The Dark Knight (2008)

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

Director:

Christopher Nolan

Writers:

Jonathan Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan (screenplay)

Stars:

Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart

Top Rated Movies #4 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 153 wins & 159 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Bale	...	Bruce Wayne
Heath Ledger	...	Joker
Aaron Eckhart	...	Harvey Dent
Michael Caine	...	Alfred
Maggie Gyllenhaal	...	Rachel
Gary Oldman	...	Gordon
Morgan Freeman	...	Lucius Fox
Monique Gabriela Curnen	...	Ramirez
Ron Dean	...	Wuertz
Cillian Murphy	...	Scarecrow
Chin Han	...	Lau
Nestor Carbonell	...	Mayor
Eric Roberts	...	Maroni
Ritchie Coster	...	Chechen
Anthony Michael Hall	...	Mike Engel

Storyline

Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins (2005), 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.

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Plot Keywords:

dc comics | joker | psychopath | clown | criminal mastermind | 

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Taglines:

I Believe In Harvey Dent.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Why So Serious

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

18 July 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Batman Begins 2

Filming Locations:

Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Box Office

Budget:

$185,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$158,411,483, 20 July 2008

Gross USA:

$535,234,033

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,004,934,033

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Legendary Entertainment, Syncopy

Technical Specs

Runtime:

152 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS IMAX 6-Track

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writing brothers Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan have cited Game Theory as influential to the plot and its characters.

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Goofs

(at around 1 min) When The Joker gets into the vehicle on the way to the bank heist, he produces a modified Glock 17 and a magazine. When he inserts the magazine into the weapon and pulls back the slide to load it, the slide locks back and he has to depress the slide release to let the slide cycle forward. This means the magazine is empty, as the slide would cycle forward instead of locking if the magazine had been loaded.

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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: If 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, ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The DC logo contains two comic-book images: a shot of the Riddler, and picture of Batman punching him out.

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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 1.43:1, thus attempting to recreate the effect witnessed in IMAX theaters, as well as preserving as much of these shots as possible.

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Connections

Referenced in Awkward Thanksgiving (2014)

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Soundtracks

Scatterin' Monkey
(1998)
Written by Masayuki Nakano and Michiyuki Kawashima
Performed by Boom Boom Satellites
Courtesy of Epic Records & Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

User Reviews

Superhero Genre - Alive and kicking

First I'd controversially like to point out that this movie wouldn't have gotten as much hype as it did if it wasn't for Heath Ledger's death before the release and the Academy not being afraid to give an Oscar to a corpse.

Nevertheless, his performance is easily the best one in the superhero genre and the crafty, well put together New York accent confirms he put a lot of dedication and effort into his methodical role and deserved what he got (an Oscar). This isn't just another Batman movie anymore. Yes, there is action, explosions and stunt work but between that is masterfully crafted dialogue that dwells deep.

Batman is his definitive self now, we finally see the fullest of his character and Christian Bale does him justice. Christopher Nolan praised be created complex characters and given each one justifiable treatment. That's the reason the cast works, everyone holds their own, there are no lazily written or neglected characters.

With beautiful cinematography and presentation of Gotham, the visuals and the endeavours cast The Dark Knight is a film that easily gets on top of every superhero list and is certainly one to remember... remember for a long time.

Final Grade: 9/10