3 The Dark Knight Trilogy Plot Holes That Are Still Super Confusing

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy is often viewed as the caviar of superhero movies, a fancy, fine-dining establishment as opposed to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s McDonald’s. And while Nolan’s more cinematic approach to superheroes certainly gave the genre a legitimacy that movies like Thor: Love and Thunder lack, his work is not above reproach. Take The Dark Knight, for instance — while the film is often considered the Godfather of comic book movies, it still relies on the same leaps of logic and suspension of disbelief as any other genre film. Underneath Heath Ledger’s career-defining portrayal of the Joker, there are several plot holes in The Dark Knight‘s narrative — some big enough to drive a stolen school bus through.

In fact, the trilogy as a whole is plagued with enough confusing decisions to make even the most hardcore Christopher Nolan fan stop and say, “Wait, what?” We could do a list three times this size on just The Dark Knight Rises, but in the spirit of fairness, we decided to concentrate on one plothole from each film that still has us scratching our heads over a decade since the franchise ended. Here are three plot holes from The Dark Knight trilogy that are still super confusing, and as always, feel free to add any you think we missed in the comments.

Batman Begins – Wouldn’t the Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin Affect Anyone Taking a Shower or Cooking Spaghetti?

Batman Begins saw the live-action debut of popular Batman villain the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), along with his signature fear toxin. At several points during the film, we are shown just how potent the toxin is, driving the Scarecrow’s victims completely insane with fear. The fear toxin is so devastating that the League of Shadows poisons Gotham’s water supply with it, hoping to cause enough chaos to destroy the city entirely. The only problem is that the toxin only works in aerosol form. This leads the League, led by Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson), to steal an experimental microwave emitter from WayneTech in order to vaporize Gotham’s drinking water.

It sounds like a solid evil scheme except for one key detail: What about the steam from boiling water? It’s stated that the toxin has been in Gotham’s water for a while, as Ra’s al Ghul’s men have been making preparations to deploy the microwave emitter. Doesn’t that mean anyone who takes a shower, uses a humidifier, or makes pasta would get a face full of the Scarecrow’s gas? And yet, prior to the microwave emitter being switched on, nobody in Gotham is shown running around, screaming at phantoms only they can see. It’s either a plot hole, or Gotham’s population isn’t big on bathing.

The Dark Knight – All the Cops Go to One Location

It may seem like sacrilege to speak ill of The Dark Knight, and we understand why so many fans put it on a pedestal, but the truth is, when it comes to the movie’s legacy, Heath Ledger’s performance is doing most of the heavy lifting. Take that away, and you’re left with a plot that relies on smart people making dumb mistakes. One of the most baffling comes midway through the film when the Joker reveals that Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) are sitting in separate warehouses full of gasoline, waiting to be blown up. Batman (Christian Bale) makes the choice to go after Rachel and directs the police to go after Dent — but why?

In a city the size of Gotham, shouldn’t there be cops near both locations? Immediately after Batman beats the locations of Rachel and Harvey out of the Joker, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) asks him, “Which one are you going after?” implying that the GCPD was prepared to travel to either location. Why, then, does Gordon send all available police after Harvey Dent? He literally tells all available units to rush to Dent’s location. Furthermore, he shouldn’t have even waited for Batman to leave the interrogation room to ask him who he was saving. The second Gordon heard the locations, he should have sent cops to both of them.

Writing the police as incompetent might be the easiest way to make Batman/Joker seem like a genius, but it comes off as cheap and lazy from a narrative standpoint.

The Dark Knight Rises – John Blake Knows Bruce Wayne Is Batman Because He Has the Same Smile

Out of the three Dark Knight films, The Dark Knight Rises is the one most riddled with plot holes. There’s Bruce Wayne’s magic knee brace, the sewer cops with the clean-shaven faces, Batman escaping a point-blank nuclear explosion — we could go on, but you get the point. While the most egregious plot hole is obviously “Where’s the Joker?” given the real-life tragedy of Heath Ledger’s death, we totally understand why Christopher Nolan wouldn’t want to even mention the character’s name, let alone recast him. So instead, we’ll focus on the biggest leap of logic any of the films asks the viewer to take: John Blake _Joseph Gordon-Levitt) knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman because of how he smiles.

In a scene that really does have to be seen to be believed, Gordon-Levitt’s “Robin” John Blake confronts Bruce Wayne and reveals that he knows his secret because his dad was also shot and he has the same fake smile Bruce Wayne does. If it looks like we’re simplifying that in order to make it seem more absurd, we assure you, we are not. Something about the way Bruce Wayne uses his smile to mask his internal pain over his parents’ death lets Blake know he’s secretly Batman. That’s it. That’s all the proof he gives. He doesn’t say he saw the same smile on Batman and Bruce Wayne and put two-and-two together, he only compares Wayne’s smile to his own.

At least the guy in The Dark Knight who figured out Batman’s secret identity used a little detective work.