The actual Batpod from The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises is heading to auction, complete with enormous racing tires, a Honda engine, and the scars from its on-screen adventures. It could sell for more than $1 million. Good luck explaining this purchase to your wife.
Batman has had some pretty ridiculous vehicles over the years, but the Batpod might be the best of them. It's nearly 12 and a half feet of exposed machinery, enormous racing tires, and what appear to be cannons mounted alongside the front wheel. You ride it practically lying on your stomach, and apparently, almost nobody can figure out how to steer it.
Naturally, someone built six of them. And now you can buy one.
On Dec 4, 2026, Propstore is auctioning the actual Batpod used in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. This isn't some replica someone assembled in their garage. It's a screen-matched movie vehicle that appeared in the Joker chase, complete with the scratches to prove it.
The estimate? About $608,000 to $1.22 million.
Which, by exotic-car standards these days, is approaching suspiciously reasonable territory.
The Batpod wasn't just a computer-generated creation. Christopher Nolan wanted a functioning motorcycle, which meant somebody had to figure out how to turn one of the strangest vehicle designs in Hollywood history into something a human could actually ride.
Production designer Nathan Crowley came up with the design, and special-effects supervisor Chris Corbould's team made it work. According to Propstore, six versions were built for The Dark Knight.
The concept was to create something that could emerge from the Tumbler and operate independently. That explains the enormous front and rear tires, which were inspired by the Tumbler's own wheels.
In a 2008 interview with Wired, Crowley explained that the goal was raw functionality, rather than dressing up a conventional motorcycle.
They certainly accomplished that. Although whether this qualifies as a motorcycle is debatable.
According to the current auction listing, the Batpod features a custom chassis, 31-inch Hoosier racing tires, metallic-gray fiberglass bodywork, and a 450cc single-cylinder engine sourced from a Honda CRF450X.
Yes, a Honda.
Bruce Wayne is a billionaire with access to military-grade technology, experimental weapons, and seemingly unlimited engineering resources. But apparently, even Batman appreciates Japanese reliability.
There is one interesting discrepancy. Earlier Propstore descriptions of this same vehicle, including its 2016 auction listing, identified a Honda 750 engine. Propstore CEO Stephen Lane also referenced a 750cc engine in a CNN interview. The current listing says 450cc, so that's the specification we're using.
Either way, you're not buying this for its horsepower.
Beyond the engine, there's an exhaust integrated into the frame, hydraulics and a radiator behind the saddle, and an elaborate collection of mechanical components that make the whole thing look like it escaped from a military research facility.
And yes, the front cannons are included. They're movie props constructed from plastic, resin, and fiberglass, so your neighbors should be relatively safe.
Here's where the story gets even better.
Unlike a normal motorcycle, you don't really sit on the Batpod. You lie forward across a padded saddle, with your knees tucked into supports and your arms stretched toward an unconventional steering mechanism.
Apparently, this arrangement is about as intuitive as it sounds.
Corbould, in an interview with Empire, explained that the vehicle was so unusual that the production struggled to find anyone who could ride it properly.
Enter French stunt rider Jean-Pierre Goy.
Goy was one of the few riders capable of mastering the machine. In fact, Corbould said Goy deliberately avoided riding conventional motorcycles during filming because switching between the two confused him.
Imagine being so good at riding Batman's motorcycle that regular motorcycles become the problem.
There was also the small issue of Batman's cape.
The Batpod has no conventional mudguards, and Corbould's team worried that the cape would get caught in the exposed rear wheel. They experimented with breakaway attachments and discovered that the wind would lift the cape almost immediately once the bike started moving.
Remarkably, the cape reportedly snagged only once during filming, when Goy stopped and moved the machine backward.
So while the Batpod looks like something designed by a billionaire genius, operating it successfully required a very talented stunt rider and a surprising amount of trial and error.
For anyone wondering whether this particular Batpod has meaningful screen history, it does.
Propstore has matched distinctive scratches and markings on the right side of the vehicle to its appearance in the Joker chase sequence in The Dark Knight.
That's the sequence where Batman's Tumbler is destroyed, the Batpod emerges from the wreckage, and Batman continues chasing the Joker through Gotham.
The transformation itself relied heavily on visual effects, but the resulting motorcycle was very much real.
According to Computer Graphics World, the practical Batpod was ridden during stunt sequences at speeds reaching approximately 100 mph, including shots involving real pyrotechnics.
Not every maneuver was practical, though. The ridiculous sideways turns required digital effects, because the actual motorcycle had only about five degrees of steering deflection.
Which probably explains why parallel parking one of these would be a complete nightmare.
The same Batpod later appeared in The Dark Knight Rises, including scenes involving Christian Bale's Batman and Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman.
After filming, it became part of the Warner Bros. archive and was used for promotional appearances.
So you're not just buying a Batman-themed motorcycle. You're buying a recognizable piece of two enormously successful films, with documented on-screen provenance.
And unlike most movie memorabilia, this is something you could theoretically ride.
Well, technically, it was built to be ridden.
Whether you'd want to attempt that is another question.
According to Propstore, the motorcycle currently needs its fuel tank, battery, and throttle controls reinstalled, along with the necessary fluids, before it could operate again.
The auction house describes its condition as very good, although there is wear on the fiberglass bodywork, some light corrosion on the chassis, and damage to the left gun mount from production use.
There's also the question of making it road legal, which is an entirely different conversation.
No conventional handlebars, enormous racing tires, exposed mechanical components, fake cannons, and a riding position that requires you to lie almost flat on your stomach.
Something tells me your local DMV might have a few questions.
Still, imagine pulling this thing into Cars & Coffee.
You could park between a Ferrari 812 Competizione and a McLaren Senna, and I suspect nobody would even notice they were there.
There's an interesting bit of history here, too.
This particular Batpod has already been sold at auction once, and it has been offered for sale more than once.
In September 2016, Propstore sold the machine for £312,000 including buyer's premium, about $404,000 at the time. That was considerably higher than its pre-sale estimate, and Guinness World Records still recognizes the result as the highest recorded auction price for a Batpod.
Then, in June 2023, Propstore offered the same vehicle again in Los Angeles, this time with an estimate of $1 million to $2 million.
That's quite a jump in expectations over seven years.
The published auction records we found don't confirm a completed sale in 2023, however, so there's no verified transaction price to use as a comparison.
Now it's back, with a somewhat more conservative estimate of £450,000 to £900,000, or about $608,000 to $1.22 million.
As of Nov 14, 2026, the auction listing shows an absentee bid of about $608,000, already matching the low estimate.
Keep in mind that Propstore charges a 26 percent buyer's premium on top of the hammer price.
So if the bidding reaches $1 million, the buyer is looking at approximately $1.26 million before any applicable taxes, shipping, or other costs.
That's a lot of money for a motorcycle with a Honda engine.
Then again, it's also a lot less than some of the exotic cars we've been watching sell recently, and none of those appeared in a Christopher Nolan Batman film.
The Batpod is Lot 35 in Propstore's London Winter 2026 Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction.
The auction begins closing lots on Friday, Dec 4, 2026, at 3:00 PM GMT (10:00 AM ET), with the broader sale continuing through Dec 6. In-person bidding takes place at BAFTA in London, with online, telephone, and absentee bidding also available.
The vehicle is accompanied by a Warner Bros. certificate of authenticity, and the listing documents the on-screen details used to match it to the films.
You can view the photos, condition information, and bidding details directly on Propstore's official Batpod auction page.
If you're in London, CNN reports that a preview exhibition featuring more than 100 auction lots is scheduled for Nov 19 through 22 at The Cumberland Hotel. The Batpod is also reportedly being displayed in the hotel lobby through Nov 29.
There are plenty of cars you can buy for a million dollars. Some are faster, some are rarer, and plenty are easier to explain to your insurance company.
But how many let you casually tell someone that you own Batman's actual motorcycle?
This thing has gigantic racing tires, a bizarre riding position, fake cannons, a Honda engine, and documented appearances in two of the biggest superhero movies ever made.
It also has a history of being almost impossible to ride, which arguably makes it even more interesting.
Would I want one? Absolutely.
Would I ever attempt to ride it? Probably not.
But I'd definitely put it in the garage, right between the supercars, and spend an unreasonable amount of time explaining to visitors how Batman managed to make a Honda look this intimidating.
And for the record, I'd leave the cannons on.