Is it true that on the set of the explosion scene in the “Dark Knight” there was a hitch with the detonator and Hita Ledger had to improvise?

For several years, it is popular on the network by the statement that the shooting of the hospital’s destruction in the film about Batman did not go according to plan, but the performer of the role of Joker did not leave the image and continued to play not according to the script. We checked the reliability of this story.

In 2015, publicOscar Award - Academy Awards"On VKontakte, he described the incident:“ In one of the scenes of the blockbuster Christopher Nolan Joker, the mined hospital was to blow up the remote control. After a series of explosions, the building was supposed to collapse, but not all charges worked from pressing the button. Realizing that it would be impossible to arrange a second double, the hit Ledger decided not to leave the image. The improvisation of the actor gave the situation to comic shades: the Joker thrue, twisted the remote control in his hands and pressed the button several times, forcing the explosives to detonate. The resourcefulness of Ledger was so impressed by Nolan that he decided to leave these personnel in the final version of the film. ” In 2019, public Marvel/DC: Geek Movies (275,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and the "Universe of Marvel/DC" (twice: 90,000 And 41 000) called the Joker reaction to the explosion and his subsequent actions of the "workshop by improvisation of Heath Ledger". In the 2021th Telegram channel Mandarin (12,000 views) clarified: “Something went wrong on the set, the explosion did not happen, and the shooting was stopped”, but the director still included the shot material in the film.

In social networks you can find a slightly different version: supposedly the actor still left the image, but Nolan liked his reaction so much that he left the received personnel in the tape. So, in 2021 community "Oldskul”(15,000 views) on VKontakte wrote:“ It is worth adding that the fuses were brought down and did not work right away. The hit did not play it, but was really surprised that there was no explosion. ” In 2024, public Mycomics | Marvel He published a video in the same social network, which gained 4.6 million views and more than 56,000 likes. In the video It was said: "The explosion was late in this scene, and the hit Ledger has already stopped playing, but the scene was left in the film."

In addition, some publications claim that the building blown up in the film was erected specifically for filming. For example, in 2017, on the Film.ru website in the article “10 grandiose decorations built for the sake of the only scene” They wrote: "And Nolan stood up - he took, for example, and built a whole hospital building only in order to destroy it magnificently." Similar statements are found in public in VKontakte (examples here And here) and blogs in "Zen".

Movie "Dark Knight", Released in 2008, is the second part of the Batman trilogy from the director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan. The tape about the superhero raised more than $ 1 billion at the box office and was nominated for the Oscar Award in eight categories. The main antagonist Joker played Hit LedgerDied a few months before the premiere of the "Dark Knight". For his role, the artist was posthumously awarded Oscars, Golden Globe and other awards as the best second -plan actor.

In viral posts, we are talking about the scene from the second half of the film. There, the Joker in a medical uniform explodes the main hospital in the fictional city of Gotham, and presses the detonator button when he is still in the room. While the character leaves the building, a series of explosions occurs, which at some point stops. At this time, the Joker turns around, waves his hands and presses many times again on the detonator button, after which a powerful explosion occurs, and the villain leaves for a bus with hostages.

"Verified" studied the version available on the network Script "Dark Knight." There the scene is described as follows:

“Joker calmly walks through the almost deserted building. On the go, he takes a detonator from his pocket. Walking, he presses the button. Behind him in the corridor, phased explosions of subversive charges occur. Joker just goes through the door.

The Joker descends the steps, the windows fly out into the street, people hide in shelters. [Reporter Mike] Engel climbs into a school bus.

The Joker goes in the parking lot, the building is destroyed behind it. ”

Indeed, in the script there is no detailed description of how the explosions suddenly stop, the Joker tries to understand the reason for this, and then again and again presses the detonator button. It turns out that Ledger actually had to improvise? According to Nolan and other creators of the picture - no.

In additional materials for the film there is a special video clip About the filming of that episode. There, the director said that he wanted to show the destruction of this building on the screen without the use of miniatures and computer graphics. For this purpose It was chosen The administrative building of the Brach’s candy factory in Chicago (by the time of filming in 2007 it was already abandoned and was subject to demolition). However, according to Nolan, visual effects still had to be used, because from the moment of receiving the necessary permissions before the start of filming, someone stole window frames and glasses, so some of the windows were added using graphics. In the same video, specialists in the dismantling of buildings and pyrotechnics revealed the details of the preparation and implementation of the explosion. For example, the building was divided into two parts so as to demolish only two of its thirds. Nolan Explained:

"Chris (Corbould, supervisor of special effects. - approx. Ed.) And his guys worked closely with a team of explosives, and they were able to come up with a script in which the hit would really leave the building. Because Chris realized that if we were making a small pause, when the first stage of the explosions ended, as if something had gone wrong, then the Joker could turn out for surprise for a second and the audience would also be surprised, and only then there was a great destruction and he jumped into the school bus. That is, Chris came up with such a convenient situation when we could take our main actor, bring him out of the building, which is about to be destroyed, and then literally shake this building with the Earth. ”

In the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy The words of Corbound are given, according to which Nolan included such an explosion in the script already post -fact. In the above -mentioned video from Dopmaterials to the film, a schematic computer model of this episode is also shown, which clearly shows two stages of explosions separated by a pause. After that, the director Continued:

“On that day, we endlessly rehearsed with the hit. We brought him out, forced him to do exactly what he was going to do, and Chris Corbound said in which places the explosions would be. I think we rehearsed 12 times. We brought it out and recorded rehearsals from different angles. The hit was a great perfectionist and could be very accurate in his actions. It was simply necessary, because, obviously, we had only one attempt for the stage at such an angle that, as I thought, we really need, despite all other cameras on the site. We needed a close -up with a walking hit so that everything worked perfectly. He did it very, very accurately. I don’t know how he restrained and did not look back. ”

According to Nolan, During the shooting of the explosion, Ledger did not show any signs of excitement. Moreover, further in the video Given A scene that was not included in the final version of the film. In it, the Joker is shown closely in a bus leaving the hospital, in the windows of which the collapsing building is visible. At the same time, the villain also does not pay attention to the explosion. However, the director considered both this moment and many other personnel with a crumbling state -picolor - in the final installation they left only the front of the front after the bus departure and the view from the top, taken from the helicopter.

In that very video, neither Nolan nor pyrotechnics said anything about a certain unplanned hitch with an explosion. It was not mentioned that not all explosives worked. On the contrary, in the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy The quote from Corbound is given, which was worried about the proximity of the explosion place to the railway tracks. It is alleged that because of the traffic schedule, the creators of the film had only two hours to shoot the scene. “It was a little nervous,” said Corbound. - But we rehearsed, arranged explosions in time and coped. Firefighters began to extinguish the fire just at the moment when the train drove in the background. Five minutes, and we would have ruined everything. ” Among those who watched the explosion, there was also the editor of the picture Lee Smithwho recalled: “It was a real turmoil. The hit left the building, and it immediately collapsed in the most impressive way. The hit did not even look around, which was just incredible. Everything was calculated in time by the guys from the special effects department, they provided many trouble -free mechanisms. But all the same, if I was asked [to come in, and then] to leave the building, which is about to collapse, I’m not sure that I would have done it. ”

In addition, the detonator in the hands of the actor was not real, because this would contradict security rules. Therefore, from the fact that Ledger pressed the button, nothing could happen. For the demolition of the building answered Engineers who needed to not only blow up the supports, but also knock out the windows with special charges and installations and launch fire in them with fragments to add spectacular scene.

Thus, all the posts mentioned at the beginning of this analysis contain certain errors. So, during the filming of the destruction of the hospital, Ledger did not improvise, and the pyrotechnics did not have any hinders or errors. According to representatives of the film crew, the pause between explosions was planned, which the actor who repeatedly rehearsed this scene and, as the director recalled, performed all the actions exactly, as was planned, was also known. At the same time, the detonator in the hands of Ledger was fake, so he could not control the explosions. In addition, the scene used a former building of a candy factory, and not a hospital specifically built for the film.

Photo on the cover: Frame from the movie "Dark Knight" / Warner Bros.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that the photo shows the butcher Bill Smith, who became the prototype of Batman?
2. Is it true that real dead were used on the set of Poltergeist?
3. Is the story of the actor Henry Cavill, who came to school to the nephew to prove: his uncle is Superman?
4. Is it true that Michael Jackson wanted to buy Marvel to play Spider-Man?
5. The invented world of the Gekov public (VMGP)