Batman Fans Discover ‘The Dark Knight’ Joker Secret That Significantly Transforms the Movie

‘The Dark Knight’ released in 2008 gave us one of the most critically acclaimed Batman movies and one of the best portrayals of Joker imaginable. The movie stars Heath Ledger as Joker and Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne aka Batman, and the premise is rather simple.

Bruce Wayne, teams up with DA Harvey Dent and Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon to fight organized crime in Gotham City. Their efforts are thwarted by Joker, who seeks to undermine Batman and instill fear in the city.

But as with any masterpiece, years after release fans are still discovering just how brilliant and full of secrets the movie was. A Reddit user going under the username gdan95 posted an interesting theory on Reddit with the potential to completely change how we look at the movie.

The theory states that Joker knew Bruce Wayne’s identity as Batman but chose not to reveal it. Instead of exposing Batman, the Joker manipulates him by threatening to kill innocent people unless Batman reveals his identity.

This suggests that the Joker wants to prolong their conflict because he thrives on the chaos Batman’s existence brings. The user argued that the Joker understands that revealing Batman’s secret would force him to stop being Batman to protect his loved ones, ultimately making Batman’s mission to protect Gotham more challenging or likely downright impossible, while also showcasing the Joker’s philosophical views on morality and chaos in society.

The Joker is essentially playing with Batman, which makes Batman’s job all the more difficult since he spends the entire movie wondering when he can stop being Batman and let someone else worry about protecting the city.

Source: Reddit

As with any fan theory, this one holds water as long as you decide to ignore some stuff. Plenty of comments pointed out that Joker does not know Bruce Wayne is Batman for a couple of key reasons.

First of all, when Dent “admits” to being the Batman, Joker believes him. During the Tumblr chase scene when Joker is firing rockets, the Tumblr makes its entrance by doing a rocket-powered jump to take the impact of one of the rockets. Joker makes an audible, “Hmm…” sound, showing that he genuinely wasn’t expecting that. Why? Because he thought Dent was the Batman.

Batfan54

We simply don’t know enough about his background to know what he does or doesn’t know. For all we know he could be a cop scarred in the riots in the first movie. And thus very invested in the “Who is the Batman?” There’s simply not enough to go on.

isoCold

I think the Joker and Harvey Dent both knew his identity by the end of the movie I think the directors of the movie just left that part of the plot out. Joker doesn’t care very much about revealing his identity, he just loves the mayhem he causes with getting Gotham to turn on Batman. I think Dent knew at the press conference it was Bruce but believed that it wasn’t a good idea for him to let go of Batman so he turned himself in.

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So, what do you think about this theory? Let us know in the comments below!

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