The Dark Knight

A closer look at the story

Batman sets out to take apart what remains of the gangs that hold Gotham City in their grip. With police lieutenant Jim Gordon and the city's top prosecutor, Harvey Dent, at his side, he begins to make real progress, and for a while the city seems ready to change. That fragile momentum is threatened by the arrival of the Joker, a criminal whose methods no one can predict or contain. Directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, the 2008 film stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart in a tense crime thriller about heroism, compromise and how far a city will bend under pressure.