- "Celebrate later, Alfred, I need the Knightcrawler!."
- "I thought you'd never ask. Crawler's on the way. Initiating remote mode."
- —Batman and Alfred Pennyworth[src]
The Knightcrawler, or simply the "Crawler", is a vehicle used by Batman to access rough terrain that cannot be reached via a car or plane.[1]
History[]
In Storage[]
After realizing the impending threat posed by the Parademons, Bruce Wayne works on the Knightcrawler and gets it running as an additional help for the incoming battles ahead. At some point it was known to have been stored at the Wayne Aerospace Hangar.[2]
Skirmish under Gotham Harbor[]
He used it to transport himself, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg to Gotham Harbor to search for the kidnapping victims from S.T.A.R. Labs. When Batman was starting to be overwhelmed by Parademons during the fight with Steppenwolf, he requested Alfred Pennyworth remote pilot the Crawler to him for support. He used it to great effect against the Parademons attacking Wonder Woman. But found it ineffective against Steppenwolf, who sliced it open with his Electro Axe and knocked it down the tunnel. Cyborg eventually repaired and took control of the Crawler from Alfred and tried in vain to take out Steppenwolf with its missiles. Which ended up causing the tunnel to be flooded and forcing the team to retreat from the scene aboard the Crawler. Which was left on the tunnel wall after Cyborg got the team to safety and left to retrieve the Mother Box he had hidden.[3]
Capabilities[]
The Knightcrawler is a disused Wayne Enterprises single seat technologically advanced military prototype all-terrain climber vehicle developed to perform ground attack with stealth capability by Thomas Wayne with two modes of transportation that can shift from tank to climber with the flick of a switch and carries a range of weapons and was later used by his son Bruce Wayne in his activities as 'the Batman' to access rough terrain that couldn't be reached via a batmobile or batwing.
Its articulation of arms works on the principle of real world robotics and its heavy duty look works on the principle of forklifts and drilling machinery. When its goes into crawling mode, on each side of the tread, right on contact, it has spikes which plants its foot against the wall and tip of the spikes expand out to anchor the vehicle and drives each foot into the wall as it climbs up.
The Knightcrawler was originally designed by Thomas Wayne, intended to be applied for military use. Its design was eventually used by his son, Bruce Wayne, in his exploits as the vigilante Batman.[1]
It is a four-treaded tank with each tread on a separate leg so it can walk. It can pierce into surfaces with each leg to climb up walls or hang from a roof. Its cockpit interior is based on function, like a forklift. It has one command seat and two fold-out benches. [4]
The Knightcrawler also has powerful weaponry for dealing with alien threats, as seen when Batman used the vehicle's Gatling guns to tear through a Parademon's armour and flesh and two heavy side missile launchers as seen when Cyborg fired them at Steppenwolf. This addition of such weapons was likely added in order for Batman to stand a chance against the Parademon threat facing the Earth.
- Climbing: It is capable of climbing walls.
- Power Source: It probably has a electric based engine as a petroleum based engine would be inefficient for the requirements of the vehicle.
- Remote Mode: It has a cockpit which opens from the top and can also be controlled remotely from the Batcave.
- Maneuverability: It is relatively quick for a heavy duty vehicle as it is capable of climbing storeys in mere seconds.
- Stealth Capability: It also has stealth capabilities to a extent as it was able to enter the tunnel without the attention of Steppenwolf and his parademons.
- Visibility: It also has powerfull headlights as in four pairs on front top and two pairs on front bottom for visibility.
- Suspension: After the damage caused by Steppenwolf, it fell upside down. Cyborg later turned it upright through his body and half of the vehicle's weight fell on one side of its body on two of its adjacent legs indicating that it can sustain fall from one or two stories.
- Body: The body of the vehicle has extremely high resistance to physical damage as it was capable of taking multiple hits from Steppenwolf's punches and his axe's blows and could be restarted by Cyborg by interfacing through his body.
- Offensive Capabilities: It possess offensive capabilities in the form of two retractable cannon turrets on either side of the upper side of the cockpit capable of shooting rapid armor piercing rounds which can turn parademons to dust and partially injure Steppenwolf and missiles which can destroy walls.
- Operating Conditions: It is an all terrain vehicle and the tunnel battle further confirms that water doesn't affect the vehicle.
Behind the Scenes[]
- "For long distances, the Knightcrawler wasn't very practical, so I decided to have tank-like treads living within its legs. I asked myself, how does it climb walls? I decided that it has spikes on the side of the legs. One spike embeds itself in the wall and widens, so it gets stuck there, then retracts again as the next spike embeds itself, and so on."
- ―Patrick Tatopoulos[src]
- The Knightcrawler was an original vehicle for Justice League, and was created by the film's production designer, Patrick Tatopoulos.
- One of the early versions of the Aquaman script involved Orm commanding three of the seven kingdoms of Atlantis to attack the surface world, leading to resistance from the Justice League, including what appears to be Batman commandeering the Knightcrawler to repel invading war machines from those kingdoms. Concept art of this was depicted by artist Ed Natividad.[5]
Gallery[]
Concept artwork[]
