Batman & Robin’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Kept His Mr. Freeze Suit Under One Condition

Supernatural prescience might not be one of the Dark Knight’s powers, but when Michael Keaton walked away from Batman, it was as if he could see the future. Along with Tim Burton, who directed the first two live-action Batman movies (not including 1966’s Adam West-led “Batman”), Keaton had reinvented the character in the public’s collective consciousness. No longer was he the Caped Crusader, but a brooding lone avenger of the night. Then, after 1992’s “Batman Returns” scared the bejeezus out of kids around the world, Warner Bros. decided they better rein in Burton before he created another nightmare fairytale that made it impossible for McDonald’s to sell Happy Meals.

But Warners went one step further, dismissing Burton outright and bringing in new director Joel Schumacher, who actually made a fairly dark installment in the franchise with 1995’s “Batman Forever.” Unfortunately, due to yet more studio meddling, the film’s theatrical cut jettisoned most of the psychological elements, resulting in a movie with a much more garish, lighthearted aesthetic than its predecessor, incongruously offset by the vestiges of the original darker undertone. Luckily for Keaton, he’d bowed out after meeting Schumacher and, as he told Marc Maron, deducing that the franchise was “going south.”

In truth, “Forever” was not the point where the saga went south. Indeed, in 2024 many fans continue to lobby for the release of the so-called “Schumacher cut.” But what you won’t find are any fans asking for a re-release of 1997’s “Batman & Robin” — the point where the Batman franchise really did “go south.”

There are several reasons for how and why “Batman & Robin” marked a turning point in the Batman movies. But the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played villain Dr. Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze, treated the whole shoot like one big party, making for a chaotic set on “Batman & Robin,” should have been an early red flag. Even after shooting wrapped, Arnie managed to wangle an agreement that let him keep his admittedly impressive Mr. Freeze costume, proving that the only real winner from “Batman & Robin” was the Austrian Oak himself.

Not only did star George Clooney admit to ruining the franchise with “Batman & Robin,” Robin actor Chris O’Donnel claimed that, whereas making “Forever” felt “much sharper and more focused,” “Batman & Robin” felt like “making a toy commercial.” That’s actually a fairly favorable assessment of the film’s production, which according to producer Peter MacGregor-Scott was a nothing short of a frenzy thanks in large part to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s presence.

MacGregor-Scott told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, “I had the security people all over the stage. Clearing people out who had cameras on them. They were getting $10,000 for a picture of Arnold.” Not only that, but Jon Bon Jovi reportedly delivered Arnie’s favorite Cuban cigars to the set, which was so crammed with visitors and hangers-on that several items, including a Batman cowl, were taken from the Warner Bros. lot.

For Arnie, though, the whole production sounds like a blast — especially since he was allowed to smoke those Bon Jovi-supplied stogies in scenes (he’s even puffing on one in the making-of featurette). It’s no wonder, then, that Schwarzenegger wanted to take a souvenir home, if only to remember the good times. But this wouldn’t be yet another instance of someone pilfering props from the “Batman & Robin” set. Arnie was intent upon securing his souvenir the legal way, and managed to strike a deal with Warner Bros. to hang onto his Mr. Freeze suit.

Actors taking props from set is a controversial business. Usually when a TV show wraps up, you’ll hear stories of cast members concealing beloved items, such as when, during the reunion special, the “Friends” ensemble admitted to taking items from set, or how Sarah Snook swiped a specific prop from “Succession.” But taking major props home from big-budget movies is a less common phenomenon. Robert Downey Jr. did manage to get away with the Avengers “A” after asking for it as a joke, and Michael Keaton himself recently admitted to taking his famous Nike Air Jordan boots from 1989’s “Batman,” telling the “Not Just Football” podcast, “I was putting them on like, ‘Wow these are actually Jordans.’ I got them stashed away too, dude.”

But hauling a huge cryo-suit constructed using 500 parts of hand-beaten aluminum off-set without being seen was never on the table for Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, in order to keep one of the impressive suits designed by Master Armorer Terry English, Arnie had to strike a deal with Warner Bros. As Peter Macgregor-Scott explained in his THR interview:

“The actors would like to walk off with pieces, and we have to be very careful that that happens to an absolute minimum. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted a costume of Mr. Freeze. It went all the way up to the top of the studio.”

It turns out that before Warners would allow Schwarzenegger to keep one of the seven cryo-suits made for “Batman & Robin,” he had to sign a contract. The terms dictated that Arnie had to pay $1 for each year that he has the costume, essentially granting him the right to rent the suit from the studio. Macgregor-Scott added, “The lights in those costumes last 9,000 hours. He doesn’t have them on all day long, but he does turn them on quite frequently.”

It’s not fair to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger had a blast the entire time he was making “Batman & Robin.” For one, as makeup artist Jeff Dawn told THR, he had to undergo a four-hour makeup process involving an 11-person team just to be ready to shoot. What’s more, LED lights inserted into his mouth started to leak battery acid during filming, leading the actor to exclaim “It tastes like s**t! What’s in my mouth?”

Otherwise, though, it seems Schwarzenegger had a pretty smooth ride on “Batman & Robin.” Aside from having celeb friends deliver cigars, having someone whose job it was to, as Dawn put it, “massage his hand,” and getting to keep his Mr. Freeze outfit for a dollar a year, Schwarzenegger didn’t have to shoot a single scene with his co-stars on the movie. While others have since disowned the film, and Michael Keaton is basking in his decision to get out when he did, it’s no wonder Schwarzenegger has no regrets about his part in “Batman & Robin”