| “ | I guess we don't all work for you. | „ |
| ~ Gordon as he arrests Carmine Falcone |
Lieutenant James "Jim" Gordon is the tritagonist of the 2022 superhero film The Batman. He is a lieutenant in the Gotham City Police Department who forms a tenuous partnership with the vigilante Batman to catch The Riddler, a serial killer preying on corrupt Gotham City officials.
He is portrayed by Jeffrey Wright, who also portrayed Felix Leiter in the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and No Time to Die.
Overview
In this continuity, Gordon is a lieutenant in the GCPD who has been secretly working with Batman for two years, even though the police officially consider the masked vigilante a criminal. Gordon was instrumental in arresting mobster Salvatore Maroni, who had been running a massive drug ring selling the narcotic "Drops".
In The Batman
When a serial killer calling himself "The Riddler" murders Gotham's mayor, Don Mitchell, Jr., and GCPD Commissioner Pete Savage, Gordon lets Batman in on the investigation, during which they discover that both victims were taking bribes from mob boss Carmine Falcone. Batman and Gordon discover that the Riddler left a thumb drive in Mitchell's car containing images of Mitchell with a woman, Annika Koslov, at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub operated by Oswald Cobblepot, aka "The Penguin", Falcone's right-hand man.
At Mitchell's funeral, a car crashes into the church, revealing District Attorney Gil Colson with a bomb around his neck programmed by the Riddler. Gordon and Batman try to save Colson, who is also corrupt, but the Riddler remotely kills him anyway. GCPD Chief Mackenzie Bock orders Gordon to arrest Batman as an accessory to murder, but Gordon manages to talk Bock into giving him a few minutes alone with the vigilante to "interrogate" him. After Batman convinces him that GCPD detective William Kenzie is working for the Riddler, Gordon tells Batman to hit him in the face to make it look like he had tried to stop him from escaping; Batman reluctantly does so, and gets away. Gordon later meets with Batman, and they theorize that the Riddler is now after the Penguin, who had informed on Maroni to the police to stay out of prison.
Gordon helps Batman spy on the Penguin and his men, and discover that Maroni's drug ring is still in operation. After Batman apprehends Penguin, they interrogate the gangster, who turns out not to be the informant but who inadvertently leads them to communicate online with the Riddler. Following the killer's clues, they go to the abandoned Gotham Orphanage, founded by the late Thomas and Martha Wayne, where they find evidence proving that the Riddler is really after Bruce Wayne - who, unbeknownst to Gordon, is Batman's alter ego.
Batman and Gordon stop Annika's friend, cat burglar Selina Kyle, from killing Kenzie, who has a tape revealing that Falcone is the informant, and that he murdered Annika to keep her from talking to the police.
After the Riddler assassinates Falcone, Batman and Gordon learn his real identity - Edward Nashton, a psychopath with a homicidal grudge against Gotham's ruling class - and apprehend him. They are too late, however, to stop the Riddler's followers from destroying Gotham's seawall, flooding the entire city, or from shooting and wounding Mayor-elect Bella Reál, though Gordon does manage to drag Reál to safety. After Batman and Kyle stop the Riddler's followers from destroying Gotham, Gordon becomes Reál's right-hand man in rebuilding the city.
Trivia
- Jeffrey Wright is the first Black actor to portray James Gordon.
