Christopher Nolan 'Didn't Even Understand' The Dark Knight's Most Famous Line
Over 15 years after its release, "The Dark Knight" remains one of the best superhero movies ever made. It's a blockbuster that changed movies forever, helping usher in the era of superhero domination in cinema and legitimizing the genre as more than just popcorn fare. Heath Ledger's posthumous Academy Award win marked the first time a superhero movie had received recognition for its acting at a major awards show, while the movie being snubbed for a Best Picture nod led to the so-called "Dark Knight Rule" (which extended the category's number of nominees from five to 10).
"The Dark Knight" was also the movie that kickstarted Christopher Nolan's love of IMAX, and, all that aside, is just a well-written film with fantastic dialogue that continues to be referenced and parodied to this day. Arguably, however, no line has taken quite on a life of its own quite like Harvey Dent saying, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
As it turns out, that line has haunted Nolan as much as it (probably) did Bruce Wayne in the movie. As he explained to Deadline:
"My brother [Jonathan] wrote it. It kills me because it's the line that most resonates. At the time, I didn't even understand it. [Dent] says, 'You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.' I read it in [Jonathan's] draft, and I was like, 'All right, I'll keep it in there, but I don't really know what it means. Is that really a thing?'"
"And then, over the years since that film's come out, it just seems truer and truer," the director added. "In this story, it's absolutely that. Build them up, tear them down. It's the way we treat people."
In praise of Jonathan Nolan
It's funny to learn Jonathan Nolan wrote that line because it is also the driving force behind the latter seasons of his and Lisa Joy's sci-fi show "Westworld." One of the many sub-plots on that often confusing, often thrilling, and always gorgeous-to-look-at series deals with the show's android protagonist, Dolores Abernathy, gaining consciousness and going from a hero to the other "hosts" of the titular futuristic theme park to ruling the entire world as a dictator. (Granted, it is and it also isn't Dolores who does this, but that's a whole other story.)
More than that, Jonathan Nolan is an underrated player in Christopher Nolan's career. He co-wrote several of his brother's movies, including "The Prestige," "The Dark Knight," and "Interstellar," all of which are phenomenal pictures. But his talent truly shines best when doing long-form television, allowing Jonathan Nolan to build a world from the ground up.
Take Jonathan Nolan's TV series "Person of Interest." Much like "The Good Wife," this show broke the mold of CBS procedurals by adding serialization to the story, with arcs and characters that evolve from one season to the next. What starts as a police procedural about preventing crimes with the help of a machine quickly becomes a complex, high-concept Batman-like sci-fi thriller about two warring A.I. It did what Tom Cruise would eventually do in "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning" years later, and it remains a fun and complex show that raises many interesting questions about technology.
And, of course, there is "Westworld," which was where Nolan was truly free to go as wild as he wanted. Not only does Dolores' storyline remain compelling, but that show has some incredible visuals and Ramin Djawadi's best musical compositions to date.
Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's latest TV show, the video game adaptation "Fallout," begins streaming on April 12, 2024, on Prime Video.