Michelle Pfeiffer’s ‘Batman Returns’ Whip Stunt From Nearly Three Decades Ago Went Viral On Twitter

One of the many wrinkles to life online these days is trying to reverse engineer whatever is trending on Twitter for one reason or another. Sometimes that’s easier to do than others, like when it’s simply a matter of figuring out what new way people are dunking on Ted Cruz. Other times, like when “we live in a society” trends, for example, you might need to know some Joker meme lore or have an affinity for the DC Universe to grasp what’s happening.

When someone’s name trends, though, there’s always a worry that they have died. Which is why when Michelle Pfeiffer started trending on Friday, some people got worried. But the matter was actually sort of a celebration of her past work, notably in Batman Returns. On Friday, behind-the-scenes footage of Pheiffer filming the 1992 film made the rounds, particularly a clip where she, as Catwoman, shows off her whip skills.

According to the footage, Pfeiffer actually pulls off a fairly impressive scene in a single take, whipping the heads off of three mannequins and then using the whip like a jump rope before taking a bow while the crew applauds her for the perfect take. Two different tweets with this footage went viral on Friday, with a lot of reactions to the clip that some were seeing for the first time.

It’s certainly an impressive moment, to say the least. But it also illustrates just how hard it is to keep track of things online these days. The trending topic wasn’t about anything new, but people reliving something that happened nearly three decades ago. Which doesn’t make it news as much as a reboot of something a lot of people may have had some nostalgia for.