7 Secrets Of The Dark Knight's Success

Now, as fascinating as the Joker’s tenure in Baghdad is, it’s fair to say that we didn’t show up in the cinemas by the millions for the sake of some solid social policy debates. No, this film is an action thriller flicks through and through, and the first descriptor is vital there.

As an action movie, the Dark Knight provides some of the most enthralling thrills of the new millennium in its endlessly ambitious set pieces.

Just think back to the Joker’s spectacular truck flip whilst facing off with the eponymous hero, a scene which marries kinetic action with actual tension in a way few modern action helmers seem to care about.

Where the previous year’s Transformers had featured all manner of far larger scale destruction in its many set pieces, none of them could compare to this for pure tension and shock value of this scene, and it’s hard to pinpoint why—until you discover that Nolan flipped an actual truck to give the scene its crunching impact, a decision which renders the entire sequence more authentic in a way no amount of CGI assistance could compare to.

It’s this unseen commitment to practical effects, along with the script’s flawlessly paced drama, which heaps real emotional weight on the explosive scene.