Considering Frank Miller’s genre game changer “The Dark Knight Returns” came out almost 30 years ago, and three seasons of “Batman Beyond” already exist, you would think we already have enough worthwhile answers to the question, “What’s Batman up to in the future?”
Most of the time, it’s even more redundant to ask, “Who would win in a fight between Batman and (some other fictitious badass)” because that’s also been beaten into the ground. Plus, it’s a silly question because Batman always wins against anybody. Especially Superman. But, as is inevitable with basically anything that’s totally irrelevant, somebody finally conjured a fresh angle.
In this short animated film (above), a grizzled, bearded Bruce Wayne in the mold of Miller’s critical spin on the character traverses the decimated Los Angeles of the “Terminator” franchise’s 2029. Naturally, he’s reoutfitted the Batmobile into a tank-like vehicle in order to best blow and squash T-800s to smithereens. Later, he infiltrates what appears to be a colossal Skynet mainframe, and calls up John Connor to report, “My method worked.” I’m guessing Future Batman likes to rub it in when he one-ups Connor, due to lingering resentment over having to share Christian Bale.
This thing was put together by Tony Guerrero and first-time animator Mitchell Hammond – who poured almost four years and a chunk of his sanity into the project, according to his YouTube comments – with music by Noir Deco. My only gripe is how Batman’s Terminator-buster suit makes him look like a big blue snowman, but at least they didn’t draw him with Bat-nipples.
