Chapter 611: Dragged Down to the Same Level

The crew had one man to thank for finding this hospital to shoot the Joker's explosion scene on location: Patrick Leahy, a Democratic senator from Vermont.

He was a massive Batman fan—the super-fan kind. He had done voiceover work for a Batman animated series and written the foreword for a Batman novel. During prep for The Dark Knight, he had actively sought out Duke, strongly requesting a cameo.

Duke knew perfectly well that at his current level, dealing with politics was inevitable, so he gave the state senator a chance to appear on screen.

His scene was already finished. It was the moment the Joker crashed Bruce Wayne's fundraising party for Harvey Dent, grabbing the decent old man who stood up to his absurd rhetoric.

With his fanboy heart satisfied, the senator immediately returned the favor. Hearing the production was looking for a suitable hospital, he used his status and influence to quickly secure one in Vermont. Slated for demolition, the hospital readily signed a contract after a single round of negotiations with Charles Roven.

Soon after, Duke took Joss William's pyrotechnics team, Heath Ledger, and the other actors straight to Vermont.

Standing in front of the hospital building, Duke watched Joss William direct the pyrotechnics crew as they bustled about laying explosives and wiring. It had been a long time since he orchestrated an explosion of this scale. Over the past few years, his explosion scenes had relied on either miniatures or post-production CGI.

"Duke, if there is anything at all The Dark Knight needs help with..."

Patrick Leahy, the Vermont senator, stood beside Duke. "Just say the word."

Duke thought for a moment before extending an invitation. "Patrick, if you have time next May, I'd love for you to attend the Chicago premiere of The Dark Knight."

"I'll definitely be there!" Patrick Leahy promised.

Regardless, this was a solid promotional angle. Duke knew very well that if he wanted The Dark Knight to achieve massive success, he couldn't afford to pass up any marketing opportunity.

Over on the set, Joss William shot Duke a hand signal.

Duke turned to the senator. "The explosives are just about ready. We need to step back."

The two retreated from the hospital building slated for destruction. Duke left Patrick Leahy in Charles Roven's care, then tracked down a fully prepped Heath Ledger and called over the returning Joss William.

"Heath, this is a practical explosion."

Finding another suitable hospital to blow up would be impossible, and Heath Ledger had no experience with this kind of shoot. Duke made sure to give him a specific warning.

"It might feel a little intense when it detonates," Duke said. "You have to keep your body under control."

Without experiencing a scene like this, it was impossible to predict one's own reaction. The deafening roar of the blast and the violent shaking of the earth were enough to terrify most people.

Heath Ledger's pale Joker face split into an eerie smile. "I've done plenty of tests with Joss. It won't be an issue."

Duke nodded, then turned to Joss William. "The explosions won't happen all at once. Make sure you time them to match Heath's movements."

"Got it." Joss William shot Heath Ledger a thumbs-up. "Don't worry."

This was a unique explosion sequence, completely different from the standard fare popular in Hollywood and the rest of the world.

In countless movies, the protagonist would walk away with effortless cool after a massive battle, letting the explosions roar into the sky behind them without ever casting a single glance backward.

It was the classic trope—cool guys don't look at explosions.

While Duke had filmed his fair share of similar scenes in his own movies, the explosion orchestrated by the Joker was different. A Joker wearing a nurse's uniform, in particular, simply could not be bound by conventional cinematic logic.

"Props ready!"

"Lighting ready!"

"Cameras ready!"

"Aerial unit ready!"

"..."

"Pyrotechnics ready!"

Hearing Joss William's final confirmation, Duke gave the order to roll.

"The Dark Knight, scene one-hundred-and-four, take two!" the clapper loader announced, holding the slate in front of the camera lens. "Action!"

Dressed in his nurse's uniform, Heath Ledger skipped out of the hospital building and headed toward the parked vehicles. The extras by the cars scrambled away in a panic, scattering as if they had just seen the most terrifying thing in Gotham City.

Right behind the Joker, a series of explosions erupted in rapid succession. Countless shards of glass and building debris were blasted into the air. However, the scale of the detonation was relatively small; it only destroyed a few temporary structures, leaving the main hospital building completely intact.

Then, the explosions abruptly ceased. The Joker, who had seemingly intended to follow the 'never look back' rule, halted his steps and turned around. As if completely baffled as to why the fireworks had stopped, he spun in a circle, threw his hands up in an exaggerated shrug of frustration, and looked down at the detonator in his hand.

He mashed the buttons on the remote, then smacked it against his hand. Finally, a colossal explosion roared to life. Crimson flames and billowing clouds of thick black smoke surged into the sky. As if genuinely startled by the deafening blast, Heath Ledger scrambled onto the awaiting vehicle, casting nervous glances back at the towering inferno.

More explosions ripped through the air. The chain detonation was just as psychotic and unpredictable as the Joker himself, ultimately reducing the entire hospital building to a pile of rubble.

Patrick Leahy pulled out his earplugs, staring at the ruins across the way in stunned silence. It was his first time witnessing an explosion of this magnitude. It was absolutely staggering—an entire hospital had been reduced to a pile of flaming trash right before his eyes...

'He really is an explosion maniac!' he marveled inwardly. Witnessing a practical blast like this with his own eyes made pulling strings for the production crew entirely worth the effort.

"Great!"

Nailing it in a single take, Duke stood up and let out a long breath of relief. "Beautifully done, Joss!" he shouted toward the pyrotechnics crew.

Then, he turned his attention to Heath Ledger. "You did great out there, too."

It was only then that Duke noticed Heath Ledger's hand trembling as he took a towel from an assistant. The actor's entire body seemed to be shaking. The production assistant hurriedly supported him, guiding him back toward his trailer.

It wasn't entirely surprising. Duke's crew was well-accustomed to working around massive explosions, but Heath Ledger had spent his career working on teen dramas and indie art films. He had never experienced a sequence like this before. It was perfectly normal for him to be rattled.

Still, his self-control was astonishing. He hadn't let a single ounce of that fear show on camera.

There were still a few minor pickup shots left to film at the location, which Duke handed off to Anna Printz. Meanwhile, he went to review the panoramic aerial footage of the explosion captured from the helicopter.

Viewed from the wide aerial angle, the destruction was genuinely staggering. It perfectly met his requirements.

After that, he reviewed Heath Ledger's footage. He had to admit, the actor's performance made the explosion sequence feel incredibly deranged and bizarre.

The Vermont shoot wrapped up after just three days. Leaving behind a specialized crew to clean up the debris and handle the finishing touches, Duke led the rest of the production team back to Los Angeles.

Even though Christmas was only a few days away, Duke remained completely absorbed in the shoot. According to his schedule, they needed to finish all the soundstage scenes before the holiday. Once the Christmas break was over, the crew would reconvene in Chicago to shoot the remaining location work.

Naturally, the ultimate focus of the entire film was the showdown between Christian Bale's Batman and Heath Ledger's Joker.

"In an earlier scene, you have a line where you say that when people are close to death, they show you who they really are."

Inside the building set constructed at the Hughes Aircraft Plant, Duke was breaking down the scene for Heath Ledger. They had already done several takes of this sequence without success.

"That is a remarkably accurate perspective," Duke explained. "Simply put, when people are on the brink of death—even if they end up surviving—they reveal their true selves."

"So, when Batman throws you off the building, you genuinely don't care." Duke was speaking to Heath Ledger as if he were fully the Joker. "Right before you're about to fall to your death, you're laughing the entire time. That's what gives people this terrifying feeling—because the Joker isn't afraid to die. He actually thinks it's funny."

"I think..." Heath Ledger gave a serious nod. "I think I understand."

Duke then turned and walked past Christian Bale. "Keep at it, Christian," he said in passing.

Once every department was in position, filming resumed.

After being saved by Batman while plummeting from the building, the Joker burst into manic laughter.

"You just couldn't let me die, could you? You really are stubborn, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think we're destined to do this forever!"

Leaning over and glaring down at him in full Batman costume, Christian Bale growled, "You'll be in a padded cell forever."

"Maybe we can share one," Heath Ledger said in an uncaring tone. "You see, with the way this city's lunatic population keeps growing, we'll definitely be doubling up eventually."

Christian Bale looked off into the distance, as if gazing at the two ferries that had failed to explode. "This city just showed you that it's full of people ready to believe in good."

"Until their spirits completely break. Until they get a look at the real, beautiful Harvey Dent, and all of his 'heroic deeds'." Heath Ledger let out the Joker's signature laugh once more. "You didn't actually think I'd risk losing the battle for Gotham's soul by pinning all my hopes of winning on a fistfight with you, did you? You need to have an ace in the hole. Mine is Harvey Dent!"

"What did you do?" Christian Bale demanded furiously.

"I took Gotham's White Knight, and I brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard at all..."

Batman had defeated the Joker, but he had lost the battle for Gotham's soul.

Right before Christmas arrived, Duke wrapped up all the soundstage filming and gave the crew a well-deserved break. He then caught a flight to New York to spend the holidays at home.