Sunday, August 19, 2012

Finally--The True Location Of Gotham City!!

As many of you know, we here at Slay Monstrobot are ridiculously obsessed with tracking down the "actual" locations of various fictional DC cities...and especially Gotham City. (And it's not just me...others share this deep thirst for geographical knowledge!)

But finally, we have a break in the case!! Irrefutable evidence!!!

Turn away if you don't want minor spoilers for The Dark Knight Returns...

At the end, Blake is given the GPS coordinates for the Batcave!! And it's flashed right on the screen!! OMG!!!

Now, let's introduce the caveats:

A) We see only the complete latitude---the degrees longitude are covered, so we only have half the equation.

B) Wayne Manor has often (but not always) been described as outside of Gotham City proper...so this is only an approximation of Gotham's location.

C) DC Movie Universe geography, of course, may be significantly different than DC Comics Universe geography.

D)
If the Busiek Hypothesis--that DC Earth is physically bigger than our (and Marvel's) Earth, thus with more room for all these extra cities--is correct, well, that blows my work here to hell.

E) Nolan may be mind-frakking us.

Still, nerdishness insists that we press onward. Watching TDKR (too many) times reveals that the latitude entrance to the Batcave is:

34 degrees, 8 minutes, 22 seconds North.

Now, as mentioned, we don't have the longitude. But given that Gotham is on the seaboard, Nolan is clearly telling us that Batman's home is...in southern North Carolina?!?

Near Myrtle Grove?!?

Well, getting closer, that's puts the Batcave right near these two houses...neither one of which, looks too much like Wayne Manor...

So...Gotham City south of the Mason-Dixon line? Way south, in fact? Bruce Wayne is a Tarheels fan (or, gasp, a Duke fan)?!?

Well, that doesn't seem right, does it? Especially with the snow we see in TDKR.

Ah, but wait. Let's check back in with caveat E above...Nolan may be mind-frakking us.

After all...why would he give us the latitude, but not the longitude? It's not like that hides anything, because if we know that Gotham is on the East coast, than we don't need longitude, right?

IF we know Gotham is on the East Coast.

IF.

And that's why you obscure the longitude...because you're playing a terrible trick on us. Because, as best as I can recall, there is nothing in any of the three movies that gives us any geographical point of reference, at all.

And Gotham City could have that latitude and still have a port...if it were on the West Coast!!

And 34 degrees North along the Pacific coast just happens to be...Los Angeles!!

And...get ready to have your mind blown...troll along 34 degrees 8 minutes North, and you come to the inescapable conclusion that--and I am not making this up--the Batcave is beneath...

Seriously. The Batcave is beneath Universal Studios.

Christopher Nolan, you magnificent bastard. I'm not sure how Warners feels about that, though...

Or, if you travel Google Earth up in the Hollywood Hills, to precisely 34ยบ 8' 22", you see that there is a spot, not far from the famous Hollywood sign, with this picture uploaded...

A cave overlooking Hollywood. Perfect!!

So, the Batcave is in Hollywood, probably extending top directly under the Hollywood sign!! Case closed.

What about the snow, you ask? Oh, that was just symbolic, showing uh, well, how upset the natural order was at Bane's takeover. Yeah, that's the ticket!!

But what about the waterfall in front of the cave?

Shut up.

5 comments:

Siskoid said...

Awesome Easter Egg!

Chris B said...

Nice work! Anything is better than Bruce being a Duke fan.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

That is an incredible thing. Even the cave. Props to our man on Panoramino.

Martin Gray said...

You're rather brilliant, you know.

I may go and see that film soon.

Ambidexter said...

OK, but doesn't Gotham get snow? LA doesn't