The Dark Knight Autopsy Report: What We Know to Date
by Tom Burns

[Disclaimer: If you DON'T WANT TO KNOW anything about The Dark Knight, catch up to the already available online information, read any STORY SPOILERS or speculation, see new theories on what might happen in the movie, or see SPOILERS OF ANY KIND concerning The Dark Knight, this article isn't for you and we urge you to TURN BACK NOW. You've been warned. Proceed at your own risk. This article isn't designed to spoil The Dark Knight for anyone, but instead aggregate all of the information to date into one place.]

STORY SPECULATION:

And now, we get to the good stuff. What can we expect from The Dark Knight in terms of story?

[BEWARE POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS TO DATE AND SPECULATION. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED... AGAIN!]

Here’s what we’ve gathered so far from all of the "already available" information:

If you saw I Am Legend in IMAX (or if you watched the shaky cellphone video on YouTube), you got to see the first seven minutes of The Dark Knight, in which the Joker pulls off a supremely-cool (and downright chilling) daylight bank robbery of a mob-controlled bank in downtown Gotham. There have been frequent rumors that the Joker is holding the mob’s money hostage, threatening to destroy it unless the mob helps him off the Batman. (Which might play into Michael Caine’s line from the first Dark Knight teaser: "You crossed the line first, sir. You hammered them. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand. Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.")

We know that the plot revolves, at least partially, around a power vacuum in Gotham’s mafia after the death of Tom Wilkinson in Begins, with Eric Roberts as Sal Maroni as one of the major contenders to be Gotham’s new godfather.

Thanks to the viral marketing sites and set reports from sources like Slashfilm, we know that the plot also involves DA Harvey Dent teaming up with Batman and Jim Gordon to take down Gotham’s dirty, mob-controlled cops. There’s also been speculation that the mob and the Joker both suspect Dent as possibly being Batman. (Which might give a certain homicidal clown a pretty good reason to throw acid at a certain crusading DA - we’re just saying.)

Also, thanks to early set images, we know that certain sequences involve multiple people dressing up as Batman. The rumored reasons for this have been all over the place - some say the Joker is dressing people as Batman and killing them; others say there are multiple Batman copycats in Gotham (including, of all people, Anthony Michael Hall); still others say Batman is employing a decoy himself to keep the Gotham cops at bay while he goes after the Joker. (Or it could be that all three are correct.)

According to several web sites, at one point in the movie, the Joker apparently discovers that Bruce Wayne is Batman (some say, thanks to Rachael Dawes), but due to all of the Bat-decoys running around, Wayne is able to convince the Joker that he’s been misled.

There have also been rumors floating around about the massive impact of the fear-gassing of Gotham’s Narrows in Batman Begins. We’re hearing that the National Guard could be patrolling the streets of Gotham at one point, and that the Scarecrow’s fear toxin would actually become a popular street drug. Although there have been a few spy pics online that jive with this, it hasn't officially been confirmed.

But one thing that HAS been confirmed is that The Dark Knight should be seen, if anything, as "Two-Face Begins" rather than "Joker Begins," despite the Clown Prince's big-time presence in the early trailers. In a January 13 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Nolan commented that, "Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film ... The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film -- he's got no story arc, he's just a force of nature tearing through."

However, despite Goyer’s original outline that had Harvey Dent being scarred in a third movie, Aaron Eckhart himself revealed to MTV that Two-Face WILL appear in The Dark Knight. And Filmick reported that FX house Framestore CFC is providing CGI enhancements to Two-Face’s scarred physique. However, multiple rumor sites are reporting that the emergence of Two-Face happens later than expected.

Again, according to rumor, it's looking like there may be a major death (like most superhero related movie speculation). Our best guess? Well, we'll leave you to guess on that, too. There are a couple of characters that we're seeing as a) too important or b) not important enough for us to care.

DIAGNOSIS: It’s too hard to judge The Dark Knight’s plot based on snippets and speculation, but the fact that we’re finally getting some of Batman’s major rogue’s gallery (instead of Ra's al Ghul and the Scarecrow), that the story is supposedly inspired by the fantastic Batman: The Long Halloween comic series, and that Variety is reporting that Warner Brothers is extremely happy with Nolan’s sequel, we’re allowing ourselves to get a little excited. Maybe you can tell?

The Dark Knight Autopsy Page 4 - Pending Questions and Final Diagnosis (CAUTION SPOILERS)