The Dark Knight Six-Minute Prologue in IMAX

By Kellvin Chavez on December 4, 2007

Apparently there was a six minute preview of The Dark Knight in IMAX here on my home court NYC and of course we weren't invited as usual but reader Rico The Honduran went and sent us his report.  Thanks Rico.

Here is what he had to say:

Hey guys, I work for a major media outlet and can't officially comment on this film so I'm giving you guys the scoop because I noticed that websites run by minorities are never given their due respect.  Christopher Nolan and the powers that be at Warner Bros. have put together a six-minute prologue from next summer's "The Dark Knight" in IMAX.  Apparently a few portions of this film have been shot in the revolutionary format and will be a part of its run in IMAX theaters.  IMAX is a 70mm frame turned on its side, allowing greater exposed image area and resolution.  Starting with "The Matrix Reloaded" in 2003, if you saw a regular 35mm film blown up in IMAX it wasn't cropped but letterboxed like it might appear on your TV screen to recreate the film's original aspect ratio.  "Batman Begins" was the first Batman film ever shot in the "scope" 2.40: 1 aspect ratio and when "The Dark Knight" opens, much of the film in IMAX will be letterboxed to recreate that same ratio.

After a few cocktails to put the small audience in the comic-book-movie mode, the presentation started about 20 minutes late.  I thought the prologue was being presented by some IMAX rep, but if it weren't for his British accent I wouldn't have realized that our host standing under bright lights was none other than director Christopher Nolan.  Nolan's probably the reason the presentation started late, but I didn't care because he's warm yet frank about his ideas for his films.  He stated the IMAX format was developed in 1970, the same year he was born, and that he's wanted to work with it for about fifteen years.  Just as he was reluctant to show 20 minutes of footage from the film at Wizard World recently, Nolan seemed to have the same attitude here.  Can you blame him though?  He's trying to finish working on a complicated production and the big execs want him to showcase an unfinished product.  According to Nolan "The Dark Knight" will be projected in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio on IMAX screens and about four or five sequences specifically shot in IMAX will be full screen in the 1.43:1 aspect ratio.  Your field of vision will be filled vertically as well as horizontally.  I got the sense that Nolan wants to "wow" audiences just as Cinemascope and Cinerama did back in the fifties.

The presentation began with the Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures logos, not in black and white like the first film, but appearing out of bursting flames with a blue hue.  The picture dramatically cuts to full screen as the camera swoops down on an afternoon shot of a glass office tower in Gotham City (really Chicago).

Two men wearing clown-faced masks shatter a window, fire a cable and rappel from the tower to the roof of a smaller building across the street.  This is a robbery ladies and gentlemen and these two are tasked with disabling the alarm system of the bank below.

On the street, three other robbers masked as clowns drive up to the front of the bank.  They are each aware that they've been hired by the mysterious "Joker" and have specific tasks to perform.  For one of them, it’s to shoot his accomplice dead once he's disabled that alarm on the roof.   As the group enters the bank with shotguns blazing, we get the notion they don't really know just who this "Joker" is.  To keep the hands of the employees and patrons of the bank busy, the hostages are each given a live grenade to hold on to.  What they don't really notice is that the bank manager is William Fitchner and he's at his desk behind a glass partition eyeing them carefully.

In the bank vault, two of the robbers discuss that this "Joker" must really be crazy because the bank is full of mob money.  When one asks the other what happened to the guy who was to take out the electronic security system box on the roof, he tells him the Joker said to kill him when the job was done.  "Good," he says, "Because he told me the same thing about you," and puts a bullet in the back of his head.  (Off camera of course, this is gonna be a PG-13 movie after all).

While the other masked robbers are on the main floor with the hostages, our bank manager Mr. Fitchner reveals himself along with a shotgun and starts walking towards them blasting away.  With another one of their guys now dead, two robbers hide behind a partition.  "He's out of ammo right?", one asks the other before Fitchner reveals he has one more round left.  With the click of his empty barrel, one of the robbers shoots Fitchner in the gut and asks his colleague, "can't you count?"  With money in hand and only two of them left, one crook points a gun at the back of the head of the other and says "I know, the Joker asked you to kill me, just as he asked me to kill you."  

"Actually," the other replies," I'm supposed to kill the driver."

"What driver?" the guy asks, just in time to be run down by the rear end of the yellow school bus that smashes through the front of the bank.  As the last of the bunch, our final robber shoots that driver dead when he pops out the back of the bus and proceeds to gather up the bags of money.  Slowly bleeding to death, Fitchner snarls about how criminals once had class and a sense of honor.  Sympathizing with the man's plight, the last robber exclaims that he feels "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stranger", before pulling off his mask and revealing himself to be the Joker.  Actually its Heath Ledger with white face paint and red lipstick smeared across his lips that are seriously scarred at their corners.  Nolan did state before the presentation began that the film featured "Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker."  So Jack Nicholson can stop whinning.

Mr. Personality places a grenade into the dying Fitchner's mouth with a string tied to it that's also hooked up to the back door of the bus.  As the string pulls the pin from the grenade with the departure of the bus, it’s revealed not to be a live grenade, but a smoker that emits harmless green gas.  Our robber pulls out onto the street in front with his getaway vehicle and blends into a convoy of yellow school buses that just happen to be passing by.  SCHOOL'S OUT!!

The entire presentation is six minutes long and is to be shown preceding the theatrical IMAX release for the Will Smith vehicle "I Am Legend".  Nolan stated he hopes the prologue will run before other IMAX films in the months before the film's release in July.  Though it was nice to see footage from a new Batman film in IMAX, this little film was not really that exciting nor did it show the potential or scope of the format.  This might be just a little teaser and hopefully when the movie comes out the other three or four IMAX sequences will be action packed.  Let's not forget this is an expensive process after all.

Hans Zimmer is once again slated to score the film, but this little teaser featured a rock and roll type theme that was almost out of "Mission: Impossible 2". As it drew to a close, we were presented with a brief montage of shots that were underscored by that piece of music where Bruce Wayne faces his fear of bats when he discovers the batcave in the first film:

• The Batmobile racing down dark city streets.
• A medium shot of the Joker walking down a street and firing a submachine gun.
• A shot of the Batmobile performing a U-turn in a large indoor chamber with florescent-squared lights on the ceiling.
• Another shot of the Batmobile, followed by a shot of the Dark Knight, cape billowing and racing toward the camera on the Batpod or Batcycle (which we don't see eject from the Batmobile).
• Twilight shot of Lieutenant Gordon surrounded by teams of cops and police cruisers on a rainy blue-tinted city street.
• Far shot of Batman high atop a building edge on a blue-tinted rainy day with one hand to his ear.  (Probably listening to police band communications.)
• Final shot-- Same shot of Gordon with the police force again, this time with a fireman’s axe in his hand, which he brings down to smash...the Bat-signal!!

"Show it again!” someone shouted when it was over.  "Unfortunately it takes half an hour to rewind the film," Nolan informed us.

It looks like this second chapter will be a dark and dramatic time for our hero indeed.  It wasn't till this preview was over that I realized the title "The Dark Knight" doesn't just refer to out hero, but the dark night and times ahead.  The rapid-fire shots of that very brief montage not only got me hyped up to see the movie, but made me want to go home and listen to the soundtrack score for the first film.

Seven months?!! Why can't July get here fast enough?

Thank you Chis Nolan and may Bryan Singer burn in hell for destroying the Superman legend.

Source:Rico the Honduran

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