WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Morbius, in theaters now.
Sony's Morbius tried to paint a character portrait of Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) and his struggle to control his inner-vampire. After feeding on mercenaries on a boat, he tried to shut himself off from society, only for his best friend, Milo (Matt Smith) to try to cure himself by taking the same formula. It led to Milo going on a feeding frenzy, hoping to bring out the monster in his "brother" as well.
As both men endured different journeys in the film -- Morbius dealing with repentance, and Milo with rage -- Morbius paid tribute to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins in some iconic ways.
This movie was very nocturnal, showcasing many shots of New York's skyline at night, with skyscrapers lit up. Director Daniel Espinosa also had quite a few shots of the vamps perched on rooftops like gargoyles, surveying their landscape. In doing so, a lot of these moments felt like what Nolan and his cinematographer, Wally Pfister, established visually for Christian Bale's debut as the Bat. It added nuance to the Big Apple, while setting the emotive, dramatic tone. Admittedly, the script and editing were choppy, but in terms of mood and atmosphere, Espinosa nailed it with a haunting playground for his vamps like Nolan did for Gotham's Dark Knight.
In addition, Morbius had his own powerful embrace with bats, akin to when Bruce explored his cave, looking up at the light while the bats swarmed around him. This was him conquering his fear and turning them from avatars of darkness and shadow into far greater symbols.
Morbius did that same exact thing, transcending physically and mentally in his own Bat-cave -- except he had a tank with the creatures that he brought over from Costa Rica to make his ill-fated cure. However, after understanding how his powers worked, he stepped in to become one with them. The sequence had him mimicking Bruce's actions, looking up towards the light and adopting the winged mammals as brothers. Ironically, the orchestral tones of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard from Batman Begins were mimicked in Morbius, not just in this sequence but throughout the film by composer Jon Ekstrand, to craft an inspirational aesthetic.
To top it off, Morbius used this kinship in a remix of what Bruce did at Arkham Asylum in the 2005 movie. The Batman used a sonic emitter to bring a horde of bats to the asylum to provide him cover, or as he called it "backup," to escape the cops and prevent Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul poisoning Gotham's water supply.
But when Morbius needed help, he didn't use an emitter. Instead, when he finally confronted Milo, he sent a shriek throughout NYC, and the scream brought the bat horde in. This sonic power upgrade helped Morbius defeat his wicked brother, proving he had what Bruce had, but naturally.
To see these references to The Dark Knight, check out Morbius, currently in theaters.