Batman Begins (2005)

Liam Neeson: Ducard

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Henri Ducard : But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just... poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.

• Henri Ducard : Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.

  Bruce Wayne : That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.

• Bruce Wayne : You're vigilantes.

  Henri Ducard : No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.

  Bruce Wayne : Which is?

  Henri Ducard : Legend, Mr. Wayne.

• Henri Ducard : But a criminal is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.

• Henri Ducard : Your parents' death was not your fault.

  [Bruce attacks Ducard with his sword] 

  Henri Ducard : It was your father's.

  [Bruce furiously attacks Ducard, but is easily defeated] 

  Henri Ducard : Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.

  Bruce Wayne : The man had a gun!

  Henri Ducard : Would that stop you?

  Bruce Wayne : I've had training!

  Henri Ducard : The training is nothing! The will is everything!

  [Ducard bests Bruce once again] 

  Henri Ducard : The will to act.

• Henri Ducard : You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.

• Ra's al Ghul : When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.

• [from trailer] 

  Henri Ducard : You traveled the world... Now you must journey inwards... to what you really fear... it's inside you... there is no turning back. Your parents' death was not your fault. Your training is nothing. The will is everything. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely. Are you ready to begin?

• Henri Ducard : Are you ready to begin?

  Bruce Wayne : I-I can barely stand...

  Henri Ducard : [kicks him]  Death does not wait for you to be ready! Death is not considerate, or fair! And make no mistake: here, you face Death.

• Ra's al Ghul : Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

  Bruce Wayne : You attacked Gotham before?

  Ra's al Ghul : Of course. Over the ages, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one: Economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens... such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself... and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice... you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.

• Henri Ducard : When you lived among the criminals, did you start to pity them?

  Bruce Wayne : The first time I stole so that I wouldn't starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. And when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them.

• Ra's al Ghul : Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?

  Bruce Wayne : I won't kill you.

  [he throws two bombs, breaking a window and opening the back of the train car] 

  Bruce Wayne : ... But I don't have to save you.

  [he spreads his cape and rises out the back of the car; the train plunges off the rails and explodes] 

• Henri Ducard : Always mind your surroundings.

• [meeting someone introduced as Ra's al Ghul] 

  Bruce Wayne : You're not Ra's al Ghul. I watched him die.

  Henri Ducard : [from behind Bruce Wayne]  But is Ra's al Ghul immortal?

  [Bruce turns around to face Ducard] 

  Henri Ducard : Are his methods supernatural?

  Bruce Wayne : [to Ducard]  Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity, "Ra's"?

  Henri Ducard : Surely, a man who spends his nights scrambling over the rooftops of Gotham wouldn't begrudge me dual identities?

  Bruce Wayne : I saved your life.

  Henri Ducard : I warned you about compassion, Bruce.

• Ra's al Ghul : You are just an ordinary man in a cape! That's why you couldn't fight injustice and that's why you can't stop this train!

  Batman : Who said anything about stopping it?

  [Ra's al Ghul looks up, confused, and sees his own sword jammed into the brake panel] 

  Jim Gordon : [blows up the train supports]  Yes!

  Batman : [reverses his grip and pins Ra's al Ghul to the floor]  You never learned to mind your surroundings!

• Bruce Wayne : You're gonna destroy millions of lives.

  Ra's al Ghul : Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime, despair... this is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats, burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.

• Henri Ducard : You have learned to bury your guilt with anger. I will teach you to confront it, and to face the truth. You know how to fight six men. We can teach you how to engage six hundred. You know how to disappear. We can teach you to become truly invisible.

  Bruce Wayne : Invisible?

  Henri Ducard : [Ducard shouts in a different language and 2 people dressed in black flip down from the ceiling]  A Ninja understands that invisibility is a matter of patience... and agility.

• [Batman flies up to find Ra's al Ghul and his warriors] 

  Ra's al Ghul : Well, well. You took my advice about theatricality a bit... literally.

• Ra's al Ghul : When a forest grows too wild a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

  Bruce Wayne : You've attacked Gotham before?

  Ra's al Ghul : Of course. Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gothan we tried a new one: economics. But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens... such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them... and stab them in the heart.

• Henri Ducard : [to Bruce]  Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.

• Ra's al Ghul : Justice is balance. You burned my house and left me for dead. Consider us even.

• Ra's al Ghul : If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.

• [Batman confronts Ra's, flanked by two of his ninjas] 

  Batman : It ends here.

  Ra's al Ghul : For you and the police, maybe. My fight, however, lies with the rest of Gotham. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a city to destroy.

  Batman : I can't beat two of your pawns?

  Ra's al Ghul : As you wish.

  [two more ninjas drop down from above] 

• [Bruce Wayne begins to burn down Ra's Al Ghul's temple] 

  Henri Ducard : What are you doing?

  Bruce Wayne : What is necessary, my friend.

• Bruce Wayne : Yield.

  Henri Ducard : You haven't beaten me. You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke.

  [he taps the ice with his sword, plunging Bruce into the water] 

• Ra's al Ghul : You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.

  Bruce Wayne : I'll be standing where I belong. Between you and the people of Gotham.

  Ra's al Ghul : No one can save Gotham.

• Henri Ducard : Theatricality and deception are powerful agents.

• Bruce Wayne : I will go back to Gotham and I will fight men like this, but I will not become an executioner.

  Henri Ducard : Bruce, please! For your own sake. There is no turning back.

• Henri Ducard : Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you. As it almost did me.

  Bruce Wayne : What stopped it?

  Henri Ducard : Vengeance.

• Henri Ducard : Men fear most what they cannot see.

• Ra's al Ghul : [fighting Batman on the monorail, dismissively]  Familiar. Don't you have anything new?

  [swings sword at Batman, who catches the blade within the spurs of his gauntlets] 

  Batman : How about *this*?

  [uncrosses his arms and pulls them outward, shattering the sword] 

• Rachel Dawes : Hey, what the hell are you doing?

  Ra's al Ghul : Gentlemen, time to spread the word. And the word is panic.

• Bruce Wayne : Who is he?

  [implying the man imprisoned in a wooden cage] 

  Henri Ducard : He was a farmer. Then he tried to take his neighbor's land and became a murderer. Now he is a prisoner.

  Bruce Wayne : What'll happen to him?

  Henri Ducard : Justice. Crime can not be tolerated. Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.

• Soldier : Get in!

  Henri Ducard : Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?

  Bruce Wayne : Actually, there were uh, seven of them.

  Henri Ducard : I counted six, Mr. Wayne.

  Bruce Wayne : How do you know my name?

  Henri Ducard : The world is too small for someone like Bruce Wayne to disappear, no matter how deep he chooses to sink.

  Bruce Wayne : Who are you?

  Henri Ducard : My name is merely Ducard, but I speak for Ra's al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld. A man who could offer you a path.

• Henri Ducard : You are stronger than your father.

  Bruce Wayne : You didn't know my father.

  Henri Ducard : But I know the rage that drives you.

• Henri Ducard : You've traveled the world to understand the criminal mind and conquer your fears.

• Bruce Wayne : I thought the point of solitary confinement was the solitary part.

  Henri Ducard : These men have mistaken you for a criminal, Mr. Wayne...

• Henri Ducard : And do you still feel responsible for your parents' death?

  Bruce Wayne : My anger outweighs my guilt.

  Henri Ducard : Come.