Batman (1966 Film) - Plot

Plot

When Batman (West) and Robin (Ward) get a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp (the final role of actor Reginald Denny) is in danger aboard his yacht, they launch a rescue mission using the Batcopter. After a tangle with an exploding shark which seizes Batman's leg but is repelled by Shark Repellent Bat-Spray after the Yacht disappears, Batman and Robin head back to Commissioner Gordon's office where, through deduction and wisdom, they figure out that the tip was a set-up by The United Underworld, a gathering of four of the most powerful villains in Gotham City (Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman), who plan to defeat The Dynamic Duo once and for all, and take over the entire world.

The United Underworld equip themselves with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust (an invention of Commodore Schmidlapp, who is unaware he has been kidnapped by the felonious foursome), a World War II "Pre-Atomic" Submarine made to resemble a penguin, and their three pirate henchmen (Bluebeard, Morgan and Quetch), and Batman and Robin must stop them. It is revealed the ship was really a projection. When The Dynamic Duo return to the buoy via The Batboat with the projector on it, they are trapped on it by a magnet and torpedoes are launched at them, but they escape using a radio-detonator to destroy two of the missiles, and a porpoise is hit by the last one. Catwoman, disguised as the Soviet journalist "Miss KITKA" (short for Kitanya Irenia Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff), lures Bruce Wayne into a trap as part of a plot to destroy Batman, little suspecting that Wayne is Batman's alter-ego. And Penguin, disguised as the Commodore even schemes his way into the Batcave along with five dehydrated henchmen; this plan fails when the henchmen unexpectedly disappear into Antimatter when Penguin mistakenly rehydrates them with heavy water contaminated with radioactive waste, regularly used to recharge the Batcave's atomic pile.

Ultimately the Duo are unable to prevent the kidnapping of the dehydrated United World Organization's Security Council. After giving chase in the Batboat, the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder use a sonic charge weapon called "Bat-Charges" to disable Penguin's submarine and bring it to the surface, where a grand fist fight ensues. Although Batman and Robin win the fight, Batman is heartbroken to find out that his "true love" Miss Kitka is actually Catwoman when she trips and her mask falls off. Although Commodore Schmidlapp sneezes on and scatters the powdered members of the dehydrated Council, mixing them together – which would normally spell their doom – Batman constructs an elaborate filter to separate the mingled dust.

Robin poses the question whether it might not be in the world's best interests for them to alter the dust samples so that humans can no longer harm one another. In response, Batman says that they cannot do so—in reminder of the fate of Penguin's five henchmen's tainted rehydration—and can only hope for people, in general, to learn to live together peacefully on their own.

However, in the final scene, Robin's wishes are ironically fulfilled when the Security Council is improperly re-hydrated. All of the members are alive and well, continuing to squabble among themselves and totally oblivious of their surroundings. But each of them now speaks the language and displays the stereotypical mannerisms of a nation other than their own. As the world looks on in disbelief at this development, Batman and Robin quietly climb out of the United World Headquarters to an uncertain future. Batman's final words express his sincere hope that this "mixing of minds" does more good than it does harm. The Fins shows "The Living{?} End"