In the final
scene of The Dark
Knight, we see Batman go on a final confrontation with the
corrupted Dent.
Dent, hell bent on making Batman and
Gordon pay for Rachel's death, flips his trademark coin to decide the fate of the 3,
Gordon being replaced with his son.
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Batman's fate turns out poor, while Dent escapes,
however, Gordon's fate seemingly is decided as poor and Dent prepares to shoot the boy.
In a quick act, Batman lunges at Dent and both of them fall a few stories down the blown
up building.
The Joker: Oh, you. You just couldn't let me go,
could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You
truly are incorruptible, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some
misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because
you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this
forever.
(emphasis
mine)
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We have confirmation
from Nolan that these events
Harvey Dent and actually set into motion the events of
Rises.
Does this mean the Joker
actually won, and caused Batman to break his one
rule?
The Joker: You have these rules, and you think
they'll save you.
Batman: I
have one rule.
The Joker: Oh, then that's the rule you'll have to
break to know the truth.
Anyone that knows Batman
mythos knows that Batman's one rule is never
kill.
A similar thing happens at
the end of Batman
Begins. While Batman and Ra's are duking it out on the train,
it turns out to be just a distraction while Gordon derails it. Batman then claims to
Ra's:
Ra's al
Ghul: Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?
Bruce Wayne: I won't kill
you, but I don't have to save you.
Allowing Ra's to
die.
Do these two events actually count as Batman breaking
his One Rule? Or are they actually excusable occurrences due to the nature of events.
Answer
Batman has more than one rule, but the one line that he
refuses to cross - the one thing that would turn him from a crusader into a
villain - is that he does not kill. Only taking Christopher Nolan's Batman
into consideration then yes, he did break this rule by
directly causing the fall that accidentally killed Harvey Dent.
Let's look at the scene:
Batman is shot, Dent is safe, and the boy's fate is
undecided, but Batman can't let a coin determine that fate. He lunges at Dent and the
boy and all three go over the edge. Despite his armor, Batman is injured and not at full
strength. He is only able to save the boy before he himself falls after Dent. Crashing
through more debris than Dent (who was pushed far enough out that he was clear (and who
may have survived had he not been in such a badly burned condition)) Batman gets more
injured on the way down and lands near Dent.
Later on when
talking to Gordon, Batman says:
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
I can do those things, because I'm not a hero, like Dent. I killed those people. That's
what I can be." ----- "I'm whatever Gotham needs me to
be."
It's a great and
powerful scene, but in its essence, it's one man (Batman) pushing
another man (Dent) off a building and killing him (while
saving an innocent boy), then taking the blame for not only Dent's death but
the deaths caused by Dent as well. Batman is not just telling Gordon that he killed
Dent, he is saying that he killed those people too. Batman feels directly responsible
for their deaths and in Harvey's case, he is directly responsible.
This is the true genius of Nolan's Batman; he's not only
real and plausible, he is constantly trying to figure out what he's doing, why is he
doing it, and has he gone to far? Nolan made Batman break his most important
rule.
A lot of fans don't want to
admit that Batman killed. An accidental killing doesn't count as breaking his rule they
say, but to Batman it does count. It will haunt him. The deaths Two-Face caused will
haunt him. He takes the blame for everything that happened. He
pushed Two-Face off of a building and Two-Face died. The line has been crossed. How will
Batman deal with that? How will he deal with being a criminal? The next movie will
definitely deal with this but it is a huge step for Batman.
Nolan has created a realistic Batman. In Batman
Begins we got to see what makes a man become a Batman. What training, what
psychological problems, what Gotham's corruption had to do with it. When fighting Ra's
al Ghul, we started to see a bending of the rule not to kill. Leaving Ra's al Ghul on
the train was not killing in Batman's mind because Ra's al Ghul had survived a seemingly
unsurvivable situation before, plus he had planned meticulously. If Batman could survive
it, then he assumed Ra's al Ghul could as well.
At the
start of The Dark Knight we start to encounter a basic problem with
his rule: if Batman doesn't kill, why do criminals need to fear him? By the end of the
movie Batman has killed and has taken the blame for more killings. This not only adds to
the myth of the Batman but it directly affects his mental state. Throughout
The Dark Knight we see him wrestling with how far he should push
himself, what is his limit, what keeps him from being the Joker?
Then he breaks his most important rule and it seems to
define him more. Did he plan to kill Two-Face? No. Did he directly cause his death? Yes!
He did it in the only allowable way, to protect the innocent, and he did so by
accident, but he still killed and still broke his rule.
Now we have a whole new Batman going into The
Dark Knight Rises. One who has killed. One who has become a villain. Yet he
is more sure of himself and what he stands for than ever before.
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