Emotions - a chaotic burst of energy beyond our capabilities to either control or fully understand. We have all experienced horror, just as we all have understood the ecstasy of unmitigated joy. But the combination of these emotions in a storm of gleeful pain, a pain beyond happiness, is what motivates a twisted psychopath in The Dark Knight. Heath Ledgers portrayal of Batmans archenemy helped many audience members come to grips with their own lack of control in even themselves. He spun across town, bound to nothing and no one, his only intention to kill Batman. The Joker laughed himself into our hearts, and will last the test of time as the greatest movie villain ever.
Honorable Mention: The Death Of Heath Ledger
This seems like such a crass and base attempt at humor, that it could only have come from the mind of the Clown Prince of Crime. Heath Ledger, with this film, had finally broken free from the chains of pretty-boy that he had been dealing with in 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knights Tale. People were considering the impact Ledger would have on the film industry for years, possibly even decades to come. He had a brilliant career before him, something for the ages. And he dies. Nice one, Joker.
10. The Entrance
"The lunatic, the lover, the poet, are of imagination all compact" - William Shakespeare Joker came onto the screen in blood, bullets and bombs. Took on a mob bank with absolutely no fear of anything, be it retribution or a shotgun blast to the gut. He watched as his henchmen systematically killed one another, until only one is last. And Joker ends up taking care of the last problem with nothing more than a school bus. But what made Jokers entrance so new, so stranger than anything before, was the fact that until the end of the caper he remained completely silent. When the public thinks of Joker, he is laughing maniacally while spraying Joker poison, or pulling a joke that is only going to start piling on the body parts. But The Dark Knight showed a Joker that could take pleasure silently, even while the chaos rolled around him. He could be anything.