You Just Crippled That Man Hes Young Hell Walk Again the Dark Knight Returns

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns

"You lot try to hold me dorsum, but yous're weak... Y'all know it in your soul... Y'all're nothing only a hollow shell... A rusty trap... The time has come."

— The Batman.

A picture show in the DC Universe Blithe Original Movies line, based on the comic of the same proper name. Batman has been retired for ten years, alcoholic and consumed with grief after the death of Jason Todd. Superman, still as young and handsome every bit ever, has become little more than than an icon, answering to the government and trying to stay as neutral every bit possible. Commissioner Gordon is weeks away from retirement, The Joker has been silently locked away in Arkham for years, and Two-Face up is almost to exist released dorsum into the globe with a brand new skin. In Batman's absence, and in the midst of a killer rut wave, Gotham City is overrun with crime, plagued past a monstrously violent gang known every bit The Mutants. After encountering a Mutant gang in the alley where his parents were murdered, Bruce Wayne resurrects Batman, aided in his renewed cause by Carrie Kelley, a xiii-year-erstwhile daughter who becomes the new Robin. Defeating the Mutants, though, turns out to exist kid's play compared to what Batman faces next...

The cast of voice actors includes Peter Weller (RoboCop) as Batman, Ariel Winter (Modern Family) equally Carrie Kelley, Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Harvey Dent/2-Face, David Selby (Nighttime Shadows) as Commissioner Gordon, Michael McKean (Laverne & Shirley) every bit Dr. Bartholomew Wolper, Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest) as The Joker, Mark Valley (Human Target) as Superman, and Maria Canals Barrera (Wizards of Waverly Place) every bit Ellen Yindel. Many of the tropes in the original comic apply to the film.

The picture is carve up into 2 parts. Part one (trailer) was released Sept. 25, 2012. Function 2 (trailer) and then followed up on Jan. 29, 2013. A deluxe edition with both parts was released on October 8th, 2013.

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Tropes demonstrated in this film include:

• The '80s: The film goes out of its way to non update the setting of the comic. 70-year-erstwhile Commissioner Gordon fought in Globe War II (he would be over 100 today), Ronald Reagan is President, the Soviet Wedlock is still very much effectually, television and other technologies match up with the time period, and the film even uses 80's style synth music in a lot of cases.
• Abnormal Ammo: Batman uses rubber bullets to incapacitate the Mutants at the dump without killing them.
• Aborted Arc: What did America practice after Russia launched a Cold Bringer? Never brought upward again.
• Adam Westing: Conan O'Brien every bit talk show host Dave Endochrine.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Gordon's assistant, Officer Merkel, undergoes a variant of this: he's The Faceless in the comic (where his face is always framed in the shadows), but in the movies his features are visible, and he's one of the more than conventionally handsome characters.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The film version of Carrie is skilful in acrobatics even before teaming up with Batman. She even attempts an Middle Scream on the Mutant leader.
  • Downplayed with Batman himself, every bit some of the issues he has in the original comic such equally him not beingness as stealthy every bit before are left out while the movie makes some of his fights more flashy, if with more accent on his skill rather than his forcefulness.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Some of the harsher language and more disturbing scenes from the comic are either removed completely or toned downwardly e.1000. in Part 2, the cotton candy stand is shown at the fair with the Joker handing information technology out to a bunch of Boy Scouts shortly before Batman arrives. Nonetheless, in the comic, it turns out that it was poisoned. Carrie is traumatized when she finds the bodies of the kids. This didn't get shown in this version.
  • Batman's internal Private Heart Monologue is removed, with some pieces condign actual dialogue.
  • The Joker has no interest in Two-Face up's scheme and remains comatose until after the Mutant Leader's defeat.
  • The homoerotic undertones of Joker'southward fixation on Batman are nonetheless present but reduced considerably.
  • Carrie glomping an injured and completely naked Bruce was also left out.
  • Much of the commentary on Batman is left out in order to keep the plot moving direct, some of the kept commentary also serves to gradually wake the Joker from his coma in the kickoff part.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Batman'southward climactic fight with Superman in Part ii is much longer and more epic than in the comic volume.
  • The Joker'southward binge is likewise given a bit more item.
  • Batman's coming together with the general is too longer than in the comic, where the general only appears in a page and already expressionless.
• Adaptational Modesty: Bruno is wearing total pants, rather than assless chaps similar in the comic.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Well, more than like Adaptational Non-And then-Much-A-Jerkism; the graphic symbol of Byron Brassballs is even so a Jerkass but is toned down so that he simply accidentally causes the blind man to fall onto the train tracks, rather than intentionally pushing him every bit he does in the comic.
  • Many of the news anchors come across as somewhat more impartial and empathetic than in the comic.
  • Batman himself is likewise softened by the lack of his internal monologues, making him come beyond as more than pragmatic rather than than him also reveling on the pain he inflicts on criminals.
• Adapted Out: Some characters, like Louis Gallagher from the Press Department of the K.C.P.D. and politician liaison with the city hall of Gotham Urban center, exercise not appear in the film. Dr. Ruth Weisenheimer does not appear on David Endochrine'southward prove but is mentioned.
• The Ageless: Similar in the comic Superman, due to his Kryptonian heritage.
• The Alcoholic: Bruce becomes one during his retirement, in lodge to stay retired. He stops drinking the moment he becomes Batman once more.
• Anti-Hero:
  • Different the comic where Batman is an Unscrupulous Hero, he is much closer to a Pragmatic Hero in the film, spending less time enjoying the carnage he unleashes on criminals.
  • The Sons Of Batman are Nominal Heroes like in the comic, though.
• Anti-Villain/Hero Antagonist:
  • The main role of Superman in this pic.
  • The general is also one in Part 1, he only sold the weapons to the mutants because the government wouldn't pay the treatment for his dying wife.
• Arrow Catch: Superman catches the arrow that Green Pointer shoots at him during his showdown with Batman. Trouble is, information technology'southward a Kryptonite Trick Arrow that proceeds to explode in his face up.
• Art Development: The cartoon in the film is a lilliputian closer to the other DC animated universe adaptations while retaining some of Frank Miller'southward style, and leaves out the scratchiness of the original comic'south artwork.
• Creative License – Law: Batman would not be considered a murderer in any stretch of the imagination for killing The Joker in the centre of ane of his killing sprees, notwithstanding Ellen Yindel and the news media regard him every bit one.
• Ascended Fangirl: Carrie Kelley, who dresses upward as Robin and tries to fight criminal offense on her own, only to get Bruce's real sidekick.
• Asskicking Equals Authority: The Mutant Leader is feared and respected by his regular army because he is the strongest among them. Likewise, Batman inadvertently gains authority over the Mutants by defeating him.
• Attempted Rape: The outset law-breaking stopped past Batman afterward his render.
• Audible Sharpness: When the Mutant Leader uses his sharp nails, they make this sound.
• Badass Baritone: As usual from both the grapheme and having Peter Weller voice him, Batman has a deep phonation.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Joker'south final scheme was successful because he finally made Batman lose control and very well-nigh break his one rule and when it's made clear that Batman but broke Joker's cervix enough to return him quadriplegic, the disappointed villain decides to fob the world into thinking that Bats actually did cross the line... by using the last of his strength to suspension his neck completely. Joker'due south expiry means that the cops would hound him and eventually try to kill him. Either fashion, Joker wins.

  Joker: I win. I made y'all lose control, and they'll kill y'all for it. Come across You in Hell!

• Bunko: To Gordon, twice:
  • The kickoff fourth dimension, he's assaulted by a Mutant, and so they both go into a gunfight seen from outside the store. Cue the news reporting Gordon'southward decease...mistakenly maxim he was shot, when in fact he shot the Mutant dead.
  • The next fourth dimension, he is heartbroken to see his dwelling house up in flames, assertive his wife succumbed to the fire. Cue his wife appearing behind his back, and they hug.
• Batman Grabs a Gun/Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Batman disarms a Mutant holding a hostage by shooting the gun out of her hand with a machine gun, damaging her hand in the process. This is the first and last time in the two films where Batman deliberately fires a gun with real bullets at another person and he does it to save the life of a baby. (This "fixes" the sequence in the comic where it looks like Batman shot her expressionless even though his Yard Shall Not Impale dominion is later invoked several times.)
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Gordon gives release papers to one of the thugs related to a robbery who couldn't be involved in the theft, the catch beingness that he didn't asigned him protection and that Batman is dorsum.
• Big Bad: Ronald Reagan is depicted as incompetent to the point of malice, and responsible for the crime moving ridge due to abolishing 99.9% of superheroes.
• Bittersweet Ending: Bruce leaves no trace of his existence behind, Alfred dies from a stroke, and Ronald Reagan is withal around. However, Bruce is still alive in the shadows merely unable to practise crime-fighting himself due to his weakened state, though now he leads and trains a secret legion with stray Mutants and the Sons of Batman with Carrie and Oliver in gild to keep Gotham Urban center safe from the shadows, promising to Superman that they'll try not cartoon too much attention to the lowest degree they deal with Superman under presidential orders.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Quite possibly the darkest and nigh trigger-happy DC Universe Blithe Original Movie until Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. In fact, at times it's even bloodier and gorier than the comic as the deaths of Gotham'due south mayor, Dr. Wolper, and Television receiver host David Endochrine are more graphic than in the comic.
• Bomb Disposal: Batman has mere seconds to disarm a bomb planted by Two-Face, simply instead of a Wire Dilemma he merely destroys the timing circuitry by spraying information technology with liquid nitrogen.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Several characters are seen reloading their weapons, or otherwise running out of ammo. However, many of them nonetheless fire style more ammunition than their guns can actually comprise before running out.
• Bowdlerise:
  • The adaptation removes or changes some of the most offensive lines from the original; for instance, the black man interviewed in one of the News Monopoly Montages talking approvingly about how Batman was kick butts the cops wouldn't? In the original, he was hoping that Batman would go after the "homos" next, not his landlord.
  • The deaths of the kids eating the poisoned cotton fiber candy are not shown.
  • In the comic, at that place were strong off-handed comments that Bruno was a mail op transgender (though even then it could take just accept been an insult from the store owner). Hither there is no suggestion.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The 10+ yr old Bat tank.

  Batman: Still purrs... similar it was yesterday.

• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Discussed during the terminal showdown between Batman and the Joker:

  Joker: I don't keep count.

  Batman: I did!

  Joker: I know. And I love you for it.

• Call-Back:
  • Gordon'due south comment about how Bruce used to sip ginger ale while making everyone else think information technology was champagne "in the old days" is a reference back to the showtime fourth dimension they met in Batman: Year Ane.
  • In Jim Gordon'due south business firm, in that location's a wall photo that depicts him and his family unit as they looked in the animated adaptation of Batman: Year I. Since the previous moving-picture show was also washed past the same production company, it'due south an acknowledgement of continuity between both animated films.
  • Joker kills Wolper by slitting his throat with a broken mug (as opposed to the cervix snap in the comic), like to how he killed i of Black Mask'southward trunk guards in Batman: Under the Crimson Hood.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: The demonic bat vision which continually haunts Bruce, until he tin can't accept it anymore.
• Casting Gag:
  • Late night talk show host Conan O'Brien voices late night talk show host David Endochrine, a graphic symbol that Frank Miller had based on David Letterman. O'Brien took over Late Night from Letterman in 1993.
  • Jim Meskimen voices Ronald Reagan. This isn't the first time he did so; Meskimen also voiced Reagan in The Boondocks episode "The Passion of Reverend Ruckus".
• The Cavalry: Batman rides in on horseback with his regular army of followers to finish a pitched battle betwixt the people of Gotham and a gang of escaped criminals in guild to keep order in the city. Justified because of the EMP blackout from an airburst nuke that shut down everything, including vehicles.
• Challenging the Chief: Exploited by Batman to break the Mutants' spirit past destroying the Mutant leader in front of them. Unfortunately, a segment of the Mutants outset emulating him after this and go the sociopathic "Sons of the Batman".

• Color-Coded Secret Identity: At the beginning of the film, Bruce'south racing car is all black, as is his racing jumpsuit. In a blink-and-y'all'll-miss-it moment, y'all can also run into that Bruce's crash helmet has horns like a sure cowl he used to wear.
• Combat Pragmatist: Batman equally ever. He defeats the Mutant Leader in their second fight by luring him into a mud pit so it'll boring him down, cuts him just above the eyes and then the blood volition blind him, targets his bandaged nose and nerve clusters in his deltoid to take out his arm and then headbutts him, breaks his artillery, then his leg and finally viciously beats on him while he's down.
• Comically Missing the Signal: News ballast Lola Wong makes a flippant comment that she doesn't know what to wearable, due to the nuclear winter roofing North America afterwards the Soviets released airburst nukes.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Superman is never addressed past his superhero identity, only as Clark, "school boy" or "...him".
• Compilation Movie: Both parts were later rereleased in 2013, the same year part ii was released, equally 1 whole movie.
• Cool Guns: Several. The MP40 and Mauser C96 are the weapons of selection for the Neo-Nazis led by Bruno, while the Joker uses a 2-tone Glock with chromed parts. General Briggs also attempts to pull a formalism M1911 with gold trim and engraved grips on Batman.
• Cool Shades: The Mutants' glowing futuristic visor things.
• Crapsack World: At the first of the pic, Gotham has slowly become this since Batman's original retirement. Criminal offence is out of control. In addition to the normal thieves, rapists and murderers having relatively free reign due to a now impotent constabulary force, the new Mutant gang is murdering men, women and children For the Evulz with the intent to have over the city and impose their own violent, blood-soaked despotic dominion. Anybody else lives in fear for their lives. Finally, Bruce can take it no longer and decides that Gotham volition get better because he volition forcefulness information technology to.
• Create Your Own Villain: Discussed by Wolper concerning all of Batman's rogues. Apparently his mere presence propagates a social affliction that creates costumed psychopaths. In the Joker's case at to the lowest degree this is true, as he just revives from his comatose state on hearing that Batman is back.
• Adjourn-Stomp Battle:
  • The Mutant Leader delivers ane to Batman in their offset confrontation. Batman tried to match force with strength and failed to even put a paring in the leader while about being killed himself.
  • Subverted in the terminal fight with Superman in the second moving picture. Supes could have ended the fight before information technology even started if he'd had no scruples about killing Batman as rapidly every bit possible. Superman regarding Bruce as a friend, having a no-kill rule, and being somewhat weakened by other events turned the fight into a adequately evenly matched Pummel Duel.
• Cyber Punk Is Techno: The score mixes the styles of gritty lxxx's action movies like The Exterminator and Hans Zimmer'south The Nighttime Knight Trilogy score. And it is glorious.
• Darker and Edgier/Lighter and Softer: By distilling and expanding on the source material, we have scenes such as taking out the Mutant leader's rape threat and limiting Byron Brassballs' assholishness, and others like the Joker's massacre and Robin more directly killing made more graphic.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Even in old historic period, Alfred'south nonetheless got it.

    Alfred: If information technology'southward suicide you lot're later on, I accept an old family recipe. It's slow and painful. You'd like it.

  • Bruce over what happened to Green Pointer.
• Death by Irony: Dr. Wolper, the most vocal person confronting Batman and driven to prove that it is actually Batman's actions that cause the problem, is killed by Joker who was supposed to exist his evidences. He also was killed by having his throat slit by a coffee mug, rendering him unable to talk.
• Defiant to the End: Superman practically begs Batman to stop fighting because he doesn't want to kill him. Batman responds past mocking Superman for the unabridged fight.
• Delegation Relay: Played with when politicians from the President, the Governor and the Mayor announced to exist passing the buck on the Batman issue. However the audition already knows that the President has asked Superman to warn Batman off.
• Dented Iron: When Bruce takes up the mantle of Batman one time over again, 10 years of retirement shows its result on him when he tin can barely pull himself up a rope and his joints start to anguish.
• De-Ability: The attempted nuking of Corto Maltese, the resulting nuclear wintertime (and a kryptonite arrow) bring Superman downwardly to a level that Batman can defeat just long enough for him to gloat before having a heart attack and dying. Or did he?
• Dies Differently in Accommodation: Dr. Wolper gets his throat slit by The Joker with a broken java mug rather than getting strangled past Bobby.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Batman starts out fighting the Mutants, a gang of thugs out to have over Gotham. He defeats their leader at the end of Part I. Part Two opens with The Joker awakening from a catatonic state and going on a rampage, dying halfway through. After that, Superman, the Hero Antagonist, becomes the True Concluding Boss after existence sent by the authorities to defeat Batman.
• Dies Wide Open: The Joker goes out this mode, laughing until the end.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Batman has gotten over this to the betoken where he's comfy launching a barrage of machine gun fire on the Mutants without comment, and so long as they're nonlethal rubber bullets. In Function 2, where he'southward forced to use an actual gun to detonate an explosive, he hesitates, is visibly shaking, and tells Joker's burning corpse to stop laughing.
• Don't Make Me Destroy Y'all: Superman makes information technology clear from the start of their fight that he really doesn't want to fight, let alone kill Batman, and spends the unabridged fight practically begging him to end and simply surrender.
• The Dreaded:
  • As he used to do in his Glory Days, a large strategy that Batman employs for his return is to terrify criminals and Mutants who have and then far been enjoying a free reign of mayhem in Gotham.
  • Selina Kyle is absolutely terrified when the Joker appears in forepart on her.
• Dressing every bit the Enemy: Carrie poses as a Mutant in order to get together the gang at the location of the second fight between Batman and the Mutant leader.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • General Briggs shoots himself later Batman confronts him for selling weapons to the Mutants.
  • 2-Face tries to blow himself upward with the two biggest skyscrapers in Gotham subsequently being consumed past his nighttime half.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Carrie gets brushed off by the people she saved from an attempted mugging.
• Dumb Muscle:
  • Batman accuses the Mutant Leader of being one.

    Batman: We're all dull when we're thigh deep in mud... and you're non too vivid.

  • Rob and Don, at to the lowest degree in Bruno'southward opinion.

    Bruno: [to store clerk] Those 2 morons don't have a brain between 'em. So I'm gonna give 'em yours. All over their suits.

  • Batman calls Superman out for being picayune more than a stooge doing the regime'southward muscle work.
• The End Is Virtually: Bruce walks by two men holding these signs early in the film.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Mutant Leader has a beastly, gravelly vox.
• Middle Scream: As in the comics, Joker gets a batarang lodged in his right centre.
• Confront Expiry with Nobility: Equally in the comic, Alfred accepts his stroke that way after blowing upwards Wayne Manor.

• Femme Fatalons: When Abner (the Joker'south henchman) has Robin pinned down, she uses her nails to claw his confront.
• Fighting Your Friend: Superman actually doesn't want to fight Batman because he knows how ridiculously mismatched they are and doesn't want Bruce to dice. Bruce knows too, and just doesn't care.
• Firearms Are Cowardly: Batman rallies the one-time Mutants into the Sons of Batman Gang to bring law and lodge dorsum to a anarchism-filled Gotham City. While he does he goes out of his fashion to forbid the use of firearms owing to his own Doesn't Like Guns stance, deeming them the weapons of cowards, and saying that the Sons must rely on their brains and fists to take dorsum the city.
• For the Evulz:
  • The Mutant Leader rips the mayor's throat out with his teeth because he tin can.
  • This is the motivation for the entire Mutant gang. They loot and kill because to them, information technology'south fun.
• Friend to All Children:
  • Batman still has this trait to him. Despite the child screaming and nigh to be killed by Mutants, once in Batman'southward arms he went quietly to slumber.
  • Batman cares for Carrie Kelley rather like a surrogate daughter, holding and comforting her after she near falls to her expiry.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • In the final scene of Role 1, the Joker wakes up from his decade-long coma.

    Joker: Bbb... Bb... Batman... darling!

  • In Part 2, Batman is on the run after defeating the Joker, then a flying of Soviet airburst nukes shut downwards all electric power in the land and anarchy ensues. Subverted in Gotham where Batman unites the gangs into a police force to maintain guild during the crisis.
• Funny Background Outcome: Carrie's stoned parents talking in the background. The best exchange occurs while they're watching a news report most Gordon surviving an assassination attempt past shooting his assailant.

  Dad: What a downer. Seventeen years erstwhile.
  Mom: Manlike cops. But like Chicago. Remember Chicago?
  Dad: Not actually. I was tripping the whole time.

• Fun T-Shirt:
  • Dr. Wolper can be seen in a Superman shirt, and later an anti-Batman shirt.
  • Trish from the News wears a shirt that says "This And Brains Too".
  • Two Mutants wear shirts saying "my proper name is ROB" and "my proper name is DON".
• Future Slang: The Mutants' slang, mixed with a scrap of Blob Speak.

  Rob: Y'all see, Don? Batman nasty. Leader'south bagging.
  Don: Leader billy berserk, Rob. He peg Batman, yous see.

• Genius Bruiser: Batman, who uses both strength and smarts to finally have down the younger and fitter Mutant leader.
• Practiced Is Not Nice/Adept Is Not Soft: Par for the form for Batman, withal information technology is highlighted especially when he throws a batarang directly into the Joker's eye, indicating that he's going to Kick the Son of a Bowwow. Naturally, Batman losing all restraint pleases the Joker.

  Joker: Are you out of your mind!?
  Batman: I'm through playing, Joker!
  Joker: Be nevertheless, my heart.

• Go Through Me: Inverted when the Joker takes a kid hostage.

  Kid: Yous're the Joker, right? Batman's gonna kick your ass!
  Joker: He's gonna accept to get through you first!

• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • The climax of the fight With the Mutant Leader cuts abroad earlier Batman tin can fully extend an practical kneebar and break the Leader's leg, simply showing the rather disturbed reactions of the Mutants watching the leg go broken.
  • Semi-Averted in Office II. Abner is nevertheless seen getting his head chewed upward by the roller coaster gears, just his girth hides the actual damage inflicted. All we meet is his blood and Carrie's horrified expression.
• Gotta Impale Them All: The Joker'southward only goal in one case he escapes is to kill equally many people as he possibly can before Batman stops him. He does this to torment Batman and endeavor to get him to completely lose it and kill the Joker outright—and comes pretty damn close too.
• Gramps Clause: Batman using regular hook-and-lines on a few occasions instead of his Grappling-Hook Pistol, in order to preserve memorable scenes from the pre-Grappling-Hook Pistol era comic.
• Green-eyed Monster: The reason the regime wants Batman expressionless, because he is able to keep order where they tin can't.
• Guns Are Worthless: As in the comic, Batman says this to the vigilantes who have joined his cause and promises to teach them to utilize his weapons and methods instead.
• Handicapped Badass: Oliver Queen aka Dark-green Pointer, missing his left arm and still probably the best shot in the world.
• Hates Everyone As: Bruce is a total misanthrope towards nearly everyone, salvage for Alfred, Carrie Kelley and Selina Kyle. Even Jim Gordon informs Ellen Yindel later on his retirement that he and Bruce no longer talk.

  Gordon: Were y'all a friend?
  Clark: I think so. I honestly couldn't say.
  Gordon: Sounds about correct.

• Hero with Bad Publicity: Male child. Batman does a lot of help for Gotham, but the GCPD completely goes against him the moment Gordon retires and Ellen Yindel takes over, with her first order being apprehending Batman. It doesn't assistance that the Sons of Batman look like thugs trying to spread his give-and-take.
• Loftier-Altitude Interrogation: When a mook proves reluctant to talk, Batman removes the homo's blindfold to reveal he'due south holding him over the border of a skyscraper.
• Homage: Superman chasing the missile may be a reference to Superman: The Movie.
• Honor Before Reason: Batman abandons the safety of his tank to fight the Mutant leader directly, as in the comic. He justifies information technology to Alfred, saying that he needs to do it in order to know that he's notwithstanding the goddamned Batman.
• Horrible Judge of Graphic symbol: Dr. Wolper. Despite everything Joker says pretty much spouting "I'one thousand Evil" and clear Crocodile Tears, Wolper fully believes that Joker is the victim and Batman is the bad guy.
• Horseback Heroism: With requisite Rearing Horse.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The hulking Bruce Wayne as Batman and the tiny Carrie Kelley equally the new Robin.
• Hulk Speak: Many of the Mutants, particularly the Mutant Leader.

  Leader: I call yous coward!

• Hypocritical Sense of humor:
  • One of the people existence interviewed about crime in Gotham goes about on a long oral communication of how they should use a diplomatic approach and reeducate the Mutants back into society. He then immediately adds that he would never alive in the metropolis.
  • Carrie'south parents annotate how Batman is a fascist, complaining how Batman beating upwards thugs is getting back up where their marching doesn't get whatsoever credit. The begetter then immediately asks his married woman to give him some pot and to brand sure they locked the doors.
• I Am the Substantive: When all electricity in Gotham gets shut down and there is chaos in the streets, Batman IS the law.
• Identical Stranger: Ellen Yindel, Gordon'southward replacement, looks like an older Carrie Kelley.
• I Got Yous Covered: Oliver Queen and his kryptonite pointer plow the tide for Batman in the last battle.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The Mutant leader regularly makes speeches on how he'll consume his victims, and afterwards rips out the mayor'south throat with his blank teeth.
• Regal Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Given his line of work, Batman is an skilful at moving and dodging in means which cause gun-wielding opponents to miss, and Robin is a small, fast target. Withal, the extent to which Batman gets away with beingness under direct gunfire gets ridiculous later on, with entire SWAT squads firing at him whilst he is thigh-deep in water at a range of less than 10 meters and missing. Ironically, Joker, who has a batmerang lodged into his correct eye, can effortlessly kill a bunch of people further than 10 meters.
• Improbably Quick Coma Recovery: The Joker, despite having been catatonic for years, recovers his reason the moment he starts hearing about Batman once again, this is Downplayed however as his awakening is shown to happen in a gradual way across the bridge of outset movie.
• Improbable Weapon User: In the concluding battle with Superman, Batman uses everything he can think of at his disposal, including X-Ray seeking missiles, a sonic pistol, Gotham's entire electricity output focused into Batman's gauntlets, two massive wheels ripped from a steam roller, a wrecking ball, a full-bodied acrid spray in the eyes, a pasty bomb that can blow a decent sized crater in the ground, kryptonite gas, and finally Batman's own fists and kicking heels.
• Informed Deformity: After the surgery that fixes him, Harvey actually believes that he's completely plain-featured on both sides of his face up.
• Inspector Javert: Commissioner Ellen Yindel.
• Insult Backfire: In their second fight, Batman puts downwardly the Mutant Leader's attempts of trash explaining what each of his techniques are meant to do.
• Invisible President: Averted with Ronald Reagan openly making use of Superman.
• Is That the Best You Tin can Do?: During the final battle betwixt Batman and Superman...

  Superman: If it isn't me, it'll only be someone else!

  Batman: Really? Who do they send later you?

• I Surrender, Suckers: Superman asks Batman to come quietly and offers a handshake. Batman accepts, electrocuting Superman with Gotham City's entire electric grid.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Selina. Where nosotros all tin recall her from Yr One ◊. Best summed upwardly past the Joker.
• Jiggle Physics: Bruno.
• Karma Houdini: Ronald Reagan gets away with his orders.
• Kicking Them While They Are Down: Batman has effectively beaten Superman to a pulp in the concluding battle with a fiddling help from a Kryptonite arrow and has him downward on the ground. Superman can see Bruce'south centre is failing and warns him that he's about to die. Bruce's responds by giving him a swift kick to the face.
• Kid Sidekick: Carrie Kelley, a xiii year old girl who decides to fight gang members and psychopaths as Robin.
• Knight in Sour Armor:
  • Commissioner Gordon. Every fourth dimension he questions whether he is doing the correct thing, he reminds himself that he is doing it to go along his wife safety.
  • Ellen Yindel eventually becomes 1 when Gotham is virtually reduced to a World Gone Mad from an EMP coma with mass annexation and violence, and she sees firsthand how much of a force for good Batman actually is.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice:
  • Dissimilar his comic counterpart, Bruce has an enormous 1.
  • Superman also has his trademark mentum.
• Large Ham: The Mutant Leader.
• Lawful Stupid:
  • Every authorization figure trying to maintain constabulary and order except for Batman and Gordon. Even Superman of all people.
  • The new police commissioner Ellen Yindel starts out this way, choosing the Inspector Javert opinion with regards to Batman'due south activities. Once she sees him making a real positive difference past keeping guild in Gotham during an EMP induced blackout, Yindel gives up pursuing him and becomes a Knight in Sour Armor like Gordon before her, accepting that the Dark Knight is "too large" to judge.
• Go out Behind a Pistol: Batman does this to General Briggs later Briggs confessed to him that he sold the Mutants weapons because the armed forces would not pay for the treatment for his dying wife. Batman just leaves the gun on the desk and walks out saying "Dainty way to end your career". As Batman makes his mode down the hall, a gunshot can exist heard.
• Lethal Chef: "If it's suicide you're after, I have an onetime family recipe..."
• Light Is Non Proficient: Joker wears a white suit to assume a good appearance of existence cured, only he is nevertheless the a sociopathic monster as e'er.
• Living Weapon: The U.S. government uses Superman as one.
• The Lopsided Arm of the Police: Averted in the offset half, as Batman helps the GCPD bargain with the Mutant Gang and the rest of the criminals while Gordon does his role. Downplayed later Yindel ascends every bit Commissioner and Batman is branded Public Enemy Number One, while still keeping The Joker in the same rank of priority, only ranking him higher when the Joker kills himself in a way which incriminates Batman. Then played direct when the Coldbringer nuke explodes, where Batman is a major gene in stopping Gotham from devolving into the lawlessness that affected the residual of America, and the government sends in Superman (with a hefty amount of National Guard support) to kill him for making them await bad .
• Major Injury Underreaction: Joker's only reaction, after getting hit in the eye with a batarang, is to enquire if Batman is out of his mind.
• Homo Bites Man: The Mutant Leader sinks his teeth into Batman's shoulder in their starting time fight, and rips out the Mayor's throat with his bare teeth later.
• Manipulative Bounder: The Joker has Wolper completely wrapped around his little finger.
• Meaningful Background Consequence: When Carrie Kelley offset puts on the Robin Costume in her room, we see a costume store bag on the floor, explaining where she got the outfit, and numerous medals and trophies from gymnastics competitions, explaining her abilities.
• Mook Horror Show: The film highlights this aspect of Batman every bit his inner dialogue in the original comic is left bated.
• Movie Multipack: It was initially divided into Role 1 and Part 2, though it was later released with both movies combined into a deluxe edition.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • Early on, a couple of Mutant gang members try this on Bruce. They leave without attacking because "he'due south into it", even as he starts trying to goad them into it.
  • In Role two, Bruno tries Shooting Superman.
• Mutual Disadvantage: In Batman'due south last fight with Superman, both are suffering from their own disadvantages; Superman is weakened from taking a nuclear blast to the face, along with the lack of sunlight from the fallout, and Batman is 50 years quondam using Powered Armor that, while able to elevator and swing around dozens of tons of weight, is still not enough to do any lasting damage to Supes.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Superman agrees to take out Batman because he'south agreed to submit himself to homo authority, no thing how flawed information technology is.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The rookie cop catches a glimpse of Batman and said "Did you come across that?". A line first spoken (also past a cop) in the beginning of "On Leather Wings", the first episode of Batman: The Animated Series, and the first entry of the DCAU.
    • For that matter, the rookie cop bears a resemblance to Terry McGinnis.
  • The rookie's eldest partner has a sort of Irish emphasis, like Main O'Hara.
  • Three songs of the soundtrack share their proper name with iii of the four comics of the original miniseries: The Dark Knight Returns, The Nighttime Knight Triumphant and Hunting the Night Knight.
• Neck Snap: During their showdown, Batman snaps the Joker's neck just enough to paralyze him, and the Joker manages to terminate the job himself by turning his head farther.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Carrie Kelley's parents, while non seen, sure sound this way every fourth dimension they talk.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The police are camped on the roof of the edifice hosting the Dave Endochrine show in social club to capture the Joker if he tries anything. Batman goes to the building also with the intent of stopping the Joker. Afterwards gassing 206 people, the Joker escapes because both Batman and the police become occupied with fighting each other on the roof.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Similar in the comic, the President (while not named) is, for all intents and purposes, Ronald Reagan.
• No Swastikas: Averted with Bruno, who still has her swastika-shaped tattoos over her breasts, but yet toned fashion downwardly from the comic: non but does she not accept the assless chaps that show off her also-swastika-covered buttocks, simply Rob and Don'southward armbands don't have swastikas on them like they practice in the comic.
• Noodle Incident: Oliver Queen lost his left arm in unspecified circumstances, simply it's strongly implied that Superman tore it off, as he wants some payback against the "schoolboy". An earlier conversation betwixt Bruce and Clark all but confirms this; Clark claims he didn't desire it to become that way, but "[Oliver]... made information technology necessary"
• No Plans, No Image, No Backup: Batman suggests that Superman is the most powerful and irreplaceable weapon that the Us Authorities has (and the only person who is really capable of stopping Batman), which is why Batman puts so much significance on defeating him.

  Superman: If it isn't me information technology volition just be someone else.
  Batman: Really? Who do they send afterwards you lot?

• Not So Invincible Later All: Batman proves this well-nigh Superman in the opening stages of their battle by making the Man of Steel bleed.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Carrie has a a couple of these:
    • When Bruno spots her and starts shooting at her.
    • When she catches that Superman knows Bruce is however alive.
  • Ane of Two-Face's goons is terrified to notice out that the bombs they're using to extort the city are real and counting down while he'southward in the blast range, saying it was supposed to be a bluff.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Batman vs. the Mutant Leader.
• One-time Cop, Immature Cop: 2 of the first people to witness Batman'south render to crimefighting are a grayness-haired cop who has met Batman in the past and his rookie partner, who admits that he never believed Batman was real earlier now. The older cop slows down their auto to watch Batman take downwards the criminals he's pursuing so shares a friendly chat with him, while the younger human being tries to abort Batman along with the crooks.
• Onetime Soldier: Many of these heroes but won't (or can't) retire:
  • Batman, who's now in his tardily 50s.
  • Commissioner Gordon, who's turning 70, and takes down a much younger Mutant who had the drib on him with a auto gun.
  • Alfred must be in his mid-to-belatedly 80'south, yet he's even so carrying on his butlering duties, and performing life-saving surgery on his boss when the need arises.
  • Ollie Queen, AKA Green Arrow, is presumably at least the same age as Batman and is missing an arm but yet kicks ass.
  • Superman is also around the same age as Batman, despite non looking it, and is still as powerful as ever... until he takes a nuke to the face.
  • And less sympathetically, the Joker too.

  "Oh don't tell me y'all're gonna fall comatose before we finish! You have gotten old!"

• 1-Homo Army: Superman'south fight against the Soviet forces attacking Corto Maltese really drives this home.
• Only Six Faces: The Mutants take a lot of members that look very like to each other. All of the Female Mutant members look and apparel exactly the same, even when Carrie was disguised as ane.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: The cover for the part one DVD is blue, while the cover for function ii is orangish. The films reverse this, with Part 1 by and large using orange colors due to having many sunset or torch-light scenes, while Part 2 uses a dark blue color scheme due to about of the film taking identify during a nuclear wintertime.
• Parental Neglect: Carrie's parents are this. It is quite obvious they are as well high to care what their daughter is up to. In fact they aren't even mentioned once more after she becomes Robin. It is all but stated that Bruce took her in. A scene cut from the comics shows one even asking "didn't we have a child?", suggesting they were not even aware that she existed.
• Perilous Old Fool: Alfred accuses Bruce of being ane.
• Police Brutality: Played with. The rookie cop strongly objects to Batman's clear use of excessive force, but his older partner brushes him off.
• Businesslike Adaptation: Batman's Private Centre Monologue is removed, with some of the more important or famous lines shifted into actual dialogue, and multiple scenes are reworked or relocated to help each motion-picture show have a Three-Act Construction.
• Production Foreshadowing: An blithe version of Batman fighting the Mutant Gang in the urban center dump was featured in the Batman: The Animated Series' episode Legends of the Dark Knight, 14 years earlier members of the aforementioned squad went on to produce these films.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I EAT! YOUR! Center!"
• "Psycho" Strings: When Joker wakes up.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Bruce realises this is the merely victory he tin achieve against Superman.
• "The Reason You Suck" Spoken communication:
  • Near the kickoff of Part i, Bruce gives one to himself in the merely preserved piece of internal monologue from the comic where he accuses himself of beingness pathetic, hollow and incomplete unless he embraces the bat one time again.
  • Practically everything Batman says to Superman in their final fight.
• Reckless Gun Usage: The Joker shoots in all directions while Batman chases him. If he aims at all, it'due south to hitting as many people as possible before he runs out of bullets.
• Red Eyes, Accept Alarm: The Mutant Leader has glowing cherry optics.
• Robot Kid: "Bobby" and "Mary", the flying, Joker venom-spewing, doll-shaped timebombs seem to have personalities of their own.
• Roof Hopping: Carrie'southward self-imposed training regimen so that she tin become an effective Robin.

  Carrie: Didn't suck!

• Surreptitious-Keeper: Superman figures out Batman is still alive. Carrie is clearly terrified when she realizes this, but Superman just winks and walks away.
• Run across You lot in Hell: Merely similar in the comic book, the Joker says this correct before he twists off his ain cervix in such a way that it looks like Batman killed him.
• Sequel Claw: Joker wakes up.
• Significant Haircut: Bruce shaves off his moustache, manifestly without even realising he'south washed so.
• Shaming the Mob: Gordon and Batman practice this to become the public fighting fires instead of each other.
• Share the Male Hurting: Not a groin assail, just the mutants clearly react this way when Batman breaks their Leader'southward leg.
• She's Got Legs: Carrie, whose outfit and fighting style really shows off her legs.
• Daze and Awe: In the climactic fight, Batman opens by electrocuting Superman with a gauntlet wired to Gotham's unabridged electrical grid.
• Shooting Superman:
  • "Bruno" tries information technology, with predictable results.
  • Carrie does this every bit well, but she fares a piffling improve since she is using a tank.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are four comics on the stand in the convenience store where Gordon shoots the 17-year onetime Mutant: Swamp Thing, The Sandman, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta.
  • The Tim Burton Batmobile from Batman (1989) makes a cameo as a weight Bruce uses to test his suit of Powered Armor out on.
  • Also there are some comics in the comic stand like the Justice League of America.
  • In the beginning when Bruce is on the racetrack, his racing helmet has a very distinctively shaped visor, because he is voiced past Peter Weller this is likely intentional.
  • The criminals that Batman chases in his first run across with the cops mention a "Turk" who boasted of killing Batman.
  • The first track of the movie is titled Gotham Urban center, 1986; a probable reference to the opening runway of Blade Runner: Los Angeles, 2019.
  • During Batman's initial strike confronting the mutants, i of them accidentally drops a grenade near others in a similar mode to i of the Persian magicians in 300.
  • The fear gas induced hallucination of Batman seen by i of Two Confront'southward henchmans is similar to a combination of Diablo'southward original and Prime Evil forms, this also works in some other level as Diablo is too known every bit "The Lord of Terror".
• Testify, Don't Tell: As function of the alter of mediums, Batman's inner dialogue is left behind while his fights are more fleshed out than in the original comic.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: News anchor Lola Chong is always seen wearing the aforementioned pink dress until afterward the nuclear bomb causes a prolonged wintertime with fewer heating utilities, at which point she starts wearing a long-sleeved shirt and vest.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Joker just spent the last 24 hrs killing at least over 300 people. The police force are more upset that Batman killed him (which he didn't).
  • The Russians only launched a nuke that sent the US into an early winter and knocked out all of the power for a skillful few months causing untold amount of deaths and damages. Their get-go order is to kill Batman for showing them up since he has actually kept order in his city.
• Slasher Smile: Carrie gets one when she is Shooting Superman with the Bat Tank.
• Slave to PR: The mayor insists on having a individual coming together to negotiate with the Mutant Leader because the polls evidence that the people think he should, even though he is clearly terrified and not much of a negotiator.
• Soft Drinking glass: Averted when Batman throws a mook through a window, then gives him a choice between haemorrhage to death from the resulting injuries or Batman taking him to the hospital if he talks.
• Spared past the Adaptation: Dr. Ruth Weisenheimer, merely because she doesn't appear on David Endochrine'south show forth with Joker and she isn't mentioned between the victims.
• Spiteful Spit: Although the Joker'due south death shocks him, Batman still spits in the face of his Curvation-Enemy afterward his death.
• Split-Personality Takeover: Played with.
  • Two-Face appears to have been taken over by his "night side", simply to have a death wish because of it.
  • Bruce Wayne meanwhile swears off offense fighting following Jason Todd's decease, only to become so disgusted with the world a decade later that he's consumed by his Batman persona again.
• Stand Your Ground: During the blackout, a group of citizens who discover themselves facing Mutant gang members who escaped from jail don't back downwards, but option upward axes, fire extinguishers, and the similar to fight back with before Batman arrives. Of course, the citizens are looters themselves, and then it isn't exactly a Blackness-and-White Morality situation.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: When Batman disappears in the eye of their conversation, the veteran cop grins and says, "Oh aye, now I call back."
• Stealth Pun:
  • Oliver shoots a glowing Greenish Pointer.
  • The former Catwoman now runs an escort bureau.
• Strawman Political:
  • Virtually all of the anti-Batman Talking Heads are portrayed equally fools like Dr. Bartholomew Wolper, Trolls who only rave Batman is a fascist stomping civil rights, or Hypocrites with no existent plans of their own to deal with Gotham's rising crime rates.
  • 1 of the people being interviewed gives a long speech about how we should strive to reintegrate criminals, and not revel in their misery, earlier scoffing that he would never live in the city.
• Glutinous Situation: Batman throws a pellet filled with an expanding, pasty substance straight into the Mutant Leader's face up at the end of their commencement fight.
• Stoners Are Funny: Carrie Kelley's parents.
• Suicide Mission: Bruce sees his last fight with Superman every bit this, so he makes information technology a Suicide Mission on his ain terms.

  Bruce: He'll yet be weak, between the nuke and and so footling sunlight. But how weak, we'll meet when he finds my kickoff surprise.
  Carrie: Yeah only, how long practice y'all expect to last against... him?
  Bruce: Long enough.
  Carrie: Dominate... I'thou trying to become the plan hither. I mean, yous gonna die tonight or what?
  Bruce: Figure I will.

• The Tag: In the terminal scene of Part 1, The Joker wakes up.
• Tank Goodness: This version of the Batmobile, as in the comic.
• Take That!: The Million Mom's coalition protesting Batman is a jab at One Meg Moms.
• Thanatos Gambit: Happens twice from two unlike characters. The starting time time is played utterly directly while the second fourth dimension is decidedly less so.
• Therapy Backfire: Dr. Wolper. His "help" drove Paring to be consumed by his dark side, and then gets him gruesomely killed by the Joker.
• 3-Act Construction: The construction of Part i, with each act being separated by Bruce having a new confrontation with his vision of a demonic bat.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Carrie and her friend Michelle.
• Besides Dumb to Live:
  • The Joker'southward reformation is and then obviously fake that anyone with half a encephalon could have seen through information technology. What practise the authorities practice? Allow the Joker on a famous television receiver show without any armed escorts most enough to stop him if he tries to impale anyone. Three guesses every bit to what happens.
  • The mayor locks himself alone in a tiny room with the behemoth that is the Mutant Leader. He clearly knows information technology's a bad idea, but thinks he has to considering "that's what the polls say."
• 2 Decades Behind: The picture show retains the comic volume's xx Minutes into the Future of The '80s setting, despite being fabricated 30 years later.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite Batman's deportment against the Mutants, many Gotham residents keep on saying that he'due south a nuisance or worse.
• Understatement: The President describes the Soviets as "mighty sore losers" when they launch a nuclear strike against the United States.
• Vampiric Draining: Superman is severely weakened to the betoken of near-expiry by a nuclear blast. He crashes onto an isle with a raging storm from the nuclear fireball higher up blocking out the sunlight which heals him and gives him his strength. He grabs a blossom and literally drains the solar energy stored in the surrounding plants and trees, causing them to wither and die.
• The Voice:
  • Carrie Kelley'southward stoner parents are heard, but never seen.
  • The woman talking to Bruce on the radio in the opening race is never seen either. In the comics it's Ballad Ferris, Hal Jordan'due south fiancée.
• Walking Shirtless Scene:
  • The Mutant Leader.
  • A rare female one with Bruno, with only Swastikas painted over her breasts.
• Weak, simply Skilled: Bruce, time has worn down much of his strength, only it never took his skills as a hero, this is further highlighted in his 2nd fight confronting the Mutant Leader.

  Mutant Leader: What was that?!

  Batman: Just the right cut in a higher place the middle, the kind that bleeds.

• We Win, Considering You Didn't: Batman'south strategy with Superman is to beat him equally soundly every bit possible using every fox he has, and then dice so that Superman can never turn the tables and win (equally he inevitably would).
• Wham Line: At the cease of Part one.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ellen Yindel disappears after Batman retakes Gotham during the blackout. Her final appearance is a blink and y'all miss it where she is at Bruce's funeral.
• Would Hit a Daughter:
  • Batman hits ane female Mutant in the face with the end of a burglarize, and shoots dozens more than with rubber bullets from inside his Bat Tank. In the second function, he also hits Bruno and Ellen Yindel.
  • The Joker also hits—and kills—several women in the 2d part.
• Would Hurt a Kid:
  • The mutant gang are explicitly referenced to have killed an entire family, children included, during the introductory function of the moving-picture show; later, a grouping was discussing repeating the deed after they get the ransom for a child they abducted before Batman intervenes.
  • Joker, as he happily gives out poisoned cotton candy to children.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Kid: One of the few things the Mutants didn't do... until recently.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: This is Dr. Wolper'due south character. Everything out of his oral fissure is just out there, with one of his statements beingness he thinks Batman is the sociopath and Joker is just a victim. Saying how wrong he is would just exist an understatement.

  Lana Lang: That'south the biggest agglomeration of bull I have ever heard.

• Verbal Backspace: The President is sending Superman to fight for American interests...err, freedom.
• Villainy Discretion Shot: The scene with the poisoned children was cut from the video; only the Joker passing out cotton processed is shown.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: Politicians and psychologists who try to deal with crime through negotiation or rehabilitation are portrayed as hopelessly naive. Batman's incredibly tearing methods spur an immediate drop in crime rates, and it's presented every bit a good thing when he inspires a moving ridge of vigilante violence in his wake.
• Your Television receiver Hates Yous: Bruce keeps getting either crime reports or the flick that was playing the night his parents were murdered.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns

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