Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Live-Action)



Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is is a live-action romantic superhero film featuring the DC Comics character Batman. It is the first film in the DC Cinematic Universe.

Plot
A young Bruce Wayne and Andrea Beaumont begin a relationship after meeting while visiting their respective parents' graves. During this time, Bruce makes his first attempts at crime-fighting. While he succeeds in foiling robberies, he is discouraged that the criminals do not fear him. Bruce becomes conflicted about how to honor his parents; whether to defend Gotham City to avenge their deaths, as opposed to their likely desire to see him as a married man. Bruce proposes marriage to Andrea who accepts. However, she abruptly leaves Gotham with her father, businessman Carl Beaumont, ending the engagement in a Dear John letter. Heartbroken, Bruce assumes the mantle of Batman.

Ten years later, Batman breaks up a meeting of Gotham crime bosses led by Chuckie Sol. When Sol tries to escape in his car, the Phantasm, a masked vigilante resembling the Grim Reaper, causes Sol to speed out of control and fatally crash into a building. Witnesses see Batman at the scene and believe him to have killed Sol. City councilman Arthur Reeves, who is corrupt and on the mob's payroll, vows to have Batman arrested.

The Phantasm murders another gangster, Buzz Bronski, in the Gotham Cemetery. Bronski's bodyguards mistakenly believe the Phantasm to be Batman. Batman investigates the scene of Bronski's death and encounters Andrea, inadvertently revealing his identity to her. Batman finds evidence linking Carl Beaumont with Sol, Bronski, and a third gangster, Salvatore Valestra, later finding a photograph of the four together in Valestra's home. Paranoid that Batman will come for him next, the now-elderly Valestra asks Reeves for help but is refused. In desperation, he turns to the Joker.

The Phantasm goes to kill Valestra at his penthouse, only to find Valestra dead from exposure to Joker's venom. The Joker has laid a trap to kill Batman by detonating the penthouse, but sees the Phantasm through a camera. The Phantasm escapes the blast and is pursued by Batman but disappears. The police attempt to ambush Batman, but he is saved by Andrea. Andrea later explains to Bruce that her father embezzled money from Valestra and was forced to repay it; Valestra then demanded he pay more and put a hit on Carl, prompting him to go into hiding with Andrea. While Bruce considers resuming his relationship with Andrea, he concludes that Carl Beaumont is the Phantasm. However, Bruce takes another look at the photo. He recognizes Valestra's unnamed enforcer as the Joker prior to his transformation.

The Joker confronts Reeves, who reveals Batman did not commit the murders and accuses Reeves of targeting him to erase his mob connections. The Joker attacks Reeves with venom, albeit slow-inducing. Reeves is taken to the hospital, where he struggles with fits of uncontrolled laughing. Batman interrogates Reeves, and he confesses that while previously working as Carl's lawyer, he helped the Beaumonts escape. When he ran out of money during his first run for office, he sold out their location to Valestra. However, Reeves did not realize how much Valestra wanted to find Beaumont. A flashback is shown where Andrea is horrified to find her father's body; Carl had been murdered by the Joker. Both Batman and the Joker deduce that the Phantasm is Andrea, who intends to wipe out the Valestra mob for killing her father.

Andrea tracks down the Joker to his hideout in Gotham's abandoned World's Fair. They fight but are interrupted by Batman. He begs her to stop but it is to no avail. The Joker prepares to destroy the fair but is seized by Andrea, who bids Batman goodbye as the explosives detonate. Batman survives the blast but finds no trace of either Andrea or the Joker.

Alfred later consoles Bruce in the Batcave, assuring him that Andrea could not have been helped, before finding Andrea's locket containing a picture of them together. A sorrowful Andrea departs Gotham and a saddened Batman, cleared of accusations against him, resumes crimefighting.

Cast

 * Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman
 * Geena Davis as Andrea Beaumont/The Phantasm
 * Steve Buscemi as Arthur Reeves
 * John Lithgow as Carl Beaumont
 * Harvey Keitel as Salvatore Valestra
 * Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth
 * Bruce McGill as Detective Harvey Bullock
 * Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon
 * Jack Nicholson as The Joker