In a script I was writing for TDK, my climax involved a massive "war" on the streets of Gotham. Plenty of violence and action. Here's a basic synopsis of my climax:
Basically, the climax starts with Joker's trial. The events leading up to this have been catastrophic. Rachel has been murdered, and it "appears" the Joker was responsible (more on that in my Part 3
). In addition, Maroni and Flacone's mobs have had it with the police and "do gooders" in Gotham, and have joined forces. In addition, word has got out that Harvey took justice into his own hands, and murdered both Maroni and Falcone's number 2 men. All of this leads up to the trial.
The trial is help at 2:00 am in an old courthouse. Not many people are present as they don't want it to be a big deal. Dent, Gordon, a judge, the few remaining police officers, and obvioulsy, the Joker are there. The National Guard is keeping watch on the rest of Gotham. The trial carries on while the camea makes quick cuts to Bruce, grieving in the cave. Cut to a bar near the courthouse. All of the mob men are rallying, they want Dent's blood. Maroni says he gets the first shot. Cut back to the trial. Joker is happily speaking about how he killed his victims, but he continuously states that he never killed Rachel, As Harvey presses the issue, the mob men flood in the courthouse, killing the officers. Gordon radios the national guard who come storimin in a a massive gun battle/fight breaks out. Through the chaos we see Joker escape through a back door, laughing all the way. We see Harvey trying to get to a safe spot when Maroni grabs him by the shirt. This is for you, you Two-Faced Son of a *****! He rakes Harvey's eyes, and pours acid down one side of his face. Gordon then clips Maroni in the shoulder with his gun. And escapes with Harvey through a back exit. Ambulances and other officers have arrived, and Harvey, screaming in pain, is taken to the hospital. Gordon, quickly gets into car, which is under gunfire, and speeds off down the streets of Gotham. Cut to the Joker strutting the halls of Arkham, giving a speech to his fellow "freaks". He asks them to join him, and take Gotham by storm. He says he's got a bigger plan than any of them could imagine...
Cut to Batcave. Signal lights the sky. Alfred gives some motivational speech and Bruce speeds off in his new batmobile and from then on we see a massive, and beautiful on screen war. Bats beats the crap out of freaks, and mob men while the national guards try to take him out. Eventually he gets shot in the arm, and is cornered by a band of freaks, who beat the hell out him. Out of the shadows walks the Joker, all smiles. He explains to Bats how he's disappointed. He then tells him he's got 100 pounds of C4 stashed under intersection of the streets of Gotham. Joker then tells Bats to give him one reason to stop him. Bats goes "Its...its not that funny." Joker, for the first shows extreme, total anger. He then starts to laugh, "Oh its funny!!!!!" Bats yells "no!" Joker hits the detonator and we watch as explosions, killing many spread across Gotham.
Anyways, I'm not sure what would happen after this. I'm still working out how I can get an ending without making it a cliffhanger. The above is just a rough draft, mostly made up in a couple of minutes. Obviously there would be a lot more though to it, but it basically represents Nolan's theory of "getting worse before it gets better."
