The Batman: Every Character Ranked From Worst To Best

Of all the authority figures caught up in Gotham's corruption scandal, District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) gets the most substantial screen time early in the film.

We first meet him at The Penguin's (Colin Farrell) nightclub The Iceberg Lounge, where at Batman's request Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) schmoozes with him and we learn that he's not quite the upstanding individual he presents himself as.

In addition to being a seemingly habitual user of the mysterious drug known as Drops, he's shown to be a prime lech through his unsavoury interactions with Selina.

But Colson's most pivotal role in the story occurs at mayor Mitchell's funeral, where Colson is kidnapped, fitted with a bomb, and forced to crash his car into the service.

In one of the film's most intense sequences, Colson is made to answer three riddles over a video call with the Riddler in order to unlock the bomb collar, and though Batman helps Colson answer the first two, Colson ultimately refuses to answer the third.

Colson would rather die than name the informant who helped the GCPD bring down Sal Maroni, and so is blown up despite Batman's best efforts to save him.

Peter Sarsgaard does a great job selling both Colson's sleaze and fear, of a man refusing to endanger his family by revealing the informant's identity (the informant later being revealed as Carmine Falcone himself).