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According to Plan

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One of the best representations that I can think of in regards to a narrative violating its own canon of probability is The Dark Knight (2008). This movie is great for so many reasons, but one of the most intriguing characteristics of it is how an antagonist within this movie breaks and violates Gotham City’s canon of probability. Can you guess who?


Known to be one of the most popular and complex characters in the DC Universe, the Joker is no stranger to upsetting the established order. In The Dark Knight, the “Crown Prince of Crime” expertly manipulates his multiple personalities (and cronies) with the different scenarios he’s presented with as he torments Gotham. The first ten minutes of the movie integrates suspense with canon of probability. We see several robbers with clown masks robbing the bank; any one of those masked criminals could be the Joker. However, due to his expert manipulation tactics, he sets up a chain that takes care of its own lose ends. As each step of the robbery is completed, a clowned criminal is killed. When I first saw the movie in theaters, I was actually worried that the Joker would get shot and/or hurt in some way during the bank robbery.


Crazy, right? The Joker’s craft, and style, along with his devil-may-care attitude, had me rooting for him, rather than Batman, for the entire movie. Especially in the scene that I’m going to discuss below.

However, I needn’t have worried—the Joker would show his true skill later on against Batman, Gordon, and Co. 

There’s one scene in the move that beautifully manifests a character/narrative violating the canon of probability. As the Joker works on blowing up Gotham General Hospital, comes face-to-face with Two-Face. Otherwise known as Harvey Dent. During their conversation, the Joker makes a very true statement: When the citizens of Gotham (and us viewers) know something bad is going to happen, we don’t panic. Before we went to see this movie, we as viewers knew in some regard that something bad was going to happen. Unless we had expert knowledge of comic lore, or the script, or the director’s intentions, we did not know when all hell was going to break lose.
Here's the hospital scene:

The Dark Knight (2008) Hospital Scene

Okay, so the Joker did blow up the hospital in the end, but he accomplished much more than that. He single-handedly turned all of the prescribed plans, or rules, of the government and police upside down, and instituted chaos as order. As macabre as it is, Two-Face/Harvey Dent could not fully blame the Joker for Rachel’s death because the Joker did not plan to kill Batman, Dent, or Rachel. The Joker used the high probability that Gotham’s citizens would simply be immersed in a call-response mentality of a criminal completing a crime—no matter the amount of blood spilled, money stolen, or lives lost.

Heath Ledger did a magnificent job of embodying the Joker's wild-card nature. Despite the best efforts of Gotham's police forces, no one (especially the viewers) could anticipate the Joker's next move solely because he upset their realms of probability. He did not prescribe to a supposed plan, and he even attempted to gather help from notorious criminals to complete his agenda; but, they refused him because he was different and did not follow the characteristics of what they deemed to be a world-class criminal.

I'll leave you with an iconic quote from the Joker during his conversation with Harvey Dent:

"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you the thing about chaos? It's fair" (The Dark Knight).

The really ironic part is....he's right.



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