Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy revolutionized Batman on the big screen after critical and box office failures of the mid-late 90s. The trilogy is celebrated by fans to this day, setting the new standard of quality for the superhero in movies and creating particularly memorable scenes.
Taking the Caped Crusader to darker, grittier roots in modern-day filmmaking was a recipe for making such sequences that stay with audiences. The Dark Knight (2008) undoubtedly comes to most fans' minds first when it comes to this, but Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) had their fair share of gripping scenes that will surely have expectations high come the release of The Batman next year and the universe it'll create.
The Docks (Batman Begins)
The trilogy opener Batman Begins started things strong, using loving inspiration of the Year One origin story comic as a foundation. One of those influences was making one of Bruce Waynes' first appearances as Batman as haunting and cathartic as possible. The Dark Knight finally and directly sets his sights on Falcone in the scene at the docks, using his newfound mastery over fear to pick off his thugs.
The scene captures the gripping tension of seeing what it's like being a criminal hunted down by what seems to be a mythic creature of the night. Keeping that perspective and using only brief shots of Batman using stealth and then erratic shots of him fighting multiple gangsters himself brilliantly established the atmosphere.
Interrogating Scarecrow (Batman Begins)
Fear was an overall major theme for Batman Begins, as it should be to properly tell the origins of Bruce becoming Batman. That made Scarecrow an excellent choice as one of the supervillains from his rogues' gallery to play an important part. Crane develops a toxin and lures Rachel Dawes into Arkham Asylum, poisoning her to keep her from knowing too much.
When Batman makes his way into the asylum and takes out Scarecrow's henchman, he gives the doctor a dose of his own medicine. That scene gave one of the most horrifying shots in a superhero movie, with Crane hallucinating a grotesque, monstrous Bat-creature while Batman interrogates him. It was a fitting scene as well, and the effects and voice distortion expertly brought home the terror in Crane's mind.
Saving Rachel (Batman Begins)
In that same overall sequence in Arkham Asylum, Batman takes Rachel and, with the help of his new alliance with James Gordon, escape the asylum to get her to safety before her mind is irreparably damaged. On his way out with her, he has to evade the horde of SWAT officers coming in to apprehend Batman.
This scene also was a special nod to Year One, as in the comic he had to escape an abandoned building that was being swarmed by officers before attempting to blow it up, and used a sonar device to call countless bats to distract them. The escape coupled with Batman racing Rachel to the cave in the Batmobile was both thrilling and nerve-wracking in the best possible ways.
Joker Interrogation (The Dark Knight)
The interrogation scene with Batman and Joker–perhaps his greatest supervillain to date–can be argued as the most iconic scene in the trilogy overall, and for good reason. Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance was at its peak here, feeding masterfully off Christian Bale's Batman. The cast of protagonists seemingly apprehend the Joker, but are unsettled by how simple it seemed.
Plus, it turns out both Harvey and Rachel are missing. The tension in the air of that scene was palpable, with Batman's "bad cop" surprise appearance and the Clown Prince of Crime's constant goading making things all the more pulse-pounding. Once the interrogation starts to get out of hand, the scene begins feeling incredibly visceral.
Saving Harvey & Rachel (The Dark Knight)
Immediately following Joker's interrogation was the mad, desperate dash to rescue both Harvey Dent and Rachel in a cunning and calculated plot by the villain. The Clown was hoping to get caught and time this and the explosion at the GCPD just right, knowing the chaos that would ensue by taking down Gotham's "White Knight."
Batman says he's going for Rachel so that Gordon would go for Harvey, only for their positions to be swapped and Dent hating his former friends for saving him instead. It was an overall superb way to pace this overall sequence, following up one engrossing scene with another.
Stopping Two-Face (The Dark Knight)
Once Harvey went through his fall from grace into the unhinged Two-Face, it added another tense dynamic for the cast of heroes to deal with. His Long Halloween-inspired descent into madness and revenge-driven hit list served as a great buildup for the finale of the movie.
Two-Face mercilessly holding Gordon and his entire family at gunpoint, threatening and tormenting him with who he should "stand trial" first was excruciating. When Batman enters the scene with him and Gordon trying to talk him down, resulting in the last-gasp tackle to save James Jr. but resulting in Harvey's death felt like a bomb defused with a second left on the clock.
Batman Vs. Bane Round 1 (The Dark Knight Rises)
The Dark Knight Rises did well in feeling like a proper "event" movie to cap off this revered trilogy and took inspiration from a great collection of comics. The premise was an amalgamation of Knightfall with Bane, The Dark Knight Returns, and No Man's Land for the "dystopian" Gotham City setting. If a movie is influenced by Knightfall, there's no way the shocking and iconic "broken Bat" scene could be left out.
The first fight between Batman and Bane was crushing to watch while keeping audiences at the edge. Batman was able to even land a few solid hits, but how little it did to Bane was terrifying, with the latter toying with him before completely dismantling the Bat. Hans Zimmer made an excellent score for the trilogy, but this fight was elevated further by being in silence aside from the two characters.
The Climb (The Dark Knight Rises)
As a result of his near-permanent dismantling at the hands of Bane, Bruce is thrown into the same pit that he was imprisoned in. The pit was a new interpretation of the "Lazarus Pit" from the comics when Ra's was involved, allowing for some well-executed metaphors. Bruce spent five months trapped there recovering from his spinal injury, trying and failing to escape the pit that, allegedly, only one child years before was able to do.
While his prior fight was emphasized with no background score, Zimmer's music in this scene coupled with the chanting prisoners made Bruce's final–and life-or-death–attempt to make the climb all the more euphoric when he succeeds, resulting in what was one of Batman's greatest comeback stories across every medium.
Dumping The Atom Bomb (The Dark Knight Rises)
While Bruce was recuperating and making his way back to Gotham over the better part of half a year, Bane already had the city in a vice grip with everyone suffering. Batman's grand return along with the cast of heroes' race to disarm the atom bomb peaked with the realization that actually disarming it was now impossible.
The only thing left was for Batman himself to hook it up to "the Bat" and fly it into the harbor to detonate away from the city. Once again, Zimmer's score transitioning from panic to solemn clarity when it appears the Dark Knight will go down with the blast helped this scene resonate even more.