Act 3: Batman The Dark Knight

ACT THREE

At dawn, Alfred reads Rachel’s letter, in which she openly states her choice to marry Harvey Dent. She voices her doubt that Bruce will ever give up being Batman, and even if he does, makes it clear she will only ever be his friend. The letter is heartfelt and poignant to hear having just seen her death. This footage is intercut with Batman going over the wreckage and finding Harvey’s two-headed coin near Rachel’s body. He sneaks into Dent’s hospital room and leaves it with him. Back at the penthouse, Bruce mopes in silence, guilt-ridden with all that has happened. Has creating Batman ultimately killed his beloved? Alfred tries to cheer him up and stresses that Gotham still needs him right now. Rachel’s death ultimately motivates Bruce to continue his fight, and thus Alfred quickly snatches up Rachel’s letter from view. Bruce, believing that Rachel would really have chosen him once he retired from being Batman, decides that Dent must never know this shattering truth, ironically making the same decision that Alfred is making for him. Meanwhile, Dent awakens in his hospital room and finds the coin beside him. Despite Batman meaning well in returning it to him, seeing its scared side ends up being a painful reminder of her fate. Soon Gordon comes to visit him and learns Dent has refused skin grafts and is choosing to remain in his deformed state [In reality, immediate surgery would be needed for Dent to still be alive and under no circumstances would he be able to speak as clearly as he does or make certain facial expressions, but hey, this is a comic book movie]. Gordon is unsure whether or not Wuertz is a traitor and has no idea who it was who picked up Rachel [Okay, seriously? No one on the force noticed how Rachel left the station? There’s no record of it at all?] but Dent is bitter and insane and has no interest in helping him. He also embraces his nickname “Two-Face” and luaghs at the poetic irony that his “two-faced-ness” is now open for the world to see. Upon leaving the room, Gordon encounters the handicapped Maroni who, knowing things have gone too far, offers to turn in the Joker. Now that he has Lau, the Joker finds where the money has been hidden over at the docks. He takes his half and prepares to meet with the Chechen. True, his original deal was to kill Batman, but given that he knows where the money is, he has the power to negotiate a new deal. In any case, the Chechen doesn’t seem to mind Batman still being alive as capturing Lau and incapacitating Dent has been good enough of a favor. However, the Joker berates the Chechen for caring only about money, and thus burns his half of the money, in the process murdering Lau, and takes the Chechen captive. When the Chechen states that his men will not work for a freak, the Joker makes a great analogy by feeding him to his own dogs, stating “See what loyalty a hungry dog has.” And so, with his original clients disposed of, the Joker has now inherited their muscle and is the most powerful man in Gotham.

Meanwhile, Coleman Reese has agreed to appear on Gotham Tonight to publically reveal the identity of Batman in a much hyped interview [If Reese had been smart, he would simply have tipped the media off anonymously in exchange for a large sum and gotten out of Gotham. True, the Joker might have caught him anyway, but it certainly would have been better than appearing on a major television show with a lot of hype]. The Joker calls the show during a live promotional interview and, contrary to his previous demand, now states that he wants Batman to continue his campaign, and so puts out a public bounty for Reese’s life, or else a major hospital will explode. This call ends up diverting Gordon and his unit, who were in fact about to lead a SWAT team to capture the Joker. Pandemonium ensues as citizens on all sides try to kill Reese, proving that people are indeed uncivilized once the chips are down. Gordon escorts Reese into a cruiser, but not before being fired at. Meanwhile, Bruce speeds down in his Lamborghini, correctly assessing that the men in Gordon’s unit who have family members in hospitals may not be trusted. This is in fact the case with the officer sitting across from Reese. As Gordon asks him for his gun, he begins to panic. At just the right moment, Bruce drives his Lamborghini in front of another driver and would-be assassin, thus simultaneously saving Reese from two separate attempts. Gordon thanks the seemingly-hapless Bruce who has no idea what’s going on. This scene is a nice reminder that, despite all the time they have spent chatting together, Gordon really has no idea who Batman’s secret identity is. Reese comes out of the car and recognizes his savior. Interestingly, we never see Reese again in the film, but given that he was aware Bruce Wayne saved him, he most likely abandoned his attempt to expose him.

The Joker doesn’t really care about Reese, but is just using the threat in order to have the hospital evacuated so he can see his next target. He enters Dent’s room wearing a nurse’s outfit, and lets him loose. Being in drag gives the Joker a certain effeminate charm, aided again by the lack of his usual gloves. The Joker manages to win over Dent in a seduction worthy of Richard III or even, to continue the Biblical theme, the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Despite Dent’s rage, the Joker states that life is meaningless and without rules; no matter how much we plan it, we all live or die arbitrarily. This makes sense to Dent; after all, Rachel’s death has been senseless, and despite all his efforts to bring order to Gotham, he has been the victim of chance. And so it is that THE DARK KNIGHT becomes a tragedy and Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, an offspring of the Joker, a “Joker Jr.,” or even a “Dent-Conquered-By-Joker.” But whereas the Joker is militantly evil and inflicts chaos on everyone, Two-Face is more amoral. Now that his two-headed coin does in fact reveal two very different “faces,” he flips it for every victim, giving everyone the same 50-50 chance of life or death. This seems fair; isn’t it the same chance any of us ultimately have? He points his gun at the Joker and flips. At this point, the film cuts away to the Reese plotline and by the time it cuts back, we only see the Joker exiting the room and washing his hands. Did something more happen that we didn’t see? It does seem odd to believe that Two-Face would just allow the Joker to leave, even if the coin came up clean. Perhaps the Joker has had to do something else to him, which is why he is washing his hands. Then again, the screenplay doesn’t reveal anything more nor mention the hand-washing, so perhaps it was improvised. The Joker exits the building and, as promised, blows up the hospital behind him before driving off in a bus filled with patients who were being evacuated. He gets away with fifty hostages, including reporter Engel.

Two-Face somehow has the time to get dressed in a suit and tie and then begins his revenge. He first confronts Wuertz at a bar, who claims it’s his day off [Has he been fired? Pretty much everyone on the force should’ve figured out by now he is a traitor. The fact he was Dent’s driver the previous evening is pretty much the smoking gun]. Wuertz doesn’t know who the other traitor is, so Two-Face simply flips his coin and murders him. By chance. He next goes after Maroni, knocking out his bodyguard before entering his limo. Maroni, visibly frightened, admits that the other traitor was Ramirez. Two-Face then flips his coin and despite it coming up clean, he flips again for the driver and shoots him, indirectly also killing Maroni [It certainly is interested how these sequence of events have played out opposite the comics. The traditional story is that Sal Maroni is the character responsible for Dent’s disfigurement. In this version, it’s the Joker and men on Maroni’s payroll who’ve been responsible. Maroni himself is only partially responsible and even shows remorse. In any case, his death is the final nail in the coffin of the Gotham mob. They are now no more]. Finally, Two-Face traces Ramirez and forces her to call Gordon’s family and lure them out to the spot Rachel died. Ramirez insists that her betrayal was to raise money for her mother’s medical bills, but Two-Face doesn’t care. He flips his coin, it comes up clean, and so he just punches her out.

[By now it’s becoming clear that Two-Face isn’t exactly playing fair. Even though the coin toss came up clean for Maroni, he still flipped again for the driver, who had nothing to do with anything. Presumably, flipping for the driver was just an excuse to indirectly kill Maroni anyway. Likewise, the coin has come up clean for Ramirez, but he still punches her out. We don’t know what happened with the Joker but presumably it came up clean again. If something more happened, it might explain why he was washing his hands].

Meanwhile, the Joker announces to Gotham via video footage of the captured Engel that he is taking over the city and anyone still there by that evening will be playing by his rules. He also threatens anyone who takes the bridge and tunnel. Fox finally learns what Batman’s government project is: using the sonar technology he has turned every single cell-phone into a map of the city, and can monitor all calls. Fox is alarmed by how unethical this is, and despite Batman’s arguments, claims that he will resign after helping out this one time [Again, despite some critics feeling the film has a conservative agenda, Batman’s “need” for wire-tapping is balanced by Fox’s adamant disapproval and the fact that the Joker later seems to want Batman to come to him anyway. Interesting how in the film SE7EN, Morgan Freeman‘s character gave a speech defending similar Patiot Act practices]. With pandemonium having broken out, highways backed up, and the bridge and tunnel not considered an option due to the threat, citizens are forced to evacuate by ferries and Gordon insists that Gotham’s prisoners be evacuated as well as they would be dangerous to get stuck with, which is a bit of a contrived reason but it works as a plot device. That evening, a ferry filled with inmates and a ferry filled with civilians are both crossing the river when they lose power and discover that there are explosives on board, along with the detonator for the other boat. The Joker’s voice comes on the speakers and announces his latest moral dilemma: at midnight he will blow up both boats, but will spare one of them should that boat choose to blow up the other first [How could the Joker possibly have planned for inmates being shipped out when we saw Gordon make this decision only hours ago?]. The passengers on both boats debate what to do; the citizens, though hesitant, feel it makes no sense for them to die when the prisoners are murderers and thieves; yet if they go through with it, wouldn’t they then be guilty of the greatest crime of all? The prisoners are not directly given a choice, but it’s clear that the guards and ferrymen with them are scared of dying as well. Besides, if the inmates were blamed for detonating the other boat, it’s not like they would have anything to lose. Both sides become increasingly more terrified as they figure the other side will choose first.

Thanks to the wire-tapping, Batman has traced the Joker to the Prewitt Building and so rushes just in time find Gordon leading a SWAT team on the building, where they already have clear shots on doctors and patients being held hostage by goons in clown masks. By now Batman has figured out that there is always a twist when it comes to the Joker, and so insists on going in alone first. Sure enough, he finds that the “doctors” and “patients” are in fact the goons while the real hostages are in the ones in the clown masks. This puts Batman in the difficult position of having to battle with not only the goons but the SWAT team members as they begin to raid the building. In what is probably the most “comic book-ish” sequence of the film, Batman is able to single-handedly take them all out, while led by Fox’s instructions to find the Joker in the penthouse. Batman eventually reaches the top floor and survives an attack of the Chechen’s dogs before fighting the Joker himself who pins him down in time for the fireworks. Yet Batman has strong faith that there “won’t be any fireworks,” and his optimism in the human race appears to be rewarded. Neither boat ends up going through with it; despite the citizens voting to blow up the prisoners, no one is willing to do it, not even the man who volunteers for it. The warden on the prisoners’ ferry is hesitant, until a large tattooed prisoner offers to do the right thing…and he stuns everyone by throwing the detonator out the window [Some criticized the film as racist for its portrayal of this character as a stereotyped prison thug, and the fact that he does the right thing ends up making him a more realistic John Coffey from THE GREEN MILE]. The Joker is in shock that Gotham has not gone through with his social experiment; it is the first time we truly see him defeated. The scene calls to mind his earlier comment to Gordon; now it is the Joker who sees how alone he truly is. Before the Joker can begin to blow up the ferries himself, Batman shoots him with his scallop blades and fights back, sending the Joker falling to what would likely be his doom [This was exactly how Jack Nicholson’s Joker met his end]. Yet Batman saves him with his grapple. Caught, the Joker laughs and further cements the notion that he is Batman’s doppelganger. The two of them are forces who cannot kill each other and thus will be locked in conflict for all eternity. The Joker, like Satan, is an evil that exists eternally and wants Gotham’s soul. He now reveals to Batman his final scheme: that he has corrupted Harvey Dent. Learning the truth, Batman leaves, just as the SWAT team finally arrive and capture the Joker.

[The Joker does seem to exit the film a bit abruptly. This led to a lot of Internet rumors and speculation that perhaps more closure had been planned for the character but had been affected by Heath Ledger’s death, and that the Two-Face plotline was “tacked on” to the end of the film to make up for this. In truth, production on the film wrapped a full four months before Ledger’s death, and the film’s screenplay matches the final cut very well. No, the Joker’s plotline was intended to end with his capture, leaving him to be sent presumably to Arkham Asylum, where he will continue to be an existing evil force in Gotham. Evil is surmountable, but never truly vanquished. THE DARK KNIGHT chooses to climax not with a typical hero vs. villain comic book fight, as BATMAN BEGINS did, but by focusing on Harvey Dent’s soul, which has been its true focus from the start].

Gordon, having been informed by Two-Face that his family is being held hostage, arrives at the spot where Rachel was killed. Two-Face quickly overpowers him and blames him for having kept crooked cops like Wuertz and Ramirez in his unit. Gordon tries to reason that he only did this to close in on the mob. This revelation implies that even Gordon has fallen prey to “seeing himself become the villain.” His efforts to eradicate the mob, a just cause, caused him to have to, like Caesar, do immoral things like work with those on Maroni’s payroll…and Dent is the one who’s paid for it. Two-Face threatens to kill the family member Gordon loves most, eventually deciding on his son, when Batman arrives. Batman gives Two-Face the opposing message that the Joker did: it isn’t blind chance that kills people but the results of others. Rachel death, though tragic, occured as a result of the good deeds that the three of them were doing and furthermore it is specifically because Dent was the best of them that the Joker went after him so strongly. The irony is that here, at the end of this tragic tale, it would seem that our heroes have succeeded: Gotham’s mob is no more and the Joker has been caught and temporarily stopped, and yet our heroes stand dealing with what they have had to pay to get here. Two-Face flips his coin and shoots Batman, then flips for himself, and then finally prepares to take Gordon’s son, when Batman rises from the dead (just like Jesus, folks. It’s Bat-Christ!) and knocks Two-Face off the edge of building, simultaneously rescuing Gordon’s son and disarming Two-Face. Gordon rejoins Batman and both look at the corpse: Two-Face is dead.

[Two-Face’s short lifespan of only one day confused and annoyed many critics of the film, but within the context of this version of the character, it really works best. To have this version of Two-Face living on for further adventures would not have been successful, in my humble opinion, as his goals were fairly immediate. The truth is, Harvey Dent is much more interesting than Two-Face, and the story of an idealistic district attorney falling to tragedy, which is what most of this film is about, is more compelling than the story of a super-villain doing evil crimes, which is perhaps what most people were expecting and what the Two-Face of Batman Forever gave us. Furthermore, the narrative worked in a unique way that makes Two-Face the direct offspring of the Joker, and so the story is able to work as a stand-alone tale.]

So, I ask you, has the Joker won? It would seem that he was right in his assertion that the best of men may be corrupted. Even though the citizens of Gotham did not resort to killing Coleman Reese, it’s clear that he would’ve been had Bruce not interfered. The passengers on the ferry did not kill each other, but only just barely. And now, Two-Face may be taken care of and Gordon’s family has been saved, but regardless, nothing can change the fact that Harvey Dent, the most beloved man in Gotham, was corrupted and committed several murders. Ultimately, it would appear to be a tie; Batman has won overall, but the Joker has partially won, and there is no one clear victor. Once the word of Dent’s crimes gets out, the people of Gotham will be demoralized at losing their White Knight, and all the men he locked away will be able to get appeals. It’s impossible to pin these crimes on the Joker, who is already in custody, and it would be against Batman’s ethics to blame them on anyone else. There is only one other option left.

Batman must die for Harvey Dent’s sins.

Batman offers to take the blame for the murders. Him and Dent are “swapping identities” in a sense so that Dent can be seen as a hero and be made into a martyr for the sake of Gotham City while Batman will be the one who became corrupted. Dent, like Caesar, ended up “becoming the villain.” Now, through this plan, it will be Batman who ironically “becomes the villain” in the minds of Gotham. Gordon takes on the role of an Apostle as he stands in awe of the sacrifice this Saviour is making, but as Batman explains, he made himself a hero when it was what Gotham needed to believe in good, and now Gotham needs him to be a villain so that they can believe in Dent. He explains that sometimes people need to be lied to when the truth isn’t good enough; this line is played over footage of Alfred burning Rachel’s note. Just as Batman wants Gotham to believe for their own good that Dent was a hero, Alfred wants him to believe that Rachel really loved him, as this belief is what motivates his heroism. His final line, “sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded,” is played over Fox putting the sonar machine on self-destruct, and restoring his own faith in the Batman campaign. Batman runs off as the police chase after him, as if he were a common criminal. Through a slightly unnecessary and admittedly corny final exchange, Gordon explains to his son his admiration for this hero, giving a monologue that suggests he’s talking more to the audience than to his boy. He refers to Batman as “the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs.” This is an inverse of what we see he will later say at Dent’s funeral, implying that Dent is the hero needed, and Batman is the one deserved. He finally concludes that, echoing Alfred’s earlier comment, what Batman does is beyond heroism. Batman is the guardian who must be persecuted and outcast by the very people he is defending. To be persecuted and an outcast is the price Batman must pay for justice to be served.

Harvey Dent could be a legitimate hero and a White Knight.

Batman, riding off on his Bat-Pod, is a Dark Knight.