10 "Gory" Movie Moments (That Didn't Show As Much As You Think)
7. The Joker’s Pencil Trick (The Dark Knight - 2008)
That The Dark Knight managed to pass censors with a 12A (or PG-13 in America) rating is suspicious, but not atypical for superhero films that are produced to appeal to the broadest audiences possible.
The Dark Knight is the most adult in tone of all the Batman films from any director. The Joker’s (Heath Ledger) mix of gleeful nihilism and menacing sadism is truly scary. The film itself is full of action violence in the form of guns, explosions, and superhero fistycuffs.
But never a drop of blood is shed. Whether this was an artistic decision, or one to ensure a tween-friendly rating, is up for debate.
The film’s most violent moment is the Joker’s “magic trick” where he impales a rival gangster’s eye into a pencil. As shocking as this moment is, it happens so quickly that if you’d blink you’d miss it.