The year 2008 saw the release of The Dark Knight, a superhero movie so vigorously beloved that it crossed the rare threshold of being venerated not only as a comic book adaptation, but as a movie in its own right.
During its theatrical run it grossed over one billion dollars worldwide, with more than half of the box office intake being generated domestically.
It was not just adored by movie goers, though. Critics heaped endless praise upon almost every aspect of the two and a half hour epic, giving particular focus to Heath Ledger's spine tingling interpretation of the Joker.
By the end of the year it topped many "best of" lists and garnered eight Academy Award Nominations, winning two of them.
For all of the meticulous planning its director, Christopher Nolan, is known for, there are quite a few things about this particular work that don't add up. This is not talking about flaws or bad moments, but instead parts that flat out do not make sense.
The pacing zooms along like a bullet so these inconsistencies are not noticeable during early viewings, but closer inspection makes them stick out like a masked vigilante in a bustling metropolis.
None of what is about to be presented is meant to say that the movie is bad or even overrated, however.
All movies have nonsensical elements if looked at with enough scrutiny, and The Dark Knight's themes still hold up even after considering these points. If anything, the extent to which people have combed over this movie shows how intensely people adore it.
With that said, here are the 25 Things About The Dark Knight That Make No Sense.
Bruce Disappears, Batman Shows Up, No One Notices
In the first half of the movie, the Joker crashes a fundraiser at Bruce Wayne's penthouse, prompting Bruce to slip into something more comfortable (i.e., the Bat suit).
The caped crusader accesses a secret door leading to the bat cave, and is seen by a couple who were engaging in some private time. They think the billionaire is simply entering a panic room, but they fail to put two and two together once Batman shows up to ruin the Joker's fun.
Heirs have a reputation of not being too bright, but it's hard to believe that anybody is so shortsighted that they wouldn't notice Bruce disappearing.
It's hard to image that anyone would not to make the connection between Batman and Bruce at that moment.
Harvey Dent's Lax Security
Pre-Two Face Harvey Dent is known for being tough on crime and also having no fear of it.
With this being said, one has to have common sense when their life is in direct danger. Once it is well established that Harvey is a target after a failed assassination attempt in a court room, authorities do not do much extra to ensure his safety.
He walks out in public unprotected, even participating in a parade that police are certain will come under attack.
Perhaps they knew that he would have to be kidnapped in order to drive the plot forward.
The Opening Bank Robbery
The Dark Knight opens with an elaborate robbery of a mob controlled bank. The Joker set it up so that his accomplices take each other out, leaving only him with all the money.
This is far fetched enough, but to top it off, he has one of the goons eliminate the other by having him stand by the entrance as a school bus backs up into it.
It is admittedly an awesome moment, but how was the joker to know the bus was going to crash through at that moment?
Sneaking Barrels Of Explosives Onto Two Ferries
The climax of the movie involves a small social experiment that the Joker sets up for Gotham's citizens using two ferries and explosives.
He threatens to blow up both boats by midnight, but will spare one boat if it decides to blow up the other.
It's a fantastic and thrilling set up, but it begs the question: how did he sneak dozens of barrels filled with gasoline onto the boats and how did no one notice them before disembarking?
Like many of the Joker's plan, the answer is "don't worry about it."
Getting A Fingerprint From A Bullet Hole
Along with being a vigilante, Batman also possesses detective skills that would make Horatio Caine blush.
During the movie, Bruce Wayne manages to not only reconstruct a bullet from a hole found at a crime scene, but is even able to get a fingerprint off of the remade bullet.
This, again, all from a single bullet hole. This unbelievable technology is exactly something one would expect to find in a CSI series, not in the Dark Knight trilogy that prides itself on realism.
What's more is that the fingerprint is not the Joker's, meaning that he had to have known that Batman was capable of doing this.
How The Joker Ended Up In The Police Station?
After a botched attempted kidnapping of Harvey Dent, The Joker finds himself in a police station where it is then revealed to be all a part of his plan.
He meant to get captured in order to be face to face with Batman and he knew the two corrupt cops working for him would kidnap Harvey and Rachael.
Not only this, but he also had an escape plan from the prison as well involving a specific criminal being in a certain cell.
Audiences are somehow supposed to believe that even his errors were all a part of the grand scheme of things.
Where Does The Joker Get His Money?
It's known where Joker gets some of his money from, namely after taking out the leader of a crime family and getting all of those resources, but prior to that, how does he finance any of his endeavors?
Does the simple promise of cash make the goons in the opening robbery compliant?
Wouldn't they have known that the bank is mob controlled and therefore reluctant to take the job?
It's shown that the villain has no care for money, so how does he earn it and pay for all of his expensive schemes?
The Cellphone Bomb
It is hard enough to believe that it was the Joker's intention from the beginning to get caught and end up in the police station.
His escape plan, on the other hand, stretches suspension of disbelief past the breaking point.
To get out of custody, the Joker plants an inmate with a cell phone bomb sewn into his stomach. When the bomb goes off, everyone in the precinct but the super villain is incapacitated.
How did he know where and when the blast was going to be and how not to be harmed by it?
Gordon Faking His Demise
As chaos descends on the crowd, a shot is taken at Gotham's Mayor but Commissioner Gordon takes the bullet for him.
All but a select group of people believed that this shot was fatal, but it turns out he faked it to protect his family.
That's fine and all, but why was he there during the attempted kidnapping and how was he in the perfect spot to save Batman in time?
Additionally, how did he to take the bullet in the first place? Faking one's end is not something one simply does on the spot.
Why Do The Cops Get Startled At The Memorial?
At the memorial for Gotham's late police commissioner, the Joker ties up several officers at a vantage point and rigs a curtain to draw up at a precise moment in order to startle the police into shooting.
Bruce Wayne happens to be there, but the Joker could not have possibly known that he would be standing at the window at that second.
Police on security detail are given extremely intense briefings and those officers should have known that there were officers stationed there.
It does not make sense for them to shoot at a location that they know officers are stationed at.
All Of The Joker's Plans Happen To Work
So much of the movie's tension and drama stems from how its villain is such an unstoppable force.
However, really, why do all of his schemes work, especially when so many of them rely on luck and knowing how people will act in certain situations?
For somebody so intent on reigning anarchy on the world, the Joker sure does have an orderly and precise method of going about it.
If, throughout the whole movie, one of his assumptions was wrong, his whole scheme would have immediately fallen apart. However, these countless variables just happened to swing in his favor.
Harvey Dent Steals An Ambulance, Nobody Notices
After the attempt on the Mayor's life, Harvey Dent takes one of the suspects and interrogates him. It's a gripping scene that teases the attorney's dark side before he is fully engulfed by it.
What does not make sense, though, is that he steals an ambulance from the scene of a crime and nobody notices.
An important figure, a suspect, and a medical emergency vehicle vanish in a crowded area and not a single eyebrow is raised.
The medics working there see him on the vehicle, so there is no way they do not immediately suspect Dent of commandeering a municipal vehicle.
Gotham Gets A Makeover
In Batman Begins, Gotham city looks like a metropolis out of a comic book. There is the futuristic rail system, Arkham Asylum, and so much steam it could be confused with an online gaming distribution platform.
In The Dark Knight, all of this is done away with and replaced by a very real looking city that resembles Chicago.
The change is welcome since it adds to the realism, but it still does not make sense in the continuity.
What's more is that the city changes once again in the third installment to resemble New York City.
Batman Uses WayneTech, Nobody Cares
All of Batman's technology comes from WayneTech. While many of the gadgets that he utilizes are still in their prototype phases, they are still known to those within the company.
Why then, does nobody take notice of this throughout the three movies?
The only person who does catch on is Coleman Reese, but there are many more people who would have access to the WayneTech blue prints and should be able to make the connection between the technology and the caped vigilante.
For example, any of the scientists who actually developed the technological marvels should recognize their creations being used to tear up the Gotham streets.
Why Does The Joker Look The Way He Does?
It is one of the most iconic looks of any character in any medium, but no one asks the question: why, precisely, does the Joker look the way he does?
Audiences accept the look in the movie because of its cultural significance, but the question is never brought up or answered in the movie itself.
One could argue that the look strikes fear into the hearts of his victims, but he does not need the outfit to scare people since his heinous actions do more than enough to terrify people already.
The Joker's Nurse Disguise
When the iconic villain is preparing to blow up a hospital and has a face to face with Harvey Dent, he is able to maneuver his way through the place undetected by dressing up as a nurse.
His nurse outfit, however, is based on an archaic design that no modern hospital uses.
Additionally, he is still donned in his white face paint and bright red lipstick.
Even if he did not have his makeup on, the Joker is already known by the public at this point and his scars should have be recognizable to anybody paying attention to the news.
Sneaking A Gun Into A Courtroom
Near the start of the movie a mobster makes a half baked attempt on Harvey Dent's life by brandishing a gun while on the witness stand.
Harvey quickly reacts and disarms the baddie and looks extremely cool in the process. Anybody who has ever been in a courthouse, though, can attest to the high security surrounding them.
Sneaking in a dangerous weapon would be nearly impossible. In a major city during a high profile court case, security measures would most likely be heightened even further.
We shutter to think just where the goon hid the gun in order to sneak it past the guards.
The SWAT Team
During the final encounter between Batman and the Joker, the antagonist has the genius plan of disguising hostages as bad guys and vice versa.
To accomplish this, he tapes weapons to the hands of the captives and puts masks on them. As smart as this is, there is no way a SWAT team should be fooled by this after closer inspection of the situation.
They even show the view of the hostages through a sniper's scope and any viewer can see the tape if they look carefully enough.
Once the cops break into the building, they should also be able to recognize the actual baddies disguised as innocent captives.
The Joker Unrecognized By Hundreds Of Cops
The Joker, along with several of his accomplices, manage to sneak into the memorial for the late police commissioner in order to make an attempt on the Mayor's life.
There is just about the entire Gotham Police Department there, but not a single one is alerted by the presence of a police officer with unseemly scars across his mouth.
Maybe none of them want to be the one to call attention to an officer's injury if they are wrong about their hunch and the policeman really does just have bad marks on his face, but it seems too coincidental.
The Coleman Reese Problem
Coleman Reese undoubtedly knows who Batman is, but ultimately decides not to reveal this information after saving his life.
However, he definitely would reveal his identity after the movie's conclusion when the caped crusader becomes a wanted fugitive.
As the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises tells audiences, however, Batman's real identity is still a secret.
Even if Coleman did not come forward in the name of justice, one would think that he would at least turn his knowledge into profit with a tell-all book or an enticing television interview.