Christopher Nolan’s exciting sequel to Batman Begins features two of the franchise’s most iconic villains, The Joker and Two-Face, who Batman must stop from spreading chaos in Gotham City.
The Recap (light spoilers for Batman Begins)
Wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne spends his nights disguised as the masked vigilante Batman, fighting criminals to help the police clean up the streets of Gotham City. Only Bruce’s longtime butler Alfred, Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes and Lucius Fox, a longtime employee and now chairman of Bruce’s family’s company, Wayne Enterprises, know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman also has an ally in Lieutenant Jim Gordon of the Gotham Police Department, despite the police department’s official position that Batman is to be captured.
The Plot (spoilers)
A group of men in clown masks, working for “The Joker,” hold up a mob bank. As the heist progresses, the robbers kill each other off as their usefulness runs out, claiming to be following the Joker’s orders. In the end, only one of them is left, and he removes his mask, revealing him to actually be wearing poorly-applied clown make-up to accentuate the scars of his Glasgow smile. He’s the Joker (Heath Ledger). He drives off with the money in a school bus, escaping the police in a group of school buses.
The Recap (light spoilers for Batman Begins)
Wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne spends his nights disguised as the masked vigilante Batman, fighting criminals to help the police clean up the streets of Gotham City. Only Bruce’s longtime butler Alfred, Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes and Lucius Fox, a longtime employee and now chairman of Bruce’s family’s company, Wayne Enterprises, know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman also has an ally in Lieutenant Jim Gordon of the Gotham Police Department, despite the police department’s official position that Batman is to be captured.
The Plot (spoilers)
A group of men in clown masks, working for “The Joker,” hold up a mob bank. As the heist progresses, the robbers kill each other off as their usefulness runs out, claiming to be following the Joker’s orders. In the end, only one of them is left, and he removes his mask, revealing him to actually be wearing poorly-applied clown make-up to accentuate the scars of his Glasgow smile. He’s the Joker (Heath Ledger). He drives off with the money in a school bus, escaping the police in a group of school buses.
The Joker shows his face
While Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) is keeping watch over the bat-signal, a group of drug dealers meet their supplier in a parking garage. They have dogs to help protect them if Batman shows up. The supplier appears wearing the Scarecrow’s mask, and they start arguing. Several Batmen appear, surrounding them and carrying guns.
The Scarecrow returns
The drug dealers fight off the Batmen, when the Tumbler crashes into the garage. Unknown to anyone else, it is empty and is being controlled remotely. The real Batman (Christian Bale) appears, stopping the drug dealers and the fake Batmen, and stopping the Scarecrow from escaping, but not without getting bitten by one of the dogs.
The real Batman
Batman ties up the entire group, including the fake Batmen, and unmasks the Scarecrow, revealing him to be Dr. Crane (Cillian Murphy). Batman leaves them all for the police to find.
Batman confronts an imposter and Dr. Crane
Gordon is investigating the Joker’s bank robbery when Batman shows up. He shows Batman a picture of the Joker. It turns out the bank contained lightly-irradiated bills Batman gave Gordon to get to the mob hands so they could track them. They’ve found five banks that the mob is using, representing most of their money. Batman says its time to move in, and Gordon points out that they’d have to get them all simultaneously. The n Gordon asks Batman about the Joker. Batman thinks going after the mob is more important, since the Joker is just one man. Gordon mentions that the stubborn new district attorney is going to want to be involved in their plans for the mob banks.
Alfred (Michael Caine) finds Bruce Wayne in a secret underground facility on Wayne Enterprises property. It is the temporary Batcave while Wayne Manor is being rebuilt. They discuss the new district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and the fact that Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a city prosecutor, is dating him.
The temporary bat-cave
Harvey and Rachel are in court, prosecuting Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts), the suspected new head of Carmine Falcone’s mob. Their witness, a member of the mob who had previously identified Maroni, claims on the stand to be the head himself, in an attempt to protect Maroni. The witness pulls out a Chinese-made carbon-fiber pistol to shoot Harvey but he takes it away before he gets off a shot.
After the trial, Harvey has a meeting with Gordon, who is now head of the Major Crimes Unit. Harvey’s found the irradiated bills, and knows that Gordon’s working with Batman. Gordon claims otherwise. Harvey doesn’t like that Gordon has a special unit, with cops that Harvey once investigated at Internal Affairs, but he agrees to get Gordon warrants for the banks.
Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent
At Wayne Tower, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and the board are meeting with Lau (Chin Han) head of Lau Security Investments of China to form a joint partnership. Bruce is present, but has fallen asleep in the meeting. One member of the board, Mr. Reese (Joshua Harto), thinks Wayne’s presence is an embarrassment. Fox talks to Wayne and says that although the partnership was Wayne’s idea, Lau must have revenue that is off the books and might be illegal. Wayne calmly says to cancel the deal and Fox realizes that Wayne already knew. He just wanted a closer look at Lau’s books. He then asks for a new Batman suit that will let him turn his head.
Harvey and Rachel are at a fancy restaurant that it took Harvey three weeks to get reservations for. Bruce arrives with a member of the Russian ballet, and suggests they put two tables together. Harvey doesn’t think they’ll let them, but Bruce says they should, because he owns the restaurant. They discuss Batman, and Harvey says he thinks Batman wants someone legitimate to take up his mantle. Bruce offers to throw Harvey a fundraiser.
The mob has a videoconference with Lau to discuss the money that the Joker stole: a “small amount” of 68 million, and that they’ve discovered the marked bills planted by the police. Lau reveals the police plan to raid the suspected banks, and says that he’s already moved the money to a secret location, leaving ONLY the marked bills behind so Gordon has nothing to go on, and since he’s in Hong Kong, Harvey Dent can’t go after him. Just then the Joker shows up. He knows they are afraid of Batman, and reveals that Batman can go after Lau. He offers to kill Batman for half of their money. One of the mob bosses puts out a reward for the Joker of $500,000 dead or 1 million alive.
The Joker offers the mob a deal
Batman, Harvey and Gordon meet at the bat signal. Harvey and Gordon blame each other’s office for the leak. Batman offers to get Lau back from Hong Kong. Bruce and Fox discuss skydiving into Hong Kong and skyhooking out. Fox shows him the new batsuit, which has more flexibility, but isn’t as resistant to bullets and knives. Bruce and Alfred leave by yacht, with the entire Russian ballet as an alibi.
Batman, Harvey Dent and Lt. Gordon make plans
Some men claim to have killed the Joker and bring him to the mob, but it turns out to be a trap and the Joker is alive. He tells a story of how he got his scars, and kills the mob boss who put out the hit. He gives the other three mob men an opportunity to fight to the death for a spot on his team.
Fox arrives in Hong Kong to meet Lau. Fox is asked to check in his cell at the front desk of Lau’s building. Meeting with Fox, another cell rings in Fox’s pocket, and Fox tells Lau that due to the police charges, they’ll have to put the partnership on hold. As he leaves, Fox leaves the first cell behind. Outside, he gives the second to Bruce, and shows it a sonar mapping system it is equipped with. That night, the first cell disrupts the power in Lau’s building. Batman gets into the building and kidnaps Lau by skyhooking out. He leaves Lau tied up in Gotham outside the police department.
Rachel makes a deal with Lau that he will give up all of his mob contacts in exchange for immunity, protection and a chartered flight back to Hong Kong. Lau’s information allows Gordon to arrest the entire mob for extortion, racketeering, fraud, conspiracy to commit murder and obstruction of justice. The Mayor Garcia (Nestor Carbonell) doesn’t like it, saying they’ll all get out on appeal, but Harvey says only the head men will be able to afford bail, so they will have months of clean streets. As the mayor warns Harvey that everyone who has something to lose will come after him, a dead, imposter Batman, painted with clown makeup, drops in front of the window, hanging from a noose.
A dead Batman imposter
Bruce and Alfred watch the news as it plays a tape from the Joker demanding that Batman turn himself in or people will die every night.
Alfred and Bruce Wayne watch the Joker's message
That night, the judge that convicted all the mob members and Police Commissioner Loeb (Colin McFarlane) are killed, and at the fundraiser for Harvey in Bruce’s penthouse, shortly after Harvey proposes to Rachel, the Joker shows up looking for Harvey Dent. However, Bruce hides Harvey and gets into costume as Batman, as Rachel stands up to the Joker. The Joker tells another story of how he got his scars, different from the first. Batman shows up to stop the Joker, who throws Rachel out of a window and Batman jumps out after her and saves her.
The police receive a tip that Harvey Dent will be found in an apartment. At the apartment, Gordon finds two dead Gotham police officers, with the last names of Harvey and Dent. Batman shows up, finds a fragmented bullet lodged in a brick wall and extracts that part of the wall. Meanwhile, the Joker has left a clue for his next target: Mayor Garcia. Back at the temporary batcave, Bruce and Alfred experiment to reconstruct the bullet and find a fingerprint on it. Meanwhile, at Wayne Enterprises, Reese has figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman and has proof. He tries to blackmail Wayne through Fox, until Fox points out what a bad plan it is to try to blackmail someone who spends his nights beating up mobsters with his bare hands. Fox helps Bruce and Alfred reconstruct the bullet, and asks Bruce about something Reese said about R&D being reassigned to a mysterious government telecommunications project. Fox says he didn’t know they had any government contracts and Bruce says he’s playing it close to the chest.
A parade is being held for the funeral of Commissioner Loeb. Mayor Garcia is part of the parade. Alfred and Gordon find a possible match for the fingerprint, with an address along the parade route. Bruce takes his motorcycle to the address, where he finds a group of men tied up with their mouths taped. He untapes one, who says that they are police whose gun and uniforms were stolen. The mayor is giving a speech, and when he finishes, the honor guard begins firing a salute. The windowshade in the apartment Bruce is in is rigged with a timer, which goes off during the salute as a distraction for the police snipers. Then members of the honor guard, who are actually the Joker’s men, turn to take a shot at the mayor, but Gordon jumps in front of him and takes the bullet. The fake police take off running, but one is captured. Harvey tries to question him and sees that he is wearing a nametag reading “Rachel Dawes.” Gordon’s family is told that he’s been killed. His wife (Melinda McGraw) blames Batman.
Jim Gordon is dead...
Batman goes to a dance club to find Maroni, while Harvey calls Rachel and warns her. She says she can go to Bruce Wayne’s penthouse for safety. Batman aggressively questions Maroni for information about the Joker, who says that no one will risk crossing the Joker. Meanwhile, Harvey plays a form of Russian roulette with the fake cop for information, holding the gun to his head and flipping his lucky coin to decide whether or not to pull the trigger. Batman shows up to stop him, because if anyone found out what Harvey was doing, everything he’d done would be turned back. Batman tells Harvey to hold a press conference in the morning, where Batman will turn himself in, so no one else will die because of him. Harvey says Batman can’t give in.
Bruce comes home to his penthouse to find Rachel there. She says Harvey called her and said Batman is going to turn himself in. Bruce says he has no choice. Rachel doubts that it would stop the Joker, but Bruce says he has enough blood in his hands. He asks her if she meant it when she said they could be together if he was no longer Batman. She says yes, but if he turns himself in they still won’t be able to be together.
Bruce has Alfred burn all records of his being Batman, then goes to the press conference. Harvey tries to defend Batman, saying that he shouldn’t have to turn himself in, but the public and police don’t agree, so Harvey says that HE is the Batman and has himself arrested. Bruce doesn’t interfere.
"I am the Batman"
Rachel doesn’t understand why Bruce won’t come forward to exonerate Harvey, and gives Alfred an unsealed note to give to Bruce. As Harvey is taken away, he and Rachel kiss and he tosses her his lucky coin, which it turns out has heads on both sides.
Harvey and Rachel kiss as he heads to jail
As Harvey is moved to jail in an armored truck, a burning fire truck forces the police convoy to go underground, where they are attacked by large trucks driven by the Joker’s men. Batman intercepts them in the Tumbler, but the Joker manages to shoot the Tumbler with a bazooka, seriously damaging it.
The damaged Tumbler
Batman activates an eject sequence that allows him to continue on a motorcycle consisting of two of the Tumbler’s wheels while the rest of the Tumbler self-destructs.
Batman continues the chase on the Batpod
The armored police truck carrying Harvey has returned to the surface, still being pursued by the Joker driving an 18-wheeler. Batman eventually catches up and plays chicken with the Joker, grabbing onto his truck with cables and wrapping them around light poles, causing the Joker’s truck to flip end-over-end.
A novel parking solution?
The driver of the armored police truck, who is in full SWAT gear, including mask, stops, despite protests by his partner. The Joker gets out of his wrecked truck and raced down Batman on his bike, challenging him to hit him. Batman evades the Joker and slides into the wrecked truck. The Joker goes after the knocked-out Batman but is ambushed by the driver of the armored truck, who is revealed to be Gordon. The Joker is arrested and Harvey is released from the armored police truck, surprised to see Gordon.
He's Alive!
In jail, Gordon admits that he faked his death to protect his family. The Joker has no matches on prints, DNA or dental records and no ID.
The Joker in jail
Batman questions the Joker
Eventually, he tells Batman that Rachel’s been kidnapped too, and tells Batman where each of them are. Batman goes after Rachel while Gordon and his men go after Harvey. Harvey and Rachel are each tied up with a bomb, drums of gasoline, and a speakerphone so they can talk to the other. Meanwhile, the Joker demands his one phone call, and one of his men in a cell complains of stomach pain. The police find he has a large scar across his stomach. The Joker manages to get his phone call, which he uses to set off a bomb inside the other prisoner and escape with Lao.
Batman loses patience with the Joker
Batman arrives at his location to find Harvey instead of Rachel. Batman barely gets Harvey out, but not fast enough to keep one side of his face from being burned, while Gordon is too late to save Rachel, who says yes to Harvey’s proposal just before being killed in the explosion.
Batman at the site of Rachel's death
Alfred reads the note from Rachel, where she tells Bruce that she plans to marry Harvey and that they will only be friends. Alfred is about to give it to Bruce, when Bruce says that he believed Rachel was going to wait for him. Alfred decided not to give him the note and reveal the truth.
In the hospital, Harvey wakes up to find that his coin has been returned to him (by Batman), with one side now singed black. Meanwhile, Reese has gone to the news to reveal the true identity of Batman.
Gordon goes to see Harvey, who is refusing skin grafts for the burned side of his face. Harvey asks Gordon what name the police had for him when he was at Internal Affairs. Gordon says it was Two Face, and Harvey reveals the burned side of his face. Gordon asks which of his men turned on him, but Harvey refuses to say. As Gordon leaves, Maroni is waiting for him and tells him where the Joker will be.
Harvey "Two-Face"
The Joker is in a warehouse with the huge pile of mob money and Lao tied up on top of it. The Joker soaks the money in gasoline and sets it on fire. Reese is on TV and is about to reveal Batman’s identity, when the Joker calls the TV station and says he’s had a change of heart. He says if Coleman Reese isn’t dead in an hour, he’ll destroy a hospital. Gordon orders the hospitals evacuated and goes to pick up Reese, while Bruce takes his Lamborghini to do what he can. Meanwhile, Alfred researches what police have family in the hospital, and sends a name to Gordon. The just happens to be the name of an officer accompanying him with Reese. The hospital, except for Harvey who’s under guard, has been evacuated, but the Joker, dressed as a nurse, takes out the guard and visits Harvey. He gives Harvey and gun and convinces him to induce chaos because its fair. Harvey flips his coin, which now has two distinct sides, to decide whether or not to kill the Joker. He lets him live. Meanwhile, Bruce uses his car to protect the police vehicle carrying Reese from being intentionally hit by a truck, playing dumb and saying he was trying to make a light. The Joker blows up Gotham General Hospital and drives off with a busload of 50 evacuated people.
The Joker's pile of mob money
The Joker releases a video that gives everyone in the city until nightfall to leave or play by his rules, and threatens the bridges and tunnels. Harvey goes after Wuertz (Ron Dean), the cop who turned on him, and asks who took Rachel. He says he doesn’t know, so Harvey flips his coin and according to the result, kills him. Batman shows Fox what his secret project was: a system that applies Fox’s sonar to every cellphone in Gotham, turning it into a microphone and letting him hear what is happening throughout the city. He enlists Fox to help him find the Joker, because he designed is so only Fox can use it. Fox says he’ll help this one time, but after this he’ll resign, because he can’t stay if the system does. Batman tells him when he’s done to type in his name.
Lucius Fox discovers Batman's surveillance system
With the bridges and tunnels threatened, the roads out of town are gridlocked, leaving only the ferries. Gordon tells the mayor he has to use a ferry to get the prisoners out of Gotham, despite all the civilians waiting, because whatever the Joker’s plans are, the prisoners are probably part of it.
Maroni finds Harvey waiting in his car. Harvey asks him who picked up Rachel, and he says it was Gordon’s partner Ramirez (Monique Gabriella Curnen). Harvey flips his coin, and Maroni lucks out, but Harvey flips it again and Maroni’s driver isn’t so lucky.
Two ferries depart Gotham, one with civilians and one with prisoners. Both lose power, and when the crew investigates they each find the engine room full of rigged barrels of diesel and ammonium nitrate and a box with a remote detonator. The Joker comes on the intercom and tells them that they’ll blow at midnight, but they each have the detonator for the other boat and if they blow up the others they’ll be spared. Batman and Fox overhear and track down the Joker to a skyscraper under construction and Batman tells Gordon where he is, while the people on both ferries discuss what to do, and Harvey has Ramirez set up Gordon’s family to be captured.
The ferries depart
Gordon and his men are set up with snipers to take out the Joker and his men. They can see men in clown masks with guns guarding hostages. They are easy targets, but Batman says it can’t be so easy. On the ferries, the civilians vote on what to do, while the prisoners argue with the guards. Batman says he needs five minutes to get the Joker and goes in. Gordon tells his men to give him two minutes. Gordon gets a call from his wife who says that Harvey has her and the kids. Harvey tells him that they are where Rachel died. Meanwhile, Batman, with the help of Fox’s sonar, discovers that the people in clown masks are hostages, bound with guns taped in their hands, and the SWAT team are walking into a trap. The civilians vote to blow up the other ferry, but the police officer in charge hesitates because the prisoners haven’t blown them up either. Batman manages to protect all the hostages and evade capture by the SWAT teams to reach the Joker. On the ferry of prisoners, one of the prisoners offers to set off the detonator, while on the civilian ferry, a passenger offers to do the same. Meanwhile Batman and the Joker battle while the police rescue the hostages. The guard gives up the detonator to the prisoner, who throws it out the window, while the civilian passenger can’t go through with it either. When the ferries don’t explode, Batman gets the upper hand on the Joker, throws him off the building and catches him with his cable. The Joker tells him that Batman won’t kill him because of his sense of self-righteousness, and the Joker won’t kill him because he’s too much fun, so they are destined to continue forever. Batman tells him that because neither ferry blew up the other, Gotham has proven it is full of people ready to believe in good. The Joker tells Batman about Harvey Dent and how he brought him down to his level. Batman leaves the Joker hanging off the building and goes after Harvey.
Batman's sonar vision
Gordon is at the site of Rachel’s death looking for Harvey, who ambushes him. Harvey blames him for working with corrupt cops to be able to fight the mob. He wants Gordon to feel his pain, and threatened the one he loves most, which he determines is his son. The police surround the building, but Gordon says they don’t know what the situation is or who is involved. Then Batman shows up and tells him the boy is innocent and he should only punish those responsible. Harvey points the gun at Batman, flips the coin and shoots, and at himself, but gets the opposite result. Then he points the gun at Gordon’s son and tells Gordon to lie to his son and tell him it will be all right, which Gordon does. When Harvey flips the coin, Batman tackles him, saving Gordon’s son but Harvey falls to his death.
Harvey Dent is dead
Batman tells Gordon that the public can’t know what Harvey Dent did, or everyone he had arrested will be released and the people will lose hope. Batman tells Gordon to blame the deaths of the people Harvey killed on him.
Batman decides to take the rap for Harvey Dent
The police go after Batman. Lucius Fox types his name into the surveillance system and it self-destructs. And, Harvey Dent is hailed as a hero.
Commissioner Gordon and his son watch Batman flee
My Review:
I thought it would be hard to equal Batman Begins, but The Dark Knight does it. The story and the acting make this movie an excellent sequel to Batman Begins. There is a lot going on in this film and it needs all of its 153 minutes to effectively tell this story. Where this film really shines is in the acting, though. The most notable performance is Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker as an insane anarchist criminal mastermind who is only interested in spreading chaos. Ledger’s darkly flamboyant Joker steals every scene he’s in and tends to overshadow Bale’s Batman, thought the two play well off each other when they get together. As excellent as Ledger is, I think his untimely death after this film took attention away from another excellent performance by Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. Perhaps this is because the character seems to be on the sidelines for much of the film, but at the end when he becomes Two-Face and the film focuses on him instead of The Joker, Eckhart really shines. Most of the cast returns from Batman Begins, including Cillian Murphy making a brief appearance as Scarecrow, and they all to another excellent job. A notable change was Maggie Gyllenhaal taking over for Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. I’m not entirely sure of the reason for this change. Gyllenhaal does a credible job, but I think I preferred Holmes, although this could simply be because of the change, and if Gyllenhaal had been in the first film and Holmes in the second I might prefer Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal doesn’t do a bad job. I didn’t really see any romantic chemistry between her and either Eckhart or Bale; she seems to be just a friendly colleague to the former and an old friend to the latter. I did think she seemed more credible as a prosecutor though. (One other casting note: Ron Dean has a small role as a corrupt cop; I remember him as the recurring character Detective Crumb from the TV series Early Edition) Gotham City is also different in this film. Wayne Tower is now a modern black skyscraper instead of the art deco building it was in the previous film, and there is no trace of The Narrows or the monorail train. The latter is particularly odd, since The Dark Knight was filmed in Chicago which has elevated trains that they could have shown in place of the monorail from the first film. I think The Dark Knight’s Gotham seems a little too generic and I would have preferred to see a cleaned-up version of Batman Begins’ Gotham with the monorail and the first Wayne Tower. There are a couple of plot points in The Dark Knight that don’t quite work. One involves the idea that Harvey Dent’s corruption would lead to the release of all the mobsters he arrested. I understand that revealing Harvey Dent’s downfall would demoralize the city, but the mobsters were still guilty; why would the fact that Harvey Dent also committed crimes affect the sentences of those he put away? A little more minor is Bruce Wayne’s ability to change into Batman in his penthouse. The Bat-suit was shown to be stored in the temporary Batcave, which Alfred drove to from the penthouse. And after Batman went out the window after Rachel, did The Joker give up on his search for Harvey Dent and leave? Another minor issue is the existence of the Batpod motorcycle as an escape vehicle from the Tumbler. As cool as the Batpod is, the Tumbler was designed as part of a military bridging system, so I doubt the Batpod would have been part of the Tumbler’s original design. Did Bruce Wayne anticipate the potential need for the Batpod and have Lucius Fox rebuild the Tumbler to include it? And this was easier than building a new Batmobile? These minor points don’t detract from the rest of the enjoyable plot. The twist about Gordon faking his death was a particularly brilliant plot device, and The Joker planning to be captured was another excellent twist. Visually this film is about as good as Batman Begins. It lacks the unique effects from Batman Begins for the hallucinogen’s effects and large colonies of bats, consisting instead of stunts, crashes and explosions, plus some high-tech effects for Lucius Fox’s cellphone sonar and Batman’s surveillance device. My personal favorite effect shows an 18-wheeler being flipped end-over-end. Makeup isn’t usually a major element in a film, but it is in this one. The Joker’s scars and haphazardly-applied clown makeup is very effective, and the Two-Face makeup is truly excellent, even if it was computer enhanced (I don’t know if it was or not.)
All-in-all, The Dark Knight is a worthy successor to Batman Begins and an excellent fim in its own right.
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