Written by Old Bluffer 15th Sep 2008
Written by Iorn Man
Through unknown means, the Joker has kidnapped both Rachel Dawes, Batman's old flame, and her new boyfriend, Harvey Dent, and sent them to different locations in the city, all from the comfort of his own jail cell. When interrogated by Batman on where Dawes is, he states that it depends on the time. "She's either in one place... or in several places!" Uh oh.
Sure enough, Rachel and Harvey are connected over a radio in separate rooms filled with oil drums. I don't think I have to even say what those are for. So, in a Saw-like trap, Batman must save one of them and send police after the other. Because the police always fail in the superhero universe, that means one of them is screwed.
The Joker gives up their locations eventually and Batman is sent to rescue Dawes, and some policemen are sent to save Dent. The ever-benevolent (for now) Dent selflessly hopes that Batman goes to save Rachel.
While they talk to each other over a radio, Batman barges into a room containing Harvey Dent. Oops, looks like the Joker "accidentally" got his addresses mixed up.
Harvey screams in anger and grief that Batman should have saved Rachel. Hearing his screams over the radio, Rachel begins to console him, only to be incinerated as the oil drums explode.
Dent is less lucky, you could say. While he survives, half of his face was soaked in oil from when he fell over trying to escape. Sparks from the explosion of his oil drums set it alight, leaving him a broken, disfigured man with no faith in the law. Anybody who has read the Batman comics knows what that means...
I'm pretty sure that the "in one place or in several" line is in reference to Harvey Dent, not Rachel Dawes. The Joker doesn't mention Rachel until the end of the scene when he tells Batman that he's going to have to make a choice.
I saw this again last night and can confirm that, Rachel is only mentioned later in the conversation.
Hey, if we've got Rachel can we get Two-Face there too?
I definitely think you should add Harvey Dent / Twoface's death on here. As well as this, I also feel there are two characters in this film who should have died but didn't and should therefore have a Cheating Death write-up:
The first is obviously the Joker, the film's main villain. No matter how many times I watch this film, I still don't know why Batman lets him drop and then decides to save him at the last moment, even if it's so he can be arrested. Just let him fall for God's sake, like he does in the original story. I know there was a possibility he'd return in the next film before Heath Ledger died, but despite the fact that he was a great villain, having him in a second film would be a bit of a character overkill in my opinion, which is why I feel that the Joker should have fallen to his death and ended on a high.
The second is Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow. I love Cillian Murphy's portrayal of Scarecrow in Batman Begins and I also like the fact that he escapes at the end. He makes a good cameo appearance at the start of The Dark Knight, and the fact that he gets captured again by Batman would have been sufficient comeuppance for him until the next film. However, since The Dark Knight Rises came out, Scarecrow seems to have been kept alive for no good reason because he really doesn't add anything to this film at all. In fact, I would have preferred it if Scarecrow hadn't been in TDKR at all because his role is so ridiculously minor it's almost pointless, and unlike in The Dark Knight, he doesn't have any on-screen punishment in this film. I feel Scarecrow should have either had a bigger role in TDKR and then finally met his demise (seeing as he was a major villain in the first film and shouldn't escape punishment), or be killed at the start of The Dark Knight and not appear at all in TDKR.