Summary

• Prototype memory cloth is used to make the Dark Knight’s cape which enables Batman to glide, adding to his aesthetic as a bat-styled vigilante.
• The grapple gun aids Batman in evading enemies and saving individuals throughout the trilogy.
• Sonar lenses provide Batman with tactical awareness, aiding in tracking down villains like Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Christian Bale’s Batman uses several impressive gadgets in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Using his vast fortune and resources courtesy of Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne wields groundbreaking technology to aid in his crusade against Gotham’s corrupt as The Dark Knight. This includes access to proprietary tools and equipment, giving the Caped Crusader a key advantage to become whatever Gotham needs him to be.

In The Dark Knight trilogy, the majority of Bruce Wayne’s arsenal comes straight from Wayne Enterprises’ decommissioned Applied Sciences Division, which held various forgotten technologies and research projects. The division was run by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who essentially became Bruce Wayne’s unofficial armorer in his Crusade as Batman. To that end, here are 10 of the best gadgets used by Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy.

10 Memory Cloth Cape

Batman Begins

Telling Lucius Fox that he was interested in base-jumping and cave diving, Lucius Fox shows Bruce Wayne a prototype for memory cloth in 2005’s Batman Begins. While normally a flexible material, an electric current realigns the molecules, making the cloth more rigid based on a particular tailored structure. To that end, this becomes the material Wayne uses for his iconic cape as Batman.

Naturally, this memory cloth cape allows Batman to glide over the city of Gotham in The Dark Knight Trilogy. It also greatly adds to his overall aesthetic as a bat-themed vigilante. To that end, one of the most impressive shots in The Dark Knight trilogy is when Batman glides down between multiple flights of stairs in Batman Begins, having just used another device to attract swarms of living bats to serve as a key distraction for the GCPD.

9 Grapple Gun

Batman Begins

Also used in his traversal of Gotham City, Batman’s grapple gun is one of his most used gadgets in the Dark Knight trilogy. Also debuting in Batman Begins, the grapple gun was also shown to Bruce by Fox under the pretense of “cave-diving equipment”. Not only did Batman use the grapple to interrogate the corrupt Detective Flass in BatmanBegins, but he also used it both to evade Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) after the villain set him on fire and to escape a horde of Gothamites who were under the influence from his fear toxins.

The grapple run is routinely featured throughout The Dark Knight trilogy. One of the most notable examples was at the end of 2008’s The Dark Knight when Batman used his grapple gun to save Heath Ledger’s Joker. Batman refuses to let him die despite all the death, pain, and chaos he’d sown, choosing instead to catch Joker using the grapple gun after the villain falls off the side of the building where Joker had set up a line of hostages to be inadvertently shot by the police.

8 Bat-Shuriken

Batman Begins

While not featured nearly as much as some fans might have liked, Bruce Wayne did fashion his own Batarangs to use in his crusade against Gotham’s criminals. Although they were never called by their classic comic name in the movies, the novelization for Batman Begins did see Wayne toying with the “Batarang” name while crafting them. That said, The Dark Knight trilogy’s version of Batarangs are much smaller in comparison to other versions, effectively being more like Bat-Shurikens which ties into Wayne’s ninja training by Henri Ducard aka Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson).

The Bat-shurikens are most predominantly featured in Batman Begins, having been used by Batman to take on both thugs in the employ of Carmine Falcone and later Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow). However, The Dark Knight only sees Bruce Wayne looking at one just before he decides to hang up his suit and gadgets and turn himself in. Additionally, Batman did use one in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises while helping Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) fight off a group of Bane’s mercenaries.

7 Tumbler Remote Control

The Dark Knight

Another major tool in his crusade courtesy of Wayne Enterprises Applied Sciences Division, the Tumbler is one of Batman’s most impressive Batmobiles in the Caped Crusader’s entire cinematic history. Going beyond a mere car, The Dark Knight trilogy’s Tumbler is basically a high-speed tank that can jump rooftops. However, one of Wayne’s most impressive gadgets connected to the Tumbler is his ability to remote pilot the jet-powered armored car.

As seen at the beginning of 2008’s The Dark Knight, Batman uses the Tumbler’s remote pilot function to intimidate Scarecrow and his men in a parking garage. This allows Batman to get in close after the criminals fire the bulk of their ammo at the car. While it would have been nice to see this feature in action more often, the remote pilot function proves in one scene its key tactical advantage for the Caped Crusader.

6 Bat-Sonar Lenses

The Dark Knight

Developed by Lucius Fox, Batman’s sonar technology grants him a full tactical view of any given surrounding. Working in tandem with cell phones, feed was rigged directly into the Caped Crusader’s lenses, allowing him to see through walls and providing images of other rooms and floors. The tech was first used when Batman traveled to Hong Kong to extract and return the Mafia’s accountant Mr. Lau to Gotham so he could be questioned and tried by the DA and GCPD.

However, Batman then expanded the sonar technology to work with every phone and network in Gotham so that he could track down Joker. A massive invasion of privacy, Batman ensured that the immoral use of the technology could only be used once, granting Fox the power to both help him find Joker and then destroy the technology once the work was done. Having granted him a massive awareness of the entire city, the sonar tech is by far one of the most powerful pieces of tech ever used by Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy.

5 Project Skyhook

The Dark Knight

Developed in real life for the CIA in the 1950s, Project Skyhook was developed to pick up and extract individuals on the ground without aircraft having to land. This was done using both a harness and a self-inflating balloon to lift an individual into the air before being reeled in by a passing aircraft. As such, Lucius Fox gives Wayne everything he needs from Wayne Enterprises Applied Sciences Division to extract Lau from Hong Kong in The Dark Knight, using Skyhook and a Lockheed L-100 Hercules Wayne hired to pick them up.

While the device only saw one use in 2008’s The Dark Knight, it’s certainly one of the most impressive sequences in the entire trilogy. Likewise, Skyhook’s status as a real-life piece of equipment is also quite notable. It certainly adds to the grounded and more realistic nature Nolan was trying to achieve with his version of Batman.

4 Batpod

The Dark Knight

Deployed when the Tumbler becomes compromised, the Batpod is technically a vehicle more than it is a gadget. However, it still makes the list due to the incredible functionality of the technology on display in 2008’s Dark Knight. Despite having been destroyed by the Joker with a well-placed rocket launcher strike, Batman was still able to pursue thanks to the Tumbler’s ejection sequence. The wheels on the right side eject as the front and back of an entirely second vehicle, providing the Dark Knight with his own incredibly maneuverable Batcyle.

Allowing Batman to speed through areas previously inaccessible to the Tumbler without causing major damage, the Batpod would be used both in the back half of The Dark Knight and in The Dark Knight Rises. Armed with its own machine guns and grappling hooks, the only true sacrifice was the added protection for Batman that the Tumbler had provided. Regardless, having his own escape pod from the Tumbler with an auxiliary vehicle is quite the impressive price of equipment and technology for Bale’s Batman, especially in the event of the Tumbler’s tragic demise.

3 Sticky Bomb Gun

The Dark Knight

The Sticky Bomb Gun was also quite handy for Batman on more than one occasion in 2008’s The Dark Knight. It was first used during Lau’s extraction in Hong Kong, having been fired by Batman on the outside windows of Lau’s office before he even glided into the building. Set with timers, the sticky bombs blew up the windows right when Batman had Lau harnessed up, providing the perfect escape route with Project Skyhook just as Lau’s men had the Dark Knight surrounded.

Secondly, Batman uses the Sticky Bomb Gun again during the hostage crisis with Heath Ledger’s Joker at the end of The Dark Knight. Desperately trying to take out the incoming SWAT teams before they could inadvertently shoot the hostages whom Joker had made to look like his men, Batman used the sticky bombs to blow an entire floor out from under several of the officers before they could open fire. This was all while he was using the expanded sonar tech to give himself a full 360-degree view of the building.

2 EMP Rifle

The Dark Knight Rises

Marking his official return as Batman eight years after the events with Joker and Two-Face in The Dark Knight, 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises sees Batman pursuing Bane’s men on motorcycles after they attack the Gotham Stock Exchange. Using an EMP rifle, Batman shuts down several highway tunnel lights to mask his position during the GCPD’s simultaneous pursuit. He also uses the EMP rifle to try and stop one of Bane’s men by overloading the lights right above him.

However, a nervous police rookie who’d never seen Batman in person before shot The Dark Knight’s rifle, rendering it useless. As such, this marked the first and only time the EMP rifle would be featured in The Dark Knight trilogy. However, it’s fascinating to imagine other scenarios in which Batman might have been able to use it in future confrontations.

1 Bat-Darts

The Dark Knight Rises

Following his imprisonment by Bane (Tom Hardy) and the recuperation of his broken back in The Dark KnightRises, Batman returns to Gotham which had become completely taken over by Bane and his forces (as well as Talia al Ghul). Right as Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and his fellow officers are exiled from Gotham and forced to walk across the frozen river, several bat-shaped darts are fired off-screen, right into the necks of Bane’s men.

Bane’s mercenaries immediately fall over as the darts are laced with a tranquilizer. As such, it’s a very exciting way to mark Batman’s return to liberate Gotham, followed immediately by freeing the GDPD which had largely been trapped underground, and igniting a large flaming bat symbol for the entirety of Gotham to see. While one has to wonder why Batman didn’t use these incredibly effective bat-darts previously in The Dark Knight trilogy, they’re very cool all the same, looking like longer versions of his bat-shurikens/batarangs.