Research: The Dark Knight opening

2008's The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan) follows a very rare but well known technique in it's opening titles and scene. (Or just opening scene)

Like I have previously stated with the film Inception (also directed by Christopher Nolan), the film does not show the film's title until the very end of the film. The Dark Knight too has this same technique. Because of the big budget the film had and it's popularity among the film culture, the film was relatively well known before it was even released.

The Dark Knight starts with it's institution logo but all tinted in a dark blue which represents the film individually. The soundtrack (diegetic sound) already begins when after the institutions have appeared while the visuals on the film focuses on a cloud of blue flames (or so it seems).

The film then cuts to an establishing shot of the top of a building which establishes the setting of the film- a City (Gotham City to be precise) The camera then cuts to a person inside a building wearing a mask. The camera cuts a few more times to show a different man in a different location around this City each time, each wearing or holding a mask.

Dialogue does not appear until a few of the 'men' get into a vehicle together and exchange dialogue which explains and describes how they are going to a rob a bank. The camera continues to cut to other members of the gang breaking into the security box of the bank but then some of these gang members start killing off others.

The mise-en-scene in the props such as the guns, masks and the bank robbery connote into a mystery action film. When the bank has been broken into and the gang have got the money they want, one of the men in masks kills each of them off. He then reveals his face at the end to the manager of the bank.

The close up used shows the villains face which is painted and scarred. It shows that this character is very villainous and has scars which shows he is very violent, dangerous and the audience select him as the villain because of his difference from the norm.
Here is where The Dark Knight's opening becomes very different. It simply continues on with the story and because there was no film title, the first scene is obviously the opening sequence. The film continues..


Towards the end of the film, the hero (Batman/ Christian Bale) has saved Gotham City but has to get away quickly. As he does, another character talks about the hero. The character refers to him as 'A Dark Knight' and then it cuts to black to reveal the title of the film.

The usual ending titles continue.

This is a very different way of using the opening titles. It is uncommon but very affective as the audience usually do not notice the change from the normal opening titles.