Opening

88% Captain Phillips Oct 11
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Top Box Office

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—— Grace Unplugged $1.0M
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Coming Soon

78% Kill Your Darlings Oct 16
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—— Escape Plan Oct 18
35% The Fifth Estate Oct 18
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100% All Is Lost Oct 18
86% Haunter Oct 18
—— Paradise Oct 18

The Dark Knight (2008)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 8.5/10
Reviews Counted: 288
Fresh: 270 | Rotten: 18

Dark, complex and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga.

90

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 51
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 5

Dark, complex and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga.

audience

92

liked it
Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 1,682,921

My Rating

Movie Info

Christopher Nolan steps back into the director's chair for this sequel to Batman Begins, which finds the titular superhero coming face to face with his greatest nemesis -- the dreaded Joker. Christian Bale returns to the role of Batman, Maggie Gyllenhaal takes over the role of Rachel Dawes (played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins), and Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger dons the ghoulishly gleeful Joker makeup previously worn by Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero. Just as it begins to appear as

Dec 9, 2008

$533.3M

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All Critics (288) | Top Critics (51) | Fresh (270) | Rotten (18) | DVD (28)

An exceptionally smart, brooding picture with some terrific performances.

April 10, 2013 Full Review Source: CNN.com
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Dark Knight is a film that's fantastic on the action front, seeds its acrobatics in its own reality, and always feels relevant even when its ideas are drowned out by clatter.

November 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Christopher Nolan is much, much smarter than your average filmmaker.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comments (20)
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The symbiosis of good and evil is the film's philosophical core, and images of duality and cloaked identity are strewn through it like shards from a fun house mirror.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Comment (1)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Christopher Nolan's latest exploration of the Batman mythology steeps its muddled plot in so much murk that the Joker's maniacal nihilism comes to seem like a recurrent grace note.

July 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | Comments (479)
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film is so relentlessly bleak that, paradoxically, its blackness is not given its full due. But this comic-book movie is more disturbing, and has more freakish power, than anything else I've seen all year.

July 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Were films judged entirely by the emotive impact of their opening and closing images, The Dark Knight would be a masterpiece.

January 24, 2013 Full Review Source: Projection Booth
Projection Booth

The glimpse into the Joker's darkness during his documented torture scene is a credit to the devastatingly lost potential of Heath Ledger.

January 2, 2013 Full Review Source: 2UE That Movie Show
2UE That Movie Show

It's not just the best Batman film ever. It's not just the best superhero movie ever. It's more than a money-spinner, a franchise, a comic-book cash-in. The Dark Knight is a stunning piece of work that deserves every word of praise spoken about it.

October 14, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

a phenomenal masterpiece whose creators aren't content with simply making a great comic book movie, but craft one that transcends the genre to become one of the best films this decade.

August 27, 2012 Full Review Source: Lyles' Movie Files
Lyles' Movie Files

Thank Warner Bros. for letting Nolan make such a smart, thrilling, emotionally involving, just terrifically well rounded and fully realized entertainment that challenges and elevates notions of what a so-called 'summer blockbuster' can do.

July 24, 2012 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

It is ridiculous how much praise "The Dark Knight" truly deserves. Heath Ledger is this film's crowning jewel. By the time you get to the end credits, you'll immediately want to see it again.

July 22, 2012 Full Review Source: Examiner.com | Comment (1)
Examiner.com

The Dark Knight is the best kind of sequel -- one that uses its predecessor as a gateway to explore new facets of its characters and its world.

July 15, 2012 Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | Comment (1)
Mark Reviews Movies

Visceral and terrifying.

December 29, 2011 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | Comments (7)

Even if this wasn't Ledger's final role before his untimely death last year, his Joker would still go down in cinema history as one of the most creepily unhinged big-screen bad guys of all time.

September 28, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

More than a comic-book adventure, this is a sprawling crime epic.

July 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Digital Spy | Comments (2)
Digital Spy

You know you're watching a good movie when it puts a smile on your face right from the start. In the The Dark Knight it may be a twisted grimace but given the right perspective there's enjoyment to be had in even the bleakest subject matter.

March 18, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net
ComingSoon.net

Excellent sequel much darker, more violent than the first.

December 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (4)
Common Sense Media

Allusions to our current struggles with surveillance, public perception and terrorism are thrown into the mix, adding political immediacy to Nolan's psycho noir.

November 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Bring on part three.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Future Movies UK | Comments (9)

Completely lacking in vanity, Ledger creates his finest performance.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

Flawed and overrated.

Reverse Shot

It not only surpasses Batman Begins - previously considered the high-water mark of movies about the Caped Crusader - but one that magnificently transcends the superhero genre.

October 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | Comments (5)
Times-Picayune

Audience Reviews for The Dark Knight

One of the best superhero movies ever. Christian Bale continues to shine in this role. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are superb.
September 3, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

The movie is almost perfect. Outstandingly acted and perfectly directed by Chris Nolan. The movie's only fault lies in the fact that the character of Harvey Dent/Two Face isn't given enough time to develop his psychological state. Heath Ledger steals the show and stands out as the best actor in the bunch. The movie gets better and better every time I watch it.
May 8, 2010
Nikhil N.
Nikhil Nandu

Super Reviewer

    1. Joker: I want my phone call.
    – Submitted by Carter D (2 months ago)
    1. Joker: You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan". Even if the plan is horrifying. If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
    – Submitted by Alexander D (3 months ago)
    1. Joker: Let's put a smile on that face!
    – Submitted by Eli T (6 months ago)
    1. Gambol: You think you can steal from us and just walk away?
    2. Joker: Yeah.
    – Submitted by Eli T (6 months ago)
    1. Batman/Bruce Wayne: People are dying, Alfred. What would you have me do?
    2. Alfred: Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.
    3. Batman/Bruce Wayne: Well today I found out what Batman can't do. He can't endure this. Today you get to say "I told you so."
    4. Alfred: Today, I don't want to.
    5. Alfred: But I did bloody tell you.
    – Submitted by Eli T (6 months ago)
    1. Batman/Bruce Wayne: What about getting back into the plane?
    2. Lucius Fox: I'd recommend a good travel agent.
    3. Batman/Bruce Wayne: Without it landing.
    4. Lucius Fox: Now that's more like it, Mr. Wayne.
    – Submitted by Eli T (6 months ago)
View all quotes (338)

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Foreign Titles

  • The Dark Knight (DE)
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