"The Dark Knight Rises" Review and Discussion Thread (spoilers)

...maybe he can't afford the head-piece. Somebody did a breakdown on what it costs to be Batman, and they put a price-tag of a million dollars on the custom granite headpiece.

 

^

Customizers are all using that design.

One custom figure went for 224 dollars!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-John...912?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2573b9bf40

 

You know what's really funny about the Batman cost estimate? There was an article about in yesterday's Stars & Stripes on those particular estimates.

 

The cowl costs 1 million, but the entire body armor less than 10,000? Seems legit.

 

^ Didn't the high cost of the cowl come from the fact that they had to place a huge bulk order overseas on the custom design (something like 10,000 units) so that it wouldn't look suspicious (and instead would look like they were being bought for Halloween or theater costumes, I assume), and then buy a completely new bulk order because the first graphite cowls broke easily? Alfred and Bruce talked about it in Batman Begins. Or maybe they never replaced them since Bane broke the cowl with his fists.

I think it and the cost of the nomex survival suit are the two things we actually get cost estimates on in the film itself. Something like "bean counters didn't think a soldiers life was worth $300,000(?)" in the case of the body armor. So, I think they mistook $300,000 for $3,000.

Actually, if anything happens to a fusion reactor, it just stops working. No meltdown, no explosion. Some of the peripheral machinery or coolants used to generate the reaction can fail and technically "explode," but these would be on the level of relatively minor industrial accidents and not a nuclear explosion.

http://www.generalfusion.com/safety.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power#Accident_potential

 

Good to know.

 

I can't believe that they would waste this much time on "Robin" if the character wasn't being setup for a spin-off series. Given the popularity of John Blake, I'm sure we'll get a Nightwing movie in a few years.

 

Meh. That would be a "wait for video" movie.

 

I doubt that. It would de facto be a fourth Nolanverse movie, and I think it was made perfectly clear that it ended with part three.

But the question is, if WB were to get greedy and decide to profit on nu-Robins's popularity (which could end up being short lived, it's too early to tell), would they even get JGL to play him again? Nolan's actors are known to be pretty loyal to him, no? And as far as Nolan is concerned, this thing is definitely over.

 

Popularity of John Blake? I'd never heard of him before this movie.

 

They had to set up Blake as Bruce's heir and successor in a credible manner and, more specifically, for the audience to care about him. That's why they took the time, and it wasn't a waste.

 

I always wondered what exactly is happening when the Batpod's front wheel is spinning perpendicular to the road. It happens often in the new film but the signature moment is when he shoots out of the alley in TDK. It's followed by the Joker's comment: "So here's a Batman."

What is actually happening when they spin like that

 

^ I was going to ask about that wheel action too. I couldn't really make out what was happening.

 

Same here. I kept thinking, "How the hell is that supposed to work?"

 

My guess: The wheel itself is angled perpendicular to the direction the pod is facing so he can glide to a stop. Who knows?

 

With that line of thinking, we'd never get good superhero stories, just more formulaic stuff, and that gets old after a while.

Fraud wouldn't be difficult to prove, but getting things ironed out would take time, assuming it's even possible. Afterall, real trades were placed and I can't imagine it would be easy to get that money back.

The trilogy is done and Nolan is done, but he's given his blessing for a Catwoman movie at least, so this particular universe doesn't have to be over and done with.

 

The rear tire has a similar set-up, it's just more compact and harder to see.



Batman can just turn the front wheel and go in a circle in place (which he did in TDKR to align himself with the truck ramp and escape) or both wheels can roll and he can slide to the right and left. The rear wheel spin also helps when he popped a wheelie onto the wall and turn around in place in The Dark Knight.

 

Anyone see the "Mythbusters" episode recently where they tested the idea of "square wheels"? The idea being that at a certain speed square wheels will operate smoothly as the -somewhat- rounded corners end up being the only points of contact with the ground.

It didn't work out too well given that it provided a very, very, unstable ride even at higher speeds when presumably the effect would have taken place. While it produced a slightly smoother than expected ride it was still damn rough and bumpy.

I suspect this idea with the Batpod wheels would work out the same way. Rolling laterally -especially if its rolling on the gun turrets- would be a very rough ride. When I saw the scene in TDK I too wondered what was going on, seeing the same thing happen in TDKR made it more clear and it made even less sense when thought about.

It'd "work better" if the wheels where spherical or those crazy omnidirectional wheels on high-end forklifts.

LINK

These wheels give the vehicle the ability to basically move in any direction without trouble or needing to make a turn. It can forwards, backwards, sideways and literally "turn on a dime."

It it can do it without making the rider of vehicle feel like they're driving on a washboard road on four flat tires.

 

Nice find Locutus. I only remember the wheels spinning sideways though, not the gun assembly. Like I said, it was hard to make out what was happening. The tech in these movies use a lot of quick motion so that you don't see how things work.

 

Yeah, but those omni-directional wheels are designed for maximum maneuverability and minimum turn radius, not for speed or road travel. Most of the time the Batpod's wheels have the wheel treads flat to the ground and facing forward for speed. The only time he uses the wheels to go sideways or rotate is when he's slowing down/stopping or turning in place (unlike the Mythbusters ep where they were speeding up and trying to cruise the road with the square tires), so a brief bumpy ride is somewhat more forgivable than when you're at full speed. Also, the "fatness" of the wheels makes them pretty rounded even when they're going sideways, and they have some give with the inflation, so it's not nearly as square as even the rounded corner wheels with the hardened rim they used on Mythbusters.