The Dark Knight Continuity Flaws

[hannya]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

 

[Tyler1451]

4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
he did that intentionally, didnt you see him throw the liquid out?

other than that, yea i agree with your other points.

EDIT: We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

well, WE have, but we arent all 6.5 billion people on earth.

 

[MysterioMenace]

Now I understand nitpicks about comic departures. I completely get that and see many as being justifiable. But continuity errors? Does the Jokers hair accidentally going back and forth from green to brown really deny it masterpiece status? Really? Even I see that as anal retentive. Stuff like this doesn’t effect story…it only effects the obsessive compulsive.

 

[Va3H]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

Perhaps, one of the dumbest posts I have read in a long time. Just to let know, that the party scence was improvised by Heath, and just went with the flow.

 

[hannya]

Now I understand nitpicks about comic departures. I completely get that and see many as being justifiable. But continuity errors? Does the Jokers hair accidentally going from green to brown really deny it masterpiece status? Really? Even I see that as anal retentive. Stuff like this doesn’t effect story…it only effects the obsessive compulsive.

Obsessive compulsive? GUILTY.
But the hair colour change is important because it's lazy storytelling. The Joker has green hair: that's a big deal. It's not something he hides from people. Months ago, all the early posts on this board were about the green hair, chalk white skin debate. But wait oh dear now suddenly he has brown hair because it suits the plot that the other robbers don't know he's among them? Are you telling me Nolan and Goyer couldn't have found a better way around that?

 

[strikezone89]

hhhmmm... this thread should be closed caused its going to just start flamming wars beween people who think the film is perfect, and people who like to nitpick

 

[bcgvh]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

1- Not THAT big of a deal, because sometimes it's hard to see the green in his hair because it's somewhat faded and mixed with his darker hair. Also, he seems to stay behind the other thugs and doesn't draw much attention to himself.
2- Maybe something to nitpick about, but I've only seen the crappy bootleg on youtube, so I don't know how obvious it really is.
3- Probably not THAT big of a deal.
4- Actually, I think this was done on purpose as sort of a humorous type of thing.

 

[BatmanGoesToRio]

Although I'm hyped to the maximum for this movie I have to agree.
Joker's mask in the bank robbery scene should have a wig. That would have worked, too.
And he could have flesh coloured rubber around the eyes inside the mask.
So it's kinda weird and I don't buy this whole "movie magic" thing.
But I also have to say: I didn't see the prologue on the big screen yet. Just the crappy one that was around the net. So I'm not exactly sure about Joker's hair color. Maybe we'll see some hints of green, maybe it has just something to do with the light.
In six days we'll see.

 

[hannya]

Perhaps, one of the dumbest posts I have read in a long time. Just to let know, that the party scence was improvised by Heath, and just went with the flow.

So pleased that he chose to share that with you privately.

 

[thejon93]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

I'm sure they would've fixed all of this in pick-ups/reshoots of this film but with Heath not there, it wouldn't feel right. However, these minor flaws(and I do mean minor) won't take people out of the experience of watching the movie in it's entirity.

 

[Punk&ComicBooks]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

1. I served an explanation to this when the prologue was first shown in IMAX a few months back...The part where the bank manager starts firing and going crazy and the joker cowers behind desks along with the other clown...notice the back of his head is wiping up against the desk...More specificaly this is happening in the part when his partner asks "He`s out, right?!!!" So I guess whatever he put in his hair to temporarily hide the green is obviously gunna simply wipe off like that

2. Why and how is that obvious?

3. And so what if they notice a guy with a painted face standing in the street? What can they do about it?...all they`ll do really is stare. And dont gimme "OMG ITS THE JOKER! CALL 911!!!"...Its just the begining, only Bats, gordon, maybe a few cops and some crooks know about him and even so not that much.

4.....He was just being funny or w.e.

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?

You've obviously never been to New York City....or any other big city in the Continental United States.

 

[Greatwun]

3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?

I think at that point noone in Gotham really knew about the joker other than a few cops and mobsters and batman. So, I guess he wasn't really worried about getting recognized. I bet in real life people would have thought he was a street performer.

 

[hannya]

hhhmmm... this thread should be closed caused its going to just start flamming wars beween people who think the film is perfect, and people who like to nitpick

No, it doesn't have to be about those two extremes. For people who are also interested in how a movie is put together, not only in how the finished film works, continuity stuff is fun to talk about. And I still think the hair colour thing is important because it's a narrative short cut. Quite a big one too.

 

[hannya]

So I'm not exactly sure about Joker's hair color. Maybe we'll see some hints of green, maybe it has just something to do with the light.
In six days we'll see.

There's a very good Apple TV HD version of the prologue out there now. The difference in hair colour is very clear.

 

[namtaB]

The hair thing does bug me a bit especially after seeing it in HD. Its so obvious he's sans hair and makeup until just before the big reveal.

 

[YsoSerious]

I think the whole bank scene was purposely done in a way to not know it was the Joker before the mask comes off. Not necessarily a continuity issue if done to contain the surprise element.As for empty glass of champaign, Joker is only drinking to mock the people at the party, so it doesn't really matter if there's any left in the glass. And as for this thread, let's wait until we see the flick before we start in on continuity issues.

 

[BatmanGoesToRio]

There's a very good Apple TV HD version of the prologue out there now. The difference in hair colour is very clear.

Okay. I didn't know that. It wouldn't spoil the movie for me. But they should have come with another idea then.

 

[Tel Aviv]

There's a very good Apple TV HD version of the prologue out there now. The difference in hair colour is very clear.

Very true. I thought this was intentional though so as to avoid making it immediately clear that the joker was to appear in the scene.

EDIT: YsoSerious put it better than I ever could.

 

[Fenrir]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status.

Newsflash, chump. Even classic masterpieces have niggly continuity issues and little goofs.

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

Nothing is perfect, if you're not willing to overlook stupid little things, then you'll never enjoy any movie.

 

[kyuubijavi1]

There are going to be lots of niggly continuity issues that will prevent this film from reaching masterpiece status. The film's not even opened yet, but the flaws are obvious:
1 - Bank scene: brown hair to green just in time for the reveal!
2 - Joker obviously not wearing make-up under mask
3 - Joker is sans mask before getting in car... are you telling me no-one's going to notice a guy standing there motionless in clown make-up in the middle of the street?
4 - Party scene, drinking from empty glass
Yes it's dorky to nitpick but these things are lazy and irritating. The brown hair to green hair thing annoys me most, because it's narrative short-cutting: Nolan couldn't find a way to make it fit (there's no way the other bank robbers wouldn't have noticed the green hair if they're all talking about this guy called the Joker who wears make-up) so Nolan just kicks it under the carpet and hopes we don't notice.
Nolan! We don't NOTICE???? We've been waiting for this thing for MONTHS!!!

1-3 was obviously done so you wouldn't know that he was Joker if Heath had green hair while wearing the mask every one would be like omg thats the joker right off the bat

4 Joker looked at the empty glass after taking a sip as in oh its empty so it was a scene to make you laugh and improvised

 

[hannya]

I think the whole bank scene was purposely done in a way to not know it was the Joker before the mask comes off. Not necessarily a continuity issue if done to contain the surprise element.

Well yes that's exactly the point, we KNOW that, and it's a great idea for the Joker's identity to be a secret from the other robbers. But for god's sake he goes from brown hair to green hair in one frame, and that's BECAUSE to have him in green hair in the car wouldn't have made sense, the other robbers would have had to have been colour blind. So Nolan and Goyer have just said "aaah f**k it, noone will notice."

AU CONTRAIRE, RODNEY!

 

[Eggyman]

You've obviously never been to New York City....or any other big city in the Continental United States.

Exactly! Weird sh** happens in places like that all the time, and people in big cities generally walk round with their blinkers on

 

[Patty]

i thought it got greener as his wet hair dried.