Christopher Nolan to Princeton graduates: 'You're already better than Batman'

This past Monday, Christopher Nolan spoke to Princeton's graduating class at their commencement ceremony. The Dark Knight Trilogy director even ended his speech with a joke about Batman Begins:

"The most important thing about Bruce Wayne — yes, he attended Princeton, but he didn't graduate," he said to roaring applause. "So as of tomorrow, you are all already better than Batman!"

Nolan is of course referring to a scene in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne comes home from Princeton to attend the hearing for his parents killer, and informs Alfred that he will not be heading back to school when it's over.

All jokes aside, Nolan gave a really good speech to the Princeton graduates. Head on over to The Hollywood Reporter to read some of the highlights.

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter

76 comments

Awpwn

June 3, 2015

Neat.

Clown Two-Face
June 3, 2015
Neato

Dr Mindbender

June 3, 2015

Already better than YOUR Batman, Chris. Methinks someone else will be able to say the same thing in about 10 months. 😉

Harish
June 3, 2015
9 months
1. Sergio
  June 3, 2015
  jesus, batman's getting born again... how meta
  1. ernest schoenmakers
    June 3, 2015
    Zack Snyder should do a better job now with his new Bats and new screen writer.
Paul Newman
June 3, 2015
I'm sure he's reading and will be drafting a correction to his joke and an apology to the Princeton graduates.
1. Dr Mindbender
  June 3, 2015
  Yes, where he goes on to reference me directly.

2Sides1Coin

June 3, 2015

Nobody is better than Batman...NOBODY! Except maybe Superman

Rorschach
June 3, 2015
...
Clown Two-Face
June 3, 2015
(Pic)I feel a 2-Face profile pic would be more appropriate coinciding your profile name!?! But that's just muh 2 cents!!! May I give my idea for a profile pic of 2-Face:http://vignette3.wikia.noco...
Maybe this:http://vignette4.wikia.noco...
1. 2Sides1Coin
  June 3, 2015
  Yea I know...it sounds more like a 2-face name but I have always loved the fact that superman and batman have similar paths but approach it 2 different ways.
  Badass pic btw :)
  1. Clown Two-Face
    June 3, 2015
    Ikr
OGDickGrayson
June 3, 2015
Kal-El, Dick Grayson, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan....

dark knight fan

June 3, 2015

Hey Superman didn't ever graduate High School in Superman 1 or Man of Steel.

Clown Two-Face
June 3, 2015
Let me guess you a fan of The Dark Knight?!?
1. dark knight fan
  June 3, 2015
  I just pointing out that Clerk left high school to become Superman.
  1. Clown Two-Face
    June 3, 2015
    It's a joke based on your name!!!
    1. dark knight fan
      June 3, 2015
      Oh ok.
Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
... He already did
Marvel troll
June 4, 2015
How did he get a job in Daily Planet, one of the most prestigious fictional newspapers in the country?

Bruce Erdem

June 3, 2015

Why did Bruce go to Princeton in the first place?

Rorschach

June 3, 2015

I think Christopher Nolan blows people's minds even when he's not trying to. Read the fuller excerpts of that speech. The man is almost too smart for his own good. I still wonder how much sway he holds behind the scenes of the DCCU, even though he says he isn't very involved. When I hear stories like the one that suggests he told WB to go after Ben Affleck for Batman, it really makes me think he's think pulling the strings on a lot more than we know. And I won't complain about that! Putting Zack Snyder and Larry Fong at the helm of the direction and visuals, Chris Terrio (and Ben Affleck?) at the helm of writing, and Chris Nolan at the helm of making sure everything is in good shape in the DCCU... Yeah, that's pretty much my definition of perfect.

Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
If only this bastard stayed with DCCU instead of making awesome masterpieces like Interstellar. I must have Nolan rejoin DCCU

Kawaii Joker

June 3, 2015

Is there a video of his speech anywhere? I would love to watch it.

ßαby J

June 3, 2015

You know, whenever I see the words "Nolan" and "Batman" in the same sentence, I'm like

Clown Two-Face

June 3, 2015

Lol

Clown Two-Face

June 3, 2015

Guys if you can when a new article comes out link it in the last one so people can jump right over (if someone hasn't)!!!! (Just did for this article)

Clown Two-Face

June 3, 2015

Or his Brother!! He did write the movies!! I forgot his name though?!

ChargerS3
June 3, 2015
Jonathan Nolan
1. Clown Two-Face
  June 3, 2015
  Right Jonathan!!!

Rorschach

June 3, 2015

Not to get too terribly off-topic but if WB gains control of James Bond, as Variety is suggesting will happen, will Christopher Nolan direct??

Harish
June 3, 2015
Link to the article please.
1. Harish
  June 3, 2015
  Never mind, found it.
2. Rorschach
  June 3, 2015
  In case anyone else wants the link, here it is: http://variety.com/2015/fil...
Clown Two-Face
June 3, 2015
That would be a interesting movie?? Plus MGM would still have say in the director!! Then again he's vary selective in the movies he does so we will see!!
Chsox203
June 3, 2015
Confirmed *
OGDickGrayson
June 3, 2015
If he was offered it, I totally think he would. He has no upcoming projects as far as we know and he has stated in the past that he is interested in the Bond films.
Boulder Bash
June 3, 2015
no, zack snyder will direct it and tie it with justice league. :p

OptimistPrime99

June 3, 2015

Perhaps they're already better than NOLAN'S Batman.

Chris Terrio

June 3, 2015

Expect Superman

Rorschach
June 3, 2015
Always the correct response!
1. Rorschach
  June 3, 2015
  Haha no problem, I'm glad someone else had this one covered!
Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
> saying it's heresy to think Superman is better than Batman using a meme from a Superman movie 😒

Chris Terrio

June 3, 2015

ernest schoenmakers

June 3, 2015

First of all Ben really looks the part and secondly the suits are also better but we have to wait and see about his acting.

Bats2012
June 4, 2015
Whether you like a suit that looks like someone could and would actually wear it for protection vs a padded cod peice of fake muscle is a matter a personal preference.

Charles Tosti

June 3, 2015

Since we haven't had an off topic discussion on here in a while, I'd like to do so.
Who's crime fighting methodology do you prefer, Batman's or Punisher's?
On one hand Bruce doesn't snoop down to their level and cross that very fine line that separates a vigilante from a villain, however, Castle's methods are definitely more efficient. Heck, there have been times where I've been in horrible situation to the point that I wished I had a Punisher like vigilante in my town. What do you think. Give good analytic reasoning to your thoughts...

Clown Two-Face
June 3, 2015
Batman he has morals and doesn't kill!!!
1. Charles Tosti
  June 3, 2015
  "Give good analytic reasoning to your thoughts..." I guess you skipped over this part >:(
  1. Clown Two-Face
    June 3, 2015
    He has morals and doesn't kill is my reasoning!!! He also knows his limits!!! (Which he usually ignores but still!!)
    1. Charles Tosti
      June 3, 2015
      Haha alright ;)
2. Chris Terrio
  June 3, 2015
  Batman has killed before
  1. Clown Two-Face
    June 3, 2015
    Really??? When
Charles Tosti
June 3, 2015
I agree. I'm not saying Batman's way is necessarily bad but let's be honest, it does seem like Arkham Asylum and Black Gate has a revolving door lol
1. Clown Two-Face
  June 3, 2015
  It's not his fault that BG and Arkham are revolving doors!!
  1. Charles Tosti
    June 3, 2015
    That would be the writers fault. I guess it makes the stories more interesting
    1. Clown Two-Face
      June 3, 2015
      Yep no names for a Batman if all the criminals stay locked up when caught!!
    2. Charles Tosti
      June 3, 2015
      Knightfall was an amazing story. The idea of having the hero at his lowest (though it may not be original) has always made for great story telling and is very poetic. I also love Knightfall because it reminds the readers that Batman is a human and not a GOD. A lot of people seem to forget that. I can't stand when writers over emphasis his "Bat-God" persona too much. I much prefer Bats to be BatMAN. I much prefer my protagonists to be flawed and also to have limitations.
    3. Bats2012
      June 4, 2015
      What about the part where he is healed by magic?
2. Marvel troll
  June 4, 2015
  Just gonna remind you of a Batman who was killing guys "The Punisher" way. I hope you know how his world was, how shitty his life was, cut off from friends and family, how he was more of a vigilante than an actual hero like Bruce.
  I hope that answers your question.
Charles Tosti
June 3, 2015
Wat? Why?
1. Charles Tosti
  June 3, 2015
  Lol that went strait over my head *Nothing goes over my head....I would catch it* - shitty Guardians of the Galaxy reference ;)
  1. Chris Terrio
    June 3, 2015
    "He didn't go behind my back Dwight. He went over my head."
    "He went behind over your head to go behind your back"
Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
"Since we hadn't had an off topic discussion on here in a shoe I's like to do so"
Since there wasn't any robberies the past week, I'd like to rob somebody
1. Charles Tosti
  June 3, 2015
  Uhh *scratches head* are you mad at me? lol
Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
Nice I would prefer Rorschach v Punisher: Dawn of Awesome but Batman's cool too
Chris Terrio
June 3, 2015
"Of all the people I've killed by letting you live!"
Bats2012
June 4, 2015
People kept dying because comics needed to keep selling. Real world (Nolan trilogy), criminals get locked up and don't escape multiple times.

Red Queen

June 3, 2015

There's a shiny new article: http://batman-news.com/2015... .

Chris Terrio

June 3, 2015

GRADUATION IS NOTHING! WILL IS EVERYTHING!

MIke

June 3, 2015

Oh the dark knight trilogy haters, I see them everywhere. Its cutie that they want to talk shit, so they feel their point is relevant on how bad the trilogy is or just jealous Marvel fangirls, its like they go on YouTube videos purposely or look up articles....I find it pathetic to be honest I mean I don't find avengers all that interesting but you don't see me going to their videos or commenting on articles talking trash, this type of thing reminds how people pathetic people can be.

PsychoMantis18

June 3, 2015

Now that's a great director who knows how to make great films

Daniel Christopher Holt

June 4, 2015

With a speech like that I can see why Christopher Nolan gets writer's block and keeps repeating the same storyline over and over again with his movies. It depends what you consider dreams. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who both have high IQs, dropped out of college universities yet they're multi-billionaires and very intelligent. Some very intelligent people get beyond the limitations of academic curriculum and take charge of their lives, where they can create unlimited success without those degrees, whereas it's always good for anyone to complete their degrees. It's just that guys like Christopher Nolan are passing on more communist self defeatist dogma. It's a bad habit of many people to become dictators on knowledge, where they have tunnel vision of that who become dogmatic. Christopher Nolan has also had some great insight on incredible concepts and sciences, but there's much he doesn't know to where not one person can be looked to for total knowledge but people tend to blindly follow people like that. That's only the Dark Knight Nolan version of Bruce Wayne. In the comics Bruce Wayne is a prodigy genius with an IQ of 190, and he probably has many degrees where he had home tutoring as a child and zipped through the all of his school. It depends what you consider dreams. There's reality in dreams, and so real dreams that can be manifested are a science instead of wishful thinking. Stephen Hawking isn't the most intelligent scientist, where there's many great thinkers who have gone far beyond him and have accomplished a lot more than Stephen Hawking. That just shows the lack of awareness of what's out there, what can be known, and what can be accomplished. In his own right Stephen Hawking has left his mark. But there's little girls who are 12 years old with an IQ over 160 that are already in college university who didn't grow up with that much money, and Stephen Hawking's IQ topped out at 160. I know of great inventors with over 600 patents who were inventing since they were little children, could build vehicles, missiles, and nuclear bomb detectors at adolescence, and were already working for the military, NASA, and top secret bases before they were grown adults who's IQs are over 200. The highest recorded IQs that are public are from 250 to 350. In a lot of ways the bad advice from Christopher Nolan, the spoiled oblivious Kardashians, and Darren Aronofsky are really hurting the culture where their logic is in the liberal minority that runs the backwards corrupt media, but there's many more people that are a lot more intelligent, have accomplished far more, who would say and teach just the opposite for everything. If what you mean by dreams are the frauds such as American Idol and Justin Beiber such as teeny bopper posers, or Ben Affleck and Matt Damon who switch from white wash to poser nerds even though they're not truly representing themselves then those aren't dreams to where the media creates a false representation of what dreams are. The media knows nothing, and there's so many other subjects that will reveal new truths and true dreams. There is fantasy in reality and reality in fantasy. Dreams can be started out as basic such as saving money and generating more money, and getting a secure job. Longterm success needs to be generated then dreams can be conceived as new areas of the mind open when first there's an abundance to create and fall back on. A problem is that people who make $3000 a month don't know how to manage their money, and that's more than enough to have a secure life where first the life must be managed and then dreams can take place. The American culture doesn't support for planning with abundance as 80% of Americans are in debt, yet 50% of Americans make atleast $2000 a month. Those 50% of Americans are mostly married, and so their combined income with their spouse is atleast $4000. America is so bad with money they think a person needs to atleast make $4000 a month individually to even survive. 50% of Americans are chronically ill and have a psychological illness because of the pirating the hospital and psychiatric fields are doing with medications that are ruining the populations' brain and body physiology whereas much poorer countries don't have this problem to this degree. That means that Americans can only use 1/4th of the money they make, while Japan makes a little bit less than the USA but Japanese citizens can use 100% of the money they make. There's a high divorce rate in Americans, and there's no fundamental structure in Americans where the American media and the communist portion of American scientists create a false representation with the bad teachings the flawed American system has created.

Nolan's Speech (unedited)

June 4, 2015

"Yes class, Batman didn't graduate from Princeton so you are already better than Batman............well actually let's be honest here, instead of graduating, he traveled the world, thought on his own, self-educated, sought out the best, most precise and exclusive pools of knowledge in the world relating to his goal of crime-fighting and absorbed that knowledge with an extreme sense of dedication and fortitude. Instead of using his daddy's money to use a single collegiate entity to provide him with everything he needed like a piglet relying on it's mother's teet for growth and sustenance, he thought outside the of the box, studied the answers to questions that only a few sources in the universe could answer, developed his own methodology of crime-fighting that superseded the current models, and ended up becoming a major innovator on the planet, changing history, and thus outshining the graduates of his would be class and rendering their efforts in life, mediocre.............(silence)..................Sooooo......... what I am saying is that essentially a man who dropped out of your college is smarter than everyone in this room and has done more for humanity than you and your collective class ever will, thus proving your university establishment obsolete. Enjoy the real world or graduate school or whatever and oh yes! Make sure to buy Interstellar on Blu-ray and DVD good night."

Bats2012

June 4, 2015

Thank you

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Christopher Nolan to Princeton graduates: 'You're already better than Batman'

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