The Batmobile from Batman Begins is called the Tumbler and it’s an incredible machine that performed amazing stunts during three movies.
Even though we know much of the action shot for this car to tear up Gotham City in pursuit of criminals wasn’t real, a real version of this car was made. The Tumbler looks like something that should be used by special forces, and in a way it was. During the movies, we see this car handle incredibly difficult situations and seemingly always come out on the other side unscathed. Let’s take a deeper dive into what the Batmobile Tumbler actually brings to the table.
The Real Thing is Made of Fiberglass
Special effects play games with us in the movies and we simply want to sit back and enjoy the show. No need to ask the magician how they performed the card trick, just admire the trick, and let it entice you. The Tumbler is made of fiberglass, but that material wouldn’t be strong enough to deflect bullets as we see in the movie. This lightweight body made it easy to jump around in and repairable if anything got broken. If the real thing were made of armor, it would be too heavy to drive.
How Many Tumblers Were Used?
The Dark Knight series is three films and for this car to survive that long, seven Batmobile Tumbler models were made. Strangely, not all seven were made for driving or for stunts like we’ve heard of with older cars in older movies. Two were driver cars, one was to show off the rear flaps, another was the car with the functional roof Batman’s arrival on the scene, and two others were fake cars. One fake was for interior filming of the car and the other was a 1/5 scale model used for some jump scenes.
The Actual Cost of this Car is Insane
We know studios pay the headlining actors millions of dollars to be in films, but the cost of these cars was ludicrous. To build just one of these cars, provided it was made to function as it did in the movies, would be $18 million. That’s a lot of money for one car. Thankfully, since these cars were props in the three movies, they didn’t cost that much at all. The fiberglass bodies certainly reduced the price compared to complete armor plating that would be needed for the caped crusader.
A Massive Engine but an Automatic Transmission
You want Batman to drive a manual, just to make him that much cooler, but that’s not the case. Besides, if you’ve watched any of the Dark Knight or other Batman movies, you often see him fiddling with something in the cockpit. Adding a manual transmission would make this more difficult. Thankfully, the Batmobile Tumbler does have a strong 5.7-liter V8 that makes a lot of horsepower and incredible noise. The models made for driving are extremely quick and can reach top speeds of 160 mph.
The Jet Burner Car Used an Interesting Item
The Car was designed to show us the rear with the flaps up and fire coming out of the rear used and items that are common to slow flight. This “jet” on the car was actually working afterburner from a hot air balloon. Instead of the slow burn to take off from the ground and soar above the world, this afterburner rocketed a car into our imagination. With this item at the rear, we assumed the armor-plated Tumbler had more than enough power to perform the stunts we saw during the three movies.
The Build Allows for Easy Access
It’s not unusual for cars on movie sets to need repairs, tweaking, or routine maintenance. The idea is to push these cars hard and fast, which is stressful to the mechanical features of the vehicle. The Batman Tumbler may have 56 different body panels, but they are all easily removable to access the parts underneath. The rear end was completely exposed, making access to this are easy for anyone that needed to work on these vehicles. These qualities made it much easier to keep the drivable models in action and not need more cars for the three films.
The Batmobile Tumbler Was Designed First
You might think the filmmakers would start with an idea and build a vehicle to fit the script. That wasn’t the case. The Tumbler was the first item made for Batman Begins. Before the costume, gadgetry, or Batcave, the Tumbler was created. The goal was to make something truly distinctive and different about this new Batman series. It’s easy to see, from the success of the three movies, they certainly hit their mark. Once the Tumbler was created, the darkness of this Dark Knight could become a reality on the big screen.
The Design Creation of a Masterpiece
Like so many creations we see on movie screens, the build of the Batmobile Tumbler started with a playdoh model. This led to creating a larger model with other materials to get a better idea of what this new car would be. The goal was to have an intimidating creation that looks fast and ready to take on the criminal underworld of Gotham City. The Tumbler might have started as a playdoh model, but it quickly became something much more. Maybe we should ask the filmmakers what color of playdoh they used to create that first model?
A Tough Car for Tough Stunts
You might think much of the scenes with the Tumbler were done with CGI, but they weren’t. These shots were all with a real car performing the stunts. This includes jumping the car or crashing through a wall. While those parts of the scenes were doctored, as expected, there wasn’t any CGI involved in scenes with the Tumbler. This might make you want to go back and watch the three movies once again to see what this car does during filming. Just keep in mind, that it’s still a movie and every scene is set up for the car to do exactly what the filmmakers want it to do.
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