Philosophical Themes in the Dark Knight

Ashlie Blankenship

Professor Jarrett

LBST-1102-260

2 Aug 2015

Philosophical Themes in The Dark Knight

        Throughout the history of film, there have been many movies made that have dealt with philosophical issues. Many of the issues involved in these movies are reality versus non-reality, free will versus determinism, morality, and knowledge versus skepticism. Some of these movies include Inception, Alice in Wonderland, Gattaca, and The Truman Show, just to name a few. The Dark Knight, another movie containing philosophical matter, contains subjects on deontology and utilitarianism, consequentialism, ethics, utopias vs. dystopias, and determinism.

        One of the themes in The Dark Knight is represented in the Joker’s social experiment. In this scene, the Joker has two ferries stranded in the river. One of the ferries holds all innocent citizens, but the other is filled with criminals. Both of the ferries are assembled to blow up. The Joker states “Tonight, you’re all going to be a part of a social experiment. I’m ready right now to blow you all sky high. Anyone attempts to get off their boat, you all die. Each of you has a remote to blow up the other boat. At midnight, I blow you all up. If however, one of you presses the button, I’ll let that boat live. So, who’s it going to be? Harvey Dent’s most wanted scumbag collection or the sweet and innocent civilians? You choose. Oh, and you might want to decide quickly because the people on the other boat might not be so noble.” Of course, Batman comes to save all of them, but the people on the ferries have no idea. If Batman was not able to save them, what should they have done from a moral viewpoint?

        This is a great example of deontology and consequentialism. Deontology is defined as an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, while consequentialism is the consequences of one’s conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. A consequentialist will try to work out the best outcome – not just for one person involved, but for everybody else – and then recommend the thing most likely to bring about this outcome. But what exactly is the right outcome?  That every person on both ferries gets to live. The Joker, however, has guaranteed that this will not happen. The individuals on the ferries start to have utilitarianistic thoughts.

        Jeremy Bentham’s principle of utility states that one should act to produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Traditional hedonism is concerned with one’s personal pleasure; utilitarianism is concerned with pleasure of one’s own and of others. The civilians on the ferry take a vote and decide to blow up the ferry that contains the prisoners. One man says “No one wants to get their hands dirty. Fine, I’ll do it. Those men in that boat, they made their choices. They choose to murder and steal. It doesn’t make sense for us to have to die too.” The civilians think that blowing up the other ferry is the right decision because they believe that they have more to offer to society than the prisoners do. Yes, the prisoners did make the decision to commit their crimes, but they did not choose to be put onto the ferry. But when the time comes, the man cannot detontate the bomb. It seems as if his conscience gets the better of him.

On the other ferry, a prisoner convinces the guard to let him push the button. He says “You don’t want to die, but you don’t know how to take a life. Give it to me…You can tell them I took it by force. Give it to me and I’ll do what you should have did ten minutes ago.” He then takes the detonator and throws it overboard. His actions seem to be heroically good. Talking with the Joker, Batman asks him “What were you trying to prove? That deep down everyone is exactly as you? You’re alone…This city just showed you that it’s full of people ready to believe in good. These sections of the movie are worthy illustrations on the other themes this movie provides – ethics and utopias vs. dystopias.