Gotham City is still picking up the pieces a year after the events of TDK. The mob still runs the streets, run by Sal Maroni who evidently survived Two Faces attack. Though he is confined to a wheelchair, he fights hard to maintain control over the Falcone crime family.
The film opens up with some button men (Tony Zucco is among them) hired by Maroni overlooking workers at the shipyard unload a shipment of drugs. Several men in Halloween masks (Bill Clinton, nerds, monsters, etc.) subdue the workers and begin to place bombs throughout the area. Maronis button men rush over and a gun fight takes place. The mysterious masked men manage to escape after killing some men and blowing up most of the shipment.
The film then jumps over to The Mad Hatter in an abandoned warehouse. He has taken hostage several blonde haired teenage girls. Batman arrives and brutally takes down Hatter in front of the girls. When Batman goes to untie them, he realizes theyre more frightened of him than of their kidnapper.
Bruce Wayne attends a gala for Roman Sionis, CEO of a very lucrative cosmetics company as well as Gotham Citys new poster child. The two have known each other since childhood and retain their friendly rivalry. At the gala, Bruce meets Selina Kyle, a rich socialite who obtained her wealth via playing the stock market.
Later, Bruce uses Wayne Enterprises to look into Janus Cosmetics and finds several anomalies within the companys quarterly reports. Bruce suspects foul play and opts to take a closer look. At night, as Batman, he goes to Romans penthouse only to find himself fighting against Catwoman who was breaking in to steal a priceless diamond from Romans safe. The two fight but she manages to slip away.
Commissioner Gordon is having trouble getting along with the new district attorney Janice Porter. She questions his methods when the MCU, despite no longer going to Batman for help, manages to make more arrests than ever before. Ramirez, due to her involvement with the Harvey Dent fiasco, knows that Gordon is lying about the case and that Dent killed the six people, not Batman. She doesnt question Gordon too much, trusting his instincts in doing the right thing. We later find out that Gordon and Batman are indeed having secret meetings. Porter suspects this and asks for Detective Stephens to keep tabs on the commissioner and report back to her.
Zucco tells Maroni about what happened at the shipyard and it is revealed that its the 3rd time in a month that one of his shipments has been disrupted. Black Mask enters and shoots holds a gun to Maroni, telling him that he is responsible. His False Face Society (the men in the Halloween masks) follow after him and hold guns up to the button men around. Black Mask says that the mobs days are numbered and pulls the trigger. The bullet misses Maroni purposely. Mask explains to Maroni that he cant try to seek revenge for the sabotage of his shipments or the bullet wont miss next time but hell kept alive so that he can provide a healthy competition.
Gordon receives a box on his desk the following day at work with a question mark on it. Inside is a riddle thats answer is the number 182 (the address of the police department). The lobby blows up and many cops are injured and killed. Inside the box, Gordon finds several print outs of e-mails originating from his computer and sent to Arkham Asylum. Written in green on one of the copies is Where do you hide a dead man?
Gordon visits Arkham Asylum and goes to its subbasement. There, we see that Harvey Dent is locked up. Gordon tries to talk to Dent, trying to find out if he knows anything about the bombing. Dent refuses to speak to him.
As the film continues a mob war breaks out between Maroni and Black Mask. Both sides are being armed via a British gun runner known to the underground as Penguin. During the film, Batman confronts him at his Iceberg Lounge (the Penguins business cover) and receives information about both sides return for amnesty.
Batman and Catwoman frequently cross paths when he investigates Black Mask and his activities in the Narrows. We learn throughout the films duration that learn that she is trying to protect the Narrows from falling apart, saying that she refuses to turn her back on a place that the world has long forgotten about. Catwoman makes Batman question his actions and the gray area in his life, especially his constant evasion of the GCPD. Though there is a connection between the two in both parts of their lives, Batman works hard not to act on it.
The Riddler continues throughout the film to send riddles to Gordon and Batman, regarding the secrets surrounding Harvey Dents apparent death. Along with the riddles, he sends them copies of falsified coroner reports of Wuertzs death and other incriminating information. Black Mask learns of this and contacts the Riddler, hoping to learn what he knows. Riddler doesnt reveal anything, saying a riddle everyone knows is worthless, but he tells him someone who might: Ramirez.
Black Mask blackmails Det. Ramirez into publically declaring that the Batman did not commit those murders but that Harvey Dent did. Gordon is then thrown into a media frenzy, so he contacts Batman and tells him that hell need to end this mob war on his own.
Batman, through information given by Penguin, arrives at a meeting between Maroni and Black Mask. Catwoman appears with him, saying that hell never have to be alone in his fight against crime. He reluctantly accepts her help and the two spring into action, taking down both sides of the mob.
Meanwhile Riddler goes to Arkham and releases Dent, saying that the cat is out of the bag.
Catwoman corners Black Mask and reveals that he killed her sister in the Narrows, thus giving her a personal vendetta against Mask. Batman stops her saying that murder is a line he cant allow her to cross. She ignores him and shoots him anyway, saying that the two of them can never be together.
Dent arrives and shoots Maroni, saying his reign over Gotham should have ended a while ago. Riddler eggs him on to kill Batman too, but Dent shoots Riddler instead and surrenders.
The film ends with Riddler hospitalized. Maroni and Black Mask dead, with the mob dying out. Catwoman is still on the loose. Batman is redeemed in the eyes of public and the GCPD. And Harvey Dent sits in his cell at Arkham, flipping his coin.
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