10 Movie Heroes Forced To Kill For The Greater Good
1. Batman "Kills" Two-Face's Victims - The Dark Knight
When is a kill not really a kill? When it's one taken on by a character who didn't commit the crime, but who needed to be seen to have killed for the Greater Good. Specifically, when Batman preserved the fragile state of law and order in Gotham by making sure the city's real white knight's reputation wasn't tarnished.
The greatest thing Batman did for Gotham wasn't taking down the Joker or the Scarecrow or even cleaning up organised crime (which he didn't do all that well for a while, anyway) - it was taking the rap for Harvey Dent's murders from The Dark Knight's climax. He recognised that he needed to take those murders as his own to prove that Gotham could live with the hope of something better; the hope that would become the light the city used to guide its way to order.
Sure, Batman was ostracised and had to go into hiding, but in openly claiming that he was a killer, he not only gave Gotham Dent as an unblemished hero (which it needed), but it also doubled down on the fear Batman used to keep crime levels down. He had no choice but to claim he killed or everything he was fighting for would have crumbled along with Gotham.
Which other kills belong on this list? Share your suggestions below in the comments thread.