“Don’t be afraid.” That’s a big theme of Batman Begins, a movie all about being terrified and facing one’s greatest fears. “Don’t be afraid” are the dying words of Thomas Wayne to his son Bruce.

Bruce Wayne’s 3 Biggest Fears

Bruce Wayne carries a fear of bats, the shady underworld of crime, and the memory of his parents. He fears bats because they’re loud and dangerous. The crime world is shrouded in mystery to a sheltered young man. As Carmine Falcone famously says, “You always fear what you don’t understand. The third fear Bruce has is the worst of all. He feels guilty for his parents’ murder. And it’s connected to his two other fears. He was afraid of the bats in a play, forcing his parents to take him out of the theater where they met a vagrant who wanted their money and valuables.

How does Bruce overcome his fears? He embraces the darkness that bats represent. He takes upon himself the name Batman so that criminals will face the same dread he felt when he was first confronted by those creatures in a dark cave. To overcome his fear of crime, Bruce lives among thieves and criminals. Once he understands the desperation and hunger that drives them, he’s equipped with the mental facility to fight them more effectively.

How Batman Represents Bruce’s Triumph Over All 3 Fears

Bruce’s solution to his fear of his parents is more complicated. At first, he thinks the best thing to do is to shoot his parents’ murderer. Joe Chill killed Bruce’s family, so he will kill Joe in return. A perfect revenge. Poetic even. Thankfully, fate intervenes to prevent this. A thug (acting on behalf of a crime boss) does the deed seconds before Bruce can get close enough to do it himself. Bruce later admits that he was just a coward with a gun. When he realizes his mistake, he throws the gun away and begins a long journey of self-discovery. At the end of that journey, he meets Ras-al-Ghul, who teaches him that his parent’s death wasn’t his fault. It was his father’s fault.

If Bruce hadn’t been able to confront the guilt that was poisoning his soul, he would have eventually come to a point where he wished his parents had never existed. Only that could have spared him the pain of their loss. But because he was able to forgive himself, Bruce was able to take solace in fighting crime in general. His solution to all three fears led him to the same conclusion. He would adopt the bat as a symbol to fight crime in honor of his parents.

Another Key Theme of Batman Begins

The other theme of Batman Begins is summed up in these words: “Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” That’s also said by Thomas Wayne to his son. We see Bruce fall literally and figuratively several times in the movie. He is exhausted after a long climb up a mountain, and he instantly falls to a superior foe in a fight. He gets knocked down many times during training, including once on a frozen lake. And he surrenders control of his father’s business and abandons the love of his life to sink to the level of a homeless thief.

The Connection Between the Themes and Fears

I think there’s a connection between those two themes: “Don’t be afraid” and “Why do we fall?”

A pivotal moment when all of the themes and fears come into play is when Batman is confronted by a seemingly impossible situation. He has to get his love Rachel Dawes to safety, but he’s surrounded by police. So he calls an army of bats to him with a special sound device.

Bats become a source of safety when he calls them to him rather than trying to get away from them in a panic. His fear becomes everyone else’s dread. Then he leaps down a great height, safely lands on the bottom floor, and runs nonchalantly past cell after cell of criminals. And he works with Jim Gordon, the police officer who comforted him after his parents’ murder, to rescue Rachel, who is also like a ghost from his past. Rachel represents Bruce’s happy life before his parents’ death, and Gordon represents Bruce’s difficult life afterward.

Everything is present in this scene. Bruce is no longer afraid. Batman represents his ability to overcome his fears by striking fear into the hearts of criminals so that he can honor his parents in the form of Rachel and Gordon.

Batman Begins and Bruce Conquers

Batman in Batman Begins is more than a masked vigilante. He represents Bruce Wayne’s growth as a character. Each time Bruce faces a new challenge, he implements the solution into his alter ego in the form of armor, weapons, tools, vehicles, inoculants, and friends.

I think the name Batman Begins is evocative of the fact that Bruce is on a journey throughout this film. It’s a journey of learning about himself, his fears, and his failures. By the end of the film, Bruce has hope. Even though part of Gotham City seems to be lost to a fear drug, he says he and Gordon can bring it back. Even though Wayne Manor is destroyed, he plans to restore it. Even though Rachel turns down his romantic gesture, he believes it’s only temporary.

As Batman begins, Bruce conquers his fears. That’s what makes this such an interesting superhero film. It’s not about a teenager learning responsibility, a group of superpowered misfits learning to work together as a team, or even a desperate man seeking revenge. It’s about a broken man consumed by guilt and fear learning to overcome those feelings and transform into something great.

And I suppose that feeds into the third theme of the film that is hidden in plain sight. Near the end of the film, Bruce tells his faithful helper Alfred Pennyworth, “You still haven’t given up on me?” And Alfred responds, “Never.” Alfred represents all the people in Bruce’s life who love and support him. He couldn’t do half of what he sets out to do without their wisdom and guidance.

All three themes are present in this moment. Bruce admits his fear of failing to save Gotham (Don’t be afraid), Alfred reminds him of his father’s words (“Why do we fall?”), and Alfred says he won’t give up on Bruce (“Never”).

That’s exactly the kind of richness that allowed the Dark Knight Trilogy to become the stuff of legends. The Dark Knight was able to build on the first film’s strong foundation, and The Dark Knight Rises completed Bruce Wayne’s journey. But it all started here with the fittingly titled Batman Begins.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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