Batman Forever Theory Claims It Was All Bruce"s Dream

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Batman Forever saw the Caped Crusader battling Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and The Riddler (Jim Carrey), and a theory claims that half the movie was a dream Bruce Wayne was having, and the one to blame for that is The Riddler. The change of tone in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns and other factors led Warner Bros. to change their plans for subsequent Batman movies, with Joel Schumacher taking over as director and Val Kilmer taking the lead as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever, which even though kept some elements from Burton’s movies, it was a big change from the darker and more realistic tone of Batman and Batman Returns.
Batman Forever followed the title character as he did his best to stop Two-Face and The Riddler, who joined forces to extract information from the minds of all citizens in Gotham City, all this while Bruce adopted Dick Grayson (Chris O’Donnell), an orphan acrobat who after a couple of personal struggles ended up becoming Batman’s famous sidekick, Robin. Back to the villains, in order to get the information from the minds of Gotham’s citizens, The Riddler built a machine named The Box, which at one point, was accidentally tested by Bruce Wayne himself, and he might have never left the Box, meaning that the rest of the movie was a product of Bruce’s imagination.
Batman Forever Theory: Bruce Never Left The Riddler’s Box

A Reddit theory suggests that a big part of the events of Batman Forever was all in Bruce’s head as he never left The Riddler’s Box during the NygmaTech showcase. Batman Forever introduced Edward Nygma, an eccentric researcher at Wayne Enterprises who was obsessed with Bruce Wayne and was working on an invention that beamed television signals directly into a person’s brain. Nygma excitedly approached Bruce Wayne to show him his invention, but the spontaneous meeting didn’t go as expected as Bruce rejected the project as he was concerned that the technology used in it could manipulate minds. This led Nygma into a downward spiral, and after killing his supervisor and staging it as a suicide, he started planning his revenge against Bruce Wayne and sent him a series of riddles. Nygma continued working on the Box and discovered that he could use neural energy from other people through the Box to increase his own intelligence, so he planned on using his invention to absorb the brain waves of Gotham’s citizens into his own brain, selling the Box as a 3D TV equipment so everyone would buy it.
In order to develop all the Boxes he needed, Nygma, now as The Riddler, teamed up with Two-Face in return for his help in finding out Batman’s identity, and soon all stores in Gotham were selling Boxes, with families unaware of what using them would do to them. At a party hosted by Nygma, attendees could get a taste of the Box, and while Bruce tried to discreetly and safely take a look at the Box without turning it on, Nygma’s assistant installed a backup component that powered it, absorbing some of Bruce’s knowledge, leading to The Riddler and Two-Face to learn that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Bruce eventually broke out of the trance and went after The Riddler and Two-Face – however, he might have never left the Box, so the rest of Batman Forever was a fantasy Bruce was living thanks to the Box, and the theory is supported by how, although there was a lot of chaos, everything worked out for him in the second half of the movie and he got what he wanted both as Bruce and Batman.
Batman Got What He Wanted After The Riddler’s Party

While Bruce was in the Box, Nygma’s party was crashed by Two-Face, who luckily for Bruce, shot the Box that he was in, allowing him to break out of his trance and leave to suit up as Batman. Although Two-Face escaped by collapsing the structure of a subway line on him, Batman was rescued by Dick, and after all this, he started considering retiring as Batman to live with Chase Meridian. Batman visited Chase, who told him she had fallen for Bruce Wayne, which is exactly what he was hoping for, as before entering the Box, Chase had rejected Bruce in favor of Batman. Another moment pointed out by the author of the theory as proof of half of Batman Forever being a dream is that, when Two-Face and The Riddler invaded Wayne Manor while Chase and Bruce were there, they destroyed the Batcave and let Bruce live, though not before Two-Face tried to kill him by shooting him.
Although the Batcave was destroyed, Bruce decided to go back to his Batman identity and was able to save Chase, Robin, and pretty much all of Gotham from The Riddler and The Box at the end of Batman Forever with what was left of his technology and gadgets after Two-Face and The Riddler’s attack. Batman destroyed the Box, Two-Face was killed, The Riddler went insane and ended up in Arkham Asylum, and he and Chase were still together, so he got everything he wanted – however, there are a couple of details throughout all these events that don’t support the theory, such as Two-Face shooting Batman, his problems with Dick Grayson, and the destruction of the Batcave, as all those surely wouldn’t be events he would like to happen to him, but they can also be explained as nightmarish parts of the dream induced by the Box.

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