How The Dark Knight ‘tricked’ audiences

‘The Dark Knight’ is widely considered the ‘Citizen Kane’ of superhero films. The movie that helped an infantile genre grow-up and take itself seriously.

One way it became a classic was by breaking the rules of superhero movies, according to writer Jonathan Nolan (brother of director Christopher).

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes interview from the whopping ‘Dark Knight trilogy: Ultimate collector’s edition’ DVD box set, he sheds light on the classic “save them both” sequence, and how important it was to film.

The scene in question saw the Joker force Batman to choose between saving Rachel Dawes or Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey dent.

It’s a classic superhero movie dilemma also seen in ‘Spider-Man’ for example, where the Green Goblin makes Spider-Man pick between a tram full of kids or love interest Mary Jane.  Naturally, Spidey saves them both.

Explains Jonathan: “[It’s] that moment where Batman is put in the impossible situation, again that every superhero always finds himself in, from Superman onwards. Do you save the damsel in distress, your girlfriend, or the busload of civilians or the cable car full of New Yorkers or in this case your ally Harvey Dent? You’re waiting for him to magically save them both. And he doesn’t. He loses.”

“I remember sitting in that movie theatre and you could hear a pin drop. And I’ve been waiting for this moment for a couple of years, because we’d found a trope that was so blindingly obvious, which is that he’s the hero, and he’s always going to rescue everybody. But what if he doesn’t?”

Watch the rest of Nolan’s behind-the-scenes interview above.

‘The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition’ is released in the UK on October 7.

Watch Christian Bale's original Batman audition below.