(o.s.)
I have the Joker’s location –
EXT. GOTHAM STREETS – CONTINUOUS 324
Batman roars along on the Bat-Pod.
BATMAN
Prewitt Building. Assemble on the building opposite.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 325
The National Guard Commander is holding the remote. Several passengers take a step towards him. He pulls his weapon.
NATIONAL GUARD COMMANDER
Stay back.
A Businessman clutching his briefcase speaks up.
BUSINESSMAN
Who are you to decide? We ought to talk it over, at least.
Other passengers agree. A Mother with two kids speaks up.
MOTHER
We don’t all have to die. Why should my babies die? Those men had their chance –
NATIONAL GUARD COMMANDER
We’re not talking about this …
PASSENGER 1
They’re talking over the same exact thing on the other boat.
PASSENGER 2
If they’re even bothering to talk. Let’s put it to a vote.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, PRISONER FERRY – NIGHT 326
As the Prisoners grow angrier, a Corrections Officer fires his shotgun into the air. The Prisoners back off. Slightly.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 327
A Guardsman on this boat passes around a hat. People drop chits into it. Passengers filling out chits eye each other. People on their phones say goodbye to loved ones.
The Pilot of the Commuter Ferry looks out across the water to the other ferry. Looks up at the clock. Ten to midnight … stares down at his blank chit.
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – NIGHT 328
Gordon and his SWAT team leaders set up sniper and scope positions on the balustrade.
INT. GARAGE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 329
A SWAT stands beside the empty school bus.
SWAT
(into radio)
We’ve found our missing bus.
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 330
Gordon looks at the SWAT Leader.
GORDON
Then we have a hostage situation.
They look across at the large windows of the Prewitt Building. The Joker’s men, in crude, homemade clown masks, are clearly visible, automatic weapons in hand.
SWAT SNIPER
I got hostages!
They look through his scope. Crouched deeper in the room, Patients, Doctors and Nurses, huddled.
GORDON
It’s a shooting gallery. Why’d he choose a spot with such big windows?
BATMAN
(o.s.)
He likes the view.
Batman gestures towards the view of the ferries.
SWAT LEADER
We have clear shots on five clowns. Snipers take them out, smash the windows – a team rappels in, a team moves in by the stairwells. Two or three casualties, max.
GORDON
(barely hesitates)
Let’s do it.
BATMAN
It’s not that simple. With the Joker, it never is.
GORDON
What’s simple is that every second we don’t take him, those people on the ferries get closer to blowing each other up!
BATMAN
That won’t happen.
GORDON
Then he’ll blow them both up! There’s no time – we have to go in now –
BATMAN
There’s always a catch with him –
GORDON
That’s why we can’t wait – we can’t play his games.
Batman turns.
BATMAN
I need five minutes. Alone –
GORDON
No. There’s no time. We have clear shots.
Gordon pulls his gun. Batman turns back. The SWATs watch.
GORDON
Dent’s in there with them. We have to save Dent! I have to save Dent! (To SWAT Leader.) Get ready –
Batman leaps from the building, opens his cape – soars across the gulf between the two buildings. Gordon puts his weapon away. Curses softly. Turns to the SWAT Leader.
GORDON
Two minutes. Then you breach.
EXT. PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 331
Batman lands against the glass two floors below.
BATMAN
Fox. I need picture.
INT. LAB, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT – CONTINUOUS 332
Fox hits some keys.
FOX
You’ve got POV on alpha channel, omni on beta –
EXT. PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 333
Smoked glass eyepieces slip down over Batman’s eye holes.
Batman’s sonar POV: the layers of the building dissolve, levels of transparency pulsing rhythmically. Batman can see the people inside the building …
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – NIGHT 334
The Joker is standing by the window, looking out at his handiwork. The Chechen’s dogs start barking. He smiles.
EXT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 335
Batman reaches into his utility belt, sprays plastic onto the glass, lets it harden, punches the window – which breaks quietly as the pieces stick to the laminate. He slips inside.
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 336
Batman’s eyes glow white as he uses his sonar to look through the corner: an Armed Clown is leaning against the corner …
EXT. ROOFTOP, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 337
A six-man SWAT team prepares to rappel from the roof.
INT. STAIRWELL, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 338
A SWAT team moves up the stairs.
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 339
Gordon’s phone rings.
GORDON
Hello? Barbara, calm down –
DENT
(o.s.)
Hello, Jim.
GORDON
Harvey? What the hell’s going on?
DENT
(o.s.)
You’re about to know what my suffering is really like …
Gordon looks across at the Prewitt penthouse …
GORDON
Where are you? Where’s my family?!
DENT
(o.s.)
Where my family died.
Click. Gordon looks at the SWAT Leader. Pale.
SWAT LEADER
(into radio)
Red Team. Go!
Gordon moves to the door off the roof.
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 340
Batman grabs the Armed Clown, drops him silently. He goes to disarm him. The weapon is duct-taped to the Clown’s hands. Batman rips off the clown mask:
Staring, frightened eyes – mouth duct-taped shut … It’s Engel.
Batman looks up: four more Clowns line the windows, weapons duct-taped to their hands. On sonar: he looks into where the hostages are crouched … the ‘Patients’ and ‘Doctors’ are carrying weapons – these are the Joker’s men. Above them SWATs rappel from the rooftop. In the stairwells, two more teams prepping.
BATMAN
Don’t. Move.
Engel nods, terrified.
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 341
The SWATs line up the clowns in their sights …
INT. STAIRWELL, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 342
The SWAT team arrives at the penthouse fire exit. They spread charges across the inner wall.
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 344
The SWAT Leader checks his watch.
SWAT LEADER
(into radio)
Go! Go! Go!
A SWAT Sniper zeroes in on a Clown – the Clown disappears. The Sniper looks up, confused.
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 345
Batman yanks the clown along the floor using his grapple gun. The Clown takes down the two next to him. Batman leaps for the nearest two as shots shatter the glass.
EXT. PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 346
The SWATs rappel down the building – swing in through the broken windows.
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 347
The ‘hostages’ reel from the blast. The SWATs swoop in – aiming weapons at the Clowns, throwing percussion grenades. Batman takes out the SWATs with fists and Batarangs.
The last SWAT aims at Batman. Behind him a ‘Doctor’ raises a shotgun. Behind the ‘Doctor’ Batman can see through the wall to SWATs preparing to breach. Batman vaults over the SWAT into a two-foot kick into the ‘Doctor’s’ chest.
INT. STAIRWELL, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 348
The SWATs blast out the wall – the Team Leader steps up to the hole. The Bat-Grapple fires out, lodging in his Kevlar vest … He is yanked, screaming, through the door. The rest of his team look at each other. Steel themselves. Move in through the hole …
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 349
As the SWATs race in, they find Engel, terrified, next to a pile of unconscious ‘hostages’, and their team leader, one end of an abseiling rope tied around his waist.
Batman is on them, weaving, kicking, punching, and, with one hand, clipping carabiners looped to the abseiling rope onto their webbing of vests. Batman steps back, picks up the Team Leader – SWAT weapons aim at him – he hurls the Team Leader out the window. The SWATs watch him go … the rope pays out … one by one they are yanked out of the window …
EXT. ROOFTOP OVERLOOKING PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 350
A Sniper watches through his scope as the six-man SWAT team soars out of the window and drops. The line snaps taut and they hang, like a mountaineering team in crisis. Batman, crouched in the broken window, secures the line.
SNIPER
What the hell’s he doing?
Batman looks right at the Sniper, raises his grapple-gun – bam! The Bat-Grapple smashes into the Sniper’s scope – the rifle is yanked out of his hands.
INT. PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 351
Batman races past a dazed Engel …
ENGEL
(pathetic)
Thanks.
… into the main office. The Joker is there.
THE JOKER
You came. I’m touched.
BATMAN
Where’s the detonator?
The dogs leap at Batman – smash him to the ground.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 352
The Pilot of the Commuter Ferry finishes counting the votes. Reads the verdict.
PILOT OF COMMUTER FERRY
The tally is 196 votes against. (Looks down.) And 340 votes for.
The Passengers avoid eye-contact with each other.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, PRISONER FERRY – NIGHT 353
The Corrections Officers are in a phalanx in the corner, facing off against hundreds of menacing Prisoners.
PRISONER 1
Do you wanna die!
The Warden and his men look at each other. At the clock.
INT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – NIGHT 354
Batman wrestles with the ro tweilers – a blinding mass of Batman, black fur and bared teeth.
The Joker pops a switchblade, moves into the mass. Batman kicks off the last of the dogs – the Joker jabs his knife into Batman’s ribs.
THE JOKER
All the old familiar places.
Batman recoils in pain. The Joker butts him – knees him. Energy explodes from his lean frame – he kicks the injured Batman back towards the glass …
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 355
The Pilot of the Commuter Ferry looks at the remote in his hands.
PILOT OF COMMUTER FERRY
I voted for it. Same as most of you. Doesn’t seem right that we should all die …
Someone calls out from the back.
PASSENGER 3
So do it!
PILOT OF COMMUTER FERRY
I didn’t say I’d do it. Don’t forget. We’re still here. Which means they haven’t killed us, yet, either.
He sets the remote down on a bench in the front of the lounge. The other Passengers and Guardsmen stare at it …
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, PRISONER FERRY – NIGHT 356
A huge, tattooed Prisoner pushes his way to the front. He walks towards the Warden, who is sweating, looking at the remote.
TATTOOED PRISONER
You don’t wanna die. But you don’t know how to take a life. Give it to me.
TATTOOED PRISONER
These men will kill you and take it, anyway. Give it to me, you can tell people I took it by force … Give it to me and I’ll do what you should have done ten minutes ago.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 357
Everyone stares at the remote. One minute left. The Businessman stands. Walks over and picks it up.
BUSINESSMAN
No one wants to get their hands dirty. Fine. I’ll do it. Those men on that boat made their choices. They chose to murder and steal. It makes no sense for us to die, too.
He looks at the other passengers. No one makes eye-contact.
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, PRISONER FERRY – NIGHT 358
The Warden slowly hands him the remote. The Prisoner looks at it. He looks the Warden in the eye …
Then tosses the remote out the window.
Warden, Prisoners and Officers are stunned.
EXT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – NIGHT 359
Batman flies backwards through the window, glass flying. The Joker kicks out a wooden brace holding up the steel frame.
Batman’s arms fly up as it comes crashing down onto his neck – saved by his protective gauntlets. Batman grunts as the Joker steps on to the steel beam …
THE JOKER
If we don’t stop fighting, we’re going to miss the fireworks.
BATMAN
There won’t be any fireworks.
Batman struggles to keep the beam from crushing his neck …
INT. PASSENGER LOUNGE, COMMUTER FERRY – NIGHT 360
The Businessman stares at the remote in his hands. Finally, he puts it down. Sits down. Waits to die.
The clock strikes midnight.
EXT. PENTHOUSE, PREWITT BUILDING – NIGHT 361
Batman indicates the clock: twelve o’clock.
BATMAN
What were you hoping to prove? That deep down, we’re all as ugly as you?
The Joker looks at the clock …
INT. BOTH FERRIES – CONTINUOUS 362
The Passengers brace. Look at the clock. Confused …
INT. PREWITT BUILDING – CONTINUOUS 363
The smile disappears from the Joker’s face.
BATMAN
You’re alone.
The Joker crouches down, hovering above Batman’s face and arms. Shows him the remote.
THE JOKER
Can’t rely on anyone these days.
The Joker arms the remote …
Have to do everything yourself. I always have – and it’s not always easy … (Smiles, remembering.) You know how I got these scars?
Batman looks up at him.
BATMAN
No. But I know how you get these –
Batman’s scallop blades fire out of his gauntlet, nailing the Joker in the chest and arm. He staggers back. Batman, freed, leaps forward – kicks him over the edge – grabs the remote.
The Joker giggles as he falls, enjoying the ride. Something slams into his leg, and he jerks to a stop – Batman’s grapple.
The Joker hollers in pain as Batman hauls him up.
THE JOKER
Just couldn’t let me go, could you? I guess this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You t
ruly are incorruptible, aren’t you?
Batman secures the Joker upside down. The Joker is laughing.
THE JOKER
You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness … and I won’t kill you because you’re too much fun. We’re going to do this forever.
BATMAN
You’ll be in a padded cell, forever.
THE JOKER
Maybe we can share it. They’ll need to double up, the rate this city’s inhabitants are losing their minds …
BATMAN
This city just showed you it’s full of people ready to believe in good.
The Joker looks up at him. A twinkle in his eye.
THE JOKER
Till their spirit breaks completely. Until they find out what I did with the best of them. Until they get a good look at the real Harvey Dent, and all the heroic things he’s done. (Indicates ferry.) Then those criminals will be straight back on to the streets and Gotham will understand the true nature of heroism. (Off look.) You didn’t think I’d risk losing the battle for the soul of Gotham in a fist fight with you? You’ve got to have an ace in the hole. Mine’s Harvey.
Batman hauls the Joker up, nose to nose.
BATMAN
What did you do?
THE JOKER
I took Gotham’s white knight. And I brought him down to my level. It wasn’t hard – madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.