10 Best Joker Movie Moments

2. The Magic Trick (The Dark Knight)

Jokers Film
Warner Bros.

Anyone who wasn't already on-board with Heath Ledger's Joker certainly was after witnessing this - a brutal act of violence, made even more so by the fact that it was darkly humorous and literally came out of nowhere.

There aren't many characters that could just walk in on a meeting between the most dangerous criminal minds in the city and have the stones to murder one of them in such a bizarre and painful manner. By introducing us to the character in this fashion, Ledger made sure that nothing was off the table and everything was a possibility. All bets were off.

Unpredictability was the key to the success of Ledger's performance. If he'd shot or stabbed that goon, the scene would be less effective because that's a pretty normal way to go. A pencil through the eye socket, on the other hand, is probably about as common as being killed by a blimp.

In this post: 
Batman joker
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.