Batman Returns' Most Annoying Plot Hole Secretly Revealed Penguin's Genius

screenrant.com:

One of the more perplexing moments in Batman Returns was when The Penguin revealed that he somehow had the blueprints to the Batmobile, and while the film only implies an explanation, other material confirms how this happened. The Tim Burton version of Batman is notably more reclusive than most iterations of the Dark Knight, making the plans to his main vehicle falling into the worst possible hands even stranger. Danny DeVito's version of The Penguin hints at a potential explanation, and the Batman Returns script nearly explained this odd moment, but it’s the film’s novelization that provides the best explanation for it.

Batman’s main form of transportation, the Batmobile, appears throughout both of Tim Burton’s films. As The Penguin demonstrates for Catwoman in Batman Returns, he initially planned on detonating both Batman and his weapons-laden car in one fell swoop, which his acquisition of the Batmobile’s blueprints made possible. Rather than killing Batman, however, The Penguin has his gang members install a device that puts the car under his control, using it to run over civilians and further tarnish Batman’s reputation.

Related: Why The Batman's Batmobile Is So Low Tech

In Batman Returns, The Penguin tells Max Shreck that he’s made a habit of obtaining important or incriminating discarded documents (“you flush it, I flaunt it”), providing the closest thing the film has to an explanation for how Cobblepot obtained the Batmobile plans, but the film’s screenplay included a deleted scene with another explanation. Early on in the film, Batman leaves the Batmobile unshielded as he fights Penguin’s henchmen during an attack on Gotham Plaza. Several gang members would have examined and photographed the unprotected vehicle,