It’s been over 10 years since the release of Batman Begins, though to some of you it may just feel like yesterday that Christian Bale was donning the cape and cowl and erasing the stain of Batman & Robin from our minds. The film not only gave a fresh start to Gotham City’s Dark Knight on the big screen, but also popularized the idea of reboots. As with any making of any film, a lot of time went into making Batman Begins a unique product both in front of the camera and in post-production, including one decision that might not seem like a big deal at first glance: placing the title card at the end of the move rather than the beginning.
Director Christopher Nolan explained to Forbes that the film’s title was deliberately dropped after the movie finished so that people would realize that correlation to the journey that Bruce Wayne has just begun. As Nolan put it:
Well, the intent behind putting the title card of Batman Begins after the last shot of the film was very much to draw attention to the meaning of the title, to really give the audience that thrill that Batman has started, he’s been created and the origin story is over, and now he’s fully formed. And that felt very important to do.
Nolan would continue to place the title card at the end for 2008’s The Dark Knight and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. As the article pointed out, the director frequently draws attention to the titles of his films in the endings. like Guy Pearce’s Leonard leaving himself a memento to jog his memory in 2000’s Memento and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb possibly pulling off an inception on himself (a.k.a. still being in a dream) in 2010’s Inception. Nolan stated the reason for doing this is so that the main themes and ideas of these stories are "crystallized."
Before the title card flashed across the screen, the final minutes of Batman Begins showed a meeting between the Gotham City vigilante and newly-promoted Lieutenant James Gordon after they stopped Ra’s al Ghul’s plan to poison the city. Batman’s presence has led to "bent cops running scared and hope on the streets," but as Gordon points out, there is still the threat of escalation from on the streets. Case in point, Gordon pulls out the calling card of a new theatrical criminal causing chaos, teasing The Joker for The Dark Knight. After sharing a few more words, Batman jumps off the the GCPD building and glides away. Cut to black for a few seconds, and then bam! Batman Begins. Cue credits.
Although Christopher Nolan didn’t direct 2013’s Man of Steel, it’s worth pointing out that the Superman reboot, which he produced, also featured the title card at the end. Batman is getting a fresh start next year being played by Ben Affleck in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, but since Nolan isn’t producing it, it’s uncertain whether Warner Bros will keep his tradition alive for future DC films.
