Rachel Dawes was an original character created by Christopher Nolan as a childhood friend and eventual love interest of Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne. In the 2008 movie The Dark Knight, the Joker took both Rachel and the pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent to different locations - both rigged with explosives that were set to go off at the same time - and made Batman choose which one of them to save. The Dark Knight chose to save Rachel, but the Joker had switched given him the opposite addresses at which each person was being held and, as a result, he only arrived in time to save Harvey. Rachel died in the explosion before Batman could get to him, taking the rivalry with the Joker to levels that would surely have meant it would have continued had Heath Ledger not tragically passed away.
