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The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
Brief Summary
Theme
The Triumph of Evil over Good
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” – Harvey Dent
This whole show shows the inevitable corruptibility of heroes of the Batman universe as Deny who represents good, also has as
much potential to become bad and change Gotham
Breakdown of the three-act structure
ExpositionSetting: Gotham CityConflict:
1. Man vs Himself: The internal conflict in Bruce Wayne, he is filled with guilt due to the deaths of many civilians which resulted from Joker’s desire to find out who is behind Batman’s mask, thus causing him to ponder whether Batman is a hero after all as it was supposed to inspire crime fighting, not murders.
2. Man vs Man : The external physical conflict between Batman and the Joker.
Act 1 Opening sequence:- A bank robbery where The Joker is first introduced into the film.
Here, he and his gang is seen robbing from another mob-owned bank.
Inciting Incidents:
1. Batman catches scarecrow and key members of Moroni’s mob. (Batman saving Gotham city)
2. Batman pledges to police captain Jim Gordon that he will stop The Joker. (Batman vs The Joker)
Plot point 1: Batman meets with Harvey and Gordon how to get Moroni’s crew. They settle upon an agreement where Batman is to extricate Lao from Hong Kong so that Harvey can prosecute him.
Act 2 Rising action(leading to climax):
1. Moroni’s entire gang is prosecuted by Harvey.2. The Joker starts his killing spree, which will not stop until the identity of
Batman is known.3. Batman decides to give in, seeing the turmoil he has caused, but at the
designated press conference where he was to be revealed, Harvey steps in and lies that he is the Batman.
4. Harvey risks his life in a convoy to set a trap for The Joker, successfully catching him.
5. Commissioner Gordon allows Batman to interrogate The Joker, who tells him that Harvey and Rachel are taken as hostages and that he Batman can only save one of them. Batman makes the decision to save Rachel, however, The Joker mixed the two locations, thus Batman ended up saving Harvey instead.
Act 26. Half of Harvey’s face is disfigured due to the blast and he is
receiving treatment in a hospital. He is unable to cope with the grief of Rachel’s death and is mentally very unstable.
7. The Joker goes into Harvey’s ward in another one of his plans. Joker manipulates him easily due to his madness, thus Harvey is transformed into “two face”, who goes on a killing spree in the city while Batman is still fighting with Joker, who had set up a plan to blow up two ships in the city’s harbour.
8. Harvey takes Commissioner Gordon’s family as hostages and asks Harvey to meet him alone.
Plot point 2: Batman arrives just in time to see Harvey holding Gordon’s family at gunpoint. He tries unsuccessfully to reason with Harvey. Thus, he tackled Harvey over the side of the building, killing him, while he was about to shoot Gordon’s son.
Act 3 Climax: Bruce Wayne decides to take all the responsibility
and bare with the crux of the blame for Harvey’s killing spree. He lets himself be hunted by the police, once again a criminal
Falling Action:
1. Batman tells commissioner Gordon to hold a press conference to celebrate Harvey dent as the true hero of Gotham city. The commissioner tells the media that Harvey is the true knight of Gotham city and that Batman will always remain as an outlaw
2. Alfred burns the letter from Rachel and Lucius Fox resigns, destroying the sonar spy system.
Resolution: Batman being an outlaw again, running away from the police. He rides on his batpod, back to the shadows of Gotham city.
ONE FAVOURITE SCENE
SOCIAL EXPERIMENT
“Tonight you all will be part of a social experiment” - Joker
THANK YOU
Resources:http://actfourscreenplays.com/wordpress/wp-co
ntent/uploads/2010/06/The-Dark-Knight-Screenplay-Analysis-Story-Map.pdf
http://ideacentre.deviantart.com/journal/Conflict-Responses-amp-The-Dark-Knight-228007246
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structurehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
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