Released over a decade ago, The Dark Knight is still a crowning achievement among superhero movies and cinema in general. Though the recent release of The Batman has some questioning the place of Nolan’s film in the role of the best Batman film, it still stands that the 2008 movie is a tremendous flick. Of course, part of its appeal is the performance of the late Heath Ledger as The Joker.
Many viewers have wondered how The Joker pulled off some of his most elaborate schemes in the film, namely how he had the knowledge to circumvent Gotham City’s police force the way that he did. One popular theory on Reddit suggests that he was able to turn the GCPD inside out because he used to be a part of it. Here’s how this theory may or may not work, given what’s shown in The Dark Knight.
Was The Joker in The Dark Knight a Former Cop?
According to Redditor Remote_Impact_3927, their mother presented the idea that Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker had once been a police officer in the world of The Dark Knight. This would explain the seeming wealth of information that he had and how freely he dealt with the cops and the mob, despite being a supposed nobody. Along with this information came a seemingly never-ending cache of weapons, many of which could have come out of police lockup. The Redditor further suggested that the pre-Joker cop would have been on the force when Batman first came into Gotham and that he was determined to take down the lawless vigilante. Unfortunately, when Scarecrow’s fear gas was unleashed upon the city, this police officer was exposed and had a horrendous mental breakdown. This would be the Nolanverse equivalent of The Joker falling into the vat of chemicals in his traditional origin story.
His crusade against Batman would be a corrupted version of his original mission to rid Gotham City of the vigilante. One element backing this up is The Dark Knight‘s interrogation scene between Batman and The Joker. Upon having his head slammed into a table, The Joker tells Batman to never go for the head first. This could simply be a facetious comment or The Joker relaying some of his own police experience. Another scene that adds fuel to the fire is one where he outright impersonates a cop during a police parade as part of an elaborate assassination attempt on his part. Given how well he fits into the officers’ ranks, despite all of his scars and the fact that he knows how to time his plan to their gun salute, he could definitely have been part of their number at one point. Also, how else would he have known the layout of the Gotham jail so well as to pull off his cell phone bomb?
The Joker Could Have Been Something Besides a Cop
There are some potential plot holes with this theory, however, and it partially depends on when exactly the ending of Batman Begins takes place compared to the rest of the film. By that movie’s conclusion, The Joker is already somewhat established as a theatrical criminal, leaving behind a playing card for Gordon and the other cops to find. If he had been a cop theretofore and had only taken on his new persona after Crane’s attack on the city, it doesn’t leave much time for the scenario to be believable.
Many have also suggested that The Joker wasn’t an ex-cop but rather ex-military. He’s a natural at down and dirty combat, including special weaponry such as rocket launchers. The interrogation scene and the “advice” that he gives to Batman also suggests military or CIA experience. This psychological training, along with his improvising explosives and making his own clothes, would further back up the idea that this is a man who could dance between the raindrops and go deep undercover when necessary. His use of attack dogs could also be a part of this, as it’s noted in the Reddit thread that this is similar to tactics used in the Iraq war.
Also, if he was a GCPD officer, wouldn’t the other cops know this? He’d have had to severely file away his fingerprints to fade away in the city where he was once a cop, not to mention that a missing or presumed dead cop might seem slightly suspicious around the time as the rise of The Joker. Likewise, there probably would have been news decrying him as a former cop once he was captured and further research was done into his backstory. Perhaps the best idea in the thread, one supported by numerous comics and the 2018 Joker movie, is that The Joker is simply a nobody, allowing him to maneuver like one who’s truly slipped through the cracks in life. Thus, he might have been able to secure all of his knowledge and experience in a way that would still keep him out of the public eye or record. From there, one particularly bad day made him finally use all of this dark knowledge to chaotically act against the society that he had come to hate living in.
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