‘Mom, Dad, I just saw Batman’: Michael Keaton had the perfect airport interaction with a gobsmacked fan after appearing in a movie that still divides fans

Fan service is extra effective for those who are beholden to nostalgia, but what’s often overlooked is the power it has to create brand new fans into the decade-spanning cape-media fold. Fans who, say, may not be old enough to be familiar with 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, but are old enough to remember The Flash, which hit theaters just last year.

Now, whether or not remembering The Flash is a positive thing depends on the person, but in the case of the child who ran into Michael Keaton at an airport recently, it’s not just a positive — it’s a crucial core memory that he will hold onto forever, and one that will no doubt lead him to Keaton’s Caped Crusader flicks of yore.

Speaking recently on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Keaton recounted the aforementioned tale, and the details are exemplary of why Keaton is one of the greatest-ever Batmans. A young boy was goofing around at an airport without a care in the world, as young boys do, but the moment he spotted Keaton, he froze, staring at Keaton with all the awestricken mojo of a kid who’s looking at Batman. Keaton, not one to miss an opportunity like this, smiles knowingly, nods slowly, puts a finger to his mouth so as to say, “Don’t let the Joker know,” and continues on his way.

Keaton previously suggested in a recent interview that, for him, playing Batman again represented having a good time on set and a better time at the bank, but we’d be willing to go out on a limb and say he lives for moments like these in equal measure. No kid, after all, is going to get stars in their eyes before running off yelling “Mom! Dad! I saw ATF Agent Ray Nicolette from Jackie Brown,” but most every child will do so before running off yelling “Mom! Dad! I saw Batman!”

The extra-quirky children, meanwhile, will say something like “Mom! Dad! I saw Beetlejuice,” and that’s something we can all relate to very soon when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — complete with Keaton’s reprisal of the idiosyncratic titular role — hits theaters on Sept. 6 in the United States.