Chapter 1024: An Unfamiliar Name
(A special milestone chapter—won't you consider throwing in a monthly ticket?)
The bat-shaped light shining in the sky, criminals too afraid to make a deal, the mayor rambling on television, drug traffickers plotting their schemes...
The film maintained an extremely fast pace, using just a few shots to establish the broader backdrop of Batman and Gotham City.
The audience in the parallel world had no idea who Batman was, nor did they know the circumstances that led him to become Batman. But through these few sequences, everyone grasped the most basic information: Gotham City had a sky-high crime rate, criminals ran rampant, and Batman was constantly fighting crime—even the Gotham City police relied on him.
Then came Batman's first confrontation with the mob, the reveal of his true identity, Bruce Wayne stitching up his own wounds while keeping an eye on the newly appointed district attorney, Harvey Dent...
Lin Xue was a bit surprised. "He's just an ordinary person?"
Earlier, Lin Xue had assumed this would be one of those "poor guy gets mutated" superhero movies, where the protagonist gets bitten by a mosquito and turns into some kind of flying hero. But clearly, that wasn't the case.
This film was more of a drama than a superhero movie. Although the protagonist, Batman, fit the "rich guy relies on tech" trope, the movie barely showed off any flashy gadgets. Unlike certain wealthy superheroes who turned themselves into walking arsenals, Batman didn't even carry lethal firearms, refused to use guns, and even adhered to a strict no-kill code.
In other words, this movie wasn't trying to attract audiences with dazzling spectacle. He wasn't just an ordinary criminal; he was more like an incarnation of chaotic evil in the mortal world.
...
The story that followed was full of twists and turns.
The Joker threatened Batman to reveal his identity publicly, or else he would keep killing people.
Batman and Commissioner Gordon used Harvey's false confession of being Batman as an opportunity to capture the Joker.
But the Joker had already turned some cops inside the police station, kidnapping Harvey and Rachel.
Using Batman's interrogation as a chance, the Joker hid a piece of broken glass, then escaped the precinct with a bomb hidden inside a prisoner's stomach.
He deliberately gave Batman two completely opposite addresses for Rachel and Harvey. Rachel was blown up, and half of Harvey's face was completely burned off...
No matter how hard Batman tried, the situation kept sliding into an uncontrollable abyss. The Joker's plans were interlocking, plunging all of Gotham into despair. People began fleeing in a frenzy, and the entire city collapsed...
The scene with the two ferries pushed the story into its final climax. One ferry held prisoners, the other held ordinary citizens. Each had the detonator for the other ship's explosives. Time ticked by. On the prisoners' ferry, a tall Black convict convinced the captain to "finish what should have been done ten minutes ago." On the other ship, a middle-aged man had decided to become a villain, picking up the detonator and preparing to press it. Batman, meanwhile, was pushed to his absolute limit by the Joker.
The film was steeped in an atmosphere of despair. But then, an unexpected turn occurred: the Black convict simply threw the detonator into the sea, and the middle-aged man, after much hesitation, ultimately chose not to press it.
The Joker's perfect plan was defeated by the light within humanity. In an instant, everything flipped. Seizing the opportunity, Batman regained control of the situation, hoisted the Joker into the air, and captured him alive.
However, the Joker's final chess piece only now surfaced.
Harvey, consumed by hatred over Rachel's death, had been dragged down by the Joker and sought revenge against Commissioner Gordon. Batman arrived just in time to save Gordon's family, but Harvey still fell to his death.
Harvey's fall meant the Joker had won. Faced with such an unsolvable dilemma, Batman chose to take the blame for Harvey, vanish into obscurity, and let Commissioner Gordon dump all the dirty water onto him, trading his own reputation for a bright, hopeful future for Gotham...
"He's the hero we deserve, but not the one we need right now."
"Because he's not a so-called hero. He's a silent guardian, a Dark Knight."
In the end, Batman's figure gradually faded from Lin Xue's view, and the film came to a close.
Against a somewhat melancholic background score, the credits rolled one by one. Everyone involved in the production—motion capture actors, voice actors, musicians, storyboard artists, model makers, and every other department—all appeared before the audience.
But what surprised Lin Xue the most was the actor listed for the Joker. It was a completely unfamiliar name.
Joker—Heath Ledger