'The Batman' Ending, Barry Keoghan's Villain Cameo Explained As Movie Hits HBO Max

The Batman arrived on HBO Max on Monday, with Robert Pattinson donning Bruce Wayne's iconic cowl and beating up Gotham City's criminals in an intense adventure set in the early days of his vigilante career. In writer-director Matt Reeves' movie, Batman faces off against the wildly creepy Riddler (Paul Dano) as the puzzle-obsessed supervillain targets the city's sleazy elites.

Teaming up with Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman, played by Zoë Kravitz) and GCPD Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), our hero unravels Riddler's dark plot to expose the depths of the city's corruption. It's a twisty-turny tale, so let's take a closer look at the ending, some of the major revelations, Barry Keoghan's chilling cameo and sequel possibilities. We also have a separate explainer for the post-credits Easter egg.

Be warned, SPOILERS are about to swoop in.

The Riddler allows himself to be arrested after exposing the depths of Gotham City's corruption, but only so he can watch his scheme's final act play out from the safety of his cell in Arkham Asylum. A series of trucks are rigged to blow up the seawall around the city, flooding its streets and forcing everyone to flee to the venue where new mayor Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) is celebrating her victory.

A bunch of the villain's online followers don his Zodiac Killer-inspired costumes like his and infiltrate the event. They open fire on the trapped crowds, but Batman, Catwoman, Gordon and the city's cops stop them in a pretty epic action sequence.Stunned after getting shot at point-blank range, Batman jabs himself with adrenaline and almost beats one of the goons to death but is stopped before he goes too far. After unmasking the guy, Gordon asks who he is.

"Me, I'm vengeance," he responds, mirroring Batman's slogan and making the hero realize he's been a bit too dark and broody in his approach to crime fighting.

Batman leaps into action to stop people from getting electrocuted in the flood waters, then rescues the new mayor and a bunch of others who got trapped under debris. As the power goes out, he lights a flare (a Bat-flare?) and leads everyone to safety, becoming a literal beacon of hope for the city.

With the city flooded and under martial law, Selena tells Batman she's going upstate or to Blüdhaven (a nearby city that, in the comics, is traditionally stomping ground of Batman ally Nightwing, but that character hasn't been established in this universe). She tries to persuade Batman to go with her so they can be broody vigilantes together, but he opts to stay in Gotham.

Joke(r)'s on you

Stuck in Arkham, Riddler is understandably upset that his horrible plan didn't play out fully. However, he's greeted by a seemingly sympathetic fellow inmate (Barry Keoghan). We only see him momentarily, but his facial scars and creepy laugh hint at his identity.

"One day you're on top, the next you're a clown... there are worse things to be," he says. "Gotham loves a comeback story.""Riddle me this: the less of them you have, the more one is worth," he asks, playing into Riddler's shtick.

"A friend," the Riddler responds. Yay, villain friends.

Keoghan's character is credited as "unseen Arkham inmate," but he's almost certainly this universe's Joker. It's unclear if he's encountered Batman yet or why he's in Arkham, but this appears to be setting up some kind of supervillain pairing in a sequel or at least hinting our hero will face a new kind of threat in this universe. This movie is reportedly the first of a trilogy, and two HBO Max shows (a police procedural set in the GCPD and a Penguin-centric crime series) are seemingly in the works.

Warner Bros. also released a pretty excellent deleted scene in which Batman visits Keoghan's character in prison, seeking his advice about the Riddler's identity. It gives us a better look at the creepy villain's scarred visage and hints they had a run-in about a year before the movie's events. But that shouldn't be taken as canon since the scene isn't in the movie. Gotham conspiracy

The mayor, police commissioner and district attorney suffer horrible deaths as part of Riddler's insidious plot, due to their roles in a conspiracy to bust crime boss Sal Maroni. The villain's puzzles send Batman and Gordon on a hunt for an unidentified informant known as El Rata Alada -- Spanish for The Winged Rat. Which sounds like it's referring to a bat, but it's revealed that Riddler is hunting for a snitch whose name is derived from a bird -- the super sleazy mobster Carmine Falcone (