's tells The Detective that in another world they could have been ally's, but instead he chose the filth destroying Gotham below. For that, he will watch his city burn as his own son kills him. Batman protests that they don't deserve to die, they can do better. They can be better. They can change. Batman and Damian sword fight. Bruce knocks his son to the ground and disarms him, he tells Damian that there's a better way, and he doesn't have to listen to Ra’s. Bruce throws his sword away, telling Damian he won't fight him. He can kill him if he wants, but he needs to know there's a better way. Ra’s tells Damien to finish him. Damian stabs Bruce with a hidden dagger. As Bruce coughs up blood he tells Damian everything is going to be okay. Damian pulls the dagger out.
Ra's jumps down to congratulate Damian. Damian looks at his bloody hands in horror and stabs Ra's. Ra’s looks at his wound, and picks Damian up by the neck, throwing him into a wall as he calls him an ungrateful brat, stopping as he realizes he is dying. He falls over, rolling out of the plane. Damian see's the bomb is moving on a track out of the plane and tries to grab it, but it's too heavy. Bruce lays on the floor watching, trying to pull himself up. Damian runs up to Bruce, trying to help him up. Bruce staggers up, partly leaning on Damian.
He tries to help Damian dislodge the bomb from the track. Rain pours into the plane. Batman attaches a grappling hook to the bomb and pulls it with Damian. He shoots another into the planes wall as it edges closer to the exit. Looters and people trying to get out of Gotham look up to the sky as the plane flies over the city. Gordon and a few cops are cuffing a group of looters and look up at the sky. Damian tries to push the bomb back and Bruce tries to pull it, wrapping the wires from the grappling hooks on his arms.
Bruce is pulled out of the plane as the bomb reaches the edge and falls but still clutches the bomb. Damian holds onto the wire from the plane. Batman holds on with all his strength as the bomb, many times his weight, begins to slip. Damian climbs down onto Bruce, grabbing his utility belt to shoot more grappling hooks, attaching them together so that the bomb is attached to the plane. Alfred speaks to Bruce through the helmet, telling him he's sending the batwing, it's coming, the job is finished, and the city saved. Batman falls as the Batwing zooms towards him.
Later, Barbara is reunited with her father, and they hug in the rain. She says she can't tell him what she was doing. In his happiness she is okay he says it's alright, he's just happy she's safe. Talia Al Ghul learns of the death of her father and announces herself the new head of the league. Bruce Wayne sleeps.
Bruce is at his parents tomb. He tells them he isn't ready yet. He thought he was but he isn't. He still has things to do. It's not enough. He hasn't done enough. Damian needs him.
Bruce Wayne wakes up. He is in bed at home. There are stitches in him and he's got bandages all over. He walks out and down the stairs to find Damian, Dick, Barbara, and Alfred. Damian is still aloof and a bit of a jerk but is kinder. He's made a connection with these people. He learns Damian piloted the plane down and that the GCPD is destroying every sample of the virus found. A record of those who swore allegiance to the league in exchange for vaccines was found and they are being arrested around the world. Talia has gone off the grid. Bruce did it. The world is safe. He says he couldn't have done it without them.
Later, Bruce speaks to Damian in the cave. Bruce doesn't want to force him into anything. If he wants to be a normal kid he can. Bruce will pay for anywhere he wants to go. If he doesn't want that though, Batman needs a Robin. Bruce tells Damian he’ll let him be the next Robin, but he has to follow his rules, and forget what he learned from the league. That means no killing. They have to set an example. Damian is given a new Robin suit. Before he goes out into the field though, he has to train. He’ll train with Nightwing and Barbara until he's ready. Damian, says that is what he wants.
The End
Next Time: Death of The Family