The Dark Knight / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- The ending gets a lot of this from fans. Batman kills Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the act of saving Gordon's son after going to great lengths to not kill the Joker just to prove the Joker couldn't corrupt him etc., which on the surface makes him look a tad hypocritical, especially considering he left Ra's Al Ghul to die at the end of Batman Begins. Anyway, the great debate pivots on whether or not Batman went in expecting and intending to kill the crazed Dent if necessary or if he simply meant to overpower Dent and lost control in the scuffle, thus making Dent's death an accident.
- The Joker:
  - Did Joker really not have a plan or was he lying to enhance his mystique? Depends on whether or not you consider a prank to be a plan.
  - One fan theory about the Joker's origin is that he is a Shell-Shocked Veteran from one of the United States' conflicts in the Middle East. Being an ex-soldier would explain his familiarity with guns and explosives, including more military grade weapons like the RPG he uses during the truck chase scene. Despite his claims that he isn't a "guy with a plan", there's no denying the Joker executes his operations with extreme efficiency and tactical ability, like his elaborate and borderline-perfect bank heist or his escape from jail. He also demonstrated knowledge of honor guard ceremonies during the attack on Commissioner Loeb's funeral. He had to get his horrible facial scarring somewhere, and considering Heath Ledger was a very handsome man and the Joker is pretty ugly, his rage and resentment could be tied up in battle scarring. Finally, his strong belief in anarchy and chaos, and hatred of authority and "schemers", is further evidence that he suffered a Heroic BSoD at some point in the past over being a soldier in a geopolitical squabble. This possible origin also fits in nicely with the movie's post-9/11 world view, which interpreted the Joker as more of a terrorist than a criminal or mobster, and featured electronic surveillance and panic over the Joker's actions as key plot points. Full article here.
- The Burmese bandit in Alfred's story. The clear interpretation that we're supposed to walk away with is that he, like the Joker, commits crime for sport, because he throws the jewels he stole away. However, another possible interpretation is that he was opposed to the Burmese government uniting the local tribes, or even the British government's intervention aiding them in the matter—the jewels were meant to function as a bribe for the tribal leaders. As such, he would have no actual interest in the gems themselves, but would be stealing them for political motivations.
- In hindsight, Jim Gordon's Disney Death can bring up a lot of this.
  - Did Jim plan on faking his death to catch the Joker once things got out of hand? Or did he decide to play possum in the heat of the moment?
  - Assuming Jim did plan on faking his death, was Detective Stephens in on this? He was the only cop in Gordon's unit he truly trusted, as well as the one checking Gordon's vitals after he took a bullet for the mayor, meaning he knew he was alive. Yet he played along as if Gordon had truly died.
- Two-Face contemplates turning his gun on himself before making an attempt on Gordon's son, but feels no joy when the coin toss favours his life. In all likelihood he may have been hoping that suicide would keep him from murdering an innocent child.
- The prisoner on the boat who throws away the detonator. Did he do it out of a moral principle, refusing to take life to save his own, or simply because he refused to believe the Joker’s terms (most likely correctly, given how the latter handled the kidnapping of Harvey and Rachel)?
- In a similar vein, the man on the civilian boat who chooses to do the same. As with the prisoner, it's possible he could be morally opposed to killing or mistrustful of the Joker's intent. His decision could also be viewed in terms of moral weakness, being unwilling to bear the guilt or reputation as a killer even if it means saving the innocent men, women, and children on his boat. In light of Batman's own ultimate decision to sacrifice Harvey to save Gordon's son, then willingly take on the mantle of a murderer for the sake of the greater good, there is an argument to be made for such.
- In the film itself, Thomas Schiff comes as a classic example of Insane Equals Violent. David Dastmalchian, however, has stated he played Thomas as having been forced to work for the Joker and genuinely wanting to tell Harvey the information he needs, but being prevented by his own mental illness.
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Idolatrizing figures is a mistake. People need to take responsibility as a community and as a society to improve their lifes. Not to depend of the actions of certain individuals. Even if good, individuals are people, with their defects and their flaws. There are no perfect figures, and their images won't stay perfect. A society can't depend of the image of an individual to keep its hope for a better future.
- Contrasting Batman and Dent. Batman in a way upholds his flaws (he is a vigilante), and knows he isn't perfect. He is the one who remains true to his ideals. Dent is seen as perfect by everyone, and he is as good person... but he has flaws. Sadly, they explode in the worst possible way.
- While the Joker wants to prove the only reasonable way to live in modern times is “without rules”, there are multiple times in the movie where his plan progresses as intended because the cops neglect to follow their own rules. In particular, had the cops given the prisoner complaining of stomach pains immediate medical attention instead of dismissing him, they would have found the cellphone bomb before the Joker could set it off. Also, had Detective Stephens opted not to assault the Joker in custody, he wouldn’t have gotten close enough for the Joker to take him hostage and set off the bomb in the first place. And of course, the Joker's plan to psychologically decimate Harvey Dent succeeds only because several cops were willing to sell him out for what they thought were good reasons. As such, the movie can have an unintended Aesop of “the rules are in place sometimes for a good reason.”
Aluminum Christmas Trees:
- 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 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 No OSHA Compliance.
- Not only is the Joker's pencil "magic trick" possible (even if the eraser end is used), it has happened in real life and people have survived it.
Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Heath Ledger's more grounded and less showman-like depiction of The Joker has shaped most of the character's future appearances, including in the comics proper. Even works that keep The Joker's traditional showman depiction would incorporate some aspects of his portrayal from the film (like his Batman: Arkham Series counterpart). Another aspect of this film that has shaped future portrayals is the depiction of him wearing white makeup and having a fake red smile painted over his lips like a real clown, unlike past works, which have depicted him with bleached white skin and red lips.
Award Snub: This film appeared on more critics' top ten lists than any other film of 2008 except WALL•E, and more critics named it "best film of 2008" than anything else released that year. None of this was enough to overwhelm the Comic Book Movie ghetto; it was not nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Neither was WALL•E, as it happens. But it's believed that the resulting outcry over those two snubs is at least partly responsible for the Academy deciding to nominate ten movies for Best Picture in 2010 instead of the traditional five. On that note, while Heath Ledger did a fantastic job as the Joker and very much deserved his Best Supporting Actor award, it's hard to deny Aaron Eckhart had a heart-wrenching performance as Harvey Dent.
Awesome Music: The Joker's theme. Made even more impressive in that it consists of merely *two notes* used in many different ways.
Common Knowledge: A widely circulated rumor about the scene where the Joker blows up Gotham Hospital argues that the gap in the explosions was due to a malfunction and Heath Ledger improvised the bit where the nonplussed Joker does some Percussive Maintenance on the detonator. The gag was in fact pre-planned: the gap in the detonations was needed to allow Ledger to get to a safe distance.
Complete Monster: The Joker is a self-described "agent of chaos" out to give Gotham a "better class of criminal". Introduced by killing each of his goons after a bank robbery, the Joker proceeds to exploit the mob's desire to be rid of Batman, casually murdering henchmen, politicians and police to force Batman to unmask himself. He also makes the lawyer attempting to unmask Batman a target; ties a crime boss to a pile of money which he then burns; kills a gangster by making a pencil disappear...eraser-end first; blows up a hospital; leads police into a trap where they will shoot innocent civilians before getting killed by his men; attempts a Prisoner's Dilemma scenario to get a boatload of civilians and prisoners to blow each other up; and, primarily by manipulating a Sadistic Choice leading to Rachel Dawes's death, and then by mind raping an injured Harvey Dent in the hospital, is the driving force behind his transformation into Two-Face. The Joker's main motivation is fun, but he also wants to show that anyone and everyone can and will become a monster if pushed far enough, or even if just given the chance. He's proven wrong, but doesn't care, just giving an annoyed shrug and attempting to blow the two boats sky high with his own detonator.
Creepy Awesome: The Joker, especially when he's telling people how he got his scars while holding them at knifepoint. There's also the video where he kidnaps a Batman impersonator, proving that he's not some run-of-the-mill criminal that any random vigilante can stop.
Crosses the Line Twice: The Joker spends the whole movie dancing back and forth across this line while laughing maniacally, amused by the fact you think there's a line in the first place.
Draco in Leather Pants: The Joker, largely due to Heath Ledger's rendition of him as an anti-authoritarian anarchist who wants to watch the world burn, and the fact that some of his speeches taken out of context (especially his speech to Harvey Dent in the hospital) actually makes sense in terms of its argument and rhetoric. Unlike the other versions of Joker (Jack Nicholson, Jared Leto, Mark Hamill—even Joaquin Phoenix's most recent take), he doesn't have the tendency of romantic fixation and Domestic Abuse of women and children that always kept fans from entirely rooting for Joker. There's also those who are so fascinated with his philosophy about anarchy and argue that his ideals are the only way humans should live. This is ignoring the fact that he is a mass-murdering madman who also clearly adds sadism to his motives and whose goals would only create a miserable world (a world not-so-much better than the corrupt one he claims to be against). Not only this, but he believed that people deep down are just as bad as he is, which is proven to be wrong right in front of him. Last but not least, he's so over-the-top that he's often played around for memes or sarcastic humor on the internet, even by people who haven't watched the movie yet.
Ending Fatigue: At a little over two and a half hours, The Dark Knight out wears some viewers in the final third. This is partly due to the Harvey Dent/Two-Face subplot being wrapped up after the defeat of the Joker in a sequence that is dialogue-driven as opposed to the action in the Joker's.
- On first viewing, it’s easy for someone to assume that the movie is winding down once the Joker is caught after the climatic convoy attack only to realize there’s still an hour of movie left and we’ve only gotten started.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The guy on the ferry. He's an unnamed character that is on the screen for less than 1/20 of the movie, yet his scene is one of the most remembered ones. It doesn't hurt that the character is played by Tommy Lister, or that it represents one of the most gleaming moments of affirmation and light in a very dark film.
- Brian Douglas, the gun wielding Heroic Wannabe whose part of a Batman inspired Vigilante Militia. In his two scenes he manages to both get some fairly impressive moments of courage and convey how unprepared the average person is to try and act like Batman.
Epileptic Trees: The film's refusal to give Joker a definite origin has not stopped people to speculate. One theory that has become popular is the notion that Heath Ledger's Joker is in fact a Shell-Shocked Veteran from the Iraq War. This theory was openly floated in the Dark Knight manual while still maintaining Multiple-Choice Past. Other fan sites have also discussed this theory.
Even Better Sequel: Batman Begins is widely seen as a great reboot to the Batman film franchise. But the quality of The Dark Knight, with its writing and Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance as The Joker means The Dark Knight is widely seen as superior, and it also ended up being one of the highest-grossing films of all time as well as one of the most critically acclaimed superhero movies of all time.
Evil Is Cool: The Joker and Two-Face, but especially the Joker. They may be murderers, but plenty of their victims were established as criminals, corrupt or simply fall into Asshole Victim territory. Given that Batman's response to criminals was to let them live long enough to adapt to his prescence and come back for revenge, it's up to the Joker and Two-Face to bring the catharsis.
Fandom Rivalry:
- Due to the insane popularity of Heath Ledger's Joker, die-hard fans of Mark Hamill's Joker from the DC Animated Universe aren't as kind on Ledger. The same can be said for die-hard fans of Jack Nicholson's take on the Joker which still remains popular in the hearts of many old school fans and aren't kind to the rabid fans of Ledger.
- With fans of The Godfather after The Dark Knight knocked it off the top of the IMDB top 250. Both fanbases went to the other films pages and 1-starred it either to keep the other from regaining the top spot or to regain it, and also attacking the films on their message boards. Ironically, the 1-starring war between Batman and Godfather fanboys allowed The Shawshank Redemption to sneak into the top spot, where it has remained to date.
Fountain of Memes: At least half of the movie's most quotable lines come from the Joker.
Franchise Original Sin:
- While Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is still legendary in its own right, some have pointed out that it inspired a slew of subpar villains in later superhero movies. The off-kilter mannerism and ambiguous motivations in Ledger's Joker worked because the is meant to be a force-of-nature villain who represents the violent, chaotic impulses of humanity. Warner Bros. would then then try to replicate the odd mannerisms and aimless motivations via Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was critically-panned as a shallow attempt at recreating Heath Ledger's Joker, as the character has long been established as a brilliant and cunning Corrupt Corporate Executive who occasionally dives into melodrama.
- The runaway success of The Dark Knight was in large part due to its grittiness and lack of camp, and that sort of tone is very well-suited to a character like Batman. Unfortunately, for several years Warner Bros. only learned the first half of that lesson, and many of their later films would be much less well-received by critics and general audiences due to being Darker and Edgier in the hopes of copying this movie's formula, without regard to whether that approach actually worked for the characters in question or not. Once again, Superman is considered to have suffered from this the worst by a fair margin, with the harshest criticisms of the films of the DC Extended Universe being that Supes is barely recognizable as the character, as the films attempt to ape the tone of this one.
- Relatedly, while the film was a huge success in part due to its tone compared to previous superhero films (and especially older Batman films), it also worked largely because it was an intensely focused character study with a lot to say about the two men in the center. The DCEU films are often criticized for aping the film's "tone", but without the intense character focus to help throw the tone into relief and make it clear why these men are the way they are, Batman can just come across as a crazy rich man and the films lack any kind of message or thoughtfulness.
Genius Bonus:
- The conversation between Harvey and Rachel in the fancy restaurant takes on a completely different meaning if you know your Roman history. Though no one in the scene says this outright, the figure in the Roman government that Harvey was referring to was known as a "dictator" (he was saying, in essence, "Maybe Gotham needs a dictator").
- Also a bit Harsher in Hindsight, if you remember what happened to Caesar after he assumed dictatorial powers. Caesar went above the law and was killed, and Dent ...
- The scene with the two boats being forced to decide to destroy each other is an example of the Prisoner's Dilemma. One of the boats is filled with actual prisoners (prison inmates, that is), which becomes a dilemma because the terrified citizens immediately assume that the prisoners—being violent criminals—will kill them if they don't kill them first.
- The Lamborghini Bruce Wayne drives is a Murciélago, which means Bat. So even when he's not in the suit, Wayne is still driving a Bat-mobile.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- The Joker's loftier or more abstract threats ("If I say that one ole little mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!" "When the chips are down, these 'civilized' people? They'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve.") all basically come to pass in The Dark Knight Rises. For that matter, Bane's ultimatum regarding the nuclear detonator is, essentially, a scaled up version of the boat scene (and, like with the boat scene, control ultimately lays with him).
- The double-date between Bruce, a Russian ballerina, Harvey and Rachel leads to talk of authoritarianism being a sensible choice when things get out of hand. In The Dark Knight Rises we find out that a Gotham without Batman immediately turned to authoritarian measures to keep the crime rate down.
He's Just Hiding:
- While it’d been confirmed in interviews by Aaron Eckhardt that Harvey was Killed Off for Real, fans still were not entirely convinced that the fall at the end of the film actually killed him.
- The slight ambiguity of Rachel’s death as well had some fans considering that either the Joker faked it or someone else did in order to provide protection.
He Really Can Act: Arguably one of the greatest examples in cinema history. While Heath Ledger was never doubted as an actor, with his previous film before this one getting him an Oscar nomination, he received immense backlash from the critics and fans who believed that his casting as Joker was a terrible choice. The moment he showed up in the film, however, he completely blew away everyone away with how he brought the character to life, portraying him in an unnervingly realistic depiction of a nihilistic psychopath and bringing a terrifying dread of realism and morbidness that fit with the tone of the films, all the while still portraying the character as the chaos-loving anarchist he is, in a way no other actor can hope to match. Universally considered the best version of Joker, his portrayal not only set the bar for future Joker portrayals, but also won him a well-deserved (albeit posthumous) Academy Award.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A tall, lean man, with long hair, who is feared by The Mafia kills a man with a pencil. The Joker or John Wick?
- All of the references to the 'MCU' (in this case, 'Major Crimes Unit') are quite a bit more amusing after the advent of the other MCU
- Ledger's Straw Nihilist "agent of chaos" interpretation of the Joker was exploited for memes railing about how "we live in a society" and calling for people to "rise up", whether ironically or sincerely. The trailers for Joker (2019) appeared to line up with the memes at least in a superficial way, as society appears to spawn this Joker and mobs are causing civil unrest. The film itself confirms this with flying colors, as it showcases Gotham tormenting Arthur into a slow transformation into the Joker, to the point where Arthur actually says the word "society" prior to killing Murray Franklin, possibly resulting in an Ascended Meme.
- David Dastmalchian appears as a henchman of the Joker. Years later he would eventually get to play Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, who is traditionally one of Batman's many rogues.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a district attorney who dies in an explosion at the hands of the Joker. Fourteen years later, her husband, Peter Sarsgaard, would also play a district attorney in another Batman movie who meets the same fate at the hands of the Riddler.
- Both Harvey Dent and Batman say the line "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". Fourteen years later, Christian Bale would appear in Thor: Love and Thunder as Gorr the God-Butcher.
Ho Yay: Those three punks who helped the Joker sneak in to Gambol's HQ, the young African American one in particular, seemed a little too fond and admiring of the Joker.
Hype Backlash: There are videos scattered on Youtube about why the film sucks. Even some people in forums who had no bad feeling about the movie at all felt that the hype is too high and people praising it simply because it's "Batman" and gritty, or simply resent its status as a Sacred Cow among superhero films generally when it's the "crime drama" flavor of superhero film not everyone prefers. It doesn't help that many parts of the film, the Joker in particular, have attracted a toxic Misaimed Fandom that has turned many against it on principle.
It Was His Sled: Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, since Dent has existed in various forms since 1942. Though there was the question of whether he'd do it in this film or it would be saved for a future installment.
Jerkass Woobie: Anna Ramirez. Yes, she's a Dirty Cop and yes, she is directly involved in Rachel Dawes' death and thus, Harvey Dent's descent into madness and villainy, but she was just trying to help her mother, and she felt much guilt from her actions.
Like You Would Really Do It:
- Jim Gordon's "death", especially considering we all know him as "Commissioner Gordon" and he hadn't actually become the commissioner yet.
- With Harvey Dent's death, after he's only been Two-Face for about half an hour. What, you thought he was going to live to be the villain in the sequel? Guess again.
Love to Hate: Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is among the most revered and celebrated villains in both cinema and fiction, all thanks to Ledger's brilliant performance, the character's eccentric personality, pure evil, yet nihilistic motivations, and hard-hitting, yet impactful speeches. The fact that he technically wins at the end adds fuel to this.
Magnificent Bastard: Novelization, by Dennis O'Neil: The Joker is a brilliant, nihilistic madman who seeks to give Gotham a "better class of criminal". The Joker showcases his audacity and intelligence at the start of the story by staging the robbery of a mob bank, tricking all of his hired thugs into killing each other, then keeping the cash for himself while using a stolen school bus to cover his escape. After convincing local crime bosses to hire him to murder Batman, the Joker stages assassinations of public figures and the kidnapping of Batman's Love Interest all in attempts to force Batman to unmask himself, and the Joker later allows himself to be captured by police just so he can stage an escape and kill a mob witness. Eventually deciding that his "game" with Batman is too fun to end, the Joker overthrows his ostensible bosses and continues to terrorize Gotham until his defeat at Batman's hands, which Joker accepts with laughing glee before revealing that his backup plan of corrupting Harvey Dent into villainy has nonetheless ensured victory for the clown. With a genuine belief in his chaotic code that his film counterpart lacked, which is best illustrated when he gives an elderly woman a hundred bucks on a whim, the novel's take on the Joker manages to be an even more complex, intriguing villain than he is in the film.
Memetic Badass: The Bank Manager, strangely enough.
Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
Misaimed Fandom: There's quite a few people who think that the Joker's view on humanity in the film is intended to be seen as the right one, even though it's ultimately proven wrong in the climax of the movie when the people on the two boats refuse to blow each other up.
Misaimed Merchandising: While not as bad as the Batman Returns fiasco, it's still jarring to see toys for kids being sold as tie-ins for The Dark Knight, a movie whose PG-13 rating is extremely lenient.
Misblamed: A film example. Contrary to popular belief, Heath Ledger's method acting for the film wasn't what killed him. According to his family and Michael Jai White, Ledger actually had a lot of fun playing The Joker (even doing impressions of him during his last dinner together with his family) and was looking forward to the potential sequel that Nolan was planning. It was reckless taking of various sleeping pills in an attempt to curb his insomnia that led to his death long after he has finished filming.
Moral Event Horizon:
- The Joker's always been a psychopath, but he definitely crossed it when he killed Rachel Dawes, which then led Harvey Dent to insanity.
- The organized crime community as a whole crossed this by hiring the Joker in the first place (and the Chechen crosses it by making the decision to hire him), as was implied by one of Bruce Wayne's lines following the deaths of Loeb and Surrillo, a line used in one of the earlier trailers...
  Bruce Wayne: Targeting me won't get them their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They've crossed a line.
- In fact, the only mobsters who don't cross the Horizon are Sal Maroni, who only lets the Chechen hire the Joker because of Lau's capture and only refuses to rat the Joker out to Batman because he's truly scared of the Joker ("Have you met this guy?"); Gambol, who knew from the start that the Joker was bad news not just for Gotham but for its organized crime community as well and actually stood up to the freak; and the Gotham National Bank manager, who bravely stands up to the Joker during the bank robbery and ices Chuckles (and tags Grumpy in the shoulder), to say nothing of what he thinks about the endless backstabbing he witnesses throughout.
- Harvey Dent crossed it when he moved from killing Dirty Cops and mobsters to targeting Gordon's family, and sadistically threatened them one-by-one to figure out "which one Gordon loves the most" so he kill that one while Gordon watches, just so he will know the same pain Dent feels.
Narm:
- Commissioner Gordon verges on this toward the finale with the Joker, wailing "I HAVE TO SAVE DENT!!", which is just a little bit too over the top. There are also some examples of the extras clearly not being in the same league as Bale, Ledger, Oldman and the assorted cast, which doesn't help when the Joker's final plot has scenes dealing heavily with them.
- "Things are worse than ever!"
- When Dent screams the word "FAIR!" towards the end of the film, the CGI on his mouth opens a bit too wide.
- "No more dead cops!"
- "You brought this craziness on us!" Extra silly when the camera pans up to show Batman perched above her doorstep, listening in.
- Speaking of Mrs. Gordon, her inarticulate, heart-wrenching cry when Harvey puts a gun to her child's head is pretty effective. Her making the exact same noise again only a minute or so later... isn't.
- The cop riding shotgun with the disguised Gordon only speaks in clichés and Captain Obvious statements.
  "Lower fifth? We'll be like turkeys on Thanksgiving down there?"
  "That's what I'm talking about!"
  "You can't stop here, we're like sitting ducks!"
  "That's not good!" (In reference to a helicopter crashing into the street right in front of them)
- And of course, Christian Bale's "Batman voice", which can lead to odd pauses... in the middle... of a sentence, and the occasional inflection of a cartoon pirate. ("Someone KNOWS where 'e izzz!")
- In general, the fact that the film constantly shows brutal acts of violence but without ever depicting any actual blood, possibly stretching the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief a little too far.
- Harvey Dent telling the guy who tried to shoot him that he should have brought an American gun is worthy of some eyerolls. You half expect him to yell "In America!"
Narm Charm: The Joker's "agent of chaos" speech is so compelling that you'll forget he's wearing a dress.
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Heath Ledger's untimely death certainly didn't hurt the film's performance at the box office. It even got him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Older Than They Think:
- The Joker makes a pencil "disappear". Sounds awfully familiar...
- It's even older than the above, it comes from a scene in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, where the Joker bluffs Batman into entering Arkham by pretending to blind an orderly with a pencil.
- The Hannibal Lecture the Joker gives to Batman in which he claims that sooner or later, the people he helps will hate him, sounds like the lecture the Green Goblin gives in Spider-Man.
- Many have pointed out a similarity between Heath Ledger and Brandon Lee's makeup as The Joker and ''The Crow (1994), respectively.
- The Joker's Nietzche parody "what does not kill you makes you stranger" was previously used by Trevor Goodchild in the TV version of Æon Flux'', although with "us" rather than "you".
- Harvey Dent not having multiple personality disorder before or after being disfigured is actually Truer to the Text. Before the 1980s, Two Face did not have multiple personalities, he simply rejected moral responsibility and used random chance to decide his actions. It was only his Post-Crisis characterization that introduced multiple personalities, which became so popular it erased the first forty years of character development.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Ginty, the Scary Black Man played by Tommy Lister on the convicts' barge who tells the guards to give him the detonator to the civilian barge, saying he'll "do what you should have done ten minutes ago". He immediately throws the detonator out a window. Quite notably, after Lister's death this was one of the most frequently mentioned roles of his extensive acting career despite its brevity.
- Jonathan Crane early in the film too, despite having been a much more significant character in Begins.
- The Bank Manager (William Fichtner) who very calmly reacts to robbers in his bank... by whipping out that Sawed-Off Shotgun.
Questionable Casting:
- A lot of people filed off Heath Ledger being assigned to play The Joker as the casting agency drawing a name out of a hat - especially considering that Ledger had recently made himself well-known for playing a gay/bisexual cowboy - with many presuming that Ledger couldn't possibly be intimidating. Then the movie came out, and it turned out that the casting worked a lot better than many of these detractors anticipated and Ledger's performance earned him a posthumous Academy Award.
- The same goes double for the Mexican Spanish dub, as The Joker was voiced by José Antonio Macías, a voice actor well-known in Mexico and Latin America for being typecasted with voicing comedy roles, like James, Icarus, Double D, etc., and no one thought he could be a good choice on voicing a disturbing psycho like him. And just like Ledger, he did a helluvah good job voicing him.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Thomas Schiff, the henchman of the Joker that Harvey Dent interrogates, is played by none other than David Dastmalchian in his first film role. Dastmalchian would later become known for his more prominent roles in other comic book movies, such as Kurt in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp and Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad.
- The black bounty hunter who helps the Joker kill Gambol is played by David Ajala, who would later play Cleveland Booker on Star Trek: Discovery.
Rooting for the Empire: The Joker’s so too much fun thanks to Heath Ledger’s performance. You just wanna see what crazy stuff he’s gonna pull off.
Ron the Death Eater: Anna Ramirez: People like to say that she should have been killed and view her as a Karma Houdini, never considering (or just not caring) that she was trying to help her mother, did not intend for anyone to get hurt or die, and was left feeling very guilty afterwards. See Unintentionally Unsympathetic below however.
Sacred Cow:
- The Joker. While he's always been one of the most iconic characters in American culture, Heath Ledger's portrayal here set many very hard-to-reach standards for movies to come, as he's widely considered the best Joker (however, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Hamill are often tied with him or positioned just below him), one of the greatest movie villains, one of the most surprisingly amazing movie performances, and quite possibly one of the best movie performances period. Those who say otherwise regarding both the character and Ledger will more often than not suffer the consequences.
- The film itself remains the most acclaimed Batman film and one of the most popular comic book movies ever, thanks to being the movie that gave the superhero genre new prestige. Almost 15 years after its release, it's still held up as a bar most subsequent superhero films have yet to reach, and every subsequent Batman film, for good or ill, has been compared to it.
Sequel Displacement: The success of this movie has completely overshadowed its predecessor that the whole series has gotten dubbed The Dark Knight Trilogy. Interestingly, though, the next film would take more cues from the first film than this one.
Signature Line: Probably the single most quoted line from the movie "Why, so, serious?", is considered by many people to be the Joker's catchphrase in the film. In actuality, the line is only used in one scene, as part of one of the Joker's (admittedly terrifying) "backstory"/threat monologues. Granted, this was a very memorable scene and the line does neatly sum up the Joker's entire character. And the marketing of the movie widely revolved around "Why so serious?"
Signature Scene: Everything to do with Joker:
- The opening bank heist scene is considered among the best not only in superhero films but the genre as a whole, complete with the byzantine nature of betrayals and Joker's final reveal.
- Joker's pencil trick, his prison escape complete with gloating shaking of his head out the window like a dog, the interrogation scene between him and Batman, Joker at the party, and Joker setting the money on fire.
- The chase scene between Batman and Joker across the city, with Batman using the Batpod to flip over the giant truck and ending with Joker firing a gun in the middle of the street as he dares Batman to "hit me", with Batman dodging at the last moment.
- Joker in the nurse outfit at the hospital with Harvey Dent, where he uses Gaslighting to turn his victim and mortal enemy into his accomplice, and then walking out while still in the outfit and blowing up the building.
- And on a thematic level, the scene where the Joker is finally proven wrong by the prisoners and patients trapped on the explosive-rigged boats, refusing to turn on each other even when threatened with death.
Special Effect Failure:
- When the truck is flipped over during Batman's batpod chase with Joker, gas from the discharge of the launching mechanism can be clearly seen. It is possible that this was intentional (given the comparative ease with which it could have been edited out and the obviousness of the gas fumes) to show the audience that yes, they really did flip an eighteen wheeler.
- Some have pointed out that after Harvey's Disney Villain Death, you can briefly see him breathing in the background.
- When Grumpy is run over by the bus in the bank heist, it's very obvious the stunt actor is several feet away from the bus before being yanked backward. While obviously you don't want anyone getting hit by a bus for real, one would've hoped that they would've found a better camera angle or edit to keep the illusion.
- In the shot where Bruce places his new gauntlet back in the drawer after accidentally launching the blades, the blades are back in the gauntlet in their retracted position. The shot even looks like a reversed shot of him taking the gauntlet out of the drawer.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Harvey Dent's mental and physical descent into becoming Two-Face, and his vengeful killing spree against Gotham, could have been a compelling story on its own. Due to the film prioritising the Joker, Harvey's downfall is mostly condensed into a few short scenes in the third act, which many felt robbed his final confrontation with Batman of some of its intended Catharsis Factor.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Realistically, Batman travelling to China to abduct Lao and take him back to Gotham would cause an uproar within the international community, which could have been a chance to put an interesting spin on Batman's status as a "superhero" and see how the rest of the world would react to one man deciding to put his city over the laws of citizens everywhere (keeping in mind this would have been seven years before Avengers: Age of Ultron raised the question—then immediately followed [and more explicitly discussed] by Captain America: Civil War). Unfortunately, the movie has too much to handle already and completely glosses over this, and neither Batman or Gordon face consequences for Lao's kidnapping.
Tough Act to Follow: Heath Ledger's Joker was so well-received that rebooting the character a mere 8 years later would inevitably lead to negative comparisons, which Jared Leto found out the hard way. It's implied that the decision to romanticise the Joker was decided by Executive Meddling, as Zack Snyder kept Jared Leto and steered him a more accepted direction while still establishing him as a total bastard and David Ayer has repeatedly stated that he always intended to make the Joker a Hate Sink.
Spiritual Successor: To the John Ford western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. 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?
Unintentionally Sympathetic: As per Alternate Character Interpretation above, the bandit in Alfred's story can easily be seen as a Just Like Robin Hood type, robbing from the corrupt establishment and giving to the poor, which makes the "some men just wanna watch the world burn" comparisons to the Joker ring a little hollow.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The citizens of Gotham and Ramirez, the hypocritical cop who had the gall to blame Batman for what was going wrong when she was playing for the bad guys all along and tried to blame it on her mother's hospital bills. Not to mention that she was responsible for the death of Rachel and Harvey's descent into madness that eventually led him to become Two-Face. And other than the fact that Harvey pistol whipped her she gets away with it unlike the other cop Harvey ended up killing. With that in mind, it becomes hard to see her as the Jerkass Woobie the movie portrays her as and even harder to believe her guilt.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
- Many have taken Batman's phone-tapping of every Gothamite's mobile phone as a heavy-handed commentary about the Patriot Act, with some arguing that it justifies the practice despite the film presenting counter-arguments addressing the questionable ethics of this type of technology. Though Batman tells Lucius to destroy it once they've located the Joker, in real life it continues to be used and abused by different organizations and individuals.
- While Batman relied entirely on fear and intimidation to interrogate criminals in the previous movie, he resorts to physically assaulting Maroni and the Joker this time around, which many compared to the idea of “enhanced interrogation” that was used to justify torturing political prisoners at the time. Though the film once again shows that these violent methods don't give Batman any advantage, as the criminals he attacks still fear the Joker more than him, and the Joker actually enjoys the pain Batman inflicts, which many see as a strong reflection of the real inefficiency of torture with certain people.
- When the United States is unable to legally extradite Lau from Hong Kong, Batman travels there himself, abducts him, and drops him off in Gotham City. This practice, known as "extraordinary rendition", was frequently used by the CIA during the war on terror.
The Woobie:
- James Gordon Jr. (James Gordon's son) from The Dark Knight, is not really the Ax-Crazy Serial Killer maniac that we know in the Comic Books^note. On the contrary, he is one of the biggest Woobies in the film. At his young age, he is living very traumatic events such as the attempted murder of his father, the kidnapping of his family and the attempted murder on his life by Two-Face.
- Harvey Dent seems to be one, being a victim of so many events and tragic circumstances. However, processing of Two-Face, he becomes a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
- Also Rachel Dawes, due to her new actress and ultimate fate.

How about a magic trick? I'm gonna make these examples disappear...TA-DAAAA!! It-it's...GONE.

YMMV / The Dark Knight

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