Batman Returns

In Gotham City , two wealthy socialites , horrified by the birth of their malformed and feral son Oswald , abandon him in the sewers, where he is taken in by a colony of penguins. Thirty-three years later, during the Christmas season, wealthy industrialist Max Shreck is abducted by the Red Triangle Gang—former circus performers implicated in child disappearances across the country—and taken to their hideout in the abandoned Arctic exhibit at Gotham Zoo. Their leader, Oswald, now known as the Penguin, blackmails Max with evidence of his corruption and murders, coercing him into helping Oswald re-enter Gotham's high society. Max stages the kidnapping of the mayor's infant child, allowing Oswald to "rescue" the child and become a public hero.

In return, Oswald requests access to the city's birth records, claiming he seeks to uncover his true identity by investigating Gotham's first-born sons. Max attempts to kill his timid secretary, Selina Kyle , by pushing her out of a window after she discovers his plan to build a power plant that would secretly drain and store Gotham's electricity. Selina survives, returns home, crafts a costume, and adopts the persona of Catwoman . To Max's surprise, she reappears at work with newfound confidence and assertiveness, immediately attracting the attention of visiting billionaire Bruce Wayne .

As the vigilante Batman , Bruce begins investigating Oswald, suspecting his ties to the Red Triangle Gang. Seeking to remove opposition to his power plant, Max convinces Oswald to run for mayor and discredit the incumbent by unleashing the gang on Gotham. Batman's efforts to quell the violence bring him into conflict with Catwoman, while in their civilian lives Selina and Bruce begin a romance. Meanwhile, Catwoman allies with Oswald to smear Batman's reputation.

During Gotham's Christmas-tree lighting, Oswald and Catwoman kidnap Gotham's beauty queen, the Ice Princess, and lure Batman to a rooftop above the ceremony. Oswald pushes the Ice Princess to her death with a swarm of bats, framing Batman. When Catwoman objects to the murder and rebuffs Oswald's sexual advances, he attacks her, sending her crashing through a glasshouse. Batman escapes in the Batmobile , unaware that the Red Triangle gang has sabotaged it, allowing Oswald to take it on a remote-controlled rampage.

Before regaining control, Batman records Oswald's insulting tirade against Gotham's citizens and later plays it during Oswald's mayoral rally, destroying his public image and forcing him to retreat to Gotham Zoo. There, Oswald renounces his humanity, fully embracing his identity as the Penguin, and sets his plan in motion to abduct and kill Gotham's first-born sons as revenge for his own abandonment. Selina attempts to kill Max at his charity ball, but Bruce intervenes, and the two inadvertently discover each other's secret identities. Penguin crashes the event intending to kidnap Max's son, Chip, but Max offers himself instead.

Batman disrupts the Red Triangle gang and halts the kidnappings, prompting the Penguin to unleash his missile-equipped penguin army to destroy Gotham. Batman's ally, Alfred Pennyworth , overrides the control signal, redirecting the penguins back to Gotham Zoo. As the missiles obliterate the zoo, Batman unleashes a swarm of bats, causing the Penguin to fall into the toxic waters of the Arctic exhibit. Catwoman confronts Max, rejecting Batman's plea to abandon her revenge and leave with him.

Max shoots Batman, incapacitating him, and then shoots Catwoman multiple times, but she survives, claiming she has two of her nine lives left. Catwoman electrocutes Max with a live cable, causing a power surge that appears to kill them both; however, Batman finds only Max's remains. The Penguin emerges one last time but succumbs to his injuries, with his penguins carrying his body into the water. Sometime later, while traveling home, Bruce spots Selina's silhouette but finds only a cat, which he takes with him.

The Bat-Signal shines above the city as Catwoman gazes up at it.