The Dark Knight, out on DVD ($29 or $35) and Blu-ray ($36 or $65) Tuesday, is one of the most anticipated titles of the year. Knight director Christopher Nolan invited USA TODAY's Scott Bowles to his home office, where he edited the film, to explain some of his favorite scenes.
The bank is robbed
The story: The sequence is one of four that Nolan shot on IMAX, and he filmed it two weeks before principal photography began. "We wanted to see how much we could do on IMAX, how elaborate we could go," Nolan says. "Essentially, it was a test to see if we'd driven over the cliff."
Turns out, "there really wasn't anything we couldn't do," he says. "You can only shoot for 2½ minutes on that big IMAX film, so our takes were pretty short. But it was a great way to let Heath warm up."
Look for: Two gangsters hurtling between two Chicago high-rise buildings. Like most of the stunts and explosions in Knight, there is minimal computer-generated magic. "Those guys really were on that wire," Nolan says. "That's not a green screen. I'm not comfortable that high up, but they really got into it." FIND MORE STORIES IN: Chicago | Batman | Heath Ledger | Blu-ray | Dark Knight | Christian Bale | Joker | Christopher Nolan | Scott Bowles | Brach
Joker does a 'magic trick'
The story:Knight co-writer Jonathan Nolan (Christopher's brother) came up with the idea for the Joker to make a pencil disappear — by slamming a mobster's skull onto it. Then the Joker leaves his calling card.
"When Jonathan wrote it, I didn't really see it working," Nolan says.
But when Ledger got the script, "he insisted we keep the scene," Nolan says. "And I realized it was all in how Heath performed the lines. It's so creepy and brutal, without a drop of blood. Now I can't think of it not being in there."
Look for: How the pencil disappears. Filmmakers considered using a computer-generated pencil. For a few takes, Nolan hid behind the table and snatched the pencil before the thug's head hits it. Ultimately, the stunt man simply grabbed the pencil himself just before his face gets planted.
Batman confronts Joker
The story: This was the first scene Christian Bale and Heath Ledger had together, and Nolan considers the scene the linchpin of the film.
"It establishes exactly who they are," he says. "You see just how crazy the Joker is and just how similar Batman is to him."
Nolan says some actors prefer to save the climactic scenes midway through filming, or toward the end. "Not Christian and Heath. They were really looking forward to this one," he says.
"I think we all knew that if this scene worked, the rest of the movie would, too."
Look for: A bloodless beating. Nolan had fake blood ready to smear on Ledger's face after Batman roughs up the Joker.
"But we decided it worked better to pull back some," Nolan says. "His makeup is so smeared and frightening, particularly in that lighting, that putting blood on his face would be over the top."
The hospital explodes
The story: Before Nolan began shooting, he promised himself "to blow up more things than any director had before." So when he heard that an old Brach's candy factory was to be demolished, he asked Chicago officials if they would let him decorate it like a Gotham General Hospital first.
Film crews set small explosives in the building to blow out a few prop windows and doors to signal demolition experts to detonate the actual building.
That really is Heath Ledger standing outside the building. "He was always a safe distance, but it was still pretty close," Nolan says. "He had caulk in his hair after the explosion."
Look for: A thumbs-up. A safety engineer can be spotted in the back of the Joker's getaway bus signaling to the driver that Ledger was safely inside. "We left it in," Nolan says. "We figured that could have been one of the Joker's henchmen. And I liked the reality of the whole scene."
