The Dark Knight

2008

Christopher Nolan's second Batman film plays less like a superhero picture than a crime drama about what happens when a city's institutions run into someone who wants nothing at all. Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne, Heath Ledger plays the Joker in the performance that won him a posthumous Academy Award, and Aaron Eckhart plays district attorney Harvey Dent, the clean public face Gotham is betting on. Gary Oldman and Michael Caine anchor the men trying to hold the line.