The Dark Knight (1988)

If The Dark Knight was made 20 years earlier.

Directed By: Michael Mann

Plot
A gang of masked criminals rob a Mafia-owned bank in Gotham City, each betraying the other until the sole survivor, the Joker, reveals himself as the mastermind and escapes with the money. The vigilante Batman, district attorney Harvey Dent, and police lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to eliminate Gotham's organized crime. Batman's alter-ego, billionaire Bruce Wayne, publicly supports Dent as Gotham's legitimate protector, believing his success will allow Batman to retire so Wayne can romantically pursue his childhood friend Rachel Dawes, despite her relationship with Dent.

The Mafia crime bosses gather to discuss protecting their organizations from Batman, the police, and the Joker. The Joker interrupts the meeting and offers to kill Batman for half of the vast cash fortune their accountant, Lau, concealed before fleeing to Hong Kong to avoid extradition. Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and returns him to Gotham police custody, and his testimony enables Dent to apprehend the crime families. In response, the bosses accept Joker's offer, and he kills high-profile targets involved in the trial, including the judge and police commissioner, but Gordon sacrifices himself to save the mayor. Joker threatens that his attacks will continue until Batman unmasks. He later targets Dent at a fundraising dinner and throws Rachel out of a window, but Batman rescues her. Wayne struggles to understand the Joker's motives, but his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, surmises that some people simply want to see the world burn.

Dent confesses to being Batman to lure out the Joker, who attacks the police convoy transporting him. Batman and Gordon, who faked his death, apprehend him, earning Gordon a promotion to commissioner. At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who admits he finds the vigilante entertaining and has no intention of killing him. Having deduced Batman's feelings for Rachel, the Joker reveals that she and Dent are being held separately in buildings rigged to explode. Batman races to save Rachel while Gordon goes after Dent, but they discover the Joker switched their positions. Rachel is killed in the explosion, and although Dent is rescued, his face is severely burned on one side. The Joker escapes custody, extracts the fortune's location from Lau, and burns it all.

Wayne Enterprises accountant Coleman Reese deduces Batman's secret identity and attempts to disclose it publicly, but the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital unless Reese is killed. While the police evacuate hospitals and Gordon struggles to keep Reese alive, Joker meets with a disillusioned Dent, convincing him to take justice into his own hands and avenge Rachel. Dent defers his decision-making to his half-scarred, two-headed coin, killing the corrupt officers and Mafia men who contributed to Rachel's death. As panic grips the city, the Joker reveals that two evacuation ferries, one carrying civilians and the other prisoners, are rigged to explode at midnight unless one group sacrifices the other. To the Joker's disbelief, the passengers refuse to kill one another, and Batman subdues but refuses to kill him. Before the police arrest the Joker, he gloats that although Batman proved incorruptible, his plan to corrupt Dent has succeeded.

Dent takes Gordon's family hostage, blaming his negligence for Rachel's death. He flips his coin to decide their fates but falls to his death after Batman tackles him to save Gordon's son. Believing Dent is the hero the city needs, Batman takes the blame for his death and actions, and convinces Gordon to conceal the truth. In the aftermath, Pennyworth burns an undelivered message to Wayne from Rachel, confessing she chose Dent, and Batman destroys the invasive surveillance network that helped him find the Joker. Dent is mourned by the city as a hero, while the police launch a manhunt for Batman.

Cast

 * Kurt Russell as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A wealthy socialite, traumatized as a child by his parents' murder, who secretly operates as the heroic vigilante Batman.
 * Alec Guinness as Alfred Pennyworth: Wayne's father-figure, trusted butler, and confidant.
 * Gary Oldman as the Joker: A criminal mastermind and anarchist determined to sow chaos and corruption throughout Gotham.
 * Harvey Keitel as James Gordon: One of the few honest officers in the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) who assists Batman's war on crime.
 * Richard Gere as Harvey Dent / Two-Face: Gotham's noble district attorney turned violent vigilante.
 * Carrie Fisher as Rachel Dawes: Gotham's assistant district attorney and Wayne's childhood friend, who is torn between her feelings for him and Dent.
 * Ossie Davis as Lucius Fox: Wayne Enterprises' CEO who supplies Batman's crusade with technology and equipment.

Rating
Rated PG-13.

Trivia

 * Brad Dourif, Michael Keaton, Willem Dafoe, Robin Williams and Tim Curry were considered for the role of the Joker.
 * Ray Liotta, William Hurt, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Costner were considered for the role of Harvey Dent.