In the year 1993, Kilmer played Doc Holiday in the western Tombstone alongside Kurt Russell, in what some say is one of Kilmer's finest performances. The year 1995 saw Kilmer starring in Wings of Courage , a 3D IMAX film,and in one of his biggest roles, playing Batman in the big budget Batman Forever, which also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman. The film was a success at the box office, in spite of receiving mixed reviews. On that same year, Kilmer starred opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat, which is now considered as one of the best crime/drama films of the entired decade of the 1990s. In the year 1996, Kilmer appeared in a largely unknown film, Dead Girl, and starred alongside Marlon Brando in the poorly received, though with a good story, The Island of Dr Moreau. On that very year, Kilmer starred alongside Michael Douglas in the thriller The Ghost & the Darkness.. The next year he played Simon Templar in the popular action film, The Saint. In 1998, he lent his voice to the animated film The Prince of Egypt, before starring in the independent film Joe the King (1999). He also played a blind man in the drama/romance At First Sight , which he described as often, the hardest role he had ever had. But the scene changed a bit in the decade of the '90s. It was during the 1990s, when Kilmer gained critical respect after a string of commercially successful and well reviewed films, including his roles as Jim Morrison in The Doors, Doc Holiday in 1993's Tombstone, and as Batman in Batman Forever in 1995. During the early 2000s, Kilmer appeared in several well-received roles, including The Salton Sea, Spartan and an acclaimed supporting performance in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.
However, in the decade of 2000 the first role of Kilmer was in the big budget Warner Brothers' project Red Planet but that was indeed a box office disaster. On that same year Kilmer had a supporting role in the film Pollock and hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time. In the year 2002, Kilmer starred in the thriller The Salton Sea which was generally well-reviewed, but due to some cryptic reasons received only a limited release. The same year, he teamed with his True Romance co-star, Christian Slater, and the two starred in the low budget film, Hard Cash, also known as Run for the Money. Kilmer was also found to be in negotiations with Richard Dutcher (the prominent director of Mormon-relate films) to play the lead role in a film entitled Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, although the project never materialized. Kilmer also performed in The Postman Always Rings Twice on the London stage from June to September of 2005. In the year 2005, he starred in the action-comedy film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Not only his performance was praised but the film was also well reviewed, whatever limited release it is. It later won the award as "Overlooked Film of the Year" from the Phoenix Film Critics Society. In 2006 he reunited with director Tony Scott, a third time venture for a supporting role opposite Denzel Washington in the box-office hit Déjà Vu. It is learnt, that in the coming days Kilmer will also star in the Lewis and Clark film opposite Bill Pullman.