That's the dad. This is his chubby son.
- This is... - But he's not Batkid.
- Yeah, he is. - He's Batkid?
- Uh-huh. - Oh.
Or, actually, he's Batboy because he's almost 6.
- Okay. - Like me.
Do you know the secret of him?
I think the secret is...
...Miles wants to be a superhero!
He already is a superhero.
This may be the feel-good story of the year.
A boy's wish about to come true right here in San Francisco.
A leukemia patient is being given a chance...
...to live out his dream to be a superhero.
Parts of San Francisco are being transformed into Gotham City...
...so that 5-year-old Miles can be Batman for a day.
- Thousands of volunteers. - Thousands are in on this.
Thousands of people.
- The scale of this is unbelievable. - It's huge.
Follow us on Twitter using the hashtag SFBatkid to experience it.
Millions all over the Bay Area feel comfortable and safe with Batkid on duty.
What's their mission today?
Finding the Riddler and the bad guys.
I've got you!
- Nice going, Batman. - I'm Batman.
I am Batman.
Batkid! Batkid! Batkid!
- What are they dancing around for? - Ha-ha-ha.
Believe it or not, they're dancing for you.
Batkid! Batkid! Batkid!
- So was this what you guys expected? - Mm-hm.
- No. - No. No.
So let me explain how this happened.
I'm not really sure I can, actually, but here goes.
Miles, when he was about 18 months, 19 months old...
...he came into bed with Nick and I, and it was on a Sunday morning.
And we had noticed there was a little lump, like, right near his jaw.
And it wasn't palpable. It just was kind of hard, and so we're like, "That's really weird."
And we took him to an urgent care, an immediate care, in Klamath Falls that day.
And they said, "Oh, he has an ear infection."
We were like, "That's weird. That doesn't really relate to this.
He's not complaining of ear pain."
He started antibiotics, and we followed up with his doctor the next week.
I'm a nurse, and I was actually working for the doctor, for Miles's doctor.
And I had Nick bring Miles up, and they did the blood work.
And then they left because he was fussy and tired.
When Dr. Britch came out, I knew. I saw her face.
Natalie called me just absolutely in hysterics, just screaming, crying.
She tried to tell me what was wrong. I had no idea what she was saying.
"Okay, you gotta stop and slow down because I don't understand a word you said."
And said, "Miles has leukemia.
We need to pack, and then we gotta be on a plane at 7." And I think it was about 4:00.
He had an IV put in, and we were on an air flight to Portland.
At that time, he was a real daddy's boy...
...so I had to fly with him, and Natalie's terrified of flying.
And he wasn't gonna be on a gurney by himself...
...and so I was strapped to the gurney. He was strapped to me, on top of it.
So we got up there, and Natalie and her mom drove up there that night.
Then we were in Portland for three weeks.
The first week we were inpatient...
...and then the next two weeks we were at Ronald McDonald House.
When he was in Portland, he had bone marrow biopsies and lumbar punctures...
...and then daily chemo. And then, um, he had a blood transfusion.
We had to keep him away from a lot of crowds, you know...
...with the weakened immune system.
So after that, he went...
...every three months for a lumbar puncture, but every month he would get chemo.
When Miles was first diagnosed, within that first couple weeks...
...we met up with a social worker...
...and they told us that he qualified for Make-A-Wish.
It's for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Eighty percent live into adulthood.
They get to pick whatever would make them the happiest.
And being 18 months old, we said, "No, we don't wanna do it now.
Let's hold off and wait till he finds something he likes and go with it."
It was the last year of treatment for him that we asked about it again and she said:
"We'll put in the request."
We'd met the couple that did our interview for Make-A-Wish...
...at Natalie's parents' house.
The wife did paperwork...
...and the husband just took Miles aside and he drew pictures...
And tried to get an idea of what he likes.
And he came back after about a half an hour and said Miles wished to be Batman.
He said, "I wanna be the real Batman," was his exact wish.
Wasn't, "I wanna act like Batman. I want a Batman suit."
It was, "I want to be Batman."
We were just really wondering how that was gonna work out. Ha-ha-ha.
How are you gonna be the real Batman?
How do you do that? We had no idea what to think.
Our program director came into my office and said, "I have a superhero wish for you."
So I was like, "I'll take that!" So I took the file...
...and I wanted to know what it meant for him to be Batman.
You know, what kind of child he was, what kind of wish this might be...
...and just really get a sense of the family and him.
We live in Tulelake, California. It's right on the California-Oregon border.
Quiet, quaint, small town, not much going on.
Really tight-niche community. Very nice place to live.
Nick and I actually...
...went to school together, elementary, junior high.
And we dated in junior high.
"Dated," right? That's not real.
I grew up right here on a farm.
I'm the fourth-generation farmer in this area. We have hay and grain now.
It was hard because he was diagnosed in April.
That's when we start getting busy planting.
And at that time we were just getting our farm kind of on the ground.
Freshly married, didn't have a lot of money...
...and the whole town, like, came together.
Other guys had their crew sent out here to put out pipe for us.
All other farmers chipped in. It was absolutely amazing.
And so one night, the old Adam West Batmans were on Nickelodeon, I think, at that time.
And so they were just watching Batman. He just fell in love with it.
And so for weeks there, every night we'd watch Batman.
That was his introduction to superheroes.
Why do you like Batman so much?
Because he's my favorite superhero.
I think it's because Batman's just a regular guy.
I mean, he doesn't have a superpower. He's got gadgets and money.
He's always liked all superheroes and stuff, but he always kind of...
...comes back to Batman because I think it was his first love-type thing.
One of his doctors told us that with this disease, they become like a fighter.
They have to be. They fight for life.
What happens when Batman sees the bad guys?
He fights.
And so I think he sees the good-versus-evil battle in superheroes...
...and just relates to it.
He had to take steroids every month for five days...
...and that was what took the most toll on him because he didn't understand the way he felt.
And it made him really moody, and hungry, and tired.
And he'd have nightmares.
And it's not just Miles. I think it's all kids that have a disease or an illness like that...
...they get more compassion and want to help people.
And superheroes, in general, are helping people.
The first thing he ever had of Batman was a pair of pajamas.
He's always been into dressing up. That's been since day one.
For Christmas, his first four years of life, it was like, "I want clothes and pajamas."
What kid says that, you know? He wants costumes to dress up.
I think he just likes to put on the costume...
...and become whoever that is.
He used to call himself the changer boy. "I'm a changer boy!"
He would change all the time. He could wear costumes to the hospital.
His doctors and everyone, they were like, "Oh, what superhero are you wearing today?"
When we're going about doing a wish, it is whimsical.
And it's about using your imagination and thinking about what would wow that child...
...and give them an experience that gives them a little of their childhood that's been robbed.
You put yourself in their shoes and say, "What would be great?"
That's fun!
The wish family asked for his wish to be in November after his treatment.
It was gonna be after his surgery to have his port removed.
So it would be after his harvest season. So November made good sense.
And he'd have more energy, not in the middle of chemotherapy.
It gave him something to look forward to in some of his darker days.
What we began playing with is to do maybe an episode.
You know, and have him have these capers.
So I came up with the idea to have a full-size, a grown-up Batman...
...and he would be the kind of Mini-Me.
She thought that was a perfect fit for his wish, so that he would have a buddy.
I reached out to EJ and asked him to be Batman.
- Shall we do it? - We should do it.
Whoa. Agh.
She sent e-mails saying, "There's a little guy whose wish is to learn to be Batman.
Crime-fighting, acrobatics. Whatever Batman does, that's what he wants to do."
When I sent the e-mail to him, his wife Sue saw it first.
And he goes, "I don't have a choice in this, do I?" And she said, "Nope." Ha-ha-ha.
Heck, yes. Let's do it. Give me the suit.
He's a former stunt double and acrobat.
- He's an inventor. He creates gadgets. - He does everything.
And he's just so great with kids.
Ten years ago, EJ and I worked together on a wish.
It was an 8-year-old leukemia patient named Ben...
...whose wish was to make a video game where the player fights cancer...
...so that he could send it back to the friends of his who were still stuck in treatment.
What a beautiful idea.
I approached some video game companies and was laughed at...
...and said, "I don't think you know what you're asking about.
We're talking a million dollars of value. And you're talking about a year or two.
You're out of your league this time."
I was so impressed with what Ben wanted to do...
...that there's nothing to take but time.
For seven months, EJ worked with Ben every week...
...with the exception of one, when Ben was grounded, heh, for not doing his homework
But created this great video game that's been downloaded over 300,000 times.
This is the most fulfilling project I've worked on.
He brought in game ideas that I never would have come up with.
He actually brought in something called a port one day, in a jar...
...which is a device that they implanted inside him.
He said, "This is how the player gets into the game."
Both of them are recognized by the Dalai Lama for their unselfish acts.
I knew that it'd be magic with him.
And then it was, "Let's decide where it's gonna be."
I presented several options of doing something in their hometown of Tulelake...
...or something near them.
I figured it would probably be, you know, in a park.
Kind of a family, and maybe some friends of his.
You know, put on a Batman suit and do some stunts and acrobatics.
Maybe have some mats and a trampoline.
We didn't wanna do it here because we wanted to go somewhere...
...because we have not been on many family vacations.
Or I had this bold statement, which I make, that I was gonna turn...
...San Francisco into Gotham City and that resonated...
...and sounded most true and near his real wish.
So it just made more sense to go city.
I had this vision there was gonna be a breaking news story.
I thought, "Sure! That'd be awesome. That'd be fun."
I can see, "Breaking News: Batman is needed in the city."
I wanted to involve the police chief. - They said, "This little guy loves cops.
And he wants to be Batman for a day. Do you think we could do it?"
Rescuing a damsel in distress.
While the Catwoman outfit would have been fabulous...
...I have to say, I think the damsel in distress and the opportunity for him to be the hero...
...and rescue me was wonderful.
I'd heard that they were gonna shut down a city block...
...and rescue someone off a cable car. And I thought, "Well, that's neat."
When you have a wish like this, it's nice to have some sort of big ending.
And I thought, what better big ending than to have the mayor present the key to the city?
I grew up reading the comics.
I've watched every Batman movie that was ever made.
Watched the television series growing up.
I remember suggesting, "Can he have a key to the city?"
I don't know if there's criteria for that.
Yeah, of course. Let's do something, and we'll keep it simple.
Kind of why I'm good for it, I just kind of go. Ha, ha.
I ask questions later.
I'm assuming by now that people that watch this have met Patricia Wilson before.
Small or big, you don't say no to Patricia.
The answer's always yes.
It's very hard to say no to Patricia.
She is a big thinker...
...and she allows you to not only think in the same way, but also challenges you to do so.
I remember going to lunch with one of our board members...
...who had a crazy car.
I texted him one day, "What kind of car looks like the Batmobile?"
He said, "Mine." I said, "Right answer." Ha-ha-ha.
Everyone said yes on this project.
They not only said yes, they said, "How else can I help?"
I have two boys. I see them in him.
My older son got wrapped up in this thing too.
I think everybody remembers being a kid and wanting to be a superhero.
So it strikes a chord.
I wanted enough volunteers at each caper to make sure he was safe...
...and it was friendly, and people cheering, so he'd feel like that superhero.
Two hundred people sounds like a crowd.
I think the most we've had for a public wish...?
We had a child who wanted, Kassaundra, to be a famous singer.
I think the most, maybe 250 people, to fill the ballroom.
It was standing room only. It was pretty cool.
So that was kind of my thought that we would have.
So our goal was to have 200 volunteers there to cheer...
...and then he'll feel great.
I asked for two motorcycle cops...
...for police escorts for the Batmobiles and two parking spots.
We were trying to figure out who the villains are.
The Joker is too creepy for a 5-year-old. He's too creepy for, you know, grown-ups.
I was trying to think through who of our friends would make a good supervillain.
And that night, Sue and I were on our way to a barbecue at Mike's place.
And Sue, who is my lovely muse...
In our relationship, one of her jobs is she has the genius ideas.
And so she, all of a sudden, said, "Mike." And I looked at her.
I didn't even know what she was talking about, and she said:
"Penguin." I was like:
I work here at Lucasfilm...
...and, um, I've been a software engineer here for seven years.
I met EJ here at Industrial Light & Magic...
...and we're sort of weird software people, as you can see from the backdrop here.
This is not what you usually see in a software engineering company.
Of course we make films here.
We went over to his place and got to the barbecue.
Said hi, grabbed a burger, and then said:
"Okay, are you in town on November 15th?"
So I just kind of pull out my phone, I'm like...
If so, then say yes to what I'm about to ask.
I said, "Oh, yeah, looks open. You know, uh, sure."
I figured, it's Eric, it's gonna be something crazy.
He's gonna be up to something totally ridiculous.
It's gonna be amazing, and I'm gonna wanna be a part of it.
And so, yeah, I just said yes, and then asked what I'd agreed to.
And he said, "Well, I need you to put on a kind of costume...
...and get chased around by a kid for a while.
It's just something small, you know, nothing big."
It's impossible to keep your adult sensibilities about you when he's involved.
You know, when you're working on software, you go:
"We wanna limit the features we have...
...because we only have so much time, there's the schedule.
But wouldn't it be cool if it did this?
Yes! I'm gonna stay extra to do that." And you do.
And it ends up being great because then you start thinking, "Oh, and..."
I started watching YouTubes of all the other...
...superhero Make-A-Wishes that had happened in the U.S.
And that's the enthusiasm...
...that it takes to do something amazing.
If I make the kid cry...
...I failed miserably.
The project changed when we added Mike.
His energy seeped into it.
So we had a few meeting. We had planning meetings.
And they were going to have a phone or a tablet that we would look at the video on...
...at each adventure, before we went off to the next...
...so that Miles could see the police chief.
Holy batwings, Batman and Batkid!
If I pull out a phone to see the police chief's message...
...in Miles' eyes, I go from being Batman to being a grown-up on a phone.
I think we should try, instead of a phone, projecting it, like Batman.
I had done a project of my own a couple of years prior...
...that involved a wearable projector.
It just seemed like a way more kind of Batman-ish thing to do.
I planned it, initially, just by myself.
Like I throw everything up in the air and go: "Now you have to do the details."
So then Teresa and Jen got involved...
...and began putting the specifics and the other pieces we needed.
Make-A-Wish. This is Teresa.
I plan the logistics of the wishes. Basically, coordinating wishes.
Sometimes, that means travel coordinating.
Sometimes, that means coordinating wishes-to-be like Miles'.
At first, we just thought it was gonna be...
...you know, a little guy. Kind of like...
...a portion of the day.
Definitely not an abnormal wish that would entail so much planning.
So the plan is this:
We're gonna start with Miles in his hotel room.
His mom's gonna pop in a DVD.
It'll have a breaking news story featuring the chief of police.
And he's gonna be asking for his help.
Then Batman will knock on the door.
And this will be the first time he sees Batman, so it should be great.
Batman will hand him his costume and ask him to report to duty.
Then they go down to the loading dock, which is the Batcave...
...and they're gonna get into the Batmobile...
...and will exit Union Square in dramatic flair, with a little smoke and excitement.
Then they head to the corner of Hyde and Green...
...where our damsel in distress will be tied to the cable car tracks.
Miles will defuse the bomb and rescue her just in time...
...to get another message from the chief...
...telling him the Riddler is robbing a bank and he needs his help.
They'll get back in the Batmobile and race to the clothing store Wingtip...
...which is really the old Bank of Italy Building.
They'll catch the Riddler in the act and save the day.
Then they'll get another message from the chief, saying:
"Great job," and lunch is on him.
They'll go to lunch at Burger Bar, overlooking Union Square.
Just as they are finishing their lunch...
...they'll get another breaking message, saying that the Penguin's up to no good.
He's kidnapped Lou Seal, the San Francisco Giants' mascot.
Then he'll look out on Union Square...
...see a flash mob, and then see the Penguin coming out of the parking lot...
...with Lou Seal tied up in the back of the car. It'll be a convertible.
And they'll begin the chase after him, where they'll go to AT&T Park.
They'll catch Penguin, free Lou Seal, save the city.
Chief will send one last message, we're putting it on the Jumbotron...
...congratulating Batkid and telling him to come down to City Hall...
...where the mayor has a special presentation and will give him the key to the city.
This is such a fun idea.
And it's a huge idea.
And how the hell am I supposed to make it work?
Busts open through here.
The Penguin is actually calling on the line.
We'd gone to AT&T Park a couple times, EJ and I, to scope out the area.
And I'd assumed, getting there, that Patricia or AT&T Park would say:
"We want you to do this.
And then go over here, and then lead Miles this way."
And we were just kind of there to chat about it.
Sort of allowed EJ and I to kind of fall back to our collaborative nature, and say:
"Oh, this is cool. Like, we could start here on the fake streetcar...
...and Batman and Batkid can chase Penguin through here...
...and then maybe I'll jump out here and ring the bell with my umbrella."
There's this big gust of wind as EJ's cape just starts flapping in the wind.
I was like, "Oh! Looks so cinematic."
So I whip out my iPhone. Certainly gotta take that photo for myself.
Message it to my mom after I leave. Say, "This is why I'm not at work today."
Once we had done a rehearsal...
...we sent an e-mail to our volunteers to indicate how many people we wanted at each location.
Maybe like 20 people here.
And then, 200 at the end.
It was the whole layout for the day.
So that was picked up by one of our volunteers, who said:
"This is, like, the coolest wish ever" and cut and paste that into his Facebook status.
I knew that, like, spending too much time on Facebook would finally pay off.
And one of the tools in my toolbox is constantly blabbing everywhere about what I'm doing.
My mom would say, "Don't show off."
But on the other hand...
...you could say, leading by example.
I assumed that Make-A-Wish could use a lot more volunteers...
...and by telling people about it and being very open about how fun and exciting it is...
...and how great it is to be a part of something...
...that I might inspire some other people to take part.
Yeah, I've heard the theory is that that started the ball rolling, which is crazy.
We saw it blogged and thought, "Oh, look at that."
Then I started seeing it in Twitter...
...and people posting it to my Facebook page, like: "Do you know about this?"
"Yeah, I know about it. This is my wish."
And it just, you know, like wildfire... Just huge. Like, it exploded.
We do stuff with Make-A-Wish all the time. This was gonna be no different.
And all of a sudden, it's in a blog on one day, which becomes another day...
...which becomes a phone call from the East Coast...
...which becomes a phone call from Norway...
...which becomes a radio call from Australia, which has a T-shirt campaign...
...and everybody wondering:
"What can I do?"
The chief was saying, "Mayor?
I think something is growing here with this Make-A-Wish Foundation with Miles."
I was on reddit one night.
There was a little blurb about San Francisco...
...becoming Gotham for a day for this little boy who had cancer.
And something about that just really struck a nerve.
I reached out to them and said, "We are a San Francisco-based social media agency.
If you don't have a social media plan, we'd love to put one together for you."
24 hours after that, we presented them with the social media plan for SFBatkid.
Our goal, actually, was to get the local community excited...
...and to show up and support Miles.
We wanted to make sure that there was a crowd around him just cheering him on.
We have a network of 6500 women influencers...
...who blog, who are on Instagram...
...on Twitter, on Facebook, Pinterest...
...really, any social channel where women are influential.
The mayor's office, they're asking...
...how many people I think are coming. I said, "I have no idea." How do I get a sense?
I put up an RSVP form on our website.
We started tweeting and putting on Facebook status, encouraging people to RSVP...
...so we'd have a sense of how many people were coming.
We were adding maybe 1000 people overnight...
...and 1500 or so RSVPs happening every night.
And then, kind of the next piece was, they said...
...that they got 7000 reservations for lunch...
...at the Burger Bar, which was in the article as part of the itinerary.
And that was a game changer. We knew we had a tiger by the tail.
There were predictions that we'd have tens of thousands of people here at City Hall.
Make-A-Wish, this is Jen.
I'm usually trying to pitch stories...
...and come up with a local angle for a local paper...
...or play up one aspect of the wish that might appeal to the press. Um...
And in this case, yeah, we hadn't even really done a press release for this wish.
There was a lot of fervor online, a lot of comments.
People really started talking about it.
You know something's big in the newsroom when the journalists talk to each other about it.
Like, their water-cooler talk is about the news story.
My friends started posting it on Facebook, and one of them messaged me and said:
"So is Gotham City's Chronicle...
...going to have something to do about this?" I thought, "Yes! We definitely should."
It's interesting being a journalist.
On the one hand, you have this desire...
...to cover things in a very neutral way.
But on the other hand, you really wanna use your megaphone for good.
This was definitely a case of the latter.
I wrote a story about it. The headline was 7000 strangers...
...coming together to make, you know, one kid's wish come true.
By the next day, I had to change that headline to 10,000 strangers.
That story, I think, got shared about 40,000 times.
At some point, we had 156 requests for interviews.
And they became more and more excited, and more and more aggressive.
Instead of us kind of chasing them down...
...it was them trying to chase us down.
She walked in and shut my door one day. I said:
"Oh, dear God, now what?" And she said:
"TV cameras downstairs in the lobby. They won't leave until you come."
CNN calling my home.
Patricia Wilson is executive director...
...of the San Francisco chapter of Make-A-Wish Foundation.
So, Patricia, you asked volunteers to help Miles' wish come true.
Give us an idea of what the response has been like.
It's unbelievable the response that we're getting.
And it warms my heart how compassionate people are.
And the calls coming from all over.
The story's big in Norway right now, apparently. Ha-ha-ha.
And we have people flying in for this, to experience this, so it is...
Wait, wait, wait. People are flying into San Francisco?
I was on Twitter in the morning.
I was a few blocks from my home.
And I heard an NPR report.
We heard on the radio that they were talking about wanting volunteers...
...to come to San Francisco for a flash mob.
When I saw that face, I'm like, "I want to be a part of that."
It felt like there was a big magnet pulling me.
So I booked the ticket, like, that next day.
So about 40 minutes later, we had purchased our tickets.
We're both retired. We just had to find somebody to stay with the dogs.
The next wave of just seeing so many people...
...who physically wanted to come to San Francisco, it was scary.
Why are they coming? Thinking about that many people...
...in one spot, and that I'm trying to orchestrate an event.
Will it meet their expectations? Will everyone be safe?
We only have what we have on a given day...
...even though we're a big city and we have a lot of police officers.
But when you have an anomaly, you need to have...
...a contingency plan that's scalable, based on how many people come.
And in this instance...
...we had no idea what was gonna happen.
Is this what Miles and his family would want? Is it right for the family?
We didn't hear about it. We went to Idaho, out of cell phone service.
Our phones just started blowing up on the way home.
Nick's aunt called and said that there was an article...
...in the Huffington newspaper down in San Francisco, and...
Huffington Post, I think it is?
Where did I go for a week? All of a sudden, the world's upside down.
What did we get ourselves into?
I started getting e-mails from Patricia.
"Well, there's gonna be 11,000 people there." And we're like, "What?"
We were just kind of terrified, like...
And then, like, the next week, "Oh, actually 13,000."
All these people are showing up, and our son is so shy.
He's not used to being around a lot of people. He goes to school.
But if someone asked him to do something in front of people, he gets embarrassed.
Thousands of people are coming, and they're gonna be really disappointed.
Because he's gonna see that and bolt.
Patricia's like, "We'll just wing it.
If something happens, then we'll just kind of play off of it. And it'll be fine."
So she just nipped that right in the buns.
Two weeks out was just panic.
It was out of control. No one was sleeping.
I just sobbed on my bike ride to work every day.
Sheer adrenaline is how we survived.
We normally take three weeks to plan and build up...
...to programs that are gonna start three weeks later.
We started assigning people. Like:
"You're in charge of the gifts that are coming in."
"You're in charge of fielding requests for more Batmobiles."
I think at the end of the day, 14 cars, including Lamborghini, offering cars.
I was like, "We're set. We're all good."
It was unnerving to think that many people were coming...
...and that we were gonna be under a microscope.
It was not lost on me at all...
...that they were entrusting us with something hugely important.
It just seemed obvious that so many people would see this.
And then people would then wanna volunteer more.
And that more kids would be referred.
They could have the opportunity for more wishes.
It's like we're organizing a stage production that's huge...
...where the lead character doesn't know he's in it...
...has never been to a rehearsal and is 5.
- So, what could go wrong? - There was a lot to be worried about.
His story has gone viral with folks from all over the world cheering him on.
A week before the wish, when we realized that we were out of our league...
...in terms of media and the demands of the socially viral story...
...how fortunate were we that we just had a new board member join that was...
...the, you know, top corporate communications person at Apple?
I've done big events and I've done PR.
And I've done for nonprofit and many different start-ups...
...and many different companies and so I'm used to that.
I also manage crisis communications, and so...
Not that it was a crisis. It was certainly a bit of chaos.
And she was the one who said, "I'm gonna give you my team for the week."
And so, of course, we all wanted to burst into tears, we were so relieved.
Somewhere in there, Twitter called me.
I remember reading an article on SFGate.com.
I think I found it on Twitter. And I swear, I started tearing up after reading Miles's story.
Immediately reached out to Patricia.
"Oh, I work for Twitter, so I work in the social media space.
Is there anything that I can do on my own to support this day...
...and to use the skills that I have."
Which is basically a passion for tweeting...
...and creating content in 140 characters.
She stopped me right there, and she said, "We don't do a great job at Twitter.
Why don't you take over the @SFWish Twitter handle for the day?
Ride on the caravan and just document the day and push out updates on Twitter."
I've always had an idea that I wanted to tweet a wish in real-time.
And this wish would really lend itself to it because I had all the video in the can already.
So that people could see it in real-time as Miles was seeing it.
It sounds great. Sign me up.
And I thought that if I did it through social media...
...fewer people would feel the need to come to San Francisco.
That would reduce the number of people coming into the city.
I told my team, you're all taking the afternoon off on that day...
...and you're going to City Hall to support this kid.
I mean, Adam West called. Hans Zimmer, the composer, called.
Hi, Miles. I thought I'll write a little track for you. Here we go.
We'd been working on and off on our Batman trilogy for about nine years by this point.
How did I get to Batman?
Because I was a fan as a kid.
Why it resonated with me personally was because...
...here was a kid who saw beyond the confines of whatever the possibilities was.
Here was a kid who had a dream, and he was going, "I want to have this dream happen."
I thought, if he wants to create this world, we should go and support this world.
The part you guys are missing is you're missing the score.
So let me just go and fill in the gap here.
I felt it was the right thing to do. Just shoot it on an iPhone.
As opposed to a big production. The whole thing was about, you know:
"Hey, let's just get together and let's just do this. Let's just jam."
In a weird way, what Miles did, of course, by saying, "I want this. I want to be this"...
...he got a whole city to jam, and that's a very natural thing that happens to musicians.
And I thought:
"Yeah, if you point your Bat-Call signal up into the sky, I'll be there."
And there you have your own personalized Bat-Call. Hope you like it.
We'd laugh and say, "Who will call next? What, the president?"
We didn't tell him anything about the wish.
All we told him was that we're going to San Francisco.
And you might be getting a new costume. That's the main thing.
When he wants to dress up or do something, it's all about the costume.
And if it's not perfect, then it's a big issue.
The Batkid armor was actually built by a dad for his own kid.
You take a step inside of it like that.
We made a Halloween costume in our front yard.
It took a very long time to make it.
My dad, um, went on Facebook.
My friend Tara posted a link to the Batkid thing...
...and we really got moved by the story.
I asked James if we could just let him borrow it.
And I kind of explained cancer and what it does...
...and, um, he kind of just said, at that point, that he can keep it.
I'm just happy that Miles has it now.
The adult costume was a bit trickier.
We were trying to figure out the costumes.
We just couldn't figure out how to get a good-looking costume.
I said, "Well, it's okay.
People aren't gonna be looking at me. They're gonna be looking at Miles."
And Sue said, "He's gonna be looking at you."
And I went:
"We gotta fix the costume."
We have a couple of good friends in the San Francisco Opera.
And they said, "Project sounds really fun. If there's anything I can do, let me know."
And so we did.
So, what I next did was did some research.
Not that I had to do too much because I own every "Batman Arkham"...
...video game ever created, and I grew up on the Adam West show.
So it was really fun to sort of do the research as far as...
...what their look was in the '60s...
...versus what their look was in the '90s versus what their modern look was.
The Batman costume itself is a little more the modern version.
He purchased the costume.
The deluxe, expensive version.
And it needed a lot of work.
At the end of the day, what we really ended up using was the hood...
...the breastplate and the gauntlets.
The breastplate was a molded latex breastplate.
You know, they're sort of molded in, "This will fit this size to this size."
And so what was happening is, it was a little oversized.
It had these molded pectorals that were collapsing.
Padded it out. We altered it.
We made it fit him perfectly.
The Penguin was easy.
"I'll bring out a set of monocles.
Don't lose this because the Opera House doesn't have a lot of monocles."
The Penguin is in an opera costume.
I was like, "I think I like this one. I was trying to get it in and it kept popping out."
The Penguin's in a tail suit, with gray-striped trousers and spats.
I've probably got 300 of those downstairs.
This crazy tuxedo that somebody's worn on some Carmina Burana thing or something.
The Riddler was a lot trickier.
I had steered them in the direction...
...of a really crazy lime-green satin suit that we could buy.
And my theory was, "Oh, we'll just print the question marks on it. It'll be so fast."
Well, that hour of printing question marks turned into two days.
They had some massive opera show the week of.
And so they were super busy.
We were opening and performing three to four different productions.
Because we perform in rep, it's a different production each night.
During their busiest season...
...they pulled all-nighters to get our stuff together.
Those of us that worked on this did this on our own time...
...after work, in the evenings.
There was no way we were not gonna be involved in this.
I almost put more effort into it...
...because it was gonna be such a special moment for Miles.
When you're working with emotion as well...
...it kind of takes over and you realize how perfect you want everything to be.
And honestly, my expectation was, "Great.
Done. Moving on to the rep. I'll probably never even hear about this."
So two days before the event, I broke the projector.
The projector, which is the shoot- the-messages-from-my-arm-out-onto-the-wall.
The little computer that runs the thing just stopped working.
Like, stopped working irrecoverably.
Miles will never know that it was missing, right?
We'll have a phone and we'll see the chief's message.
And my whole life, I will know that I could've made it better.
I placed a new order. On a whim, I sent an e-mail late at night...
...to the company that makes the little computer I had fried.
"We're doing this Batman project for Make-A-Wish.
And if you could ship it next-day, that'd be great."
And it probably won't work.
The CEO of Gumstix, the company that makes this little computer...
...called me the next day, and he said:
"I'm having one couriered out to you today.
I think the project sounds great. Sounds really cool. Here.
Take this one and see if you can make it work."
Testing, test...
Testing. Testing.
What are you doing here in San Francisco?
Gonna be Batman.
I met him, actually, the night before...
...and I did an interview...
...just as a preview story to air on our air...
...so people could see what was happening the next day.
- Your wish was to be Batman? - Yeah.
Why do you like Batman so much?
Because he's my favorite superhero.
Very quiet, kind of shy.
You know, talks to Dad.
- Hi, Miles. - Hi, Dad.
- Are you on your Make-A-Wish trip? - Yeah.
Cool.
- What do you think? - Uh...
Go eat dinner.
That's what you want to do?
Three o'clock in the afternoon.
What about Clayton?
Look how pretty Mommy looks. Mommy.
You wanna show everybody else what it looks like?
- This is just some information about... - Whoa.
Are you gonna read it all to us, buddy?
- Ha-ha-ha. - What do you have Miles?
Batman?
Oh, I think Clayton likes your Batman. Clayton, what do you got?
How's things in San Francisco so far?
- Busy. - Hectic. Busy. Busy schedule.
The family was arriving in town, and the media found out about it.
- What are you gonna do today, Miles? - Play.
There was one particular station, was really desperate...
...to get B-roll footage of the family.
The reporter said, "Don't make me chase them...
...and I'll spend the next two days trying to find them."
And when I heard that, it really sent chills through me.
This was a little family that was coming here for their wish...
...yet there was this potential for them...
...to be hounded by the media in a way that would not only spoil the wish...
...but would just be an absolutely terrifying experience, especially for the child.
Hey, I mean that one.
- You think Batman lives in that one? - Yeah.
And so I knew that we had to really be careful.
Are you gonna be able to go to the Circus Center and do tricks?
Do some training tonight.
- Oh, today is the Circus Center. - It is.
Are you gonna be able to do it, or are you too tired?
You gotta train to be Batman.
Since we have this circus school in San Francisco, and it's great...
...I asked them, "Can we do his Batman training the day before the event?"
They said, "Absolutely, yes."
What we've got is Penguin's obstacle course.
What he has done is to rig the ballpark...
...so that the floor is electrified.
And if Batman and Batkid touch the floor, they'll get electrified for sure.
And they don't want that.
So all of this behind us is going to be what the Penguin has put out...
...to give Batkid the challenge of his life.
So I thought, "Well, if he's gonna get superhero training...
...shouldn't Miles be training with other superheroes?"
All of the acrobats who normally train there on Thursdays...
...came in dressed as superheroes.
Costumes on Haight, the shop down the street...
...very generously loaned us the costumes for free.
They were ridiculously awesome.
Right as he came in the door, the Flash...
...just sort of walked by, you know, very casually into the main gym.
And he stared and he looked up at his mom and he said:
"That was the Flash."
He was just, like, beside himself.
We wanted him to just feel like, well, this is just normal, right?
That's just what happens here.
This is a place where regular people get training to be able to be superheroes.
So we had other people just walking around in regular clothes, right...
...doing their regular training.
He wasn't dressed in superhero clothes yet.
EJ was not in superhero clothes yet.
But he understood that this was part of how you make that happen...
...is that dreams come true sometimes with a lot of hard work.
So we were gonna try and teach him superhero moves.
Teach him to fall and some stunts.
He would make the "Hiyah!" sound as he was jumping down.
He was very much into connecting it with the idea that he was fighting crime.
To kind of get him comfortable with the idea of actually being Batman...
...we set up an obstacle course.
And then everything that he liked, we transplanted the next day to the ballpark.
So when he got there and the Penguin is scary...
...and there's fire and there's all this stuff...
...the Penguin's evil trap is familiar.
While we were giving him his Batman acrobat lesson...
...he and I got to know each other way better.
We hadn't really met for more than an hour before that.
During that event, I showed him the secret acrobat handshake.
There actually is a secret acrobat handshake.
You kind of grasp forearms like that...
...because in flying trapeze and other acrobatic disciplines...
...that's how you hang on to someone without losing them.
They didn't tell him I was gonna be Batman the next day.
And because he had such great energy, and it was going so well...
...at the end of the night we thought:
"Well, let's see if he wants to fly.
You know, he's a superhero. A lot of them fly, right?"
And believe it or not...
...this little kid climbs that ladder up to that board...
I didn't like it because I'm scared of heights.
I don't like flying. I don't like the Ferris wheel.
...took ahold of that white bar...
...and took a swing on the flying trapeze.
Now, that's a superhero right there.
That would have been a pretty good Make-A-Wish day.
I know if none of the rest of it had gone as planned...
...it would have been a success at that point.
What? What, what?
- What do you think, bud? - Uh...
Go eat lunch?
At 9:00 we were told to put in the DVD of the whole newscast thing.
- Go eat lunch. - You wanna go eat lunch?
Natalie and I are sitting there and watching our watches.
Okay, now we gotta put it on, and we screwed up, turned the TV off.
ABC7 News starts right now with live breaking news.
What's this? Come here.
- Good morning. - Did you meet her yesterday?
We begin this broadcast with news from San Francisco's Hall of Justice.
Police Chief Greg Suhr called an impromptu press conference...
...where he issued a very urgent message...
...asking that anyone with knowledge of the Caped Crusader's whereabouts...
...to please contact San Francisco's Hall of Justice immediately.
Gotham City needs you, Batman.
This is Police Chief Greg Suhr, only hoping you can hear my voice.
- It's critical that you call me right now. - Yes.
We have a damsel in distress, but that's just the beginning, Batman.
Please, Caped Crusader, we need you.
And bring the Batkid.
- In other news... - Batkid?
They were supposed to show up immediately once it was over...
...but there was a five minute delay, and we're just like, "do, do, do."
Tell Commissioner Gordon.
Commissioner Gordon? You gonna go tell him?
Hold on. We're not ready to go yet.
- So, what do you think, Miles? - Aah!
Finally, someone knocks on the door.
Good morning.
The police chief says there's trouble.
You'd better get dressed.
We've got some armor for you...
...and there's quite an adventure ahead.
Did you practice? Did you practice some acrobat training yesterday?
- Yeah. - Good. You'll need it.
And your armor is on backwards. Or "Batwards," as we say.
As soon as he saw that, I mean, he just started stripping down.
- I got Batman socks. - You do.
That's fantastic.
- Wanna take this shirt off? - You're starting to look like Batman.
As soon as we put it all on him and it fit.
Oh, you look great.
I'm a mom. I can't help it. I look and the cape is wrinkled.
Well, I can't have a wrinkled Batman, so I asked the Hyatt for a steamer.
And I'm steaming.
It was funny because once he put on the costume, he just did this.
He's just like:
Wow. Oh, my God.
I don't even recognize you. Where is Miles?
I looked at him and said, "Who are you?" He said, "Batman."
- And so it was like, "Yes!" - Then they do the handshake.
I said, "Secret acrobat handshake."
He did that, and he kind of went, "Wait a minute."
You could just see his eyes just, like, light up, and he clicked, like, "I know you."
So he just followed EJ, and he's got his strut on.
I didn't know that, you know, he was a miniature John Wayne.
- He walks like he weighs 220. - Yes!
It's Batkid!
Natalie and I are looking at each other like, "Who is this kid?" He's not ours.
Because ours would be like:
As we're being escorted into their loading dock, which was the Batcave...
...I can see this picture of Batkid next to his brother...
...who was dressed as Robin.
And it was making me already choke up. It was really happening.
There goes Miles in the Batmobile.
I'm like, "Okay, well...
He needs a car seat because there's a lot of cops around. He needs a car seat."
And then I just made a big point to EJ, like:
"Just please, you know, like this is my son.
There's all these people. Do not take your eyes off of him."
He's like, "Well, yeah. Of course."
He's Batman. Of course he'd take care of Batkid.
I walk up out of the loading dock, the Batcave...
...and that was a moment of just sheer...
I don't even know how to describe.
Then I hear the helicopters over, and there's three news helicopters.
And I see the mass of thousands and thousands of people...
...at a place that I didn't think anybody would want to be.
So I feel like there's no air. I can't breathe.
And I look at the amount of police and the whole Union Square is shut down...
...just to see a Lamborghini come out of a garage.
You know, wow.
All these people aren't at work today.
They took off to come watch our son parade around town.
- And I was just like, "This is insane." - This is insane.
All my family and friends are, "Oh, this is insane."
And I'm like, "Well, I know. Please quit telling me."
That was the moment kind of where you just go:
"Oh, boy. This is gonna be a long day.
I just hope I survive it, and everyone else does too."
There's no way to prepare yourself...
...for whipping through San Francisco with a police escort...
...in a Lamborghini following another superhero...
...with people lined up on the sidewalks in every neighborhood cheering.
Every person we passed was smiling, was happy.
It made me kind of deep-down happy.
I realized that nobody ever gets to do this.
I just absolutely loved it.
Yeah. He's like, "I have to rescue her."
We had just really asked for the parking...
...and for one street to be shut down.
We learned then that the cops decided to shut down all the streets.
It was a parade route, basically. And they did that because of public safety.
The cops kept being like, "We need more Yamahas."
And they kept bringing in more and more of their motorcycles.
So all the motorcycle officers are calling me, saying:
"I'll come in for free."
And the guys that were there, when we said, "Hey, there is no overtime."
"We're good, we'll just stay."
- The feeling on the street was electric. - It was electric.
It was like a really nice...
...lovely, communal feeling that I've never felt. It was palpable.
You could feel the anticipation in the air.
- We are totally here to see Batkid today. - Batkid!
- Saving our beautiful city of San Francisco. - No, Gotham.
We wouldn't miss this for the world.
Batkid, you've done it to me. I've come to turn myself in.
We need more superheroes!
Batkid! Batkid!
- Batkid! - Nicely done, everyone!
Our first stop at the cable car was kind of chaotic.
I see them in the car, "This isn't so bad.
There's a small crowd on both sides of the street."
Then I realize we're actually two or three blocks away...
...from where the cable car rescue is gonna happen.
I took a few pictures. That was as close as I got to him all day.
Batkid had been called out...
...to help what they were calling a "damsel in distress."
This young woman was tied to a bomb.
I have advice for other damsels: Don't trust Batman to be on time.
So you might wanna head to the ladies' room...
...even if they tell you he's gonna be there in 15 minutes.
I was actually sitting on a bit of an incline...
...and the Riddler's box was empty...
...so there was nothing to support myself with.
So I had to hold myself up with my quads for 45 minutes...
...while I waited for Batman.
All these reporters came up and came about two inches from my face.
And they're like, "Are you scared?" And I said:
"Well, I wasn't before, but now I'm pretty terrified."
Then one turns to me and he was like, "Well, how long this is gonna take?"
I'm like, "Four minutes, once we start it. Why are we not starting it?"
They're like, "We're kind of waiting on you."
So I realized I had to tell them a lot more. Because it was all in my head.
We could literally see the train coming slowly, with the idea that...
...it's amazing how believable this becomes when you're standing there...
...that this young woman was going to be blown up.
And we would have been as well.
Look!
Let's go!
I would get a pounding on my leg, and he would say, "Can't see."
He had a hood under his Batman cowl...
...and the little hood would slip forward like that.
It was something you can't plan for.
How's that? Let's go!
Yeah!
I remember thinking:
"Gosh, they have to be so hot in those suits. It's so hot."
Look what's here. There's a damsel up there.
And see that? Does that look familiar? The trampoline?
I'm gonna go. You follow me, okay?
Let's go!
I loved rescuing Sue. She so rarely gets into actual trouble.
Are you okay, ma'am?
She looked up at us with the "please help me" look.
Who could have done this?
And that kicked in to my core. She and I have been married for 13 years.
Probably the Riddler. Pull the wires out!
It made me go, "Oh, we have to...
We have to do something."
Pull them all out. Good job. Pull it hard.
Pull.
I think we've got it. Now take her mask off.
Thank you, Batkid. Thank you.
Can someone untie me?
There you go, ma'am.
Let's go.
Batkid!
Very good.
Oh, thank you.
The hug that she gave Miles...
...that hug was on my Make-A-Wish list for a long time.
I was tweeting from my phone from the official handle.
I was taking pictures and pushing out tweets.
And the way he's walking and the way he was so excited, I had to take a picture.
As soon as I saw that one Instagram photo...
...that Make-A-Wish tweeted out, that just said "Here he comes"...
...which became the most retweeted tweet of the day, it went international...
My phone basically died...
...many times during the day because I was getting all these notifications.
Thousands of engagements and interactions with the tweets.
They broke our website, our website went down.
We had over 1400 hits per second.
We couldn't get a signal. Cell service was out. Everyone was taking pictures.
I was getting tweet responses from Egypt, from the Philippines.
President Obama retweeted one of my tweets and basically made my life.
Even though it wasn't my personal handle.
As soon as I saw that, I knew this was a social media phenomenon.
Every actor who had ever played Batman was tweeting.
Postings from all over the world with the cute signs and kids dressing up...
...and troops in Afghanistan, and people from Australia...
I had friends who were traveling in Moscow who were texting me, saying:
"I'm seeing all these news reports, and I think this is you."
Hashtag SFBatkid was trending.
It very much was a globally viewed event.
Everyone was watching all over the world and was waiting for the next tweet...
...which added pressure on me to tweet...
...better throughout the day.
When I showed up to the intersection at Green Street...
...there were about sixof us there.
And so I had my jacket and my iPhone and my purse and I just put them on the corner.
And then I sat down.
And then all of these people started coming.
I'm like, "Kiss away the leather jacket and the iPhone and the handbag."
But after everybody left...
...nobody touched my stuff. It was really, you know, that kind of day.
Normally when you have such a crowd...
...and you need to keep a street or keep an area or keep a dignitary safe, it's all us.
And it's all push and plead and prod, and people are mad at us.
Every time we would tell people, "You're making the little guy nervous.
Can we get a little bit of room?"
Regular citizens would turn around and say:
"Hey, come on, we gotta help out." Or, "We gotta back up." We were like:
"Wow, we'd take this all day long if we could get it any other day."
Don't push on the tape.
There's a call coming in from the commiss... From the police chief.
Hey, Batkid.
Watch! Ready?
Dynamic Duo.
I'm afraid your old nemesis the Riddler is in town...
...with enough dynamite to blow this city's vault sky-high.
You have got to stop him...
...before he steals the taxpayers' hard-earned money.
All right. Let's go stop the Riddler!
- Everyone back up! - Back to the cars!
The beginning was the worst, and we were off time line.
I'm like, "There's no way we're getting to City Hall by 2."
Then I tried to beat the rush to the next place...
...after witnessing this cable car rescue.
And there were even more crowds at the next scene by the bank vault.
It was Montgomery and Sansome.
It was exactly where I was standing two or three years earlier...
...for the World Series parade.
All right. Let's go!
And there were more crowds for this than there were for the World Series.
Let's go here.
All right.
Hey, Batkid.
What does that say?
"Safe deposit vault."
You think that's where he is?
Let's go get him.
Get him, man.
Go get him, Miles!
We went downstairs and into the vault.
That scared him at first. He didn't wanna go at first, but then EJ kind of:
"Let's do this."
So he doesn't know that we've blocked the back exit.
When he goes behind the bars, we can shut them, okay?
Let's go get him.
The key to the whole day was EJ.
They became friends that night before at the Circus Center.
That, to me, made him, you know, the shy kid, come out.
In here, in the vault.
There were all of these little exchanges between us...
...because we're the only two going through the same thing as each other.
There he is.
Where'd you fly in from, Batman?
And who's the big guy?
Your cable car trick didn't work.
Ha-ha-ha. But it did.
In 12 seconds I'll be gone and you'll two be trapped in here...
...in this bank vault forever.
Twelve seconds, that's not much time. Let's get him.
Don't let him go out the secret back way. Close the gate.
Shut the gate. Shut it all the way.
- Wait! - Shut it.
Behind bars already, Riddler? That's got to be a record.
Batkid!
Riddle me this, Batkid!
What flies underwater, sly as a ghost...
...wanting to snatch what this city loves most?
- Ha-ha-ha! - What flies underwater?
Let me out!
No!
There's a call coming in from the police chief.
Let's take it on the ceiling.
Dynamic Duo, I'm afraid your old nemesis the Riddler...
Here we go. The calls sometimes don't come through in the vault.
Nicely done, Dynamic Duo.
You've saved the city.
I have to believe that you've worked up quite an appetite.
Head on down to the Burger Bar and tell them:
"Lunch is on the chief of police."
Time for lunch!
- Take him away, guys. - Batkid! How dare you?!
Wipe that look off your face. You'll be surprised. This is all part of the plan!
- Thank you, Batman. - Batkid.
- Batkid, thank you. - You're welcome!
We did it. We caught the Riddler.
Who are you?
- Batman. - I'm Batman.
Handshake.
- Done it again. - We've done it again.
Put your arms up and cheer.
Ready?
Hi!
- Are you having fun? - Yeah.
- Yeah? - Yeah. I was so hungry in there.
Oh, me too. I'm hungry too.
The bank vault got us caught up on time, and then we had a leisurely lunch.
I didn't even try to go to Union Square.
Oh, my God!
All right, Batkid. Are we ready?
- Put your hood up. Can't see. - I can't see.
Okay, I'll guide you. I promise.
I'm gonna pick you up. Ready?
All right.
Let's go!
Let's run. Run.
Let's go!
Right here.
This way.
Go in right behind us.
Hello, everyone.
You can wave too. Yay!
Have you worked up an appetite?
Yeah. I know how you feel.
I kicked the Riddler's butt.
You kicked the Riddler's butt?
Look at all those people. Wow.
Have you ever seen so many people?
When you looked down...
...and you saw this sea of people...
...in the cars in the motor brigade...
Like, I haven't seen that for presidential visits.
Put your right arm way up in the air. Right arm.
They all waved!
When you watch whole construction crews...
...leave their site to come down and wave...
...it was like one of those really cheesy Hallmark shows on TV where you go:
"That would never happen!" But it did.
- What are they dancing around for? - Ha-ha-ha.
Believe it or not, they're dancing for you.
Once in a while he would look at me and say:
"We caught the Riddler!" I don't know how much of that...
I don't know where real and not real was there, but he was so excited.
By the time that we arrived for lunch...
...the big caravan, Lou Seal was supposed to already be hiding...
...underneath the parking lot for his big kidnap.
He was supposed to be there for about half an hour...
...and we were gonna chat and talk about the staging and the car.
I called our staff member that was coordinating that, and she's like:
"Yeah, a little hiccup." The transportation that we had didn't work out.
And I had to call an Uber taxi to bring Lou Seal to Union Square.
I got the beep. I accepted the beep.
It was weird at first. I'm like, "What is this guy doing coming in to my car?"
Because, of course, we had closed the entire city down...
- ...Lou Seal was stuck in traffic. - So many people. Traffic stopped.
It's this guy in a massive seal costume stuck in traffic.
Another cop goes, "Where are they?"
And they had to send a police escort to go get them.
It was exciting, you know? Going through all this traffic without stops.
An Uber taxi parted the crowds...
...came in to Union Square.
I'm looking at the clock, like, we gotta...
Lou Seal willingly got out of the car, waved at all the fans...
...walked under the parking garage into his capture.
Thankfully, the people of San Francisco were kind enough to...
...you know, suspend their disbelief for a little bit.
And he's got his costume on already, so I still don't know what he looks like.
He's like, "Hey, how's it going? I'm Lou Seal."
His costume's large...
...so is he gonna go in the front or back?
We didn't really know how he was gonna fit in the car. And we're literally driving out...
...in two minutes with every news agency in the world about to film us.
We got him in the front and me in the back, kneeling on the expensive leather seat.
One of the guys from our national office...
...turned to me, like, "We're on time."
I was like, "We're not talking about it. We are not mentioning that."
He ate some food and then was like:
"Okay, I think I'm done saving people for the day."
And we're like:
"I think you have more work to do." And he's like, "No, I'm tired."
This whole day is for him.
And if he calls it at lunchtime, it's over at lunchtime.
Miles has always been a napper.
He said, "Dad, I don't think I wanna do this anymore."
- Did you have a good lunch? - Yes.
Yeah.
- Do you like the Giants? - Over there. Yeah.
- Do you know who their mascot is? - What?
Their mascot is a seal.
- Oh, you know what? - What?
"What flies underwater?"
A...?
- Bird. - A penguin.
Penguins can swim.
They can fly underwater. Look!
- There's a banner. What does it say? - Someone has Lou Seal.
The Penguin has Lou Seal! Look!
It's the Giants' mascot Lou Seal and the Penguin.
And then as soon as he looked out and he saw the Penguin with Lou Seal...
...he started to rev up.
Batkid! Batkid! Batkid!
Batkid?
I think there's a call coming in from the police chief.
Holy batwings, Batman and Batkid.
I can't believe I have to interrupt that well-earned lunch.
Word on the street is, Penguin's up to something fishy.
He's headed down to AT&T to kidnap... Can you believe it?... Lou Seal.
You gotta get there. You gotta stop him.
For the Giants and their fans, you just can't let it happen.
And his dad came over and said, "What if I ride in the Batmobile with you?"
"Oh, okay." And that was... All right, that's it.
He hit me on the arm and said, "We have to go!"
The thing is, Miles, he battled leukemia, and when you're tired, you can't stop.
No.
Oh, no!
Let's go this way. We'll catch up with him.
Batkid, it's on, baby! Waugh, waugh!
He's like, "Do you wanna go with him?"
I'm like, "I don't care about the Lamborghini. I know you want to, so go."
So I got a ride in the Batmobile, which is pretty neat, but...
Not big enough for three people in one of those.
We created the Penguin Twitter handle and then scripted...
...all of his tweets that were taunting Miles and taunting the city of San Francisco.
And it was a way to get information out in a cute, creative way.
Gotham will be mine!
Batkid will never stop me!
Penguin! Penguin!
We show up, and there's a bunch of people on the sidewalks.
It seemed bigger than even, you know, the baseball games...
...that happen here on a regular basis.
There were thousands of people...
...trying to get a glimpse of the car or him running into the ballpark.
Luckily, there was extra police and security...
...and everything else on the outskirts of the ballpark...
- ...to help manage the crowds. - We're going in. There's a gate over here.
Look!
- Look. - Save Lou Seal!
Do you see him?
Oh, no! It's Batkid!
Oh, no!
Okay, let's go.
This kid was walking up these stairs.
I pictured it as this kid about to defeat something that he'd been ailed with.
The pain that his family had to go through.
Walking up the stairs and facing his demon.
And fighting him until the end.
We're almost there! You got it!
There he is.
- I'm in trouble now! - Let's get him!
He's going into the cable car.
We've seen these before.
Oh, you'll never catch me!
Oh, no! It's Batkid!
- I hope you like traps! - Look out!
Let's go!
You've done this!
Batkid, over here!
Ready?
Good job!
Okay. I got you.
All right! Let's go get him!
Let's see.
Can you see? If we go up here...
...we can slide down and we'll catch him.
Let's go and catch him.
You'll never find me, Batkid!
All right?
Oh, it's Batkid!
No! It's Batkid and Batman!
- Oh, no! Oh, no! You found my lair! - We found him!
No!
I'll untie Lou Seal! You chase the Penguin! Chase him!
Go get him! Go chase him!
Come get me if you can, Batkid!
Okay. That's okay. You wanna untie Lou Seal? Do you wanna untie?
All right. You can rescue.
- And you! - Batman, no! No!
No! No.
You'll never catch me!
You'll never catch me! Ah, come on!
Need help?
Good job, Miles.
Good job, Batkid!
- You foiled my plan! - Good job!
- You foiled my plan! - Very brave!
Oh, no!
- No! No! - Here we go, Penguin. Let's go.
- No! - It is over.
- I've got him, sir. - Batkid!
- Thank you, Ray. - You're welcome, Batman.
Let's head down to the baseball field.
Wow. Unbelievable. We did it.
And I salute you, Dynamic Duo.
The City of Gotham salutes you.
And to prove it, you need to head on over to City Hall...
...where the mayor of Gotham awaits you with the key to the city...
...and a well-deserved hero's welcome.
Here's looking at you, Dynamic Duo:
SF's finest.
That was the head of the police department.
It hit me pretty hard a few times during the day.
You know, I get choked up.
But I have a superhero mask on so nobody can tell.
- You having fun? - Mm-hm.
- What's your favorite part of the day? - Uh...
Catching the Riddler.
Catching the Riddler was your favorite?
Well, we were on the bus...
...and a man basically taps me on the shoulder, and he's like:
"Obama just replied to your tweet!"
And the entire bus started cheering and applauding.
I looked at my phone, and I was shaking because I saw, you know:
"Barack Obama replied to your tweet."
Way to go, Miles. Way to save Gotham.
I took like three screen shots just to be sure, on your phone, so that I had it for proof.
Can I get a high five!
Yeah! Great day!
That was probably the most nerve-racking part for me.
We live in a small town and so you hear about, you know...
...these scary things that happen at these big events.
But that was not... I mean, everyone was so happy.
I had two friends that were there.
This was the first time they said that they've ever been there...
...with that many people, and people were nice to each other.
It was the best thing I've ever participated in.
I wanted to be Batman when I was little too. That's right.
Fellow citizens of Gotham City!
Welcome to Gotham City Hall.
It was a fantasy for me to be up there...
...saying I'm, for an hour, the mayor of Gotham City.
I wanna thank the Batkid for saving our city!
Look to your right. Look to the mayor.
What would we do without you?
The streets of our city are safer because of you.
It is my pleasure, today...
...to present to you:
the key to Gotham City by the Bay.
- Look to the right. - And Miles thought it was chocolate.
He was told, "You're getting a chocolate key to the city."
If you look at him, he's totally, like, "What's up with this, man?
I mean, I got told I was getting hooked up with 2 pounds of chocolate."
The master of chocolate manufacturing...
...TCHO Chocolates, made a special key for you and your brother.
Later on, you'll get to munch on that key all you want.
They decided to give us an advanced copy of tomorrow's newspaper.
Gotham City Chronicle: "Batkid Saves the City!"
Normally, as chief of police, I'm not in favor of flash mobs.
But in this instance, this is about as cool as I ever seen.
Now for the most important part. And listen up.
Miles finished his chemotherapy in June.
Ladies and gentlemen...
...our superhero is in remission, and today...
...I think we gave him a little bit of his childhood back!
Batkid! Batkid! Batkid!
- Are there words? I don't think... - No.
So much bigger than I could have ever imagined. So much more love.
Afterward, at the end of the day, we got together for a little after-party.
And then Miles and his family showed up.
By that time, I had actually pulled the mask off.
I was a little concerned about, you know, that he sees that the coach is Batman.
So I just said:
"I bet no one would suspect that the acrobat coach is actually..."
And he said, "You're right!"
And he even told me one time that Bruce Wayne is for the movies. EJ's Batman.
It's like Patricia's city. She lives in Gotham City.
- Have you been there? - Yeah.
That's when I became Batkid.
- Was it fun? - Yep!
For the rest of our lives, whatever happens...
...there will be good stuff and bad stuff...
...we will have that day.
The next morning, we woke up in kind of a weird dream...
...just totally relaxed.
At some point during the day, we looked at our e-mail.
I had 7189 unread messages.
And it was overflowing.
I had voicemails of people who would just break down and cry.
I want to thank them all. Is there a way to do that?
We got fan mail from France. We got fan mail from China.
We got postcards from overseas: Japan, Germany, UK, stuff from all over.
We got a lot from Akron, Ohio...
...like school classes that colored pictures and drew pictures.
There was a class from Tennessee...
...and they wrote a comic book about Miles.
Somebody just sent, like, "Batkid care of City Hall."
And San Francisco's so awesome that they got us the mail.
One of the interviews revealed...
...that they still had medical expenses that weren't covered.
A couple of folks donated to cover the family's medical expenses.
The wish mom said, "I have to talk to Nick. I'm not sure we can accept it."
And I said, "Well, too bad, heh, because it's being given out of love."
I wish every parent didn't have to worry about that.
Well, when it grew from what we thought were a very simple couple of events...
...to over five different events...
...with a main stage at Civic Center and thousands of people coming...
There was a cost associated with it...
...which the city paid out of their convention fund...
...because it was featuring San Francisco...
...so they thought it was money well spent to focus on San Francisco.
I heard one of the newscasters say it was the best money San Francisco ever spent.
But some people used that to say:
"Well, I don't think the city should've funded that."
We were very, very fortunate...
...to have John and Marcia Goldman of the Goldman Foundation step up.
And they said they were so moved...
...that they donated $100,000 to cover all of the costs.
That discussion's off the table.
There's just nothing negative you can say now.
We heard some crazy statistic like two billion people potentially saw this.
I took a trip to China...
...and people in China came up to me, speaking in Mandarin:
"I love that Batkid.
I wish we would have that kind of event in our city."
I talked to a colleague of mine who said volunteerism is up...
...that people are citing Batkid...
...as a reason to get involved in their community and make a difference.
I do remember the next Monday. I took a bus to work.
I got on the bus, and everyone was smiling.
There was something positive in the air. The bus driver was:
"How's it going? How are you?"
People seemed to be just kinder that day.
It's amazing the capacity that people have...
...that I don't think we give ourselves or we give one another sometimes.
And a 5-year-old restored humanity.
It's kind of odd, almost, that it doesn't happen more.
So Friday at school...
...he got in trouble because there were two boys that were fighting...
...and Miles was standing in the middle of them while they were swinging.
And Miles ended up getting kicked, but he was trying to resolve their issue.
I was like, "Son, you have to mind your own business."
He was sad because he got in trouble because he was getting in the middle of it.
He wants everyone to get along.
For those three years, you're retraining his blood cells and you're giving him medicine...
...and so you're keeping things at bay. Then it's like you stop, and you're like:
"Well, what if...?"
I'm not doing anything anymore. Like, I should be doing something.
"When I'm feeling loved, I feel warm and safe and protected."
For the most part it's back to normal. At school, everybody knows him as Batkid.
It was at the perfect age that this wish happened.
If he would've been older, it would've gone more to his head.
That's why after the baseball, when he threw out the first pitch...
...we were kind of like, let's kind of stop it, so he doesn't get conceited.
We don't want that at all.
He has the Batkid suit still.
He doesn't wear it unless he's doing something with EJ.
Remember what to do if the hood comes down over your eyes?
You just go, "Can't see. Can't see."
It's like having a new little brother.
- Who are you? - Batman!
He'll wear a piece here and there when he's playing dress-up.
But, like, the whole thing together is for work.
If there's no work to be done, he's not putting it on.
And obviously he had fun...
...but I don't think he really got it.
What are they dancing around for?
Believe it or not, they're dancing for you.
He saw all the people and stuff.
But he didn't understand why it impacted them so much...
...and why it made everyone so happy.
I think that we all like to play, and we all forget how to play.
And we desperately need it.
When kids are kids...
...there's a time during every day that they run absolutely as fast as they can.
And then when you're a grown-up, at some point you stop doing that.
With the Batkid day, there were so many reasons not to do it.
Good news is, he didn't have the grown-up part of him that said you couldn't do something.
Listen to a little boy. Listen to somebody dreaming.
Listen to somebody having a preposterous plan.
In a funny way, that's how I live my life.
Everybody wanted me to become an accountant or something.
If you're a musician, everybody tells you:
"Don't do it. It's impossible."
And Miles was saying the same things.
He was saying, "But why are you guys telling me it's impossible?"
- So was this what you guys expected? - Mm-hm.
- No. - No. No.
Don't take no for an answer.
One thing that struck me was how many people were holding up signs saying:
"Save us, Batkid"
And I looked at those signs and I thought:
"You mean that literally."
In helping him to live this dream...
...we were saving ourselves.
We were saving something rotten about our grown-up souls.
And we were remembering something very important.
We wonder why we're not happy a lot of the time...
...and it's because we forget this sort of thing.
But here was an event that forced us to remember.