Batman Begins: Two-Disc Special Edition

Released June 15, 2005 via Warner Bros., Batman Begins is Christopher Nolan's rebuild of the character from the ground up, written with David S. Goyer. He grounds the origin in fear, training and Gotham's rot: Bruce Wayne's grief, his apprenticeship under Liam Neeson's Ducard at a monastery in Bhutan, shot on Iceland's Vatnajökull glacier, and a city run by Tom Wilkinson's Falcone and poisoned by Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow. Christian Bale wears the cowl, with Michael Caine's Alfred, Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox and Katie Holmes.

Wally Pfister shot it on film and earned its only Oscar nomination, for Best Cinematography. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard built the score on low, churning ostinatos and a two-note motif where a hummable hero theme would usually sit. Gotham was built mostly in England, at Shepperton and around London, with Chicago for the streets. Roger Ebert gave it four stars.

It grossed $375.6 million worldwide and opened the Dark Knight trilogy, the chapter that did the hardest work: making the character plausible.

Two-Disc Special Edition, the film on disc one and the full package of making-of featurettes on disc two.