Movies Like Batman

Frequently asked about Batman

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• How does Jack Napier become the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman?▾

  During a raid on Axis Chemicals, mob enforcer Jack Napier is cornered by Batman on a catwalk above a vat of toxic waste. A ricocheting bullet grazes his face, and Batman lets him fall into the chemicals after a struggle. Napier survives but emerges with bleached white skin, green hair, and a surgically locked grin, reinventing himself as the Joker.

• What is the connection between Batman and the Joker in this film?▾

  The movie reveals that a young Jack Napier was the gunman who murdered Bruce Wayne's parents in Crime Alley, making him directly responsible for creating Batman. Years later, Batman is the one who drops Napier into the chemical vat that transforms him into the Joker. Burton frames them as each other's origin story — they literally made one another.

• What is the Joker's Smilex plan in Batman 1989?▾

  The Joker poisons everyday Gotham hygiene products — deodorant, hairspray, lipstick, toothpaste — with a chemical called Smilex that kills victims and freezes their faces into a hideous grin. The poison only works when specific combinations of products are used together, which is why authorities can't isolate the source. He later plans a mass attack by tossing free cash from a parade balloon to lure crowds into a nerve-gas cloud.

• Why does the Joker target Vicki Vale specifically?▾

  The Joker becomes obsessed with photojournalist Vicki Vale after seeing her photographs and learning Bruce Wayne is interested in her. He sees her as an artistic muse and a way to wound his rival, luring her to the Flugelheim Museum where he gasses the other patrons and defaces the artwork. His fixation on her is part jealousy of Bruce Wayne and part the Joker's self-image as a deranged artist.

• How does the Joker die at the end of Batman 1989?▾

  During the final confrontation atop Gotham Cathedral, Batman fastens a stone gargoyle to the Joker's leg with a grappling line as the Joker tries to escape by helicopter ladder. The weight pulls him loose and he plummets to the pavement below. In a final gag, a recorded laughing-box in his pocket keeps cackling after his death, a last joke from beyond the grave.