10 Greatest Pre-Kill Movie Lines

"I'm gonna make this pencil... disappear."

So speaks Heath Ledger's dementedly wicked mouthpiece of anarchy - the Joker - in Christopher Nolan's genre redefining outing The Dark Knight.

Rewind a few seconds; a green haired man in a bespoke purple suit, hideously scarred and wearing make up resembling war paint, shuffles chortling into what is supposedly a secret meeting of Gotham's criminal elite - they instantly recognize him as the "clown" who has been ripping them off. Understandably, crime boss Gambol is rather upset at the sight of said clown, and enquires as to why he should not have the imposter's head removed by one of his associates. Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime's bizarre response is to ask the irate kingpin whether a magic trick will do instead.

The Joker plants a pencil in the table, waving his hands over it in what appears to be some farcical imitation of a conjurer's trick as a henchman heads menacingly in his direction, with the clear intention of causing serious bodily harm. Quick as a rattlesnake, the Joker seizes the man just as he is about to lay hands on him, and smashes the unfortunate gentleman's head into the table, impaling it on the pencil.

Ta-da! In all fairness, he did say he was going to make it disappear. The shockingly casual yet utterly brutal nature of the violence, in tandem with introducing the terrifyingly unpredictable nature of Ledger's Joker, means that the line preceding his twisted magic trick holds revered status amongst film buffs.