Beam Everyone Out of the Hospital, Scotty
Let’s look a little closer at yet another aspect of Nolan’s “ultra-real” superhero movie:
The time period of the hospital evacuation segment is implied as being enough time to evacuate an entire hospital. The initial moments of The Joker’s threat hitting the airwaves, Gordon is heard shouting to various police crew to evacuate Gotham General Hospital as the priority (and it happens to be the one The Joker picked). Regardless, it’s implied that the whole ruckus about the hospital happened in less than 30 minutes since the Reese guy was about to go on a TV show to expose who Batman is (seems to imply a show teaser at the beginning of a 30 or 60 minute “news” show hosted by Gary Wallace from Weird Science). So, it’s IMPLIED as being enough time by the dialogue of the movie but in reality it would take HOURS, if not an entire day, to completely evacuate an entire hospital. If it was the case that there was such an evacuation ahead of time, and it was evacuated before The Joker went to Dent’s room, why was Dent not evacuated?
Why would Dent be the sole patient left (contrary to Gordon wanting desperately to keep Dent safe throughout the story)? The implication, then, is that the hospital is being evacuated at the same time The Joker shows up to Dent’s room. The entire exchange between The Joker and Dent took place over 2-3 minutes and when The Joker walks out of the hospital it appears to be fully evacuated.
An entire major city hospital evacuated in 3 minutes.
The realness of this movie is astounding. Not to mention how much the building actually looked like a hospital from the outside rather than an abandoned building in the middle of an industrial zone.
Filed under: Story/Plot Problems, Writing/Direction Tags: evacuation, Gary Wallace, gotham, hospital, Nolan, The Joker, Weird Science
Is this site for real? Do you guys really believe the shit that you say?
It’s really funny listening to people take themselves so seriously.
If you’re going for laughs with this, then good job.
This site is for real, all right. Can you dispute any of the points being made here? It is funny, but also true. In fact, it wouldn’t be so damned funny were it not true.
The only people taking anything SO SERIOUS are the critics and fanbois falling all over themselves to praise this movie as if were Citizen Kane.
Let’s get this straight. It is a superhero movie. Of the superhero movies that you’ve seen, how many come close to mirroring reality? I’m guessing not many. You are nitpicking the wrong things.
If you want something more realistic watch a documentary or just observe what goes in the world around you, read some history books, something.
Maybe, get a life.
This site is getting harder and harder to laugh at.
Though I’m in the mood for a good argument, so if you wanna keep going with this that’s fine too.
This is so incorrect it made me laugh hard.
Could a Hospital be evacuated in 60 mins…maybe, maybe not but where did you get 3 mins??? After the announcement they immediately start evacuation and A LOT happens before he blows it up. Gordon has to get to Reese, Bale blocks the car, then joker starts to talk.
So I would venture it was more like 40-60 minutes not 2-3. Nice try though.
Yeah… 3 minutes. The length of time Joker was in Dent’s room. Based on your logic, if the hospital was already evacuated or being evacuated then 1) what was Dent still doing in his room and 2) how did Joker just happen to stroll into a hospital with swarms of people running around who were in the process of “evacuating”?
Nice try though.
1.)Dent was still in his room because he was waiting to be evacuated, do you not remember the person that walks in to get him that gets gunned down by the joker?
2.)Why dont we try getting creative, since it IS a fantasy movie. Lets see, he could have walked in in the nurse outfit from the beginning but just kept his head down, with everyone running around with a set task to do and everything being chaotic, I dont think anyone would stop and say “hey, whats up with this nurse with her head down” or anything like that. Theres many ways he could have pulled it off, people have pulled off WAY crazier things in real life.
Jac, I think you’re onto something here. The Joker, after having broadcast to all of Gotham that he intended to blow up a hospital, somehow walks into a hospital unnoticed with police around the perimeter – a man with white/red makeup on his face wearing a nurse uniform. Nah, he wouldn’t have done that. He’d walk in wearing plain clothes – the only person walking IN to a hospital being evacuated, that wouldn’t look suspicious. Then he finds a nurse uniform and changes, then takes the time to put on his makeup, and then gets to Dent’s room BEFORE he’s evacuated.
Presume that’s how it happened, then the hospital was only started to be evacuated when he makes it into Dent’s room (why would Dent be evacuated LAST?). He was in Dent’s room for 3 minutes max before heading out to trigger the explosion. A later scene indicates the hospital was completely evacuated.
3 minutes.
If you want to keep holding onto the evacuation being done over a longer period of time, then explain why Dent was one of the last few people in the hospital (of not THE last) to be evacuated.
If dent was one of the LAST people in the hospital to be evacuated, why would it be unlikely that they would finish evacuating in that last 3 minutes? And I dont really know where your getting the “it was only starting to be evacuated when the Joker got in dents room” because it was all crazy, but then when the person went in to get dent and got shot by the joker, it was alot more calm, indicating the evacuation was almost over. And yes, Dent was a very important guy to be saving for last, but then again, Im not sure they would be picking favorites when a bomb is about to go off.
I found that there were plot holes in the film, but not with the scenario you have discussed here.
“Regardless, it’s implied that the whole ruckus about the hospital happened in less than 30 minutes since the Reese guy was about to go on a TV show to expose who Batman is (seems to imply a show teaser at the beginning of a 30 or 60 minute “news” show hosted by Gary Wallace from Weird Science).”
When the Joker called the GCN studios, he said he would destroy a hospital in one hour UNLESS Reese was killed. I assumed that he used the ensuing confusion to take advantage and get to Dent’s room. Gordon had made Gotham General his priority, so that’s likely where the majority of officers were sent.
Almost immediately after that dialogue, we see officers heading in to start herding people out. Dent was supposed to be one of the last to go. It looks as though the police had gotten most of the people out at least 5-10 minutes before the bombs went off. That’s why the one bus was still there at the end (for the Joker to get into). It was waiting for Dent, and it was the last bus to leave.
I think the Author seriously needs perspective. There were plot holes in TDK, but whats discussed here proves the this site’s credibility.
@ Alex Sahounov: Ummm, okay.
“When the Joker called the GCN studios, he said he would destroy a hospital in one hour UNLESS Reese was killed. I assumed that he used the ensuing confusion to take advantage and get to Dent’s room. Gordon had made Gotham General his priority, so that’s likely where the majority of officers were sent.
Almost immediately after that dialogue, we see officers heading in to start herding people out. Dent was supposed to be one of the last to go. It looks as though the police had gotten most of the people out at least 5-10 minutes before the bombs went off. That’s why the one bus was still there at the end (for the Joker to get into). It was waiting for Dent, and it was the last bus to leave.”
If Dent, and Gotham General were such a priority, wouldn’t it make sense to try to make Dent one of the FIRST ones out of the hospital? Where’s the logic in making him (one of) the LAST? Oh right, there is none.
The bus waiting for Joker was not “waiting for Dent.” That bus had been hijacked by Joker’s men, obvs.
Finally, 5-10 minutes before an impending explosion is cutting it close, brother. You’re toying with all notions of safety at that point.
@ Nate: You say …
“Let’s get this straight. It is a superhero movie. Of the superhero movies that you’ve seen, how many come close to mirroring reality? I’m guessing not many.”
I don’t mean to call you an idiot, but Nate, you’re an idiot. Nolan’s entire take on the Batman mythos is dependent on the idea that it takes place in a realistic world.
This site may be getting harder and harder to laugh at, but when it comes to people like you, it’s too easy.
3 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, it doesn’t matter, there is no way a major metropolitan Hospital could have been evacuated in such a short time. Are we forgetting that all the other hospitals in Gotham were being evacuated too, just there might have been more people at the one Joker was in? It may be hard to understand if you’ve never BEEN in a hospital before, but I have, more than a few times. Unless this major hospital was only 4 floors and had 2 wings, which is sort of what it looked like…
Hey Jay Fingers, I don’t mean to call you a dumb fuck, but you’re a dumb fuck.
It’s still a superhero movie. IT’S NOT BASED ON REALITY.
The Joker was so busy planting bombs all over the place when what he really should’ve done is blow up the Nolan brothers’ script.
But Harvey SHOULD have been the first person out of that hospital he was recovering from being nearly blown to bits by joker then the same guy says he is going to blow up hospitals a troop of officers should have been on hand to place the citys leading crime buster in a safer place. Im not one for plot hole analysis but this and the school bus plot is pretty silly when you really think about it.
To everyone who says it’s a superhero movie and thus doesn’t need to be realistic, try searching the words Christopher Nolan and realistic or real, and see how many hits you get. It’s the director/co-writer who has been telling anyone who will listen how ‘realistic’ his film is. But then when he needs to bend reality to make it not realistic and make his Swiss cheese plot work, then it’s not realistic, as tdksucks has pointed out.
You can’t have it both ways, Nolan.
Well for all of you saying the movie that Nolan aims to make is meant to be realistic so therefore the movie is allowed 0 fantasy elements whatsoever-a perfectly realistic batman movie, would not have batman in the movie, period. So shut the hell up. Its the most realistic superhero movie out there, and thats the whole purpose of it. If it was perfectly realistic, he would be wearing interceptor body armor, a black ski mask, and a tactical vest with pouches instead of a utility belt. But that would just be stupid, so yes, you can have both. It cant be realistic in every single way, i mean, come on, its only a fucking superhero movie, what the hell did you expect.
My god, this site is hilarious – although I doubt that’s its motive.
Dent was clearly in the process of being evacuated – Joker shot the orderly who came to get him out. And when a whole hospital is being threatened, no one is going to go rushing to a specific room – there are no favorites in a panic. Joker could have easily snuck in ahead of time, wearing a nurses outfit with the surgical mask was a realistic cover amidst the chaos.
By the by, a hospital could easily be cleared in under 30 minutes – maybe not the necessary equipment and pleasantries, but carting people out of building when a bomb threat is issued is indeed a fast task.
Oh, and stop with the “There were plot-holes in TDK, but not this” talk. A plot-hole is a issue with continuity in a film (e.g. A character who is killed is later shown to be alive without explanation). What this site is nit-picking is off-screen happenings and logical breaks in action set-pieces.
There are no plot-holes in TDK, or it wouldn’t be receiving the critical success it has so far been getting. There are logical lapses in action scenes and a couple editing flaws throughout, but no plot-holes.
Oh well, you can’t debate against the ignorant – and I’m confused to why i even try. I guess the biggest joke is the time being wasted by both writing this article (And indeed, the website) and replying to it. Oh well…
Why does Christopher Nolan keep posting under the name jac?
The problem with this movies realism is that it only seems to apply to the non-superhero aspects of the film. Stuff like gun fights, explosions and settings were realistic, but I can see that in any non-superhero movie.
When it came to the actual superhero elements we get totally unrealistic aspects like Joker’s luck in the bus scene, Harvey’s survivable face, the batpod wall flip (not to mention that square tires would be impossible to lean on), the sonar device (which also serves to detract from Batman’s detective abilities), etc…
When Nolan was touting this film as being realistic, I thought he was going to take the unrealistic superhero aspects and make them more realistic. But he just looked at the source material and used anything that was already realistic and didn’t put much effort into making the superhero aspect more realistic.
“If Dent, and Gotham General were such a priority, wouldn’t it make sense to try to make Dent one of the FIRST ones out of the hospital? Where’s the logic in making him (one of) the LAST? Oh right, there is none.
The bus waiting for Joker was not “waiting for Dent.” That bus had been hijacked by Joker’s men, obvs.
Finally, 5-10 minutes before an impending explosion is cutting it close, brother. You’re toying with all notions of safety at that point.”
Well, sir, you must listen to the dialogue just before the officer goes in to get Dent. You can hear one of the officers say, essentially, “We have enough room for him in here.” You must also keep in mind that Dent was being kept in a guarded room where none of the patients could see him. Remember, no one has any reason to suspect he was injured (badly enough to be strapped to a bed). Given that he had just been the target of an attempt on his life, it’s common sense to bring him out under guard and away from the rest of the patients.
The bus was there waiting for him, but it looked to me like it HAD to pull away at the last minute. You can see Mike Engel and the GCN news team jump into the bus when it’s exploding (as the Joker walks out). You can also see that everyone in the bus is sitting down when the Joker jumps in through the back door (it looks like he sits down as well).
the film is good but overhyped
the site is funny but no need
the site will be forgotten in a few weeks time unfortunately
merry xmas
What makes you think that anybody was thinking about evacuating Dent last? Dent had a sentry at the door who the Joker clearly disposed of (we have an unanswered call on the radio from the police officer outside who promptly gets shot in the chest when he checks things out) which means it is also possible (and more than likely since it’s obvious the joker has no qualms about killing women, children, the elderly, or any other kind of person) that the joker disposed of any doctors and nurses who were tending to him to begin with, which would eliminate any possibility of Dent getting out of the hospital with the rest of the crowd.
Now, if you argue that somebody would have noticed that Dent wasn’t out first, then yes, you may be right, somebody might have noticed he was missing long before the building exploded. However, there is also a chance that nobody would have been able to act on that knowledge due to the fact that the people coordinating the evacuation are public servants and therefore are required by their duties to the public to serve the immediate needs of the hundreds of other people trying to escape the impending explosion which would understandably distract them from saving an idealistic symbol they don’t fully recognize in the first place. There are, in fact, only 2 people whose moral alignments would have permitted them to focus primarily on the safe retrieval of Harvey Dent without endangering their positions: Batman and Rachael Dawes. And since Rachael Dawes is clearly out of the picture at this point in the story, that leaves batman, who is 1) rushing around IDing police officers with family members in Gotham Hospitals, and 2) not able to risk coming out in full batman gear in broad daylight. This all serves to show that it is, in fact, possible for Harvey Dent to have been in the hospital up until the very moment of the explosion without violating the “reality” of TDK.
oh wow… you guys are ingenious – first of all i just want to know where you got your information -
i wasnt aware that nolan had shown that everyone in the hospital had gotten out, or any headlines that read afterwards that no one was killed.
and as for dent being the last one out – he wasn’t – he was looked for first – the guy was simply killed. now why didnt they send in another person when they guy didnt come back with dent? …. hmmm, maybe they did, and the joker killed them? or dent killed them? or maybe the men that were supposed to go in and get dent were maroni’s men, and chose not to… or maybe they didnt know whether he had gotten out or not, and didnt want to risk their lives going in and looking for him. Sooo… i guess if you can prove exactly what happened, then you’d have a point, but if you’re just guessing what happened… you’re just guessing that nolan made a mistake, and you’re just guessing that the hospital scene doesnt make sense… my best guess about that is that you’re an idiot – a movie never shows everything that happens if it did you would sit there for hours while it explained stupid pointless things to make the story absolutetly complete – if you want something like that go read a book moron.
my guess is you’re just saying stuff to get some of the attention the dark knight has gotten for you… just hoping someone will listen to whatever it is you have to say.
“i wasnt aware that nolan had shown that everyone in the hospital had gotten out, or any headlines that read afterwards that no one was killed.”
A character is heard saying later in the movie that it’s a good thing the hospital was completely evacuated.
1. how come The Joker left the prison IN THAT WAY? Do you really leave one cop INSIDE the jail with the criminal???? With open doors??? Oh… maybe The Joker is able to unlock doors with his knife while holding the guy… pretty strong…kkkkkk. This is cheese! They should have created another way of The Joker leave the prison!
2. how come Harvey Dent is left ALONE in a hospital room, being him THAT important, without even a cop outside the door? How come NOBODY thought that The Joker would go for him? And How come everybody was taken from the Hospital, but Harvey, the man THAT IMPORTANT, was left there alone and THE LAST ONE. Don’t come with the “he was waiting to be evacuated” because it is crap. In the REAL world, important and/or rich people are never the last one to be evacuated (remember Titanic). This is cheese!! They should have left at least one cop outside his door, even if it was for The Joker to kill him!! I think that if you want to do a REALISTIC movie, you have to be realistic. This two plot compromises the rest of the movie. Did the people who wrote and direct the movie have ever watched a policy movie, tv show… or whatever? They should have seen Vantage Point… that was a really spectacular police script!
Why they did not think to make The Joker go for Harvey in the ambulance or something?? It would be much more credible.
You guys are hillarious…. ya know what? how did the joker get to be the joker? thats not realistic a guy just appeared out of thin air, and appears in the street? Nolan should have done his homework on that one… no one can just appear out of nowhere!
And they didnt show how jim gordon got home the night he came back to visit his wife and family… did he take a car? was he escorted? he just appears in front of the doorstep… Nolan – completely unaware that people need devices of transportation to get from one place to the next… people dont just appear places… god this movie sucked -
Hey tdksucks – ive seen the movie four times – i have yet to hear anything about who survived the hospital scene, and who didnt – only the fact that harvey is missing.
cll – you’re an idiot – just because nolan doesnt show you that there was a cop outside dents door – (which he actually does when gordon visits him) doesnt mean he wasnt there when the joker got there – maybe that cop was working for maroni… maybe the joker threatened him by killing his family… once again, the only discredit you can give this movie is guessing – im guessing that they just put a cop in prison with the joker to give him some company – keep guessin morons – you can do the same thing with any movie -
tdksucks – Yeah… 3 minutes. The length of time Joker was in Dent’s room.
yep cause nolan showed this movie in real time – the whole story was really only two and a half hours – another nolan mistake, in 2 1/2 hours it shows time going between day and night and day and night again – that’s typical of nolan – guy’s just a moron… a multi-millionaire moron- i hope his attempt at intelligent movie making never gets the money that spectacular movies such as star wars 1-3, titanic, and pirates of the carribean get… those movie were flawless…
hey tdksucks or ccl, whats your guys’s favorite movie…
i’d love to see it have as much of a scope, or even half as intelligent as this film was.
The bottom line is that Joker can do anything at anytime to anyone. He’s unstoppable, omniscient, invincible, omipotent, etc. until the end.
That’s very ‘realistic.’
actually it shows why the guards are not present when the joker gets there, there were two security guards outside dents door, but when everything first got chaotic inside the hospital, a doctor/nurse runs up to them and says “were gonna need your guys help” so they both leave to help her get people out of the hospital
and then you see one of the two guards return to get dent out, but the joker is already in there and shoots him
yeah high C – completely invincible -
thats why he got caught by the cops, thats why he got beat up by batman…. hell batman is omniscient, omnipotent, etc… too… so is lucius fox, he doesnt even get HURT the entire movie – and i want even begin with alfred – that old of a man hookin up with a whole bunch of russian girls… Nolan seems to think those british can do just about anything.
Ok, this is a load of carp. the joker had obviously shot the orderly who was assigned to evacuate harvey. so harvey could well have been the first one who was evacuated (which you all expect he would be) except for the jokers interference. and it was obvious that the evacution had taken longer than 3 mins. the doctors got dents guards to help evacuate and leave their posts (which isn’t very smart of them, true, but ppl do dumb things under stress). later, one of the guards came back and said “ma’am we really need to go now” or something like that. which would imply that he was getting nervous because some time had passed. time would have passed because he was helping in the evacuation, so that shoots your 3 mins arguement to bits tdksucks. and an evacutation wouldn’t be that hard. If you leave behind all peronal effects and such, its a matter of ppl and the odd life support system (and i do beleive there are portable life support equipment). they could close up people who they were operating on (not “close up” close up. Just cover the open wounds as best you can and evacuate. actually, those ppl would have priority in evacution, so there would be a focus on evacuating them extra fast) they would obviously arrange ambulances for those who desparately need medical attention, and clear them first. Another reason why harvey might not have been removed first, he was relatibely stable.
Guys, why so serious?
What happened, your balls drop off? Hmm?
You guys, are like dogs chasing cars… All this stuff about TDK plotholes, you wouldn’t even know what to do if you caught them. You just… do things…
So let me upset the status quo.
Introduce a little anarchy…
This is the most realistic film about anything you’ll ever watch anywhere ever…
period.
It is so realistic that a motorcycle can come out of a Lamborghini-Tank-Hybrid, a man can drive up walls, and go gliding around Hong-Kong, fighting a guy dressed not dissimilarly to a clown.
RE Harvey in the Hospital- the Joker didn’t let Harvey go, Harvey flipped to coin, he LET the Joker walk and then he himself walked out of the joint, same as when he dived out of Moroni’s vehicle…
The hospital was evacuated, with majority of people being placed onto the yellow schoolbuses and an assortment of similar transportation
Where did the Joker come from? He was one of the nutters that escaped from Arkham Asylum in the Narrows and over the bridge before the cops raised it, when R’as Al Ghul and Scarecrow were raising hell in Batman Begins. There is a possibility his real name is Melvin White, as was matching the fingerprints pulled from the bullets.
Want to know how I got these scars?
Some internet users are… overly fanatical… and fiends… One day I was sitting in front of a computer, then ran into a website about why a certain film sucked. I looked at the the site and asked “Why take it so serious?”
okay enough with the less- than subtle Joker quotes
heehahahhahahhahhaahaahahhaa…
It was all part of the plan…
It’s an amazing movie if you just remember to enjoy it.
By the way the site, it wasn’t cheap.
You should know, you bought it!
hahaha
nice site yoo whats your next project going to be??
EVERYONE PLEASE STOP. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
You can take any single movie EVER created and tear it apart like this and you cynical bastards will get results. Everyone who enjoys movies and doesn’t have to take them apart like this and say they are a disgrace for some understandable mistakes stray away from this place.
This website is an absolute joke and no movie is ever perfect, especially in the points you are discussing.
Diddyman their next site will probably be listing the flaws of the world and how to improve upon perfect guides.
i didnt really take the time to read everybodies comments, so if i am repeating someone elses words, i apologize. tdksucks, i think what the problem is, is that some people, including yourself i gather, think that Nolan was going for a COMPLETELY REAL AND BELIEVABLE Batman series. i haven’t talked to the guy so i wouldn’t know, but i think what he was really going for was a MORE REALISTIC Batman series. previous Batman movies had brainwashed penguins, women getting shot in the head and surviving, mind control and whatnot, and several other very unrealistic things. Nolan wanted to make Batman MORE realistic than it has been before, not necessarily COMPLETELY realistic. if he wanted to make a Batman movie completely realistic, he would have named it “One Man’s Attempt to Take Down Organized Crime.” not very catchy. there has to be that aspect of fantasy in a movie based off of a comic book. whether it involves a hospital being evacuated in a short amount of time, or an eye that is seemingly impervious, or getting explosives places with no one noticing them, it has to be there.
to reiterate, Nolan i think wanted to make the characters and situations in his Batman series more believable than previous versions. i believed this version of Two-Face more (Tommy Lee Jones just looked silly, to be frank), i find the new Batman mroe realistic (sorry, but michael keaton just didn’t cut it for me. or val kilmer or george clooney.), and i find the new Joker more believable (a permanent smile as the result of a ricocheted bullet going through your cheeks that somehow didnt kill you but you got plastic surgury that pulled your lips back, is more unlikely i think than someone having a Glasgow Smile (Chelsea Grin)). the characters arent COMPLETELY real. im not arguing for that. im just saying they are MORE real than previous versions of them
I’m confused as to why every one thinks it would take so long to evacuate a building, did it take you guys more than a day, hour or even 30 mins to evacuate your schools during fire drills?? Do you think hospitals fire plan is to leave everyone in there to burn to death?? 5 minutes to evacuate a hosptial…and that’s probly too lonng of an estimate