Batman 89 Speargun *COMPLETE*

Valor

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hey guys, I'm looking to create the speargun from 1989's Batman and I'm struggling to find authority on screen accurate size. I've seen a couple cheaper replicas which always seem too small to me. I'm not trying to start a complicated debate, but I wanted to see if anyone here has CONFIRMED the dimension of this piece?
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So, on a side note I feel like I wandered into some sort of "Fight Club" Prop world. The first rule about the grapple gun is we don't talk about the grapple gun. I've reached out to a number of people here and on facebook who have expertise or first hand experience with this prop and no one is replying to me. I know there have been some tense issues here in the past about replicas of this prop. Is there something I should know. Do we not speak of this prop?
 
There seem to be certain props that people will not share dimensions for. With all the sharing that goes on, I often wonder what it is about those props. The grapple guns I've purchased and seen all seem too small. Especially when you consider batman wears gloves.
 
Right. Agree. But there seems to be consensus on the smaller size. Regardless, there's SO FEW decent photos of the screen-used spearguns. There's many more of the large double=grapple gauntlet, which I built. I'd love to get better access to one, or get some basic dimensions.
 
Okay, let me try this another way. Does anyone have one of the beautiful spearguns replicas that they would be willing to take come pictures of? Again, I'll make it worth your time. Thanks.
 
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Okay, let me try this another way. Does anyone have one of the beautiful spearguns replicas that they would be willing to take come pictures of? Again, I'll make it worth your time. Thanks.
I’ve got an SD Studios one I’d be happy to share photos of.
 
Also have one of the later SD Studios guns I'm willing to share photos and dimensions of.

And it's worth noting the close-up speargun in the "How much do you weigh?" scene is quite different from the Axis Chemicals gun since one of them was rigged to work with the practical effect. There's a possibility those 2 aren't scaled exactly the same.
 
.Yeah. I’m definitely sensing a couple different scales to the gun. In this one pic of Keaton holding the gun in his gloved hand it looks about 10% bigger to me. I’m using my gloved hand as reference (Keaton isn’t that much bigger than me). I’m trying to approach this as fresh as I can without relying too much in past replicas. But it’s hard to do that.
 

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One thing to do with the image you just posted of Keaton with the speargun, is take a known dimension of ANY other part of the suit in that image and blow the image up until your known dimension is the correct scale in the picture. Then use that dimension to take a single measurement off of the pictures speargun and use that to correctly scale your prop.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. It's what I do all the time. Works for me :)
 
One thing to do with the image you just posted of Keaton with the speargun, is take a known dimension of ANY other part of the suit in that image and blow the image up until your known dimension is the correct scale in the picture. Then use that dimension to take a single measurement off of the pictures speargun and use that to correctly scale your prop.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. It's what I do all the time. Works for me :)
Right!! I would love to know the KNOWN width of the ribbed section of the back of his glove.
 
This is one of my favorite screen grabs. It shows Kim Bassinger's hand grabbing the back end of the speargun. You can see how much of the gun her hand blocks giving a sense of scale. Presuming Kim had normal hands, Then this speargun on the belt was actually bigger than I thought.
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This is why I have a hard time when I see pics of speargun replicas like this that make the speargun look TINY..
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In fact, if I overlay the outline of Kim Bassinger's hand over this shot, and scale it to match the overlay shown in the "screen grab" you can see the inconsistency. Unless Kim Bassinger had toddler hands, this Speargun was larger than shown in the replica above.

kims.jpg
 
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The three close-up shots of the belt in the alleyway sequence -- it's two or three different belts, and three different reels, but if anyone has a casting of a screen used belt buckle that would provide a scale reference. This assumes those belts are all the same size of course.


The speargun parts slide around on the belt rail:
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Batman attaches reel to belt and removes the front piece:
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Vicki grabs the reel:
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