When the menace known as the Joker emerges from his mysterious past, he wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham. The Dark Knight must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.
It's tough to picture anyone other than Christian Bale as Batman in Christopher Nolan's trilogy, but plenty of other actors were considered. See who they were.
Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, Batman, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his exile to save Gotham City, now on the edge of total annihilation, from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins, Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman's struggle against the Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to "confront everything he believes" and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent and Rachel Dawes.Written by
Leon Lombardi
(at around 1h 45 mins) After The Joker tells the citizens of Gotham that he wants Mr. Reese dead in an hour or he will blow up a hospital, Bruce leaves to go to his Lamborghini. While Bruce crosses the room saying "I need you plugged in checking Gordon's men and their families," the TV in the background goes from showing a news broadcast to instantly being off as Bruce passes in front of it. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Grumpy:
[with Chuckles, picks up Bozo on the street]
Three of a kind, let's do this!
Chuckles:
Huh, that's it? Three guys?
Grumpy:
Plus two guys on the roof. Every guy gets a share. Five shares is plenty.
Chuckles:
*Six* shares. Don't forget the guy who planned the job.
Grumpy:
He thinks he can sit it out and still take a slice? I know why they call him "The Joker".
Happy:
[up on the roof, breaking open the alarm box with Dopey]
So why do they call him "the Joker"?
Dopey:
I hear he wears makeup.
Happy:
Makeup?
Happy:
Yeah, to scare people. You know, war ...
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
Christian Bale is credited with playing "Bruce Wayne" but not "Batman" in the closing credits. See more »
Alternate Versions
The Blu-ray version of the movie has several of the big action scenes and high altitude photography scenes in ordinary 16:9 (1.78:1) widescreen ratio while the rest of the movie preserves the "scope" format (2.39:1). This is because these scenes were filmed in IMAX, whose format is 1.44:1, thus attempting to recreate the effect witnessed in IMAX theatres, as well as preserving as much of these shots as possible. See more »
Whatever else it may be, "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan's follow up to his "Batman Begins," the film that resurrected the Batman franchise, is the most ambitious superhero film ever made. It's full of brooding ruminations about the inherent nature of humanity, obviously fueled by the troubled state of a post-9/11 world, and it packs an awful lot of plot into its two-and-a-half-hour running time. However, be cautioned, and don't let its #1 rating at IMDb set up expectations that the film can't possibly meet. I doubt any experienced film goer is truly going to think that this is the best film ever made.
The praise heaped on Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker is well deserved. Indeed, the Joker becomes the focus of this movie, which may not be such a desirable thing, given that this is...you know....a Batman movie. The caped crusader fades into the background in this installment, to the point where you might leave the movie and forget that he was in it. Ditto Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays the love interest, and who, true to the superhero movie formula, gets practically nothing to do. But Ledger you WILL remember. He creates a fascinating character in the Joker, and it's through him that the movie poses all of its major moral questions. Is it human nature, as the Joker suggests, to devolve into chaos when the illusion of order is taken away; or do humans have an inherent kindness that will cause them to look out for one another even when circumstances seem to call for self preservation? One of the most fascinating things about Ledger's creation is that the Joker has no more motive as a criminal than to pose questions like this. He's not out for money or even power -- he just wants to create anarchy and see what happens.
I was not prepared for the other villain the screenplay throws into the mix: Two Face, played well by Aaron Eckhart. The film is too long, and it's this storyline that makes it so. Chrisotpher Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, the co-writers of the film, would have done well to leave this plot line out. By the end of the film, there are too many characters doing too many things independently of one another, so that the film loses focus slightly.
The movie looks fantastic though, and the production team does wonders with Chicago (where I live by the way). In fact the look of the film is one of its major selling points, and I was pleased to finally see a superhero film that looks cinematic rather than cartoonish.
So...an excellent addition to the superhero genre and a completely entertaining experience....but it's still, after all, a Batman movie, and it's not the best film since "Citizen Kane."
Grade: A
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Whatever else it may be, "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan's follow up to his "Batman Begins," the film that resurrected the Batman franchise, is the most ambitious superhero film ever made. It's full of brooding ruminations about the inherent nature of humanity, obviously fueled by the troubled state of a post-9/11 world, and it packs an awful lot of plot into its two-and-a-half-hour running time. However, be cautioned, and don't let its #1 rating at IMDb set up expectations that the film can't possibly meet. I doubt any experienced film goer is truly going to think that this is the best film ever made.
The praise heaped on Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker is well deserved. Indeed, the Joker becomes the focus of this movie, which may not be such a desirable thing, given that this is...you know....a Batman movie. The caped crusader fades into the background in this installment, to the point where you might leave the movie and forget that he was in it. Ditto Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays the love interest, and who, true to the superhero movie formula, gets practically nothing to do. But Ledger you WILL remember. He creates a fascinating character in the Joker, and it's through him that the movie poses all of its major moral questions. Is it human nature, as the Joker suggests, to devolve into chaos when the illusion of order is taken away; or do humans have an inherent kindness that will cause them to look out for one another even when circumstances seem to call for self preservation? One of the most fascinating things about Ledger's creation is that the Joker has no more motive as a criminal than to pose questions like this. He's not out for money or even power -- he just wants to create anarchy and see what happens.
I was not prepared for the other villain the screenplay throws into the mix: Two Face, played well by Aaron Eckhart. The film is too long, and it's this storyline that makes it so. Chrisotpher Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, the co-writers of the film, would have done well to leave this plot line out. By the end of the film, there are too many characters doing too many things independently of one another, so that the film loses focus slightly.
The movie looks fantastic though, and the production team does wonders with Chicago (where I live by the way). In fact the look of the film is one of its major selling points, and I was pleased to finally see a superhero film that looks cinematic rather than cartoonish.
So...an excellent addition to the superhero genre and a completely entertaining experience....but it's still, after all, a Batman movie, and it's not the best film since "Citizen Kane."
Grade: A