Reason For Selection

Briefly describe the Opening:

The scene begins with a shot of Gotham City. It's broad daylight, indicating the Batman is not around. A window is broken by two armed men wearing clown masks. One of them (Clown A) fires a harpoon across the street to the rooftop of another building. Both men glide across the wire like a flying fox and land on the other side. They then break open a circuit box and disable the silent alarm. The one who disabled the alarm (Clown B) is then shot by Clown A, who runs downstairs into the main vaults.

AT THE SAME TIME Clown C is picked up by two others in a car and driven to the front of the same building (revealed to be a bank). They rush inside, loaded with guns, and hold everyone hostage. Their plan is almost thwarted, however, when a bank worker who hadn't been noticed comes at them with a shotgun. After killing Clown D, he fires off all of his bullets, and is then shot down by Clown C. Clown E then runs off to join Clown A in the vault.

Clown A breaks through the vault, after finding the door rigged with electricity (like in a mob bank, Clown E states). As soon as he opens the vault, he is shot in the back by Clown E. E then runs into the vault and fills bags with money, then brings them back to where Clown C is watching over the hostages.

Clown E then threatens Clown C, saying "I'm bettin the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash." Clown C denies this, saying "No no no, I kill the bus driver." He and Clown E walk in a circle as he says this, Clown C positioning E carefully based on the time. A bus then smashes through the wall and hits Clown E, killing him. The driver comes out, wearing another mask. He and C load the bags of money into the bus, before Clown C shoots him.

Clown C is now the last man standing. As he goes to board his bus, the man who'd come at them with the shotgun calls out to him, saying that he'll receive the same treatment as the others. Clown C consoles him with a bit of wisdom, whilst sticking a grenade in the man's mouth. He takes off his mask, revealing himself as the Joker - therefore the one in charge, unable to be double-crossed. He leaves, slamming the grenade's cord in the door of the bus, before driving out through the hole in the wall. The bus then merges with a number of other school buses in traffic and drives away, as police cars arrive at the scene.

End result: The Joker steals a LOT of money from a mob bank, blends in with the crowd, and gets away. No one else gets a share because they're all dead, and the clown masks make the whole operation anonymous. At the same time, this adds to the Joker's legacy and the winnings fund his next few schemes.


How does it fit into the film as a whole?

There are many parts to this opening that are mirrored later in the film. Destruction, violence, weaponry are all recurring ideas throughout, but some are more specific. The music used in the opening is a variation of "Why So Serious?" - the Joker's theme music which plays almost every time he appears. The clown masks used to make the robbers anonymous are re-used later in the film, again during a hostage scene. That hostage scenario is also the last part the Joker features in, so for it to mirror the first part is quite fitting. In that scene too the clowns were meant to be killed off whilst the Joker gets off scotch free.

The masks are also symobolic of how the Joker is anonymous. His identity is never revealed, and in fact by the end he is still just 'The Joker'. There is only one scene in the film in which his face is not covered by his make-up ("war paint"), and in that case he was in disguise anyway. When the clowns talk of him, they only have interpretive stories, and the Joker himself tells his own stories which further muddy his past. This not only creates a dark and mysterious character, but a potentially unstable and unpredictable one.

The entire operation is in sync with the others in the film. Whilst the others get more and more elaborate, all of them seem to be very sketchy, not completely thought out. The Joker's incredible luck and quick thinking help him in this case with the shotgun-worker, and in others where he tries to avoid/break out of capture. The fact that the hostage's lives are in their own hands is a repeated characteristic of the joker, toying with people rather than simply killing. This is mirrored in the last Joker scenario, where each group being held hostage are given the detonators to the other, and both groups pressured to set off the other.

Another aspect is double-crossing. Since most of the law enforcers in Gotham are corrupt, and many of the criminals are against each other, double-crossing is common and echoes throughout the film. In this opening, the Joker has each of the clowns double-cross each other, similarly, Mr Reese double-crosses Bruce Wayne, Mr Lau double-crosses the mob he accounts for, the police double-cross Harvey Dent, who seeks revenge on all responsible. The Joker also double-crosses a few mental patients who help him escape from capture, and the mob leader who initially threatened the Joker.

The blue/green lighting in and around the vault is mirrored throughout the film. The daylight setting returns when the Joker blows up Gotham General Hospital - and again, he boards a schoolbus and drives away free. The wide shots, particularly the opening shot of the buildings and when the clowns glide across to the other rooftop is very similar to the shots used when Batman is gliding in Hong Kong, and during the Joker's last heist.

All in all, I believe the opening establishes many aspects that recur throughout the film, which helps to ground the film, giving a sense of unity to the events.


Why did it appeal to you?

I'm a fan of action in films, guns blazing, explosions, et al. But I absolutely LOVE complicated plots, and sequences that make the viewer think. This scene (and the whole movie even more so) combines the two. Here we have multiple cross-cuts between events happening at the same time. Details such as location are revealed slowly. The fact that this is a bank robbery, for instance, was not obvious until after the clowns in the car had run inside and began taking everyone hostage. The parts before that gave no indication other than the prescence of a 'silent alarm'. The back-stabbing/double-crossing was completely unexpected, and made more sense as the scene progressed. Furthermore, I couldn't help but be amazed at how brilliantly the plan had worked out for the Joker. For him to plan all of this, specifically to get away free with all of the money, is fantastic. Right from the start I was in love with this character, which never ceased to impress me throughout the film. And so, I decided to study this for both its depth, and its brilliance.