Now don't get me wrong... I LOVE me some Dark Knight. I was more excited to see The Dark Knight than both Iron Man AND The Incredible Hulk in 2008. But I thought I'd share with you what I believe is one of the most moronic, ridiculous, and unrealistic plot devices I think I've ever witnessed in any CBM. And surprisingly, it exists in the seemingly infallible Batman series created by Christopher Nolan. Even more surprisingly, this rant has nothing to do with the impossible stunts performed by Batman in the movie, or the fact that Harvey Dent's scars would kill a man. It has to do with what many decree to be one of the greatest scenes in The Dark Knight. The finale with the two ships escaping Gotham City.
Towards the end of the movie, The Joker attaches a crapload of bombs to two ships leaving Gotham City. One ship is packed with innocent families trying to escape the Joker's terror. The other ship is filled with Gotham's most feared murderers, rapists, and thieves-a lot of whom are probably serving a lifetime in prison. The Joker hijacks the two ships and gives each ship the option to blow the other to smithereens. If neither ship blows the other one up, they both blow up! How nice of the Joker. What happens in the end is that both ships hesitate to blow the other up. A few take a stand and attempt to press the trigger, but they back off out of the sheer fact that no person wants to shed bloo. So neither ship blows the other up, and instead of the punishment that the Joker promised, Batman leaps in and saves the day.
Anyone that studies human behavior would tell you that human beings generally act in ways that maximize their payoff. This doesn't mean that we all are assholes, as helping others and being selfless often results in our own personal payoff. What Gotham's citizens did in The Dark Knight is FAR from anything even remotely maximizing to their payoff. In fact, it's completely detrimental and for no goddamn reason other than to make Batman win.
Are we expected to believe that a thousand or more people would stand idly by waiting for their death AND the death of the other ship instead of pressing the damn button, killing the other ship, and escaping a fate that would be twice as bad had they done nothing? I don't think there would be a single mother or father who would hesitate to blow up every last prisoner on that boat just to have their family get out alive. Not to mention that the other boat was filled with
prisoners. I'm no advocate for the death penalty, but I think the question of who should be sacrificed is a no-brainer. Hold on... I'm not done. Take into account that at ANY SECOND the other boat could grab that switch and destroy the boat filled with civilians. And we're still expected to believe that every person would hesitate to press the button? Ha!
But the icing on the cake is at the end, after the Joker realizes that the boats didn't blow up. Batman starts go on about how the citizens of Gotham aren't like The Joker. That they're willing to believe, or some bullshit like that. Simply put, acting rationally does NOT make anyone like the Joker. As a matter of fact, standing idly by makes you a murderer like the Joker. Making a conscious decision to let both boats die instead of just one puts more blood on your hands than if they had just pressed the button. It also makes you insane... like the Joker. You're insane not just because you're killing YOURSELF, but because you'd have to lack any kind of ability to make rational decisions. You'd have to be severely mentally handicapped to what the citizens of Gotham did. What Batman said to the Joker sure sounded inspiring, but it was actually utterly retarded.
I can make-believe that the Norse Gods exist and fight crime on earth, or that a man can get bitten by a radioactive spider and gain superpowers, or that a galactic corps exists and is dedicated to fighting crime in each sector. But I find this plot device to be virtually inexcusable, especially in a film that praised for being so realistic
that it could actually happen.