Question: Why does Batman say he is going after Rachel when Gordon asks him, then go to rescue Harvey Dent? Did the Joker switch the addresses on purpose? But then why didn't Batman show any surprise when he's expecting to find Rachel and finds Dent instead?
Paul Brannon
23rd Jul 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
23rd Jul 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)
Question: I was wondering if I had missed something. Near the end of the film the Joker has rigged the two boats w/explosives, and has said if one of them doesn't destroy the other by midnight, they will both blow up. So, why, at midnight, do they not both blow up? I don't remember seeing the scene where that detonator was found and dismantled. I suppose it could all have been a ruse, and the Joker was certain one of the boats would blow up the other, so he had no need to carry through with his real threat, but then again, earlier in the film, he had talked about how his consistency would be a thing gotham could count on. If he said, for example, he was going to blow up a hospital, then it would happen and people would derive some sort of comfort from that. So what happened with the two boats? And I know the Joker is crazy and might not always act rationally, but this does seem to fly in the face of the character. In fact, it would seem more likely that he would hope neither would destroy the other just so both would explode and there would be more carnage. Can anyone help out?
Answer: He was sure that one boat would blow up the other, but the goodness in the people on the boats showed through and they didn't do it. He pulls out his own detonator (saying something along the lines of "if you want something done properly, do it yourself" and was about to blow them both up when Batman threw him off the building which made him drop the detonator. We didn't see it destroyed, but we can assume it broke when it hit the ground.
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Answer: Yes, the Joker switched the addresses on purpose. Batman arguably shows brief surprised when finding Dent, but his expression's hard to read as we're mainly shown Dent's reaction. I'd argue it's intentionally left a bit vague as to whether Batman knew the Joker would lie and intentionally went to the "Rachel" address in order to rescue Dent, or else intented to rescue Rachel but by the time he realised the deception what else could he do?
Paul Brannon
Batman is running on pure emotion at that point, when he learns the locations. There is no way he is going to purposely let Rachel die, no matter what the consequences. This is essentially the love of his life, his soul mate. He is not going to just let her die to save Dent. Joker knew that by the time he gave up the addresses, he would have Batman not thinking. He won't stop and think "Maybe he switched the addresses."
oldbaldyone