The Dark Knight story
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the second installment of Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale and supported by Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. In the film, Bruce Wayne / Batman, Police Lieutenant James Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent form an alliance to dismantle organized crime in Gotham City, but are menaced by an anarchistic mastermind known as the Joker, who seeks to undermine Batman's influence and turn the city to chaos.
34 total · 2 choice · 15 major · 17 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| sacrifice for one's people | choice | Batman contemplated giving himself up to save innocents in Gotham from further terror. Finally he took the blame for Harvey Dent's crimes so as to leave Gotham with a role model. |
| vigilante justice | choice | Batman undertook to rid Gotham City of organized crime with the tacit support of law enforcement. Batman was contrasted with copy cat vigilantes. The police cooperated clandestinely with Batman as he is legally an outlaw. |
| compromising one's ethical principles vs. great need | major | The Joker rigged two ferries to both explode. One carried ordinary citizens, the other prisoners. He supplied the passengers on each ferry with a detonator to blow up the other ferry. Whichever people activated the detonator first were told they would survive. If neither group activated their detonator, the Joker would blow up both ferries at midnight. High stakes ethical debates were had on both sides over what to do. |
| coping with being disfigured | major | Harvey Dent lost the left side of his head and face in a fire, and his morality. The Joker had disfiguring scars on his face, and hints were made that this was the reason behind his wearing of clown make up. |
| coping with the death of a lover | major | Harvey Dent lost his morality after his lover Rachel's tragic death and became obsessed with punishing those who he held responsible. |
| facing a hostage situation | major | A key plot element was the Joker holding two ferry boats full of people at hostage under the demand that Batman turn himself into to face justice under the law. There were various briefer hostage situations as well. |
| law enforcement | major | Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, with the support of the police, was on a crusade against organized crime. |
| love triangle | major | Bruce Wayne had feelings for Harvey Dent's significant other, Rachel. |
| organized crime | major | Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent was on a crusade against organized crime. In particular, they tried to bring the mob boss Sal Maroni to justice. A black crime group led by Gambol, and a foreign one led by Chechen were operating in the city. Lau was an international criminal. The head of the Falconi crime family was on trial. |
| psychopathy | major | The Joker clearly had no feelings for his many victims that he dispatched with glee. |