So we considered uploading our last episode of things you didn't know a second
time for this week's episode, you know, because it was about Groundhog Day.
And we thought it would be funny to do the whole,
it's the same thing all over again, get it?
Just like the movie Groundhog Day!
Haha, we're so fun!
But after looking at the views on that episode,
we realized the joke would be on us.
Yeah, so instead of that idea,
here are seven things you didn't know about The Dark Knight, probably.
(Sound) The late Heath Ledger's take on the Joker
is easily one of the things that makes The Dark Knight as great as it is.
They stepped away from the idea that the Joker's skin and hair had been permanently
altered by toxic waste, a risk that ended up being totally worth it.
But you probably didn't know that Heath Ledger actually designed his Joker makeup
himself using stuff he got from a drug store.
Christopher Nolan and the other filmmakers really liked his design, so
they tasked the makeup team with re-creating the look each day they filmed.
It was also Ledger's idea for
the Joker to have white makeup left over on his hands to tie in
with the notion that the character would've done his makeup himself.
Maybe it's toxic disfigurement.
Maybe it's Maybelline.
(Sound) The Dark Knight also stayed away from
giving concrete origin for the Joker or any explanation for his actions.
The filmmakers' purposefully kept his backstory a mystery, even to themselves.
They developed his character for the film under a few theories,
one of which was that the Joker is an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD.
And based on his comfort with military grade weapons,
gas explosives, I have to say that makes this theory seem pretty legit.
Plus, the Joker both attempts to murder and
then successfully murders civic officials.
Which some think could be evidence of a soldier bent on anarchy who's
angry with the government.
Yeah, maybe.
Or it could just be evidence that the Joker is a psycho who's just
super into killing people.
>> (Laugh) I don't want to kill you.
>> Either way, next thing.
(Sound) Okay,
so the Dark Knight has a few sequences in it that were shot on IMAX cameras.
So if you got to see it in theaters in IMAX,
you already know how awesome they look.
Unfortunately for director Christopher Nolan,
they were not so awesome to shoot and created a lot of headaches.
First of all, there were only four IMAX cameras in the world at the time,
and they're huge and loud.
So they had to build special mounts for them and then replace all
the dialogue in post because the cameras themselves were so noisy.
Worse still for Christopher Nolan is that they destroyed one of those four huge,
loud cameras during this chase scene.
Considering those things cost $500,000 a piece, breaking one is way,
way worse than that time you dropped your iPhone in the toilet.
(Sound) The Dark Knight was the first Batman movie without the word Batman in
its title.
But you may not have noticed that it's also the first Batman film without
any bats in it.
No live bats and no CGI bats.
Maybe after they destroyed that IMAX camera, they realized they didn't have
the budget to rent a bunch of bats, let alone pay a bat wrangler.
Those guys are divas.
(Sound) IMAX wasn't
the only upgraded technology to grace The Dark Knight.
An all too important change was the redesigned Batsuit.
We've seen a lot of alterations of the Batsuit over the years,
including some we'd like to forget.
But the redesign in The Dark Knight added some upgrades that made
a lot more sense than adding nipples to the suit.
For the first time, it allowed Batman to turn his head in it.
So we didn't have any more of this.
Finally, Batman no longer looked like he was a victim of whiplash.
(Sound) We all know that Bruce Wayne is
pretty much set in the money department.
He wears fancy clothes, bangs fancy ladies and drives fancy cars.
And I'm sure he bangs fancy ladies in those fancy cars on occasion.
But unless you're a gear head, you may not know that the car Bruce drives in
The Dark Knight is a Lamborghini Murcielago.
Despite me butchering of the pronunciation of the word, Murcielago is Spanish for
bat, which means that even when he's driving his regular car, or
banging a fancy lady in it, he's sort of in a batmobile.
Can we get a slow clap for the filmmakers on that one?
(Sound) The Dark Knight and Batman from 1989 give us two
very different but both very awesome portrayals of the Joker.
When they dubbed Batman for its Italian release,
an actor named Giancarlo Giannini did the dubbing for Jack Nicholson.
Well, when The Dark Knight came around almost 20 years later,
Heath Ledger's joker was voiced by Adriano Giannini.
Now if you're thinking it's just a coincidence that the Adriano guy has
the same last name as the Giancarlo guy, you'd be wrong, and kind of an idiot.
Because Giancarlo is his freaking dad, it's crazy.
Okay, it's not that crazy, but it's pretty cool.
And as long as we're on international Dark Knight fun fact,
here's a bonus thing you didn't know.
There's a city in Turkey named Batman.
Okay, it's actually pronounced Botmen, but you get the point.
Back in 2008, the Mayor of Batman, or Botmen, or whatever,
tried to sue to Warner Brothers because he claimed he wasn't asked permission to use
the name Batman in their movie.
He even went onto say that Warner Brother and Christopher Nolan were responsible for
unsolved murders and a high suicide rate amongst women in Batman or
Botmen or whatever.
As you can probably guess, the case was thrown out,
which actually restores my faith in the legal system just a little bit.
That's it for this episode.
But let us know in the comments what you'd like to see us do on the next episode of
Things You Didn't Know, unless it's really stupid like that Batman Mayor's lawsuit.
Thanks for watching and be sure to check out Cinefix and subscribe for more truish
things about movies and sometimes Batman, right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Sound)