‘The Batman Complex’ Sees Christian Bale ‘Incepted’ by Leonardo DiCaprio [Video]

It was only a matter of time before someone made this, but we're grateful it was done so well: A cinematic mashup of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Prestige, The Machinist and Equilibrium. But YouTuber "themanbatman" has taken the fan-edit phenomenon to a new level, using clips from all those movies to suggest an all-new narrative where a man played by Christian Bale has been incepted by dream hacker Leonardo DiCaprio to believe he is a horrible creature known as The Batman. It's called The Batman Complex, and you can watch it below.

YouTube user themanbatman's editing skills are beyond those we usually see in fan-made remixes. In The Batman Complex, he assembles shots of Christian Bale from across his career that suggest a fairly clear storyline whereby his character is haunted by dreams of the Batman to the degree that he starts to question reality itself. The trailer makes it appear that the Inception crew has implanted this problem into Bale's head for some nefarious purpose, but that it may be backfiring in a way Leonardo DiCaprio's character didn't expect.

It's possible that there is quite a lot more to it, as themanbatman explained on the clip's YouTube page.

I wanted to focus more on the character aspects (and a bit of the tragedy as well), and attempt to move past the initial shock of the psychological twist. One aspect I tried to hint at was the paralleling descent of both Bruce and Cobb. As Cobb and the team go deeper into Bruce's mind, they start to encounter the truly dark issues that his subconscious houses. As a result, Cobb himself gets caught up in the obsession of all that lingers in the mind of a Batman. There are a couple fun things in there that are best left to surprise, but all in all, I'm relatively happy with how it turned out. It's fairly fast paced and doesn't leave much room to breath, which helps amplify the tension I think. But that's just me.

Whatever the interpretation, well done, themanbatman. We look forward to your next work.