The Dark Knight

Trivia: To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore's comic "Batman: The Killing Joke" and "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" to read. Ledger also took inspiration from Alex in A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Sid Vicious.

Trivia: Off-duty Chicago Police Officers along with Officers from Elyria OH, Hammond IN, Buffalo Grove IL and Joliet IL played Gotham Police officer extras.

Trivia: The tall building overlooking Gotham City that Batman perches himself on while deep in thought is actually the Sears Tower in Chicago (mentioned in making-of TV special), where most of the film was shot on-location.

Trivia: Because of a ruling shortly before the Academy Awards ceremony, Heath Ledger's daughter Matilda will gain possession of his Oscar statuette on her 18th birthday in 2023.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: The opening bank heist was partly inspired by the climactic bank heist in Michael Mann's thriller Heat. Coincidentally, the Gotham bank manager is played by William Fitchner, who had a supporting role in Heat as an accountant.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: In the restaurant scene, right when it begins with Harvey and Rachel talking, if you look to the bottom right of the screen, Heath Ledger, who is not wearing the Joker makeup, is sitting at a table with someone. [This is up for debate, as it's a strong likeness but not definitively him. Regardless, worth a look.] (00:19:15)

Trivia: In the banquet scene, when the Joker and his troop arrive, the man that the Joker says reminds him of his father is Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Senator Leahy is a huge Batman fan and has lent his voice to the animated series and also had another small cameo appearance in Batman and Robin.

Trivia: This marks the second time movie characters adapted from another source have lept off the Two-ifc, the world's third or fourth tallest building, in Hong Kong. (The similar-looking building that Batman enters is the building's shorter and earlier-constructed twin, the One-ifc.) The first was in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in which Lara and Terry Sheridan leap off the still-under-construction building to escape their pursuers.

Trivia: The creepy way the Joker sucks at his cheeks was the result of Heath Ledger playing with the makeup they put on him. He did it constantly and the director thought it was so strange looking that they left it in as a character idiosyncrasy.

Trivia: Heath Ledger was given an advanced screening of the opening bank heist scene. That six minute sequence was the only part of the completed film he saw before his death.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: The film was delivered to some theaters under the name "Oliver's Army".

Trivia: Heath Ledger became very attached to his role. He would show up on the set, in full costume, even on the days he wasn't filming.

moviedude345

Trivia: Dwight Yoakam turned down two roles in this movie. Originally he was offered the part of a cop; then he was offered to play a banker who had dealings with the Joker (Heath Ledger). Yoakam passed on both roles because he was working on a Buck Owens tribute album.

Trivia: This was the first Batman film to win an Academy Award in one of the four acting categories.

Cubs Fan

The Dark Knight mistake picture Video

Visible crew/equipment: During Batman's interrogation of the Joker, when he picks him up and slams him against the wall, for a very brief moment you can see the camera and the cameraman in the reflection of the mirror on the right. (01:29:10)

More mistakes in The Dark Knight

The Joker: Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know what the thing about chaos is? It's fair.

More quotes from The Dark Knight

Question: How did the bomb at MCU leave everyone else totally incapacitated, while the Joker was completely unharmed? I know he has remarkable tolerance for pain, but come on! Also, if he was wearing some kind of protective clothing, they would have discovered it. So how did all the cops get knocked out while the Joker just walked away?

Answer: Look where he's standing just before it goes off. The Joker's carefully positioned himself close to a set of heavy filing cabinets, which are between him and the blast, protecting his legs and almost all of his torso. As the bomb goes off, you can see him duck his head down, allowing the blast to pass him by almost completely. He gets to walk away unscathed because the blast never really hits him.

Tailkinker

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