UPDATE Sept. 4: Batman has a new ride. New set video shows off the new Batsuit and Batman on a GCPD police bike, with the wrecked Batmobile now sitting under the Kingston Bridge.
UPDATE: Batman got away. New video from the night shoots shows the chase ending with the GCPD empty-handed, a full convoy of cruisers and what looks like an armored unit rolling through the snow with no Batmobile in sight. Per the fan who shot it, they couldn’t catch him.
The Gotham City Police Department has officially turned on the Bat.
New set video from the Glasgow night shoots on The Batman Part II shows a line of GCPD officers in tactical gear opening fire on the Batmobile, muzzle flashes and all, as the car sits in the fake snow under a wash of blue light.
The footage comes from fan @ciaron97, who staked out the set through the night, and the clip quickly took off, with fans immediately asking the obvious question: what did Bruce do?
The GCPD Opens Fire
This is a full-scale police response, not a checkpoint. Additional shots from the night show the street packed with GCPD cruisers, lights running, tire tracks cut through the snow dressing.
Night one gave us the battle-damaged Batmobile sliding through the frost. Now we know at least part of the reason the car looks like it has been through a war. Gotham’s finest are the ones putting the dents in it.
The best image of the batch shows the Batmobile boxed in, cruisers on both sides, two Gotham PD motorcycle units riding up its tail, the whole street strobing red and blue.
What Did Batman Do?
This is not where The Batman left things.
The rank and file already wanted him unmasked in the first film, dogpiling him inside GCPD headquarters until Gordon staged his escape. But the movie ended with Batman pulling survivors out of the flood, a public symbol of hope with the department standing down.
Whatever happens in this sequel flips the city against him hard enough that the entire department is emptying magazines into his car and chasing it through downtown Gotham.
Now for the speculation, clearly labeled as such.
The cleanest explanation is sitting in plain sight: Sebastian Stan has confirmed he is playing Harvey Dent. A crusading district attorney turning Gotham against vigilantes is exactly how every great Two-Face story starts.
There is also the working title. As we covered with the first round of set video, production signage reads Semper Vigilans, which fans have tied to the Court of Owls. If a secret society is pulling Gotham’s institutional strings, a framed Batman with the police weaponized against him writes itself.
My money is on a frame job. The GCPD does not go from standing down to shoot on sight without someone pointing them there.
Is Bruce Even In The Car?
Here is the other wrinkle: none of the footage shows who is driving.
The practical answer is stunt drivers, the way these sequences always shoot. The story answer is more interesting, because Reeves could be hiding exactly who is behind the wheel.
A decoy. A stolen Batmobile. Or, if the rumored rewrites adding Robin(s) pan out, a certain junior partner taking the car out without permission would explain both the police response and Bruce’s absence.
File all of that under rumor and speculation. The confirmed part is on camera: Gotham PD versus the Batmobile, at scale, on real streets.
Gotham Is The Whole Plan
The timing on this footage could not be better for Warner Bros.’ incoming owners.
As we exclusively reported this week, David Ellison is going all in on Batman, with plans for Reeves to finish his trilogy plus an Arkham Asylum trilogy, and early internal reaction to the sequel described as “off the roof.”
Our source also tells us the studio views Robert Pattinson as the next Tom Cruise, with Reeves and Pattinson being offered whatever they want to keep the franchise going.
Footage like this going viral off one fan’s phone in a matter of hours is exactly the argument.
Credit where due: @ciaron97 shot the night on his own time and signed off with his back and feet aching, saying it is all so Batman fans can “experience what I’m lucky enough to witness.”
The Glasgow night shoots continue into next month, with road restrictions in the city center running into late September.
The Batman Part II opens in theaters on February 18, 2028. Follow every update in our Batman Part II guide.
