The Joker gets one in almost every scene he's in, but possibly the best is his redefining Eye Scream for a new generation: "How about a magic trick?"
The mob bank manager gets one when the Joker and his clowns storm the bank at the beginning of the film. While everyone is screaming in panic, he calmly takes off his glasses and blasts Chuckles in the back with a sawed-off shotgun without even getting out of his seat. He then proceeds to walk through the bank, firing at the Joker and Grumpy, and even when he's completely at his mercy, he still defies him. Granted he was most likely trained by the Mob, but it's still more badass than you'd expect from the average person.
"Do you have any idea who you're stealing from?! You and your friends are dead!!"
A small scene in the film's beginning shows a criminal being too afraid to join his partner upon glancing at the Bat-Signal. It's a small little moment, but it perfectly captures what Batman is all about: scaring the crap out of criminals.
Crane gets one in his cameo, when his meeting with the Mob is interrupted by some Batman impostors with guns. He's the only one to stay calm, simply saying, "That's not him." Then, a Batman impostor sneaks up on him with a gun, and he effortlessly turns around and gasses the guy. Then, point goes back to the good guys when the real Batman turns up. ("...That's more like it.")
Harvey Dent's first scene, where he's questioning a witness during Sal Maroni's trial. The witness (a hired gun) pulls out a pistol and aims at Harvey, the gun jams, and Harvey responds by quickly grabbing the gun and giving him a right cross. And then calmly tells Maroni (who hired the hitman) that he really should have bought an American gun instead of a Chinese one. And then protesting when the judge orders the man taken away... because he hasn't finished his cross-examination. Appropriately, the crowd cheers.
Harvey Dent: Carbon fiber. .28 Caliber, made in China. If you want to kill a public servant, Mr. Maroni, I recommend you buy American.
The scene where the Joker introduces himself to the mob. Lau is confident that his funds are protected from the police, and it seems like they're one step ahead of the police. However, Joker just shuts everyone up, saying that even if the police have no jurisdiction in Hong Kong, Batman doesn't care, since he operates outside the law. In a way, it serves as an awesome moment for both Batman and the Joker.
The entirety of the Hong Kong sequence, but especially how Batman gets Lau away from the authorities.
The concept of the explosives gun. Batman has to time the charges perfectly. As in; as he's sitting up on the tower he's thinking to himself "Hmmm... I've got to fly down there, beat up some goons, and scare whatever's inside of those guys out the nearest orifice available. Should take me two and a half minutes tops. Yeah, that sounds right."
A subtle moment, but after Batman fights his way through the office, he has a stare down with the Hong Kong police that lasts several seconds. Meaning that Batman gave himself the bare minimum amount of time to accomplish his task and still got done sooner than he expected.
Brian Douglas, the doomed Batman impostor captured by the Joker and executed on camera, gets one for standing up to the most viciously insane villain in the franchise's history, despite being completely scared out of his wits:
Douglas: [Batman]'s a symbol that we don't have to be afraid of scum like you!
After Joker's Suddenly Shouting moment where he demands Douglas to look at him, he does. Managing to stop whimpering and look at him with utter disgust. He may have died not long after, but it was another subtle middle finger to the clown.
Bruce Wayne (not Batman, Bruce Wayne) casually taking out a henchman while on his way to grab his Batsuit: by striking him with his fists, grabbing his shotgun, knocking the guy out, then disassembling the gun and lackadaisically discarding it, all without breaking stride.
Another point where Bruce Wayne gets a rare moment of badassery as Bruce Wayne is when he offers to throw a fundraiser for Harvey Dent's upcoming reelection campaign and when Dent tries to downplay it Bruce quietly explains "No, you don't understand. One fundraiser with my pals, and you'll never need another cent." In that moment he might not be a martial arts master, flawless detective, loaded to the gills with a bunch of exotic weapons... but proves that a multi-billionaire can be a pretty strong force for good as well.
When the Joker and his men crash the Harvey Dent benefit, the Joker fires his shotgun into the air to get everyone's attention. All of the guests visibly flinch back - except for Alfred.
Senator Patrick Leahy's cameo is awesome in several ways. First, it's the third time the Senator (who is a huge Batman fan) has cameoed in a Batman production (previously in the animated series and Batman & Robin) and secondly, his cameo in this film has his character standing up to The Joker and living to tell the tale. Pretty badass for a bit part.
Earlier in the movie at the dinner party when Joker threatening Rachel.
The Joker: [You got] a little fight in you. I like that. Batman: Then you're gonna love me! (PUNCH)
Batman interrogating Maroni. Holding Maroni over a railing only a few stories up, Maroni smugly chuckles and mocks his intimidation method, stating that dropping him from that height wouldn't kill him. Batman's response? "I'm counting on it." He then drops him, feet down. Indeed, it doesn't kill him, but he certainly wishes it did. Naturally, he starts talking immediately after.
In the press conference, Aaron Eckhart pulls out all the stops as Harvey Dent. First, he tries to rationalize with the (understandably) frightened citizens of Gotham to keep Batman from turning himself in. What does he do when he realizes that it doesn't work? He pulls an awesome I Am Spartacus move and proclaims "I'm the Batman"...all so Batman would have a chance to capture the Joker.
For the car chase of this film: the Joker, armed with a garbage truck, a semi truck worded "(S)LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE", many henchmen, some shotguns, and a bazooka, is trying to kill Harvey Dent, who's in a fleeing armored car. After the truck punts an entire SWAT team's transporter into the river, Batman finally shows up in the Tumbler rocketing towards the carnage from the opposite side. The armored car sees the Tumbler approaching at high speed, and both are driving 70 mph at the least, they're about to collide head on...and then, obviously in a planned move, the driver swerves to the other lane at the very last possible second so that the Tumbler rams into the many-ton garbage truck, flattening the truck's cab against the ceiling, then turns around, and without a single visible scratch on it goes after the Joker. The Joker is loading up another missile to fire at Dent, Batman turns on the booster and the Tumbler rockets into the air and takes the entire blast of the missile. The Joker was magnificent, but the Tumbler transcends the mortal limit of badass.
One word: Batpod. Its intro scene sure seems tragic (the Tumbler self-destructing after being wrecked to hell by intercepting the Joker's rocket-grenade) then becomes purely awesome when the Batpod emerges and goes on to take down the Joker in an awesome way.
In this corner, an 18-wheel truck driven by a bat-shit crazy clown and his goons, armed with a Type-94 rocket launcher, who's already managed to dump one SWAT truck in the Chicago River and has taken down a SWAT helicopter. And in this corner, the Batpod, an iddy-biddy motorcycle detached from the destroyed Batmobile. Who wins? The Batpod; as it flips the 18-freakin'-wheeler on its back with just towing cables. Seriously, you couldn't hear the movie for a full 10 minutes because people went coconuts cheering.
Even more awesome: that was all a practical effect; no CGI, no miniatures. They put up a giant air piston on LaSalle Street and used that to flip the truck over. An impossible stunt? Oh, yes. But that doesn't make it any less breathtaking a stunt for the Dark Knight to pull off.
The Joker daring Batman to kill him by shooting an automatic rifle at him and everything around him with a machine gun while the hero is barreling down on him with the Batpod.
James Gordon faking his own death to draw out the Joker and then saving Batman when the Joker had him pinned by posing as a SWAT officer to get the job of driver.
"We've got you, you son of a bitch."
And then when he goes to see his son afterward, both a Moment of Awesome and a Heartwarming Moment:
Son: Did Batman save you, Daddy? Gordon: Actually, this time... I saved him. *both smile*
Batman's entrance in the Joker interrogation scene is a Moment of Awesome, just for being so very much a Batman-like thing to do. Bonus point on Batman at one point being so damned pissed that he makes Gordon rush almost in a panicked fashion to the interrogation room thinking the Bat will kill the Joker.
Stephens gets one when the Joker manages to take him hostage and threatens to kill him. Aware that he's given the Joker some leverage, he bellows at the other cops to shoot him and the Joker anyway.
Batman has been in a berserk rage ever since the Joker brought up Rachel, and yet even when he bursts into the room to rescue Rachel, only to find that it's actually Harvey, he hesitates for a moment but still maintains the presence of mind to get Dent out of the building in time to save Dent's life.
All of Michael Caine's Alfred badass moments appear to center around fire or heat, from the above-mentioned ones, to his "Some men just want to watch the world burn" to "You can tell me the Russian for 'apply your own bloody sun-tan lotion!'" to "We burned the forest down."
Lucius Fox is confronted by Coleman Reese, who has discovered Tumbler blueprints and wants money. "Let Me Get This Straight.... You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands... and your... "plan"... is to blackmail this person?... Good luck." Absolutely owned, just like that.
Just look at Morgan Freeman's face before he delivers the line, while the sleaze ball's making his demands. You can see Lucius preparing to verbally bitch slap him a full half minute before he even speaks. Awesome.
Later Reese tries to go public with Bruce's identity anyway and Joker puts out a hit on him to shut him up, putting the entire city after him with threat of blowing up a random hospital. Despite this, Bruce still heads out to save the man. He even manages to do so without putting on the cowl by intercepting a car trying to take Reese out. The look that Bruce and Reese share as he's taken away lets it really sink in for Reese that Bruce is truly a heroic man and he has colossally fucked up by trying to expose him.
Two-Face has one when confronting one of Gordon's cops, Wuertz.
Wuertz: Dent...Jesus, I-I thought you was dead! Two-Face: "Half."
He has a VERY frightening look as he says it, and just to hit the point home he drinks some liquor and some of it leaks from his scarred face. Talk about evoking the power of Two-Face in a single word.
Wuertz: "I swear to God, I didn't know what they were gonna do to you!" Two-Face:(shows coin) "That's funny." (spins it) "Because I don't know what's gonna happen to you either." (the coin stops and falls...and comes up bad)
Two-Face gets another one while confronting Maroni:
Two-Face:[flips coin, which comes up good] You're a lucky man. [flips it again, but it comes up bad] But he's not. Maroni: Who? Two-Face:[fastens seatbelt] Your driver. [shoots the driver in the back, sending the car flying off the road]
Lucius Fox develops a sonar detection device for Batman to use in capturing Lau, and Batman later scales it up into a citywide grid to find the Joker.
It's echolocation. He's working for BATman after all.
Probably even better is when Lucius calls him out on weaponizing his invention. Lucius agrees to help use it this one time, but threatens to resign if it stays in operation after that. Batman tells him to type in his name whenever he wants to go. Lucius does just that after the Joker has been caught, triggering the entire grid to self-destruct — something he'd had no idea Batman would do. The thought of Batman being ready to give up so much power when he's done with it (and the money that went into building the grid) makes Lucius smile quietly as he walks away and persuades him to keep trusting Batman and stay on at Wayne Enterprises.
The fact that both The Dark Knight and Batman Forever had moments where Batman's eyes become white (like they are in the cartoons and comics) is really awesome.
The ferry scene is a moment that is even more awesome in its simplicity. In a completely silent room full of hardened criminals, Ginty walks up to the warden holding the remote detonator that would blow up the civilian ferry.
Ginty:(whispering) You don't want to die, but you don't know how to take a life. Give it to me. These men will kill you, and take it anyway. Give it to me. You can tell them I took it by force. Give it to me... and I'll do what you shoulda did ten minutes ago.
The warden silently hands over the remote, fully expecting that Ginty will use it...and instead he throws it out the window and into the river. After almost two hours of the Joker's Humans Are Bastards rants without any real refute, it was a very nice and stealthy shut up to the clown and his nihilistic philosophy.
What happens afterwards? Ginty goes back to his seat and bows his head in prayer, and a crowd of prisoners soon joins him. All without raising his voice above a whisper. BAD. ASS.
The same scene is nearly repeated on the civilian ferry, whose passengers have just taken a majority vote in favor of blowing up the prisoners. One man declares that he'll set it off since no one else is willing to do it. He walks over, picks up the remote... and after several tense moments, wherein they realize that the other boat hasn't blown them up yet, he puts it back in its box with trembling fingers and sits down.
It's all in the way the man talks himself up, pointing out how the criminals in the other boat have made bad choices and are paying for them, and it makes no sense for good, honest citizens to die for them. But with his fingers on the key, he just doesn't have it in him to murder a boatload of his fellow human beings in cold blood. Even when logic tells him it's better to take life, human decency wins out and says "No."
Notably, the Joker previously encouraged Harvey to "introduce a little anarchy". The civilians took a democratic vote and voted by a margin of 256 people to blow up the other boat... and then no one actually blows up the boat. In that moment, the people rejected democracy, embraced anarchy, and used that to flip the Joker's philosophy against him!
And the Joker's reaction is perfect, too. After a movie of watching him carry out all of his twisted plans with a self-satisfied assuredness that people will fall in line, his expression is one of understated, genuine confusion. His belief has gone unjustified, in this one crucial moment. The Joker doesn't know what to do.
And capping it off is Batman laying the bitter, brutal truth out to the Joker:
At that moment, it didn't matter if the Joker lived or died, or if he had succeeded in corrupting Harvey Dent. The Joker lost. And it wasn't Batman or the Gotham City Police Department that beat him, but the ordinary people of Gotham.
This is because the Joker understands how to deconstruct megalomania (Dent, Batman, the Mob), but ordinary people escape him.
This moment also shows Batman's greatest strength over the Joker; his ability to believe in the good in people. When he said there weren't going to be any explosions, he knew it because that's just how much faith he has.
Batman manages to take on both the Joker's disguised goons and the Gotham PD SWAT team at the same time and defeats all of them without a single person dying. If there's anything in this film that should be a Signature Scene for interpretations of Batman who refuse to kill or let die by negligence it'd be this.
Batman, when he is being pinned down by the knife-wielding Joker on the top of an unfinished skyscraper. When the Joker asks if he knows how he (the Joker) got his scars (a running theme through the movie), Batman calmly replies, "No. But I know how you got these." before shooting the blades in his gauntlet into the Joker, knocking him off the building.
What makes this line even better is Batman's delivery. He raises his voice near the end, shouting as much as he can with that raspy voice, making the line sound fittingly triumphant for Batman's epic and ultimately non-violent takedown of the Joker.
Batman turning himself into a wanted fugitive who the police will be forced to catch, all to completely defy the Joker and defend Harvey's memory. And it's accompanied by a montage and a speech which will forever be among the most awesome scenes in the Nolanverse:
Sometimes... the truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes... people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
The final scene where, as Batman rides away running from the police, Gordon beautifully explains to his son AND the audience why Batman is such a great hero. It emphasizes how badass the character is but also how selfless he is. It's a perfect way to end one of the greatest comic adaptations of all time.
He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... A Dark Knight.
Posthumously given to Heath Ledger, every time he said a line in his Joker voice. What a role to be remembered by.
In terms of his performance, Heath Ledger's Moment of Awesome comes from his laugh. It's so completely, chillingly insane (starting off as a low, rasping giggle, before bursting out in insane laughter) that it truly captures the essence of the Joker.
It's also a Shout-Out. It's the same laugh as Cesar Romero's version of the Joker.
Also in the eyes. Heath Ledger's eyes without makeup appear very small. With the Joker makeup and surrounded by black area they pop out more.
"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you... *Dramatic Unmask* ....stranger."
Made so much more chilling by the very subtle alteration on Ledger's voice just as he says that last word, giving it an understated Evil Sounds Deep effect.
"How 'bout a magic trick? I'm going to make this pencil disappear... TA-DA! It's...Bah, it's gone...!"
Note: Lau is on the pile of money when the Joker burns it. "I'm only burning my half."
"Let's not blow... this out of proportion". Primarily due to Heath Ledger's astounding feat of somehow making such a bad pun sound genuinely threatening.
Especially since Batman villains are notorious for making really bad puns. It's a callback to sillier, campier times, but this time it's terrifying.
Okay, Batman has just flipped over Joker's truck and is now speeding right toward him. Anyone else would just run away screaming. But Joker? He takes a machine gun, starts walking toward the speeding Batpod, and dares Batman to "HIT ME!" In other words, Joker plays a Game of Chicken with the Batpod! And he WINS!
After Batman doesn't hit him with the Batpod, very quickly, he says "fuck." Blink and you'd miss it.
The Joker goes in nurse drag to push Harvey Dent off the edge before blowing the hospital to smithereens as he walks out. And when only half the bombs go off, he furiously smacks the detonator until the other half finally goes and obliterates the rest of the hospital.
The Joker is blasting away at the armored car carrying Harvey Dent with increasingly larger guns. After the Joker rakes the side of the truck with a machine pistol, then all the cartridges in a shotgun, Dent asks the SWAT officer riding in the back with him if the truck is designed to take bullet hits like that. The officer remarks that he'll need something a lot bigger than that. On cue, the Joker pulls out a rocket launcher.
A really subtle but totally awesome Moment of Awesome? Obstructing the freeway with a burning fire truck. Irony, thy name is Joker.
Similarly, the Harvey Dent campaign sticker he wears on the blouse of his nurse's uniform.
Following Batman slamming his head into a table by lecturing him that it will only lessen any other pain he tries to inflict. Batman immediately gives a bone-crushing punch to the Joker's hand on the table, only for him to not even flinch and say "See?"
Made all the more impressive when you consider that Heath Ledger told Christian Bale to actually beat him up.
When Gambol asks him if he thought he could just take their money, and he just says "yeah". So casually awesome.
One moment that really does, without question, convince any viewer that the Joker is truly insane? He gives Harvey his pistol, has him point it at his head, and lets Harvey flip his coin to choose whether he lives or dies. In other words, the Joker is perfectly willing to die to prove his point and ruin Harvey. And he laughs while doing this.
But if Harvey had killed him, it would have accomplished his goal either way: to ruin Gotham's White Knight.
Which just goes to prove that the Joker's claim to not have a plan might not have been so true after all...
It is worth pointing out that Joker keeps his finger on the hammer of the gun; even if Harvey decides to kill him, Joker will still walk out alive.
When he tries to trick Stephens in the interrogation room into trying to beat the shit out of him so he can escape, and the cop basically says he's not going to fall for his bullshit... and then he pisses the cop off enough to convince him to try and beat the shit out of him anyway.
Which, of course, is exactly what he was hoping expectingpatientlywaitingfor...
The Joker's last appearance when he is falling to his apparent death, and is laughing hysterically all the way down, believing that Batman killing him has proven him right about how he would need to break his one rule meaning that the Joker wins. When Batman then saves him, he then laughs all the harder overjoyed at having a foe who is truly incorruptible, who he can fight forever. He then mocks Batman with how he was able to corrupt Harvey Dent, the "true soul of Gotham". Really shows that the Joker is a no-win situation kind of guy.
The Joker WON. Even with his arrest, he ensured that Batman will break his one rule by killing Harvey Dent, fulfilling his promise as a man of his words in the end, back in the interrogation room.
The performance by Heath Ledger has been mentioned but it extends beyond that. Let's be honest, NOBODY thought this would work. Nobody expected Ledger to deliver anything even half as good as what we got. The casting choice raised so many eyebrows due to just how strange and unusual it was. Hell, Ledger himself admitted that, if it was him, he'd not have cast himself either! Then Ledger shocked everyone by giving not only the best performance in the series, but arguably the greatest performance in the history of comic book movies. He. Is.The Joker.
And you know the MOST awesome thing about it? One of the reasons nobody thought this would work was because this was such a radical reinterpretation of the Joker. The Joker is one of the most iconic villains in comic book history and while there have been several different takes on him (Cesar Romero's, Jack Nicholson's, Mark Hamill's, and more recently Jared Leto's) this one strayed the furthest from the original concept- his skin wasn't stained by chemicals, he wasn't wacky and gimmicky, he was more of a terrorist than a criminal, he didn't like being called insane or a freak. And yet, Heath Ledger's all-new version of the Joker instantly became arguably one of the MOST iconic, recognizable and awesome of all. It redefined The Joker. It was just that good.
While Heath Ledger is a total show-stealer with his Joker, Aaron Eckhartnails it as Harvey Dent. He does a decent job at Harvey alone, but it's when he becomes Two-Face that the real good stuff comes in. Eckhart does most of his lines in a Soft-Spoken Sadist/Suddenly Shouting tone, capturing the pure mental horror that was done to Harvey perfectly. But the most glorious part would have to be his final scene - every damn line he says, he gives it his all, sounding truly like an emotionally tormented, insane psychopath, especially with his Straw Nihilist ramblings. And while not as completely character-refining as Ledger's Joker, Eckhart's portrayal of Two-Face quickly became one of, if not the most popular incarnation thus far. Hats off to you, Aaron.
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