History Film / TheDarkKnight

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dark_knight_poster.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"The only sensible way to live is without rules, and tonight, you're gonna break [[ThouShallNotKill your one rule.]]"'']]

** In the opening scene bank manager wounded by Bozo[[spoiler:/The Joker]] keeps defying him and asking what does he believe in, rather than playing dead to save his life.

* DelayedExplosion: When the Joker is leaving the hospital as it blows up, but there is a pause he clearly was not expecting, forcing him to mash the detonator button until the blasting resumes.

** The mask The Joker wears at the beginning of the movie matches the makeup he wore when performing in a ''Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}'' opera as a ruse to capture the S.S. ''Gotham'' in [[Series/Batman1966 the old 1960s Adam West adaptation]].

** The attempt to assassinate Dent in court might be a nod to Two-Face's backstory, where he was scarred by a mob boss throwing acid on him during a trial.

** The eyes of Batman's mask glow white when he activates his sonar, invoking his iconic solid white eyes from his appearances in comic books and animated series.

** The Joker's goons don clown masks during the opening scene as a reference to Stanley Kubrick's heist film ''Film/TheKilling''.
*** Joker's mask is also the same as the one the character uses in ''The Joker's Wild'', [[http://i.imgur.com/WIsyBbU.jpg his very first appearance]] in [[Series/Batman1966 the 60's series]].
*** It and the other somber clown masks, all worn by the Joker's thugs with otherwise normal street clothes, invoke the image his henchman from the [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Animated Series]] episode ''The Last Laugh''.

** Kind of a weird one, but the Bat-Cycle emerges from the Batmobile... "Batmobile lost a wheel". And then after that, "Joker got away."
** Harvey Dent had previously pretended to be Batman to fool the Joker in ''BatmanAdventures'', although the circumstances were somewhat different.
** Harvey's transformation into Two-Face plays out the same way it did in WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries, with an explosion damaging half of his face. While this version of Two-Face refuses to get a skin-graft, it's implied that his animated counterpart did, but for some reason the graft turned bad. Both are also driven by revenge on a crime boss.

** The attempt to assassinate Dent in court might be a nod to Two-Face's OriginStory, where he was scarred by a mob boss throwing acid on him during a trial.

** Every mobster in the room loses their shit when the Joker reveals that he's wearing a [[SuicideAttack suicide vest]] underneath his coat.

* StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: A major theme of the Joker's actions in this movie.

-->'''Joker''': (after Rachel [[GroinAttack kicks]] him) [[YouGotSpunk A little fight in you. I like that]].

-->'''Joker:''' ''(to Rachel)'' [[YouGotSpunk A little fight in you, I like that.]]\\

** How did Two-Face get into Maroni's car? Pay very close attention to the bodyguard who is on the very left side of the screen. Watching the scene frame-by-frame, while none of the other characters present are watching, you'll see Dent's hand suddenly grab him from behind and drag him off-camera in a split second.

** When Joker says “It’s all part of the plan.” in one trailer, it’s as if he’s referring to his own plan. The actual context of the line quite different: “the plan” is a metaphor that the Joker uses to describe the public’s response to everyday tragedies, like soldiers or gangsters getting killed.

** When Joker says “It’s all part of the plan.” in one trailer, it’s as if he’s referring to his own plan. The actual context of the line quite different: “the plan” is a metaphor that the Joker uses to describe the public’s reaction (or lack thereof) to common tragedies, like soldiers or gangsters getting killed.

* NeverTrustATrailer: Pre-release material presented the Bat-Pod as one of Batman's newly developed toys. [[spoiler:It's actually the Tumbler's emergency ejection system.]]

* JokerImmunity: Played ''straight'' here, despite being DarkerAndEdgier than the [[Film/Batman1989 previous film series]], which killed him off. Creator/HeathLedger's passing then caused the Joker to become a BrotherChuck.

* FireAndIceLoveTriangle: Rachel has two suitors, Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne. Harvey (Fire) is a [[CrusadingLawyer passionate attorney]] with a quick temper but ultimately has a good heart [[spoiler:at first]]. Bruce (Ice) acts the part of a [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob carefree billionaire playboy]] but Rachel is aware he's the ultra-stoic and brooding vigilante Batman. Unusually for this trope, Bruce is Rachel's childhood sweetheart, while she met Harvey later in life. [[spoiler:She chooses Harvey because she feels Bruce will never be able to give up being Batman, though tragically she's killed shortly after making that choice. Ironically, Harvey ends up being badly scarred by fire when Rachel dies]].

* FlexibilityEqualsSexAbility: Part of Bruce Wayne's RichIdiotWithNoDayJob cover story for disappearing for a few days to kidnap a money launderer from Hong Kong is to very publicly invite an entire Russian ballet troupe for a trip on his yacht. While he obviously skips out on the outing, his butler is more than happy to keep the women company.

-->"Those men on that boat, they made their choices, they chose to murder and steal."

* TheBadGuyWins: Even after all that Batman and Commissioner Gordon did to stop the Joker's mayhem, The Joker proves that even the most noble of men (namely Harvey) can be twisted and their moral code turned to evil.

-->'''Joker''': Don't talk like one of them, you're not; even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak...like me.

--> '''Alfred:''' [[LampshadeHanging Much more subtle.]]

-->'''Harvey Dent:''' ''[flicks his finger through a wad of money from the Joker's bank hit]'' Lightly irradiated bills. Fancy stuff for a city cop. Have help?\\

-->'''Gordon:''' Official policy is to arrest the vigilante known as "Batman" on sight.
-->'''Dent:''' Mm-hm. And what about that floodlight on top of MCU?
-->'''Gordon:''' If you've got problems with malfunctioning equipment, I suggest you take them up with maintenance, counselor.

* BrickJoke: Combined with IWarnedYou.
-->'''Alfred Pennyworth''': And what's gonna happen on the day you find out [that you have limits]?\\

-->'''Alfred Pennyworth''': On that day, Master Wayne, even I won't want to. Probably.

And sure enough, later in the film...

-->'''Bruce Wayne''': Well, today I found out what Batman can't do; he can't endure this. Today you get to say "I told you so".\\

* DramaticIrony: Dent [[spoiler:believes that the police and Batman decided to save him instead of Rachel, when in reality, the Joker set it up such that they'd be saving the person they hadn't intended to save]].

* {{Expy}}: The two corrupt detectives in Gordon's unit - Mike Wuertz and Anna Ramirez - both exhibit this trope.
** To elaborate, Wuertz was originally going to be Harvey Bullock, a long-time member of the Batman supporting cast from the comics, and Ramirez was going to be Renee Montoya, who was created for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and was then [[CanonImmigrant introduced into the comics]]. The producers decided to recreate them as original characters because of what happens in the third act, which did not match the character of the characters as previously established. This is clearest in ''Batman: Gotham Knight'', an animated anthology film that bridged the time period between ''Batman Begins'' and ''The Dark Knight'', which introduced Ramirez and featured her partnered with Montoya's comic-book partner [[ComicBook/GothamCentral Crispus Allen]].

-->'''Lt. James Gordon:''' All that was left in the vaults were marked bills! They knew we were coming! As soon as your office got involved...
-->'''Harvey Dent:''' ''My'' office?! You're sitting down there with scum like [[spoiler: Wuertz and Ramirez]] and- ''(Gordon gives him a look)'' Oh yeah, Gordon, I almost had [[spoiler:your rookie]] cold on a racketeering beat.

-->'''Gordon:''' Where's Harvey Dent?\\

-->'''Bruce''': I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.
-->'''Alfred''': You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler:When Harvey Two-Face flips his coin for Gordon's son, Batman tackles him in an effort to subdue him—and succeeds in subduing him ''permanently'' with a miscalculation of force, resulting in a fall that seriously injures his leg and ''kills Harvey''.]]

* GrayingMorality: [[spoiler:Harvey Dent. Gordon's final speech even admits that Gotham needed an IdealHero like Dent was, but really deserves an AntiHero like Batman.]]

-->'''Batman''': Beautiful, isn't it?
-->'''Lucius''': Beautiful. Unethical. Dangerous. [[spoiler: You've turned every cell phone in Gotham into a microphone...You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you could image all of Gotham.]] This is ''wrong''.
-->'''Batman''': I've got to find this man, Lucius.
-->'''Lucius''': At what cost?

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Two-Face lampshades this: "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

* LudicrousGibs:
** [[DiscussedTrope Suggested]] by the Joker about a kidnapped Harvey Dent.

-->Jingle Bells, Batman Smells
-->Robin laid an egg...
-->[[CoolBike The Batmobile lost a wheel]]
-->And The Joker got away...

* NotWhatISignedUpFor: The SWAT officer riding shotgun in Harvey Dent's armored transport, after the Joker uses a bazooka to take out the pilot car in front of them.

-->'''Loeb:''' Gordon, you're unlikely to discover this for yourself, so take my word. The police commissioner gets a lot of threats. I found the appropriate response to these situations a long time ago. ''[sets down a glass of Clyburn whiskey, and drinks]''\\

-->'''Joker:''' [[spoiler: You know, for a while there, I thought you really were Dent. The way you threw yourself after her.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism:
** When Harvey and Rachel [[spoiler:are kidnapped]], Harvey's room is brightly lit, while Rachel is in darkness, [[spoiler:{{foreshadowing}} who is going to die]].

* SadisticChoice: The Joker's M.O. So much so that Creator/RogerEbert interpreted this concept as one of the Joker's main themes.
-->'''Ebert''': The Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

--->'''Joker''': Oh, and by the way, the suit? It wasn't cheap. You ought know, you bought it!

* ShoutOut: "[[Series/ToTellTheTruth Will the real Batman please stand up?]]"
** Possibly also a reference to [[TheMusical that musical]] [[VaporWare they never made.]]

* VillainousFaceHold: The Joker crashes a party and begins interrogating the guests on the whereabouts of Harvey Dent. First he grabs the jaw of a middle-aged man and jiggles his jowls, then he grabs another man by the jaw and threatens him with a knife. When he's prevented from going further by Rachel, he grabs her jaw and forces her to look at him whilst he tells her how he got his scars.

* AppropriatedAppellation: [[spoiler: Two-Face]].

** RICO cases are all federal cases, meaning even if Harvey and Rachel's gambit to arrest all 549 criminals at once actually worked (which, while incredibly unlikely, is not [[AluminumChristmasTrees completely impossible]]), the case would've been sent out of their jurisdiction almost immediately.

* TheChessmaster: ComicBook/TheJoker.

* DamselInDistress: Rachel.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''The Dark Knight'' is arguably the darkest film adaptation of Batman to date, let alone ''The Dark Knight Trilogy'' series.

* FallenHero: [[spoiler:Harvey Dent.]]

* LaughablyEvil: Again, the Joker.

* MascotVillain: The Joker.

* MonsterClown: The Joker, obviously.

* TheParagon: Harvey Dent. This makes him the target of everybody.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[spoiler: Harvey Dent's fall from grace.]]

* TheSpook: Both Batman and The Joker.

* TerroristWithoutACause: The Joker is about as pure of an example as you can find. Other than to inflict chaos.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** You'd be forgiven for assuming that Skyhook, which Batman uses in Hong Kong a) was never invented for the CIA to get their agents out of tight spots and b) wouldn't work if it was. In fact, it was and it did. In fact, it's actually pretty ''old'' - it was in use in 1958, and was only 7 years old when it was seen in the James Bond film ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''.
** Likewise, the use of lightly-irradiated bills to trace money is an old trick, used by the East German Stasi among others, though not used now due to concerns about NoOshaCompliance.
** Not only is the Joker's [[EyeScream pencil "magic trick"]] possible (even if the eraser end is used), it has happened in real life and ''people have survived it''.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: For the first part of the film, it seems to the characters in-universe that Salvatore Maroni, new head of the Falcone Family and de facto head of Gotham's organized crime, is gonna be the BigBad trying to end Batman's influence on the city. Then he hires the Joker, who takes over and plunges the city into utter chaos.

%%* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Used multiple times. [[TortureIsIneffective It's never really effective]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the John Ford western ''Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance''. A menacing, outlandishly dressed, extremely violent criminal terrorizes a town/city, with the soul of the community/nation at stake. Can the clean-cut lawyer deal with lawlessness and disorder or is it down to the vigilante to just straight up murder the monster clown?
** To Heat, from Creator/MichaelMann's ''Film/{{Heat}}''. There are many similarities between both films.

** Turned against the Joker in the climax [[spoiler: with the bomb-strapped passenger ferries. When Joker has Batman pinned with the midnight deadline for one ferry to blow up the other about to occur, he gleefully tells Batman, "We don't want to miss the fireworks. And here...we...''go''." However, both ferries refused to carry out Joker's demand, causing visible confusion on Joker's face at the lack of an explosion. He even turns around to look at a clock, and when he sees the clock has surpassed midnight, he is visibly ''shocked'' that his social experiement failed.]]

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Used multiple times. Interestingly, [[RealityIsUnrealistic and realistically]], it's never really effective.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Used multiple times. Interestingly, it's never really effective.

** Kind of a weird one, but the Bat-Cycle emerges from the Batmobile.... "Batmobile lost a wheel". And then after that, "Joker got away."

** [[Film/JerryMaguire "You complete me."]]