The Justice League movie sees Bruce Wayne get new rides including an amped-up Batmobile, the Knightcrawler, The Flying Fox, and new cars courtesy Mercedes. Check out information WB released mentioning the vehicles with comments from Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa and vehicle coordinator Alex King.
THE RIDES
For Batman, whose wealth is his superpower, his weapons include a fleet of highpowered vehicles, and one of the greatest in his arsenal is the Batmobile. The vehicle has earned its reputation as the apex predator on the mean streets of Gotham City. The car’s imposing defense capabilities, supported by appropriated Wayne Industries technologies, have been combined with the latest in covert military grade armaments, stealth and active protection systems. Powered by an unmatched hybrid of prototype military and civilian performance technologies, it has been estimated to reach speeds of up to 205 MPH.
Fundamentally the same vehicle from “Batman v Superman,” the Batmobile, like Batman’s suit, was fortified with a little extra armor for this film. “We’re battling aliens now,” says production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, “so this thing needed to be pumped up. But when you look at it, you’ll still know it’s that car. And that’s the thing: we didn’t want to reinvent the Batmobile completely, because it was designed in such a way that aspects of it could be transformed, changed, or upgraded. For example, it was designed in the last project to be able to raise and lower itself, but it never had to because the car traveled on regular roads. But in this movie, we have some serious off-road work, and so we finally get to see all the car can do.”
“One of my favorite things to film was when I jumped on the Batmobile—that was badass!” grins Jason Momoa. “I was like, I cannot believe I’m surfing the Batmobile right now!”
Batman’s latest machine, the hybrid electric Knightcrawler—essentially a four-legged tank—was specifically designed to navigate through tight, dark and unpredictable terrain, and is among the most advanced of Batman’s vehicle fleet. It can tackle almost any topography; however, when the tank treads reach their limit, it’s the independently functioning mechanical appendages that allow it to perform such gravity-defying maneuvers as scaling vertical walls. In addition, it is equipped with a full arsenal of weapons – from a front-tow missile launcher to rear rocket launchers and more.
While much of the machine was made in post, a practical skeleton was built for stunts. Each version of the Knightcrawler featured a steel frame made from a jig, with aluminum sheathing “skin,” and an interior made of a honeycomb foam called F-Board. These kept the crafts lightweight but as strong as possible. In the middle was a seat for Batman, and on either side were gull-wing doors that could be opened as needed. Lights and other dressing were added, and then all was mounted onto a heavyweight robot that could move a metric ton of cargo at an astounding two meters per second.
When your archenemy is holed up halfway around the world, though, you also need a way to transport your weapons, along with your fellow superheroes. The largest vehicle in Batman’s mobile arsenal, The Flying Fox, is a hybrid aircraft with the capability of a bomber and the maneuverability of a jet fighter. Reaching speeds of nearly 1,000 miles-per-hour, with an attack altitude of up to 50,000 feet, it also has vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities. The Flying Fox consists of three large-scale levels and can even carry the newly augmented Batmobile inside.
The whole of The Flying Fox interior was built on a soundstage, with the exterior built in post. Tatopoulos admits it was his favorite set. “On every movie, there’s a little thing that gets me pumped up. This is the one that I really got excited about on this film. It’s a bomber but I wanted it to look like a jet, with the cockpit very far back and a very long front nose like you see in WWII fighter jets. In fact, I was very much influenced by the Spitfire. I’ve always been fascinated by those planes; I love how the pilot is way back and it’s almost like you’re sitting on the biggest engine on the planet and you’re flying that thing. A much more modern approach to jets is to have the cockpit in the front, but I think the more traditional design works with Bruce Wayne and his classic sensibility. And if you look at the elements of the jet, they look like they were collected together and articulated; it’s a very similar language to the car. So, it’s something new but without losing the Batman aesthetic.”
When Batman isn’t commanding the Knightcrawler or the Batmobile, or flying around in the Fox, he’s driving his stylish new Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo. Zack Snyder saw the stunning electric, remote-controlled concept car and wanted it for Bruce Wayne. The only problem was the car, as a real, functioning vehicle, didn’t exist. The concept unit was also slightly too small for 6’4” Ben Affleck and the demands of filming a vehicle interior. The logistics could have swayed the filmmakers in another direction, but they didn’t.
Mercedes agreed to build another unit, ten percent larger and with a working interior and doors to accommodate the needs of the filmmakers. It still wouldn’t have an engine, drivetrain, or chassis, but picture vehicle coordinator Alex King had a solution for that: for the car without an engine, he and his team would build an engine without a car. More specifically, they would custom build a rig to “drive” the car. King put a front-wheel-drive engine in a “power unit,” which could then be mounted via a tubular chassis to the rear of the VGT, while the driver pod controlling engine and steering could be mounted anywhere on the rig.
The team didn’t stop there. King recalls, “We were knee-deep in the build, which involved a huge amount of engineering, when it seemed crazy not to have a platform that we could put on the back of the power unit. Why not produce everything we would need in a tracking vehicle for cameras and crew and cranes, and all the other bits and pieces that are involved, and without the weight restrictions and other limitations of rigging?”
The answer was a lightweight, super-strong, modular rig designed from scratch. The rig could be lengthened, shortened, or widened as needed, with the camera placed anywhere the director wanted, and the engine, drive unit, and crew moved about. “It meant that we could take the vehicle on the road and shoot hero closeups of vehicle and actor, without the car being on the road, while also having the crew and lighting and camera all onboard. It was an amazing thing to be a part of,” King says.
“Justice League” has a November 17, 2017 release directed by Zack Snyder, with the story by Chris Terrio and Zack Snyder, the screenplay by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon, and stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Willem Dafoe an Atlantean, Nuidis Vulko.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
