Trailer
Plot summary
Harvey Dent has been elected Gotham's district attorney, and his agenda is aimed at taking down the city's organized crime families. Batman, the vigilante whose true identity is the billionaire Bruce Wayne, and police lieutenant Jim Gordon ally with Dent, and Wayne publicly backs him as the protector Gotham needs, a role that would let Wayne retire as Batman and pursue Rachel Dawes, his childhood friend, who is with Dent. The mob bosses meet to discuss how to protect their organizations from Batman, the police and a criminal mastermind known as the Joker. Their accountant, Lau, has concealed their fortune and fled to Hong Kong to avoid extradition, and the Joker offers to kill Batman for a share of it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Dark Knight (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ledger's posthumous Best Supporting Actor awards from the Academy, BAFTA, and Golden Globes made The Dark Knight the first comic-book film to receive major acting awards.
- After The Dark Knight was denied a Best Picture nomination, the backlash led the Academy to increase the Best Picture nominee limit from five to ten for the 82nd Academy Awards, a change known as "The Dark Knight Rule".
- Ledger's casting as the Joker in August 2006 drew criticism from industry professionals and the public, but executive producer Charles Roven said Ledger was the only person seriously considered for the role.
- The Dark Knight was the first major motion picture to use IMAX technology, which was generally employed for documentaries; the finished film includes 15-20% IMAX footage, running about 28 minutes.
- Ledger's work was completed before his death, so Nolan did not modify the Joker's narrative; the film includes a dedication to Ledger and stuntman Conway Wickliffe, who died rehearsing a Tumbler stunt.
- Zimmer tried to build the Joker's theme from a single note but could not make it work, so he used two notes with alternating tempos and a punk influence.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes because Holmes chose to star in the crime comedy Mad Money (2008) instead.
- After scouts spent over a month failing to find suitable vessels, construction coordinator Joe Ondrejko's team built ferry facades atop barges; the Gotham Harbor ferry sequence was filmed in one day with 800 extras.
