Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005) ends on a Gotham City rooftop. Newly minted Lieutenant James Gordon summons Batman with the Bat-Signal. The scene raises goosebumps when Gordon teases a new criminal with a “taste for the theatrical.”
He hands Batman a Joker playing card. He said it’s from a criminal with a “taste for the theatrical.” Christian Bale’s hero says “I’ll look into it.” Nolan created the perfect setup for The Dark Knight (2008).
The scene is iconic to the point that there is a Funko Pop celebrating it.
Fast forward to The Dark Knight (2008). The Bat-Signal was a powerful symbol. It represented Batman’s presence. At the same time, Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent is successfully rounding up Carmine Falcone’s mob empire. Eventually, he is captured, along with Rachel Dawes, and put in warehouses containing oil drums.
Batman rescues Dent but Dawes perishes. More so, the explosion disfigures Dent. The DA seeks revenge for Dawes’ death. He holds Commissioner Gordon’s family hostage. Batman rescues the Commissioner’s child but Dent falls to his death.
Dent was Gotham’s White Knight, so Batman took the blame for his murder. Therefore, in a public display, Gordon smashes the Bat-Signal. Batman had become a vigilante.
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) picks up eight years later. Batman had vanished into the night, turning from hero to fugitive. The Dark Knight sacrificed everything for what he and Gordon hoped was the greater good. The Dent Act was passed after the death of Harvey Dent. That law was successful in wiping out most of Gotham’s organized crime.
Everything changes with emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist who takes Gotham hostage. Subsequently, Bruce Wayne emerges from self-imposed exile.
Bane reveals the truth about Harvey Dent. He seeks to destroy Gotham using Wayne’s green energy reactor and a neutron bomb. Eventually, Batman detonates Bane’s bomb over Gotham’s bay. To the public, Batman is a hero again- dying in the blast and saving the city.
Commissioner Gordon runs has hand lightly across a new Bat-Signal in the final scenes. Batman, at least as a symbol, was still alive and well.
Who refurbished this new Bat-Signal? Did Bruce Wayne have another beacon ready to hand off?
A short film called The Signal seeks to fill in the blanks. Director Charles Eck’s video shows a “lone conservator diving into the gritty and arduous task of bringing back to life the iconic call sign for Gotham’s Dark Knight.”
Eck’s film shows a lone man restoring the Bat-Signal, which is still has the cracked glass from Gordon’s axe swing. The atmosphere fits perfectly within Nolan’s Dark Knight universe.
The short won the Enter The World of Hans Zimmer music video competition. Therefore, Zimmer’s The Dark Knight Orchestra Suite scores the video.
