The Batmobile Page #5

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that could really work.

We wanted to address

from the point of view...

...of, yes,

if you had limitless financial resources...

...and therefore a lot of power

in particular ways and material ways...

...how could you focus that and apply that

to creating some very extraordinary gadgets...

...all of which still are based on real science

and a real-world logic.

So, what do you think?

Does it come in black?

I went down to the toy shop...

...and bought a Humvee and a Lamborghini.

I just got a saw and cut them up

and stuck them together.

I thought, that looks a bit boring.

So I got a P-38 cockpit and glued it all together.

That was a bit of a mess.

NOLAN:
I did some really awful,

little Plasticine models, you know...

...to show Nathan kind of the size

I was talking about.

CROWLEY:
So I turned up

with my big glued-together plastic thing...

...and he had his little clay thing,

and they both looked pretty bad.

But it was a start.

NOLAN:

So we bought a lot of model kits...

...started putting them together

in different configurations.

Taking panels off stealth aircrafts

to get those angles.

After five or six weeks we ended up with--

It was a model this big...

...to scale, no drawings, nothing.

It's not normal to start with such a prototype

from the guy directing the film.

Never been presented a project that way.

It would normally be concepts, drawings and...

No, that's totally unique.

Andy and his team, the first thing

they noticed was there's no front axle.

SMITH:
How's the steering work?

Where's the steering rack go?

How is it gonna handle?

And he asked me, "Can you make that?"

The answer was, "Yeah."

And then your mind starts racing.

You go, I just said "yes."

And now I gotta back that up.

Rear tires on the car

are a 44-inch monster-truck tire.

Super Swampers, I think they're called.

They're very aggressive off-road tires.

And the front ones

are roving dirt-track racing tires.

SMITH:

I always use a Chevy V-8.

[ENGINE REVVING]

It's an automatic, three-speed.

It was just a roll cage. Just to basically

get everything running and just get used to it.

MAN:
What do you think?

- I think that's excellent.

Better stop before

I start having too much fun.

We went away after and said,

"You know what? We can run with this."

Let's make a hundred-mile-an-hour beast...

...that can jump through the air, land,

and carry on driving.

We kept jumping and jumping, landing,

to see where it broke.

Strengthen it up, jump it again,

and find the next little bit where it broke.

SMITH:
When you jump the car, you would

think you'd wanna land it on the back wheels.

You don't. That's catastrophic.

It slaps the front of the car down.

You actually wanna bring it in

just on the front wheels.

We broke a lot of stuff that ended in a shower

of springs and shock absorbers...

...and parts rolling down the road that should

really not be rolling down the road, yeah.

CORBOULD:
We're trying to test it

to destruction, almost...

...so that when we actually came out

the other end of it...

...we could get on the set and be confident

that we could do anything that Chris wanted.

We tried everything that we could

to make it as indestructible as we could.

Pretty remarkable thing to see something...

...that you had just put together

in this extremely crude free-form way...

...rendered in such an exact set of details...

...and made into something

that somebody could really drive.

We built a special car just to get in and out.

There was a Batmobile that I would pull up in.

I would drive that and park.

The nose comes forward

and the seat comes up.

He wanted it to open

like petals on a flower opening up.

It all looked cool, exactly as it should,

but that was all.

The actual performance vehicle

was real stripped-down...

...and really bloody noisy inside.

It's like having Ozzy Osbourne

screaming in your ear.

I did drive the Tumbler on airstrips,

which was a hell of a lot of fun...

...because that thing can get up

to really pretty good speeds.

But you can hardly see anything,

so thank God there are stunt guys doing that...

...because that would have been very

dangerous had I been the person in there.

COTTLE:
I drive really, really close

to the steering wheel.

I always have done this.

I just feel more comfortable.

Because of the small window

that I had to look out of...

...we had some lipstick cameras...

...that we placed on the outside of the car

with two monitors.

If I couldn't see

what was directly in front of me...

...I'd look to the monitors to make sure

everything was clear.

[SIRENS WAILING]

We smashed it through

everything I could think of.

We drove it over the top of cars,

through walls, down steps, up steps.

Oh!

Sorry.

Going through Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago

and George Cottle was topping 100.

The camera car had a problem

keeping up with it.

In fact, when we did Dark Knight,

the camera we had...

...which is an ML55 Mercedes...

...he had it supercharged for Dark Knight,

after Batman Begins...

...so he could keep up with it.

It didn't need a stunt car to fill in for it.

It was actually doing all its own stunts.

We used explosion-proof tanks.

If they get punctured they don't explode.

That stuff comes from when I built race cars.

We always have racing seats and harnesses.

The relationship between us building the car

and the driver driving it, it is a trust.

You worry about what they're doing.

We constantly worry.

George communicates very well.

If he's concerned about something, he'll say it.

We'll fix it if it needs it.

We'll put his mind at rest. I worry about him.

You know, he's like a son, you know,

every time you send him off.

One time we did a jump and the car

bottomed out heavier than it should've done.

So we scratched our heads a bit. We thought,

if we let the tub of the car hit the ground...

...but we cushion that...

So we built in this flap arrangement

under the car.

They're hinged steel plates.

We run offroad

hydraulic bump stops on them.

So the car hits the ground, but it's

cushioned when it hits the ground.

It hits gently.

That was the secret to getting that car

to jump.

It was a location in Chicago

and we jumped, I think, 40 or 50 foot.

Because Chris

then had it in his mind that:

"This car can jump, okay, right.

You know, where can I take that?"

The best stunt for me in the Batmobile

was the jumping over the moving car.

SMITH:
We built a ramp

that we can tow behind the car.

We get on the move,

we practice and practice.

Then we have to take that on set,

do it in a tunnel.

COTTLE:
I was worried I'd get too much height

and hit the ceiling.

It was at night, as well,

so I could barely see the ramp...

...and they say, "Oh, there's gonna

be explosion in the back.

Would you be happy in an explosion

yourself?"

I was like, "Yeah, absolutely," I said.

"But only if you give me

the biggest button you have."

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