(electricity crackling)
(electronics powering up)
(upbeat electronic tones)
- [Scott] How are you doing you wonderful nerds?
Scott here, and can you believe that The Dark Knight
came out almost 10 years ago?
Boy, do I feel old now that I just discovered that
thanks to Google.
There's a lot of interesting trivia surrounding this movie
and especially around Heath Ledger's Joker,
so you would think after almost a decade
that we would get everything straightened out,
but no, I'm here to tell you that very likely
you have been lied to.
(slamming desk) - Enough from the clown.
- [Scott] There is one piece of Dark Knight trivia
that I have seen over and over and over again
on the internet since its debut
and it has to do with this scene right here.
The hospital explosion.
The idea, as you probably heard it or read it
in different listicles and YouTube videos
purports the idea that this moment right here
where Joker is fiddling around with the detonator
because the explosions malfunctioned was all improvised.
Actually, you know what, let me just read it from this meme
you might have seen passed around the internet.
The building was meant to explode and come down in one go
and the crew had one take to get it right.
When the explosions malfunctioned,
Ledger reacted in character, and Nolan urged his crew
to keep filming.
By pure chance, it resulted in
one of the greatest moments in the movie,
and a moment that perfectly showcased
Joker's anarchic nature and Ledger's sheer talent.
Boy, what a fun piece of trivia.
What a cool story behind the scenes of the movie.
The problem is, it's false.
Now, it is true that the crew only had one chance
to get it right, this was a real building exploding.
Christopher Nolan wanted to do it all in camera.
He didn't want to use CGI, he didn't want to use miniatures.
He wanted to blow up a real building
with a very large explosion.
So yeah, you probably don't get a second chance to do that.
And so because of that, they not only rehearsed the scene
with Heath Ledger endlessly, they also,
before any of this was set up,
created this animatic that you're seeing right now.
This was included in some behind-the-scenes special features
of The Dark Knight and as you can clearly see,
there was always, from the beginning,
meant to be this moment where the explosions stop
Joker turns around, the rest of the explosions go off
and he rides off in a bus.
And sure, you could say that it shows off
Joker's anarchic nature, but that wasn't really the point.
The point of it was actually a safety precaution
as Nolan explains. (page turning)
- [Nolan] They were able to come up with a scenario
in which Heath could actually be walking out of the building
because what Chris worked out is
if we put in a little beat where the first set of explosions
stops as if something's gone wrong,
and the Joker just takes a second to look around surprised
like the audience is surprised,
then the major demolition comes in
and he jumps straight into the school bus.
In that way he was able to come up with
a practical scenario in which we could actually
take a principal actor, walk him out of a building
that's about to be destroyed, and literally
drop the building to the ground.
- [Scott] So there you have it.
Definitive proof that this was not improv,
but in fact a very much scripted moment.
But I hear you guys, some of you might be saying,
Scott, it's not that the whole thing was improvised.
There was always meant to be a delay in the explosions,
but it was Heath Ledger fiddling around with the detonator.
That was improvised on the fly
and we can still use it to show off Heath Ledger's
awesome acting prowess.
I hear you, but, I haven't found a definitive source
for that on the internet either.
And in fact, it doesn't even seem
to make that much sense when you consider the fact
that again, they only had one shot to do this.
Everyone had to hit their mark perfectly
and they rehearsed it constantly.
So in my opinion, the most logical explanation
is that none of this was improvised.
But if we still wanted to use this hospital explosion scene
to talk about Heath Ledger's incredible acting abilities,
then let's talk about this unused shot.
The final cut of The Dark Knight only used two angles
to show off the hospital exploding.
There was this one on the ground
and this aerial shot, but they placed cameras everywhere
from inside of the building,
different angles on the outside,
and even in the bus that the joker gets on.
And even with this massive explosion happening
just outside the window, he never betrays the character
to stop and stare at it.
He continues in the mindset of the Joker.
- [Nolan] He did it very, very precisely.
I don't know how he resisted looking back.
You know all the cork explosions
and the lightweight material
that the special effects guys were blowing behind him.
I think he wound up with bits of cork in his hair
at the end of it, that's how close he was
to everything that was going off,
but he never looked back, he never betrayed
any sense of, you know, worrying about
what was behind him and all the rest.
- [Scott] So there you go, the real story
behind The Dark Knight's hospital explosion scene.
I realize now, however, that I may have reduced
the amount of trivia you have about The Dark Knight
down by like one, so if you want some more fun trivia
about this scene, you see these top two rows of windows
on the building here?
Yeah, those are all CGI, because before they started filming
somebody stole the windows from the building.
So, there you go, I supplemented your trivia.
Let me know in the comments if you have any other
superhero misconceptions that you would like me to debunk.
That was a thing that we used to do on this channel
for a while, and if you want some more Batman videos,
we recently did a 20-minute documentary-style video
about the history of Adam West's Batman.
Please check it out, we worked really, really hard on it,
and we would love for you to watch it
and share in our love for the bright knight.
And as always, I want to give a huge thanks
to all the wonderful nerds who support us over on Patreon,
especially Cristoffer Lange, Paterick Caddery,
Austin Rogers, Mike Harvill, Kendra, Alberto Ramirez,
Elizabeth Moncel, and the rest of the wonderful nerds
over at patreon.com/nerdsync.
Hit that big, sexy subscribe button
and I will see you in next week's video.
In the meantime, I've been Scott
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics, see ya.