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This page is for all the people involved in the administration of Gotham City, be they involved in politics, lawkeeping, or any other such business.


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Gotham City Police Department

    James Gordon 

Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon (previously Lieutenant, previously Sergeant)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_gordon.png
"There's nothing wise in what you do, Flass."

Played by: Gary Oldman (in The Dark Knight Trilogy)

Dubbed by: Vincent Violette (European French)

Voiced by: Jim Meskimen (in Batman: Gotham Knight)

Appears in: Batman Begins | Batman: Gotham Knight | Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight | The Dark Knight Rises

Intelligent, thoughtful and a believer in real justice, Jim Gordon is one of the few honest cops in Gotham. These qualities make him a close and valuable ally of Batman. With Batman's help, he rises steadily through the ranks of the GCPD, eventually becoming Commissioner.


  • Accomplice by Inaction: How Dent sees him in regards to the corrupt cops in his department. He himself is not corrupt, but he did nothing to stop Wuertz and Ramirez. This is the reason he later targets Jim's family.
  • Adaptational Job Change: Begins sees him as a Sergeant before being promoted to Lieutenant. In one of the main influences of the series, Batman: Year One, he was already a Lieutenant and got promoted to Captain in the end. Additionally, he goes from Lieutenant directly to Commissioner, as opposed to going from Captain to Commissioner.
  • Badass Longcoat: He wears one more after becoming commissioner, though he wears them before that as well.
  • Being Good Sucks: A Motive Rant in Rises describing to Blake the police force's rules as "shackles" that "let the bad guy get ahead".
  • Benevolent Boss: As Da Chief he is uncorrupted and working to enforce the law.
  • Berserk Button: If you're going to bicker about whose part of the administration is more corrupt, he'd be more than happy to oblige.
    Harvey Dent: You're sitting down there with scum like Wuertz and Ramirez, and you're talking to... [pauses as he sees Gordon’s reaction] oh yeah, Gordon... I almost had your rookie cold on a racketeering beef!
    Lt. James Gordon: Don't try to cloud the fact that clearly Maroni's got people in your office, Dent!
  • By-the-Book Cop: As by the book as you can get in Gotham, anyway.
  • The Commissioner Gordon: Trope Namer.
  • Determinator: Does getting shot stop him from opposing Bane? NO.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: Naturally his reaction when he discovers that Harvey had becomes Two-Face.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After the Joker marks city officials, including the police commissioner, for death. Loeb pours himself a whisky while Gordon tries to figure out how the assasination attempt will go down.
    Loeb: How did they get my DNA?
    Gordon: Somebody with access to your office or house must have lifted a tissue or a...glass..wait! WAIT!
    (Loeb collapses as the glass begins to smoke)
  • Exact Words: It comes back to bite him in the ass in The Dark Knight Rises, because the text of his confession about the truth behind Harvey Dent's demise only mentioned that the Batman was charged with murdering Harvey Dent despite the death being an accident caused by a key miscalculation on Batman's part of the force sufficient to subdue him, and that he took the blame for Harvey's crimes, not that Batman agreed to let Gordon charge him with Dent's death in the first place, nor that Gordon only went along with it because he had to prevent the Joker's victory against the Batman-Gordon-Dent triad from being set in stone. When Gordon stumbles upon Bane's lair, Bane naturally acquires the speech papers searching Gordon's pockets, then uses it to justify the mass breakout at the prison.
  • Face Death with Dignity: In Rises, when Scarecrow gave him the choice of death or exile, and he was surrounded by League of Shadows members, he chose death. Fortunately, Batman intervened.
  • Friend on the Force: Is this for Batman; especially in Batman Begins when most of the police do not trust Batman at all.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Unlike Batman, he's got no problems using guns or lethal force.
  • Good Parents: Shown to be one for his son in The Dark Knight, which Harvey Dent uses against him by threatening to kill his son if his coin toss tells him to. The problem this leaves is that Gordon's wife left him and took the kids after the events in The Dark Knight as noted by Foley to the congressman in The Dark Knight Rises, partially for covering up Harvey Dent's crimes. Word of God said this was also done to keep his daughter from becoming Batgirl in an attempt to further pacify Christian Bale, who explicitly didn't want Robin the Boy Wonder to appear (though officer John Blake ends up playing a similar role).
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In true Commissioner Gordon fashion. He's described as one of the few honest cops in Gotham during Batman Begins.
  • Internal Reformist: His target is Gotham PD.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: See his page quote. He's not an idealist but he's trying to improve Gotham with what he has available.
  • Miles to Go Before I Sleep: He's visibly weary in Rises, but he presses on in trying to save the city yet again when Bane attacks. Relief from the burdens is brought about by eight years of secrets comes only after the nuke is flown a safe distance over the waters.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Everything he does, from working hand-in-hand with corrupt cops like Flass, Wuertz, and Ramirez (the latter who only joined the mob to help pay her mother's medical bills) to supporting the severely anti-crime Dent Act, he believes is for the good of his people, and he does what he does at a personal cost which is made much more explicit in Rises.
  • My Greatest Failure: Two. Allowing Rachel and Harvey to be kidnapped by the Joker, and pinning the blame for Two-Face's murders on Batman.
  • Over Ranked Soldier: Promoted from Lieutenant to Police Commissioner literally overnight.
  • Papa Wolf: He jumps into action when Two-Face naps his son.
  • Parental Substitute: To some of his cops, especially Blake.
  • Precision F-Strike: After Loeb is poisoned.
    Gordon: OH SHIT—!
  • Pride Before a Fall: Downplayed. He doesn't die, but after succeeding in bringing the Joker in, he is applauded for it by the department, unaware that the Joker wanted to be arrested. Needless to say, this shortly comes to bite him hard.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: In Begins Bruce calls him a "good cop; one of the few".
  • Say My Name: Inverted. He pushes Gordon to tell him what the police called him back when he was in internal affairs (Harvey Two-face), he does shout SAY IT!!.
  • Secret-Keeper: Of Dent's murders after going insane. And Batman reveals his identity to Gordon near the end of The Dark Knight Rises.
  • Specs of Awesome: They certainly don't decrease his badass-ery.
  • Stoic Spectacles: He keeps his cool at all times except for one notable scene in Rises. However, in The Dark Knight, he lost his cool when arguing to Harvey about Lau on the rooftop of MCU and also him trying his best to keep his cool while Two-Face held his family hostage at gun point.
  • There Are No Coincidences: Firmly believes this and picks up the strange events in Rises, and further warns Blake to follow this trope as well. Detectives aren't allowed to believe in coincidences.
  • Two First Names: Much like in the comics.
  • Token Good Cop: Downplayed. Gordon means well, but Gotham is such a hardcore Wretched Hive that he has made some really awful decisions to try and bring order to it:
    • In Batman Begins he is seemingly the one officer of the Gotham Police that has not sold out to the gangs, but he can't really do jack about it until Batman comes along. The visual dictionary even states that his superiors stuck him with the blatantly crooked Detective Flass (who openly moonlights as a low-level enforcer for The Mafia) as a partner in order to keep him in check.
      Gordon: I'm no rat! In a town this bent, who's there to rat to anyway?
    • In The Dark Knight he is forced to have crooked cops in his task force just to have some personnel. When two of them inevitably sell out to the Joker and cause the death of Rachel Dawes and disfigurement of Harvey Dent, a very irate Dent, now turned into Two-Face comes gunning for him in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
    • In The Dark Knight Rises, Gordon kept quiet about Harvey Dent having gone deranged thanks to the Joker and dying trying to kill Gordon's family so Gordon would really know how Rachel's death felt to him to create support for the Dent Act, which put enough criminals behind bars to bring Gotham to its all-time high level of tranquility. However, the guilt ate at him deep enough for him to write a speech denouncing the lie, that he kept in his pocket at all times waiting for the proper time to say it, and was retrieved by Bane and broadcasted publicly to put Gotham deeper into anarchy. Result: a big Broken Pedestal for Detective Blake.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Practically all his choices in The Dark Knight, from using corrupt cops to putting Lau in the MCU to shipping the convicts across in the ferries (and possibly even Dent's death day anniversary), play right into the Joker's hands and, by proxy, into Bane's hands.

    Gillian Loeb 

Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_loeb.png
"No one takes the law into their own hands in my city. Understand?"

Played by: Colin McFarlane

Appears in: Batman Begins | Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight

The bullheaded and no-nonsense Gotham City Police Commissioner. Loeb is an honest man, but views Batman as a dangerous vigilante. He is eventually killed by the Joker with a poisoned glass of alcohol.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, Loeb's a fairly homely white guy.
  • Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Loeb is disgustingly corrupt. Here, he is an honest albeit jaded cop.
  • The Alcoholic: A lot of death threats lead to a lot of alcohol. Proves to be his Fatal Flaw
  • Composite Character: He's Michael Akins with Loeb's name.
  • Da Chief: Gordon's predecessor as head cop.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: At his funeral, from what we hear of his speech, the Mayor is struggling to find nice things to say about him, given that he says many of Loeb's policies were unpopular and that his own office was flooded with angry calls — again, he says this AT LOEB'S FUNERAL — and the most he can say about him was that he dedicated his life to law enforcement and didn't like to mince words.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Batman: Dark Victory, Loeb was killed by Sofia Falcone hanging him during her killing spree as the Hangman. Here, he's poisoned by the Joker tampering with his alcohol.
  • Drinking on Duty: It's implied that his answer to people making death threats is by drinking alcohol on duty. Unfortunately, that answer ends up failing him in that the Joker has arranged to poison his bottle to ensure that the exact opposite reaction happens.
  • Humble Hero: In the ARG, Loeb admits he doesn't really care about his negative reputation as he didn't get into police work for self-gratification. It is played with, as he does take credit for Gordon and Batman's work, but it wouldn't have gotten off the ground if Loeb hadn't given the former leeway.
  • In Name Only: Other than preceding Gordon as Commissioner, as noted in "Composite Character", the name (and being at odds with the vigilante Batman) is the only thing he was in common with the comics' Loeb as the comic character was a white, old, Corrupt Cop, hence resembling Michael Akins more (a young, honest, black cop, hence the aforementioned Adaptational Heroism and Adaptational Attractiveness, as well as the below-mention Race Lift).
  • Jerkass Has a Point: In the ARG, he actually has a very reasonable explanation for his condemnation of Batman regardless of how he's helping the city.
    Loeb: The simple answer is Batman is a criminal, and as a criminal he should be arrested. Anyone with any training at all in law enforcement - from a judge to a file clerk to a beat cop - can tell you that Batman's actions are against the law. Batman himself would tell you this. But that's not the real reason for the 'arrest on sight' policy. Batman is an unknown quantity going out there with sophisticated technology and a complete lack of restraint. Has he helped arrest a few 'bad guys'? Yes. But what happens to a citizen caught in the crossfire? It hasn't happened yet, but it will, and it's going to be a lot worse than what happened to Mary Breitup.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be pretty snarky and snide to his employees, but he's not a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination. And he's one of the few cops that isn't hopelessly corrupt.
  • Race Lift: Loeb was actually a white man in the original comics. Now he's Colin MacFarlane, the opposite skin color.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Downplayed. On the one hand, he is seemingly one of the few cops who isn't excessively corrupt. On the other, rampant corruption has happened under his watch and it only starts to be cleared up once Batman comes on the scene- and even then, he's opposed to Batman on the principle that he is a vigilante regardless of him capturing a notorious mob boss red-handed. He's more reasonable at the end of Begins when the city is under attack, but he doesn't do much at all in The Dark Knight other than basically insult Gordon by saying he's unlikely to ever become Commissioner and refusing to take the Joker's threat on him too seriously before dying from poison in his drink.
  • Sacrificial Lion: The Joker kills him in a targeted attack against important Gotham figures.
  • Sudden Name Change: In the novelization of The Dark Knight, his first name is Perry.
  • Unfit for Greatness: Unlike his comic counterpart, Loeb is actually an honest man. However, he’s unable to effectively take a stand against Gotham’s crime problem.

    Arnold Flass 

Detective Arnold Flass

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_flass.png
"Maybe you'd like to see some excessive force!"

Played by: Mark Boone Junior

Appears in: Batman Begins | Why So Serious?

A highly corrupt cop and Gordon's partner. He works on Carmine Falcone's payroll, to the point where he acts as muscle for the mobster.


  • Adaptational Ugliness: Heavily. While the Flass from Year One was well-groomed and muscular, this one looks positively derelict.
  • Beard of Evil: Not very well kept.
  • The Brute: He offers to kill Rachel himself.
  • Composite Character: Although he is named after a character from the comics (who is also a corrupt cop), and his personality is about the same, his appearance and manners are more reminiscent of Harvey Bullock.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Comments like "What, they don't like falafel?" come to mind. He doesn't care.
  • Dirty Cop: This cop is so corrupted he's more like a gangster that puts on a police uniform.
  • Dirty Coward: Batman found it easy to make him talk.
  • Even Evil Has Standards/Pragmatic Villainy: When he hears about the price on Rachel's head, even he questions if it's a wise move.
  • Fat Slob: A messy beard, clothing as dirty as he is and a big belly.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The ARG reveals exposure to the fear toxin left Flass a vegetable and he was permanently interred in a mental hospital.
  • Hate Sink: There's nothing remotely likable about this guy. He's a Dirty Cop who steals from a falafel vendor, and later threatens a citizen for calling out his Police Brutality. It's incredibly satisfying when Batman scares the shit out of him and when he's knocked out by Gordon.
  • Jabba Table Manners: That falafel goes everywhere.
  • Jerkass: The example under Kick The Dog is implied to be a regular occurrence.
  • Kick the Dog: He pickpockets money from a poor falafel vendor, even after the vendor says he has kids to feed. "What, they don't like falafel?"
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He is jumped by the Batman after the above Kick the Dog moment. Later, he is driven insane by the hallucinogens he helped​ sell into Gotham.
  • Police Brutality: He is willing to invoke this, word for word, when someone is being uncooperative.
    Narrows resident: Harassment! I see harassment!
    Flass: (points his gun at him) You wanna see some excessive force?

    Gerard Stephens 

Detective Gerard Stephens

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_stephens.png
"That's nice... I'm a twenty year man. I can tell the difference between punks who need a little lesson in manners, and the freaks like you who would just enjoy it."

Played by: Keith Szarabajka

Appears in: The Dark Knight

An experienced GCPD detective, Stephens is an honest cop and has a place among Gordon's most trusted.


  • Cowboy Cop: He roughs up punks that need to be taught manners in order to make them better citizens.
  • Expy: He's Gordon's Number Two at Major Crimes and has a similar, rough demeanor to Harvey Bullock, albeit without being a slob. Supposedly, the main reason the creators did not simply give him Bullock's name was because they didn't want to confuse viewers with two major characters named "Harvey". Also like Bullock, he was suspected of being a Dirty Cop (see Red Herring).
  • Good Is Not Soft: He can be violent when pushed which The Joker uses against him.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: He's like a knight that doesn't have time for spit and polish idealism because he's too busy putting bad guys away, or teaching them manners.
  • The Lancer: Implied to be it for Gordon as the veteran that is more physical.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: He pulls his sleeves up after the Joker asks if he wants to know which of his dead friends were cowards.
    "I know you're gonna enjoy this, so I'm gonna have to try and enjoy it even more."
  • Moment of Weakness: His decision to give into his anger and inflict a beating on the Joker results in him being taken hostage and unwittingly aiding in Joker's escape. He lampshades it, telling Murphy to just shoot the Joker because it was his own fault.
  • Police Brutality: Though the guy deserved it.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: One of the few cops who isn't corrupt and will listen to reason.
  • Red Herring: Outside of his midfilm sequence with the Joker, he gets a decent amount of lines and camera attention for such a minor figure, which is probably meant to stoke viewer suspicions that he might be one of the mob's inside men. Not so: Stephens is an honest cop, and just about the only character in Gordon's inner circle in either of the first two movies whom he's right to trust (not counting a couple of other honest characters who fall victim to the Joker).
  • Tranquil Fury: When about to attack The Joker, he still keeps a calm tone to his voice.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Gordon.

    Anna Ramirez 

Detective Anna Ramirez

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_ramirez.png
"You're the reason these men are dead!"

Played by: Monique Gabriela Curnen

Voiced by: Ana Ortiz

Appears in: Batman: Gotham Knight | The Dark Knight

A rookie officer and one of Gordon's most trusted cops. She later proves to have been corrupted long before the Joker's Sadistic Choice, to help with her mother's medical bills. She turns Rachel Dawes over to the Joker's men.


  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Quite possibly on purpose given her corruption.
  • Beneath Suspicion: She's used to kidnap Rachel (and later Gordon's wife) because they trust her.
  • Canon Foreigner: Has similarities to Renee Montoya, but it was decided to create a new character instead.
  • Dirty Cop: Mostly because that was the only thing she could do to allow her mom's medical bills to work. It's also foreshadowed earlier with her looking guilty when letting Dent into the car that would hold him hostage.
  • Expy: Of Renee Montoya, albeit also a crooked and far less competent version.
  • Fair Cop: She's pretty attractive, and one of Gordon's most trusted cops.
  • Health Care Motivation: Claims to be struggling to pay for her mother's hospital bills as her defense for turning Dirty Cop and feeding information to the Gotham mob.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite corrupt and responsible for Rachel's death and Harvey's descent into madness, she survives thanks to the coin-flip sparing her and may not even see jail. Although Harvey does wallop her in the head, knocking her out cold.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Mortality: Ramirez only took bribes to fund her mother's hospital treatment. She survives Harvey's coin toss while her Asshole Victim partner Wuertz dies.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not explained how they are able to cover up Dent's actions while Ramirez is still alive, knowing what she knows and the lengths she will go for money. On the other hand, she had every reason to cover up her own role.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to Batman. She does it to cover up for her own responsibility. Even though she praised him in Batman: Gotham Knights (though admittedly the canon of it is debatable and she didn't appear to be crooked in that particular work.

    Michael Wuertz 

Detective Michael Wuertz

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_wuertz.png
"The investigation is on-going."

Played by: Ron Dean

Appears in: The Dark Knight

An older detective and a member of Gordon's Major Crimes Unit. He later proves to be corrupt, turning Harvey Dent over to the Joker's men, and is subsequently shot in the head by Harvey in a bar.


  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Not that it does him any good.
    Wuertz: Listen, Dent, I swear to God I didn't know what they were gonna do to you!
    Harvey Dent: That's funny, 'cause I don't know what's gonna happen to you.
  • Asshole Victim: Is shown drinking in a bar because it's his day off, indifferent to the idea that he should return to duty at a time when every cop is needed to evacuate the city. The promotional materials discuss this mentality among day-shift cops.
  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: He seems incredibly lazy more than anything.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Possibly, given that Dent appears to be aiming that revolver right at his head when we hear the shot.
  • Canon Foreigner: He has no comic counterpart.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: He's no background character but he looks the part at first.
  • Dirty Cop: He works for Maroni, and thus the Joker.
  • Expy: Of Harvey Bullock. Until it's learned that he's crooked and sent Rachel to the mob. He gets killed by Two-Face for it.
  • Karmic Death: He betrays Harvey, causes his transformation into Two-Face, and is then shot in the head.
  • Kicked Upstairs: He has apparently been promoted to finding Batman's true identity early in the film. Although the "suspects"note were completely bogus, implying that Gordon or one of the higher ups ensured he wouldn't bundle any cases.
  • No-Sell: Tries to pin the blame for Rachel's abduction on Maroni. Dent doesn't buy it.
  • Oh, Crap!: When he looks up and see it's not the bartender but an extremely pissed off Harvey in front of him.

    Detective Murphy 

Detective Murphy

Played by: Philip Bulcock

Appears in: The Dark Knight

Another of Gordon's detectives.


  • By-the-Book Cop: He tries to be honest like Gordon.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It is through his actions of passing his phone to the Joker and allowing him to dial the cell phone bomb that the Joker escapes along with Lau - in Murphy's defense, his only other choice was to shoot the Joker and risk getting Stephens killed.

    John Blake 

Officer / Detective Robin John Blake

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_blake.png
"Don't you want to know who he was?"

Played by: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Dubbed By: Alexis Victor (European French)

Appears in: The Dark Knight Rises

"When you cleaned up the streets, you've cleaned them good. Pretty soon we'll be chasing down over-due library books."

A young cop who Gordon takes under his wing, seeing him as representative of the idealism that people like him and Batman have lost.


  • All-Loving Hero: Blake's not perfect, but he's an honest cop without all the baggage that people like Gordon have had to carry (or at least, not as much). In one scene, he leads the orphans of St. Swithins to safety accompanied by a Good Shepherd.
  • Bat Deduction: Appropriately enough. Unlike Gordon, who didn't know or care about Batman's secret identity, Blake had instantly figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Years ago, Wayne had visited his orphanage, and Blake recognised him as a fellow Stepford Smiler who lost a parent (or parents) to violence at a young age. In the present day, as soon as Jim Gordon needs the Batman, Blake takes it upon himself to go to Wayne Manor and introduce himself as a cop who knows that he is the Batman.
  • Broken Pedestal: He follows Gordon's instructions to the letter until it is revealed that Gordon knew Batman was innocent all along. Blake cannot understand why Gordon would pin the blame for five murders on an innocent man, especially Batman, and leaves in anger.
  • By-the-Book Cop: At the beginning of the film. He is displeased when the officers switch from chasing Bane to Batman during the car chase that follows Bane's attack on the Stock Exchange floor, and extremely angry when it is revealed that Gordon knowingly lied in charging Batman with murder, rather than Batman framing himself.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: A variant. When he discovers that Gordon played a part in protecting Dent's legacy and putting the blame on Batman, he's horrified. Later, he grows to understand the complex moral quandary.
  • Canon Character All Along: Just like Miranda Tate is Talia, he appears to be a new character, only for it to turn out he's a composite of various Robins from the comics.
  • The Cape: It's implied that he goes on to be one, due to his frustrations with police procedure throughout the film. Leading to him becoming Batman's successor at the conclusion.
  • Cassandra Truth: He initially refuses to accept that he will one day find out that the rules can become shackles, mainly because he's too pissed off with Gordon for apparently betraying his own ideals. It comes back to bite him in the ass when one of Gotham's finest strands him and a Bus Full of Innocents on what could very well have soon become a death trap, despite his warnings that the city will be destroyed by the fusion reactor anyway.
  • Character Development: Blake is first a highly idealistic rookie who follows orders even if he doesn't agree with them. After witnessing the shortcomings of the police force after Bane takes over, and participating in the resistance, he acknowledges the validity of more ambiguous morals and pursues crime-fighting beyond the rigid structure of the force as the next Batman.
  • Composite Character: Of the first three Robins, Blake has: witnessing his parent's early deaths, a police background from Dick Grayson, and independent discovery of Batman's secret identity from Tim Drake. And like Dick, he also succeeds Bruce as Batman. There's also his troubled childhood like Jason Todd's, and the anger that came with it. He is also similar to Terry McGinnis, both appearance-wise and because he becomes the next Batman instead of becoming a Robin.
  • Cowboy Cop: Averted. Everyone calls him one with varying degrees of seriousness, but he does what anyone tells him to.
  • Deadpan Snarker: "Sir, what about the armed robbers?"
  • Deuteragonist: He has screen time rivaling Batman and Gordon.
  • Embarrassing First Name: The poor guy's first name is Robin, which would explain why he never uses it until the denouement.
  • Friend to All Children: As an orphan himself, he's on great terms with those at St. Swithin's orphanage, even overseeing their baseball practice.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Like Gordon, Blake is willing to use guns and lethal force, even if he clearly doesn't like it. When he ends up shooting the truck driver and the foreman at the cement plant while checking up information on what Bane's plans are, he is visibly shaken and throws his handgun away in disgust, but he later picks up and is prepared to use a shotgun when he has to go to Gordon's aid. With the equipment he inherits from Bruce at the end of the movie, he might not have to resort to lethal force so often.
  • Honor Before Reason: Blake follows orders to chase Batman (whom he knows was innocent all along), because Foley tells him to and won't be persuaded otherwise. And possibly because he wants to see the Batman for himself.
  • Hot-Blooded: Invoked, but averted. Foley frequently accuses him of being a "hothead" due to his youth and snarkiness (in the bar shootout, after Gordon goes into the sewers and an explosion happens, Foley refuses to send anyone down, only for Blake to protest that Gordon is down there, Foley says, "Someone get this hothead out of here. And where's that DWP guy?"), but Blake thinks logically and never actually disobeys orders despite some protesting. The one time Blake does lose his cool is when a fellow officer orders the last remaining bridge out of Gotham blown up, stranding everyone he was trying to evacuate.
  • The Lancer: To Gordon, a role which he grows out of, and to some extent to Bruce Wayne and Batman. As such, he acts as the main connection to police groundwork and the streets of Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises.
  • Meaningful Name: Robin was an ally of Batman here.
  • Mythology Gag: His full name, Robin John Blake. "Robin," of course, is Batman's traditional partner. "John" is the middle name of the first Robin, Richard John "Dick" Grayson. "Blake" rhymes with "Drake," surname of Robin III, Tim Drake.
  • Nerves of Steel: He advances on policemen who are shooting at his feet to dissuade him, with the additional threat of having the bridge explode beneath him if he doesn't back down.
  • Nice Guy: He's one of the few unambiguously good and kind-hearted characters in the series.
  • Oh, Crap!: After unintentionally having to shoot the cement truck driver, Blake is leaving a message for Gordon when he notices barrels of motor oil and PSB, which makes him realize that Bane has been pouring explosives-laced concrete around the city. He jumps in his car, and looks at the map he's been using to mark locations Daggett's cement plants have been pouring for underground construction, and you can see an expression of raw horror on his face as he realizes Bane is about to trap the police force in the sewers to get them out of the way.
  • Orphan's Ordeal: When he was young, Blake's father was shot dead over a gambling debt right in front of him.
  • Passing the Torch: After Bruce Wayne's death, Blake is given the tools to take up the mantle of Batman.
  • Reimagining the Artifact: Many of the film crew, including Christian Bale, were against including Robin in the series, feeling that a acrobatic Kid Sidekick in a colorful costume to be too outlandish for the series' grounded, realistic take on the Batman mythos. Blake being a young cop who admires Batman who Bruce takes on as something of a protégé while also grooming him to be a successor ends up filling the niche while still fitting in to the setting.
  • The Reliable One: To both Gordon and Batman. Gordon handpicks him to be his eyes and ears on the street after Gordon is shot and hospitalized trying to escape from Bane's underground lair. Batman entrusts Blake with evacuating Gotham "in case we fail [to stop Bane's plan]".
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Blake ultimately quits the police force because he sees the institution as being far too limiting for him. It seems that Batman bequeathed him many of his resources, not the least of which was the Batman mantle, to kickstart his career into superheroics.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing both the practical and moral limitations of the police force, he throws his badge off a bridge.
  • Secret Secret-Keeper: He knew Bruce was Batman from a young age just by meeting him both in and out of costume, and never revealed that fact to anyone but Bruce. Though he does consider revealing it to the people after Batman moved the fusion reactor clear of Gotham, Gordon convinces him not to, saying, "They know [who saved them]. It was the Batman."
  • Supporting Leader: With Gordon out of commission for most of the first 90 minutes of the film (after he is shot multiple times while escaping from Bane's lair), and Batman out of commission for much of the middle part (due to Bane breaking his spine and throwing him in the Pit), Blake handles a lot of the detective work.
  • Stepford Smiler: He describes this as a symptom of having undergone the Orphan's Ordeal, as a way of appeasing people who don't understand why he hasn't moved on and let go of his anger. It's one of the reasons how he deduces that Batman is Bruce Wayne—something he uses to convince Bruce to visit Gordon in hospital—as he saw that Bruce has gone through this as well.
  • Superhero Origin: He get his in The Dark Knight Rises.
  • These Hands Have Killed: Notice how Blake tosses his pistol away, disgusted, after the truck driver and his colleague at the cement plant try to stab him and he is forced to shoot them.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: He ultimately leaves the police to pursue Good.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Progressively more so as he takes on mooks and uncovers Bane's operation. Bruce deemed him badass enough as the next Batman.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: He ultimately opens up to the weaknesses of the police, but this only inspires him to find a better way to serve the people of Gotham.

    Peter Foley 

Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_foley.png
"There's only one police in this town!"

Played by: Matthew Modine

Appears in: The Dark Knight Rises

The aggressive Deputy Commissioner, who jumps at the chance to be the one who arrests Batman for Harvey Dent's death.


  • Arbitrary Skepticism: "What, there's a masked terrorist living in the sewers? Pfft, sure." Strange sentiments from a man currently tracking down a vigilante who dresses up as a bat, who happens to live in a city which has been attacked over the last ten or so years by; a mask-wearing doctor armed with fear gas, an army of international ninjas, and a psychotic mass-murdering clown. And Foley had to have been serving on the force when those events happened. Granted, it's been years since a new masked "freak" has surfaced, so maybe Foley assumed that no one else would be crazy enough to make themselves such an obvious target. Naturally, he's proven wrong.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Wearing his dress blues to lead the assault on Bane's army.
  • Canon Foreigner: Foley has no equivalent in the original comics.
  • Casting Gag: Meta-example. Matthew Modine was Private "Joker" in Full Metal Jacket.
  • Character Development:
    • While he doesn’t have a major role, he does grow a fair bit over the course of the movie. While he seems like a hotheaded control freak at first, he clearly cares about his unit and fellow policemen. He eventually apologizes to Blake for brushing him off, and starts taking him more seriously.
    • Once Bane traps Gotham’s police force underground, executed the special forces sent to assist Gotham, and takes over Gotham entirely, Foley loses his bravado and goes into hiding. But when Batman returns, especially after implicitly learning the truth of Harvey Dent, instead of a ruthless vigilante, Foley sees a symbol of hope alongside his family, and decides to fight for Gotham.
  • Cowardly Lion: Foley loses his bravery during Bane's regime, rebuffing Gordon's pleas to join the rebellion, even with Gordon chewing him out in front of his own wife. But his courage returns when he sees Bruce's flaming Bat insignia, and the next morning he leads the police's charge in full uniform.
  • A Father to His Men: Implied, including his so-called hotheaded ones. During a hostage situation, he refuses to assault Gotham’s stock exchange, not wanting to put his men (as well as the hostages) at risk.
  • Hot-Blooded: Zigzagged. First he makes a spur decision to pursue Batman in the midst of pursuing Bane, but later he shows a more cautious side, only to come out anyway.
  • Hypocrite: Foley dismisses Blake as a mere hothead, but proves to be far more zealous, especially in his pursuit of Batman.
  • Inspector Javert: His pursuit of a dangerous and repeat offender vigiliante, i.e. Batman.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zealous, hotheaded, but his targets are vigilantes and bank robbers. He also doesn’t want to unnecessarily put his men put in harm’s way.
  • Look Both Ways: Foley gets run over by Talia's Tumbler.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: At the final battle, Foley delivers this epic one:
    Mercenary on Megaphone: Disperse! Disperse or be fired upon!
    Peter Foley: There's only one police in this town!
  • Remember the New Guy?: Foley has apparently been on the force since before Batman first showed up, but he didn't appear in either Batman Begins or The Dark Knight.
  • Redemption Equals Death: When he comes out to fight Bane.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Not at first, but later in the film during the climax.
  • Smug Snake: When he's dealing with Batman. Like when the cops think they've trapped him in an alleyway:
    Peter Foley: Like a rat in a trap, gentlemen! [The Bat starts up]
    Officer Kelly: You might have the wrong animal there, sir!
  • Took a Level in Badass: For the finale. It's implied Foley just lost it over the years. Gordon helps him find it again.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: He eventually apologizes to Blake for not taking him seriously, and agrees to start working with him on equal terms.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Gordon.

Gotham City Judiciary

    Rachel Dawes 

Rachel Dawes

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_rachel.png
"Bruce... don't make me your only hope of a normal life."

Played by: Katie Holmes (Batman Begins), Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight)

Appears in: Batman Begins | Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight

Bruce's childhood friend turned attorney, Rachel is a crusader for justice on the strictly legal side of the law. She's eventually murdered by the Joker and his henchpeople.


  • Awful Truth: Rachel leaves a letter with Alfred, shortly before she dies. The letter reveals that Rachel would rather be with Harvey than Bruce. Alfred burns the letter to hide this from Bruce but admits to what he did in Rises shortly before leaving Bruce.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: She wants to know what Dr. Crane, whom she suspected of being corrupt, of what drugs he used on Falcone and his thugs as she believed neither of them have mental illness. Well, she got more than what she bargained for.
  • Brainy Brunette: Rachel is smart, capable and intelligent. She is an attorney.
  • Canon Foreigner: She doesn't exist in the comics, but she has strong similarities to Rachel Caspian from the Batman: Year Two storyline and Andrea Beaumont from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Her role as Harvey Dent's love interest is similar to Gilda Dent.
  • Childhood Friends: To Bruce. Bruce and Rachel have been friends since Bruce's younger years. They remained close throughout their adulthood and eventually, their romantic feelings for each other strengthened and deepened over time.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: To both Bruce and Harvey in The Dark Knight. She's kidnapped by the Joker's henchmen, tied up in a room rigged to explode and blown up while Harvey and Batman can only listen helplessly; there was a 50/50 chance of her being rescued over Harvey, but the Joker switched the locations unbeknownst to Batman and the police. Her death is one of the catalysts for Harvey becoming Two-Face, while Bruce spends eight years as a depressed recluse.
  • Damsel in Distress: Once in Batman Begins and again in The Dark Knight. The second time doesn't end well.
  • Damsel out of Distress: Moreso in Batman Begins, where she tried to tase a mob thug coming after her in the subway, tased Batman (to no avail due to his insulated armored suit), investigated Crane on her own, tased the Scarecrow, and then was prepared to shoot a fear toxin-addled Victor Zsasz. In The Dark Knight, this was downplayed, but she still kicked the Joker in the balls.
  • Exact Words: A sad example. When Bruce brings up that at the end of Batman Begins she said she would wait for him until he stopped being Batman, he asks her if she really meant it. She looks a bit uncomfortable and says "yes", because at the time she did intend to wait. But then she met Harvey Dent. In the letter she gave to Bruce - which he never read before her death - she tells him that while she still loves him, she can't wait for him anymore and she intends to marry Harvey.
  • Expy / Composite Character: Of Rachel Caspian and Andrea Beaumont as stated above. The second film makes her one of Gilda Dent as well.
  • Face Death with Dignity: When she hears that the police rescue Harvey, she is devastated but completely calm and reassuring at the face of her impending death.
  • False Soulmate: To Bruce. Despite them being childhood friends with a mutual attraction, Rachel says she wants to be with Bruce rather than Batman. She initially says she will wait until Gotham City no longer needs Batman, but as time goes on she starts to believe Bruce will never be able to stop being Batman and enters a relationship with Harvey Dent. Bruce is under the impression that she will still choose to be with him, but then she's murdered so it's rendered moot. Prior to her death, she wrote Bruce a letter saying she was in love with Harvey and intended to marry him, while still caring for Bruce more as a friend. Alfred initially kept this from Bruce to spare him further pain, but he eventually tells Bruce the truth when he feels Bruce's grief is consuming him. Bruce ultimately gets a happy ending with Selina Kyle (after a false start with Miranda Tate).
  • Final Speech: Rachel tries to comfort Harvey over a phone line...and then the building she is in explodes.
  • Groin Attack: Gives The Joker one, but the Joker enjoys it.
  • Hello, Attorney!: She's quite hot, and a lawyer. Do the maths.
  • Hypocrite: In The Dark Knight, when Rachel learns Bruce is turning himself in to reveal himself as Batman and stop the Joker's killings, she begs him not to but Bruce says he's already made up his mind. However, in a shocking twist, Harvey falsely admits to being the vigilante to allow the real Batman to capture the clown. Rachel overreacts at this and her response is to complain to Alfred about this "unheroic" move (as she calls it), making it seem as if Bruce forced Harvey to take his place despite Alfred trying to convince her otherwise. Nonetheless, Rachel decides that she's had enough with Bruce's role as Batman and is more than sure to marry Harvey while asking Alfred to give Bruce a letter about the predicament, but "when the time is right".
  • Jerkass Has a Point: At the end of Batman Begins, Bruce admits she was right to call him out on his intention to murder Joe Chill.
    Rachel: Bruce, the day Chill died, I said terrible things...
    Bruce: But true things. I was a coward with a gun, and justice is about more than revenge, so thank you.
  • The Lost Lenore: For both Wayne and Dent.
  • Love Interest: For Bruce in Batman Begins but Rachel can't fully get over Bruce being Batman and not as she remembered him when they were young. In The Dark Knight, she's moved on and is now Harvey Dent's Love Interest. Then she is blown up by The Joker, making Harvey go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge at least partly due to her.
  • Love Triangle: Rachel was the object of affection for both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. Rachel chooses Harvey over Bruce but is tragically killed before Bruce discovered that Rachel had chosen Dent over him. Alfred keeps the truth from Bruce for eight years, becoming one of the reasons why he turns into a recluse.
  • No Place for Me There: Why she chooses never to be with Bruce.
  • No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: In Begins, when Bruce confesses that he had intended to kill Joe Chill as revenge for his parents' deaths, Rachel is offended and slaps him. Although in this case, it's less that she was upset just because he still nursed a grudge over it and more that he was planning to commit murder over it, and thus end up becoming just like Joe Chill.
    Rachel: You're just another coward with a gun. Your father would be ashamed of you.
  • Patient Childhood Love Interest: To Bruce. Rachel has always loved Bruce (and vice versa) but she didn't start to pursue Bruce romantically until adulthood, although Bruce and Rachel were very close during childhood.
  • Plucky Girl: Despite her grim surroundings, she's determined to clean up Gotham.
  • Satellite Character: Nearly all of her actions are centered around either Bruce Wayne or Harvey Dent and she barely gets to show off any of her own personal traits.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Played with towards Bruce. Bruce has loved Rachel since they were children and were close friends since childhood. However, Rachel somewhat subverts this in that she dies realising that she loved Harvey and planned to marry him, but she still loved Bruce, she just knew that he was needed elsewhere.

    Harvey Dent 

Harvey "Two-Face" Dent

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_dent.png
"You either die a hero..."
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_two_face.png
"...or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Played by: Aaron Eckhart

Appears in: Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight | The Dark Knight Rises (archival footage)

"I make my own luck."

A high powered district attorney that is trying to help bring down the criminal empire in Gotham. However, a tragic incident caused by the Joker in the middle of the film changes his mindset and causes Harvey to go after those he deems responsible for his misfortune. While trying to kill Gordon's son, Batman intervenes and causes them all to fall from a building. Batman and Gordon's son are able to hang on, but Harvey is killed outright.


  • Abled in the Adaptation: In the comics, the scarring of Harvey's face led to him developing a split personality. This version doesn't develop one after his transformation, and his evil actions stem purely from revenge.
  • Abusive Parents: According to the novelization, his father was very abusive towards him. In fact, the Double-headed coin he inherited from his father was the same one his father often used to decide whether to give him a beating or not. As it was actually a double headed coin, it's obvious that he was never given any sense of mercy.
  • The Ace: He's like Bruce+Batman-trauma and scariness. Even when he becomes a Broken Ace, he only gets even scarier.
  • Adaptational Ugliness: Two-Face was more cartoony-looking in the comics. In The Dark Knight, the scarred side of his face is given much more detail.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: He's black-haired or brunet in the comics. Aaron Eckhart went blonde.
  • All-Loving Hero: He's noble, heroic, and has wide spread public support. His campaign slogan is "I believe in Harvey Dent."
  • All There in the Manual: The novelization expands on why Harvey became who he is: Batman decides to do some sleuthing on Harvey Dent to see whether the DA is as perfect as the public thinks. What he learns is that Harvey was beaten as a child by his abusive father, a former cop who, through his police connections, could avoid being arrested for his domestic violence. This manifests itself in Harvey's hatred of dirty cops like Wuertz and Ramirez.
  • Alternate Self: He has four, one on Earth-Prime, one on Earth-9, one on Earth-66 and another on Earth-97.
  • Ambiguous Start of Darkness: While he goes off the deep end and becomes Two-Face after Rachel is killed, his vicious interrogation of Thomas Schiff and the backstory given to him by the novelization hint that he was a lot closer to the edge than one would guess.
  • Anti-Villain: Of the Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds variety. Harvey was called Gotham's "White Knight" and genuinely wanted to do the right thing to help rid Gotham of crime. Then the Joker came along, murdered the woman he loved and disfigured him, causing him to undergo a psychotic break and become a nihilist focused on revenge.
  • Artistic License – Anatomy: To put it mildly, there is no way in hell that he should still be alive after what happened to his face. Even disregarding the extremely likely possibility of a systemic infection resulting from all of the exposed muscle and bone, he shouldn't be able to speak half as well as he does with half of his lips and pretty much all of his cheek gone, the teeth on that side of his mouth should've been blown out at best and shattered at worst, and with the lack of an eyelid, tear ducts, and a majority of his ocular muscles his left eye should be dangling out of its socket even if it miraculously didn't implode from the force of the explosion or melt from the resulting burns, to say nothing of how his skull remained perfectly intact after the explosion and he didn't suffer any lingering brain damage (barring his descent into villainy which can be more chalked up to rage and vengeance than neurological damage). But he sure does look terrifying with all of that damage and scarring, doesn't he?
  • Awful Truth: No one knows it was Harvey who murdered 4 people (at least 2 of whom died onscreen) and tried to kill a child... until Bane spills the beans eight years later in Rises.
  • Ax-Crazy: Became one after his transformation as Two-Face, where he practically lost his mind and becomes an unhinged killer that has taken his killing spree way too far.
  • Batman Gambit: Waving the White Frag at a press conference in order to lure the Joker into a police trap.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Revenge turns even the nicest person into something they never thought they would ever become.
  • Beyond Redemption: A tragic example. Batman and Gordon try to reason with him, but Harvey is too far gone to be reasoned with
  • Big "SHUT UP!": He delivers these to the Dirty Cops that sold out him and Rachel.
    • He delivers one directly to Wuertz when he tries to evade Dent's interrogation.
    • When Ramirez tries to justify her actions, Dent shoots her down with a sharp "Don't!"

  • Black-and-White Insanity: Deconstructed. Harvey's rigid moral code tends to make him insufferable to work with because he can't handle shades of grey and everyone in Gotham is Grey, including him in the end.
  • Break the Badass: When he learns that Rachel died.
  • Broken Ace: To the public, Harvey Dent is the handsome, perfect, legally operating DA. But Harvey is actually disliked by the rest of the police force due to his unrealistically high standards and the level of corruption in Gotham. Even Gordon finds working with Harvey difficult. Batman and Rachel are the only people who like him as both a person and as a colleague. And, you know, that whole "going insane and becoming Two-Face" thing. That puts a damper on the image a bit.
  • Broken Pedestal: His posthumous reputation as a hero to the people of Gotham is destroyed when Bane publicly reveals his crimes.
  • Cassandra Truth: Harvey warns Gordon that there are corrupt people in his department, name-dropping Wuertz and Ramirez specifically, but Gordon deflects the issue. Not only was Harvey right about both of them being corrupt, they're the ones who delivered him and Rachel to the Joker on Maroni's orders, resulting in Harvey's disfigurement and Rachel's death. Unlike most examples, Harvey calls Gordon out for this later on, specifically telling him that he doesn't understand why he had to lose everything when he was right all along while Gordon, the man who never believed him, gets to keep his family.
  • Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: The name "Two-Face" is only mentioned once, as a derogatory nickname given to Harvey before his transformation (though for the sake of Symbolism, the nickname is revealed just before the audience sees his disfigured face).
  • Composite Character: He takes a few character traits from Jason Todd. He was a heroic person with a close relationship with Bruce until a bad experience with the Joker caused him to snap and become a murderous vigilante. Ironic since Harvey killed Jason's father in the comics.
  • Dark Secret: Harvey embodies this trope in a way; if Gotham ever found out their "White Knight" had murdered 4 people (2 onscreen) and tried to kill a child, it could let hundreds of criminals back on the street and destroy the city's spirit. Which is exactly what Bane has in mind.
  • Dark Messiah: After the Joker's Break Them by Talking he takes the law into his own hands. His new form of justice is brutal.
  • Death by Adaptation: He doesn't die in the comics.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Rachel's death is what causes him to take justice into his own hands.
  • Death Seeker: There are some light implications he becomes this after Rachel's death and his descent into madness.
    Two-Face: You think I want to escape from this? There is no escape from this!
    • Not to mention how during the stand-off between him, Gordon, and Batman, Harvey has no problem putting his gun to his own head after he's convinced to point his gun at the three people responsible for Rachel's death and it's strongly implied if the coin had come up the other way, he'd have shot himself without any hesitation.
  • Deuteragonist: In The Dark Knight. He gets just as much focus as Batman and has the more dynamic character arc, to the point Word of God referred to him as the film's real protagonist.
  • Disney Villain Death: How he dies at the end of the second film.
  • Dragon Their Feet: Subverted as he doesn't actually work for the Joker, but his is the final confrontation after the Joker has been captured. Also downplayed as the Joker would have won had Batman not decided to take the fall for Dent's crimes, thus making Dent's defeat also the Joker's defeat.
  • Enemy Eats Your Lunch: He guzzles down Wuertz's whiskey shot before shooting him.
  • Evil Former Friend: Towards Wayne and Gordon.
  • Evil Virtues: Honor. Despite his anger at those involved in Rachel's death, he will spare them if the coin tells them to. Ramirez could vouch for that, and Maroni would have too...if Harvey didn't shoot the driver.
  • Evil Is Visceral: His burned face.
  • Eyes Are Unbreakable: He doesn't even have a left eyelid anymore, and yet the eye remains there seemingly unfazed and unblinded.
  • Face–Heel Turn: After Rachel dies, he kills four people (at least two of whose deaths were confirmed onscreen) and nearly kills Gordon's son all on the basis of coin flips.
  • Facial Horror: After an explosion caused by The Joker burns half his face off.
  • Fallen Hero: After he loses Rachel, half his face and is visited by the Joker in the hospital for a little therapeutic talk.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: A dark variant when he goes back for his half-burned suit.
  • The Fatalist: After Rachel kicks the bucket and Joker encourages his Face–Heel Turn, the newly christened Two-Face firmly believes this. Sure, he does have a right to hate the dirty cops who sent him and Rachel to their fates, but in the end, in his eyes, fate is the operative word. Fate can be unpredictable and illogical, but Two-Face sees it as ultimately fair. After all, he said himself that his and Rachel's lives hung on a 50/50 chance - so to him, it's only fair to give everyone else those odds. Even when Maroni offers him info on who picked up Rachel in exchange for his life, Two-Face only says "Can't hurt your chances", and only manages to kill him by coin-judging the driver.
    Two-Face: The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair. His son's got the same chance she had. 50/50.
  • Foil: To Batman/Bruce, Gordon, and The Joker.
    • He is the white Knight to Batman's dark Knight. Bruce himself sees him as a superior successor. But the truth is, between both of them, the truly incorruptible one is Batman. They both lose what is most valuable to them, but Bruce manages to hold on into doing the right thing, and instead of becoming a murderer, he brings the Joker in alive. By contrast, Harvey goes completely insane and goes forth in a rampage.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face is inevitable in every adaptation, but it's still a major revelation about two-thirds into the film.
  • Four Is Death: Of the "five dead, two of them cops", he killed four of them, including the two cops. He was the fifth and final casualty of his rampage.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric (Shares this with Bane.)
  • Freudian Excuse: The reason why he is so determined to root out corruption within the Police Department was because he was beaten as a child by his father; since his father was an ex-cop, the police never did anything about it.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Half of his face ends up like a very big scar and yet is still less than the scars that he suffers inside.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: At first, before his Face–Heel Turn.
  • Heartbroken Badass: After Rachel's death.
  • Hello, Attorney!: Played by Aaron Eckhart, this was inevitable.
  • Heroic BSoD: All the scenes in the hospital after he finds out what happened are just him on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: He Foreshadows this with the aforementioned quote above. In the end, his quest to end the mob's reign over Gotham City results in him losing everything and becoming exactly the kind of man he once tried to bring down.
  • Ideal Hero: To the point both Batman and Gordon admit that Harvey was the hero Gotham needed. He's idealistic, noble, charismatic, and capable of taking down the mob by working within the law rather than resorting to vigilante work to do it. It's deconstructed once he has a Face–Heel Turn; the two decide that the ideal he stood for was worth protecting and frame Batman for his crimes.
  • I Am Spartacus: Did this to save Batman's skin in the middle of the film; was eventually released after they found out it was part of a gambit to bait and capture the Joker.
  • Iconic Item: The coin he flips to make major decisions. Both sides are heads, so he always knows the outcome — up until the explosion that burns off half his face and damages one side. He then starts flipping it to decide which of victims to kill.
  • Ignored Epiphany: Batman explains to Harvey at the climax that the Joker picked on him because "he wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall." For a brief moment, Harvey has horror flash across his face, as he replies, "And he was right." Then he goes on anyway to try and kill his former three allies by coin toss. Although to be fair to him, he does judge Batman and himself first before going after Gordon's son, so that could be seen as the last goodness of Harvey trying to stop himself from killing the boy.
  • Internal Affairs: He was formerly a member, which is the reason his reputation as shot amongst the GCPD. It's implied his efforts as an Internal Reformist there helped propel him to being District Attorney.
  • Internal Reformist: He's working inside the Justice Department to help stop Gotham's corruption from within. He was also formerly a member of Internal Affairs, having attempted to serve as this in the GCPD which helped worsen his reputation amongst the mostly corrupt department.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Courtesy of Rachel's death.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: When he becomes a Knight Templar his sense of morality gets screwy. First he goes after Wuertz, who was an asshole, and kills him. Ok, brutal, but understandable. Then he goes after Maroni and Ramirez, who had a part on it, but they weren't that evil (Maroni rats out the Joker, and Ramirez only did it because her mother was in the hospital and threatened). Both of them get face (although Dent shoots Maroni's driver and knocks Ramirez out). Until there, his actions are more or less what you might expect of him after all he went through... But then he decides to target Gordon's family, who are innocent in the matter (Rachel was Harvey's number 2, and well, with her relation with Batman, she was inside the conflict one way or the other), and threatens to shoot his son, all because he wants to make Gordon suffer like he did (he claims that it is about fairness...but there is nothing fair in what he is doing). While the first three acts can be considered the actions of a Well-Intentioned Extremist or a vigilante, the last one falls square into villainy.
  • Kick the Dog: Going after Gordon's family. While Wuertz and Ramirez were corrupt cops and Maroni was a mob boss, these people are completely innocent and had no involvement in what happened to him and Rachel.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Discussed, as he's referred to as "Gotham's white knight", but ultimately becomes a Knight Templar after giving in to his desires for revenge along with a twisted nihilistic point of view.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: That square heroic chin. Highlighted when Natascha holds a menu over his face while speculating how he could be Batman.
  • Large Ham: He's hardly bombastic and loud by default, but he does have a noticeable tendency to have sudden fits of Suddenly Shouting when he gets riled up. It tends to come off as just a tad melodramatic.
    (Harvey is interrogating one of the Joker's thugs by threatening to shoot him if he doesn't talk)
    Joker's Thug: You wouldn't.
    Harvey: (suddenly screaming) I WOULDN'T!!

    (Batman has just confessed that he's turning himself in so that no more people will get killed by the Joker to flush him out)
    Harvey: You can't. You can't give in. YOU CAN'T GIVE IN!!

    Harvey: Who picked up Rachel, Wuertz?
    Wuertz: Must have been Maroni's men.
    Harvey: (slams the table) SHUT UP!

    Batman: You don't want to hurt the boy, Harvey.
    Harvey: It's not about what I want, IT'S ABOUT WHAT'S FAIR!!! YOU THOUGHT WE COULD BE DECENT MEN! IN AN INDECENT TIME! ... But you were wrong.
  • Lawman Gone Bad: After the Joker is done with him. Mayor Garcia warns him about the fallout of this happening: the 549 mobsters he nailed would walk, and it is subtly hinted that afterwards, Dent would be fired and Mayor Garcia would resign in disgrace.
    Mayor Garcia: If they get anything on you, those criminals will be back on the streets, followed swiftly by you and me.
  • Loophole Abuse: This short exchange sums it up:
    Two-Face: (flips "heads") ...You're a lucky man.
    Maroni: (smiles)
    Two-Face: (flips again, landing on "tails") But he's not.
    Maroni: Who?
    Two-Face: (fastens seat-belt) Your driver. [shoots the driver in the back of his head through the headrest]
  • Love Makes You Evil: Rachel's death is what causes him to become Two-Face.
  • Made of Iron: Along with heavy doses of determination and hate. As Two-Face, Harvey has insane levels of endurance and could shrug off any sort of pain from his current exposed facial injuries, even downing a shot glass full of alcohol, and later survives a car crash with worse for wear. What kills him, in the end, is Batman knocking him over a building.
  • Misplaced Retribution: His entire deal throughout the film. After flipping the coin and letting the Joker (who actually orchestrated his tragedy) live, he goes after everyone who was involved in the events, no matter how weakly or by how many degrees of separation. On the one hand, he declares that luck should decide who lives and who dies while he picks out who will be tried on the other, even to the point of threatening Gordon's son (so Gordon will understand what it's like to lose the person he loves most). He reasons that the Joker was "a mad dog" and he's going after the ones who let him off the leash and the people who failed in their job to stop him before the tragedy.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Was the subject of one in Batman Begins before he actually appeared, as Bruce pretends to go on a drunken rant about "two-faced friends".
    • He's nearly shot by a Mob goon on the witness stand, but the gun misfires and he punches the guy out. This is a fakeout twist on his traditional supervillain origin, where he gets a jar of acid thrown in his face in the same setting. And the man who did it in the comics, Maroni, is in the same scene as the defendant.
  • Nice Guy: As Harvey Dent, he's a charming and affable guy, as long as you don't have to work with him.
  • No Hero to His Valet: He berates Gordon, one of the only honest cops in Gotham, for working with the rest of the corrupt police force even though the only other alternative is Batman.
  • The Paragon: Harvey is a genuinely good and idealistic man who seeks to cleanse Gotham through legitimate means. Unfortunately, he's such a good person that Joker decides that making him fall from grace would make for great fun.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: His entire M.O. post-Sanity Slippage is killing people who have committed evil, such as when he shoots Wuertz.
  • Posthumous Character: In Rises.
  • Post-Final Boss: He's this for The Dark Knight. As Two-Face, he doesn't have an army of goons like the Joker and doesn't have any weapon more powerful than a handgun. Nonetheless, the tension is kept in the film's last encounter because he's holding Gordon's family hostage and Batman has to break his one rule to stop him.
  • The Power of Hate: Harvey's rampage is powered by this. He's not in pain at all despite half his face being burned off, and survives a car crash no worse for the wear. The man is determined to kill everyone who ever worked with the mob and contributed to Rachel's death.
  • The Power of Legacy: Batman takes the blame for Harvey's crimes so Gotham can still have a hero who will inspire hope and faith.
    Batman: Gotham needs its true hero.
  • Properly Paranoid: Throughout the entirety of The Dark Knight, Dent doesn't trust Gordon's men at all, mostly because they are mostly made of Corrupt Cops and he warns Gordon to get rid of them. Wuertz and Ramirez turn out to have assisted The Joker in abducting Dent and Rachel.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After his disfigurement and Rachel's death, Dent delivers these to everyone he deems responsible.
    • He gives Gordon two (one in the hospital, and one during the final confrontation) for refusing to listen to him about the corrupt cops in his unit.
    • He calls Wuertz out on his refusal to rat out Ramirez when he clearly had no qualms about turning over Dent to Maroni.
    • When he confronts Maroni, he taunts him by mockingly threatening to harm his wife.
    • He really lets Ramirez have it for betraying Rachel's trust in her to Maroni, and refuses to listen to her explanation.
    • Finally, after spending two-thirds of the movie openly idolizing Batman for his drive to rid Gotham of the crimewave that had "created" him, he ultimately shoots Batman down (plus Gordon and even himself), stating that no matter what they do, the world will always be cruel, coarse, and corrupt.
  • Red Right Hand: His mutilated, half-burned face.
  • Revenge Before Reason: After Rachel's death he forgets all of his noble ambitions and focuses on revenge.
  • Revenge by Proxy: And the guy who actually caused her death convinces him to go after the "others responsible" - first, the corrupt cops. Then, Gordon for supposedly letting her die. And even worse, it isn't Gordon himself he goes after, but Gordon's son, because Harvey wants him to know what it feels like to lose the one he most loved, even going as far as to tell Gordon to tell the kid it's going to be all right before the end.
  • Revolvers Are for Amateurs: He's an attorney first, so his weapon of choice is a snubnosed revolver; incidentally, the same gun Bruce had before adopting his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Four people and collateral damage.
  • Sanity Slippage: Following The Joker's Break Them by Talking, he decides to take justice into his own hands.
  • Shadow Archetype: Harvey represent what Bruce could turn into if he ever lost his grip on sanity.
  • Slasher Smile: Owing to his facial scarring, he ended up doing this when holding Gordon's son hostage.
  • The Sociopath: Subverted. While he goes off the deep end, this is just because he has been driven almost completely insane. He still retains parts of his humanity, but it is not enough to stop him from doing what he does.
  • Split Personality: Averted; unlike other incarnations of the character, this Two-Face doesn't have one. Instead, he becomes more unhinged after Joker's had his fun with him. There is wrath inside of him that violently comes out, but not to the extent of developing as an alternate personality.
  • Too Cool to Live: Invoked and subverted. Harvey is more or less perfect... but, instead of killing him, the Joker burns half his face off and kills his fiancee.
  • Tragic Hero: He is Gotham's White Knight who desires to get rid of all corruption and crime of Gotham. However, he has a Fatal Flaw in the form of his love for Rachel, which is shown when he would rather die than Rachel, despite all the innocent people who are relying on him to clean up Gotham's streets. He also has another in his black and white morality. After her death at the hands of The Joker he turns into a cop-killing murderer obsessed with avenging Rachel's death, using a coin flip to determine who lives or dies regardless of morality or other factors which would have affected his decisions before.
  • Tragic Villain: His fall from grace is the end result of one tragedy after another until his mind broke.
  • Two-Faced: He had the nickname Harvey "Two-Face" at Gordon's department, even though most people consider him Gotham's "White Knight." There are signs he's more unstable underneath, like when he threatens to murder a suspect in cold-blood, it's only after he literally gets half his face burned off that he becomes completely psychotic and villainous.
  • Vigilante Man: Runs around killing people connected to Rachel's death.
  • Villain-by-Proxy Fallacy: During his rampage post-Face–Heel Turn, he goes around antagonizing the people he felt were culpable in Rachel's death. Including Commissioner Gordon, who was just about to save her had it not been for the building literally blowing up in his face. Jesus Christ, Harvey. Can't you be a little more forgiving?
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Even after his Face–Heel Turn he's all about fairness but there's no arguing that 'live or die' based on a coin toss is extreme.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Even before the Joker got his hands on him, he had a hard life as he was being abused by his dad and the police secretly treated him like dirt when he finally got his job as DA. THEN the film starts.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Knocks out Anna Ramirez with a pistol smack to the face when she gets a "good" coin toss.
  • Would Hurt a Child: It was pretty obvious that he was thinking of doing this to Gordon's son at the end of The Dark Knight if the coin toss came up bad.

    Carl Finch 

Carl Finch

Played by: Larry Holden

Appears in: Batman Begins

Harvey Dent's predecessor as Gotham City's District Attorney and Rachel's boss. Though honest, he's aware that the corruption of the city prevents him from successfully going against mob bosses like Falcone.


  • Dogged Nice Guy: Implied to have been in a relationship with Rachel, and that she's the one who broke it off.
  • In the Back: He's downed by two shots to the back.
  • Leave No Witnesses: He's shot dead by a member of the League of Shadows infiltrated in the police after finding the missing Wayne Enterprises Microwave Emitter.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Despite knowing that Falcone is untouchable, he still tries to enforce law and order.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: It's hard to be an honest DA in Gotham but he tries his best nonetheless.

    Judge Faden 

Judge Faden

Played by: Gerard Murphy

Appears in: Batman Begins

A corrupt Gotham City judge, on Carmine Falcone's payroll.


  • Corrupt Bureaucrat: A city judge paid for by a mob boss.
  • Dirty Old Man: Has a fondness for what appears to be prostitutes.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He seemed somewhat unnerved by Falcone's taunting of Bruce, but never does anything about it.
  • Fat Bastard: He has grown big on Falcone's dirty money.
  • Karma Houdini: He is never seen facing justice for his abuses of power, though it's hinted that he got deposed after Rachel turned in leverage to the D.A.'s office.
  • Large and in Charge: A fat judge.

    Janet Surillo 

Judge Janet Surillo

Played by: Nydia Rodriguez Terracina

Appears in: Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight

A Gotham City judge who is one of the few people who dare stand up against the mob.


  • Death by Looking Up: She is given an envelope with instructions for where she should drive to, after the Joker was indicating who he was targeting next. She gets to her car and opens her envelope, which only says, "Up." This causes her to look directly up, then her car promptly explodes.
  • The Long List: She reads the list of charges when the criminals are mass-rounded up
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The mob can groan all they want; she's going to be a fair judge.

Gotham City Politicians

    Anthony Garcia 

Mayor Anthony Garcia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nolanverse_garcia.png
"Go home, Gordon. The clown'll keep till morning."

Played by: Nestor Carbonell

Appears in: Why So Serious? | The Dark Knight | The Dark Knight Rises

Gotham City's young and cynical mayor. He's targeted for assassination by The Joker in The Dark Knight, though he survives. However, he is successfully assassinated by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.


  • Corrupt Politician: Averted. Despite the high levels of corruption in Gotham, the Mayor seems pretty clean if justifiably cynical.
  • The Cynic: In a town like Gotham, can you blame him?
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: In The Dark Knight Rises, the mayor is unceremoniously assassinated when the games begin after one of Bane's detonators sets off a bomb in his viewing box.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: In The Dark Knight, he approves of Gordon's decisions after the Joker blows up the hospital.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Being Nestor Carbonell, you'd probably be more surprised if he wasn't.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: In the third film, he perishes in an explosion set by Bane.
  • Tempting Fate: Does this a few times. For example, in The Dark Knight Rises, he plans to fire Gordon, given the decorated hero cop who made his name fighting crazed terrorists isn't really necessary in the now-peaceful climate. He then swaggers into Heinz Field to watch the Gotham Rogues play off against the Rapid City Monuments, blowing off reporters asking him about the thousands of cops heading down into the sewers as part of a "training exercise". As soon as kickoff occurs, Bane and his men set off their detonators, triggering the single most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history, and one of these charges sets off a blast in the mayor's viewing box that blows him and his aides to pieces.
  • Ultimate Authority Mayor: He must be if he can do something like the Harvey Dent act. Where's the city council?

    Byron Gilly 

Congressman Byron Gilly

Played by: Brett Cullen

Appears in: The Dark Knight Rises

A Congressman who tries to pick up Selina Kyle, and gets picked up by her instead.


  • All There in the Manual: In the film, he's mostly referred to as 'the Congressman' which is also what he's known as in the credits. In the novelisation, his full name is given as 'Byron Gilly'.
  • Dirty Old Man: He's over his fifties and trying to get into the pants of Selina Kyle, who is young enough to be his daughter.
  • Sleazy Politician: Cheating on his wife for one.

Alternative Title(s): The Dark Knight Saga Gotham City Administration

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