Friday, December 14, 2007 9:51 PM CST

Light shed on ‘Dark Knight’

By Matt Sheehan, Movie Correspondent
Morris Daily Herald, Illinois


For those lucky enough to catch the IMAX presentation of “I Am Legend,” the joke won’t be on you when you see what’s before it.

The prologue to “The Dark Knight,” the sequel to Christopher Nolan’s Batman restart “Batman Begins,” is being shown prior to all viewings of the IMAX presentation of “I Am Legend,” starring Will Smith.

For those unable to venture to an IMAX theatre, here is a summary of what Nolan refers to as part-prologue and part-short film. It also is the first six minutes of the new film and reveals the first official video of Heath Ledger as the Joker.

A sweeping helicopter shot of Gotham City explodes as a building’s window blows out. In that room stands two clown-masked men readying a grapple gun for the next roof over. Cut to a lone man, back to the camera, standing on a street corner, holding a duffel bag and clown mask. He’s picked up by two more masked men driving an old Chevy Suburban. The two in the front discuss why the sixth man their splitting the money with doesn’t even bother to show up.

The three from the truck blast their way into a bank, dragging bank clerks over the counter and swiping customers wallets.

Those other thugs now atop the roof are disabling a silent alarm that goes to a private number instead of 911. After the alarm is cut, one thug takes out the other and joins the rest of the gang, to crack the safe. And that guy is killed, too, by his partner.

Suddenly, shot gun blast to one of the thugs by the bank manager (William Fichtner), who goes after the eerily silent leader, shouting they have no idea who their messing with—the mob?—until no more shells and he’s shot down but not dead.

One of the final two clowns points a gun and the silent one, asking "Are you supposed to kill me?" The silence is broken when he replies, "I shoot the buss driver." Suddenly, a school bus crashes through the wall, running over the other guy. The cash is loaded, as, as promised, the bus driver is shot.

And that lone silent one? He walks over to the manager, sticks a grenade in his mouth with a long string attached to the pin. “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us… stranger,” the clown says as he rips off his mask to reveal the grotesque, crudely white make-up and red lips of Ledger as the Joker. He reels out the string, climbs in the bus and drives off—until the pin is pulled and green gas comes out.

Following that, a series of scenes that include Batman (Christain Bale) on his motorcycle, the Batpod, the Joker machine-gunning down the street and Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) smashing the Batsignal.

The sequel is the first film to be partly exclusively filmed on IMAX cameras.

This prologue follows several months of viral marketing by Warner Bros. through realistic websites and cryptic, coded messages from the Joker and such.

“The Dark Knight” is scheduled to open in theaters on July18, 2008. Bale, Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine return with the addition of Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Anthony Michael Hall.