The Dark Knight doesn't actually have plot holes or stupid character decisions. Gonna debunk them simple most of them is just people not taking attention at the movie or being biased. Just gotta explain why their reasoning is flawed.

So, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

WHY did Joker leave after the party?

Joker went in there to get Harvey Dent, who he thought was Batman. After the bat threw himself to save Rachel, since she was Dent's girlfriend, it reinforced those beliefs and, in his mind, there was nothing else to do there.

It might not be all that clear but there is a missing scene which didn't make the final cut but clarifies this. In it, the Joker gets inside his getaway car and the driver asks "What about Dent?", to which the Joker replies "I'm a man of my word." This means he wasn't going to do anything to anyone else aside from Dent, like he said in the party. Joker was probably sure about him being Harvey at the time, and then thinked well after the chase scene, because Batman would have not forfaited that fast, his plan was to kidnap any of them and either make Batman or Harvey mad, he could have done that with or without being in prison, and with a phone call. Switching the numbers or using with different timers. He used maroni and corrupt cops with his money and friends to plan this.

WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE HARVEY WAS BATMAN?

Were there any clear, close up photos of him? How would the general public even know what he looks like? The only people who got close enough to notice his chin were the criminals he was beating to a pulp. I doubt they were focused too much on his chin. And even if they did notice, who would believe them if they said otherwise? This is clearly not a plot hole, the public and press wanted that the killings would stomp and they trumped the symbol of gotham's law, and many knew it was a plan to take the Joker down (and it worked).

How does money burn?

Yes, money can catch fire. But, there's some science behind it. Link provided.

https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/burning-money/#:~:text=The%20secret%2C%20of%20course%2C%20is,when%20you%20ignite%20the%20bill.&text=If%20you%20reduce%20the%20amount,or%20even%20catch%20on%20fire.

Does Batman tells the swat force about Joker's hostages?

This is clearly not a plot hole. Batman acts in that split second to bring down the cops before they shoot the wrong people, but he does let Fox know. Then Lucious Fox informs Gordon immediately. And it is also assumed that some of the SWAT find this out for themselves after they arrive on the scene.

Why does the goon not know about Batman or Bruce?

The goon has plenty of motivation for not telling the Joker what happened. Even if the goon deduced that he was knocked out by Batman, he can’t know if the Joker will believe him, or how he will react. There’s a good chance he could get killed for a) doing a bad job, b) knowing too much, or c) just because (it’s the Joker, after all). Better to pretend like nothing happened, right? I mean getting his ass kicked by a rich man, without seeing who he was. Definitely not the kind of story a seasoned criminal working for a terrorist wants to tell. Not hard and fast science and dependent on a number of factors we don't know including how long someone was knocked out for but generally people can't remember exact details of how they were knocked out after they woke up and sometimes they don't remember any of the circumstances at all and can only peice together what happened sometimes making false memories based on what they see once they wake up.

Point is that is certainly conceiveable that the thug doesn't remember exactly who kocked him out if he remembers getting knocked out at all.

Another explanation; Maybe he did escape along with the other Joker goons and then tells the Joker that Bruce is Batman. We don't see him in any scene except this so it's unlikely.

That is why the Joker (after attacking the convoy with Dent under arrest after claiming to be Batman) allows himself to get captured/interrogated by the real Batman. He knows Dent wasn't Batman, because he already knows Bruce is Batman. That's why he already had the plan in play to:

1. ⁠Kidnap and place Dent/Rachel in separate locations to have Batman make a choice

2. ⁠Place the cellphone in the dude's stomach to cause a diversion to escape.

If the Joker honestly though Dent was Batman when he attacked the convoy, there would be zero need to have the bomb-in-stomach diversion because he wouldn't have had a problem overpowering the police with the convoy and wouldn't have been captured in the first place.

Did Joker have a plan?

He definitely had a plan. He lied to Harvey about not having a plan, and that everything he did was just chaos, so that he could sell him the whole “chaos is fair” narrative and kind of escape blame for Rachel’s death by making it seem like he was just some crazy guy, and that Gordon and Maroni were the real bad guys. He uses a mask and Two Face was getting up, that's why he notices him only after a second. His plan was making of small plans, and seeing how people reacted and how things were going, and anarchy/corruption was his goal and he succeeded in killing the Batman. With that money and Mobs tie, he was doing this things and recruited before (off screen) people off Arkham and with the same mind or that wanted money.

Don't want to make another point but he hired people with access and planted the explosives while going to Harvey. Marini and the news knew about that so it wasn't hard to do after the chaos of his phone call about Reeves. Harvey is here due to being with only a few people and that's why he manages to kill the officer and talk with him. Not a plot hole.

How did the Joker plant explosives with the boats?

Joker planted those bombs there because he knew that Gotham’s citizens were going to try and evacuate after he announced that the city would be under his control after nightfall. He even told the city not to try and leave through tunnels or bridges in order to get as many people on the boats as possible. He got them in the big boats, and with hope that would have happened. If not he would have done other things, this is why he uses the doctors/hostages bait to give problems to Batman.

Why Bruce saves Harvey in the party scene?

Bruce probably saw on security or something that the Joker was coming up in the elevator. Previously, Gordon finds out that the Joker playing card (attached to the fake Batman that slammed into the window in front of the Mayor’s office) had DNA of 3 people: the judge, the current commissioner, and Harvey Dent. Batman figured that the Joker was at the fundraiser event in order to kill Dent, who he knew was going to be there since the fundraiser was for him. Of course people seeing him going into a bunker, wouldn't mean that he was = Batman, and therefore just thought that Harvey and him were there. This would make sense, because Dent thought Bruce Wayne was Strange, but due to him not appearing, he didn't think he was Batman.

How did the Joker escape from the police station?

Joker wanted to take Harvey and Rachel for his double switch about him or Harvey going crazy, so at the end he thought that if he got captured, he would have a possibility to get out with the cellphone. in this scene we had one policeman guarding him, a standard way to do it and he managed to manipulate him and take him as an hostage. It makes sense because everyone was going fast to save one of them so Joker was a bit lucky here and managed to escape, by going outwards explosion and gunning a few people (novelization said this) and getting Lau, which wasn’t the main target but was important into it.

He knew how the police would have acted, given Lau's interrogation and the mobs told him probably and set the timers with the corrupt cops kidnapping them. The bombs were placed and planned before, and with all people and money, they wouldn't be that hard. He switched the streets so Batman would either take the blame or get mad, and same would happen to Harvey. If Rachel died, the burned face wasn’t needed but happened due to him timing the bombs well. The most important thing is that it would have still created chaos and broken them, which was his goal. He has people in two streets taking down Helicopter as a backup, same way he planted the bomb. So everything looks fine here. Batman didn’t want to kill him, because he doesn’t intentionally kill due to his rule and he pushed him to the edge simple. The only thing is that he didn't need to be killed before or after the chase and with the truck and people helping, it wasn't hard.

THE MOVIE DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANY BIG PLOT PROBLEMS, AND WORKS WELL WITH CBM logic.

Update, on some other things:

- Fitchner's character doesn't spit the granade he was in shock, Humans don’t act sensibly under high stress. He acted like someone who almost died.

Cops had no reason to suspect there would be bombs on the ferries, they were in a hurry, and I doubt bomb inspection is part of the ferry running plan. Very easily assumed he just paid off some people. Gotham is crazy corrupt. Why people don't swim? Joker does say if you try and get off or leave the ferry you all die. So people were thinking about the decision.

Did Joker want to kill Harvey? You can see that he uses the bazooka only when the Tumblr is here, and the Joker changes his mind. He shot a missile at Dents van to you know kill Dent. He probably thought Gordon was dead. I don't think Joker wanted to be caught. He always planned to assault the police station so he could get Lau. But when he did get caught, he have to improvise. You think Catwoman is adaptable? Joker plans failed and opened up alternatives. He needed Lau because Lau knew where the mobs money was. He promised them to get it back and kill Batman and the others. He's a man of his word(though he can twist it). But because he was having so much fun, he decided to go against the mob and deliver pure chaos to gotham. This may have even been his endgame since he started off by robbing the mobs bank in the first place. The path to getting there was full of planning and thinking on the spot. He convinced people he has no plan and it's partially true. He only needed to corrupt Harvey or Batman by killing one of them or Rachel and to get Lau, which was the most important thing, same way he could continue fighting Batman even if Dent died, and with the mob money getting back it.

Also if somebody died, Batman's no killing rule seems to be more like "I won't kill if it's avoidable" an indirect kill can and will happen though.

Batman would be lying framing someone for crimes he didn't commit. Whether you frame Joker or frame Batman, it's still hiding the truth from the public and pinning the murders on someone who didn't commit them. They knew Batman was here, and Harvey was reported to be with them plus Joker was already caught by the police, so with Harvey burned and dead, Batman did have to take the blame unless the truth would come out. Ramirez probably died with the gun, or didn't want to ruin the perspective or Harvey and did a deal to blank her corruption but again this is more like a TDKR thing, not like they could explain that in the last scene of TDK.

They are still literally framing someone because it's more convenient than the truth.

Science disivision how it works? When engineers work on a new secret project they have to sign non disclosure agreements saying that they cannot say a word about what they are working on to the outside world. So yeah maybe these engineers recognized some of the tech batman used but they decided to keep their mouth shut so that Wayne didn't sue them into oblivion for breaking contract. Or maybe they just didn't say anything because they like what batman was doing and didn't want to get their boss in trouble.

1. Why did the convoy purposely travel onto Lower 5th when alternate avenues with a larger police presence were available?

The roadblocks were set up to give them the quickest route. The roads are clear and they will not have traffic interfereing eith their route not that they have a lot of routes open. Taking another route on a surface street would have required the police to completely clear one of those roadblocks. This would have stalled the convoy. There is also the matter that the decision to go into Lower 5th was not entirely out of the blue. That route still takes them where they need to go so it was most likely discussed as an emergency route during the planning phase. One officers lament at the route does not change that it was previously planned as a backup. As for how the Joker got the semi and the garbage truck down there, we see in the film an officer telling the garbage truck they have to wait like everybody else and then get killed by the joker. It is possible they found a one way street blocked by one officer and took him out and then vanished into Lower 5th.

• How did the joker know they would not take an alternate surface route, thus negating his whole plan from the start?

He could have just moved the cars and get to them, but anyways we also have to assume that either A. the Joker had an informant on the inside of the GCPD to know which route and backup route were on the table. Option B. The Joker is a smart guy, he knows that convoy is going to move using the quickest possible route, so he could have assumed they would opt for the already open Lower 5th as opposed to waiting for a road block to clear risking narrow surface streets where somebody could have Bobby trapped a parked car or smash through a roadblock. While they did divert into a trap they did not know that a road block had been compromised( at least not by two large vehicles, they may have expected an ambush by foot soldiers)

• Why is the henchman dropping down the helicopter?

Going back to the Joker being a smart guy, he knew there was a chance they were not going to stay on Lower 5th the entire time. Especially not after the attack started. It is not unfeasible for him to have placed guys periodically around the original route(passed the entrance to Lower 5th) to take out the helicopter on the chance that they made their escape. The police called and went out due to the park fire, which happened a few moments later, that's why it was still here. The plan between Joker and mob about Harvey was planned before, meanwhile they had a few hours to do this strategy to get dent.

This should be an explanation for the entire film, so feel free to link or use this in case someone has any issues with the story. which works with movie logic, comic book logic and actual logic and writing.

How does Lucius manage to use the phone in the Lau meeting?

Well, this is a part of the movie that is a piece of the era in which it was filmed. cell phones, while pretty common, were still not the most useful contraptions. some of the best camera phones at the time would still record in 240p, so the tech really wasn't something to be scared of on average.

on top of that the idea of someone having more than one phone was pretty weird at the time, so dropping one phone off at security wouldn't seem suspicious.

How does Batman locate Harvey Dent? This is clearly not a plot hole but whatever.

The fact that Batman was able to track down Dent so fast to stop him from threatening to kill Joker's accomplice, while Dent had given no clue of his whereabouts to anyone and he could literally be anywhere in the city, works due to him being Batman, and a Detective also, just before Dent begins his interrogation he calls Rachel. So we could assume that's how Batman located Dent, as he could be tracking phone calls when he needed to. Especially for people close to him like Rachel or Harvey after he said he was checking sent at the start of the film while having a sonar PC, also people knew about Harvey going with the cars so basically there wasn't space neither it was safe to go into that street, that's why for caution, he knew about Harvey's bait to take Joker and decided to save him in the chase scene.

How does someone has a gun in the court?

- This is a men paid by Gotham's most important crime lord, and also happened off-screen in a corrupt city that has been shown to kill people in court (Joe Chill in begins), and before Harvey happened so, not a plot hole and perfectly logical in-universe.

- How does the timer explode in TDK?

First of all, objects can resist an explosion that went outwards, and that's why the coin was here, plus Harvey already used coins and was to the point of getting mad, anyways the timer explodes due to them not trusting other people and going with cops to save them, suspension of belief here. Plus, Joker timed it well and just wanted one of them to die or to break Batman due to promoting chaos or breaking Batman for both Rachel and Dent in that kidnapping, the only way to truly gain control of gotham is to break batman, and he tried just that. No one says that Joker expected Two-Face or Batman to save one or to beat him up here, he only expected them to catch one of them or escape from there.

There's a timer attached to the bomb, but there's a phone as well, so it is hard to know if the bomb was indeed activated by the time running out or by the Joker himself calling the attached phone

Joker relies on one thing, and that's chaos - Dent surviving and becoming an agent of chaos himself was just icing on the cake. providing batman with the glimmer of hope that he was able to save rachel or dent was all apart of driving bruce to the edge.

- Why the cop is in the room with Joker and how does the cop answer the situation?

Of course it was an improvised and fast situation, and there are corrupt cops in the police but anyways, he didn't pull the handcuffs because the Joker could have threatened him, and they didn't kill him because he needed to get into about the mob or Harvey, plus there was glass, stone, a chair and a table here so the Joker could have broken the glass or the stone to escape, given that the room can be opened from the inside. So it was perfectly logical that the guy was here, and how the Joker got the glass, was him a bit lucky? yes, but that's how movies work lol, anyways the cops didn't want the risk for the cop to die so they let him a phone call, without knowing or thinking about any bomb or explosive, let's be fair, someone could have called the phone from another place and the Joker would have probably get out.

The novelisation simply states that Stephens is standing guard. No further explanation is offered.

The Joker was certainly damaged — bloody, smeared — but he seemed perfectly content, sitting in the interrogation room, guarded by Gerard Stephens.

“I want my phone call,” he said.

The film script offers little extra by way of explanation, other than that Stephens is guarding the door

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM, MCU, GOTHAM CENTRAL – NIGHT

[The Joker sits, smiling, content. Stephens guards the door.]

Based on the fact that the Joker is a high profile prisoner, that would certainly merit someone keeping a very close eye on him, if only to dissuade other policemen from beating the snot out of him.

He is also in the process of being interrogated about an ongoing hostage/kidnapping situation (hence why he's in the interrogation room). They'd want to have someone in there with him, in case he says something that might be of use. Also, they'd want to prevent anyone not connected with the prisoner from entering the room in case they somehow prejudice his testimony.

Second thing, I believe police was not much aware about the Joker being verbally manipulative till that point of the situation. They saw him as someone who can impress local goons and bring them as his gang members. But they underestimated him as someone who could manipulate a straight person like Stephens.

Till that point they thought that other local goons are following him as he is making huge money for them or as someone with more skills with them, which was irrelevant with Stephens.

And they need to have someone stand in the interrogation room with him for safety purposes, in case the Joker could attempt suicide or damage to himself, seeing his previous actions. As he didn't seem to care about his own life.

- Why does the Joker don't get hurt by the explosion?

Because while powerful, the bomb didn't expose people directly to the bomb, but some were hurt. Knowing that they were in the other side and Joker was at the end of the door, he didn't even took a minimal fraction of force since it went outwards.

The factors to consider are:

• The culprit that had the bomb implanted in his abdomen was in another part of the building when the bomb was detonated. The joker knew that the culprit would be in a holding cell of some sort.
• The joker made sure that when he took Detective Stephens hostage that he moved him into another room that was far enough away from the culprit with the bomb in his abdomen.
• While the four people standing over the culprit with the bomb in his abdomen obviously died (along with the culprit himself), there is no reason to believe that the people that were in the same room as the joker died.
• We obviously know that the joker survived. As @Walt explained in the above comments, Detective Stephens also survived. He is shown later in the film watching the news beside commissioner Gordon with a bandage on his neck. The bandage is from the wounds he sustained while having a piece of glass put to his neck by the joker. There is no sign of him even being injured by the explosion:

He is seen later on in the film, with a bandage on his neck, watching the news beside Gordon as Joker makes his threat to blow up a hospital. Stephens also appears when Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal.

• Aside from Detective Stephens, there was really no reason for the other police officers to be in any more scenes in the film. This could be the explanation why we don't see them again. It is fair to say that if the joker and Detective Stephens survived the explosion that most people in that room did as well.

- Why people don't recognize Joker at the parade scene?

Joker did tie up the entire gun squad in an apartment he rented, replacing that entire front line with Arkham inmates. With the regular police paying attention to the procession and ones not in the parade keeping a look out for snipers, the distraction was there to keep him hidden in plain sight.

Other factors to consider:

• The firing squad consisted of The Joker and his men. They would be the only ones close enough to him to be able to recognize his scars.
• Nobody has ever seen The Joker without his make-up on. The police would be on the lookout for The Joker based on the only description that they know of him and that is of The Joker with his signature make-up, clothes and green hair color.
• The police Department is already shown as being corrupt. The Joker could have easily used corrupt police officers to help divert attention away from him.
• Gordon and his men seem to only be concerned with watching the windows in the buildings above the parade route for snipers. You can notice Gordon constantly looking up every time you see him until the firing squad starts firing.
• The joker does not have his normal green colored hair and blends in quite well with the other police officers. The only distinguishing features are the scars on his face.
• One of the reasons that no one notices The Joker dressed as a police officer is because there are hundreds of other police officers that are all dressed alike.

- How the Joker did enter in the hospital and who saw him?

Firstly, the short and simple answer is because they don't. Part of that is that movies don't bother with the frills, if the frills get in the way of elegant storytelling.

This is no different from why people don't say hi/bye during phone calls, or why scenes don't get interrupted by people taking bathroom breaks. It would be more realistic, but it doesn't matter to the plotso incorporating it into the story provides no benefit.

Secondly, the hospital is in the middle of an evacuation due to a bomb threat. The corridor you see the nurse (later revealed to be the Joker) walk though is filled with people either panicking or frantically running around trying to evacuate themselves or others.

It's perfectly reasonably for those people to not notice Joker.

The same logic applies to the actual evacuation post-explosion. In that scenario, people are looking for anyone who isn't there who is supposed to be (i.e. people who didn't evacuate), they're not focusing on people who are there who aren't supposed to be.

Thirdly, there's the consideration of what would happen even if they noticed him. Are civilians really going to interfere with what amounts to a grotesque domestic terrorist, if he is currently not actually threatening them?

Similar to the first point I made, if civilians spotting the Joker makes no difference to the plot, then it's an unnecessary scene that can easily be omitted in an otherwise already eventful and long movie.

What happened to the bus?

The Joker hijacked it. It was his getaway vehicle, the same way he used the school bus when he robbed the bank. You can briefly see one of his henchmen grabbing the reporter (Mike Engel) and dragging him into the bus before the Joker boards it himself and the hospital blows up. Engel later appears in the Joker's video, so we know he kidnapped him.

What happened to the rest of the people?

They're his hostages in the Prewitt building. When Batman takes off a clown mask from a 'henchman', he realizes it's Engel. The hostages are dressed as clowns and the Joker's henchmen are dressed as doctors (the script specifies they're dressed as patients and doctors) as they know the police realized the Joker hijacked one of the buses from the hospital.

- Why didn't Batman blame Joker in TDK?

The Joker could talk. The whole vision of Joker in TDK and all of Batman series is to see Batman break his principles. TDK added the touch of love for chaos to its version of Joker. So Joker wants to break the "Ethical" nature of Batman (which I guess only he, Gordon and Alfred are the only ones aware of).

So even if he was sent to Arkham Asylum, if Joker found out that Batman had done such an unethical task in pinning false allegations on Joker, wouldn't it be a victory for Joker? Batman understood this. It would also enable Joker to tell that to the world, even if no one believed him. The sense of personal victory would be obtained by the Joker.

Hence Batman took the blame on himself so that even if the city blamed him, Joker would never win, nor would Harvey's image be smeared.

- How does Batman survive the fall from Gotham's skyscraper?

This is mentioned in the film's official novelisation. In short, he tried to open his cape and although it failed, it still managed to slow his fall to the point that he was able to cushion Rachel's fall and that the body armour could prevent him from dying:

She had hit a sloped glass roof belonging to the apartment below and was sliding toward the edge, her fingers unable to get purchase on the glass. Batman dove right behind her and fired his grapple, snagging Rachel’s ankle as they pitched over the edge and began hurtling toward the dark street. Batman tried to get his cape stiffened so that they could glide to the street below, but only half of the cape responded. Batman grimaced and wrapped his arms around Rachel and twisted in midair so he would land first and his armor would cushion them both. They landed hard atop a taxi, rolled to the pavement, and continued rolling until they reached the sidewalk, where Batman got unsteadily to his feet, helping Rachel up as well. She was out-of breath and very pale, but she gave him a smile of thanks.

The original film script also agrees with this version of events:

EXT. BUILDING – NIGHT 114

They drop. Batman fires his grapple, snagging Rachel’s ankle – activates one wing of his cape. They spin and slow. Batman envelops Rachel – they slam into the hood of a passing taxi.

INT. TAXI – CONTINUOUS 115

The driver screams as Batman and Rachel hit the roof and roll down the windshield onto the pavement. Alive.

- How does the bullet scene works?

Upon arriving at the crime scene, Bruce sees a bullet hole fired into the brick of the apartment. While obtaining this evidence, he says to Gordon that he's going to obtain fingerprints off of the shattered bullet in the wall.

He then returns to the batcave to use a minigun filled with different ammo sizes in order to gauge what kind of bullet he loaded into the chamber, matching the impact of a control brick with the brick he obtained.

Using the information of the size of the bullet, he is able to digitally reconstruct the bullet, and run an analysis on it for fingerprints (The real stretch of this whole scene).

Using the fingerprint information, he is able to compare it to a criminal database of Gotham in order to determine the name of Melvin White (a known Joker alias for comic readers).

The purpose of the test in the bunker was to determine how the particular type of bullet shatters when fired in to brick. With that knowledge, he was then able to digitally analyze the brick from the crime scene and reassemble the bullet and see the finger print.

- Does Harvey knows that Bruce is Batman?

Wayne used his Batman voice to tell Rachel about the Joker coming and Dent had his back facing Bruce the whole time before he fell unconscious, so he didn't hear Bruce's real voice or see his face the entire time making it likely that Dent thought it was Batman. Being choked unconscious can result in short term memory loss. It is likely that Harvey Dent may not remember Rachel asking or the question. Or the assault. Choking someone out doesn't knock them out for very long either. It is possible Batman drugged Dent inside the panic room and then took him home later and he woke up in his own bed.

- How did the Joker plan the first bank heist?

The Joker took advantage of the thieves greedy nature and told them to kill each other for a bigger slice, they are so blinded to it that they didn't question where or not it could happen to them. One of the thieves did figure it out, but he got hit by a bus. What I and I think the bank manager meant was before the Joker/Batman/Gordon that wasn't likely a possibility, they respected each other, with the introduction of Batman/Gordon and criminals being caught, it meant spending quite some time in jail unless you squeal, at that point, it's every man for themselves.

They might not have recognized him. They possibly didn't see his face when he gets in the jeep.

When we see the Joker in the beginning, he was facing the other side and that jeep came from behind.

Now, before getting into the jeep, he puts on his mask and he does so hastily before opening the door.

As we can see, it is possible that they didn't see his face and only knew that there is a guy to pick from this place, who has a mask in the hand and is a part of the plan but not the Joker. This can be confirmed from the conversation below.

Another possibility is, as you anticipated, they didn't know him. It seems that none of them didn't know who was the Joker. It is easily possible that the Joker met them as the guy who told them the plan as told by some other guy who is the Joker.

From the conversation between two guys in the jeep,

Man 1: Three of a kind. Let's do this.

Man 2:That's it. Three guys?

Man 1:Two guys on the roof. Every guy gets a share. Five shares is a plenty.

Man 2:Six shares. Don't forget the guy who planned the job.

Man 1: He think he can sit it out and still take a slice. I know why they call him the Joker.

Later, after the money has been taken out from the vault, this conversation takes place.

Man: If this Joker guy was so smart, he'd have had us bring a bigger car. (points gun). I am betting the Joker told you to kill me soon as we load the cash.

Joker: No, no, no, I kill the bus driver.

So, from their conversation, it appears that no one knew and the Joker came with the plan but he didn't let them know that he is the Joker, but he is a henchman.

I am not sure how Bank manager knew this, but he says this when Joker kills all other guys and loads the final bag of cash in the bus.

Bank Manager: You think you're smart, huh? The guy who hired youse, he will just do the same to you.

- How does the guy die?

He got it by the panel, it's not the weight of it that is important, it's the amount of kinetic energy that it carries.

A baseball doesn't weigh very much but at 90mph it will take you out if it hits you in the head.

A more extreme example is a bullet, weighs a couple of ounces but when fired from a gun it's lethal.

In this case, the panel (and I suspect it weighed considerably more than 5 kilos) has the force of a bus behind it and accelerates from zero to quite a speed before it hits the thug.

This proves that sometime things don't go like the character planned, this and in another scene lol. He could have shot him or talk with him, but it makes sense that the dude talks before. And perfectly in time, the bus arrives.

- Why didn't anybody stop Joker from burning the money?

From the Wiki (of course we all know Wiki's can be wrong, but we'll assume they're close to the truth):

The Joker's Thugs were a gang of criminals, in part a combination of small-time robbers, bounty hunters, shanghaied gangsters, and mentally-ill escapees of Arkham Asylum, who served under the Joker. Because of the Joker's appearance, most of the thugs wore clown masks and similar apparel.

Now, that same page also lays out the scene in question:

Ending the Chechen's Regime

The Chechen met the Joker on a Container Ship with his thugs and rottweilers. The Joker burned his half of an immense mound of US dollars, which happened to be holding the mobsters' half on top of it, and betrayed the Chechen by having his own men join him, and possibly execute their former boss; also possibly involving cutting him up into tiny pieces and feeding them to his beloved rottweilers. There are only four thugs.

IIRC, it's accurate to say there were only 4 thugs present. So, Joker most likely picked 4 mentally ill, least money-driven guys to accompany him on that job. They want Anarchy, not money. Maybe they were pyro's. Maybe they were mass murderers. Who knows. But Joker would have selected them because they'd be least likely to want what he was about to burn.

- People wouldn't be suspicious in seeing this?

Oh god, this is not an error but a normal meeting. People use the signal to call Batman, not like people were against him in this story and would've sent snipers or thugs in that scene or skyscraper.

Some TDK stuff

I assume other cops let him through the bank arriving. No one really acted surprised he was there.

People would testimony, the bank manager, cops and TV would show the robbing so it’s easy to know why Maroni knows it was Joker.

Cops were called due to alarm and someone else calling them, people can probably see some scream and they arrived, like in every movie of IRL robbery. And Joker managed to sneak it up to bus and get away.

Another complaint is the Gotham cops not being around the warehouse Rachel blew up in. Its a matter of context. The convoy had its entire route sealed off creating a vacuum portion of the city thus enormous traffic afterwards. The police were also needed in areas like the helicopter crash site, burning fire truck, and places the Joker stole from/killed.

Batman was the one who retrieved the double sided coin as shown during the Rachel letter monologue. Batman knows that it was Harvey's because he caught it in mid air when Dent was trying to scare the paranoid schizophrenic into giving away information about the Joker. Batman tells him that its a futile effort similarly to how Maroni explained in the previous scene.

But knowing Lau was in prison wouldn't he hard to explain. It made news that he had been forcefully extradited, so word would get around fast as to which prison he was being held at, it went to TV and it was only a backup to go way so he got 2 stones with 1 only thing, also only one police station in Gotham have enough security to hold Lau. (or so police thought) having people with access and you need a process to go into county and people would have interrogated him or his henchmen.

He called some of his gang after the explosion and just went off getting (from his henchmen) or just where the bomb exploded, his gloves back. This is just a small detail.

The GCPD logo is noticeable due to the sonar. And the fake Batman only needs to be recognized for the Joker (a criminal mastermind) to make his threats, that’s why he makes and puts cards or signals. The mayor being here was just a causality, and knowing where the Mayor was is pretty easily knowing what access he had and the fact it’s public knowledge.

As to Lau, I assumed there was a camera/microphone attached to the TV, giving the red light below.

I never questioned why Batman knew who Schiff was because he's a detective. TDK expands on his detective work more than BB did, but him knowing who Schiff was just proves he knows his stuff. I view that the same way as how Batman disappears, something which doesn't really need to be shown or explained because it would risk ruining the film's pacing. Having a past with him or seeing him before going away in the window is enough, considering more masterminds like Bane are recognized by the GCPD and Batman's technology allows him to check on Bane's past or Selina's.

As to Joker getting into the meeting, I think showing or explaining that would ruin it. Joker was supposed to be very mysterious, when he first appears at the mob meeting, the camera pans from his POV. It's as if we the viewers are coming into that room with him. The mob are clearly confused as to how he got in, and that's the same case with the viewer. We're supposed to question how he does these things. Its why there's so many theories as to how he is so proficient at killing, maybe he was an ex soldier? Also he knows people who know or are in contact with Gambol so he the foundation for the info is here, or he just figured it off screen.

The whole complaint about the Joker being able to escape after the party at Wayne's Penthouse is merely people not paying enough attention. Your answer is simple, because Wurtz and his henchmen found about the party (which should have been public).

Wuertz was one of Maroni's inside men and the Joker was working with the mob at the time. Wuertz threw the police off by reporting that action was going on somewhere else. Theres a reason why Wuertz is shown in that shot right before the Joker pushes him aside saying "We made it".

Another complaint is the Gotham cops not being around the warehouse Rachel blew up in. Its a matter of context. The convoy had its entire route sealed off creating a vacuum portion of the city thus enormous traffic afterwards. The police were also needed in areas like the helicopter crash site, burning fire truck, and places the Joker stole from/killed.

• Finding The Joker is not unrealistic. He had men, infiltrated to probably plant the explosives for him (as he did not rig the ferries and remarks ''have to do everything yourself these days''.
• The suicide bomber with the cell-phone is known as Surgically Implanted Explosive Device.
• Batman survived the fall because he activated his chute while holding Rachel. That's why he was able to flawlessly jump to the ground immediately after he dropped Maroni to the ground
• Batman kidnapped Lau via Extraordinary Rendition

Gordon was intellectually out-dueled by a villain. The Joker issued a threat to the city’s hospitals in The Dark Knight, forcing Gordon to allocate all available cops to mandatory evacuations and saving Coleman Reese while forgetting to send any cops over to The Joker’s known location that Gordon was just planning to raid moments before, mostly because he needed to get Reese to avoid chaos, clean the hospitals and known the Joker probably get suspicious about Maroni (they don’t know if he’s actually here or it’s a trap etc) and would probably not be here anymore due to him making a call for his threat.

Christopher Nolan himself, the director ADMITTED that the films aren't supposed to be realistic but 'relatable'.

http://filmcomment.com/article/cinematic-faith-christopher-nolan-scott-foundas

Q: The overall tone of the film is realistic compared to most comic-book- derived movies.The world around Batman is plausible and not particularly stylized or exaggerated.
A: The term “realism” is often confusing and used sort of arbitrarily. I suppose “relatable” is the word I would use. I wanted a world that was realistically portrayed, in that even though outlandish events may be taking place, and this extraordinary figure may be walking around these streets, the streets would have the same weight and validity of the streets in any other action movie. So they’d be relatable in that way. And so the more texturing and layering that we could get into this film, the more tactile it was, the more you would feel and be excited by the action. So just on a technical level, I really wanted to take on this idea of what I call the tactile quality. You want to really understand what things would smell like in this world, what things would taste like, when bones start being crunched or cars start pancaking. You feel these things in a way because the world isn’t intensely artificial and created by computer graphics, which result in an anodyne, sterile quality that’s not as exciting. For me that was about making the character more special. If I can believe in that world because I recognize it and can imagine myself walking down that street, then when this extraordinary figure of Batman comes swooping down in this theatrical costume and presenting this very theatrical aspect, that’s going to be more exciting to me.

The Dark Knight Rises viral marketing (official Warner Brothers) was made after TDK and the photos weren't avabile or released from the police. It's just a poster.

Page 133

https://www.raindance.org/scripts/thedarkknight_script.pdf

How Batman locates Dent at the end, and Page 76 explains Jokers and if he knew he was Batman.

Like many good movies, The Dark Knight has several themes, but to me the primary theme of the movie is duty. The reason why I say this is because the primary conflicts of the film are centered around that theme:

1. Joker - he explained to Harvey that he was a dog chasing cars, that he didn't really have much of a plan but that he just wanted to induce a little carnage. He enjoyed his duty, but the thing that motivated him - that got him to keep going after Batman - was that he felt a duty to disrupt, to shake up, to change, to show people what they were really made of.
2. Batman - duty incarnate. He is scarred, physically and mentally and does not want to keep doing this job but the city needs him. He could have, and wanted to, kill the Joker, but chose not to because he duty is to uphold the law, not become the law. And after Harvey's death, he takes responsibility. Commissioner Gordon's speech over the closing credits sums up Batman about as perfectly as anything I've ever seen written about him does.
3. Harvey Dent - Harvey was pulled into politics by Bruce Wayne, who told him it was his duty to protect the people of Gotham City. And when he lost Maggie Gyllenhall's character, he went insane but at the core of that insanity was still duty -- to represent the arbitratiness of the world.
4. Lucius - Lucius set up the cell phone monitors for Bruce Wayne not because he wanted to, but because he felt a duty to Bruce to help him stop the Joker.
5. Inspector Gordon - hid the details of his death from his wife to serve the greater duty of catching the Joker.
6. Bank robbers - each did their assigned task, progressively executing each other, even though at some point no one asked (until it was dramatically appropriate) why if they had orders to kill another robber, it stood to reason that another robber had orders to kill them.
7. Boat bombs - another examination of duty and responsibility. The people on the boats had the duty to save themselves, but Tiny Lister transcended that to show that even duty can have too high of a cost, and that's why he threw the detonator out of the window.

As for Harvey's crimes, it's because they don't want to let the Joker win. If they let Harvey go down (for The Joker's crimes or his own) then it proves that anyone can be corrupted. Harvey was a symbol of hope, tearing that down tears down the last bits of hope the already corrupt city of Gotham has. Batman took the fall for Harvey so the city could retain that slightest glimmer of hope.

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Film Critic Hulk actually has a really good article about the logic of films and whether or not they’re that important to the quality of the film. Film Crit Hulk Smash: HULK VS. PLOT HOLES AND MOVIE LOGIC

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/10/30/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-plot-holes-and-movie-logic

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regarding the bus and parade scene:

First of all, there was nothing ridiculous about the Joker walking among a crowd of Cops, because the Joker up until that point only attacked in public wearing his full Joker cosmetic. So the Cops were looking for a green haired, make up guy in a purple suit. Second of all, the Cops immediately around him were obviously his own men, since he stole like what 7 or 8 Honor Guard uniforms based on the number of men Bruce found tied and stripped of their uniforms. If he just needed two for himself and Schiff, then he wouldn't have stripped all of them. Third, even if Joker had been stand out obvious to see in a crowd, Police missing the obvious is both realistic, and unfortunately common e.g.

https://www.ranker.com/list/killers-who-evaded-capture-due-to-police-incompetence/alan-smithee

https://www.police1.com/officer-safety/articles/research-would-cops-notice-a-gun-on-the-dashboard-during-a-traffic-stop-WEYaSjSV6VZbqSAf/

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/judge-demands-to-know-how-police-missed-obvious-clues-in-gay-man-s-murder-a3608876.html

Exactly. Even if you wanted to put the scene under a microscope, it still works because there was a mass evacuation. The Joker went in disguised and took out Gordon and then left when there was chaos. Unfortunately, as I mentioned stuff like this even applies to real life, so in CBM world logic it works.

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It's Gotham. Ever seen videos of someone injured in the middle of New York and people just walking by and acting like nothing's happening? City life in and of itself can make for a jaded outlook, but Gotham is a pit of corruption. You see a bus with debris on it and you say "Not my problem."

Reeves was scared and just decided to not do anything because Bruce Wayne save; him. Ramirez is dead.

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At the beginning, Bruce is Batman because he believes fighting crime directly can help solve the problem, and by the end he understands that he can’t, but Batman CAN be a sacrifice to help the city of Gotham to have faith in another hero - even if it’s a lie. Bruce has an arc, and is finally able to hang up the cape and cowl by the end as he rides away into the night.