Val Kilmer Tribute as Bruce Wayne and Batman in Batman Forever

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, it's Mistress

Carrie and you are listening to Studio 2009.

There is nothing wrong with your podcast player

do not attempt to adjust the volume. Hello and

welcome back into our studio You are now inside

studio 2009 only on the geek cast radio network

I am TF2 and Mike joining me once again as always

is Steve Megatron. Hi Steve. How are you? Good.

That's good. That's good. This is episode 139

Of 2009 you're gonna hear this before the end

of april folks we've got colombo season two coming

out daily but you're gonna hear this before the

end of april because it is we today we present

you with a thirtieth anniversary film discussion

that i didn't plan to actually for us to have

until later. And it was gonna be actually about

the film which apparently we already did two

years ago. You might say I've riddled myself

into obscurity here, folks, by repeat, repeat,

repeating myself a lot. With this podcast, we've

been online for five and a half years now, something

like that. Well, as of June, it'll be five full

years, but it's one of those things where...

I thought we did Burton's Batman and Schumacher's

Batman back -to -back because Joel Schumacher,

the director of the film that we're talking about

this evening, had unfortunately passed away in

2020. And I thought we had done this back then.

We did not, we didn't do this until episode 61,

which was only two years ago. How episode 61

compared to episode 139. Was only two years ago

was crazy to me, but then again, I've been going

full tilt on studio 2009 episodes lately. So

there's that, but, uh, this episode here, 139,

1939, nine one three nine. It's a Batman thing

folks. And sadly, and this is no joke on April

1st, 2025. We lost at the age of 65 due to pneumonia,

Mr. Val Kilmer. Holy crap. And folks, anytime

anything happens on April 1st, no one's going

to believe it. Not initially, anyhow. Right.

Obviously. That's my stay off the Internet day.

Absolutely. Every day. It's like, yep, I had

a I had a status I put out there that whole day.

I put it on my I put it as my status update on

my Discord. I put it as a status on, on every

piece. There ain't no fool in this fool. Uh,

but unfortunately it was true. The actor that

who was Val Kilmer did pass away from pneumonia,

which at 65 pneumonia getting a lot of people

is, is just crazy. But it's, it's sad, but true.

Cause next month in May of this year in 2025,

it'll be 10 years since my mom died of bacterial

and viral pneumonia in 2015. However, with Mr.

Kilmer, the first thing I thought of was I want

to go back. I want to cause originally, because

this is the 30th anniversary of Batman forever.

We were going to do a 30th anniversary discussion

and I was going to have it aired June 16th 2025

because June 16th 1995 I don't even need Wikipedia

for this. I know this like the back of my hand

June 16th of 95 was the wide release the the

theatrical release of Batman forever because

Batman forever is it's my favorite I put the

89 film and forever basically they mix and match

Sometimes I like 89, sometimes I like forever,

but usually forever wins out for me because where

I was in 1985, I was 15 years old. I was, you

know, hormonal junkie that wanted nothing but

chase meridian at the time. No, dude, you have

no idea. I had that. I tracked down that poster.

I had that poster. The the chase meridian poster

from this movie I had oh man soon as I had that

I'm like I wish I could get it framed but tax

will do fine for now But it's one of those things

where I Just remember everything about this movie

and as soon as they announced and we confirmed

that it was not an April Fool's joke that he

had passed I Had the Elliot Golden fall score

from La Land Records On blast in my headphones.

For the past. X like I said folks you can hear

this later on in April you're gonna hear this

probably somewhere around the 20th to the 30th

before the end of the month so just imagine folks

for the past 20 or so days I've had that score

on repeat. In my head it's all I can listen to

because the music of this movie is just amazing

but valves performance we've talked about. people

who have portrayed Bruce Wayne, Batman. We talk

about Kevin Conroy also may the man rest in peace.

He is resting in peace. Hopefully. Hey, Val and

Kevin. Nevermind. Never, nevermind. They can

compare bad notes anyway, but it's one of those

things where the music brings me closer. to the

characters of whatever it is and just having

that music on repeat and sitting down to watch

this again. The goal here, and this is probably

going to be a short episode, folks, the goal

here for me, because we just watched this two

years ago for the for the Schumacher's Batman

episode, which will be in the show notes. If

you haven't listened to it, episode 61 of this

podcast, folks, I wanted to specifically pay

attention to everything Val did in and out of

costume. And damn that man could act. He was

a perfect Bruce Wayne. His Batman. Probably could

have used a little work, but for what he had

to work with, I think he pulled it off. Yeah,

life was not kind to him. Unfortunately not.

I feel like we would have got a bunch of other

great films from him. Yeah. Had his, you know,

throat cancer not been as severe as it was. And

I've I mean, I've seen other movies with him

in it. I've not seen. Specifically, I've not

seen, uh, like him and in Top Gun. I mean, I've

seen bits and pieces. Not yet. You haven't. That's

going to be next folks. Not next episode, but

it's good. We're doing that this year. And I

know he was in Top Gun Maverick, which was a

nice send off and a thing that Tom Cruise did

for him. Yep. So, I mean, I'm glad that he was

in that and that's the last movie he was in two

years ago. Yep. Speaking of the bat cowl. I saw

there's a guy I know and I mean I don't know

him personally but I follow him and he makes

replica bat costumes of like the 89 film returns

forever. Batman and Robin and he's made various

other bat bat costumes and molds and he sells

them and mostly studios buy them as replicas

and stuff well. Somebody approached him years

ago and had. Requested like because he had the

molds or something to the batman forever suit

right and they were like do you have you know

could you make a batman forever suit and he goes.

Yeah i can do that i have the mold and he's like

what what size you know cuz it's size for val

kilmer and they're like that's perfect. This

is for fel kilmer yeah that's amazing and he

was like oh no way and so like he he got into

production and get it put together and then they

sent it to val. And he was able to rewear. Is

your replica of his costume based on his original

mold. Yeah the guy was like so while i didn't

physically get to meet fel kilmer my work did.

Yes absolutely. That's that's amazing yeah his

debut film was something called top secret in

1984 he was in real genius and eighty five i'm

not gonna go through all this kids people go

to wikipedia look at this themselves. Tombstone

in ninety three is a big one obviously batman

forever heat another one that i noticed him in

another one that i love another one hopefully

i'll do a. with somebody else on here, a Val

Kilmer tribute with his 1999's At First Sight,

where he played Virgil Adamson, who was a guy

who was blind. In that, Kelly McGillis stars

as his sister, which technically that's a top

gun reunion because she was the instructor in,

she was the the she was another Top Gun actor

from 86. So that was kind of cool. Well, I did.

It's funny because Kilmer also was in the James

Silent Bob reboot. Yeah, he was as Blunt Man.

But that was where they used part of the bat

costume. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So I did not

know he was in the Pixar Plains animated movie

as Bravo. I haven't seen the Plains movie. Whatever.

But no, I saw this movie. I did not know he was

in it. I completely forgot he was in it. He's

in Deja Vu from 2006 with Denzel. He plays Agent

Paul Priswara. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah.

That was a good film. Yeah, that was a really,

yeah, we're definitely watching that because

it's a good film, not just because it was Val,

Val is in it, but I love that movie. Uh, but

no, I mean, just looking at when I watched Batman

forever today, I looked at how he approached

Bruce Wayne and Batman and The way he approached

Batman was interesting because When he's in the

suit Depending on like when he's in the suit

with Alfred he's kind of He's kind of childish

Like that that exchange You should take a sandwich

with you, sir. I'll get drive through. Like that's

kind of childish. That's kind of telling your

parents, I'm going to eat fast food more than

take a turkey sandwich to, to work kind of thing.

When he's with Robin, when he's with Chris O'Donnell,

when he's with Dick Grayson, he's kind of more

of the parent in the bit. Like the whole. Even

though most the argument happens once he's out

of the suit in the cave like you could have got

yourself killed blah blah blah you're not gonna

be my partner blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah when he's acting against the villains or

the other criminal numbskulls. Obviously, he's

Batman and the resourcefulness of Batman. He

puts that on full display and he makes it comical,

but he makes it useful. The opening scene with

the guard in the vault. Excuse me, I need to

borrow this. Pulls the guy's hearing aid out

of his ear. Like that technically is an Adam

West move. That's something Adam West would do,

but the way Val did it was sort of an homage

to Adam West, but it's also a smart Batman thing

of using your surroundings at the same, you know

what I mean? Like just the, and maybe that was

written in the script. Maybe he was told to do

that, but again, just the way. he portrayed it

made it look to me like he's a competent Batman.

He knows what the hell he's doing. He makes this

shit look good because that's what he's there

to do. And then his Bruce, I mean, his Bruce

is on a whole different level. Like, yeah, you

have Michael Keaton's Bruce and Michael Keaton's

Bruce kind of went there a little bit, but Val

Kilmer's Bruce Wayne goes down the rabbit hole.

of his parents' death. I think Batman Forever

is the first film, might be the only film in

live. I don't want to speak too soon because

we are going to get to the Dark Knight trilogy

later this year too, folks. Considering Batman

Begins is 20 years old this year. But at the

time, Forever was the first film that really

delved deep into the psychosis or the psychology

of Bruce Wayne dealing with his parents death

and him telling Dr. Chase Meridian. I I'm in,

I'm in my father's office or I'm in my father's

library. I see this book on his desk and then

I'm running. I'm into this. I'm into that. And

I fall into this giant hole and I see this giant

bat and all of a sudden everything came to me.

And the point is. When I watched this movie this

time around, yeah, I had fun with all the fun

moments with the Riddler and Two -Face and all

that. I had fun seeing the Batmobile. I love

the Forever Batmobile. I absolutely do. But I

really got an appreciation even more now than

I had before. For the way that Val portrayed

Bruce and Batman. Yeah, I mean he was he was

definitely one of the better Batman it just Overall,

I didn't like Christian Bale's Batman, but I

liked it more than George Clooney's But that's

not saying much like I hated the fact that he

I don't wear hockey pads I hated that aspect

but I also hated the I mean I think he's Bruce

Wayne was was pretty good as Batman was kind

of media like he definitely had that playboy

like. Duck up like rich boy thing going on. You

know especially when he's like all the hotel

I bought it yeah like. Yeah where is this it's

more of. And then you get the the Ben Affleck

Batman and it's like Bruce I felt like his Bruce

was good Because he kind of looks like the Batman

animated series Batman a little bit He looks

like the the animated version and then his you

know, his regular costume Batman was more of

the Dark Knight Returns Yeah style, but for a

progression from Keaton, I feel like Kilmer did

a pretty good job with what he was given Yeah

I mean, they're going for more of a lighthearted

Batman over the the Tim Burton dark stuff that

was going on. I mean, you got you got some CG

of, you know, Wayne Towers, you got. Him trying

to relate. And fire enigma. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

that's the thing. Like you go, you know. I don't

remember how much of... Okay, in Batman Returns,

I know we have a lot of Bruce at Wayne Enterprises

or whatever kind of thing, because Mack Shrek

and whatever else, but in Batman, I don't remember

how much Bruce is at the company, dealing with

the company stuff itself. Here... specifically

because negma comes from wane enterprises he

works for bruce wayne and you get ed bagley jr

as as a stickly. As a big news immediate boss

kind of thing. So i like it so that's why i like

this this this movie is more i wanna say and

i could be wrong probably wrong in the percentages

of this folks but i wanna say this movie is eighty

twenty. It's 80 % Bruce Wayne 20 % Batman and

I'm not saying that as a man as a negative I'm

saying that because That's kind of what I mean

Batman is there He's in a lot of the scenes there

are a lot of fight scenes, but most of this is

a Psychological look at Bruce Wayne. It's almost

like it's like the Know why they called the doctor

at the end. I know why they called him dr. Burton

obviously I Was half hoping they would call him

dr. Strange because this really feels like the

strange secret of Bruce Wayne now the helmet

like the helmet scene I find it funny that Bruce

would even entertain it but like Kilmer plays

and very like straight -laced and like willing

to give it a shot and he's got that kind of serious

look on his face and you know, he's kind of evaluating

things and I just loved how like serious Val

played the role despite, you know, aspects where

he, uh, he's kind of messing with the duality

of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Yeah. Well, if you

think about it, you got two actors in this movie

who are playing dual roles or technically three,

but But between Bruce and Edward, you got Bruce

and Batman, Edward and the Riddler, because Edward

needs his day face, which is Edward. And then

obviously his more crazy face, which is the Riddler,

which he eventually embraces full time. Obviously

afterwards, but the whole. I wonder, I wonder

how this would have played out had the Riddler

been with Robin Williams. Oh. Yeah that you imagine

the difference in performance from the riddlers

character. Yes with robin williams cuz i mean

robin williams not that jim carrey can't play.

Right serious but you would have gotten a different

tone. Of the manic part or of the seriousness

with. The riddler and it would have played differently

and made it a little bit darker. I feel with

Bruce, I think it's funny though, too, where

like Bruce's and Wayne enterprises and he gets

goes through the tunnel and gets briefed on.

You know, the stuff from Alfred stops in the

pod, comes out and he's in like a mini bat cave

and Wayne enterprises. Or not Wayne enterprises,

but like, you know, the bat cave. That's a tunnel

system he probably has over the entire city.

Wherever he needs to go that that office thing

from office to home that that went to the actual

bat cave That's not a mini bat cave. That's what

I wondered like yeah I mean it took me a minute

to notice cuz I'm like, oh Elford would not be

in a you know, I load No, no, no. No, that was

from office to home from home to office. That's

a 200 mile per hour public Wow Talk about not

needing traffic lights. Thank you very much.

But yeah, no, I love that scene the way you have

Kilmer and Carrie playing off of each other as

the two business sides of their personalities

Like, you know, Nigma has to one -up him. Oh

you wish you looked this good in this suit or

this that you know, it just is so It's so fun

and it's so it's so interesting and absolutely

Just it's so great and Kilmer just out of all

the Bruce Wayne's that have been in live -action

They're interchangeable for me, but I'll say

Keaton's one and Kilmer's two But they're really

interchangeable for me everybody else that's

played Bruce Wayne in live -action Whatever obviously

Clooney's last on the list but like literally

those two they're the only two I think of when

I think of Bruce Wayne in live action when it

comes to film specifically I'm not talking about

TV because that's a whole other separate thing

and I'm only specifically talking about live

action because there is only. Really one animated

Batman Bruce Wayne the other thing I noticed

about this a little bit. Is he kind of slightly

not all the way, but he kind of slightly does

voice change a little bit when he's talking as

Bruce to Nigma. It's a Bruce Wayne like general

voice thing, but when he's talking to Alfred

or when he's Talking to Harvey, but he's not

in the suit. But he wants to convey the Batman

per he changes it a little bit. It's a very subtle

that I noticed it so well, he went more serious

and less. Yeah, you know, well, yeah, but yeah,

and that's the thing about this movie is that

you needed a serious Bruce Wayne to fight. the

comedy that is the rest of the movie, including,

you know, Mr. Ventura in a question mark costume.

But yeah, no, he led a great life, as far as

I know. Unfortunately, the pneumonia thing sucks,

because nobody should be dying of pneumonia.

But, and then the throat cancer thing just, uh,

just sucks. I wish he could have beaten that.

I really do. That would have been awesome if

he could have beaten that. And originally, he

was reluctant to even seek medical treatment

for it because of his Christian science beliefs.

He didn't ultimately go for chemotherapy. Uh,

and two tracheotomies. Holy crap. And he did

beat it. He did beat the cancer in 2020. He reported

that him in cancer free for four years, but he,

he just, man, he was an actor who brought a lot

of joy to a lot of people in various ways in

various roles. And even though in this episode

of the podcast, we were focusing on Bruce Wayne,

Batman. I do have plans for Steve and I as well

as other people and myself to discover and discuss

other films that Val did over the rest of this

year. Like I said, I don't know exactly when,

because I have to look at the schedule and I'm

not looking at the schedule right now. I know

Steve and I are going to do a Top Gun double

feature where we talk about the two Top Gun movies.

So we will be doing that. If somebody wants to

do tombstone with me, we can do that. I don't

have a problem with that. I like tombstone. It's

been a long time since I've seen that movie.

Okay. Well, if you want to do it, that's fine.

I'm not saying I don't want to know that. I don't

want to just, I mean, after 15, 16 years of friendship,

I know usually we volunteer each other for shit,

but I don't want to just do it on air. So. So

yeah and since you did already say that you love

the deja vu i know at least we can do that but

like i don't even i forgot he was in that like

i like that movie for other i like that movie

because it was the one telling denzel be telling

denzel i don't think this is a great idea that's

right and denzel's like no no no no and he was

the guy running the whole program. and he's like

no I'm telling you this is not and he's like

I don't care I gotta do you know I got it yeah

I gotta do okay I got it I got it very cool very

cool folks if you are somehow living under a

rock and you've never seen Batman forever first

of all go have some fun and watch Batman forever

second of all look at it in the lens of a character

study Bruce Wayne batman if you're a batman fan

and you somehow missed this jam look at it as

a bruce wayne batman character study and look

at how. Val kilmer portrayed the character and

let us know what you think because holy crap.

It is amazing i think we're gonna go to a quick.

Ad break, you can hear a couple of podcast ads

are going to come back to close the show right

after this. Al, hang this next to the batsuit

where it belongs. And you're encouraging him.

Young men with a mind for revenge need little

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Perhaps the lady is just what the doctor ordered.

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Join Steve and Mike as they delve into the remaining

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Well. All right, folks, we are back here inside

Studio 2009. Tribute to Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne

Batman in Batman Forever, 30th anniversary of

that film this year. I absolutely love that movie,

love Val's performance as Bruce Wayne Batman.

Any final thoughts from you, sir? Anything you'd

like to say before I run through the closing?

Any promotions you want to do? Any, anything?

Uh, no, just, uh, looking forward to some stuff,

uh, coming up later this year on GeekCast Radio,

now that my schedule's freeing up. Yay, freeing

schedules, yay! Yeah. Uh, value will be missed.

Thank you for everything you gave to us. Thank

you for everything you did. And, uh, yeah. So

folks, um, apparently I'm a moron. You know,

this is what it is. Cause next week or next time

will be the Top Gun episodes for the Top Gun

episode for the double feature. So there's that.

Thank you for joining us here inside the city

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us next time when Steve and I will be discussing

Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick. As we will be remembering

Iceman. So with this one, folks, we are going

to be looking at both films specifically because

Steve has never really seen Top Gun and I have

yet to see Top Gun Maverick. Uh, it's not going

to be, it's going to be your normal Street of

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be highlighting his performances as Iceman Throughout

that that episode. So yeah, join us next time

for that for now I am TFU and Mike with Steve

Megatron You'll hear us back in the studio soon.

I see without seeing Darkness is as clear as

daylight Please! You're as blind as a bat! Exactly.