Entertainment
The Villain in Every Dark Knight Movie, Ranked
Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy was the defining superhero movie phenomenon of the 2000s. Before the MCU actually took shape, Nolan’s gritty, grimy, hyper-realist take on Batman revolutionized the way we saw superheroes. By turning the Caped Crusader’s gothic tale into a criminal saga, the movies proved that the genre could be so much more than men in tights fighting supervillains, and Hollywood was never the same.
A huge reason behind the trilogy’s success is Nolan’s inspired and instantly iconic adaptation of Batman’s rogues gallery. Taking some of the hero’s most distinct and famous enemies and giving them a new, somber, and realistic coat of paint, the trilogy turned itself into a parade of incredible villainy, the liked of which we seldom see in the superhero genre. But who is the best villain in the Dark Knight trilogy? The top of this list should be easy enough to guess, but every other villain in the series is quite compelling, making the rest of the ranking quite interesting.
7
Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard) – ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (2012)
Poor Marion Cotillard; an actress of her stature deserved much, much better than what she got in The Dark Knight Rises. The last film in the trilogy is inherently flawed, but perhaps its biggest crime is doing Cotillard so damn dirty. The plot sees Christian Bale‘s Batman come out of retirement to face the threat of Bane (Tom Hardy), a terrorist who literally breaks his body in half before sending him to a foreign prison. Bane then holds Gotham hostage with the threat of a bomb.
Cotillard plays Miranda Tate, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises who, to the surprise of absolutely no one, turns out to be Talia al Ghul, R’as’ daughter who wants to finish her father’s work. The reveal is unsatisfying because it’s telegraphed from a mile away (a rare miss from the king of twists), and Cotillard gives a rather weak performance, as if she’s bored with the material — and who can blame her. Talia is a one-note figure without an ounce of characterization, a walking plot device with one of cinema’s goofiest deaths.
6
Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) – ‘Batman Begins’ (2005)
Batman Begins has an overabundance of villains and even name-drops a few others. However, only three actually play a meaningful role in the story, and the first is Carmine “The Roman” Falcone. Played by the late Tom Wilkinson, Falcone is a powerful mob boss in Gotham, whose corruption spreads to the city’s highest levels. He’s in cahoots with both Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) in their plan to poison Gotham’s water supply with the fear toxin.
Narratively, Batman Begins deals with weighty themes about fear and the nature of heroism. In this scope, Wilkinson’s Falcone feels like small peanuts, and he should. In broad terms, he’s just a pawn in Ra’s’ larger game, and his presence is a symptom of Gotham’s sickness, not the cause. Wilkinson is doing his best Tony Soprano, and he’s rather good at it. He also shares quite a good scene with what’s supposed to be an early-twenties Bruce, even if the film’s attempts to make Bale look younger are somewhat goofy.
5
Henry Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul – ‘Batman Begins’ (2005)
Next in line is Ra’s al Ghul, the actual main villain of Batman Begins, played by Liam Neeson. Introduced as Henri Ducard, he acts as a mentor and fight instructor during Bruce’s time with the League of Shadows, seemingly in service to Ra’s al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). Ducard reappears at the end of the film, revealing himself as the real Ra’s and hellbent on destroying Gotham by releasing the fear toxin into the water supply and having the city turn on itself.
Neeson is solid in the role, bringing the same stern and dignified behavior he dons in most of his movies. However, the film’s version of Ra’s al Ghul is ultimately less compelling, largely because the twist deprives him of the kind of development he would’ve had if the film revealed his identity from the get-go. There’s also the fact that Nolan whitewashed the character; listen, it was 2005, different time and whatever. Still, it’s jarring to see such a prominent East Asian and Arab character played by an Irishman.
4
Bane (Tom Hardy) – ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (2012)
The Dark Knight Rises uses Bane as the main villain for much of the plot before killing him off in the most unceremonious way possible. Tom Hardy’s villain is introduced as a terrorist and self-declared “revolutionary” who was excommunicated by the League of Shadows. Bane is a massive fighter who uses a nuclear bomb to seclude Gotham from the outside world, effectively holding it hostage. The film adapts the famous “Knightfall” storyline, in which Bane literally breaks Batman, cracking his spine and effectively taking him out of commission.
Visually, Hardy’s Bane is as good an adaptation as he can be while still fitting into Nolan’s hyper-realist approach. He also offers a more faithful version of his comic book counterpart, particularly in the intelligence department. For most of the film, Bane is an effective antagonist, even if he lacks much of the panache that previous villains brought to the trilogy. Hardy is great, as he always is, but the voice does become grating midway through the plot. Not a perfect villain, but a solid one.
3
Harvey Dent/Two-Face – ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
The Dark Knight is the best in the trilogy, largely because of its incredible villains. First, we have Aaron Eckhart‘s Harvey Dent, Gotham’s DA who wants to clean Gotham from all the criminals terrorizing the streets. He seeks Batman and Gordon’s (Gary Oldman) help before eventually succumbing to villainy when the Joker (Heath Ledger) kills his love, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The explosion also disfigures his face, breaking his mind and turning him into the villain Two-Face.
Eckhart’s Dent is a great adaptation of the character, especially during the film’s first half, when he’s still Gotham’s knight in shining armor. Once he becomes Two-Face, he becomes somewhat less interesting because he plays the character as an angry Harvey Dent rather than a whole new personality combining both light and dark. Still, as far as villains go, this Two-Face is quite an effective one, even if he only acts like one in the last act.
2
Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) – ‘Batman Begins’ (2005)
Batman Begins has an excess of villains, and while Ra’s is the main one, Cillian Murphy’s Jonathan Crane steals the show. In what was his first collaboration with Nolan, Murphy plays the psychiatrist-turned-supervillain with a mix of panache and creepiness. In the film, Crane works at Arkham Asylum and conducts experiments on the inmates, using the toxin produced by Ra’s as the key ingredient in his fear-inducing gas. Crane also works with the Gotham mob to declare Falcone’s enforcers insane so they can be spared from prison and moves to Arkham instead.
In many ways, Jonathan Crane is perfect for Nolan’s version of Batman and should’ve arguably been the film’s main villain. His MO — using fear to weaken his enemies — fits in perfectly with Batman Begins‘ main themes, but the movie doesn’t do nearly as much with him as it could’ve because it needs to set up the bigger plot with the League of Shadows. Murphy excels at playing these types of creepy yet alluring characters, and Crane is no exception. The film’s version of the Scarecrow mask is also quite good, far more comics accurate than most of the trilogy’s other villains.
1
The Joker (Heath Ledger) – ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
As mentioned in the interview, the top spot on this list was a no-brainer: Heath Ledger’s Joker is the all-time best superhero movie villain, setting an absurdly high bar that no one has been able to match, let alone surpass. In The Dark Knight, the Joker is an anarchist terrorist who seeks to throw Gotham into disarray just for the sake of it. He sees himself as a force for chaos, with Batman as his counterpart and the embodiment of order.
Ledger completely disappears into the role, giving the performance of a lifetime, the type of work that makes legends out of actors. The late Australian redefined the role entirely, turning the Clown Prince of Crime into a fascinating and layered force of nature that is as destructive as he is engaging. For his work, Ledger won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and his legacy only keeps improving with each passing year.
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