3. Technical Difficulties Cement The Joker's Iconic Portrayal
Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight is so brilliant that it's easy to assume that it's one superbly controlled feat of meticulous planning, and though Ledger clearly threw himself into the role, some quick thinking also helped to rectify some on-set technical issues. The original scene of The Joker blowing up Gotham General Hospital simply called for Jokes to hop onto the bus as the hospital explodes in the distance, but when the explosions didn't detonate as timed, Ledger decided to improvise so as not to kill the shot, fiddling with the detonator and shrugging before it went off, and then boarding the bus as planned. This is a vital scene as it really accentuates The Joker's playfully destructive side more than any other; he blows up the hospital, well aware that it has been evacuated, just for the Hell of it. His body language and reaction to the initial explosive failure compliments this, and also lets us know that The Joker's rigging team might not be the most skilled (foreshadowing his later failure to detonate the boats).