WHEN and HOW does Joker discover Bruce Wayne is Batman in Batman 1989?

[Jack Napier]

I always hear about this, but its not shown in the film.

[DocLathropBrown]

He doesn't, really. They imply at the end that he might realize the identity when he says "I was a kid whne I killed your parents."

However, that doesn't mean he realizes it's Bruce Wayne behind the mask.

[Kamdan]

I'm always quite iffy about this. The Joker reacted like he had no clue what Batman was talking about. He never came right out and admitted he killed them. He just thought that Batman was acting rather childish for also blaming him for his creation. I always think that Bruce MADE himself believe that the killer was Jack so that he'd have a better motivation to get him. That smile could have belonged to any killer. I know the cast lists him as Young Jack Naiper, but I think they?re trying to mess with us. It would have been cool if they expanded upon it in the sequels, but they didn?t.

[WingedFreak71]

he says he was a kid when he killed his parents - i think he definitely knows what batman's talking about

hey maybe he only ever actually killed eckhardt, the mob boss and bob the goon aside from the couple in the alley - so he realizes he must be referring to the couple with the little kid from way back when - yeah that's it!

good question though - now the wheels are spinning

[thecolorsblend]

I think he realized Batman's age would require the crime to have been committed about twenty or so years earlier.  All Joker had to do was think back to a time when he killed a man and a woman in front of their young son.  There probably weren't too many of those.

[Batmoney]

It is Jack Napier, because when Bruce asks Alfred for his criminal file it has a picture of young Jack Napier. Unless I'm just thinking off wildly, but I'm pretty sure it is the same guy.

As for Joker, I also think that he wasn't actually sure what Batman was talking about. He says he was a kid when he did it because he is just spouting out randomly. Also maybe he says it because he knows it was his young street crime career when he was doing muggings like that. Or perhaps the Wayne murders were specific enough that as soon as Batman said you killed my parents, perhaps Joker new exactly what he was talking about.

[gordonblu]

Michael Uslan said that he was nervous about the Joker killing Bruce's parents and asked Bob Kane abut the scenario. Bob Kane said that if the Joker had been created at the same time as Batman, Joker WOULD have killed his parents. Uslan mentioned this in his forward to the collection called Batman:In the Fifties.


As for Joker knowing who Batman is, I'm not sure he knows in this movie, but in the comics I've always felt that the Joker knows who Batman really is..... and doesn't CARE. It is established in the comics( and in the Dark Knight) that the Joker enjoys playing the game. The game for him is not affected by knowing who his opponent really is. He's not out for a personal vendetta against Batman, he just wants to see how long it takes Batman to catch him.

[Joker81]

Are you guys for real?

Joker realises that Bruce Wayne is Batman when he quips his own line to him in the cathedral IN HIS OWN VOICE! 'You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight'

Joker/Napier knows he killed Waynes parents, but he thinks he finishes the job with Bruce by shooting him in Vicki's apartment, especially since Bruce says to him 'I know who you are.'
So Joker says in the showdown 'I was a kid when I killed your parents'

[Kamdan]

I thought when Bruce said, "I know who you are," he meant that he knew he really was Jack Napier. I also think The Joker's quote ?I was a kid when I killed your parents? line seemed more like he was trying to say, "I would have been a kid when I killed your parents." I still wonder if all of this was suppose to be ambiguous. If it wasn't, then Warren Skaaren did a terrible job writting.

[Joker81]

duh, yeah he did mean 'I know who you are' as in Jack Napier.

and I was a kid when I killed your parents, or I would have been a kid when I killed your parents.....the latter wouldnt make sense to talk like that.