Two-Face (Nolanverse)

“	You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.	„
	~ Harvey Dent's most famous quote, also foreshadowing his transformation into Two-Face.

“	The world is cruel. And the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased... unprejudiced... fair.	„
	~ Harvey Dent as he rants about his own vigilantism as "Two Face".

Harvey Dent, later known as Two-Face, is the tritagonist-turned-secondary antagonist of the 2008 superhero film The Dark Knight, the second installment of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Ra's al Ghul) of it's 2012 sequel The Dark Knight Rises.

He was portrayed by Aaron Eckhart, who also played James Rethrick in Paycheck.

Biography[]

Before Two-Face[]

Upon being elected as Gotham City's district attorney, Harvey Dent dedicated himself to ridding the city of organized crime, being revered by the public as their "White Knight". His crusade against crime ultimately led him to crossing paths with The Joker, who plunged Gotham into chaos. The Joker knew Batman's connection to Dent and Rachel Dawes, his fiancée, so he kidnapped them both and strapped them to two time bombs, telling Batman their locations, but only giving him a shorten amount of time to save one. Batman chose Rachel, but when he got there, he found Dent instead.

Transformation[]

When the Joker's bombs went off, Rachel was killed, and the left side of Dent's face caught fire (due to being saturated in gasoline in his attempt to escape), leaving him hideously disfigured. In the hospital, a grief-stricken Dent refused all medical help, and embraced the police's disparaging nickname for him, "Harvey Two-Face".

The Joker visited Dent disguised as a nurse and convinced him to take revenge on the people he held responsible for Rachel's death, including his former allies Police Commissioner Jim Gordon and the masked vigilante known as "The Batman".

Now convinced that life was nothing but chance, he made decisions based on a flip of his lucky silver dollar, one side of which had been burned in the explosion.

Two-Face learned that one of the cops in Gordon's unit, Wuertz, was corrupt and had given him over to the mob. He found Wuertz in a bar and flipped the coin for the detective's life; when it landed scarred side up, Two-Face shot and killed him.

Two-Face then confronted Gotham's reigning mob kingpin Sal Maroni, who told him that another corrupt officer, Anna Ramirez, had kidnapped Rachel. Two-Face then flipped the coin which landed good heads for Maroni, but bad heads for his driver, whom Two-Face then shot and killed. The car flipped over, presumably killing Maroni.

Finally, Two-Face confronted Ramirez, who begged forgiveness and said she had only done the mob's dirty work to pay her mother's hospital bills. Unmoved, Two-Face flipped the coin, which came up good heads; Two-Face spared her life, knocking her unconscious instead of shooting her. Two-Face then kidnapped Gordon's wife, daughter and son, and called Gordon to have him meet him at the building where Rachel died.

Death[]

Two-Face planned to take revenge on Gordon by killing the person he loved most: his son. As Gordon pleaded for the boy's life, Batman showed up and told him to "judge the people responsible". Two-Face decided to flip for Batman, himself, and Gordon. Two-Face shot Batman through the stomach when the coin landed on bad heads. He then flipped for himself, he spares himself when the coin came up on good heads. After he decided to continue judging Gordon's son, Two-Face flipped the coin. Before he could decide the fate of Gordon's son, Batman, who was wearing body Armor, tackled Dent off the ledge of the roof, to his death.

Legacy[]

Batman decided to take the blame for Dent's crimes in order to preserve Dent's image as a hero and give the people of Gotham something to believe in. Dent's death was used to create a new law dubbed the "Dent Act", which gave law enforcement enhanced powers to prosecute criminals. The Dent Act all but eradicated crime in Gotham City, leading to eight years of prosperity and peace. However, Gotham was soon under the threat of a revolutionary terrorist leader known as Bane and his army called the League of Shadows - whose late founder Ra's al Ghul had sought to destroy Gotham upon believing the city to be corrupt and illegitimate beyond any restoration. When Bane found out about Dent's murderous activities, he used it to take advantage of the League of Shadows' crusade against Gotham. The fact that Gordon covered up resulted in many citizens and criminals alike inciting a riot. This event also resulted in several consequences for Gordon. His wife left him; likely because she wanted to keep their children safe. Furthermore, John Blake - one of Gordon's greatest supporters- lost faith after hearing the truth.

But then Batman resurfaced and, after defeating both Ra's vengeful daughter Talia along with Bane himself went on to foil the League of Shadows' plan by apparently sacrifices his life to save Gotham City from a nuclear explosion; in reality, Wayne had actually his death and presumably living under a new identity. Batman had thereafter went on to become remembered as the savior of Gotham City, while the Dent act was eliminated and Dent's legacy had thus been tarnished due to the extent of his murderous crimes.

Quotes[]

"RACHEL!"
"No. No you're not. Not yet."
"Your men. Your plan."
[showing the clean side of the coin] "You live." [showing the burned side of the coin] "You die."
"Going to join your wife? You love her? You ever imagine what it would be like to listen to her die?"
"The Joker's just a mad dog. I want whoever let him off the leash. I took care of Wuertz, but who is the other man inside Gordon's Unit? Who picked up Rachel? Must have been someone she trusted."
"Can't hurt your chances."
"I said it couldn't hurt your chances." [flips the coin; it lands clean side up] "You're a lucky man." [flips again; it lands bad side up] "But he's not." (Maroni: Who?) [buckles himself in] "Your driver..."
"You wouldn't dare try to justify yourself if you knew what I lost. Have you had to talk to the person you love most? Tell them it's gonna be alright. When you know it's not. Well...you're about to know what it feels like, Gordon. Then, you can look me in the eye and tell me you're sorry."
"So, is it your wife?"
"We have a winner."
"You brought the cops?"
"You think I wanna escape from this? There IS no escape from this."
"It's not about what I want. It's about what's FAIR! You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time! But you were wrong. The world is cruel and the only morality in a cruel world is CHANCE. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair. His son's got the same chance she had. 50/50."
"Then why is it ME who was the only one who LOST EVERYTHING?"
"The Joker chose ME!"
"And he was right."
"Fair enough. You first."
"My turn."
"I'm about to. Tell you're boy he's gonna be alright. Lie. Like I lied." (last words before meeting his demise)
"Remember that name you all had for me when I was at Internal Affairs? What was it, Gordon?" (Gordon: Harvey, I...), "Say it. SAY IT!", "(Gordon: Two-Face. Harvey Two-Face).".

Trivia[]

Two-Face had a slogan called "I believe in Harvey Dent".
Matt Damon, Josh Lucas, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Phillippe, Hugh Jackman and Mark Ruffalo were all considered for the role before Aaron Eckhart was cast.
To prepare for the role, Aaron Eckhart studied what happens psychologically with victims of burns.
Aaron Eckhart said he felt that law enforcement officials like Harvey Dent "love the law, but they're constrained by the law".
His alias "Harvey Two-Face" was never adopted by himself, it was only mentioned by Gordon. On the other hand, Aaron Eckhart always called Harvey Dent's alter-ego Harvey Two-Face as he feels a bit of Harvey Dent still remains in Two-Face.
It's unclear as to what Gordon meant at the end of film when he mentioned two of the people Harvey killed were cops. It's possible that he meant the two cops guarding his family before Harvey kidnapped them. He most likely didn't count Michael Wuertz because either a) he was corrupted so Gordon didn't care enough to do so or b) Wuertz most likely retired from the force after receiving his money from the mob, so therefore he was no longer a cop.
- However, it's also possible Gordon meant the black cop whom Joker killed in Harvey's room in the hospital and Wuertz. Then Gordon included the bodyguard who Harvey grabs while entering Sal Maroni's car, the driver of the car and Harvey himself as the 3 other dead. Overall, Two-Face has only 2 confirmed victims in this movie - Wuertz and Maroni's driver.
Despite being the secondary antagonist, Two-Face became the final antagonist of the film for Batman to face after Joker's defeat.
Dent and Talia al Ghul were the most personal villains for Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Trilogy. Dent represented the idealistic version of Batman, which doesn't need a cape and gadgets to cleanse the city from the criminals. At the same time, Talia was an anti-Batman. Basically she in The Dark Knight Rises is Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins if he drowned down in his desire to avenge his parents' deaths and agreed to lead the League of Shadows' crusade against Gotham. Ultimately, both Talia and Dent are the only villains which were killed by Batman himself.
Aaron Eckhart believes that had he survived the events of The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent would have spoken to the citizens of Gotham City about his transformation on Two-Face rather than keeping the truth like Batman and Gordon did through the Dent Act.

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