Cillian Murphy Gave Us One of the Best Supervillain Performances

The Big Picture

• Cillian Murphy's role in Batman Begins as Dr. Crane showcases his talent for portraying complex supervillains.
• Murphy's strong performance continued in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises .
• Director Christopher Nolan's approach to using side characters like Scarecrow in fun cameos adds depth and richness to the fictional world.

It's been a long time coming for Cillian Murphy, who is in the running to win the Oscar for Best Actor thanks to his superb performance in Oppenheimer. Murphy has been one of the most underrated character actors for years, building his resume by working with major directors like Ken Loach, Danny Boyle, and Neil Jordan, as well as a continued allegiance to Christopher Nolan. That last name is particularly important, as Nolan casting him in his Dark Knight trilogy was instrumental in Murphy's career getting a boost in exposure. His performance as Dr. Jonathan Crane and his evolution from main villain in Batman Begins to heat-check scene stealer in the subsequent sequels, is one of the best villain performances in recent memory, and it's a great time to make an appointment and revisit the doctor.

Batman Begins

After witnessing his parents' deaths, Bruce learns the art of fighting to confront injustice. When he returns to Gotham as Batman, he must stop a secret society that intends to destroy the city.

In 'Batman Begins,' Cillian Murphy Gives Us a Different Take on the Supervillain

In Batman Begins, we're introduced to Jonathan Crane as a psychologist with a penchant for sending violent criminals to the mental hospital Arkham Asylum, so he can experiment on them with his fear toxin, rather than send them to prison. He's also in bed with major crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), who helped him smuggle drugs for his fear experiments. In return, Crane douses him with his fear toxin and throws him into Arkham, presumably as a way of keeping Falcone quiet about his corruption and involvement in drug smuggling. Seems like a fair trade.

This is the only film of the trilogy where we truly get to spend time with Jonathan Crane and understand his worldview and what his standard of behavior is like. You can argue that Murphy took a page from the Hannibal Lecter playbook, where he communicates his underlying instability through a deceptively serene surface, benefiting from his boyish good looks and those uniquely sharp blue eyes. He's like a cat that moves swiftly, purrs quietly, and is beyond annoyed at anybody who brings him the mildest inconvenience. Murphy plays him as so confident in his convictions that he's practically a low-key shade machine. When Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) tries to confront Crane about how suspicious it is that he keeps putting violent criminals in Arkham instead of in prison, he immediately cops an attitude with a tilt of his head and a voice soaking in sarcasm, insulted that she would imply he's in any way corrupt (which, of course, he is).

Anybody who has seen Cillian Murphy's work on Peaky Blinders knows how he can carry entire scenes with just his eyes, and since Dr. Crane is such a centered and quiet individual, it's up to Murphy to give Jonathan the vibe of an always disappointed and condescending principal of a snooty Ivy League school. In this case, while he fits the archetype of the "supervillain" of the story, he comes off more as a prissy know-it-all with an active contempt for brains that aren't crippled by fear and paranoia. As he himself puts it, "I have respect for the mind's power over the body", but no respect for the actual bodies being controlled by the mind. Crane always present himself as so steeped in his psychologist jargon and sensible-sounding even when gassing innocent people with his fear toxin. It creates a Gothic funhouse mirror version of the clinically objective and supportive image that people are supposed to take comfort in from a therapist.

What Is Scarecrow's Role in 'The Dark Knight'?

Not even being confronted by Batman (Christian Bale) himself can stop Crane from being a catty brainiac, using his psychology training to sniff out how Batman will attack him and his goons. Too bad it wasn't enough, because not one minute later, Batman gets the drop on him and gives him a taste of his own fear toxin. Crane gets so lost in his own sauce that he has a full-blown psychotic break. He ends up getting locked up in Arkham, permanently fixated on his Scarecrow persona.

In the very opening sequence of The Dark Knight, we see that Scarecrow got out of Arkham and is now a street drug dealer who is fully committed to a suave suit and Scarecrow mask look. This would be shocking except for the fact that Batman immediately shows up, whoops his ass, and then leaves him to never be acknowledged by the film ever again. After a stint in Arkham, Scarecrow seems to have chilled out a bit. He's got some nice swagger, unafraid to trash talk the drug buyers who think he's jacking up the price and is utterly unfazed by Batman unmasking him in front of all the customers whose trust he was trying to earn.

In 'The Dark Knight Rises,' Jonathan Crane Is So Good at Being Bad

Flash forward eight years to the events of The Dark Knight Rises. Gotham is a prison town taken over by Bane (Tom Hardy) and the League of Shadows, and the cops are rendered obsolete and most citizens are held at gunpoint or in hiding. The League has set up a giant makeshift court, where people who were formerly in positions of power get held on trial, to be either killed or exiled out onto a sheet of ice. Who would the judge at the top of the court turn out to be? The man, the myth, the legend... Scarecrow!

This time, he's got a new look. He's ditched the Scarecrow mask, in favor of sporting his natural luscious locks with a suit that's nicely torn up at the shoulders, giving off a visual that's subconsciously reminiscent of straw sticking out of a scarecrow's body. More importantly, he's fully embraced his New Year's resolution of being the worst 9 to 5 boss who enjoys firing his employees way too much. He bangs his gavel with relish, lords the small amount of power he has, and has the worst impish grin on his face at all times. The years of no Batman combined with the fear toxin flowing through his system have allowed him to tap into his true "do not care" energy, and Cillian Murphy is having the time of his life flexing for literally all of two minutes of screen time.

The Most Powerful Line in Any Superhero Movie Is Also the One You Least Expect

It's the final line Gotham deserves (but not the one you're thinking of).

Christopher Nolan Knows How To Treat His Side Characters

One of the biggest downsides of modern franchises is that they are obliged to use all of their characters as if they're always going to be important to the plot. The common logic behind that is it would be a waste of an actor's time and the film's budget to use an actor just to appear for a handful of minutes that doesn't contribute to the plot at all. It's this logic that Christopher Nolan used by bringing back Cillian Murphy as this character for fun cameos, as it's a much more plausible and organic way to make a fictional world feel fleshed out.

Of course, Scarecrow would just be up to his own shenanigans when Batman wasn't looking. Why stop pursuing his alternative passions as a drug dealer and judge just because he's not central to the current plot? The only way a director could get away with pulling off such a creative stunt is if they have the skill to make the scene work (which Nolan does) and the deepest level of trust and connection with the actor you keep calling back (which Cillian Murphy clearly has in Nolan). He provided Murphy with the security blanket necessary to let him cook and flesh out a truly bizarre villain that remains a highlight of his continuously brilliant career.

Batman Begins is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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