15 Most Irritating Subplots In The Dark Knight Trilogy

4. The Ferry Trap (The Dark Knight)

The Subplot: Late in the movie, The Joker rigs two ferries with explosives, one containing civilians and the other prisoners and prison staff. Each boat has the detonator for the other ferry, giving each side a chance to blow the other sky high to save themselves, because if they don't, both will explode at midnight. In the end, neither ferry ends up blowing the other up, and Bats vanquishes The Joker's plot to blow them both himself. Why It's Irritating: Because Nolan clearly feels like he's making a profound statement about the good of humanity, but really, it's pretty damn hokey. In reality, everyone would have been scrambling for the detonators and probably set them off without a second thought, and so seeing the big, burly prisoner throw the detonator out the window felt like a heavy-handed way for Nolan to try and highlight the apparent "inner good" of people, which is just laughably earnest. Or is this assessment just overly pessimistic and cynical?