Ready, Aim, Fire!

[DocLathropBrown]

The idea that Joker knew where and when Batman was going to fire is ridiculous. Batman could have fired from the clouds as he began his approach, but he fired up close. Joker had no idea, he was willing to die right there and then.

That equipment was not faulty, so I'm going to have to put it down to human error. It's all that can explain it.

I think devine intervention from the "Movie Gods," as Peter Guber likes to put it.

[GuedesGothamKnight]

I think in that scene Batman just wnated to intimidate The Joker when he fired the Batwing's weapons. And of course he wanted to destroy any hidden Joker's weapon. But he didn't count with that big pistol from The Joker's pants.

[THE BAT-MAN]

Oh brother.

That thoery is just as whacked out and unsubstantiatable as ALL of the others.

Why, how would the Joker know the Batwing's capabilities? Did he buy the plans online and study it? He seemed pretty surprised to me that Batman had "one of those... things!"

It is exactly as I said, there is NO plausible explaination unless you want to accept something completely hairbrained and stupid. I don't mean to be, well, mean, but any theory (especially the Joker somehow knowing the capabilities and physics related to a plane he's never seen or used before in his life) is going to be absolutely moronic.

Joker was standing BEFORE Batman targeted him. You saying that the Joker has ESP, and could detect where Batman was aiming?

I know as a fan that you desperately want a concrete answer to this mystery, but there isn't an idea that can be made to explain it that doesn't border on fanboy wishful thinking. There isn't a single thing in the comic adaptation, the novelization, the shooting script OR the film that makes an explaination possible. You would just have to accept faulty equipment, that is the most logical choice. But as I've said before, it doesn't make Batman look very professional, or very smart.

I mean, calculating the Batwing's capabilites, when he knows nothing about the plane, it being completely custom and never before used.... are you ****ing kidding me?

But then, I've never been enough of a fanboy to want to make up an answer to fill a plot hole that is unfillable. You can only make a theory that works based on evidence given (Unless you want to be able to explain it any way imaginable), but the only theory that fits with the given evidence is that the equipment was faulty, and even then, it does not fit because the rest of the Batwing's functions were working perfectly earlier, so that squashes that idea, really.

This theory is just as logical and proveable as the others: Bob the Goon knows who Batman is and messed with the Batwing's targeting computer, making it uncalibrated, all to protect the Joker because he knew Batman would use it to fire at his boss.

See? That fits in just as well as any other idea, because there's not enough evidence in the film to deny it. The same with all of the other theories fans have come up with.

I've learned to separate myself from my love of Burton's film to be able to step back and see it for the intentional lapse-in-logic/reality that it is supposed to be.

I am not a fanboy that needs a concrete answer to this mystery.  To me the scene is great.  I can honestly say that I don't care how the scene was presented.  In my opinion it had great action and suspense.  The only reason why I even bothered to explore different outcomes was because I thought it would be interesting to see how everyone would react.  Apparently, I have gotten some negative reactions, and you know what? I agree with those reactions.  I know that the Joker could not possibly calculate the distance, or that he knows about the batwings flight and attack capabilities.  I just wanted to see how you and every other fan would react.  Which is, why I had explained these scenes in the form of a question.  The truth about that scene is that Burton gave us the best showdown ever.  Even if it is just a movie it is still interesting to go deeper.  I do not believe that Batman's equipment was faulty so that is not an exceptional explaination.  However, I do find it interesting that the Joker was standing between the line of fire.  It was almost like, after Batman had locked on the Joker and began to fire, his weapons were almost skipping a beat toward the target.  This probably resulted, because Batman started to fire within 2 seconds after he had a lock on the target.  Therefore changing the distance and timing for the Joker to get hit directly.  Call it fate or the luck of the devil if you like, but thats what that scene felt like, a miscalculated error or as The Dark Knight put it "human error" that was not due to faulty equipment but was due to changes in distance and time.  I don't think that this changes Batman's motive to kill because its evident that Batman wanted to kill the Joker in that scene. I think the reason why he fired 2 seconds after?  Was becuase he was savoring the moment.  I mean just look at how Batman grips hold of the trigger when he's firing.  It's almost like he's saying to himself, "Dodge This"  A similar scenario happened in Star Wars episode IV when the X-wing fighters go to destroy the Deathstar the targetting distance and time was miscalculated and resulted in a negative impact.   Anyway thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

[THE BAT-MAN]

I just wanted to add one more thing.  Absurd humour was very important to Tim, and I believe that this scene is one of Tim Burton's best expressions of absurd humour.  Batman fires everthing he gots at the Joker and misses.  Joker pulls out his long pistol, fires only once and boom the batwing is crashing down.  Both characters reacted odd and surprised at what happened.  This is truly one of the best scenes ever to capture Tim's absurdity.

[The Dark Knight]

Yep. The scene obviously inspired Nolan.

[Paul (ral)]

I just wanted to added one more thing.  Absurd humour was very important to Tim...

Absolutely. Tim's movie have always been full of dark humour. Batman blowing up the strong man, Penguin killing his goon.

[The Dark Knight]

Absolutely. Tim's movie have always been full of dark humour. Batman blowing up the strong man, Penguin killing his goon.

Penguin killing his goon is dark humour indeed!