Batman Tech Bat Pod

As if there weren't enough hype and heartbreak hovering over The Dark Knight, director Chris Nolan had one more headache facing him, right there in his garage, for his latest Batman film: how to top the Tumbler—a two-and-a-half ton, bulletproof Batmobile that leapt 60 ft. and did a sub-five zero to 60 in Batman Begins. His solution? Ditch the spoiler-and-fin sports car mod of Batmobile lore. Hell, ditch the sports car altogether. After all, Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne already has a Lambo in The Dark Knight, which opens tomorrow.

Enter the Bat-Pod, a motorcycle-ATV hybrid that lands eye-popping stunts sans CGI, a hand-built bike that fires grappling hooks—while shape-shifting.

After picking through junkyards, a local Home Depot and that surprisingly hands-on garage, Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley took a month to assemble a foam-and-plastic model for Batman's new ride—enough like the Tumbler, but with a heavy-hauling look of its own. "But to actually have a look at what we were thinking, we went down to Warner [Brothers] and got the front wheels off the Batmobile," Crowley says.

When he first laid eyes on the Bat-Pod mockup, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould wasn't sure if his director actually knew anything about motorcycles. But that's what makes The Dark Knight at once a throwback superhero movie and a green-screen-light breakthrough in digital Hollywood: It turns fantasy into reality. And building a concept vehicle without a team of automotive engineers was one of its biggest challenges. "The gauntlet had been thrown down," Corbould says.

While the filmmakers and Warner Brothers have been tight-lipped about any vehicle specs in the movie, Corbould clearly had to reinvent how a motorcycle's systems make it run. Nolan and Crowley's original sketches had no tailpipe, but anything with a motor needs an outlet for exhaust. Weaving around the bike's carbon-fiber and Kevlar body and steel chassis, the design team built the exhaust system into the frame, ducting it through the hollow steel/aluminum/magnesium tubing. Two months later, the high-performance, water-cooled, single-cylinder engine—geared toward the lower end for faster acceleration—was ready to power the Pod. Only there was another headache: Who in the world could drive this thing?

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• christian
• bale
• heath
• ledger
• batpod
• technology
• joker
• motorcycle

[JoeRaynor]

Can someone please tell me if christane bale rid the batpod ? or just some stunt guy ? please reply thanks. :)

[ChrisIIIcube]

@JoeRaynor

No Christian BATMAN Bale never rode the BAT-POD.

They had great difficulty finding a stuntman to ride and not wreck.

[EvilSylv]

Where does this small documentary come from?

[ChrisIIIcube]

History Channell!!!

Way cool... hope they run it again soon.

[sanjayrock1]

this is so fucking cool batpod is the most stunning ever

[ghost1103]

that is fucking sweet!!

[porfavorde]

@gurn58 shut up, joker-sickfanboy

[porfavorde]

better motorcycle on all batman history.

[MrMano38]

batmobile



[FlazhPhone]

I prefer Batpod instead of Ferrari or lamborghini -

imagne if you had the Batpod for real ?! Holy mother 5hit ! Then i'll hardcore drive every night to play batman for fun

[shzze]

@gurn58 unless your talking about his acting then yeah it probebely wouldnt of bin as good without him

[shzze]

@gurn58 you say that but alot of its younger teen and under fan base wich is about 70% dont know who heath ledger is or didnt realise it was him i didnt know who he was before this film

[Andiizzy]

Na na na na na na na na bat pod(8)

[gurn58]

The Dark Knight didn't inspire much... All the technology was already in place...Btw if it hadn't been for Heath Ledger this movie wouln't have been anything special!

[xenx619]

RIP Heath Ledger. The best Joker ever played.

[kungpaoch]

Yes this is why I do what I do.. Except I didn't know that until now. To imagine and then make crazy machines.