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whadu · Level 49: GameShark **Posts:** 37190 **Timestamp:** Thu Jul 24, 08 12:59 AM

Provided By: IMDb.com

This Synopsis is going to include the plot of the movie in its entirety. If you are trying to avoid spoilers, check out the 'summary' of the movie, not the synopsis. Believe me, when I say its entirety, I really mean it.

Summary: (Spoiler free) Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) continues to eliminate crime in Gotham City with the help of Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). The Dark Knight wants to finally get rid of organized crime for good and be free of their corruption. Batman soon finds that a new psychopathic mastermind known as the Joker (Heath Ledger) has taken over organized crime. After the fall of Carmine Falcone, the remaining crime bosses try to pick up the pieces. However, the Joker is killing them off one by one. The Joker's plan is to terrify the citizens and throw the city into chaos, and then kill Batman. Batman takes the fight with the Joker personal, which makes him confront his own beliefs. The Joker is the most dangerous criminal that Batman has encountered, and he will need all his strength and vigilance to defeat him. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)

Synopsis: (SPOILERS, SPOILERS, and more SPOILERS) The movie begins with a gang of men with clown masks breaking into the bank where the mob has a large portion of their money stashed. It begins with 5 clowns, each getting a cut of the spoils. As the robbery goes on, the clowns begin to kill each other in order to get a larger cut. At the scene's end, all of the cash is stored on a bus, and there is only one clown left standing, which ends up being the Joker.

Meanwhile, Harvey Dent, the new District Attorney of Gotham, continues his press conferences, promising the people of Gotham a brighter future. He promises he will bring down the mob and all the villainy that resides in Gotham City. The movie quickly cuts to a scene where the Scarecrow is negotiating with mob members over the sale of some of his paranoia inducing drugs. The sale is interrupted when some of Gotham's citizens dressed as Batmen begin shooting at the men. A fight breaks out, until the real Batman arrives on the scene. One of the mob members has some large dogs to protect him, and he unleashes them on Batman. He takes the dogs out after being badly bitten in the arm. He then quickly rounds up some of the mob members and the fake Batmen, and eventually stops the Scarecrow as he was driving away, attempting to escape. He leaves them all tied up together for the police to eventually round up.

The next day, as Bruce Wayne stitches himself up from the dog bite, Alfred offers his concerns, warning Bruce to 'know his limits'. He notices Bruce keeping a close watch on Harvey Dent via some computer screens, as Bruce is trying to decide whether or not Dent can be trusted. It is during this time where Harvey and Rachel Dawes are in a court room testifying against a man named Salvatore Maroni, the alleged new leader of Gotham's mob. One of Maroni's men takes the fall in court, and after attempting to shoot Dent from the witness stand, is hauled off to jail. Maroni is set free, to the dismay of Dent. In the following scene, Dent meets Lt. Gordon, and after a short exchange of words, they both express their distrust for those that are working in each other's offices. Harvey backs search warrants for five banks that are believed to be holding the remainder of the mobs money. It is during this time that Wayne Enterprises strikes a deal with Lau, the head of Lau Security Investments in Hong Kong, in a joint venture. After the meeting with Lau, Wayne expresses his reservations with Lucius Fox about Lau's obvious illegal business operation, based on their profits. After agreeing to cancel the deal, Wayne asks Fox for a new suit. He explains that he needs to be lighter, and faster, in case he runs into any more guard dogs.

The following scene shows Harvey out with Rachel, his new girlfriend. They are at one of Bruce's restaurants, and upon running into Bruce and his date, pull a table together and begin talking. At first, Bruce seems jealous and threatened by Harvey, based on the fact that he is dating his own love interest, but after Harvey explains how he supports the work of Batman and appreciates his help, Bruce changes his tune and decides to throw a massive fund-raiser for him.

Meanwhile (I'll probably be using that word alot), all of the top mob members are having a meeting. Because of their inside sources in the police, they were aware that the banks that their money was stashed in were going to be searched. Lau appears on a television screen, for he is on his way back to Hong Kong. He informs the mob that all of their money has already been moved to a single secure location, just as Lt. Gordon and company are searching the banks, finding nothing. As the gang expresses their dismay for the Joker, the one that robbed them of 68 million dollars, guess who shows up. The Joker walks in the room, and after killing a hostile mob member by way of a 'magic trick', sits down and talks with the mob about how pathetic they've become since Batman came around. He tells them their one solution is to 'Kill the Batman', and offers to do so for half the mobs money. The mob laughs, and upon one of the mob members, Gamble, rises from his seat and threatens the Joker, he opens his coat, exposing grenades. Gamble tells the Joker that he's putting a price out on his head. The Joker tells the mob that when they plan to take things a little more seriously, give him a call, and presents them with 'his card', a joker playing card. And with that, he exits. But not before warning Lau that Batman will be coming for him.

Harvey Dent and Lt. Gordon meet with Batman, and explain to him that they need Lau. They want to make him talk, and give up all the mob members' names. Batman agrees and disappears.

Fox shows Wayne his new suit, and Wayne begins planning an impromptu trip to Hong Kong. Fox will accompany him, making it look like the only reason for his visit was to cancel the negotiations with Lau's company.

In the next scene, Gamble is playing pool with some of his associates until one of them informs him that someone has killed the Joker, and has the body. The body is brought in covered in a bag, and as Gamble is about to pay, the Joker rises up and holds a knife to his face while his men who had said that they killed him hold guns to his associates' heads. The Joker tells a story about how he got his scars and then kills Gamble, and after leaving the three associates with a broken, sharp pool stick and no choice but to fight each other for their life, leaves.

Meanwhile (i told you!), in Hong Kong, Fox meets with Lau, and informs him of Wayne Enterprises' plans to cancel negotiations with his company. He checks in his mobile phone at the front desk, as there are no cell phones allowed on the premises. However, he secretly keeps one in his pocket, which has been adapted to produce a sonar map of the surrounding area. Upon leaving the building, he does not pick up the phone he dropped off, and he produces the map of the building to Bruce Wayne. That night, the phone that Fox left at the front desk emits a high frequency that shuts down all power in the building. Batman flies in through a window, and after disabling some guards, grabs Lau and escapes. Back in Gotham, Lau is interrogated to the point where he agrees to cooperate with the police, and give the names of the mob members.

A dead body is found, dressed up in a Batman suit, with makeup on his mouth like the Joker's and with a Joker card pinned to him reading 'Will the real Batman please stand up?'. A video tape is released of the fake Batman's death, and during so, the Joker promises that until Batman takes off his mask and shows everyone who he really is, people will die every day.

All of the mob members that Lau informed the police of get rounded up, and during their trial, a Joker card is found in the middle of the stack of conviction papers. As Harvey Dent's fund-raiser at Wayne Manor gets underway, the police find that there are 3 traces of DNA on the Joker card. That of the Commissioner Loeb, Harvey Dent, and Judge Surrillo, the Judge that convicted all of the mob members. Gordon takes this as a threat on their lives, and begins preparations to protect them. In the case of the Judge and Commissioner Loeb, however, this fails, and the Judge's car blows up while she's in it, and Commissioner Loeb dies of severe poisoning from a liquor bottle. The Joker and his goons then show up at the fundraiser for Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne had already known of the attempt on Dent's life, however, and carried him off to safety. While the Joker is looking for Dent, he runs into Rachel, and after yet another story about how he got his scars, Batman shows up, and a fight breaks out between Batman, the Joker, and his goons. After beating Batman pretty good, the Joker holds Rachel out of a window, and lets her go. Batman dives out the window and saves her. The Joker apparently vanishes from the scene.

The next day, Wayne tries to figure out what the Joker's after. Alfred informs him that some men can't be reasoned with, they don't want anything in particular. They just want to watch the world burn.

After finding more dead people, Batman and Gordon find a news paper that leads them to believe that the next target will be the mayor. They begin to prepare for the ceremony for Commissioner Loeb's death, which is when they believe the Joker will strike. During the ceremony, Wayne inspects a room where he believes the Joker might be, and he finds several men tied up, with binoculars pointed out of a blinded window. The window is connected to a timer. As the timer reaches zero, the blinds quickly raise, and the police snipers positioned around the area all shoot in that direction, at Bruce Wayne. At the same time, the Joker, who had removed his makeup and played himself off as a member of the honor guard for the ceremony, turns and takes a shot at the mayor, but Lt. Gordon dives in the way, getting shot in the back and falling. Everyone panics and runs, but the police grab one member of the honor guard and haul him into a truck. Dent himself climbs in the truck, and upon inspecting the criminal, sees that the name-tag on his uniform reads 'Rachel Dawes'. He calls Rachel and informs her that she's been targeted, and to get to the safest place she can, which in her case is Wayne Manor.

Meanwhile, Batman enters a club, chasing after Maroni (who apparently made bail out of jail, the movie isn't quite clear on it), and trying to find out the whereabouts of the Joker. After fighting some of his goons and dropping Maroni out of a window, he learns that Maroni has no idea where the Joker is. Maroni also makes him feel like this is all his fault, all these deaths and destruction, because he hasn't taken off his mask and shown Gotham who he really is. This gets to Batman, and he flees the scene.

As Dent is interrogating the captured so-called honor guard member about what he knows about the Joker, he holds a gun to his head, and flips a coin for his life. It's at this time that Batman shows up and informs Harvey that he is a paranoid schizophrenic, and that he won't learn anything from him. He also tells Harvey that if anyone saw this unjust way of interrogating someone, all that good work that Dent's done for Gotham would be lost. He tells Harvey to hold a press conference the following day, because he wants to use that opportunity to turn himself in. As Batman's leaving, Harvey yells at him that he can't give in.

Back at Wayne Manor, Wayne and Alfred begin destroying everything that might tie Lucius Fox or Rachel to Batman. Alfred tries to talk Bruce out of it, but fails. The next day, at the press conference, Harvey tries to talk the citizens of Gotham out of making Batman do this, but it doesn't work. Upon his failure, Harvey announces that he is the Batman, and gets handcuffed and taken away. Bruce Wayne is shown with a look of confusion on his face. While being taken to a convoy that will transport him to a jail, Harvey explains to Rachel that this is Batman's chance. During this transport, he's planning on getting attacked by the Joker, and he's planning on Batman to come and save him, and to capture the Joker. The convoy takes off.

While transporting Harvey, the Joker and some goons start taking out the police cars in a large semi truck. He pulls out an RPG and beings firing at the armored truck carring Dent. Batman drives through in his 'tumbler/batmobile' and attempts to stop the Joker, and gets hit with the RPG in the process. His car takes 'catastrophic' damage, and he's forced to eject. However, the ejection in this car is a bike, that deploys out the front of the car. This bike becomes known as the 'Batpod'. Batman chases down the Joker on his Batpod, and after firing some cables at the truck and weaving them through some light poles and buildings, flips the truck completely over. The Joker emerges with a tommy gun and shoots at Batman, who is speeding towards him on his Batpod, all the while screaming 'I want you to do it! Come on! HIT ME!'. Batman swerves around the Joker, and crashes into the flipped truck, falling to the ground. As the Joker jumps on him with a knife, a police officer holds a gun to the back of his head, and upon removing his helmet and mask, shows that it was Lt. Gordon, who wasn't really dead after all. The Joker is hauled away to jail. Harvey gets out of the truck and into a cruiser, and says he is off to see his girlfriend.

At the prison, Gordon is promoted to Commissioner by the Mayor. The Joker shares a cell with a large man who complains about his insides hurting. Commissioner Gordon, after reuniting with his family, gets a call explaining that Harvey never made it home. He returns to the prison to interrogate the Joker. During the interrogation, Batman appears and starts beating on the Joker, trying to find out where Harvey is. The Joker reveals that not just Harvey, but Rachel are in separate locations, both tied up and strapped to explosives and oil cans that will explode in a short amount of time. He gives the locations of the two, saying that he only has time to save one. Batman heads off, telling Gordon that he's going after Rachel. Gordon gets some men ready and heads off after Harvey.

As Batman and the police are rushing towards the two prisoners, Harvey awakens to hear Rachel's voice. Whoever captured them set up an intercom system so that the two can communicate. Harvey tells Rachel that everything will be OK, and Rachel tells Harvey that she wants to marry him. While Dent's trying to hop around in his chair trying to find something sharp to cut his ropes with, he falls over and knocks an oil drum down, and the oil spills all over half of his face. Meanwhile, back at the jail, the Joker tricks a cop and holds him hostage, and he tells the other cops he just wants his phone call. Upon getting a cell phone and dialing a number, the large man that was in the cell with him blows up. The Joker had cut him open and implanted a cell phone triggering device inside of him. The Joker grabs Lau and flees the jail.

Batman arrives at the address that the Joker had told him Rachel was at, but when he opens the door, he finds Harvey Dent. The Joker had tricked him. He saves Dent, just as the bombs explode. Rachel was killed. The explosion ignites the oil that saturated Dent's face, and he gets lit on fire and taken to Gotham General Hospital.

Bruce Wayne expresses to Alfred his devastation behind losing Rachel. Alfred informs him that with Harvey Dent hospitalized, it will be up to him alone to fight the crime in Gotham City. Meanwhile, Harvey wakes up in the hospital with a large bandage over half of his face, and he screams out in his frustration behind losing the one person he loved. Later, a TV program comes on with a lawyer that works at Wayne Enterprises who had done some research and some digging and eventually came to realize that Bruce Wayne is Batman. He tells Gotham that he is going to reveal Batman's identity, but before he can, the Joker calls in to the show saying that he doesn't want this lawyer to ruin his fun. He says that if the lawyer is not killed within 60 minutes, he is going to blow up a hospital. This triggers the police to rush in and protect the lawyer, and try to carry him to safety. At the same time, other police are evacuating all of the hospitals in Gotham City. When they get to Gotham General, a police officer attempts to evacuate a nurse in Harvey Dent's room, which then turns out to be the Joker, and he kills the cop. He then gives a great monologue to Harvey (now two-face) Dent, about how he needs to introduce a little anarchy, and how easy it is to bring down all the good people in the world. Joker unties Dent and gives him a gun. Dent, bent on revenge and now believing everything in the world should be decided by chance, flips a coin to decide whether or not to shoot Joker which Joker agrees is only fair. Though we don't see it, the coin obviously lands on heads since the next scene shows Joker leaving Gotham General Hospital as it blows up in the background.

Afterwards, the Joker appears on TV again, forcing a TV icon to read out his plans. He reads that Gotham City now belongs to the Joker, starting that very evening. Anyone that doesn't want to be a part of his game should leave now, but they are going to have a hard time leaving the city. He alludes to the fact that something big was going to happen that very night. During which, Two-Face enters a local bar where the 'dirty' cop that had picked him up from the armored car scene hangs out. After questioning him, he flips a coin which lands on tails, and he kills the cop. At the same time, Batman uses Fox's 'cell phone sonar' technology to somehow turn every single cell phone in Gotham into a sonar device, giving him the opportunity to spy on everyone in Gotham. He calls Fox in, and tells him to monitor the screens, and give him updates on the Joker's location when he sees him.

Dent continues to question mob members, trying to uncover the identity of the dirty cop that kidnapped Rachel. When confronting Maroni, he learns that the other cop is Ramirez, a close friend of Commissioner Gordon's. Meanwhile, 2 large ferries leave Gotham due to the Joker's threats. One is inhabited by criminals that were imprisoned, the other contains innocent citizens. While sailing off, the two boats completely lose all power and their engines die. Both ships eventually realize that there are explosives strewn all about the boat, and they both find detonators. It is at this time that the Joker's voice is heard over the loudspeaker of both ferries, and he informs them that they are part of a social experiment. The detonator that each boat found is for the other boat. One ferry must press the button and destroy the other boat by midnight, or else he will destroy both boats. This brings about much chaos in both boats, and alot of soul searching about morality and about if anyone could actually do such a thing.

Fox finds the Joker, who is in a tall building with many clown guards. Batman notifies Gordon of the location, and speeds off towards the building. Meanwhile, Two-Face forces Ramirez to call Gordon's family and tell his wife and two sons to meet him at the exact spot where Rachel was killed. They believe her because they trust her. Afterwards, Two-Face flips a coin for Ramirez's life and it lands on heads, so he just knocks her out and heads on. As Gordon arrives at the building where the Joker is, he gets a call from his family telling him they are being held captive by Two-Face in the place where Rachel was killed. Gordon rushes off to save his family as Batman breaks in to the building. After realizing that the clown guards were actually hostages and the scientists were the enemies, he beats down some SWAT members in order to prevent them from killing the clown guards, and he disables the scientists as he makes his way up to the Joker's location.

When he finally confronts the Joker, the Joker sends three ferocious dogs after him, and while Batman fights them off, the Joker beats the hell out of him with some blunt metal object, and eventually throws him close to the edge of the building. At the same time, the two boats are still debating what to do with the detonators. No one wants to get their hands dirty, so no one with push the button. The Joker, while holding down Batman, gets extremely disappointed when neither of the ships blow up by midnight. As he's about to destroy the two boats, Batman fires one of his high tech mechanisms at him and throws him over the edge of the building. Before he can hit the ground, however, Batman fires one of his grappling gun tools at him and saves him. While hanging in front of Batman, the Joker tells him that the two of them are destined to fight forever, and he tells him of how he corrupted Harvey Dent. Batman heads off to find Harvey, while the SWAT team captures the Joker.

In the building that Rachel died, Gordon arrives to see Two-Face holding his family hostage. Two-Face tells him that he's going to make him suffer just as he did, as he grabs one of his young sons and prepares to flip a coin for his fate. Batman arrives and tells him to stop, and to blame the people responsible for Rachel's death. So then Two-Face flips a coin for Batman, which lands on tails, and he shoots him. He then flips a coin for himself and it lands on heads. As he's flipping the coin for Gordon's son, Batman gets up and tackles him and he falls out of a window and is presumed dead. In the ending scenes, Batman tells Gordon that the people of Gotham must never know about Harvey's killings, and to blame them on himself, basically turning himself into an outlaw in the eyes of the people of Gotham. As the cops begin to chase Batman, he hops on his Batpod and speeds out into the night.

The-Dark-Knight,

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