Alternate Endings

[Slash Man]

The ending of the film was subject to much change, even though it was always similar. It always ended with Batman and Joker's final confrontation at the top of the cathedral, but the outcome was always different. An early ending was that Batman was so weak, he couldn't do anything. The Joker easily saw his identity, but then Batman used a bomb on his utility belt to blow up Joker's escape helicopter.

Another variation is actually pretty interesting. Batman doesn't fight Joker's goons, but he goes right in to fight the Joker. Joker actually surprises him, and gets a few cheap shots in, and actually gives Batman a fair beating (I always wanted to see a more lengthly fight between the two). Joker tries to leave, and in a blind leap, actually grabs onto the bottom bar of the rope ladder. Batman prevents him from getting away by using a device that makes all the bats in the cathedral go wild, and flutter around the Joker, then he falls (the idea was reused in Returns). I actually like that ending, but the difference is that Batman intentionally kills Joker here (he still had the intention in the final, though).

The final ending was pretty spectacular on its own, so I can't argue with what we got.

[Seantastic]

Never heard of these man, thanks.  Some are pretty interesting and I'd like to see them played out, but tbh the ending we got isn't by any means bad.

[Batman]

Okay, I thought this thread was gonna be about Alexander Knox being "revealed" to be Batman, like in the comic.

[Slash Man]

I was just focusing on certain scene, but yeah, that's worth discussing as well.

[eledoremassis02]

I read one where he grabs the joker by the arm and sets a timer on a bomb on his utlitly belt and tells joker that he's going to take both them out and I believe they exchanges the "I made you, you made me first lines. Joker ends up running off the roof and the bomb turns out to be fake (I believe)..but I like the ending we got..one of the best Batman moments I think.

[Slash Man]

^That's the one where the Joker's helicopter explodes as a result (the Joker fell before).

[BatmAngelus]

One ending that's not in the scripts available online:

Things finally came to a head at the climax of the movie, in which Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) was to have been killed by the Joker, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Peters decided that audiences wouldn't accept Batman beating up a 50-year-old man, and so without telling Burton, he reworked it: the Joker would take Vale captive, and drag her up to the top of Gotham cathedral's bell tower.

http://www.batmanmovieonline.com/articles.php?showarticle=35

At first I thought that the reporter had gotten it mixed up with Tom Mankiewicz's Batman draft in which Silver St. Cloud gets killed (by Rupert Thorne, though), but I did get the opportunity to ask producer Peter Guber awhile ago and he confirmed that they were toying with the idea of killing her off at the end of the film.

[Slash Man]

Well, that would have been "dark," but I think it's way more disappointing if Batman can't prevent that, the movie certainly wouldn't end on the triumphant note that it did. Although Vicki Vale was barely mentioned in the sequel, killing her onscreen just doesn't seem right.

[Batman]

I'm REALLY glad the movie ended up the way it did.
As Slash Man said, it needed to end triumphant, like the theme it starts out with.

[riddler]

Well, that would have been "dark," but I think it's way more disappointing if Batman can't prevent that, the movie certainly wouldn't end on the triumphant note that it did. Although Vicki Vale was barely mentioned in the sequel, killing her onscreen just doesn't seem right.

Yeah too extreme especially since in 1988 a lot of people though of batman as a campy day cop wearing tights. Some people are mad about the jokers death.