Every Live-Action Batman Vehicle in Movies (That's Not the Batmobile)
Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
When you consider Batman patrolling the streets of Gotham hunting his Rogues Gallery and striking fear into the hearts of potential enemies, your mind inevitably conjures the image of the Batmobile. Over the years, Batman’s iconic car has undergone multiple redesigns, largely aligned with the director’s vision for the Dark Knight, but it’s always been his primary mode of transport. It hasn’t, however, been the only one parked in the Batcave.
While the Batmobile feels as important to Batman as the Batsuit and Cave, a major part of Bruce Wayne’s story is his wealth and access to ridiculous tech resources. His untold riches mean he can basically build anything he wants alongside his flagship muscle car, and in the comics, he has a vast array of vehicles, including a rocket, a blimp, a subway rocket, and a giant Bat mech robosuit. The fact that you’ve seen none of those in movies shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given the logistics.
But beyond those wilder options, Batman’s movie history has included a surprisingly high number of vehicles alongside the Batmobile. They might not all enjoy a lot of screen-time, and some of them are developed for ridiculously specific circumstances, but that’s precisely as it should be. These Bat-vehicles (some of which Batman doesn’t actually use himself) are a flex of both his adaptability and his treasures.
Bruce Wayne obviously also has his own vehicles, from the Drifter bike in The Batman, to his civilian cars, but those are different because they’re not directly part of Batman’s world. And not to be outdone, Gotham’s villains have also had their own signature rides - from Penguin’s delightful amphibious Duck to Joker’s Goon Car, Bane’s hijacked camo Tumblers, Mr. Freeze’s Freeze Truck, and even Joker’s neon-trimmed Vaydor in Suicide Squad. But that’s another story.
16 Batskiff (Batman & Robin)
By far the worst crime committed in the name of Batman vehicles, and not just in live-action, Joel Schumacher’s addition of the Batskiff to Batman & Robin for the Boy Wonder to drive in the fight against Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze at Gotham Observatory looks like a cross between a hovercraft and a horseshoe crab, and has no reason to exist other than peddling toys. Mercifully, it’s barely on screen for long, and it’s still a low point for Chris O’Donnell’s Robin, for whom Bruce Wayne custom-built this abomination.
15 The Batmissile (Batman Returns)
Technically, the Batmissile is sort of part of the Batmobile, and a fail-safe built into Burton’s iconic car for use in emergencies in 1989’s Batman. But because it is a separate machine, it counts here, especially because it offers the opportunity to comment on how bloody stupid it looks. The Batmobile was a thing of beauty, but its slim-line alley-friendly Mini Me looks ridiculous, even if it’s a stroke of genius for navigating narrow roads. It also does feel like a nod to Adam West's 1960s Batman and his cartoonish adaptability.
14 The Bathammer (Batman & Robin)
Another product of Batman & Robin’s merchandise fetish, the Bathammer is Batman’s heavy-duty custom ice-sled built to navigate Gotham's frozen streets after Mr. Freeze’s attack on the city. Resembling something between a snowmobile and a prone bird, it matches some of the design elements of the superior Batmobile, and it is visually striking, but its over-designed and too consciously targeted at toy sales to be a truly serious entry. The name also makes absolutely no sense. Great toy though.
13 The Batblade (Batman & Robin)
With Batman in the Bathammer and Robin in the Batskiff, Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl was handed the Batblade, which Bruce had handily built at some unknown point and just had lying around in case it was needed. Don’t pick at the logic too much. Once more built as a specialized ice motorcycle, it came with spiked tires, and featured the same silver and black livery as George Clooney’s controversial Batsuit. It’s the least offensive of the Mr. Freeze attack vehicles, and there’s something charming about the bat wing spoilers, but it’s very cartoonish. Again, the name seems to have no correlation to its function.
12 The Batskiboat (Batman Returns)
Designed by Jacques Rey and inspired partly by his gorgeous Batmobile as well as killer whales and sharks, the oddly-named Batskiboat is a single-seater hydrofoil-like water craft introduced in Batman Returns in 1992. Michael Keaton’s Batman uses it to navigate Gotham’s sewers in pursuit of Danny DeVito's Penguin, and it’s well-designed for its purpose. It’s also unavoidably strange looking, like a sort of missile on stilts, and does, admittedly fit Tim Burton’s carnival of oddities, and comes with the most Burton-like weapon: a ready-made swarm of bats hidden in a rear compartment that Batman lets loose on the Penguin, leading to him falling to his death.
11 The Batboat (Batman Forever)
An aesthetic twin of Joel Schumacher’s biomechanical looking Batmobile, the hydro-dynamic Batboat came in with Val Kilmer’s Dark Knight in 1995’s Batman Forever. Built for high-speed aquatic missions, it has the same double tailfins as the car, and an impractical open cockpit. It’s only on screen for a brief scene as Bruce uses it to reach Claw Island before The Riddler and Two-Face blow it up, but it scores points for copying the underrated Batmobile design.
10 The Redbird
Developed by Bruce Wayne for Robin because of Dick Grayson’s affection for motorbikes, the Redbird obviously wasn’t a Bat- variant vehicle, but was still very much part of Schumacher’s Batcave collection. The 1930s-inspired Art Deco look doesn’t really fit with the Batmobile, but it’s a sleek look and one of the better introductions in Batman & Robin. Custom-built from fiberglass and carbon fiber over a Honda off-road frame, crucially, the Redbird also had a killswitch fitted secretly that allowed remote control from the Batmobile, underlining Batman’s mistrust of Dick.
9 The Flying Fox (Snyderverse)
Used for mission support, the Flying Fox might have the most annoyingly ill-fitting name in the entire Batman garage, but it’s a serious bit of kit. It appears in both cuts of Justice League as the superteam’s transport - including shipping the Batmobile - and then reappears briefly in The Flash. Its only real downside is it doesn’t exactly look like a Batman vehicle specifically, and it’s so bulky that it seems to defy science to even get off the ground. But then, that’s sort of the point: it starts life as an abandoned Wayne Tech project left to rot because of its challenges, and as an option for ferrying the Justice League to battle, it’s great. There’s also a lot of aura about Batman dropping out of its bay doors on the Batcycle in The Flash.
8 The Batcycle (The Batman)
Less cartoonish and overdesigned than the other motorbikes in Batman’s garage, The Batman’s Batcycle was Matt Reeves’ way of making Robert Pattinson’s Bat feel more grounded in his second year as a vigilante. It’s not a sci-fi gadget like the other vehicles, and is instead a heavily modified, stripped down BMW bike, fitting alongside Bruce’s custom modified Batmobile. It’s still a Batman vehicle though, thanks to the custom bat-shaped fairing around the front light, and has a very different look to his everyday-use “drifter” bike. Impressively, it's very realistic, but manages to still capture some of Batman's mystique at the same time.
7 The Snyderverse Batwing (Batman v Superman, Justice League)
Zack Snyder’s vision for the DCEU Dark Knight featured a more heavy-metal, military-grade aesthetic that defined both the tank-like Batmobiles and Bruce Wayne’s new Batwing. With articulated wings that allowed for vertical take off and landing (to fit the more openly sci-fi feel), it also featured heavy-duty cannon turrets and looks more like a spaceship than a plane. It’s only on screen for around six minutes across its two appearances but there’s no denying that it has visual impact.
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