15. The Sacrifice
We touched upon this way back in the first entry when talking about the title, but we’re gonna talk more about it here. Pretty much everything about The Dark Knight is great, but the icing on the cake is its ending. An ending where Bruce Wayne sacrifices Batman’s reputation as a hero to save a city. It’s a choice he can make because he’s anonymous. A symbol. Because Batman can be the bad guy without Bruce being. And it speaks to the power of heroism in a very complex, unique way. It’s almost a downer way to end the movie, but Nolan plays it in a way to make it rousing, even when you’re still getting your head around the larger implications.
