Trivia for
The Dark Knight (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

• After seeing his performance in Thank You for Smoking (2005), Christopher Nolan thought that Aaron Eckhart would be perfect for the role of District Attorney Harvey Dent. Nolan and Eckhart had almost worked together on Memento (2000) years before.
  
  
• As a joke, one bat suit was made with nipples, as in Batman & Robin (1997). It was presented to Christian Bale as the real bat suit, but he knew instantly it was a joke, having seen a few design pictures during preproduction. He did pose for some publicity photos in the "nipple" suit.
  
  
• This is the first Batman feature film that doesn't incorporate the word "Batman" in its title.
  
  

• The false title given to the film during production, "Rory's First Kiss", was named after Christopher Nolan's son, Rory.
  
  
• Despite endless speculation on which actor had been chosen to portray The Joker, Heath Ledger had always been Christopher Nolan's one and only choice for the role.
  
  
• When asked why he unexpectedly cast Heath Ledger as The Joker, Christopher Nolan simply replied, "Because he's fearless."
  
  
• Actor/musician Dwight Yoakam turned down two different roles in this film. One was for the part of Det. Wuertz (later played by Ron Dean), as well as the small part of the Gotham National Bank manager (portrayed by William Fichtner) featured at the very beginning.
  
  
• Even though Christopher Nolan offered her the part, Katie Holmes decided not to reprise her role as Rachel Dawes. Instead, she opted to co-star with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah in Mad Money (2008) that same year.
  
  
• Before Maggie Gyllenhaal officially stepped in for Katie Holmes, there was widespread, fan-based gossip that either Rachel McAdams or Emily Blunt would take over the role of Rachel Dawes.
  
  
• When filming began in April 2007, the production was code-named "Rory's First Kiss" to thwart onlookers and trespassers. All over downtown Chicago, fliers were posted with this pseudonym (alongside an "RFK" logo) and also listed the address for the film's production offices.
  
  
• One of the featured extra's military uniforms bears the name "Philo". This is a nod to Joan Philo, the Illinois-based casting director for extras.
  
  
• On Thanksgiving weekend, 2007, fake four-page tabloid-size "Gotham Times" newspapers were distributed at various public events. Headlined "City at War - Batman Saves Entire Family", every article teased events in the film, and everything in the handout was geared toward the film, including the weather ("Gloomy and overcast...") and advertisements for Gotham National Bank, the Gotham Girl Guides and recruitment for the Gotham Police Department.
  
  
• In preparation for his role as The Joker, Heath Ledger hid away in a motel room for about six weeks. During this extended stay of seclusion, Ledger delved deep into the psychology of the character. He devoted himself to developing The Joker's every tic, namely the voice and that sadistic-sounding laugh. Ledger's interpretation of The Joker's appearance was primarily based off of the chaotic, disheveled look of punk rocker Sid Vicious combined with the psychotic mannerisms of Malcolm McDowell's character, Alex De Large, from A Clockwork Orange (1971).
  
  
• Christopher Nolan and his co-writers, Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer, made the decision very early on not to explore The Joker's origins. This was so the character could be presented as an "absolute".
  
  
• A similar scene in Michael Mann's crime saga, Heat (1995), inspired this film's introductory bank robbery sequence. As a matter of fact, William Fichtner, who had a notable appearance in this scene, was also in Heat (1995).
  
  
• For the first time in feature filmmaking, IMAX cameras were utilized. Christopher Nolan had wanted to shoot in the IMAX format for years, thus using this film as his opportunity to do so. Six major action-heavy sequences, along with various high-altitude shots, were filmed on the IMAX ratio.
  
  
• Off-duty Chicago Police Officers along with Officers from Elyria OH, Hammond IN, Buffalo Grove IL and Joliet IL played Gotham Police officer extras.
  
  
• Elaborate, interactive marketing campaigns were launched in the months leading up to the release of this film. One of these was an event at the 2007 San Diego Comic-con called "Why So Serious", which involved fans following clues hidden around the city. The legions of Joker-painted fans ended up congregating in the street across from the convention center, where one of their numbers was welcomed into a black Escalade (with Gotham license plates) that had just pulled up. After a moment the fan started screaming and the SUV sped away. Later that day, a "Gotham City newspaper" was circulated reporting that a man believed to be the Joker was found beaten to death. Included were "crime scene photos" of the fan who had gotten into the Escalade, and a mention that he was found with a playing card in his hand, on which was scribbled "See you in December."
  
  
• The Gotham City license plates were directly modeled off of Illinois license plates.
  
  
• Heath Ledger's sudden death on January 22, 2008 prompted immediate speculation over the film's state. Soon after Ledger's tragic passing was announced, Warner Bros. Pictures issued a statement that verified that Ledger had finished all of his scenes in principal photography, as well as post-production fulfillments (i.e., looping), thus making The Joker his final, completed film role.
  
  
• It's Sir Michael Caine's opinion that Heath Ledger beat the odds and topped Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman (1989): "Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath's gone in a completely different direction to Jack, he's like a really scary psychopath. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture." Caine bases this belief on a scene where the Joker pays a visit to Bruce Wayne's penthouse. He'd never met Ledger before, so when Ledger arrived and performed he gave Caine such a fright he forgot his lines.
  
  
• Aaron Eckhart described his portrayal of Harvey Dent as simultaneously coming from and being apart from the same world as Batman (Dent is the white knight of Gotham, as opposed to the Dark Knight). His challenge was "looking for the similarities and the tension between the two; to find what's similar to Batman and then what's opposite to him." Eckhart prepared for his role by studying split personalities.
  
  
• Bruce Wayne develops and wears a new Batsuit in the film. This Batsuit was an improvement on the outfit from Batman Begins (2005), and made Christian Bale more comfortable and agile in his performance. It was constructed from 200 unique pieces of rubber, fibreglass, metallic mesh, and nylon (producing an impression of sophisticated technology), with elastic banding added for tightening the costume to fit Bale. The gauntlets had their razors made retractable and able to be fired. The suit's cowl was based on a motorcycle helmet and separated from the neck piece, allowing Bale to move his head left/right/up/down, and comes equipped with white eye lenses for when Batman turns on Bat-sonar.
  
  
• The Joker make-up was composed of three pieces of stamped silicone, which took less than an hour to apply to Heath Ledger on each day of shooting. Ledger described it as "new technology which is much quicker to apply than regular prosthetics"; he felt he was not wearing any make-up at all.
  
  
• Costume designer Lindy Hemming based the Joker's look around his personality, in which "he doesn't care about himself at all." Hemming was inspired by countercultural pop culture artists like Pete Doherty, Iggy Pop, and Sid Vicious. She avoided his design being vagrant, but made it scruffier and grungier, therefore making his movements slightly twitchier and edgier.
  
  
• An explosion was filmed at the Battersea Power Station in London. The fireball created calls from panic-stricken local residents, who assumed a terrorist attack had occurred at the out-of-use Station.
  
  
• Nestor Carbonell who plays the Mayor in The Dark Knight coincidentally also played "Bat Manuel", a parody of Batman, in the comic-based live action "The Tick" (2001) TV series.
  
  
• The Batman Comic Books "The Long Halloween", "The Killing Joke", "The Man Who Laughs" and the first two comics to feature the Joker character served as an influence on the film’s storyline.
  
  
• Jerry Robinson, one of the original creators of the Joker back in 1940, was hired as a consultant on the film (the Joker is to be portrayed according to his first two appearances in the comics, which Robinson was involved in). His "Batman" co-creator Bob Kane had earlier been hired as a consultant for Batman (1989).
  
  
• David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan collaborated on the story of the film. The script itself was written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. After watching The Dark Knight, Goyer stated "I can't believe my name is on a movie this good".
  
  
• Aaron Eckhart enjoyed wearing the Two-Face makeup and warned: "When you look at him, you should get sick to your stomach. It's like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid. There are fans on the Internet who have drawn versions of what they think it looks like, and I can tell you this: They're thinking small. Chris has gone way farther than people think."
  
  
• The "Batman" theme is heard only twice in the film, as Composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard decided that a heroic theme that a viewer could hum would ignore the complexity and darkness of the character. Hearing the tune only twice would create what Zimmer calls "a musical foreshadowing."
  
  
• Composer James Newton Howard composed an elegant and beautiful score for Harvey Dent, which would serve as a jarring contrast to Two-Face's persona.
  
  
• The actor who plays the older gentleman that confronts the Joker at the party thrown by Bruce Wayne for Harvey Dent is Vermont senior senator Patrick Leahy. Mr. Leahy is a huge Batman fan and arranged an early showing of the movie on July 12th as a fund-raiser for the children's section of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, Vermont, the state's capital. He has also appeared in Batman & Robin (1997) and on an episode of "Batman" (1992).
  
  
• This film currently holds the box-office record for the largest opening weekend of all time. It made $158,411,483 in its first weekend of release. Another superhero sequel, Spider-Man 3 (2007), formerly held that record the previous summer.
  
  
• Along with Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), this film reached the $100 million mark the fastest, in only two days. Since it had a larger opening day than those two blockbusters, it reached the milestone even sooner.
  
  
• With 4,366 locations, this film also holds the record for opening in the most venues on its release date. (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) opened in 4,362 movie houses the previous summer.)
  
  
• Set a weekend box-office record for IMAX venues with $6.2 mil. Former record holder was Spider-Man 3 (2007).
  
  
• When it was released on July 18, 2008, this film made $67.2 million in a single day, the most lucrative opening for any film. Because of its pent-up demand, midnight showings all over the country were sold out, resulting in $18.5 million in late-night showings alone.
  
  
• This film reached the $400 million mark after 43 days of release, which is less than half the time it took Shrek 2 (2004), the former record-holder, to reach.
  
  
• This film reached the $200 million mark in only 5 days, quickly achieving another box-office record.
  
  
• This film reached the $300 million mark in only 10 days, setting yet another record.
  
  
• The film was delivered to some theaters under the name "Oliver's Army".
  
  
• While filming both the bank and Police Department scenes at the Post Office, an unrelated fire broke out in a top floor mechanical room and many onlookers believed that the smoke and fire was related to the filming.
  
  
• Just as it was when filming Batman Begins (2005), director Christopher Nolan oversaw every shot himself as there was no second unit.
  
  
• Made more money than Batman Begins (2005) entire domestic run in only 6 days of release.
  
  
• Cameo: [Stuntman Buster Reeves] Christian Bale's main stunt double plays one of The Joker's thugs. He appears in the trailer of the Joker's semi-truck, as he hands The Joker his weapons as he fires them at the Police transport. He then rides in the passenger seat of the cab of the truck as The Joker drives.
  
  
• The nine-minute suite composed for the Joker is based around two notes, D and C. Interestingly enough, Batman's comic book company (who also produces the film) is DC Comics.
  
  
• The first film to be ranked #1 on the IMDb within two days of its theatrical release.
  
  
• Gotham City's civic heraldry combines elements of New York City's and Chicago's municipal emblems. Examples include Gotham-area license plates (based on Illinois tags found throughout Chicago) and Gotham's garbage trucks (whose door emblems directly quote New York City's old Sanitation Department logo: a large red sans-serif capital letter S atop a medical caduceus, all within a circle with a text border).
  
  
• Takes place a year after Batman Begins (2005) ended.
  
  
• Holds the record for reaching the $500 million mark the fastest, after 45 days. The former record holder was Titanic (1997) (98 days).
  
  
• Despite the PG-13 rating, blood is only ever seen twice on-screen (on the face of the civilian batman the joker hangs) and on Batman's arm due to the dog attacking him; most of the violence either occur off-screen or is obscured by camera angles.
  
  
• The Joker's distinctive tongue flip grew out of Heath Ledger's own habit of running his tongue over the edges of his prosthetic make-up.
  
  
• The 70mm IMAX prints of the film each consisted of 45 reels, which once assembled, were roughly 9.5 miles long and weighed 450 pounds.
  
  
• One of four films released in 2008 (and the only one still running in theaters when the voting took place) to be on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008). The other three are Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Cloverfield (2008) and WALL·E (2008).
  
  
• There is a reference to _The Usual Suspects (1995)_, where a box bearing the label 'Kaiser Soze' (sic) can be seen in Harvey Dent's office, during Jim Gordon's meeting with Dent at the start of the film.
  
  
• Voted #15 on Empire magazine's '500 Greatest Movies Of All Time' (September 2008).
  
  
• The Joker's mask during the initial bank robbery is almost exactly the same as the mask worn by Romero when hijacking a performance of Pagliacci in the TV series episode _"Batman" The Joker Is Wild (1966)_.
  
  
• Shortly before the film's DVD debut, Warner Brothers were under legal action by the city of Batman, Turkey (pronounced "bot-min") in November 2008. Even though it wasn't used in the title, the character name of Batman was considered an infringement.
  
  
• Other actors under consideration for the coveted role of Harvey Dent - pending Aaron Eckhart's availability - were Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, and Josh Lucas.
  
  

• SPOILER: The film uses numerous elements of the Joker's first appearance in "Batman" #1, published in 1940. In both "The Dark Knight" and "Batman" #1, the Joker publicly announces his crimes before committing them, removes his make-up and disguises himself as a police officer to gain access to a person he threatened to kill, uses a powerful bomb smuggled into jail to escape, steals and kills not for personal gain but simply to create chaos and disorder, and infringes upon the city's old-fashioned mobsters.
  
  
• SPOILER: There are many elements from various Batman graphic novels, either verbatim or slightly recast. In "The Long Halloween" Batman, Gordon, and Dent fake Dent's death. In "The Dark Knight", Gordon's death is faked. Also in "The Long Halloween", Batman poses as a SWAT officer. In the movie, Gordon does. The Joker's reference at the end of the film to "pushing Dent over the edge" mirrors his "social experiment" with Gordon in "The Killing Joke", in which The Joker attempts to drive Gordon insane by making him have "a really bad day". A lot of the interaction between Batman and The Joker is taken from "The Long Halloween", specifically the interrogation scene in the film. It's reminiscent of the end of "The Long Halloween" and also is similar to elements of "The Dark Knight Returns". Finally, the copycat Batmen are clearly inspired by The Sons of The Batman from "The Dark Knight Returns". In addition, in "The Killing Joke" the Joker explains if he "had a past, it would be multiple choice". This is referenced when the Joker tells two different stories about the origin of his scars.
  
  
• SPOILER: Heath Ledger improvised when he started clapping inside his jail cell in a mocking and sardonic capacity as Gordon is promoted. The clapping was not scripted but Christopher Nolan immediately encouraged the crew to continue filming and the sequence was included in the film.
  
  
• SPOILER: Body count: 36
  
  
• SPOILER: Early in the film, a witness on stand pulls a gun out on Harvey Dent (Two-Face) during the trial and tries to shoot him. This is a nod towards Two-Face's original origin story in the comics where in a similar trial scenario, crime boss Sal Maroni is on stand and throws sulfuric acid in Dent's face resulting in his scarring.
  
  
• SPOILER: Christian Bale stated in an interview that during the interrogation scene, Heath Ledger wanted him to beat him as hard as he could to get the real feeling of what was required from the scene.
  
  
• SPOILER: After his transformation, Two-Face flips his coin eight times. It comes up on the "good" side six times for the Joker, Sal Maroni, Detective Ramirez, Dent himself, Gordon's son (Though Two-Face didn't catch that one) and the "bad" side three times, for Detective Wuertz and Maroni's driver and Batman.
  
  

Related Links