The Dark Knight
2008
2008
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The Dark Knight
Directed by:
Christopher Nolan
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
Based onCharacters appearing in comic books published
by DC Comics
Starring
Music by
CinematographyWally Pfister
Edited byLee Smith
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
Running time152 minutes
Plot
A gang of criminals rob a Gotham City mob bank, double-crossing and murdering each other until there is only one left: The Joker, who escapes with the money.
Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to rid Gotham of organized crime. Bruce Wayne is impressed with Dent's idealism and offers to support his career; he believes that, with Dent as Gotham's protector, he can give up being Batman and lead a normal life with Rachel Dawes—even though she and Dent are dating.
Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol and the Chechen hold a videoconference with corrupt accountant Lau, who has taken their funds and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts, warns them that Batman is unhindered by the law, and offers to kill him in exchange for half of their money, but Gambol puts a bounty on the Joker instead after he insults him. After escaping and smuggling himself as a corpse, the Joker kills Gambol and takes over his gang. The mob ultimately decides to take the Joker up on his offer.
Dent arrests the entire mob, while Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and brings him back to Gotham to testify against them. The Joker threatens to keep killing people unless Batman reveals his identity, and starts by murdering Police Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trial. The Joker also tries to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia, but Gordon sacrifices himself to stop the assassination. Dent learns that Rachel is the next target.
Bruce decides to reveal his secret identity. Before he can, however, Dent announces that he is Batman. Dent is taken into protective custody, but the Joker appears and attacks the convoy. Batman comes to Dent's rescue and Gordon, who faked his death, arrests the Joker and is promoted to Commissioner. Rachel and Dent are escorted away by Michael Wuertz and Anna Ramirez, detectives on Maroni's payroll. Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that Rachel and Dent have been trapped in separate locations rigged with explosives. Batman races to save Rachel, while Gordon goes to save Dent. Batman arrives at the building, realizing that the Joker sent him to Dent's location instead. Both buildings explode, killing Rachel and disfiguring half of Dent's face. The Joker escapes the jail with Lau.
Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go public with the information. After observing the unpredictability of the Joker, Maroni informs the Joker's location to Commissioner Gordon. The Joker sets fire to the mob's money, burning Lau alive in the process, and kills the Chechen. Not wanting Reese's revelation to interfere with his plans, the Joker threatens to destroy a hospital unless someone kills Reese. Gordon orders the evacuation of all the hospitals in Gotham and goes to secure Reese. The Joker finds Dent in Gotham General and manipulates him into seeking revenge for Rachel's death. The Joker then destroys the hospital and escapes with a busload of hostages. Dent goes on a killing spree based on a coin flip and targets people he holds responsible for Rachel's death, including Wuertz (who is killed) and Ramirez (who is spared). While in Maroni's car, Dent shoots his driver, presumably killing Maroni as well.
After announcing Gotham will be subject to his rule come nightfall, The Joker rigs two evacuating ferries with explosives; one containing civilians and the other containing prisoners. He says that he will blow them both up by midnight, but will let one live if the passengers of either boat blows up the other. Batman finds the Joker with a sonar device that spies on the entire city, with the reluctant help of Lucius Fox. Both the civilians and the prisoners refuse to kill each other, and Batman apprehends the Joker after a fight. Before the police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge.
Gordon arrives at the building where Rachel died, where Dent judges his fate, along with his own and Batman's, by flipping a coin. He spares himself, shoots Batman, and tries to kill Gordon's son. Before he can, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building to his death. Batman persuades Gordon to preserve Dent's heroic image by holding Batman responsible for the killing spree. As the police launch a manhunt for Batman, Gordon destroys the Bat-signal, Fox watches as the sonar device self-destructs, and Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter from Rachel about her choice to marry Dent.
Cast
Cast and crew of The Dark Knight at the European premiere in London. From left to right: Director Christopher Nolan, producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven, actors Monique Gabriela Curnen, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale. A billionaire socialite who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld as a bat-masked vigilante hailed as its "Dark Knight" at night. Bale said he was confident in his choice to return in the role because of the positive response to his portrayal in Batman Begins. He continued training in the Keysi Fighting Method and performed many of his own stunts, but did not gain as much muscle as in the previous film because the new Batsuit allowed him to move with greater agility. Bale described Batman's dilemma as whether "[his crusade is] something that has an end. Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child, takes an effort after a while, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons." He added, "Now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it." Bale felt Batman's personality had been strongly established in the first film, so it was unlikely his character would be overshadowed by the villains, stating: "I have no problem with competing with someone else. And that's going to make a better movie." A psychotic criminal mastermind portraying himself as an "agent of chaos", who rises to dominant power by terrorizing Gotham and plunging it into anarchy. Before Ledger was confirmed for the role in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme,Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in it. However, Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past (including unsuccessfully approaching Ledger for the role of Batman in Batman Begins) and was agreeable to Ledger's chaotic interpretation of the character. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he had realized a way to make the character work that was consistent with the film's tone: he described his Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."In the film, the Joker has a Glasgow smile, and his trademark chalk-white skin and red lips are makeup rather than the result of chemical bleaching, as in the traditional portrayal of the character. Throughout the film, the Joker states his desire to upset social order through crime, and comes to define himself by his conflict with Batman. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike Jack Nicholson's character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he "really tried to read and put it down." Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as "a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether." "There's a bit of everything in him. There's nothing that consistent," Ledger said, and added, "There are a few more surprises to him." Ledger was allowed to shoot and mostly direct the videos the Joker sends out as warnings. Each take Ledger made was different from the last. Nolan was impressed enough with the first video shoot that he chose to not be present when Ledger shot the video with a kidnapped reporter (Anthony Michael Hall).On January 22, 2008, after he had completed filming The Dark Knight, Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose, leading to intense press attention and memorial tributes. "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day [during editing]," Nolan recalled. "But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." All of Ledger's scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no "digital effects" to alter Ledger's actual performance posthumously. Nolan has dedicated the film in part to Ledger's memory. A lieutenant in the Gotham City Police Department and one of the city's few honest police officers, who forms a tenuous, unofficial alliance with Batman and Dent and is given the position of Police Commissioner by the city's mayor following the recent commissioner's assassination. Oldman described his character as "incorruptible, virtuous, strong, heroic, but understated." Nolan explained that "The Long Halloween has a great, triangular relationship between Harvey Dent and Gordon and Batman, and that's something we very much drew from." Oldman added that "Gordon has a great deal of admiration for him at the end, but [Batman] is more than ever now the dark knight, the outsider. I'm intrigued now to see: If there is a third one, what he's going to do?"On the possibility of another sequel, he said that "returning to [the role] is not dependent on whether the role was bigger than the one before." Gotham's district attorney, hailed as the city's "White Knight". Nolan and David S. Goyer had originally considered using Dent in Batman Begins, but they replaced him with the new character Rachel Dawes when they realized they "couldn't do him justice." Before Eckhart was cast in February 2007, Liev Schreiber, Josh Lucas, and Ryan Phillippe had expressed interest in the role, while Mark Ruffalo auditioned. Matt Damon stated that he was considered for the role, but could not accept due to scheduling conflicts. Hugh Jackman was also considered for the part. Nolan chose Eckhart, whom he had considered for the lead role in Memento, citing his "extraordinary" ability as an actor, his embodiment of "that kind of chiselled, American hero quality" projected by Robert Redford, and his subtextual "edge." Eckhart was "interested in good guys gone wrong," and had played corrupt men in films such as The Black Dahlia, Thank You for Smoking, and In the Company of Men. Whereas Two-Face is depicted as a crime boss in most characterizations, Nolan chose to portray him as a twisted vigilante to emphasize his role as Batman's counterpart. Eckhart explained, "[He] is still true to himself. He's a crime fighter, he's not killing good people. He's not a bad guy, not purely." For Dent, Eckhart "kept on thinking about the Kennedys," particularly Robert F. Kennedy, who was "idealistic, held a grudge and took on the Mob." He had his hair lightened and styled to make him appear more dashing. Nolan told Eckhart to not make Dent's Two-Face persona "jokey with slurping sounds or ticks." Gotham City's assistant district attorney and Bruce's childhood friend, who is one of the few people to know Batman's true identity. Gyllenhaal took over the role from Katie Holmes, who played the part in Batman Begins. In August 2005, Holmes was reportedly planning to reprise the role, but she eventually turned it down to do Mad Money with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah. By March 2007, Gyllenhaal was in "final talks" for the part. Gyllenhaal has acknowledged her character is a damsel in distress to an extent, but says Nolan sought ways to empower her character, so "Rachel's really clear about what's important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the many conflicted characters whom she has previously portrayed. Bruce's trusted butler and confidant, who supplies useful advice to Bruce and likeness as a father figure, leading him to be labeled "Batman's batman". The recently promoted CEO of Wayne Enterprises who, now fully aware of his employer's double life, serves more directly as Bruce's armorer for the Batsuit in addition to his corporate duties. Monique Gabriela Curnen and Ron Dean portray Anna Ramirez and Michael Wuertz respectively, corrupt detectives in Gordon's unit. Nestor Carbonell appears as Anthony Garcia, the mayor of Gotham. Ng Chin Han portrays Lau, a corrupt Chinese LSI Holdings accountant at Wayne Enterprises and Triad boss. Eric Roberts plays Sal Maroni, an Italian mafia boss who takes over Carmine Falcone's mob, and Ritchie Coster portrays the Chechen, a Chechen mafia boss in charge of drug-trafficking for the mob. Anthony Michael Hall appears as Mike Engel, a Gotham Cable News reporter, and Keith Szarabajka portrays Gerard Stephens, a detective in Gordon's unit. Joshua Harto plays Coleman Reese, an M&A law accountant at Wayne Enterprises who deduces Bruce's persona of Batman from Fox and plans to reveal it to Gotham. Melinda McGraw appears as Barbara Gordon, Gordon's wife, while Nathan Gamble appears as James Gordon, Jr., Gordon's ten-year-old son. Michael Jai White portrays Gambol, a Nigerian mafia boss in charge of illegal gambling and extortion for the mob. Colin McFarlane reprises his role as Gillian B. Loeb, the Police Commissioner of Gotham.
The film's supporting cast includes Nydia Rodriguez Terracina as Judge Janet Surrillo, and Tom "Tiny" Lister, Jr. as a prison inmate on one of the bomb-rigged ferries. William Fichtner played the Gotham National Bank manager, and Cillian Murphy returns in a cameo as Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, who is apprehended early on in the film by Batman.
Musician Dwight Yoakam was approached for the roles of either the manager or a corrupt cop, but he chose instead to focus on his album Dwight Sings Buck. United States Senator Patrick Leahy—a fan of Batman comics who was previously an extra in the 1997 film Batman & Robin and also was a guest voice actor on Batman: The Animated Series—appears as a guest at Bruce Wayne's party. Matt Skiba, lead singer of Chicago punk band Alkaline Trio, made a small appearance in the film. David Dastmalchian appears as Thomas Schiff, the fake Guard of Honor who disrupts Loeb's funeral and is later held at gunpoint by Dent.
Directed by:
Christopher Nolan
Produced by
- Emma Thomas
- Charles Roven
- Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by
- Jonathan Nolan
- Christopher Nolan
Story by
- Christopher Nolan
- David S. Goyer
Based onCharacters appearing in comic books published
by DC Comics
Starring
Music by
CinematographyWally Pfister
Edited byLee Smith
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
- July 14, 2008(New York City)
- July 18, 2008(United States)
- July 25, 2008(United Kingdom)
Running time152 minutes
Plot
A gang of criminals rob a Gotham City mob bank, double-crossing and murdering each other until there is only one left: The Joker, who escapes with the money.
Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to rid Gotham of organized crime. Bruce Wayne is impressed with Dent's idealism and offers to support his career; he believes that, with Dent as Gotham's protector, he can give up being Batman and lead a normal life with Rachel Dawes—even though she and Dent are dating.
Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol and the Chechen hold a videoconference with corrupt accountant Lau, who has taken their funds and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts, warns them that Batman is unhindered by the law, and offers to kill him in exchange for half of their money, but Gambol puts a bounty on the Joker instead after he insults him. After escaping and smuggling himself as a corpse, the Joker kills Gambol and takes over his gang. The mob ultimately decides to take the Joker up on his offer.
Dent arrests the entire mob, while Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and brings him back to Gotham to testify against them. The Joker threatens to keep killing people unless Batman reveals his identity, and starts by murdering Police Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trial. The Joker also tries to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia, but Gordon sacrifices himself to stop the assassination. Dent learns that Rachel is the next target.
Bruce decides to reveal his secret identity. Before he can, however, Dent announces that he is Batman. Dent is taken into protective custody, but the Joker appears and attacks the convoy. Batman comes to Dent's rescue and Gordon, who faked his death, arrests the Joker and is promoted to Commissioner. Rachel and Dent are escorted away by Michael Wuertz and Anna Ramirez, detectives on Maroni's payroll. Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that Rachel and Dent have been trapped in separate locations rigged with explosives. Batman races to save Rachel, while Gordon goes to save Dent. Batman arrives at the building, realizing that the Joker sent him to Dent's location instead. Both buildings explode, killing Rachel and disfiguring half of Dent's face. The Joker escapes the jail with Lau.
Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go public with the information. After observing the unpredictability of the Joker, Maroni informs the Joker's location to Commissioner Gordon. The Joker sets fire to the mob's money, burning Lau alive in the process, and kills the Chechen. Not wanting Reese's revelation to interfere with his plans, the Joker threatens to destroy a hospital unless someone kills Reese. Gordon orders the evacuation of all the hospitals in Gotham and goes to secure Reese. The Joker finds Dent in Gotham General and manipulates him into seeking revenge for Rachel's death. The Joker then destroys the hospital and escapes with a busload of hostages. Dent goes on a killing spree based on a coin flip and targets people he holds responsible for Rachel's death, including Wuertz (who is killed) and Ramirez (who is spared). While in Maroni's car, Dent shoots his driver, presumably killing Maroni as well.
After announcing Gotham will be subject to his rule come nightfall, The Joker rigs two evacuating ferries with explosives; one containing civilians and the other containing prisoners. He says that he will blow them both up by midnight, but will let one live if the passengers of either boat blows up the other. Batman finds the Joker with a sonar device that spies on the entire city, with the reluctant help of Lucius Fox. Both the civilians and the prisoners refuse to kill each other, and Batman apprehends the Joker after a fight. Before the police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge.
Gordon arrives at the building where Rachel died, where Dent judges his fate, along with his own and Batman's, by flipping a coin. He spares himself, shoots Batman, and tries to kill Gordon's son. Before he can, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building to his death. Batman persuades Gordon to preserve Dent's heroic image by holding Batman responsible for the killing spree. As the police launch a manhunt for Batman, Gordon destroys the Bat-signal, Fox watches as the sonar device self-destructs, and Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter from Rachel about her choice to marry Dent.
Cast
Cast and crew of The Dark Knight at the European premiere in London. From left to right: Director Christopher Nolan, producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven, actors Monique Gabriela Curnen, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale. A billionaire socialite who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld as a bat-masked vigilante hailed as its "Dark Knight" at night. Bale said he was confident in his choice to return in the role because of the positive response to his portrayal in Batman Begins. He continued training in the Keysi Fighting Method and performed many of his own stunts, but did not gain as much muscle as in the previous film because the new Batsuit allowed him to move with greater agility. Bale described Batman's dilemma as whether "[his crusade is] something that has an end. Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child, takes an effort after a while, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons." He added, "Now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it." Bale felt Batman's personality had been strongly established in the first film, so it was unlikely his character would be overshadowed by the villains, stating: "I have no problem with competing with someone else. And that's going to make a better movie." A psychotic criminal mastermind portraying himself as an "agent of chaos", who rises to dominant power by terrorizing Gotham and plunging it into anarchy. Before Ledger was confirmed for the role in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme,Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in it. However, Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past (including unsuccessfully approaching Ledger for the role of Batman in Batman Begins) and was agreeable to Ledger's chaotic interpretation of the character. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he had realized a way to make the character work that was consistent with the film's tone: he described his Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."In the film, the Joker has a Glasgow smile, and his trademark chalk-white skin and red lips are makeup rather than the result of chemical bleaching, as in the traditional portrayal of the character. Throughout the film, the Joker states his desire to upset social order through crime, and comes to define himself by his conflict with Batman. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike Jack Nicholson's character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he "really tried to read and put it down." Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as "a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether." "There's a bit of everything in him. There's nothing that consistent," Ledger said, and added, "There are a few more surprises to him." Ledger was allowed to shoot and mostly direct the videos the Joker sends out as warnings. Each take Ledger made was different from the last. Nolan was impressed enough with the first video shoot that he chose to not be present when Ledger shot the video with a kidnapped reporter (Anthony Michael Hall).On January 22, 2008, after he had completed filming The Dark Knight, Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose, leading to intense press attention and memorial tributes. "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day [during editing]," Nolan recalled. "But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." All of Ledger's scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no "digital effects" to alter Ledger's actual performance posthumously. Nolan has dedicated the film in part to Ledger's memory. A lieutenant in the Gotham City Police Department and one of the city's few honest police officers, who forms a tenuous, unofficial alliance with Batman and Dent and is given the position of Police Commissioner by the city's mayor following the recent commissioner's assassination. Oldman described his character as "incorruptible, virtuous, strong, heroic, but understated." Nolan explained that "The Long Halloween has a great, triangular relationship between Harvey Dent and Gordon and Batman, and that's something we very much drew from." Oldman added that "Gordon has a great deal of admiration for him at the end, but [Batman] is more than ever now the dark knight, the outsider. I'm intrigued now to see: If there is a third one, what he's going to do?"On the possibility of another sequel, he said that "returning to [the role] is not dependent on whether the role was bigger than the one before." Gotham's district attorney, hailed as the city's "White Knight". Nolan and David S. Goyer had originally considered using Dent in Batman Begins, but they replaced him with the new character Rachel Dawes when they realized they "couldn't do him justice." Before Eckhart was cast in February 2007, Liev Schreiber, Josh Lucas, and Ryan Phillippe had expressed interest in the role, while Mark Ruffalo auditioned. Matt Damon stated that he was considered for the role, but could not accept due to scheduling conflicts. Hugh Jackman was also considered for the part. Nolan chose Eckhart, whom he had considered for the lead role in Memento, citing his "extraordinary" ability as an actor, his embodiment of "that kind of chiselled, American hero quality" projected by Robert Redford, and his subtextual "edge." Eckhart was "interested in good guys gone wrong," and had played corrupt men in films such as The Black Dahlia, Thank You for Smoking, and In the Company of Men. Whereas Two-Face is depicted as a crime boss in most characterizations, Nolan chose to portray him as a twisted vigilante to emphasize his role as Batman's counterpart. Eckhart explained, "[He] is still true to himself. He's a crime fighter, he's not killing good people. He's not a bad guy, not purely." For Dent, Eckhart "kept on thinking about the Kennedys," particularly Robert F. Kennedy, who was "idealistic, held a grudge and took on the Mob." He had his hair lightened and styled to make him appear more dashing. Nolan told Eckhart to not make Dent's Two-Face persona "jokey with slurping sounds or ticks." Gotham City's assistant district attorney and Bruce's childhood friend, who is one of the few people to know Batman's true identity. Gyllenhaal took over the role from Katie Holmes, who played the part in Batman Begins. In August 2005, Holmes was reportedly planning to reprise the role, but she eventually turned it down to do Mad Money with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah. By March 2007, Gyllenhaal was in "final talks" for the part. Gyllenhaal has acknowledged her character is a damsel in distress to an extent, but says Nolan sought ways to empower her character, so "Rachel's really clear about what's important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the many conflicted characters whom she has previously portrayed. Bruce's trusted butler and confidant, who supplies useful advice to Bruce and likeness as a father figure, leading him to be labeled "Batman's batman". The recently promoted CEO of Wayne Enterprises who, now fully aware of his employer's double life, serves more directly as Bruce's armorer for the Batsuit in addition to his corporate duties. Monique Gabriela Curnen and Ron Dean portray Anna Ramirez and Michael Wuertz respectively, corrupt detectives in Gordon's unit. Nestor Carbonell appears as Anthony Garcia, the mayor of Gotham. Ng Chin Han portrays Lau, a corrupt Chinese LSI Holdings accountant at Wayne Enterprises and Triad boss. Eric Roberts plays Sal Maroni, an Italian mafia boss who takes over Carmine Falcone's mob, and Ritchie Coster portrays the Chechen, a Chechen mafia boss in charge of drug-trafficking for the mob. Anthony Michael Hall appears as Mike Engel, a Gotham Cable News reporter, and Keith Szarabajka portrays Gerard Stephens, a detective in Gordon's unit. Joshua Harto plays Coleman Reese, an M&A law accountant at Wayne Enterprises who deduces Bruce's persona of Batman from Fox and plans to reveal it to Gotham. Melinda McGraw appears as Barbara Gordon, Gordon's wife, while Nathan Gamble appears as James Gordon, Jr., Gordon's ten-year-old son. Michael Jai White portrays Gambol, a Nigerian mafia boss in charge of illegal gambling and extortion for the mob. Colin McFarlane reprises his role as Gillian B. Loeb, the Police Commissioner of Gotham.
The film's supporting cast includes Nydia Rodriguez Terracina as Judge Janet Surrillo, and Tom "Tiny" Lister, Jr. as a prison inmate on one of the bomb-rigged ferries. William Fichtner played the Gotham National Bank manager, and Cillian Murphy returns in a cameo as Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, who is apprehended early on in the film by Batman.
Musician Dwight Yoakam was approached for the roles of either the manager or a corrupt cop, but he chose instead to focus on his album Dwight Sings Buck. United States Senator Patrick Leahy—a fan of Batman comics who was previously an extra in the 1997 film Batman & Robin and also was a guest voice actor on Batman: The Animated Series—appears as a guest at Bruce Wayne's party. Matt Skiba, lead singer of Chicago punk band Alkaline Trio, made a small appearance in the film. David Dastmalchian appears as Thomas Schiff, the fake Guard of Honor who disrupts Loeb's funeral and is later held at gunpoint by Dent.
Showing all 39 filming locations
Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Hong Kong, China
Battersea Power Station, Battersea, London, England, UK
Los Angeles, California, USA
Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern - 1655 N. Sedgwick Street, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Brach's Candy Factory - 401 N. Cicero Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Gotham Hospital exteriors)
Millennium Station, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Old Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(bank heist)
Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly, London, England, UK
Senate House, University College London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK
Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, UK
South LaSalle St., Chicago, Illinois, USA
(the Joker's semi-truck flip)
University of Westminster, London, England, UK
Atwood Cafe - 1 W Washington St, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong, China
Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, China
Trump International Hotel & Tower - 401 N Wabash, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(skyscraper under construction in finale)
Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK
Hotel 71 - 71 E. Wacker Drive, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
IBM Building - 330 N Wabash, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(interiors)
Lower Wacker Drive, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(car chase scene)
McCormick Place - 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Fox's meeting with Lau)
Navy Pier - 600 E. Grand Avenue, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
(studio)
Richard J. Daley Center - 55 W. Randolph Street, The Loop, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK
N Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Bruce Wayne drives Lamborghini)
London, England, UK
Cardington Airship Hangars, Bedfordshire, England, UK
(studio)
2 International Finance Centre, Central, Hong Kong, China
Old Town, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
Criterion Theatre, Jermyn Street, St James's, London, England, UK
George Farmiloe Building - 28-36 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
(Police HQ)
Leavesden Studios, Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Longcross, Surrey, England, UK
The Center, Central, Hong Kong, China
The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Hong Kong, China
Battersea Power Station, Battersea, London, England, UK
Los Angeles, California, USA
Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern - 1655 N. Sedgwick Street, Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Brach's Candy Factory - 401 N. Cicero Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Gotham Hospital exteriors)
Millennium Station, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Old Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(bank heist)
Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly, London, England, UK
Senate House, University College London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK
Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, UK
South LaSalle St., Chicago, Illinois, USA
(the Joker's semi-truck flip)
University of Westminster, London, England, UK
Atwood Cafe - 1 W Washington St, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong, China
Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, China
Trump International Hotel & Tower - 401 N Wabash, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(skyscraper under construction in finale)
Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK
Hotel 71 - 71 E. Wacker Drive, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
IBM Building - 330 N Wabash, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(interiors)
Lower Wacker Drive, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(car chase scene)
McCormick Place - 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Fox's meeting with Lau)
Navy Pier - 600 E. Grand Avenue, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
(studio)
Richard J. Daley Center - 55 W. Randolph Street, The Loop, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK
N Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA
(Bruce Wayne drives Lamborghini)
London, England, UK
Cardington Airship Hangars, Bedfordshire, England, UK
(studio)
2 International Finance Centre, Central, Hong Kong, China
Old Town, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
Criterion Theatre, Jermyn Street, St James's, London, England, UK
George Farmiloe Building - 28-36 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
(Police HQ)
Leavesden Studios, Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Longcross, Surrey, England, UK
The Center, Central, Hong Kong, China
The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China