SYNOPSIS
In an age of mystery and superstition, how would the people of Gotham react to a weird creature of the night, a bat-garbed vigilante feared by the guilty and the innocent alike? This tale re-imagines the Dark Knight detective in Victorian times and pits him against the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper.
CAST
Luke Evans (Dracula Untold, The Alienist) … Bruce Wayne / Batman
Lara Pulver (Sherlock, Underworld: Blood Wars) … Selina Kyle
Ted Levine (Shutter Island, The Alienist) … Inspector Gordon
Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire, Kill Your Darlings) … Harvey Dent
Maggie Smith (Harry Potter, Downton Abbey) … Sister Leslie
Kristen Scott Thomas (Gosford Park, The Darkest Hour) … Barbara Gordon
Michael Gambon (Harry Potter, The King’s Speech) … Alfred Pennyworth
Helen McCrory (Hugo, Penny Dreadful) … Marlene Mahone
Robert Knepper (Prison Break, Heroes) … Hugo Strange
Clive Russell (Sherlock Holmes, Game of Thrones) … Chief Bullock
Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, The Last Witch Hunter) … Pamela Isley
PLOT
In Victorian-era Gotham City, Bruce Wayne is operating as the bat-garbed vigilante, the Batman, who is feared by the guilty and the innocent alike.
One night, Batman saves a wealthy couple from being robbed by three orphans (Dickie, Jason and Timmy) and defeats their handler, Big Bill Dust. At the same time, Ivy, an orphan turned exotic dancer and prostitute, becomes the latest victim of Jack the Ripper. The murders keep happening night after night.
Citizens of Gotham believe the Batman and Jack to be the same man. Stage actress Selina Kyle, a protector of the women from "Skinner's End", verbally attacks Gotham policemen James Gordon and Chief Bullock for their inaction in stopping Jack. Later that night, Selina acts as bait for Jack. It works, but Jack gets the upper hand during their fight until the arrival of Batman. After escaping, Batman asks Gordon to help him bring Jack the Ripper down.
At the Monarch Theatre with his friend Harvey Dent, Bruce meets Selina and the two bond at the Dionysus Club. Bruce realizes that not only were the two of them taken in by Sister Leslie, but that some of the murdered girls were orphans formerly under Leslie's care. Bruce rushes out to save Leslie from Jack the Ripper but is too late as Jack has already murdered her. At the crime scene, Bruce finds a bloody Dionysus Club pen, meaning Jack has to be one of Gotham's wealthy. At Sister Leslie's funeral, Bruce is met by Hugo Strange, claiming he knows the killer and wants to meet with Batman. Bruce also is met by Marlene, a drunken old woman who claims she saw him sneaking around when Sister Leslie was killed. Alfred stops the three orphans from pick-pocketing him and decides to help them.
At Arkham Asylum, Hugo is attacked by Jack the Ripper and is ripped apart by his own crazed patients. Batman chases Jack on top of an airship in a fight that leaves Batman wounded as the airship explodes and Jack the Ripper escapes. Batman is chased by police, only to be saved by Selina when he is nearly cornered. After seeing Batman is Bruce Wayne, she takes him to her home where they spend the night. After the death of Marlene is discovered, Bruce is arrested as Dent accuses him of being Jack the Ripper due to his jealousy for Selina's love.
Sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, Bruce is met by Selina, urging him to reveal he is Batman to clear his name and help save the girls from Jack. When he refuses, she decides to tell Gordon herself, revealing she has one of his batarangs. Bribing a guard to deliver a coded message to his manor, Bruce escapes after staging a prison fight. Bruce meets with the orphans, who deliver him his suit and a steampunk motorcycle.
Selina meets with Gordon at the Gotham City World's Fair and discovers to her horror that Gordon is Jack the Ripper. Batman discovers this too when he is at Gordon's home and discovers his secret room exposing his gruesome hobbies and past as a butcher. Batman also sees Gordon's wife, Barbara-Eileen Gordon, with scars on the left side of her face that has made her into a lunatic praising her husband for treating her sins as a woman. Selina is injected with a drug but manages to use her blood and the Fair's searchlight to create a makeshift Bat-Signal. Batman arrives and fights Gordon into a Ferris wheel, where Gordon reveals his holy work is to rid Gotham from what he sees as filth, from the poor to the criminals but also immigrants, the illiterate, and anarchists. The Ferris Wheel lights on fire and begins to collapse. Selina escapes, while Batman watches as Gordon willingly burns himself alive. Luckily, Batman and Selina are saved by Alfred and the orphans. As they escape, they watch as the World's Fair burns down, hoping it will be replaced with something better.