For several years now, there has been a popular claim on the Internet that the filming of the destruction of a hospital in a film about Batman did not go according to plan, but the actor playing the Joker did not break out of character and continued to play off script. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
In 2015, the public “Oscar Award - Academy Awards” on VKontakte described what happened this way: “In one of the scenes of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster, the Joker had to blow up a booby-trapped hospital using a remote control. After a series of explosions, the building was supposed to collapse, but not all charges were triggered by pressing the button. Realizing that it would be impossible to arrange a second take, Heath Ledger decided not to leave the character. The actor's improvisation gave the situation comic shades: the Joker shrugged his shoulders, twirled the remote control in his hands and pressed the button several times, causing the explosive to detonate. Ledger's resourcefulness impressed Nolan so much that he decided to leave this footage in the final version of the film." In 2019 publics Marvel/DC: Geek Movies (275,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and “Marvel/DC Universe” (twice: 90,000 And 41,000) called the Joker's reaction to the explosion and his subsequent actions "a masterful improvisation by Heath Ledger». Telegram channel in 2021 Mandarin (12,000 views) clarified: on the set, “something went wrong, there was no explosion, and filming was stopped,” but the director still included the footage in the film.
On social networks you can find a slightly different version: supposedly the actor finally broke out of character, but Nolan liked his reaction so much that he left the resulting footage in his feed. So, in 2021 the community “Old school“(15,000 views) on VKontakte wrote: “It’s worth adding that the fuses failed and didn’t work right away. Hit didn’t play it off, but was truly surprised that there was no explosion.” In 2024 public MyComics | Marvel published a video on the same social network that received 4.6 million views and more than 56,000 likes. In the video it was said: “In this scene, the explosion was late, and Heath Ledger had already stopped acting, 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 sets built for a single scene” wrote: “And Nolan went overboard - he took, for example, and built an entire hospital building only to magnificently destroy it.” Similar statements are found in public pages on VKontakte (examples here And here) and blogs in "Zene"
Movie "Dark Knight", released in 2008, is the second part of the Batman trilogy from director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan. The superhero film grossed more than $1 billion and was nominated for Oscars in eight categories. Played the main antagonist of the Joker Heath Ledger, who died a few months before the premiere of The Dark Knight. For his role, the artist was posthumously awarded an Oscar, Golden Globe and other awards as best supporting actor.
The viral posts are about a scene from the second half of the film. There, the Joker, in medical uniform, blows up the main hospital of the fictional city of Gotham, and presses the detonator button while he himself is still in the room. While the character is leaving the building, a series of explosions occur, which at some point stops. At this time, the Joker turns around, waves his arms and presses the detonator button again many times, after which a powerful explosion occurs, and the villain leaves on a bus with hostages.
“Verified” studied the version available on the Internet script "The Dark Knight". There the scene is described as follows:
“The Joker calmly walks through an almost deserted building. As he walks, he takes a detonator out of his pocket. Walking, he presses the button. Behind him, in the corridor, gradual explosions of demolition charges occur. The Joker simply walks out the door.
The Joker comes down the steps, windows fly out onto the street, people take cover. [Reporter Mike] Engel climbs onto a school bus.
The Joker walks through the parking lot as a building collapses behind him."
Indeed, the script does not describe in detail how the explosions suddenly stop, the Joker tries to understand the reason for this, and then presses the detonator button again and again. So Ledger actually had to improvise? According to Nolan and other filmmakers, no.
In the 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 on screen the destruction of a real building without the use of miniatures and computer graphics. For this purpose was chosen the administrative building of the Brach’s candy factory in Chicago (at the time of filming in 2007, it had been abandoned for four years and was due for demolition). However, according to Nolan, visual effects still had to be used because, between the time the necessary permits were obtained before filming began, someone stole the window frames and glass, so some of the windows were added using graphics. In the same video, experts in the dismantling of buildings and pyrotechnics revealed details of the preparation and implementation of the explosion. For example, a building was divided into two parts so that only two-thirds of it could be demolished. Nolan explained:
"Chris (Corbould, special effects supervisor. — Approx. ed.) and his guys worked closely with the bomb team, and they were able to come up with a scenario in which Heath would actually leave the building. Because Chris realized that if we paused for a moment when the first round of explosions ended, as if something had gone wrong, then the Joker might turn around in surprise for a second and the audience would be surprised too, and only then there would be a big destruction and he would jump on the school bus. That is, Chris came up with this convenient situation where we could take our main actor, take him out of a building that was about to be destroyed, and then literally level this building to the ground."
In the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy Corbould is quoted as saying that Nolan included such an explosion in the script after the fact. The above-mentioned video from the additional materials for the film also demonstrates a schematic computer model of this episode, which clearly shows two stages of explosions separated by a pause. After this the director continued:
“That day we rehearsed endlessly with Heath. We took him out, made him do exactly what he was going to do, and Chris Corbould told him where the explosions would be. I think we rehearsed about 12 times. We took him out and recorded the rehearsals from different angles. Heath was a great perfectionist and could be very precise in his actions. It was absolutely necessary because obviously we only had one shot at the angle that I thought we really needed, despite all the other cameras on set. We just needed a close-up shot of Heath walking for it to work perfectly. He did it very, very accurately. I don’t know how he resisted and didn’t look back.”
According to Nolan, Ledger showed no signs of agitation while filming the explosion. Moreover, further in the video given a scene that did not make it into the final film. In it, the Joker is shown in close-up on a bus leaving the hospital, with a crumbling building visible through the windows. At the same time, the villain also does not pay attention to the explosion. However, the director considered this moment, as well as many other shots of the collapsing hospital, unnecessary - in the final edit they only left the front view after the bus had left and the top view taken from a helicopter.
In that same video, neither Nolan nor the pyrotechnicians said anything about some unplanned hiccup with the explosion. It was also not mentioned that not all the explosives went off. On the contrary, in the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy Corbould is quoted as saying that he was concerned about the proximity of the explosion to railroad tracks. It is alleged that due to train schedules, the filmmakers only had two hours to film the scene. “It was a little nerve-wracking,” Corbould said. “But we rehearsed, staged the explosions on time and got it done.” Firefighters began putting out the fire just as a train passed in the background. Five more minutes and we would have ruined everything.” Among those who watched the explosion was the film's editor. Lee Smith, who recalled: “It was a real commotion. Heath walked out of the building and it all immediately collapsed in the most spectacular way. Heath didn't even look back, which was incredible. Everything was timed by the guys from the special effects department; they provided many fail-safe mechanisms. But still, if I was asked [to enter and then] leave a building that was about to collapse, I’m not sure I would do it.”
In addition, the detonator in the actor’s hands was not real, because this would be contrary to safety regulations. Therefore, nothing could have happened because Ledger pressed the button. For demolishing a building answered engineers who needed to not only blow up the supports, but also use special charges and installations to break out the windows and start a fire with debris inside them to add spectacle to the scene.
Thus, all the posts mentioned at the beginning of this analysis contain one or another error. So, during the filming of the destruction of the hospital, Ledger did not improvise, and the pyrotechnicians did not have any hitches or mistakes. According to representatives of the film crew, the pause between the explosions was planned, which was also known to the actor, who rehearsed this scene several times and, as the director recalled, performed all the actions exactly as planned. Moreover, the detonator in Ledger’s hands was fake, so he could not control the explosions himself. Additionally, the scene used a former candy factory building rather than a hospital built specifically for the film.
Cover photo: still from the film "The Dark Knight" / Warner Bros.
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