One of the most oft-quoted lines from 2008’s The Dark Knight, and one that “plagues” Christopher Nolan to this day, does not come from Christian Bale’s version of the Caped Crusader, nor is it even one of Heath Ledger’s chilling “Jokerisms.”
In 2024, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind The Dark Knight Trilogy and Cillian Murphy sat down for an interview with Deadline. At one point, the certain iconic movie quote in question comes up, which Nolan admits is a bit of a bone of contention for him because of the following:
I’m plagued by a line from The Dark Knight, and I’m plagued by it because I didn’t write it. My brother [Jonathan] wrote it. It kills me, because it’s the line that most resonates. And at the time, I didn’t even understand it. He says, ‘You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.’ I read it in his draft, and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll keep it in there, but I don’t really know what it means. Is that really a thing?’ And then, over the years since that film’s come out, it just seems truer and truer. In this story, it’s absolutely that. Build them up, tear them down. It’s the way we treat people.
Even fans of the widely acclaimed superhero movie masterwork who have more of an affinity for, say, “Why so serious?” or “I’m not the one wearing hockey pads?” cannot deny that Harvey Dent’s philosophical quip — said while discussing the moral complexities of Gotham City’s controversial vigilante — is as deep as they come. The weight of it really shows when it proves to be a means of foreshadowing the devastating fate of Aaron Eckhart’s district attorney as the physically and emotionally scarred agent of chaos called Two-Face. Not to mention, Batman repeats it at the end of The Dark Knight, reflecting on his own loss of faith in his mission at the end.
It is no wonder that the words “You either die a hero, or live enough to see yourself become the villain” continue to haunt Christopher Nolan, knowing that his brother, Jonathan Nolan, is its true scribe. It actually takes a lot of refreshing candor for a person to admit that, not only are they not the mastermind behind a line of dialogue with enduring global appeal and relevance to real-world society, but that they struggled to understand its meaning in the first place.
Who Is The Dark Knight Co-Writer Jonathan Nolan?
Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) sitting across from Bruce and Rachel at dinner in The Dark KnightImage via Warner Bros.
Jonathan Nolan is not only Christopher Nolan’s younger brother but an unsung hero of many of the celebrated filmmaker’s career highlights. For instance, the English screenwriter and producer shares an Academy Award nomination with his sibling for writing the screenplay for 2000’s Memento, which is based on Jonathan’s own short story, “Memento Mori.” They would later collaborate on the screenplays for the mysterious period piece The Prestige, all three installments of the Dark Knight Trilogy (although his work on Batman Begins was never credited), and the 2014 cosmic drama, Interstellar.
Jonathan is even more prolific in his work on the small screen, having created hit series like Person of Interest for CBS and HBO’s praised series adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1973 B-movie, Westworld, the latter of which was also co-created by his wife, Lisa Joy. Joy, in addition to making her directorial debut with the 2021 futuristic noir, Reminiscence, would continue to work with her husband as an executive producer on more thought-provoking sci-fi series, such as Amazon Prime’s The Peripheral and the streamer’s adaptation of the hit video game series, Fallout, which has a second season in the works. The couple’s next project is a limited series based on Jo Nesbø’s novel, The Son.
The Dark Knight is available to stream on HBO Max. Superhero movie fans can also purchase the trilogy on Amazon Prime Video.
Release Date
July 16, 2008
Runtime
152 minutes
Producers
Benjamin Melniker, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Kevin De La Noy, Michael Uslan
Christian Bale
Bruce Wayne
