Joker Movie Had a Heath Ledger Easter Egg We All Missed

The Prestige:
The prestige is about two stage magicians and their journey from partners to rivals. In this Christopher Nolan masterpiece these two men find themselves at odds following a catalytic tragedy. A usual stage trick of theirs involved Julia, Robert Angier’s (played by Hugh Jackman) wife, being tied and locked up then lowered into a locked glass cage filled with water, which she then would escape from. Starting off all as friends, things were going peachily until Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale) decided to change up the act and use a different and more difficult knot for the trick. This was against the wishes of Angier but Borden still wanted to go through with it. That night on the stage Julia wasn’t able to get out. In one of the most frustrating scenes I can think of in cinematic history, Borden and Angier (Batman and Wolverine) watch idly by in horror as Cutter (played by Michael Caine, or more famously known as Alfred) is trying to break the glass detaining Julia. Because Borden made the change without Angier knowing beforehand this caused a rivalry that continued to spiral end escalate throughout the years. As competing magicians they continually and tirelessly worked to disclose each other’s new tricks and sabotage their acts. The actions of sabotage eventually lead them to extremes which result in tragic consequences. It starts with tricks such as catching a bullet. Once Angier discovers the trick he sabotages Borden, ultimately leading to Borden losing a finger. The final magic tricks from each involves cloning, prison, and murder? A star studded cast of Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and many more, this is one movie that deserves to be watched by all.
Thor Ragnarok:
Thor Ragnarok in my opinion is the greatest of all 23 currently released marvel movies. Taika Waititi is a creative genius and was allowed to use those skills in his adaptation for this movie. The aesthetic makeup of this movie is bold, vibrant and quite simply childish, exactly something you would anticipate the inner workings of Taika’s mind to be like. What makes this film different from all the rest is the lightheartedness and quality humor that percolates throughout the entirety of this theatric masterpiece. Snide humor such as Thor and Hulk’s reunion in the arena of Sakar when Thor says “we’re friends from work” to the spectators. This line was a from a Make-A-Wish child who suggested it for the scene when he visited the set. Nearly every scene with Korg is an instant favorite, filled with one-liners made even better by the New Zealand accent. To top Korg off he is played by none other than director Taika Waititi. One thing that I did find irksome however was highlighted when watching “how it should have ended”. In the film Thor is easily incapacitated by a shocking device that is planted on him by Valkyrie. It makes you question how, if the device works so effectively on Thor then why wouldn’t they use it on Hela? The biggest change in this movie from the others, for Thor’s character perspective at least (pre endgame), was when Stan Lee hacked off his luscious locks. It seemed to completely change my image of the character but for the better. Originally, I hated that they would do such a thing. However, I like the new look and once he went back to long hair I found myself almost longing for the short haired version. When people who are against Marvel/ Superhero movies for some reason this is the film to suggest. It isn’t like all the others which cause you to feel almost comatose because the atmosphere, storyline, or whatever is not the same. Instead of responding to the question of “how was the movie” with “it was a typical superhero flick” Thor Ragnarok warrants a better response, a positive response, one that doesn’t group it with all the other superhero movies.
The Patriot:
Mel Freaking Gibson. This film is a journey and a half of the American Revolutionary war. Here’s the storyline given on IMDB
“It is 1776 in colonial South Carolina. Benjamin Martin, a French-Indian war hero who is haunted by his past, now wants nothing more than to live peacefully on his small plantation, and wants no part of a war with the most powerful nation in the world, Great Britain. Meanwhile, his two eldest sons, Gabriel and Thomas, can't wait to enlist in the newly formed "Continental Army." When South Carolina decides to join the rebellion against England, Gabriel immediately signs up to fight...without his father's permission. But when Colonel William Tavington, British dragoon, infamous for his brutal tactics, comes and burns the Martin Plantation to the ground, tragedy strikes. Benjamin quickly finds himself torn between protecting his family and seeking revenge along with being a part of the birth of a new, young, and ambitious nation.”
One of the greatest cinematic antagonists Col. William Tavington is the catalyzing factor for all sorts of emotional highs. Being the cause for the deaths of Benjamin Martin’s children at the onset of the movie, you find yourself cringing each time he makes an appearance. If you’re familiar with the Game of Thrones T.V. series then you will understand well when I say he gives the same emotional trauma as King Joffrey did. It’s not only because he killed Eddard Stark but the way he did it that caused you to despise him, among other things, that draws remarkable contrast to the emotional “attachment” you feel towards Colonel Tavington. It doesn’t help that one of the son’s he kills is portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. Two fun facts about Heath Ledger in relation to this film are such:
· “He didn’t work for a year because he only got offers for teen heartthrob roles. He was about to quit acting, and return to Australia, when he was cast in the film.” (And thank goodness because he is an incredible actor and we would have missed out on the greatest villain portrayal of all time in the Joker had he not remained in the acting world)
· “Heath Ledger said researching the American Revolutionary War for the film answered his question of why Americans “wave their flag so high.” “It’s because they went to hell and back to build their country.”
Being an American this film promotes ample feelings of patriotism and pride. Despite the fictional aspects it is always a great addition to any movie when applicable. Something about being reminded that the United States of America is the greatest and most skilled, powerful and dangerous militaristic forces can’t be undersold (some other great movie examples are Lone Survivor, 13 Hours and American Sniper)
Warrior:
Crying can be defined as: “to utter inarticulate sounds, especially of lamentation, grief, or suffering, usually with tears.” This emotion is not an unusual one to experience when watching your typical rom-com or drama, even a pixar or dreamworks animation can cause the waterworks to start flowing. Maybe there is something wrong with me but I have never been brought to the point of tears while watching a movie. Not when they put down Marley in Marley and Me, nor when Iron Man died at the end of Endgame, not even when Mufasa was killed by Scar in the Lion King (and we all know that that is at least in the top 3 of the saddest cinematic scenes of all time). So, how is it that the closest I got to crying was in a movie whose storyline is:
“Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime - and the wreckage of their broken family - within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lionsgate's action/drama, WARRIOR. A former Marine, haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father. But when Brendan's unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.“
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is not the most emotionally stimulating category but yet this movie was able to bring me nigh unto tears, twice. The first was a scene involving Tommy Conlon (portrayed by the talented Tom Hardy) and his father Paddy Conlon (played by Nick Nolte). Throughout the film you feel bad for Paddy as he is just trying to make amends for the terrible father figure he was, on his journey to find his way back into either of his sons polar opposite lives. It climaxes for him when he is at the casino and is emotionally destroyed by his son. You next see him in his hotel suite listening to a tape recorder and drunk (which destroyed his sobriety that he had been working so hard on so he could be allowed back into Brendan Conlon’s life). Tommy takes over and helps his father get into bed then comforts him as he sobs himself to sleep in his son’s arms. The second scene is the finale. Brothers Tommy and Brendan fight their way through a major tournament to ultimately meet each other in the championship. Here’s the script of the final scene:
“Brendan climbs into the cage as the house LIGHTS DIM. The
crowd is going bonkers. And they EXPLODE when Tommy appears
at the end of the tunnel with his hoodie up and begins his
march toward the cage.
The Marines shower him with cheers and "Hoo-ahs." The girls
scream. The rest of the audience stamps their feet and chants
his name. But he acknowledges no one, and the hard look on
his face never wavers.
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - MOMENTS LATER
Fenroy and the crew on the edge of their seats, all staring
at the big screen.
ON TV SCREEN: TOMMY GETTING GREASED UP AND CLIMBING INTO THE
CAGE.
INT. TAXI - SAME
A nervous Paddy sits in the back of the cab as the DRIVER
navigates through holiday traffic.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
And here it is. The two brothers face to face in the middle
of the ring, staring each other down. Tommy with his usual
controlled fire, Brendan intense, searching his brother's
eyes for some flicker of recognition.
JOSH ROSENTHAL
Gentlemen, this is the final. Five
rounds. I expect a clean fight.
Obey my commands at all times.
Defend yourselves at all times.
Touch gloves, go back, let's do
this.
As Rosenthal finishes his instructions, Brendan peers into
Tommy's empty corner.
BRENDAN
Where's Pop?
Tommy turns without answering. All business. Brendan returns
to his corner. Looks at Tess. So much emotion on her face.
96.
JOSH ROSENTHAL
Gentlemen, are you ready? Are you
ready? Let's go to war!
Tommy comes right after his brother. Just like with his
previous three opponents. A natural wrecking machine. Frank
screams at Brendan to stay calm, but Tommy is all over him,
POUNDING on him with savage intensity. As bad as the other
fights were for Brendan, this one is worse.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - SAME
The crowd is tense and subdued. It's not going well.
ON MOVIE SCREEN: TOMMY KEEPS TATTOOING BRENDAN WITH HEAD
SHOTS. BEATS HIS BROTHER WITH MALICE. IT'S HARD TO WATCH.
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - SAME
Fenroy and company thoroughly enjoying themselves.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA - SAME
Tommy continues to batter Brendan, then he swoops in, picks
him up, and SLAMS his big brother into the ground. Then he
does it again. And again. And again.
Brendan, the wind knocked out of him, is on his back, trying
to protect himself from Tommy, who mounts him and starts
blasting away with a BLUR of lefts and rights. The only thing
that saves Brendan is the HORN. Which Tommy ignores, blasting
his brother with a brutal CHEAP SHOT to the jaw well after
the round had ended.
TESS
What was that!
FRANK
C'mon, Josh!
Brendan lays on the ground as Josh Rosenthal pulls Tommy off
him and admonishes him for the cheap shot. Tommy stares at
Brendan. You want more?
Frank runs into the cage with the stool and Brendan limps
over to him and sits down. Brendan stares at Tommy, who paces
in his corner like a caged animal.
FRANK (CONT'D)
Sit down. Look at me. Look at me,
Brendan! Let it go! Breathe.
(MORE)
97.
FRANK (CONT'D)
Beethoven. He's coming hard, just
like we planned. I want you to
angle out, hit, and move.
BRENDAN
Angle out, hit, and move.
FRANK
Good. Breathe. Relax. He's not your
brother, right? He's just a guy
who's in the way.
Josh Rosenthal claps his hands. It's time. Frank glares at
him as he picks up the stool.
FRANK (CONT'D)
I'm taking a little more time for
the cheap shot! Do your job, Josh!
Tess sits uncomfortably in her chair. Her husband's face is a
mess. In front of her, Callen and Sheridan commiserate. J.J.,
the TapouT crew, and Colt Boyd look on. The electricity in
the crowd is greater than ever. They want a champion.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - MOMENTS LATER
Very quiet at the Drive-In. It's tough for everyone to watch
what's happening to Brendan.
ON MOVIE SCREEN: ROUND TWO. A REPEAT OF ROUND ONE. TOMMY JUST
WHALING ON BRENDAN AND BRENDAN TRYING TO HANG ON FOR DEAR
LIFE.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA - SAME
The Marines in the crowd are all on their feet, screaming for
Tommy to end it. The chant starts up again. 15,000 strong.
"Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!" Frank tries to instruct Brendan, but
he can't hear him, and he's too overwhelmed.
Tommy presses Brendan against the cage and does the same
thing Koba did. He lifts him off the ground, carries him on a
dead run, and body SLAMS him so hard the cage shakes. Then
Tommy mounts him and starts pounding away again.
The HORN sounds ending the round, but this time it's Brendan
who pops up and pushes Tommy. Tommy shoves him back.
Rosenthal has to separate them as the crowd roars its
approval.
98.
CALLEN (V.O.)
Here we go, Mom! Time to lock up
your china, the boys are at it
again!
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - LATER
Fenroy and company watching the big screen.
ON TV SCREEN: ROUND THREE. MORE TOMMY DOMINATION, BUT BRENDAN
IS SOMEHOW TAKING IT.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
Again, Tommy is on top of Brendan, trying to ground and pound
him into submission. Frank, leaning on the apron nearby,
screams at Brendan.
FRANK
Switch! Switch!
Tommy tries to pound Brendan out, but Brendan latches on to
Tommy's arm, wraps his legs around him, and REVERSES
position, just as he did with Midnight, the Dane, and Koba.
Tommy is in deep trouble. Brendan pushes him face down on the
canvas and cranks his shoulder. There's no escape.
SHERIDAN (V.O.)
Oh my God, that's a deep omoplata!
CALLEN (V.O.)
He's doing it again! Conlon's doing
it again! This is going to be over!
Brendan applies intense pressure. Tommy's shoulder is
contorted, WRENCHED backwards, and his face is a mask of
pain. Tommy's in agony, but he won't give in.
BRENDAN
Tap, Tommy!
Tommy SHRIEKS like an animal, but still won't quit. In fact,
he elbows Brendan in the face in defiance. Brendan in turn
cranks the shoulder even more. It's at the breaking point.
BRENDAN (CONT'D)
Tap!
The shoulder twists. Twists. And then, audible only to Tommy
and Brendan, CRACK. Dislocated. Then the HORN ending the
round.
99.
Brendan, worried he hurt his brother, leans over to see if
Tommy's alright, but Tommy, like a wounded animal, leaps up
and grabs Brendan around the throat with his one good arm. He
shoves him all the way across the cage and into the fence,
and it takes Rosenthal and Frank to separate them.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - SAME
The crowd fired up by Brendan's comeback, and mesmerized by
what's taking place in the cage between the brothers. It's
complete and utter chaos in there.
ON MOVIE SCREEN: TOMMY PACES IN HIS CORNER, HIS SHOULDER
WRECKED. JOSH ROSENTHAL TRIES TO SEE IF HE'S ALRIGHT BUT
TOMMY TURNS AWAY. HE'S NOT QUITTING AND NO ONE'S GOING TO
TELL HIM HE HAS TO.
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - SAME
Sheer amazement that Tommy didn't submit.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
Tommy, flap down, tears of pain pouring down his face, stands
defiantly in his corner. In the other corner, Frank attends
Brendan. In the crowd, Tess covers her mouth. She can't
believe what Tommy allowed to happen to him.
Frank puts the stool down and gives Brendan some water.
Brendan's face is wracked with guilt and concern over his
brother.
BRENDAN
I popped his shoulder.
FRANK
Relax, breathe.
BRENDAN
I heard it tear.
FRANK
You popped his shoulder? Good. I
want you to pop his other shoulder.
This is not what Brendan wants to hear. He looks over to Josh
Rosenthal.
BRENDAN
Josh!
100.
Frank snaps. Grabs Brendan by the face.
FRANK
Hey! Hey! No Josh! Look at me! You
got two rounds left! You need both
rounds! Go in there, kick him in
the head, take him down, and finish
him!
Rosenthal claps his hands. Frank exits the cage. The wounded
Tommy stands in his corner, his ruined left arm hanging low.
Brendan makes eye contact with him.
BRENDAN
Tommy! What are you doing?
TOMMY
Shut up! C'mon.
BRENDAN
What are you that crazy?
JOSH ROSENTHAL
Let's go to war!
The BELL sounds. Round Four begins. Tommy throws useless
right jabs. He's one handed and has no chance. Brendan stays
away from him, not wanting to hurt his brother.
BRENDAN
What are you doing? It's over!
Frank screams at Brendan from cageside to take the wounded
Tommy out, but Brendan is reluctant.
BRENDAN (CONT'D)
It's over, Tommy. C'mon. We don't
have to do this.
Tommy and Brendan circle each other. Tommy throwing rights
and wincing in agony at any movement. Brendan stares at him.
Everything about him says "Quit, Tommy." But Tommy won't.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA TUNNEL - SAME
Paddy runs up the tunnel, his All Access pass around his
neck, and enters the arena. Sees Brendan and Tommy in the
cage. Quickly figures out what the situation is.
101.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - SAME
Zito and the kids staring at the screen, imploring Brendan to
take the helpless Tommy out and win the championship.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL CAGE - SAME
Brendan continues to circle and not engage. Frank is livid.
He knows he'll lose the fight on the judges' scorecards if he
doesn't do something.
FRANK
Finish him! You finish him!
Tommy keeps throwing defiant right jabs at Brendan. Finally,
with no choice, Brendan fires back. He batters the
defenseless Tommy up against the cage and POUNDS away at him,
blasting his left shoulder with punches that make Tommy wince
in pain. It's anyone's guess how he can take it.
Brendan presses his brother up against the cage. Begging him
to quit. But Tommy merely responds by elbowing Brendan in the
face again. This sets the older brother off, and he resumes
pounding on Tommy until the HORN sounds and Rosenthal pulls
Brendan away.
JOSH ROSENTHAL
Break! Break!
Brendan heads back to his stool as Tommy leans against the
cage in agony. The Marines scream for him, but his eyes are
glazed over. It's unthinkable that he hasn't broken yet.
From near cageside, Paddy looks to the corner and makes eye
contact with Brendan. They exchange a small look of
understanding. A NOD. They both know what needs to be done.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - SAME
The crowd wants a victory. Tito and the boys start the "Mis-
ter C!" chant again.
ON MOVIE SCREEN: FRANK ADMONISHES BRENDAN IN HIS CORNER. IT'S
OBVIOUS WHAT HE'S TELLING HIM, BUT BRENDAN'S EYES ARE FAR
AWAY. HE'S NOT LISTENING TO A WORD.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL CAGE - MOMENTS LATER
Tommy and Brendan stand for Round Five. Tommy's face is
battered after Round Four and Brendan's face is ruined.
102.
In the crowd, the "Tommy" CHANT begins in earnest. In fact,
it may be louder than ever. Having done the impossible and
carried on with one arm, Tommy is more superhuman and heroic
than ever before. But his face tells another story. Soaked in
pain and anguish. All his stoic walls crumbling down.
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - MOMENTS LATER
All eyes riveted to the screen, where the brothers circle
each other as in the fourth round.
ON SCREEN: MORE PAINFUL STABBING JABS FROM TOMMY. BRENDAN
GIVES HIM ONE LAST, LONG LOOK, BUT TOMMY RESPONDS BY KICKING
HIM IN THE LEG. FINALLY, LEFT NO CHOICE, BRENDAN SWOOPS.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
Brendan SLAMS Tommy to the ground. His face is contorted in
merciless pain. Brendan slips his forearm under Tommy's neck
and squeezes. Tommy struggles, but he's got one arm and
there's NO ESCAPE. His face getting red from lack of oxygen.
As an anguished Tess and a shaken Paddy look on, Brendan
CHOKES his brother. As he does, he pleads with him.
BRENDAN
I'm sorry, Tommy! I'm sorry!
Tommy continues to struggle.
BRENDAN (CONT'D)
Tap, Tommy! Tap!
Tears pour down Tommy's face. Brendan is crushing his wind
pipe. Tommy's eyes bulge.
BRENDAN (CONT'D)
I love you, Tommy! I love you!
Tommy, about to pass out, no more air to breathe, slowly
opens his left hand, looks at Brendan, and TAPS his shoulder
on the Conlon family crest. Finally submitting.
EXT. STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN - SAME
While most of the crowd erupts in celebration and the kids
leap into each other's arms, Joe Zito stares at the screen.
ON MOVIE SCREEN: AS PEOPLE ENTER THE RING, BRENDAN AND TOMMY
STAY ON THE GROUND, BRENDAN CRADLING HIS BROTHER IN HIS ARMS.
103.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
Frank makes eye contact with the jubilant Tess. Indicates she
should meet them in the locker room. Meanwhile, people pour
into the cage. Frank pushes them aside, keeping them away
from Brendan and Tommy, who remain on the ground, exhausted.
Tommy to begins to WEEP.
INT. COLT'S PITTSBURGH FIGHT CLUB - SAME
Silence at Colt's. Everyone spent from what they've seen.
ON TV SCREEN: CHAOS IN THE RING. BRENDAN HOLDS TOMMY IN HIS
ARMS AND PUSHES AWAY A DOCTOR.
INT. BOARDWALK HALL ARENA CAGE - SAME
Tommy buries his head in Brendan's chest. A torrent of
sobbing gushes from him, years of pain pouring out in heavy
bursts. From the crowd, Paddy stares into the cage and
watches as Brendan comforts his little brother, then helps
him to his feet.
Callen, Sheridan, and J.J. Riley make their way inside for
the post-fight interview, cameras trailing behind them. With
Frank continuing to run interference, Brendan pushes through
the crush of people, arm around Tommy, and exits the cage.
The crowd parts for Tommy and Brendan. Paddy watches them, a
tear in his eye. He's overwhelmed by the sight of his two
boys together again.
As the noise from the arena fades, the brothers walk through
the wild crowd and continue on through the tunnel, arm in
arm...
THE END
For me, the part the just punched me right through the gut was when Brandon started talking to Tommy, “I’m sorry, Tommy! I’m sorry!... Tap, Tommy! Tap!... I Love you, Tommy! I love you!”. As soon as this is all over Today by The National begins to play and it just causes you to melt inside. Warrior Is A Cinematic Masterpiece! And, if it can almost make me cry then it has my respect.
Batman Trilogy:
Batman Begins –
The Beginning of one of the greatest trilogies out there. Christian Bale accepted the mantle of portraying the caped crusader and brought us one of the finest live action superhero movies. In a reversed dogmatism, the first film of the series was the worst of the three. Were I to make any changes to batman in general, in all the adaptations out there, the “batman voice” is one of my least favorite things. Why in the world does he need to talk like that? If people aren’t able to piece together who he is then changing his voice is more so just an awkward attempt to add another aspect to the film. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors in Hollywood and Batman is no exception. Liam Neeson is a legend and making him the main villain, Ra’s Al Ghul,, made me happy.
The Dark Knight –
The Dark Knight is the best of the three, and that is because of Heath Ledger and his genius take as the Joker. Chalk full of one-liners his performance was so great that he won an academy award.
- “Do you wanna know how I got these scars?”
- “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
- “How about a magic trick? I’m gonna make this pencil disappear. Ta-daa! It’s… it’s gone.”
He showed off more talents than with just his acting. He directed both homemade videos that The Joker sends to GCN. As Christian Bale takes this journey of toeing the line with one of the greatest villains you’re constantly on edge, as is typical of a Christopher Nolan movie, wondering how close Batman is really going to get to breaking his one rule of killing someone. One dislike or complaint that I had for the movie was the casting choice for Rachael. Although she is Jake Gyllenhalls sister, I don’t have much care for her as an actress and feel like they could have, and should have, cast someone else in the role, especially since she does play an important part in not just The Dark Knight, but through into the next movie as well.
The Dark Knight Rises –
The voice of Bane is a heavy favorite among people. Plenty of memes have been created using Tom Hardy’s portrayal of him. Despite being just 5 foot 9 inches and Christian Bale 6 foot, the camera work makes it seem as though bane is a behemoth of a man compared to him. He was too big (tone wise) from his role in Warrior so in the dark knight they made him put on a little bit more of mass to make him look like he did in the movie. I remember the scene where he picked up batman and broke his back and his dialogue “I was wondering what would break first, your spirit, or your body”. The scene sent chills throughout my body and now every time the movie is on, no matter where I am or who I am with, there is without fail at least one person who will say the line along with him. When I first heard that Anne Hathaway was going to be playing catwoman I was a little upset. However, she did an incredible job and I ended up really liking her performance and my mind was changed. In this concluding film of the trilogy I was left at the end hoping that they were going to make another film with Robin since they teased him but unfortunately that never came to fruition.
Peanut Butter Falcon:
Top 3 movies of all time. Peanut Butter Falcon is the story of three people, Zak (Zack Gottsagen), Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) and Tyler (Shia LaBeouf). Let’s start with Zak. Zak is a down-syndrome kid who is confined to a nursing home because he has no family. He loves wrestling and wants to attend his favorite wrestler’s (Salt Water Redneck) wrestling school. One night with the help of his roomie, Carl, he covers himself up with lotion and slips through the bars that were put on his window since he tried to escape just a few days prior. As he is hiding out in a boat, in just his whitey tighties, the boat is suddenly boarded and takes off through the marshes. Eleanor. Sweet Eleanor, a nursing home employee is responsible for Zak. Upon his runaway she is commanded essentially by her boss to find him before he has to report it to the authorities and government. Tyler. The getaway boat driver is the main character. He lost it all essentially when his older brother died in a car crash. In an act of retaliation he burns down a fishers equipment and jumps on his boat to escape from them. This boat had a stowaway hiding in the back who almost got him caught, that stowaway was Zak. Initially Tyler is trying to get rid of Zak as soon as they get to some civilization but since Zak is determined to get to the wrestling school Tyler agrees to help him get there (after a few unfortunate events that sort of force him into it.) So Zak and Tyler, Shia LaBeouf and a down syndrome kid, brodies, set out on their journey with Eleanor trying desperately to find Zak. Tyler and Zak develop a very special and close bond with each other as they are trekking to their destination. Eventually Eleanor catches up to them and is livid at Tyler since she ran into him a few days before and he lied about knowing anything about Zak. Zak forces Eleanor’s hand into coming with them on their journey as he throws her keys into the water. The three of them set out and become a makeshift ragtag family. This is just one of those movies that you can watch multiple times a year and not get sick of. Additionally, it is because of this film that Shia LaBeouf has started to make a resurgence into the film industry and recreated himself. If you watch an emotional video you can see how much Zak changed Shia’s life and it only adds to the connection you feel to them and their characters as you embrace this heart warming adventure tale

Joker (2019)" It Was All in Arthur's Head

There are many reasons for this claim, most of which will be explained here.
Going into Todd Phillips' Joker I was skeptical of Phillips' capacity following his (mostly comedy) films The Hangover, Old School and Starsky and Hutch, but I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Phillips' delivered a Joker story like none we've seen before, despite the various portrayals over the years (see Jack Nicholson in 1989's Batman, Heath Ledger in 2008's The Dark Knight, etc.), and that is exactly what it was... just another story.
Following my first viewing of the movie, I was sure that what we had just seen transpire was an origin story taking place in a 1980's Gotham. The final scene, however, when Arthur is dressed in all-white (will come back to this) and he lets out a final laugh telling the doctor "You wouldn't get it," had me questioning the entirety of what had happened prior to this.
What first needs to be understood, is that Arthur Fleck is clearly represented as an unreliable narrator. We follow Arthur for the whole duration of the film, and it's important to notice that there are very few, if any, scenes without our narrator. Going with the idea that it's all his fantasy, why would there be any scenes without him?
The first indication that Arthur fantasizes often is when we see him watching The Murray Franklin Show with his mother, Penny. He imagines himself being called out in the audience, being given attention by Murray and even receiving some powerful (and clearly unrealistic) admiration from him (see Martin Scorsese's 1983 film The King of Comedy). We cut right back to Arthur in his mother's dark bedroom, realizing he had just imagined this.
The second most obvious illustration of this is revealed through Arthur's neighbor, who somehow finds an interest in Arthur, despite knowing he follows/stalks her and may or may not have a gun. This is clearly shown to us through a series of shots that we'd seen earlier in the film, juxtaposed with the reality of the situation: Arthur never actually formed a relationship with this woman... it was all in the poor guy's head (see David Fincher's 1999 film Fight Club).
The previous two examples were rather obvious to viewers, most of which took them as "okay yeah, makes sense, this guy's crazy." But I'm here to tell you these were careful plot devices that propose the story through an entirely different lens.
Before we dive into more (and much more eye-opening) evidence that the entire movie (with the exception of the final scene) was all in Arthur's head, let's talk a bit about the Joker, Batman's most infamous and entertaining supervillian. The Joker has been shown with various origins ranging from A: failed comedian who must go to desperate measures to support his family, accidentally falling into acid in the process changing his features and sanity for the worse (see 1988's A Killing Joke), B: ex-gangster who bought the Wayne parents to their demise inadvertently spawning a young boy we now know as Batman (see 1989's Batman), C: psychotic mastermind who lives for chaos, donning a smile created by knife scars (see 2008's The Dark Knight), or D: other. Heath Ledger's Joker was famous for having various origins stories, using them to intimidate victims, never telling or perhaps even knowing the "correct" answer. As the Joker quotes in Batman: The Killing Joke comics, "I prefer to leave it to multiple choice." Those of you that though 2019's Joker would finally put an end to this madness, would finally give us a definitive answer we've all been waiting for? Well I hate to break it to you...but the joke's on you. Joker was just another possible origin story, just another story told by the Clown Prince of Crime. Todd Phillips was smart enough to never make the mistake of actually telling us.
As the film progresses, Arthur's reality is gradually shown to be something too good to be true, something fantastical. This begins with Arthur's gaining of satisfaction with the movement he's started as a result of taking revenge on the men who bullied him on the subway (see 1984 NYC Subway Shootings). He is deemed a hero (although not directly) by much of the general public for standing up to the corrupt. "Man Murders 3 on Subway Hailed HERO"...(see Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver, that of which's ending is largely debated as Travis's fantasy, due to the unrealistic nature of his public praise for his murders). The unrealistic nature of Arthur's story here slowly builds, until Arthur is T-boned by an ambulance at an incredible speed, and then casually rises and begins dancing with ease, as the city cheers for him in his heroism (who bought the chair?)???
Some smaller examples supporting the "all in his head" claim:

When Arthur suffocates his mother he takes a good (and super uncomfortable) minute or so to do the job. It can be seen that as he is doing this, her hand is grasped around the "help" button and she is pressing it vigorously, begging for help from a nurse. Following the deed, Arthur revels in his doing and remains in the room for another minute or so. This is clearly enough time for a nurse, or anyone for the matter, to have responded to the scene. In other words, this would never happen in the real world.
When Arthur is having a cigarette outside of the hospital after his mother is first admitted following her stroke, the detectives question him. They inform him that they had spoken with his clown gig boss, who told them about his laughing "condition." The detective asks Arthur something in the sorts of "This laughing thing...your boss told us it was a condition...this just another part of your clown act?" to which Arthur replies "What do you think?" before re-entering the hospital. Arthur is really speaking to the audience here.
Following the murder of his clown co-worker, he lets the midget go, unharmed. Perhaps, that man was scared enough not to tell a single soul what he just witnessed, but realistically, anybody would. Therefore, the time gap between this and Arthur's arrival at the set of the Murray Show is highly fantastical, without him being further pursued by law enforcement.
Following the live assassination of Murray Franklin, Joker stands and does his little dance. Of course, Hollywood, but realistically, anybody who commits such an act would be immediately tackled or shot down in response.
The clown masks that the people of Gotham don in protest is a mold of Arthur's specific clown makeup. It is shown his co-workers wear different makeup, and there are a variety of clown types in existence, why would everyone be wearing the same mask and makeup? Arthur's makeup. Wouldn't Party City (or wherever) sell out? It makes sense that Arthur envisions everyone wearing HIS look, due to his aforementioned narcissism.
When a young Penny Fleck is being interrogated about the abuse of her son, Arthur is in the room. At this point in the film it is clear that he isn't physically there, yet we see him standing there. Why should we take any of his story for truth, then, if we know this couldn't be so?
When Arthur is supposedly captured in the back of a police car, an ambulance hits the patrol car with an astonishing blow. However, Arthur recuperates fantastically quick. Moments later he dances on the hood of the car, the people of Gotham bowing down to his genius. This is perhaps the most obvious piece of evidence that this is all a narcissistic fantasy.
The film makers make it a point never to disclose Arthur's illness or disorder. They do refer to his mother's complications as being psychosis and narcissism, leading one to imply that Arthur has inherited these traits. But while the Pseudobulbar effect is a real disorder causing one to laugh or weep uncontrollably that comes as a result of head trauma, Arthur doesn't weep. He, somehow, is only susceptible to the laughing part. Go figure.

Many will argue that the fact that he has hallucinations throughout the film being supportive of the story taking place in reality, but who's to say he wouldn't have these visions in his messed up fantasy? I like to think it was more so a clear way for the film maker to emphasize to the audience that Arthur is not to be trusted.
Let's talk a bit about Arkham Asylum, or in Joker, Arkham State Hospital. The first time we see the institution is in the first few minutes of the movie when Arthur's psychiatrist (Dr. Kane) is questioning him about his time locked up. We see a "flashback" of Arthur dressed in all white, smashing his head on a window of a bright white door. One can notice that the clock on the wall reads "11:11" as does the clock in his psychiatrist's messy office at the same moment, perhaps showing us a short glimpse of where Arthur really is at that moment. Furthermore, this is the only time we see this setting until the final scene of the film, when Arthur is again incarcerated dressed in all white, in a bright white room, prompting many to believe he is back in the same place as he was in the past...or perhaps he never left.
The second time we see Arkham State Hospital, Arthur is walking up to the building and goes inside to retrieve his mother's records. Why is it that the hospital we see here is yellow and dilapidated with flickering lights and broken tiles? Everything down to the man screaming in the elevator, and the psychotic patients walking freely around the hospital, scream this is all in his head! This is the way Arthur perceives the people who locked his mother up, as well as him. Of course, we know, that it is in fact a white and clean facility, Arthur simply sees it as a place of horror so this is what the viewer observes here.
Lastly, director Todd Phillip's disclosed one piece of provocative information in an interview where he says "That laugh in the last scene is really the only time he (Arthur) laughs genuinely...There is the laugh from Arthur’s affliction and then there is his fake laugh when he’s trying to be 'one of the people', which is my favorite laugh. But at the end, when he's in the room at Arkham State Hospital, that's his only genuine laugh in the movie." In the directors eyes, the last laugh should be treated differently, it stands alone from the rest of the movie...as does the final scene. This is the only real occurrence in the film.
Joker, therefore, should instead be seen as merely another possible origin story, or perhaps a collection of them, that creatively intertwines various comics and stories of the past. Some examples:

Seconds before the title card, Arthur is on the ground in an alley after being beaten up. If you look closely, you can see a flower on his clown suit that leaks a fluid. This is likely a callback to Jack Nicholson's "acid flower" that he uses similarly to the Joker in comics.
Arthur is a struggling stand up comedian. Alan Moore's "Batman: The Killing Joke" depicts a failed comedian, unable to support his family.
Arthur presents a card to people whom he cannot explain his condition too. This pays homage to Joker's infamous line "Here's my card" both seen in comics and Heath Ledger's portrayal of the titular character.
Arthur is obsessed with a late night talk show host whom he imagines having interactions with, and wishes to be on his show. This is a parallel story line to Martin Scorsese's 1983 King of Comedy, in which Robert Deniro plays a failed comedian and goes to extreme levels to make it on the "Jerry Show" (Deniro actually plays the talk show host in Joker).
Arthur is a lonely man who has strong feelings about the declining city around him ("Is it me? Or are things getting worse out there"). 1976's Taxi Driver follows a similar story line with Travis Bickle (also played by Deniro) who ultimately loses it and shoots up a brothel, later hailed a hero. Arthur is similarly praised for his acts of violence.
In 1989's Batman, Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered in an ally way by a younger Jack Napier (who later becomes the Joker). In Joker, a unidentifiable man wearing a joker mask kills the Wayne parents. Joker even included Mrs. Wayne's pearls, and the theater.
After escaping the subway, being chased down by detectives, Joker dons a clown mask, as in to fit in with the crowd and be harder to find. The Joker similarly does this in 1966's Batman series (Cesar Romero) as well as in 2008's The Dark Knight. In all cases, the Joker takes off his mask to reveal underlying face paint.
In 1984, three men were killed by a man who was later given some forms of praise and recognition, perhaps due to the deceased affiliation with gangs.

Joker uses a number of different stories and manipulates them into an entirely new one, the one that we see. However, of course, this story is just another one of the many that the Joker uses. The psychiatrist asks Arthur in the final scene "Why are you laughing?" (clearly would not be asking if Arthur really had a condition) ...to which Arthur claims "You wouldn't get it." This troubled patient merely imagined the whole story, and got apparent joy out of it. Of course, she wouldn't understand. Even if Arthur explained the whole story to her, she still wouldn't get the same amusement out of such a chaotic story as Arthur would.
As mentioned earlier, if you really felt that Joker was finally delivering a long awaited answer to how the Joker came to be...well...the joke's on you.
And always remember...That's Life.
TLDR: Arthur never left Arkham State Hospital. The entire movie, with the exception of the final scene, takes place within Arthur's mind. This is the only explanation for the fantastical conclusion, and fits the Joker stereotype of having various origin stories.

The Joker's Two Scar Stories - and why THE DARK KNIGHT is the deepest film of the trilogy

EDIT2: (extremely mild )TDKR SPOILERS removed. SOME VERY LARGE SPOILERS IN THE THREADS BELOW. BEST POLICY - DON'T READ THE THREAD UNTIL SEEING TDKR
EDIT: There is some seriously amazing and insightful discussion going on in the comments. /batman may be my new favorite subreddit!
The Joker tells two different stories of how he got his scars in THE DARK KNIGHT. Why?
The first version is told to Gambol, the crime boss:

Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not. One. Bit. So - me watching - he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it! Turns to me, and he says, "Why so serious, son?" Comes at me with the knife... "Why so serious?" He sticks the blade in my mouth... "Let's put a smile on that face!" And... why so serious?

The second version is told to Rachel:

Oh, you look nervous. Is it the scars? Wanna know how I got 'em? C'mere, look at me. So, I had a wife, who was beautiful...like you, who tells me I worry too much, who tells me I oughta smile more, who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks… Hey. One day they carve her face. And we got no money for surgeries. She can't take it. I just want to see her smile again. Hmm? I just wanted to let her know that I don't care about the scars. So, I stick a razor in my mouth and do this... to myself. And you know what? She can't stand the sight of me! She leaves! Now I see the funny side. Now, I'm always smiling!

Why does the Joker tell two different, contradicting stories?
The most superficial interpretation is: the Joker is insane. He is so mentally ill he is incapable of being honest or consistent even with himself. So, the stories reflect Joker's mental turmoil.
Many audience members will not advance past this interpretation, and that's fine.
A related second answer would be that the Joker is a pathological liar. Throughout THE DARK KNIGHT the Joker manipulates his enemies through lies, trickery, disguises, and traps:

The bank robbery and massive double-cross.
Pretending to be dead to get inside Gambol's headquarters.
"I just want my phone call" and the cellphone bomb.
The Joker tells Batman the wrong location for Harvey and Rachel.
It is heavily implied that the Joker is pulling a similar trick on the two ferries.
Joker dresses as a guardsman to infiltrate the parade and shoot at the Mayor, and he sets up the sniper trap for Batman.
He dresses as a nurse to infiltrate the hospital.
He sends assassins to Judge Surillo who pretend to be her bodyguards.
The pencil trick.

The two scar stories, then, can be seen as a continuation of the Joker's pattern of terrifying deceit and unpredictability.
Again, this interpretation is valid, and many viewers of THE DARK KNIGHT will not delve any deeper than this.
However, a third interpretation is the Joker is creating a self-conscious performance. The Joker always introduces his story with "Wanna know how I got these scars?" He is asking the question that everyone must be thinking when they look at his disfigured face, but nobody actually dares to ask. He asks it for them. It's important that he tells the story of an abusive father to Gambol, and the story of a neglectful wife when speaking to Rachel; he is clearly tailoring his story to his audience.
If we look closer, two themes unite the Joker's stories. In both stories, the Joker is the victim of physical or emotional abuse. The second theme is humor ("Why so serious" / "Let's put a smile on that face" / "Now I'm always smiling"). Humor is associated with insanity: people know that laughing when nothing is funny, or laughing uncontrollably, are symptoms of a madman.
The Joker is thus "reciting" a "myth" that people create in their own minds when they meet the Joker: the Joker must have been a victim of physical or emotional abuse, and the scars made him so detestably ugly that he went insane to cope.
This is a very unoriginal, vanilla origin story for a villain. BUT, in telling different variations on this same stereotypical story, the Joker is clearly winking at the audience. "So-and-so is what people THINK happened to me."
In reality, neither story is true. The Joker is not actually a laughing madman. He is often sarcastic and he has a sharp sense of humor (for example, he is clearly aware of how grotesque his nurse disguise is). But in many scenes, the Joker is serious and sober. Remember when the Joker escapes in the cop car with his head hanging out the window? Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill would be laughing maniacally in this scene. Heath Ledger's Joker is silent.
The Joker does laugh several times in THE DARK KNIGHT, but it is a performance, like his clown makeup. The Joker laughs when he wants other people to think he is insane. The two clearest examples of this are when he is making his televised terrorist threat (interrogating the wanna-be Batman) and in his final conversation with Batman (while hanging upside down). Batman may be fooled, thinking Joker will "rot in a padded cell forever," but Nolan's Joker isn't insane. He rarely exhibits out-of-control, irrational, or impulsive behavior.
Just to drive this point home, the Joker even utters a sarcastic fake-laugh when he meets the mob ("Ha ha. Hee. Ho. And I thought MY jokes were bad."), clearly emphasizing how in-control he is. It is evident that his laugh while torturing the wanna-be Batman is just as much a performance.
The Joker uses storytelling to paint an image of himself as a madman, but he is really a mastermind.
In typical Nolan style, we can go even one level deeper.
A final interpretation of the Joker's stories is that the Joker is making a powerful comment on the DIFFERENCE between Joker and Batman.
If we look at Batman, his origin story is central. It is not just an explanation for his powers, like Peter Parker's radioactive spider or Superman's planet Krypton. Batman's origin story is his MOTIVATION for becoming Batman. Batman is not the result of a scientific experiment gone wrong, like the Hulk; Bruce Wayne made a conscious CHOICE to become Batman after his parents died. Batman's origin story is also the source of a painful tension in Bruce's character: his conflicting desires for revenge (violence and vigilantism) versus justice (law and order).
In short: Batman is defined by Bruce Wayne's past.
One of the themes of THE DARK KNIGHT is the contrast between the Batman's "one rule" (no killing) and the Joker's "no rules" attitude. A few lines in the film draw attention to this. Crime boss Maroni tells Batman that nobody will help him find the Joker: "You got rules. The Joker, he's got no rules. No one's gonna cross him to you." The Joker tells Batman: "You have all these rules and you think they'll save you…. The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules."
By telling conflicting stories of his origin, Joker draws a powerful contrast with Batman. Batman is defined (and limited) by his past. The Joker is free to invent his own past. Since he has no past, he has no motivation. As he tells Harvey: "Do I really look like a guy with a plan? … I just DO things. The Mob has plans. The cops have plans. Gordon's got plans. You know, they're schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I'm not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are."
In short, Joker is defined by his LACK OF a past.
Batman is scarred (psychologically) by his parents' death and he never forgets it. The Joker doesn't even bother to remember why he has scars.
The Joker uses people's pasts to manipulate them several times in THE DARK KNIGHT. At the most superficial level, Anna Ramirez is corrupted thanks to her mother's hospital bills. Going a little deeper, the Joker corrupts Harvey Dent by appealing to his lifelong appreciation for fairness (represented by the coin).
The person who has the most vulnerable past is Batman himself. The Joker is able to get the better of Batman several times because of this. First, the Joker forces Batman to crash his bike rather than violate his one rule. Then, the Joker is immune to Batman's beatings and intimidation because he knows Batman can't kill him. Ultimately, Joker tricks Batman into letting Rachel die by sneakily appealing to his secret love for her.
The Joker is a man without a past, and that's what makes him a terrifying villain.
It also makes THE DARK KNIGHT a complex, ambiguous, deep, and fascinating movie.
Not everyone analyzes movies to death, but classic movies grab our imaginations because they are open to interpretation, discussion and analysis. That's what makes THE DARK KNIGHT a classic.

[SPOILERS] Favorite Gotham Characters and Why?

I have recently been watching a ton of Gotham AMVs and it has got me thinking about how enjoyable the show is. The best thing about Gotham is the characters. So I decided to list down my Favorite Gotham characters.
Dishonorable Mention Jim Gordon: I remember reading a Gotham AMA hosted by Ben McKenzie. A fan asked what made him so attracted to the role in the first place. He said that it was because Jim Gordon was a straight laced hero in a sea of Antiheroes. I bet he must be disappointed with the narrative direction the show went. It's not that Jim Gordon isn't a well developed character because he is, it's that he is incredibly unlikable. Every episode Ben McKenzie writes or directs in some way acknowledge the characters faults. Jim Gordon works best as a foil to Batman. An average man thrown into a world of outcasts and looneys, however in the show's first season they make him too gallant. Jim Gordon can't give into lust and cheat on his wife like he did in the comics, it’s his cruel wife that cheats on him therefore validating any future romantic endeavors. After that the writers thought that a lawful, morally decent character cannot be interesting and made him corrupt and violent. It's harder for the audience to connect with a womanizer with an extreme sense of justice who is willing to bend the law a little to do what's right. Jim in the comics is just an average family man, that's why he is relatable. In Gotham he is pretty much Batman with a badge. He is obsessed with cleaning up Gotham, he has numerous love interests, he bends the laws to do what he thinks is right and he is just one step away from becoming the very thing he fights against. The main differences between comic Batman and Gordon is that Gordon kills people and that he is supremely more selfish. Gordon kills people for Penguin and he maims various people throughout the show for his own interests. He is incredibly prideful, always berating Bullock for being corrupt while he does that exact same thing. Just because Gordon recognizes he has "darkness" doesn't,t mean he has the right to do nothing about it. It seems that the moment things look bad he begins indulging in his selfish desires. No amount of self loathing justifies that. Sure there are obviously worse characters but usually they are thrown to the side or ignored, Jim is the main character and the audience has to spend the most time with him.
Jeremiah Valeska: Jeremiah has been in only been in 5 episodes and he has already caused more damage than any other character. Jeremiah acts like he is superior to every else and yet no one has proved him otherwise. He is a "higher class of criminal". Unlike any of the other villains he really seems like something out of the pages of the golden age. He is a brilliant engineer capable of making super weapons and he has his own secret lair. He is a nietzschean super criminal. He takes great pride in being the best as what he does. A unique take on the Joker, going beyond the Mad Dog mentality for something more elegant. Unlike his brother, it is implied his tragic backstory is fabricated and that he was born a psychopath. He also has little agency and all of his successes comes from his intellect. Jeremiah is cold and calculating like few other villains in the show. He seems almost reptilian. While he may have taken more than a few queues from Hannibal Lecter, I think there's enough freshness to keep me satisfied. He gets under Bruce’s skin like few villains. He makes Bruce question his instincts since Bruce thought he was a victim of circumstance. The scene where he shoots shows how sadistic he is. Unlike Jerome he is perfectly capable of controlling himself which makes him much more sinister. The scene where he mocks Bruce about Selina's condition is chilling and shows the depth of his villainy.
Professor Pyg: While he is inferior to his comic portrayal he is still an immensely entertaining villain. I am always a fan of characters that are serial killers and cannibals. I feel like if I was a villain on Gotham, I would be Pyg. A logical motivation perverted beyond repair and a zany sense of justice. The concept of a serial killer from the south that goes around the world reinventing his amo and appearance is brilliant and I wish that idea was explored more. Professor Pyg wants to make the perfect persona. I like that at this point in Gotham Supervillainy is like a subculture/ ecosystem. It makes the world they inhabit feel three dimensional. His rendition of they had it coming is one of the all time great Gotham moments, mixing black comedy with ultra violence. However the reveal that he was an assassin hired by Sofia Falcone makes no sense and cheapens the character. Also the character lacks depth, he is an instance of style over substance, immensely entertaining but pretty empty when you break the surface.
Ra's Al Ghul: My favorite episode of Gotham is "The Demon's Head" and he is a big reason why. I feel like after this point in the show they didn’t know what to do with him which is a shame as he was great for the first four episodes of S4. Calm, calculating and charismatic, he is everything you could want in a campy yet intimidating super villain. While some would believe that his lack of a backstory makes him lack depth, I would argue for the enigmatic mastermind that he is, it works. You presume that he has a rich history that could fill up epics just by his demeanor alone. Throughout the whole show he is the puppeteer behind every event, he is always in control. I also love how he is willing to get his hands dirty. It would be so easy to show him sitting in a dark room ordering faceless assassins to go after Bruce. The henchmen he does have are memorable. Mad Dog and the acupuncturist are unique opponents. The scene where he goes into James,s office just after Jim was told about how dangerous he was by Alfred was brilliant. He was exerting control from Jim and showing the GCPD that they can do nothing to him. At the end of the episode Ra's threatens to slit Alex,s throat unless Bruce gives him the dagger. Bruce refuses and Ra's slits Alex,s throat, killing him. This moment shows how great Ra's is a manipulator. Ra's wants to die in peace knowing his legacy will live on. Bruce refusing to give Ra's the dagger shows Ra's that Bruce is willing to let innocent people die for the greater good. 50% of the work is already done. Ra’s now just has to convince Bruce that Gotham isn’t worth saving.
Alfred Pennyworth: Alfred in Gotham is a bona fide badass. Willing to do anything to protect Master Bruce, he is basically James Bond as a butler. While I like Selina as a character the scene where Alfred bitch slaps her is pure gold. Even though his edge is slowly softened as Gotham gordon, in the first few seasons he was the toughest character on the whole show. He also has a good amount of depth. Alfred relates and cares about Bruce as both of them are "broken things". He was broken by the war and Bruce was broken by his parents death. He is also raising Bruce as a way to honor Thomas Wayne, the man who saved his life.
Jerome Valeska: Jerome is very inconsistent, sometimes he is a hilarious psychopath who does everything for the fun of it and other times he imitates Heath Ledger. I prefer it when he is the former, really making the character, Joker his own. At his best Jerome is funny, unpredictable, violent, incredibly theatrical and charming. In his own way he wants to entertain his fans, he has his own fucked up standards. Violence itself isn't funny, it's enjoyable to commit but not funny, Jerome tries to enhance violence, making it a performance. One of his best moments is when he decides not to kill Penguin because Penguin made him laugh, it was out of nowhere and fit perfectly with his personality. If someone entertains him he won't kill them, he won't need to. He is also a sympathetic character, being born a bastard child, he was treated terribly by his entire family, in many ways like the other freaks at the circus, a mistake. My only problem with the character is that without his agency he is just a crazy murderer. A positive result of this is his character arc. He starts out as an edgy creepypasta character, he killed his mom because she was mean to him. Then he learned his dad was a pathetic blind creep. After being freed from Arkham he killed his biological father and adopted Theo Galavan as a father figure. Theo was the first person to appreciate his talents and treat him with respect. He gave him compliments on him showmanship and charisma which made Jerome feel good about himself. However when Theo killed Jerome, the last bit of his humanity died with him. When he is resurrected by his followers he comes to believe that he is some sort of messiah figure. In the past he was fine with killing others for various reasons but now he has deluded himself into thinking that people are just playthings for his twisted entertainment. At this point in the show it seems like he has no close family members. With the apparent death of his family he is no longer hindered to the
past. He has evolved from an edgy serial killer to a Legend. A mythical figure who feeds of chaos and madness. Criminals tell stories about him that they aren’t sure if their true or not. Hell he scares most criminals, including the Penguin. It's ironic that he is taken down by his own brother and Bruce Wayne, the two people who see Jerome as a human rather than some unstoppable force,
Selina Kyle: Born into poverty Selina and abandoned by her parents, Selina wasn't given the chance to be anything other than street trash. No one takes her seriously and no one respects her. She just wants to make something out of herself. Her need to seek approval from Barbara Kean and Fish Mooney stem from her abandonment issues. She just wants to be wanted. She is very sarcastic and witty often being the realist compared to Bruce. Her cynicism and self preservation bounce off of Bruce’s altruism and proactiveness quite well.
Bruce Wayne: I read the quote that Bruce is like the Augustus Caesar of Gotham and I completely agree with it. A child genius forced to be the head of his family due to unfortunate circumstances. Gotham's Bruce had the advantage of being young allowing his intellect to be at the forefront instead of his strength. He is a brilliant strategist. I like how he is a genius but he is socially awkward. He is logical and emotions and usually illogical. Bruce is a logical person forced to act illogical because in Gotham everything is illogical. He is a schemer. I also like how he actually enjoys crime fighting because it is the only thing that makes him feel alive. It's like some weird fetish of his. Still he deserves some joy considering all he's dealt with. I believe that if his parents didn’t die he would spend his the rest of his life as a rich playboy who always felt like something was missing but he doesn’t know what. Crime fighting is his true calling. He seems to really enjoy it. He is also the most moral person in Gotham, going out of his way to help people because he cares. I think that in a show of morally detestable characters their need to be at least a glimmer of light.
Harvey Bullock: Harvey is both the show,s comic relief and the audience surrogate. He often says what the audience is thinking. He’s a realist. He is lazy, witty, cynical and selfish. He works well as a foil to Jim Gordon's stoic nature and dedication. He feels genuinely human and relatable. He does evil because he realizes it's the only way to survive as a cop. He isn't happy about it, it is just a part of the daily grind. The scene in the hospital after he is almost killed by Professor Pyg is heartbreaking. He genuinely feels guilty about helping Penguin and breaking Jim's trust and he wants to improve himself. The scene in episode 21 with his reaction to the creepy pig sex deviants was hilarious.
Edward Nygma: Edward Nygma descent into madness is a slow burn but it is worth the wait. Starting out as a socially awkward crime scene investigator, slowly the verbal abuse from his coworkers and the emotional rejection of Kristen Kringle slowly deteriorate his psyche until it cumulates with him gutting Kristen Kringle,s abusive boyfriend. Their is an innuendo about the act of murder being equivalent to sex for him. The action isn't completely negative, her boyfriend was incredibly abusive. His motivations are a mix of jealousy, lust, rage and genuine care. After that his psyche becomes shattered, broken into pieces like a puzzle. He begins his descent into insanity. He sees multiple versions of himself and his alternate personality takes on a life of its own. Throughout the show he is trying to find the puzzle piece missing in his life, whether it is befriending the Penguin, falling in love with Isabella, or taking drugs to hallucinate interactions with the Penguin after he "kills" him. In a Freudian fashion everyone he is in a relationship with dies either directly or indirectly by his hands. He doesn’t “fit” with anyone else. He isn’t even accepted by the freaks of Gotham. He is too abnormal to be a gangster and too arrogant to join the freaks. He isn’t even seen as one of the great villains by many Gothamites. He is the loneliest person in Gotham.
Victor Zsasz: Victor Zsasz is just so classy. He is by far the most consistently entertaining character is Gotham. He lights up every scene he is in. He is a contradiction to the classic hitman mold. He is extroverted, charismatic, friendly, openly talks about his beliefs and has funky town as a ringtone. He just loves his job so much you just can't help but respect him. He seems to have a good relationship with his family which is bizarre considering his body is covered in tally marks and he is extremely respectful to people. He has a dark sense of humor and code of honor. When Carmine Falcone is murdered he is genuinely sad and show his respect at the funeral. He seems to care about Penguin and they interact like friends. Every scene he is in is comedy gold. As long as you allow him to torture and kill some people he won't cramp your style. He's a chill dude. It's great that Gotham turned one of the most bland Batman villains into such a likeable character.

Oswald Cobblepot: While Jim Gordon may be the main character everyone knows who the true star of Gotham is. The King of Gotham himself, Oswald Cobblepot. The character with the most depth, Oswald has been the standout character since day one. Oswalds overbearing mother never allowed him to grow up making him into a manchild. This leads to him having a soft spot for bullied children. Any time he doesn’t get his way he violently lashes out. The incessant bullying of Oswald Cobblepot lead him to have a deep resentment for the world around him. The bullied became the bully. Oswald will only allow himself to be ridiculed if there is a long term benefit to this. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He has an almost serial killer like mentality. In the first season he acts like a pushover but later on reveals his true nature and becomes the “great man” his mom always knew he could be. Oswalds idea of great resides in How much power you have and what your social status is, rather than morality, just like his mom. He hides his sociopathic nature under the guise of politeness. He is a brilliant strategist and opportunist. In the first season of Gotham he worked as a great foil to Jim Gordon. Jim was trying to fight against the crime and chaos of Gotham and Oswald was taking advantage of it. Oswald is a brilliant businessman, he knows how to make people's self interest align with his ultimate goal. He is the devil on Jim Gordon’s shoulder, always telling him to do it. Every deal Jim makes with Penguin slowly eats away at his soul until there is nothing left. He is always willing to indulge in his darkest desires, constantly being unnecessarily violent and cruel to his enemies. Like a child he sees nothing wrong with his actions and usually takes delight in committing them. His greatest weakness is his emotional instability. When being nursed back to health by the Riddler, the Riddler explains why his mother's death was a blessing is disguise saying “ A man with nothing that he loves, is a man that cannot be bargained, a man that cannot be betrayed, a man that answers to no one but himself”. The brilliant irony is that it is Penguins romantic affection for the Riddler that leads to his downfall. It is always his emotional attachments that make his fail. In season 2 it is his mother being kidnapped by Theo Galavan and forcing the Penguin to do his bidding for her life. In season 3 it is his romantic love for the Riddler. In Season 4 Sophia Falcone uses this to her advantage acting as a surrogate maternal figure that Oswald desperately desires. Sophia uses Oswald Parental connection for Martine to finally topple his enormous empire at the halfway mark of season 4. Penguin wants to be free of his emotions but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t deny his true nature.

Essay: Appreciation for the Art of Villainy, which Ant-Man does not have

Here's an excerpt from a piece I'm writing about the MCU. This section came from my feelings about Ant-Man. Curious if I can get some discussion about what I feel is the greatest failure of the film: The lack of a main theme, exacerbated and demonstrated by its dull and confusing villain. It has a bit of a lead-up, apologies for length.
Alright, Let’s Talk Marvel’s (and everyone else’s) Villain Problem: Why Good Villains Make Good Stories Make Good Heroes
Everyone knows about the MCU’s villain problem. Kevin Feige, CEO of Marvel Studios, has indicated it’s intentional - that he wanted their company to be the one that focused on the heroes. They do sell more toys, after all. He’s been quoted saying they don’t really want spotlight the baddies at all, that they’d rather make it about the hero’s inner journey. That can work - Iron Man proved as much. But Iron Man did so because, as I’ve previously written, Iron Man is both hero and villain of that story. He has a lot of personal issues to overcome. The same can’t be said of Scott Lang, who, yes, is a former criminal trying to go straight for the sake of his kid, but he still begins the film a decent person and ends the film as more-or-less the same decent person. In fact, the film goes to great lengths to reveal that his supposed ‘crime’ was more of a Robin Hood affair, protecting the little guy from the big, bad corporations and being unfairly punished it. I suppose the real journey belongs to Hank Pym, who learns to trust Hope, his daughter, with both the truth of her mother’s death and in her abilities to save the day and get home safe. But she herself also has no real character arc. In my opinion, both of these problems can be tied to the larger one in the MCU; that goshdarn villain problem.
It’s no secret that I am and always have been a major villain fan. My favourite Disney songs were always the villain songs. The first movie I remember crying during was 1998’s Godzilla when the titular creature was killed (specifically, I can recall loving Godzilla because ‘she’ was the first female bad guy I saw who also wasn’t ‘sexy’, and that was cool and why would they kill her, she just had cute babies!). My catholic elementary school would encourage us to pray for people before bed, but I’d throw in a little prayer for the Devil at the end, since I always felt sorry for him and thought it’d be nice if Hell could be closed for good. It seemed a rather nasty place for a benevolent God to have created at all, to be honest. Oh dear, are my issues with my religious upbringing showing again?
Point being: I’m very, very biased. Or maybe I’ve just always had good taste. After all, it’s common knowledge amongst animators that the villains are the roles you want to animate for. There were grumbles amongst the staff who had to animate Aurora in Sleeping Beauty because she was notoriously difficult to keep on-model, dainty and blandly appealing. Those who got to sink their teeth into the voice work of George Sanders with Shere Khan created an animated performance whose study is encouraged to this day. The delicious array of emotions and twisted expressions that flash across the faces of the caricatured Jafar, Ursula, Cruella, Dr. Facilier and Captain Hook far exceed the capacity of their heroes. One could argue that even these relatively flatly evil characters have within them a greater range of humanity than any of the other characters: they are allowed to show the negative traits other characters aren’t.
To me, the best villains are those who act on the impulses we all secretly have. Some motivations may seem bland - the desire for power, greed, revenge, etc. Yet they come from human places that, if fleshed out well enough, remind us of why vices are so tempting. Who hasn’t watched the news and felt so tired with incompetence and corruption in government and thought If I ran the world, there’d be a lot less of this bullpucky? Who hasn’t seen others flaunting their extreme wealth and wondered What could I do with such riches? What dreams or good could I accomplish? And who hasn’t felt wronged in some way and wished to level the playing field? I just want you to know what it feels like.
Superhero films have often been described as wish-fulfilment fantasies. It seems to me that it’s important to have the murky flipside of that examined if you’re going to examine those fantasies critically. I’ve heard complaints about Marvel’s ‘Dark Mirror’ villains, but I don’t have a problem with the concept of a villain who reflects their hero to reveal potential negatives. The problem with the MCU’s mirrors is that they often resemble the characters in costume, but they are too shallow to be an ideological mirror. Thus the hero and their actions are never really tested or countered. They are not made to question themselves, to reflect on their own dark potential, and therefore make changes that better themselves and their heroism.
The best hero and villain pairings better each other. They create rivals who vie for the soul of the story, and sometimes, the audience.
In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s Joker confronts Batman’s vigilantism and subversion of law by supporting complete Anarchy. After all, if the law and its legal upholders aren’t good enough to a point where a man in a Halloween costume has to brutalize poor people to keep the peace - why have law at all? Joker’s faith in the inherent cannibalism of humanity clashes against Batman’s purported belief in hope, optimism and human decency. His actions test Bruce Wayne into crossing his moral lines - making the audience and the protagonists question Batman’s entire approach to heroism.
Nurse Ratched’s love of order on pain of humiliation clashes with Randle McMurphy’s sense of spirited freedom and camaraderie. Their clash delineates the central themes of One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest: how power over the lives of others can influence for help or for harm. Petty, corrupting bureaucracy failing to be adequate mental health treatment, versus rebellious spirit and individualized care and empathy.
Schindler’s List supplies Amon Goeth, a Nazi whose fundamental lack of humanity allows him to use those in his ‘care’ for target practice, while Oskar Schindler comes to value every individual he saves so highly that the loss of a few potential more causes him unbearable heartbreak. ** The rivalry between antagonist and protagonist is fundamental to the soul of a film. Narrative is often based on conflict, and without a compelling conflict, you are left with a less-than-lustery film.**
So, who is the villain in Ant-Man? A man by the name of Darren Cross, AKA Yellowjacket. Per MCU regulation he comes with the standard ‘evil’ version of the protagonist’s powers, namely a shrinking suit but with inhuman appendages to help make him appear more monstrous and less deserving of empathy. His connection to the protagonist is distant at best - there’s some quick exposition about how he took an internship with Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and felt slighted when Hank didn’t teach him what he knew. He doesn’t seem to have any connection to Scott Lang, the protagonist-apparent. His relationship with Hope van Dyne, Pym’s daughter, seems more promising - both feel that Hank kept secrets and knowledge from them, despite their sacrifices and love for him. This isn’t really explored, however, and can’t be said to be the theme of the film.
Ant-Man seems to be a film about fathers and daughters (a nice change from the usual fathers and sons that can be found in nearly every other MCU film). Scott Lang feels like he failed his daughter by being in prison instead of being present in her life. Hank Pym has actively pushed his daughter out of his own life by failing to trust her with the truth of her mother’s (the original Wasp to his Ant-Man) disappearance. That’s all fine and dandy, but these two character arcs aren’t really the focus of the film either. Scott Lang actively endangers his daughter by making himself - and therefore his loved ones - a target for Yellowjacket, and yet he faces no repercussions for this. Instead, he’s bizarrely rewarded by being welcomed into his ex-wife’s family. All he’s done is save his daughter from a danger he created - how does that show personal growth on his part? Hope proves her competence to her father and he relents on his secrecy, reforging their bond. And yet that final beat of her receiving her mother’s costume is reserved for a post-credits scene; an addendum. The only real growth is from Pym, and even then it’s difficult to say how the plot of the film conspired to change his mind. There’s a beautifully acted scene where Hope tearfully confesses her feelings of isolation and betrayal to her father, stemming from her frustration with being second fiddle to the less-competent Scott. But as a moment, it feels disconnected from the larger threat of the film. There’s no sense that the fallout of that scene is going to affect the story in a large way.
Every emotional beat in this film lands a little flat simply because it’s difficult to connect it to the overarching story. Fighting a guy who wants to use shrinking technology as a military weapon has jag-all to do with an ex-con having trouble getting work and reconnecting with his family. One feels the film would be stronger without an antagonist at all. As it is, Darren Cross is just a jerk who kills sweet baby lambs and goes crazy, just so he can do illogical things in the climax for the sake of cool. Not even a specific kind of crazy. Just...whoops, he shrunk too much, now he’s no good at making sense. How convenient.
Rewrite Time
Imagine this hypothetical Ant-Man film I’m gonna pretentiously rewrite here. The largest change I’m going to make is to the villain’s motivation:
Scott Lang was a petty crook. During the financial crisis of 2008, his family was in danger of bankruptcy. He fell in with a bad crowd and stole to keep the lights on. He was arrested, prosecuted and served his time. He gets out of prison, wanting to go straight. However, thanks to the well-known problem of having to declare a criminal past on his job applications, he struggles to find work. Luis tries to tempt him back to a life of crime, saying that society just won’t forgive an ex-con, and he really has no other options. Hank Pym finds him and wants to use his criminal skills in conjunction with Pym tech to do the basic heist set-up of the film, as is. But in exchange, once he has control of his company back, he’ll hire Scott on for a legitimate career, ensuring he can pay child support for his daughter and lead an above-board life.
Now, for Darren Cross. First off, Cross has a daughter. That’s right, another daughter. We’re gonna make this a father-daughter superhero movie for the ages. I’m gonna call her Avery. Cross’ teenage daughter (putting her halfway between the ages of Cassie Lang and Hope) actually has a great relationship with her father. He’s rich, and so can provide for her - guaranteeing her future (Scott’s worry). He’s very close to her, and they both confide in each other. They have a mutual respect (what Hank lacks with Hope). Now we’ve humanized Cross and made him a kinda likeable guy - sure, he’s a rich jerk, but he’s still a loving father who has something our protagonists lack. This also encourages sympathy for Hank and Scott and connects both of them in an emotional way to the antagonist. He has what they want - and he came by it unfairly.
Unfairly how? Let’s say Darren got his wealth and control of Hank’s company through white-collar crime. Thanks to his wealth and position, he was able to hire the best lawyers and avoid jail time, even as those who suffered for his swindling went unavenged.
Now we have a theme. Fathers and daughters, the desire to provide for one’s children - financially and emotionally - and the drastic class inequality when it comes to crime and punishment in America. Now THAT is a movie that would give me something to talk about. The sense of injustice an audience would feel to see Scott serve his time for his crimes and yet continue to be punished by society after release, even while those like Darren Cross, who did far more damage, get off scott-free would make Scott so much more compelling. That Hank, who earned his company and wealth with his intelligence and engineering, could have it stolen away by litigation by those who want to turn his life’s work into something that takes life? So frustrating! That Cross, their supposed enemy, treats his daughter with the respect and trust that Hope craves from her own father? Now we want these characters to rise up, be better, and cheer when they overcome their hurdles.
Through the events of the film, Cross’ white-collar crimes could be publicized, and as a result his daughter feels betrayed and lied to. She tells him she doesn’t want any of his ‘dirty money’ and that she never wants to see him again. All while the long arm of the law is forced to act, now that his crimes can’t be ignored or easily bribed away.
Now we have a reason for Cross to act unhinged - he’s had a severe emotional blow and feels like he has nothing left to lose. Unlike Scott, who’s worked for redemption and wants to find forgiveness and a way back into his daughter’s life, Darren falls into despair. Unlike Hank, who manages to have a heart-to-heart with Hope where they’re at last totally honest with each other and Hank reveals his guilt for her mother’s fate, Darren is convinced his daughter will never forgive him the truth. Darren decides he wants revenge, just like the original script - but now his targeting of Scott’s daughter makes an emotional sense. He wants to take away from Scott what he feels was taken away from him. In addition, I might add him taking Hank hostage and trapping him like he did the miniature lambs before. That pays off that rather macabre set-up, and is a nice inversion on the damsel-in-distress trope. Now he’s also taking away and imprisoning a father away from his daughter - what happened to Scott, and what he’s afraid is about to happen to himself. A little bit of poetry there.
Fight proceeds as before, only this time Scott is joined by a last-minute cavalry - Hope in the Wasp suit. Instead of being sidelined until a post-credits scene, now Hope gets to shine alongside Scott. A father and a daughter, kicking butt together. The father to save his daughter, the daughter to save her father. Things proceed as they do in the film, only instead of killing Yellowjacket, they break his mechanism for returning to normal size so he’s stuck at a few inches tall. After rescuing Hank first, of course. They then deliver Cross to the authorities in something humorous - like, say, Cassie’s dollhouse.
Scott can apologize to his ex-wife for putting her new family in danger, and she can realize that he’s contrite, but that the world is more difficult to navigate for him than before, and that he could use some forgiveness and compassion. Hank also makes good on getting him that new job. As for Hank and his daughter, Hope saving Hank from a terrible, shrinking fate is a nice parallel to how Hank failed to save Janet from hers. She’s proven that she can be a hero, and can maybe even succeed where he failed.
This also has the nice effect of not sidelining the female characters, and incorporates Wasp in a more fulfilling way (since in the original you’re left wondering why she isn’t the protagonist in the first place).
Finally, you can have a final scene of Avery Cross talking to her father in prison. They have a sweet conversation that maybe gives a little hope to their reconciliation. As a gift, she gives him some of her old miniature furniture, since his prison cell is currently still a dollhouse. Being that Ha-ha - but also, kinda sweet, and a bit of a role reversal. Now his kid daughter’s the one who has to take care of him. It’s a bit sad, but still touching, and a reminder of what age eventually does to us all.
And there we have it. By fixing the motivation of the villain, we’ve also

Solidified the themes of the film - and made it about something topical and relevant
Differentiated it from Iron Man by focusing on the Father-Daughter relationship instead of the military angle
Created new opportunities for emotion
Made it easier to root for Scott and Hank
Made a villain people might actually remember, and kept him alive instead of giving him the original’s gruesome death in a child’s bedroom - I thought this was supposed to be a comedy?
Incorporated female characters into the film in a more equal way

Now, I know making movies is a series of compromises, so it’s possible such ideas were had and lost while the project was masticated by the great Hollywood machine. Still, I feel like Marvel’s deliberate decision to weaken their antagonists has come at great cost to their protagonists, whether they realize it or not. Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, claimed to have Batman Returns and The Dark Knight on his mind when he said that DC put their efforts into their villains, so Marvel would put theirs on their heroes. I get it, Batman was barely in Returns and The Dark Knight was dominated by Heath Ledger’s performance of a lifetime as the Joker. But those flaws are just that - flaws. (Also Batman is a terrible character who deserves to be sidelined in his own films come at me) It’s not a knock on the concept of a well-written antagonist - a well-written antagonist’s job is to make a good story alongside the hero. If your villain, should you choose to have one, is weak and confused, so, too, will the conflict between him and your hero be. You’ll be left with a weak and confused film.
Like, unfortunately, Ant-Man is.
Better luck next time...

My take on fixing the DC Extended Universe (Part 5)

Batman: Dead Man's Hand (2023)
On a perfectly ordinary day in the Gotham City Central Police Precinct, a teenage boy walks into the lobby and informs the officer behind the desk that he wishes to tip them off about an impending crime. When the officer humors the boy and asks him where and when the crime will take place, he coyly replies "Right here. Less than an hour from now." Intrigued, the officer asks the boy to elaborate.
As he explains, his father is a foreman at a local warehouse, and he recently had to let one of his security guards go after the man was arrested for randomly pulling a gun on a convenience store clerk. While such a crime would ordinarily be considered unremarkable, the boy says that he had long been rather suspicious of the security guard before he seemingly snapped. The guard—who is currently being held in that very precinct—bears an uncanny resemblance to Basil Karlo, a long-dead movie star from the 1940s who appeared in a string of memorable monster movies. As it happens, his father's warehouse is right across the street from an old movie theater that's currently playing one of Karlo's old horror flicks, and a poster with Karlo's face is prominently featured on the front window of the theater. And while the guard's resemblance to Karlo is quite striking, there's one notable difference in his features: Karlo had a prominent scar on his right cheek, while the guard has an identical scar on his left cheek.
The boy theorizes that the guard isn't actually who he claims to be, but is wearing some sort of undetectable disguise. If he had some means of changing his appearance at will, he could have changed his face to resemble Basil Karlo while looking at his poster—which would explain why his face appears to be horizontally inverted. If that's the case, then his "random" crime may not have been so random after all. Rather, he may have wanted to be imprisoned in this particular precinct, and he may even have some way of getting out whenever he wants.
After doing a bit of research, the boy also recently learned about a major upcoming trial involving the infamous Gotham crime boss Oswald Cobblepot (aka "The Penguin"), one of many major players in the Gotham underworld who rose to fill the power vacuum left after the Joker fled the city years earlier. One of Cobblepot's minor flunkies is planning to testify against him in court, and is being housed in Gotham Central while awaiting trial. Which means that the witness and the security guard are currently being held in the same building...
As it happens, Batman is just leaving the precinct following a meeting with Commissioner James Gordon when he overhears the boy's conversation with the officer at the desk. Although Gordon dismisses him as "just another crank", Batman is intrigued by his analysis of the situation, and decides to head to the cells to check on the incarcerated security guard. But just moments before he arrives, the guard effortlessly slips through the bars of his cell, revealing that his body is as pliable as clay. As he nonchalantly walks through the halls of the police station, his face suddenly changes its shape, and he takes on the appearance of the first police officer he sees.
SURPRISE! It turns out that the "security guard" is actually Matt Hagen (aka "Clayface"), an infamous Metahuman criminal in the Penguin's inner circle with the ability to change his appearance and stretch his body at will. Free from his cell, he sets out to find the treasonous informant, planning to kill him before he can testify against the Penguin. Batman arrives too late to stop Clayface from escaping his cell, but just in time to apprehend him as he slips through the bars of the informant's cell and attempts to kill him. Moments before Batman shows up, the terrified informant defends his actions as Clayface moves in for the kill, insisting that he had no other choice but to take refuge in the Witness Protection Program.
"You don't understand, man!" the informant screams. "There's somebody else moving in on the Penguin's territory! Somebody bad! There's a war coming—and if I get caught in the crossfire, I'm as good as dead! I have to get out of Gotham, man! You've gotta get out too! This city's more dangerous now than it's ever been!"
Batman corners Clayface, and the two of them square off, with Clayface guarding himself against a hail of bullets at the police arrive. Batman saves the informant, but Clayface slips out of the police station in the chaos and escapes into the sewers of Gotham.
As the smoke clears, Batman walks out into the lobby to complement the young boy on his detective skills, and informs him that his theory was correct. When Gordon and the police are out of earshot, Batman slips the boy a business card for Wayne Enterprises, and tells him to call the number on his card if he's interested in an "after-school job". Before Batman leaves, he asks the boy his name.
"Tim," the boy responds. "Tim Drake."
A few months later, we rejoin young Tim Drake as he undergoes a rigorous training regimen in the Batcave under the watchful eye of Batman and his young protege Barbara Gordon (aka "Batgirl"). Following the events of Teen Titans, Dick Grayson (formerly known as "Robin") has left Wayne Manor after a falling-out with Bruce, but Barbara remains loyal to him. After several months of training, Batman is now confident that Tim—whom he recognizes as a natural detective—can now handle himself in the field as the newest member of his team. When Batman offers Tim the opportunity to succeed Dick Grayson as the new Robin, the boy eagerly accepts.
Tim joins Batman's team at an interesting time. In the weeks and months since the scuffle in the police station, rumors have spread of a brewing gang war in the Gotham underworld, which threatens to tear the city apart. After weeks of spying on the city's major criminals, Batman learns that the Penguin's organization is bracing for the arrival of a mysterious new player who's supposedly planning to make a move on the Penguin's territory. With Tim and Barbara's help, Batman hopes to stop the Penguin from starting a war that could endanger innocent lives.
Meanwhile, we rejoin Clayface in the sewers of Gotham as he meets up with his pal Waylon Jones (aka Killer Croc), the Penguin's other top Metahuman enforcer. As the two criminals reconnect, the Croc taunts Clayface for his failure in the police station, bragging that his brawn will always triumph over Clayface's brains. Together, they make their way up through the sewers and into the swanky Iceberg Lounge, where their boss is holding court before an assembled army of goons. The Penguin informs his minions that their mysterious rival has sent his gang to the old abandoned Gotham subway station, a valuable piece of territory that lies firmly within the Penguin's empire. With his forces assembled, the Penguin prepares to lead them to the subway station to repel the intrusion into his territory—unaware that Batman, Robin and Batgirl are listening in on him.
The Bat-family tails the Penguin and co. as they head to the subway station, armed and ready for a confrontation. Just as they suspected, they find a well-armed gang of thugs waiting for them, prepared to take the station by force. As they exchange tough words, the thugs remain undaunted. But tension goes up a hundredfold when the Penguin notices a few of the thugs doing something strange in the background: donning white face-paint. Suddenly, a chilling laugh echoes through the subway station, and a tall, gaunt-faced figure emerges from the shadows...
SURPRISE!
It turns out that the "new guy" in Gotham is none other than the Joker, who has finally returned to the city to reclaim his lost territory and challenge Batman to a rematch, with his beloved Harley Quinn by his side. Terrified, the Penguin realizes that he's out of his depth, and immediately begins dialing back his threats. As wealthy and powerful as his organization may be, he knows that nobody challenges the Joker unless they have a death wish.
Now, by this point, various Batman adaptations have already shown multiple different sides of the Joker's personality, which are all memorable in their own ways—some more than others. Cesar Romero was a goofball clown, Jack Nicholson was a cutthroat gangster, Heath Ledger was an anarchic terrorist, and Jared Leto was a psychopathic serial killer. For this version, I propose portraying the Joker as something else: a cult leader.
The Joker is a lot of things, but two of his defining traits are that he's...

A) An irredeemable monster who does evil things for reasons beyond anybody's comprehension.
B) The greatest and deadliest foe in Batman's rogues gallery, feared by heroes and villains alike.

To play up both of those aspects of his character, I think it could be pretty cool to lead on his charisma, portraying him as a sort of Dark Messiah who can rally Gotham's supervillains against Batman, inspiring them to commit dastardly deeds for no other reason than that being evil is awesome. If Jack Nicholson's Joker was Al Capone, Heath Ledger was Timothy McVeigh, and Jared Leto was Jeffrey Dahmer, this Joker has more than a little bit of Charles Manson in him.
With that in mind, the Joker instantly steals the show from the Penguin and his minions, and proposes an alliance between their two organizations that will set Gotham ablaze. The Penguin is a pragmatic old-school gangster who's just in the criminal world for the money, and he's visibly terrified by the prospect of joining the deranged Joker—but he knows better than to tell the Joker "No", so he reluctantly accepts. Clayface and Killer Croc, meanwhile, are elated to join the Joker's gang, seeing it as their shot at "the big leagues". Watching the meeting from a distance, Batman similarly tenses up as he sees his old nemesis again, and tells Tim and Barbara that their mission just got a lot more complicated.
BLAM!
Suddenly, a volley of gunshots cuts through the air, and multiple thugs on both sides fall dead. In the chaos, the Penguin's goons think that the Joker has betrayed them, and they open fire on his army. But the Joker convinces both sides to stop shooting, and he points out the real culprit. Hidden in the shadows, a mysterious figure in a blood-red mask clutches an assault rifle trained on the thugs, ready to kill. Just when Batman and co. least suspected it, another Gotham vigilante has emerged to take out the Joker and the Penguin—and unlike Batman, he has no qualms about using lethal force.
As bullets fly, Batman orders Tim and Barbara back to the Batcave while he attempts to chase down the mysterious gunman. Chaos ensues, and the kids are forced to fight their way through the Joker and the Penguin's combined forces when they're spotted by thugs. Meanwhile, Batman chases the masked gunman deeper and deeper into the subway tunnel, climaxing in a tense fistfight. The gunman easily holds his own against Batman in combat, refusing to fire a shot at him. Finally, the gunman's mask falls off in the scuffle, and Batman suddenly recoils in shock as he gets a look at his face. Unmasked, we finally get a good look at the gunman: a handsome dark-haired young man with a hideous burn on the right side of his face. Bruce immediately recognizes him.
"No... No, not you... It can't be!" Bruce screams.
"Sorry, Bruce..." the mysterious figure says. "I didn't want it to go down like this. Nobody likes a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past. But I can't hide anymore. I'm gonna settle things with the Joker, and I'm gonna do it my way. You can join me, or you can stay out of my way!"
With that, the figure makes his escape, dashing into the darkness of the tunnel.
Shaken to his core, Batman returns to the Batcave to rendezvous with Tim and Barbara, and he tells them a story from his past.
Despite what he had previously led them to believe, Barbara and Dick Grayson were not Batman's first sidekicks. Years ago, when he was first starting out as a crime-fighter, Batman took a disillusioned young gang member named Jason Todd under his wing after he saw him stop a fellow gang member from killing an innocent witness to a robbery. Seeing potential in the young hoodlum, Batman helped him reform, and later trained him as an apprentice. Much like Dick Grayson, Jason had long been enthralled by the legend of Robin Hood as a child, and always dreamed of becoming a noble outlaw like his hero. As an homage to Robin Hood, he called himself "The Hood", and hid his identity with a hooded red mask.
For years, Batman and the Hood were an inseparable pair—until the day that the Joker attacked Gotham with a series of deadly bombings, testing the duo to their absolute limit as they set out to bring him to justice. After many months of battling the Joker's organization, Batman and the Hood finally cornered him at his headquarters in the old Ace Chemical Plant, not realizing that the villain had rigged the entire factory with explosives. Finally sensing that his number was up, the Joker detonated the bombs as he fled the factory, leaving Batman and the Hood scrambling to escape the building as it went up in flames. Though Batman narrowly managed to escape the blast, he was separated from his loyal sidekick in the chaos, and never saw him again.
Ever since that fateful night, Batman has been haunted by the loss of his first apprentice, but he has always held out some vague hope that Jason might still be alive—since his body was never recovered from the wreckage of the factory. Now, at long last, Batman realizes that his suspicions were correct: Jason did survive. But even though he is elated to see his old partner alive and well, he realizes that Jason has become a killer. Overcome by his anger at the Joker, he's willing to use lethal force to bring him down. Despite their past history, Batman knows that Jason must be stopped.
"There's no room for killers on the streets of Gotham," Batman says. "I loved Jason like a son. But whatever else he might have been to me, he's a murderer now. I'm bringing him in."
With Tim and Barbara reluctantly agreeing to help him, Batman sets out to find Jason and bring him to justice. Meanwhile, Jason sets out to dismantle the Joker and the Penguin's alliance by force, disrupting cargo shipments and spying on thugs as they make their way through Gotham's sewers. As he soon discovers, the Joker is planning another major series of bombings, and he's using the Penguin's front companies to deliver several hundred tons of deadly Joker venom into the heart of Gotham. As he builds his forces, the Joker also reestablishes his old base at the Ace Chemical Plant, where he had his last confrontation with Batman.
Finally, just when Batman and co. are finally picking up Jason's trail, Jason is ambushed and captured by Killer Croc and Clayface, who take him away to face the Joker's judgment. Horrified, Batman watches from hiding as the villains drag Jason away, but loses their trail as he attempts to chase them down.
At a secluded warehouse, the Joker tortures Jason for information about Batman, and gloats about his victory as he recalls the day that he nearly killed him. Through the whole ordeal, Jason stays quiet and stoic, refusing to betray his old mentor. Just as the Joker draws a gun and prepares to kill him, Batman crashes through the window and comes to Jason's rescue. The Joker flees and calls for his minions, and Batman frees Jason. Reunited, the two old partners fight their way through the building, but Batman stops Jason from picking up a gun in the course of the battle, instead giving him a spare utility belt and a set of Batarangs. Overcome by nostalgia, Jason realizes how much he truly missed fighting by Batman's side.
At long last, Batman and Jason make it back to the Batcave, where they have an emotional reconciliation with one another. Batman introduces him to Tim and Barbara, and happily welcomes him back to his old home. Realizing that he cares more about his friendship with Bruce than about getting revenge on the Joker, Jason agrees never to take another human life, and agrees to follow Batman's lead as he resolves to stop the Joker.
At that moment, the Joker finally detonates his bombs hidden throughout Gotham, leaving the GCPD too distracted by the ensuing chaos to stop him as he prepares to flood the sewers with Joker venom. Donning his old red hood once again, Jason joins Batman, Tim and Barbara as they set out to storm the Ace Chemical Plant and take the Joker down.
Meanwhile, in a neighboring city, a familiar figure watches the chaos unfold in Gotham on the evening news:
It's Dick Grayson, now wearing the familiar black and blue threads of "Nightwing". With his friends Kid Flash, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven by his side, Dick turns off the TV and strides off towards a nearby helipad...
Together, Batman and co. devise a daring plan to fight their way through the sewers and infiltrate the factory from within. In the ensuing battle, each and every one of them gets a moment to shine. Tim faces off against Clayface, who's determined to take revenge on him for foiling his plan in the opening scene. Barbara faces off against Harley Quinn in an epic girl-on-girl fight scene. Batman personally fights Killer Croc to a standstill with nothing but Batarangs and explosives, and finally hog-ties him with wire. Last but not least, Jason confronts the lingering demons from his past as he faces the Joker hand-to-hand.
The battle rages on, and the Bat-family are nearly overcome by superior numbers as thugs swarm them from all sides. But just when all seems lost, Dick Grayson's helicopter soars over the factory with Cyborg in the cockpit, and Dick jumps out and swoops through the window to aid his old mentor. Once again, Dick fights side-by-side with Batman, and the Bat-family is whole.
At the climax, the five heroes successfully stop the Joker from launching his gas attack—but history eerily repeats itself as the Joker tries to blow up the factory again.
Once again, the factory goes up in flames as Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing and the Hood attempt to flee onto the roof. They outrun the blast, but Barbara loses her footing in the chaos and falls into the burning factory. Flashing back to his last encounter with the Joker, Jason braves the flames to pull an unconscious Barbara to safety, and the group escapes together.
Afterwards, the Joker flees Gotham (again), and Barbara is rushed to the nearest hospital in critical condition. Bruce and Dick make amends as they stand vigil by a comatose Barbara's bedside, praying that she'll wake up eventually. At long last, she finally does—but with severe injuries. It turns out that she sustained a major spinal injury in her fall, leaving her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Remembering his previous failure to protect Jason, Batman becomes despondent, and briefly considers retiring from superheroics so that he'll never endanger his loved ones again. Once she fully recovers, Barbara convinces Bruce not to give up his crusade against crime, assuring him that she has no regrets about her time in the Bat-family. She also tells him that she has no intention of leaving Bruce's crew, and won't let her paralysis stop her from fighting for what she believes in.
In the final scene, the Bat-family—now including Nightwing and the Hood—gathers in the Batcave for another busy day of crime-fighting, with Barbara acting as Mission Control under the callsign "Oracle". As Alfred watches them from the shadows, a smile crosses his face as he realizes that "Master Bruce" has finally found a new family to replace the one that he lost, just as he always hoped he would.
Green Lantern 3 (2024)
Our story begins right where Justice League 2 left off.
In the wake of Hal Jordan's death at the hands of the monstrous Unmaker, the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps assemble on Earth for a solemn memorial service at the Hall of Justice, where the Justice League pays homage to their fallen comrade. As the League mourns, the Guardian called "Ganthet" consoles them, assuring them that the Corps will always honor Hal's memory. Before he leaves, he tells them that the legacy of a fallen Lantern always lives on—as long as there's a brave soul willing to take up their ring. "Some quiet night, when the sky is dark, perhaps you'll see a green light somewhere among the stars," he says. "Whenever you do, you'll know that Hal Jordan is remembered. And the light of the Lantern goes on still, beating back the darkness."
The next night, as the League bonds in the Hall of Justice, Superman looks to the night sky and studies the stars. As a bright green comet streaks across the sky, he smiles.
Soon after, the Guardians gather on the planet Oa to discuss finding a successor to inherit Hal's ring. According to the Corps' age-old rules, a fallen Lantern is always succeeded by another. But in an unexpected break with tradition, Ganthet tries to persuade his fellow Guardians to nominate multiple new Lanterns to guard Sector 2814. In the wake of Darkseid and the Unmaker's attacks on Earth, Ganthet has been plagued by nightmares and premonitions about a bold new threat to Hal's home planet. In the days to come, he believes that it may take more than one Lantern to keep Earth safe.
"How many do you propose we send?" another Guardian asks. "A hundred? A thousand?"
"Nonsense, brother," Ganthet says, smiling. "Three strikes me as a perfectly adequate number..."
Back on Earth, we're introduced to three perfectly ordinary humans with seemingly nothing in common.

John Stewart, a middle-class architect and decorated Marine veteran from Detroit, recently returned home from deployment in Afghanistan. Ever since being wounded in action in a massive battle, he has struggled with recurrent post-traumatic stress disorder, and now tries to take solace in his civilian job.
Guy Gardner, a burned-out football player from the Midwest who chose to abandon a lucrative contract with the Metropolis Metros after losing his best friend and teammate in a traumatic car crash. Once a wild and boisterous partier, he now wrestles with survivor's guilt, and decides to take a long road trip across America while struggling to find a purpose beyond the gridiron.
Kayla Rayner, a quiet artist from California who struggles to make ends meet while working a late-night job as a bartender. After losing her mother to cancer, she struggles with depression and loneliness while waiting for her big break, finding solace in her art while dealing with the drudgery of a thankless job.

One day, John receives a sudden call from one of his old Marine buddies in California, who confesses that he recently attempted suicide the night before while struggling with his memories of Afghanistan. Determined to help his friend in his time of need, John boards a plane to his friend's hometown in Coast City, California. By complete happenstance, Guy is just passing through Coast City when John's plane lands, and he decides to spend the night there before hitting the road again.
That night, John and his old war buddy reconnect in a gin joint at the edge of town, just as Guy enters for a few rounds of pool. As he heads to the bar for a beer, we see that the bartender is Kayla. The bar also happens to be right down the road from Ferris Aircraft, where the late Hal Jordan once worked as a test pilot.
Later that night, all of the lights in the bar suddenly go out, and John, Guy and Kayla are dazzled by the sight of a glowing green comet hurtling to Earth and crashing in the surrounding desert. When they look around, they realize that time has seemingly stopped, and everyone in the bar has somehow been frozen in time—except the three of them. Moments later, as the lights flicker back on and time starts up again, they realize that nobody else in the bar saw the green comet except the three of them.
Despite being complete strangers with nothing in common, the three agree to venture out into the desert in Guy's truck to investigate the spot where the mysterious comet impacted. When they do, they find a massive chunk of meteorite rock in a crater with three Green Lantern rings embedded in it. Mystified, they pick the three rings up and put them on, and they're suddenly greeted by a glowing portal that leads to Oa.
On Oa, the three humans are met by a delegation of Guardians, who tell them that they have been chosen to join the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians have been monitoring Earth for potential recruits for many months, and they believe that John, Guy and Kayla—despite their many psychological hangups—have the potential to wield the awesome power of the Lantern for good. Like millions of other people on Earth, they watched news coverage of Hal Jordan's funeral after his death, and they realize that they're being recruited into the same organization that gave him his superpowers. Each of them reacts to the offer differently: John recognizes the Corps as a noble organization, and decides that he has a duty to serve them to the best of his ability; Guy sees the offer as a chance to finally turn his life around while seeking adventure and thrills; Kayla is hesitant to accept, believing that she's not worthy to fill a respected superhero's shoes, but John and Guy persuade her to take a chance and join them.
Together, the three undergo the Corps' grueling training regimen under the watchful eye of Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Galius Zed and Salaak. Over the course of training, their personalities gradually emerge, with John as the stoic and cool-headed leader, Guy as his wild and freewheeling foil, and Kayla as the thoughtful and sensitive "heart" of the group.
But elsewhere in space, all is not well:
As a squad of Green Lanterns soars through space on a routine patrol, they suddenly stop when they encounter a faceless figure wreathed in shadow. As they confront the figure, he mysteriously causes their rings to go dark with a wave of his hand. When they move closer and attempt to strike him, each of them finds themselves paralyzed with fear, suddenly tormented by visions of everything that they're most afraid of.
"Fear can be a powerful weapon. And in the darkness of space, there is much to fear," the figure says. "But I've been from one end of this galaxy to another, and I've faced everything that I was ever afraid of. Listen to me when I tell you this: if you want to overcome fear, embrace power..."
In the folds of the figure's flowing cloak, we see a sudden flash of green light, and his right hand hand glows green—just like a Green Lantern. With a wave of his his hand, he causes one Lantern's power battery to explode. And with another wave of his hand, he causes their rings to glow with intense light, at least ten times more brilliant than before.
"Do you want the power to confront your fears? Then join me, and you'll never have to fear anything again."
With that, the figure leads the Lanterns away, their eyes suddenly glowing with yellow light...
After several weeks, John, Guy and Kayla finally come to master their power rings, earning them some praise from their seasoned teachers. But just as they reach the end of their training, they're suddenly attacked and ambushed by the rogue Lanterns from the previous scene, who fight them to a standstill. A great battle ensues as Kilowog and co. attempt to help the new recruits fight off the rogue Lanterns, but they're soundly beaten, forcing the three humans to flee into the distance.
While attempting to escape the rogue Lanterns, they suddenly run into the mysterious figure who recruited the rogue Lanterns, who suddenly lights up his ring and reveals his face.
SURPRISE!
The figure is none other than Hal Jordan, alive and well.
Hal reveals that his ring brought him back from the brink of death after his battle with the Unmaker, and his brush with death showed him that his life as a loyal soldier for the Guardians was utterly pointless. Rather than using the power of the Lantern to serve lesser beings, he now chooses to spend his life embracing his status as a superior being, seeking to claim the power that the Guardians would hoard for themselves. Seeing potential in his three successors, he offers to let them join his army when he lays siege to Oa and seizes the central power battery. When they refuse, he attacks them with his power ring, forcing them to flee deeper and deeper into space.
In a last-ditch effort to save the new recruits, Ganthet telepathically sends them the coordinates for a "safe place" where they can seek shelter from Hal and his new minions. With Hal in hot pursuit, they use their rings to summon a portal through space to the coordinates, where they find a lush planet identified as "Mogo". Nursing serious injuries, and with their rings running low, they land on the surface of the planet.
While recovering, the new recruits gradually bond as they share their life stories with each other, finally opening up about the past events that they're all struggling to overcome. John opens up about his last mission in Afghanistan where things went wrong, Guy opens up about the loss of his teammate, and Kayla opens up about the loss of her mother. They all reveal that they were plagued by visions of those past traumatic events when Hal Jordan drew close to them; it's as if he knew what they were most afraid of, and used it to torment them.
As they explore the surface of Mogo, they find themselves inexplicably beckoned to a strange cavern filled with crystals, which suddenly begin glowing green—just like a Green Lantern ring. As they do, the trio suddenly find their power rings suddenly restored to full power. As they wonder how this could possibly be, a deep voice speaks to them from within the cavern.
It turns out that the planet Mogo is actually a sentient being, and the cavern leads directly its heart. Mogo is, in fact, one of the oldest and most powerful members of the Green Lantern Corps. A staunch pacifist, Mogo exists only to nurture life on its surface, but serves the Corps by giving shelter and safe haven to all Lanterns in need. Having heard the trio's struggles with their deepest fears, the living world offers them guidance.
"You need not run from the fear within you," Mogo says. "Fear is a powerful emotion. One of many. When you feel fear, let it only serve as a reminder that you are alive, and you carry the Light. In the Light, there is power. Now and always. In the brightest of days, and the darkest of nights."
"But I'm nothing without the ring!" Guy protests.
"No," Mogo says simply. "You misunderstand. The power of the Light has always been inside you. The ring is merely a channel. A conduit for focusing the power that has always been yours. And the green light of Willpower is merely one aspect of the great spectrum of living emotion."
"I don't understand..." John murmurs.
"In the Light, all emotions take form. Centuries ago, when the Guardians learned to harness it, they chose Courage as their weapon. But there were others who misused the Light. With it, they brought their vilest instincts to life: Anger, Greed, Lust...and Fear. When I was a young world, one such being sought to harness Fear as his weapon, seeking to bend the Universe to his dark will. But he failed, and became forever corrupted by the power that he hoped to claim. Now, in the darkest corners of the galaxy, Fear endures—a parasite gnawing at the minds of living beings, driving them to unspeakable evil. Now, the dark light of Fear has a form and a name. In their crude tongue, the Guardians call it Parallax."
"Parallax..." Kayla breathes, suddenly understanding. "A being who could use fear as a weapon, and drive good people to evil... If Mogo's right, maybe that's what we're really up against! Fear—in living form!"
"Yeah!" Guy says. "And if Parallax drove Hal Jordan off the deep end, maybe we can save him! Maybe there's hope for him after all!"
That revelation is suddenly cut short by the arrival of Hal, followed by his growing army of rogue Lanterns. Now reenergized by the light from Mogo's core, the trio make a stand against Hal and his minions, constantly begging him to fight back against Parallax's influence. After a long and grueling battle, they finally force Hal's minions into a hasty retreat—aided by Mogo, who uses a series of earthquakes, storms and volcanic eruptions to slow Hal's army. Finally, John nearly gets in a good shot at Hal with his ring, but watches in shock as his blast seemingly passes through Hal's body as if he were a ghost. Finally, Hal manages to fight his way to the heart of the crystal cavern, and forcibly absorbs the energy at Mogo's core. With its dying breath, Mogo begs the trio to flee, and reminds them that courage is their greatest weapon. As the Lanterns summon a portal back to Oa, they can only watch helplessly as Mogo dies, and the lush green surface of the planet becomes a barren grey wasteland.
Back on Oa, the trio rejoin the rest of the Corp and deliver the sad news of Mogo's death. The Corps knows that Hal will soon make a move on the central power battery on Oa, and they're preparing to defend it. Believing that this could be the Corps' most dangerous battle in centuries, the Guardians offer to let John, Guy and Kayla return to Earth and sit the battle out—but they refuse, knowing that they belong with their fellow Lanterns.
When Hal and his followers finally arrive, Hal—newly energized by Mogo's core—is more powerful that ever before, and his body glows with barely-contained green energy. A massive battle ensues as the Corps makes their stand against the rogue Lanterns, with Hal plowing his way through his old teammates like a one-man army. Even when all seems hopeless, the trio fearlessly stand their ground, finally fighting their way through the rogue Lanterns to confront Hal face-to-face. When they do, a dramatic revelation finally comes to light.
SURPRISE!
It turns out that the leader of the rogue Lanterns isn't Hal Jordan. Despite what the trio were led to believe, Hal really did die in battle against the Unmaker, and he wasn't corrupted by Parallax. The villain of the story was Parallax all along—and Parallax duped the Lanterns into believing that it was Hal.
A master of illusion, Parallax has the ability to exploit a person's greatest fears by changing forms and altering its victims' perception of reality, convincing them that their fears are real. In a twisted attempt to break the trio's spirits, it took the form of the deceased Hal Jordan, exploiting their fear that they could never live up to his legacy, and that they might die in the line of duty like he did. Finally seeing through Parallax's lies, they finally gain the upper hand. At the climax, Parallax lashes out with the full strength of its powers and reveals its true form: a hideous insectoid monster with spindly legs and rows of razor-sharp teeth. Undaunted, the trio continue to fight, refusing to let their fears get the better of them.
At long last, Parallax retreats and leaves Oa in peace, and the rogue Lanterns are freed from its spell. In a massive victory celebration, the three new Lanterns are formally commended by the Guardians for their bravery, and they look forward to many long years of service to the Corps.
In the end, John, Guy and Kayla ponder their futures as Green Lanterns, wondering how to put the power of the Lantern to best use. While Guy is content to stay on Earth as a superhero, Kayla chooses to leave Earth to wander the stars, hoping to find Parallax and put an end to his reign of terror for good. Feeling like the odd man out, John wonders what his role in the Corps should be—but before she leaves for space, Kayla gives him a suggestion.
In the final scene, the Justice League comes together again in the Hall of Justice for their first meeting without Hal. Having recently left to join the Teen Titans, Cyborg is also conspicuously absent, leaving the League at just five members: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Aquaman.
Suddenly, the League gets an unexpected visit from someone they've never met before: it's John, resplendent in his Green Lantern uniform. Introducing himself to the League, John explains that he was chosen by the Green Lantern Corps as Hal Jordan's successor, and he offers to carry on Hal's legacy by serving the League as he did. In an emotional speech, John acknowledges that nobody can ever replace Hal, but he says that he hopes to honor his memory by protecting the comrades that he loved so much. Though John initially worries that the League might turn him away, they vote unanimously to accept him as their sixth member, and welcome him to the League with open arms.
With that, John takes a seat at the League's meeting table in Hal's old chair, and the credits roll.
TL;DR:
Batman: Dead Man's Hand: In the wake of Batman's falling-out with Dick Grayson, he invites teenage prodigy Tim Drake to become the new Robin, just as Gotham mobster "The Penguin" plans for a skirmish with a mysterious new rival. His mysterious rival turns out to be the Joker, who's finally returned to Gotham for a rematch with Batman. When the Penguin and the Joker join forces, a deadly masked vigilante attempts to kill them both. The vigilante turns out to be Jason Todd, Batman's embittered former sidekick who was seemingly killed by the Joker years ago. In the end, Batman persuades Jason to renounce killing, and he rejoins the Bat-family as they take on the Joker one last time—with a last-minute assist from Dick, who returns to aid his old mentor. The Bat-family triumphs, but Barbara is paralyzed in an explosion, and decides to become the Bat-family's mission control "Oracle".
Green Lantern 3: In the wake of Hal Jordan's death, the Guardians of the Universe invite three new human recruits to join the Green Lantern Corps: Marine veteran John Stewart, burned-out football player Guy Gardner, and shy struggling artist Kayla Rayner. As the trio train as Lanterns, they encounter a mysterious new enemy who plans to gather an army of rogue Green Lanterns to challenge the Guardians. The mysterious enemy turns out to be a resurrected Hal Jordan, who went mad after his apparent death. With help from the benevolent living planet Mogo, the trio learn about the malevolent alien parasite "Parallax", a demonic being who uses fear as a weapon. In the end, it's revealed that "Hal" was really Parallax all along, and that he took Hal's form to exploit the trio's fears that they could never measure up to him. After defeating Parallax and his disciples in a massive battle on Oa, the trio temporarily go their separate ways, and John joins the Justice League to take Hal's place.

Discussion: Idea for retconning DCEU's Joker.

Idea for retconning DCEU's Joker.

Uncut Dark Knight scenes?

joker heath ledger nurse scene video

It was his idea to have white make up on his hands to show that Joker himself did his own makeup. There’s this very famous Hospital scene, where Joker disguises as a nurse. The hospital scene is interesting because when he was a kid, his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse. It was funny then, and so in the movie too. Heath Ledger had improvised the hospital explosion scene in The (Jan 26, 2021) In one of the most iconic scenes in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Heath's Joker dresses up as a nurse and visits a hospital. You know Aug 1, 2013 - Explore Andrew Gormish's board "Joker / heath ledger", followed by 206 people on Pinterest. See more ideas about joker heath, heath ledger, joker. Heath Ledger Joker Nurse Cosplay Dress With Mask Batman Dark Knight Rise Costume-Takerlama This Nurse Cosplay Costume is inspired by Joker Arthur Fleck in DC Scary Movie Batman The Dark Knight. This outfit includes a white nurse dress, a clown mask with green cosplay wig, a Matilda badge, a pocket watch and a belt. #heathledger #jokernursedress #batmandarkknight #halloweencostume Joker Movie Had a Heath Ledger Easter Egg We All Missed. ... but also references the iconic scene where Ledger's Joker demolishes Gotham General Hospital, while dressed as a nurse. Heath Ledger had improvised the hospital explosion scene in The Dark ... Heath's Joker dresses up as a nurse and visits a hospital. ... legend has it that this scene was improvised by Heath. Oct 24, 2017 - Explore Paula Garnsworthy's board "Joker nurse" on Pinterest. See more ideas about joker nurse, joker, joker costume. Heath Ledger’s clown prince confronts Two-Face in the ... The Joker hospital scene is the chaotic brain of The Dark ... (Again: how did the Joker get into a nurse’s uniform, ... Jun 20, 2018 - Explore Freddie Whitlock's board "Heath Ledger joker", followed by 180 people on Pinterest. See more ideas about heath ledger joker, joker, heath ledger.

Joker Movie Had a Heath Ledger Easter Egg We All Missed

joker heath ledger nurse scene

joker heath ledger nurse scene - win

Christopher Nolan liked Heath Ledger as an actor so much, he asked him to play the nurse who blew up the hospital as well. If you look closely, you can see Ledger still wearing his Joker makeup from previous scenes.

Who can forget the scene in Dark Knight when Heath Ledgers Joker dressed up as a female nurse with a guitar?

CO will not prioritize clients at homeless shelters and jails/prisons.

Heath Ledger joker oil style

Thoughts, Quotes, Randoms and Summaries of Movies