“I thought we left the world of Batman at an interesting place in the first film, and the end suggested an intriguing direction in which the story could continue… At the end of ‘Batman Begins,’ we hinted at the threat of escalation—that in going after the city’s crime cartels and attacking their interests, Batman could provoke an even greater response from the criminal community and now that has come to pass. There are some very negative consequences of his crusade brewing in Gotham City.”

Christopher Nolan, director

“On the one hand, Batman has begun to rid Gotham of the crime and corruption that has plagued the city, but, ironically, the vacuum he created draws in an even more powerful criminal element, who see it as their chance to take over the city.”

Charles Roven, producer

 “In ‘Batman Begins’ we largely concentrated on the origins of the character—how Batman evolved out of Bruce Wayne’s own early trauma, his fears, his anger and, finally, his resolve to fight crime and corruption. In ‘The Dark Knight,’ Batman has become well-known to the police and citizens of Gotham City, but while some consider him a hero, others wonder if he is doing more harm than good. And the arrival of a new kind of criminal raises the stakes on that debate… What’s intriguing is that the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne—with his fabulous cars, a beautiful woman on each arm and not a care in the world—is not at all who this man really is. So while Bruce Wayne wears a mask to hide his identity as Batman, it is actually Batman who defines Bruce’s true identity, and the public persona of Bruce Wayne is the ‘mask’ he wears to co-exist in this world.”

Emma Thomas, producer

“I believe Bruce thought it would be a finite thing, that Batman would serve as an inspiration to Gotham City and that he would eventually be able to leave this character he conceived behind. But he is coming to understand, more and more, that this is not something he can easily walk away from now…or possibly ever.   There are new enemies to protect the city from.”

Christian Bale, Batman

“The Joker is the ultimate screen arch-villain… In his own way, The Joker is as much an icon as The Dark Knight is, and that presented us with both an opportunity and a challenge in terms of exploring the character’s distorted point of view. But we also wanted to create a villain who, as colourful and outrageous as he is, is still coming from a place of reality. In keeping with the tone we established in ‘Batman Begins,’ we determined he is a pretty serious guy, despite being called The Joker. So we began with the notion of The Joker as the most extreme form of anarchist—a force of chaos, a purposeless criminal who is not out for anything and, so, can’t be understood. He is not only a massively destructive force, but he also takes great delight in his murderous nature, which is a pretty terrifying spectacle.

Christopher Nolan, director

“As the screenplay developed we started to explore the effect one guy could have on an entire population—the ways in which he could upset the balance for people, the ways in which he could take their rules for living, their ethics, their beliefs, their humanity and turn them on themselves. You could say we’ve seen echoes of that in our own world, which has led me to believe that anarchy and chaos—even the threat of anarchy and chaos—are among the most frightening things society faces, especially in this day and age.”

Christopher Nolan, director

“The Joker is somebody without any rules whatsoever,” Bale states. “How do you fight somebody who is bent on destruction, even if it means self-destruction? That’s a formidable foe.” The actor goes on to say that The Joker’s total lack of morality is one of his most potent weapons in his war with Batman because, conversely, “Batman has a very strict moral code for what he will and won’t do, and The Joker can use that to his advantage. Batman still has this huge reserve of anger and pain and knows he could easily go too far, so he must not cross that line. He has to be sure that in chasing a monster, he doesn’t become a monster himself. Chris Nolan has raised interesting ethical questions in this movie about the complications of having power versus aspiring to power.”

Christian Bale, Batman

“Harvey is a man of the people.   He’s an all-American hero in a very different way from Batman,” says Nolan. “So now you have the triumvirate of Batman, Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Gordon—the justice system, the police and a vigilante—forming an alliance to bring down crime. Using Batman gives them an edge over the criminals, but it is still the police who will arrest them, and then they will be tried through the justice system. But what comes up is the question of whether you can bend the rules without breaking them. And that becomes the underlying theme of the story.”

Christopher Nolan, director

“The Joker is the more flamboyant villain, so he commands attention. But in some ways Harvey Dent/Two Face is the more compelling character because he has such an amazing arc. Our Joker has no arc, per se; he’s just hell-bent throughout. The Joker and Harvey Dent—these are two of the most fascinating characters from the Batman comic books. They have an almost mythic quality and it was exciting to view them through the prism of the world we created.”

Christopher Nolan, director

“Bruce is certainly sacrificing, both mentally and physically, as a consequence of this character of Batman whom he has unleashed and now is unable to rein in anymore. More than a persona, he has created a symbol, and that symbol can’t have limits. He can’t show weakness ever. So you have the conflict between what is good for Bruce Wayne and what is the right thing for Batman to do, because the two of them are not always compatible.”

Christian Bale, Batman

“It seemed most logical to us that Bruce initially saw Batman as a short-term crusade, as a symbol to inspire the good people of Gotham to take their city back. In Harvey Dent, he finally sees the response he was looking for. Harvey is the hero that Gotham needs—the hero with a face, not one wearing a mask.”

Christopher Nolan, director

“There is a certain amount of personal opportunism going on there, as well, because if Harvey Dent can succeed, then maybe Bruce can stop being Batman. Maybe there is a world in which he can return to a normal life. There’s a big part of him that does wish he could hang up his cape. Whether Bruce would actually enjoy hanging up Batman’s cape at this point, I don’t know. I don’t think even he knows. But there is definitely a part of him that feels he has started something that has spun out of control, and Harvey Dent may be his only hope for being able to end it.”

Emma Thomas, producer

“The Joker wants to break Batman, to prove that everybody has a price and even Batman can be leveraged in such a way that he would compromise his principles. I actually think he’s delighted to find that Batman won’t do that, and it creates for The Joker an even better opponent in this game he’s playing.”

Christian Bale, Batman

“I think Chris (Christopher Nolan) has a great talent for satisfying the need for a rollercoaster ride, for just being purely entertained, without forgoing moments of great personal conflict and the duality within the characters. He manages to do both without compromising either.”

Christian Bale, Batman