TUMBLER BATMOBILE

The Tumbler from Batman Begins andThe Dark Knight.

The Batmobile depicted in Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films owes much to the tank-like vehicle from Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and has a more 'workhorse' appearance than the sleek automobiles seen in previous incarnations. The vehicle was never referred to as a "Batmobile" and does not have a front axle. The film's production designer described the machine as a cross between a Lamborghini and a tank.

In Batman Begins (2005), Bruce Wayne utilizes the prototype vehicle known as "the Tumbler" designed by Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division as a bridging vehicle for the military. It includes weaponry and the ability to boost into a rampless jump. The Tumbler's armour is strong enough to break through concrete barriers without sustaining significant damage. Two full-sized driving versions were used in exterior shots while another full-sized model with hydraulic enhancements was used in jump sequences. A further full-sized, functional version carried propane tanks to fuel the rocket blast out of the rear nozzle. A radio controlled, 1/3-scale electric model also performed stunts in the film including the roof-top chase sequence. Six vehicles were built for the production of the film.

In The Dark Knight (2008), the Tumbler returns and appears twice in the movie: where Batman captures the Scarecrow and in a chase where it's damaged by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Joker that causes a terminal crash to which Batman ejects from the Tumbler in the Batpod (a motorcycle formed by the front wheels and struts of the Tumbler) as part of a self-destruct sequence which sees the remainder of the vehicle explode. The Tumbler is also seen in the trailers in a deleted scene, exiting the improvised Batcave.

In The Dark Knight Rises (2012), at least four new Tumblers are seen.^[38] Each of these vehicles had the original Tumbler's camouflage color scheme. Each of these three vehicles are used by Bane's gang stolen from Wayne Enterprises.^[39] The stolen Tumblers are used in Bane's attempt to control Gotham, and are notably seen when the mass of police and criminals are about to battle. One of the Tumblers fires at the crowd of police, only for the Bat to take the shot. Three of the Tumblers are destroyed by Batman using the Bat and Selina Kyle using the Batpod.

[edit]Technical specifications^[40]

• Length: 15 feet 2 inches (4.62 m)
• Width: 9 feet 2 inches (2.79 m)
• height 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m)
• Weight: 2.5 short tons (2.3 t)
• Acceleration: 0-60 in 5.6 seconds.
• Engine: 5.7 liter Ford V8 engine capable of 500 horsepower (370 kW).
• Fuel: The "jet engine" on the back of the car was fed by propane tanks.
• Tires: 4 Interco "Super Swamper TSL" tires standing 44/18.5-16.5 in the rear, and two 94.0/15.0-15 Hoosier Checkerboard dirt tires on the front, with superior grip.

[edit]Features

The Christopher Nolan version of the Batmobile has a pair of autocannons mounted in the nose of the car between the front wheels. In "Attack" mode, the driver's seat moves to the center of the car, and the driver is repositioned to lie face-down with his head in the center section between the front wheels. This serves two main purposes: first, it provides more substantial protection with the driver shielded by multiple layers of armor plating. Second, the low-down, centralized driving position makes extreme precision maneuvers easier to perform, while lying prone reduces the risk of injury a driver faces when making these maneuvers. Other devices included:

• Rear flaps to assist brakes
• Dual front autocannons
• Rocket launcher
• Landing hook to Sprung landing stabilization
• Integrated fire-extinguishing system
• Integrated safety connection to gasoline control
• Jet engine (ram jet afterburners) on back of car for quick boosts/"rampless" jumps
• Stealth mode, which turns off the car's lights and cuts off the main engine. The vehicle is powered by an electric motor making the car very hard to find in dark places (which makes the mode most useful at night), and as demonstrated by the car chase in Batman Begins, can easily throw off pursuers.
• Explosive caltrops are deployed from the rear of the vehicle, which can take out any cars that make contact with them.
• Front of car is heavily armored, so the car can ram as a practical offensive attack, and also protects the driver while in the prone driving position/"Attack" mode
• Both front wheels can eject when the vehicle is damaged to form the Batpod, a motorcycle-like vehicle (the rest self-destructs).
• The new Tumblers are modified with experimental weapons:
  • A set of missile launchers
  • A retractable artillery cannon on a turret

[edit]Production process

The new incarnation of the Tumbler was proposed by Nolan after he built a proof-of-concept model design out of Play-Doh - a model he admitted looked "very very crude, more like a croissant than a car". Nathan Crowley, one of the production designers for Batman Begins, then started the process of designing the Tumbler for the film by model bashing based on that shape. One of the parts that Crowley used to create the vehicle was the nose cone of a P-38 Lightning model to serve as the chassis for the car's jet engine. Six models of the Tumbler were built to 1:12 scale in the course of four months. Following the scale model creation, a crew of over 30 people, including Crowley and engineers Chris Culvert and Andy Smith,^[41] carved a full-size replica of the vehicle out of a large block of Styrofoam, which was a process that lasted two months.^[42]

The Styrofoam model was used to create a steel "test frame", which had to stand up to several standards: have a speed of over 100 mph, go from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, possess a steering system to make sharp turns at city corners, and to withstand a self-propelled launch of up to 30 feet (9.1 m). On the first jump test, the Tumbler's front end collapsed and had to be completely rebuilt. The basic configuration of the newly designed vehicle included a 5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine, a truck axle for the rear axle, front racing tires by Hoosier, rear 4×4 mud tires by Interco., and the suspension system of Baja racing trucks. The design and development process took nine months and cost several million dollars.^[42]

With the design process completed, four street-ready cars were constructed. Each vehicle possessed 65 carbon fiber panels and cost $250,000 to build. Two of the four cars were specialized versions. One version was the flap version, which had hydraulics and flaps to detail the close-up shots where the vehicle propelled itself through the air. The other version was the jet version, in which an actual jet engine was mounted onto the vehicle, fueled by six propane tanks. Due to the poor visibility inside the vehicle by the driver, monitors were connected to cameras on the vehicle body. The professional drivers for the Tumblers practiced driving the vehicles for six months before they drove on the streets of Chicago for the film's scenes.^[42]

The interior was an immobile studio set and not actually the interior of a street-capable version. The cockpit was oversized to fit cameras for scenes filmed in the Tumbler interior. In addition, another version of the car was a miniature model that was 1:6 scale of the full-sized one. This miniature model had an electric motor and was used to show it flying across ravines and between buildings. However, a full-size car was used for the waterfall sequence.^[42] The scale model scenes were filmed on a massive set built on a stage atShepperton Studios in England over the course of nine weeks. The full-sized vehicles were driven and filmed on the streets of Chicago. In The Dark Knight, the Batpod ejects from the Tumbler, with the Tumbler's front wheels as the Batpod's wheels; this was rendered using computer-generated imagery when attempts to achieve the separation through practical effects proved impossible.