45 Things You Should Know About Batman Begins (2005)

This movie was released on the 15th June, 2005 and it was the beginning of a new era in comic book movies. It was the start of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy where we would see the likes of villains portrayed by the incredible Liam Neeson, the terrifying Cillian Murphy, the Oscar Winning Late Heath Ledger, the chilling Marion Cotillard, the violent Bane of Tom Hardy and the ambiguous villainy of Selina Kyle played by Anne Hathaway. There's so much we have to thank Christopher Nolan for.

What we're going to do is go through the various things that you should know about Batman Begins (2005) on this auspicious day. So, why don't you celebrate by re-watching the trilogy? It's an amazing trilogy and as famous as the second one is, today is my personal favourite's birthday - so please pay attention to it.

45 Things You Should Know About Batman Begins (2005):

1-10

1) In each of the Dark Knight Trilogy films, there is a friend of Bruce's that turns against him - in Batman Begins (2005), it is Ra's Al Ghul.

2) In Batman Begins (2005), Dr. Crane thinks that the plan is to hold the city to ransom. It turns out that in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Bane's plan is to hold the city to ransom

3) The shooting of Thomas Wayne is modelled on Jack Ruby (nightclub owner) shooting Lee Harvey Oswald (the man who assassinated JFK)

4) One of Gary Oldman's only heroic style roles. In most other movies, he plays villainous or evil characters

5) The body count of the movie is 27

6) In every film, the main villain disguises himself as one of his own henchman. In Batman Begins (2005) - Ra's Al Ghul disguises himself at Bruce Wayne's party

7) 375 4265 is the number of the license plate on Bruce Wayne's sports car

8) Many aspects of Batman Begins (2005) are influenced by the Mask of Zorro movie

9) The construction of Gotham City took 10 months to complete

10) Dr. Crane's first name is never said in the movie even though the audience know it is 'Jonathan'

11-20

11) Christian Bale signed on to the movie before the screenplay was actually fully completed

12) The keysi method is employed in the fight scenes of this movie

13) The Tumbler weighed 2.5 tonnes

14) X-Men (2000) was one of the influences for this film

15) Christopher Nolan only allowed the greenlighters on his project to read the script in his garage

16) It contains 400 visual effect shots

17) Josh Hartnett turned down the role for Batman

18) Christian Bale was the first Welsh Actor to play Batman

19) A plastic cast was made from Christian Bale to make the bat-suit

20) M Night Shymalan turned down writing the movie after asked by Nolan

21-30

21) Guy Pearce was considered too young to play Ducard

22) Rachel McAdams was considered for the part of Rachel Dawes

23) Kurt Russell was considered to be Jim Gordon

24) Lana and Lily Wachowski wanted to direct 'Batman: Year One' initially

25) David S Goyer stated that Morgan Freeman was the only person who could play Lucius Fox

26) The 8th biggest grossing movie of 2005

27) Keanu Reeves was considered for Batman

28) The Chicago Board of Trade Building was the model for Wayne Tower

29) Thomas Wayne was based on Theodore Roosevelt

30) The average shot length is 1.9 seconds

31-40

31) Viggo Mortenson turned down the role of Ducard

32) Laurence Fishburne was considered for Lucius Fox

33) Sir Anthony Hopkins was offered Alfred but turned it down

34) Gary Oldman learnt his lines whilst on the flight to the first filming location

35) Ashton Kutcher was considered for Batman

36) Liam Neeson had to hunch down during the fight scene with Christian Bale as he is just about four inches taller than him

37) Batman was only said 10 times in the movie

38) Christian Bale weighed 95kg at the time of filming

39) Henry Cavill auditioned for Batman unsuccessfully

40) Daniel Day-Lewis was approached for Ducard

41-45

41) Christian Bale lost his voice three times during filming

42) Christopher Nolan kept trying to get Cillian Murphy to take off his glasses because of his bright blue eyes

43) Heath Ledger was considered for Batman

44) Christopher Nolan was very impressed with Ken Watanabe, so much so that he put Watanabe in Inception (2010)

45) A lot of Batman's technology is based on military equipment