Jeremy’s Tophunder №7: The Dark Knight

9 min readApr 10, 2020

I saw The Dark Knight on opening night, at midnight. I was at the Boston Common Loews’ Theater. I know exactly who I was with.

The memory of seeing The Dark Knight for the first time is seared into my brain. I left the theater thinking that they could not possibly have made a better movie.

The summer of 2008 was an interesting time. I was one full year removed from high school, so I was in that in-between period of trying to hold onto high school friends as best I could, while also branching out to new college friends and ditching the lame-o’s from high school that I never really got along with in the first place. My friends from high school and I would go to a lot of movies. We saw Iron man. We saw Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (on purpose). We saw You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. We saw The Incredible Hulk. We saw Wanted. We saw Hancock. We went to these movies because we were 18–19 years old and we couldn’t go to bars yet, but we also went to the movies, every week, without fail, because we wanted to see trailers for The Dark Knight.

That’s right — we could have just gone to YouTube and looked them up, but instead we paid $12.50 (plus popcorn and a soda) in the hopes of seeing a trailer on a 60-foot screen.

The Dark Knight, without a doubt, is the movie I looked forward to the most in my entire life. I loved Batman Begins, I loved Christopher Nolan, and then obviously, following the news of Heath Ledger’s passing, I was reading all of the buzz about his performance. I went into the movie with ridiculously high expectations, and somehow the movie still blew them away.

It’s incredible from the opening scene. The Joker’s introduction is fantastic, and William Fichtner as the bank manager (an homage to Heat) is a nice touch. Aaron Eckhart steps in and wins two of his first three scenes (the courtroom and dinner with Bruce and Rachel), and having Harvey Dent in the movie certainly makes it feel bigger. Gary Oldman goes to a whole new level; he might be the best performance in the movie other than Ledger. That might sound strange in a movie with Christian Bale (four-time Oscar nominee with one win), Morgan Freeman (five-time Oscar nominee with one win), and Michael Caine (six-time Oscar nominee with two wins), but Oldman is incredible in just about every scene he’s in, particularly the first meeting between Gordon and Dent, and the last 10 minutes or so of the movie.

Maggie Gyllenhaal stepped for Katie Holmes and was actually an improvement, I thought. I usually get vaguely annoyed when movies replace actors of known characters within the same series. It happened here and in the Marvel franchise — with Katie Holmes and Terrence Howard — it seems like in both cases, the actors were offered less money than they received for the previous film, and ended up turning down the role. Like, these movies print money. You can’t pony up a few more dollars to keep the cast together? It always bothers me. But somehow here I actually think it’s okay. Gyllenhaal is just a better actor than Katie Holmes is.

Ledger, though, steals the movie. A lot has been said and written about Ledger’s performance over the last 12 years, but even so, I’m not quite sure it goes far enough. He’s magnificent. Among movies I’ve written about in this space so far, the only performance that compares is Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. And, if we’re being honest, there are only a handful of comparable ones left on my list that we haven’t gotten to yet. It’s among the upper echelon of performances I’ve ever seen in my life. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Batman is my favorite superhero of all time, and the Joker is my favorite villain of all time. They’re perfect foils for each other. Some interpretations of the universe have Batman and Joker as the absolute antithesis of each other. Some interpretations have them as the two opposite sides of the same coin. And some of them depict them as if Batman could become the Joker on his worst day. The Dark Knight almost blends all three of those ideas together. The scene in the interrogation room depicts this well — the Joker says, “don’t talk like one of them, you’re not, even if you’d like to be. To them you’re just a freak. Like me.” When Batman loses his temper, you can start to see him taking steps down that path the Joker wants him to take so much. The Joker’s ultimate goal is to prove that anyone can turn into someone like him — a psychopathic killer. If he can provoke Batman to kill him, that’s the single greatest outcome for the Joker.

The music that Hans Zimmer produced for the Joker is perfect. It’s hard to even call it music — it starts with just a single dissonant, uncomfortable note that hangs for almost a full minute. If you listen to the track, it encapsulates the character perfectly. It’s unsettling, unpredictable, occasionally aggressive, but for the most part, just seems content to sit in an eerie holding pattern, keeping you on edge.

There’s one more Joker scene that I want to talk about here. It’s his final one. After Batman manages to thwart his plan (or at least it seems so at first), he gives a monologue about how he and Batman are, again, seemingly opposites, but actually perhaps just two sides of the same coin. In the middle of his monologue, he says “I think you and I are destined to do this forever.” This is the line I want to talk about.

I’m sure Christopher Nolan would deny this publicly, but from my chair, it seems pretty clear that they were planning on bringing The Joker back for the next Batman movie. Tragically, Ledger’s passing forced them to change their plans. Ledger’s performance was too singularly spectacular to replace him with another actor, so they opted to retire the character instead.

But what if Ledger hadn’t died?

What if there was a fourth movie in the series, in between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises?

If you haven’t thought much about it, don’t worry, I have:

On the one-year anniversary of the Joker’s capture and Harvey Dent’s death, Bruce Wayne attends a fundraiser for Mayor Anthony Garcia, where he is introduced to Arkham Asylum Superintendent Dr. Leonard Gray (Laurence Fishburn) and the psychologist assigned to the Joker’s caseload, Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Isla Fisher). There is a growing consensus among Gotham’s cultural elite that Batman and the Joker were actually working together to kill Dent — the only person who knows better is Commissioner Jim Gordon, who can’t set the record straight publicly. Batman continues to try to combat organized crime and government corruption in Gotham, but is actively pursued by police whenever he surfaces.
In Arkham Asylum, Quinzel works closely with the Joker, who appears to be on the verge of a breakthrough. Gray, meanwhile, outwardly appears congenial, and works productively in concert with Gordon, but behind closed doors, he is abusive towards his most high-profile patients (especially the Joker), and makes inappropriate comments and advances towards Quinzel and other female staff.
At Wayne Enterprises, Oswald Chester (Andy Serkis) has revived Lucius Fox’s old department — Applied Sciences — and developed new elite weapons and technology for government contracts. Wayne and Fox, disapproving of the mass-production direction that Chester has taken the department, fire Chester, cancel the contracts, and close Applied Sciences. Chester becomes enraged and steals several shipments of weapons and munitions, and begins selling them on the black market.
The Joker manipulates Dr. Quinzel into believing that Dr. Gray will murder him and other patients, but because of his close relationship with Gordon, the police won’t act until it’s too late. The Joker tells her the only way to protect the patients is to kill Dr. Gray preemptively. Quinzel, who is falling in love with the Joker, finally accepts one of Gray’s social invitations, after which they return to his office and Quinzel strangles him to death. She then releases the Joker and several members of his gang.
Batman surfaces again to pursue the Joker, while Gotham PD is split between pursuing one or the other, with many assuming that the Joker has fled the city.
Chester, now operating under the alias “Penguin,” begins dealing with the Joker and Quinzel, now going by the name Harley Quinn. Chester, having worked in Applied Sciences, has deduced that Wayne Enterprises was supplying Batman (but not necessarily that Batman is Wayne). He hopes that the Joker will use Wayne-produced weapons to wreak havoc on Gotham, tarnishing Wayne Enterprise’s reputation permanently.
Meanwhile, Gotham Times reporter Matt Clark (Charlie Day) begins investigating Gray’s murder and the breakout at Arkham. It remains unclear whether Gray’s murder preceded the breakout, or if the escaped prisoners were responsible. He also investigates the disappearance of Quinzel, who has not been seen since that night.
Quinn, growing closer with the Joker, and hearing him recount stories of his encounters with Batman, recalls an exchange she had with Wayne at the Mayor’s fundraiser, and realizes that Wayne might be Batman. She discusses this idea with Chester, who shares his evidence that Wayne Enterprises was supplying Batman’s materials.
The Joker kidnaps Clark to draw Batman out. Batman rescues Clark but the Joker escapes, and Batman is then surrounded by Gotham PD and captured. Meanwhile, Quinn and Chester kidnap Fox, and bring him to Wayne Manor, where they also take Alfred hostage. Alfred sends a distress signal to Batman, who remains in police custody, but whose identity has not yet been revealed. Batman tells Gordon he knows the Joker’s location, and Gordon helps Batman escape.
Gordon and Batman go to Wayne Manor, where the Joker, Harley Quinn, and the Penguin have fortified the compound with the Penguin’s weapons. Gotham police, pursuing Batman, follow them there. A shootout erupts between Gotham PD and the Joker/Penguin gang, injuring Gordon and killing the Penguin. Batman overpowers the Joker and rescues Alfred and Fox, who are each injured but otherwise in stable condition.
Batman escapes into the Batcave, which remains undiscovered by Gotham PD. The Joker and Quinn are captured and sent to Arkham. Both claim that Wayne is Batman, but Wayne, Alfred, and Fox falsify Wayne Enterprises documents that show that Wayne was out of the country on company business during the events of the previous weeks. Gordon surmises that the Joker and Penguin attacked Wayne Manor as part of Chester’s plot for revenge against Wayne Enterprises and the Wayne family.
Gordon re-builds the Bat Symbol and turns it on. Batman arrives, and is about to reveal his identity to Gordon, who interrupts him, preferring to maintain plausible deniability.

How’s that? Does that work?

Anyway, The Dark Knight, was, at one point in my life, my favorite movie. If I were making this list in 2008, The Dark Knight would claim the top spot. I think I saw in three times in theaters within the first week. I could not get enough. Now that I’ve seen it four or five hundred times, I start to see a few flaws. In the scene on the roof of Major Crimes with Batman, Gordon, and Dent, there are a few pauses in the dialogue that feel a bit awkward. It might have been too easy for the Joker to convince Dent to introduce a little anarchy. The cell phone surveillance piece is a little shoe-horned in. Like, they’re all very small complaints, but they’re still valid. It’s not my favorite movie anymore, but it’s still damn close to the top of the list.

(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)

Here’s our progress on the list so far:

6. The Fugitive

7. The Dark Knight

9. Saving Private Ryan

11. The Big Short

13. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

17. Ocean’s 11

22. Remember The Titans

24. Apollo 13

27. All The President’s Men

30. The Lion King