Here are the times live-action Batman movies have broken the “no-kill rule”

Batman has been around since his first appearance in 1939’s Detective Comics #27. The one Rule that is associated with the World’s Greatest Detective is that he has a no-kill rule. While Bruce’s vigilante alter-ego killed his opponents during his early adventures, Bill Finger, who is the co-creator of The Dark Knight, enforced a no-kill rule for the character almost a year after Detective Comics #27 was published. There’s both a comic book and a non-comic book explanation for this rule.

The Comic book explanation for the introduction of the no-kill rule is that Bruce Wayne, around that time, adopted Richard “Dick” Grayson as his ward, who would go on to become the first ever Robin, the Dark Knight’s sidekick. The no-kill rule helped mature Bruce’s alter-ego from an angry vigilante to a more responsible father figure to his young ward.

The real-world explanation for the no-kill rule is to differentiate The Dark Knight from other pulp characters like The Shadow. However, despite the established rule of over 80 years, Bruce’s alter-ego has murdered his opponents in every live-action movie until now, except for the 2022 Matt Reeves movie.

Why has Batman killed in the movies?

The answer to this question is simple: to add more action to the movie. Therefore, when The World’s Greatest Detective was adapted for the big screen in 1989 through Tim Burton’s Batman, the writers discarded the one cardinal rule. Since then, almost every version of the character on the big screen, from Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck, has killed his opponent.

Here’s taking a look at all the times The Dark Knight has killed his opponent on the big screen:

Batman (1989)

The 1989 superhero classic has a long-standing legacy when it comes to big-screen adaptations of the characters. That’s because, until this dark and realistic movie, the character’s popular perception was that of a campy hero, thanks to the 1960s Adam West series. Therefore, Tim Burton changed the public perception of Gotham’s protector to a dark and brooding figure through his 1989 movie.

However, despite the movie's endearing legacy, one of its divisive aspects was that the titular character did not retain the no-kill rule from the comics. The opening scene of the 1989 movie confirms that the Caped Crusader killed a street criminal named Johnny Gobs off-screen.

Other than this one-off murder, we do see Keaton’s version of the character cross the line by killing off countless henchmen of the Joker, and even The Clown Prince of Crime in the third act.

Batman Returns (1992)

Burton pushes the envelope even further with the follow-up to the 1989 movie. In Returns, we see this version of the Caped Crusader light one of the Penguin’s henchmen on fire with the help of his Batmobile. His body count only increases further when he straps a strongman with a bomb and murders the main antagonist, the Penguin, by dropping him into a toxic sludge that kills him.

If you noticed the two Burton movies, it is noticeable that Bruce Wayne’s vigilante alter ego does not have a no-kill rule like his comic book counterpart, which was over forty years old when the 1989 movie was released. But despite discarding this cardinal rule, the Burton flicks are highly regarded because of this one crucial factor, making people aware that the Caped Crusader is a dark and tortured figure.

Batman Forever (1995)

This 1995 movie, headlined by Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell as the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder, i.e., Robin, was the first time these movies paid references to the no-kill rule. It must be noted that Forever had very few references to the first two Burton movies. Thus, this movie may be set in a different continuity altogether.

However, despite all the allusions to the no-kill rule, Forever did feature a scene in which the titular character is responsible for the death of Two-Face/Harvey Dent. But despite this one scene, Forever was an important step in capturing the essence of the character fans were familiar with through the comics.

The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005, 2008, and 2012)

The Dark Knight Trilogy is the first live-action adaptation of the Caped Crusader to mostly stick to the no-killing rule. The main keyword is mostly because we can see the Caped Crusader breaking his rule roughly over five times throughout the entire series on screen.

He burns down the League of Shadows HQ in the first movie, kills Ra's al Ghul in its final act, runs over Joker’s henchmen and pushes Harvey Dent down the building in the second movie, and kills Talia in The Dark Knight Rises.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2016 and 2021)

Of all the previous versions of the live-action movies, the Snyderverse is where we see the Caped Crusader kill the most. Ben Affleck’s version of The Dark Knight uses guns and kills people in all of his big-screen appearances before 2023’s The Flash, where the actor had a role limited to the first act of the movie.

Snyder, over the years, has unsuccessfully tried to argue against Batman’s no-kill rule. The last attempt was on the Joe Rogan Podcast in March 2024. In that interview, the filmmaker revealed that he wanted to put the Caped Crusader in a situation where he was forced to break the canonical rule. Then, Snyder went on to say:

“And they [fans] go, 'Well, don't put him in a situation where he has to kill someone.' I'm like, 'You're protecting your god in a weird way,' right? You're making your god irrelevant if he can't be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that, what does that mean? What does it tell you, but does he stand up to it? Can he survive that, right, as a god? As your god, can Batman survive that?"

Then, the Rebel Moon filmmaker went on to point at a moment from Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in which many fans mistakenly interpret as the Caped Crusader fatally shooting a criminal in the second issue of the iconic series.

Our take on this problem:

Regardless of their transgressions, every live-action version of The Caped Crusader has added a lot to this iconic character, who has been a part of the pop-cultural lexicon. Even if they failed to include certain aspects of Batman in their movies, these films did point some fans towards the comics, some of which might be as old as 80. Thus, these movies are helpful in that way.