10 Fascinating Film Facts about The Dark Knight you just might love!

10 Fascinating Film Facts about The Dark Knight

Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, Captain Marvel, Spiderman Far from Home, Aquaman, Captain America Civil War, Iron Man 3, Black Panther, Avengers Age of Ultron, Avengers, Avengers Infinity War, Avengers End Game – 12 comic book films have made a billion dollars worldwide, The Dark Knight was the first to do so and in fact made more than Batman Begins’ entire domestic run in only six days of release; 

2. Scare Crow brings the Fear back

Cillian Murphy became the first Batman movie villain to reprise his role in a follow up film when he appeared in The Dark Knight. Liam Neeson became the second when he appeared via flashback in The Dark Knight Rises (a film Cillian Murphy also appeared in)

3. I’d like to thank the Academy……

The Dark Knight is largely credited as being the main reason the Academy Award for Best Picture went from 5 nominations to 10 such was the uproar at the film not being nominated for the award. Until Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix was nominated in 11 categories the Dark Knight held the record for Oscar nominations for a comic book film with 8

4. Should have been Rated Higher?

The film was rated a 12A in the UK meaning that those under 12 could only be admitted to the cinema with an adult over the age of 12 but should it have been given a higher rating? According to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) this film received the most complaints of the decade 2000 to 2010 from British viewers accounting for a whopping 42% of all complaint letters received in the year of the film’s release in 2008

5. Could have been Matt

Aaron Eckhart became the third actor to play Harvey Dent on the big screen after Billy Dee Williams and Tommy Lee Jones but was only able to play the role after Matt Damon was forced to turn it down due to a scheduling conflict. The actor was filming Invictus (starring fellow Dark Knight actor Morgan Freeman) at the time and was unable to commit to the part so was forced to pull out paving the way for Eckhart to take the role

6. From Gotham City, Worldwide – International Bat

The movie was primarily filmed in Chicago Illinois in the United States but filming also took place in the UK in Bedfordshire and London (at the Criterion Restaurant for Bruce Wayne’s restaurant, the Farmiloe Building for the Gotham City Police Department interiors and Battersea Power Station for an explosion scene) and in Hong Kong. The scene where Batman retrieves Lau from Hong Kong marked the first time in a Batman film that Batman (not Bruce Wayne) operated outside of the confines of Gotham City; 

7. Heath did more than just play the Joker

The iconic scene where The Joker claps as Gordon was promoted was not in the script and was in fact improvised by Heath Ledger. It came off so well that Christopher Nolan decided to keep it in the finished film. Heath Ledger also directed both homemade videos sent to the GCN network having full trust in him to do what he wanted and be confident of the results; 

8. Can’t forget about the kids

During the hospital scene The Joker is wearing a nurse’s uniform with the name ‘Matilda’ on the name tag. Matilda is also the name of Heath Ledger’s daughter; 

9. So much Drama, so little time

The film takes place over the span of nine days and nights making it by far the shortest duration of the trilogy with Batman Begins taking place over a few decades and The Dark Night Rises taking place over the span of many months; and 

10. Always a Mystery behind the scenes

A nod to our own ‘Mysteree’ here – the character of Coleman Reese (the Wayne Enterprise employee who discovers Batman’s identity as Bruce Wayne) is rumoured to be an allusion to classic Batman villain The Riddler. The Riddler’s real name is Edward Nygma (‘E Nygma’ or ‘enigma’) the same way Coleman Reese’s name is a play on the mysterious (‘Mr. Reese’ or ‘mysteries’ with Lucious Fox referring to him as ‘Mr. Reese’ on multiple occasions). Both characters worked at Wayne Enterprises and both found out the real identity of Batman and tried to blackmail him.