10 Movies With Hidden Subtext You Totally Missed
9. The Dark Knight Mirrors The War On Terror
You may have thought you were watching a battle of good and evil between Batman and The Joker, but when Christopher Nolan is at the helm, nothing is as it seems.
Viewers don't have to look too far beneath the surface to realise that The Dark Knight's Clown Prince of Crime is depicted as an urban terrorist, with a penchant for blowing up buildings and sending his men on suicide missions, no less.
Delving deeper, the Nolanverse sequel becomes an obvious metaphor for then-US president George W Bush and his war on terror when the Caped Crusader's method of dealing with the threat is scrutinised.
Bruce Wayne uses his technology to transform Gotham City's mobile phone network into a SONAR device for tracking The Joker's location, sparking fervent objections from his gadget-man-in-chief Lucius Fox.
Batman's ethically questionable tactics have drawn comparisons to the passing of the Patriot Act, which gave the authorities the power to search a terror suspect's home, business and records without consent in the wake of 9/11.
Nobody can blame Lucius for being uneasy about this strategy.