The Christopher NolanBatmanDark Knight trilogy took its own creative spin on the caped crusader and despite where you stand on Christian Bale’s gravelly voice, there’s a lot to love about them. From Heath Ledger’s first and last outing as perhaps one of the greatest, if not in the top three Jokers. To some great moments of cinematography, and action set-pieces on big practical sets.
The stories between the trilogy do vary in quality, but everyone’s got their favorite line, scene, or screenshot from the films that are memorable. It’s also a Batman that doesn’t kill, technically. Unlike whatever it was that Zack Snyder tried to do, Nolanverses Bruce isn’t lethal but he does bring a lot of collateral damage. So for fun, it’s worth looking at all the times in the Nolan trilogy that someone could have died through Batman’s actions.
Warning: Spoilers For The Dark Knight Trilogy Below
Does Batman Have A Body Count In The Dark Knight Trilogy?
Technically Batman in the Nolan movies does have a body count, but it’s onlythe two leaders of the League Of Shadows: Talia and Ra’s Al Ghul.Ra’s is crushed in a Train crashthat was carrying a microwave emitter bomb whilstTalia breaks her spine in a truck crashcarrying a Nuclear Bomb.
However,none of the henchmen or goons get a gruesome end, outside of the occasional broken bone and concussion of course. So our look at the Nolan verse is going to include every time Batman was involved in a scene and there are a few moments,especially when vehicles are involved, that Bruce could have left quite a trail of bodies behind him.
Batman Begins
Starting off strong we have Batman Begins,the start of the Nolan Trilogy,and a banger of a movie right out of the gate that had some excellent casting and an intriguing yetclassic Batman origin story. We’ll be skipping through things until we find a spot where it gets physical and potentially lethal for everyone involved,especially Bruce.
So to start things off, our first potential corpse comes atthe three-minute mark. We’ve seen tiny Bruce fall down the well before we hard cut to adult Bruce in a Chinese Prison. He’s approached bya very large Asian manwho tells him he’s in hell and that he is the Devil, whilst Bruce remarks that no,the big lad is just practice, before smacking him right inthe Brain Pan with a metal tray.
Now, he’s bum-rushed by a group immediately after, butthe big guy isn’t seen again so he could easily have some concussion or brain damageor a bad burn from falling over the hot cooking stall that Bruce kicked him over. The health care in a prison that run-down probably isn’t the best, so anyinfections from the wounds Bruce deals outare probably going to begangrenous if not fatal.
From there Bruce is jumped bythe big guy’s cohorts; there are about six of them and we see himsnap one prisoner’s leg— again poor healthcare and infections are probably not going to help their recovery. The rest of the group gets theirbutts kicked by Bruce before the fights are broken up by armed guardsand Bruce is chucked into solitary. We’re three minutes in andthe body count is at two so far.
Bruce is told that he’s beingput away as protection for the other prisonersand it’s implied that this isn’t his first brawl that left a lot of guys on the ground and badly bruised.
Because of the wayBatman Begins timeline jumps around, we’ll just be tallying the bodies as the movie shows them to keep things somewhat coherent.
A Visit From Ra’s Al Ghul
Bruce is met by Ra’s Al Ghul in his celland from there he starts to look into the League of Shadows. We don’t get any more violence for a while as it’s mostlyBruce Wayne trying to track down the Leagueand then training to become better at punching people and how to use Fear as a weapon.
He’s mainly fighting Ra’s at this point, but it’s aone-sided montage with Young Bruce origin story flashbacksuntil the big showdown on the ice. Speaking of, it’s an odd choice for your potential “Chosen One” to beaccidentally murdered whilst sparring with real swordsin an incredibly unstable and dangerous area.
Ra’s could have easily killed Bruce when hedrops into a cragafter Ra’s bonks his sword lightly on the ground.Crevices are known to be miles deep, and Bruce is shownshivering with hypothermiaafter getting out of it so there was water under there as well. That easily could have been the end of Batman before he even began. But wewouldn’t have a movieif that happened.
It’s Rewind Time
We’re back inFlashback County USAright after this so we’ll skip ahead to more violence.
During the Flashback it’s shown thatBruce intends to shoot his parents' murderer Joe Chill, but a random woman in the Courthouse beats him to it. Scratch off onemissed opportunityfor Batman’s kill count.
Worth mentioning is that during the flashbacksBruce throws his gun off the Gotham docks. We never see where it goes, but if you’re a cynic you could assume there may have beensomeone fishing there or a homeless person hanging outand if that gun hit them on the head and caused them to fall into the river,we got another body.
Our next big moment for a potential kill count comes whenBruce is going through his Fear Initiationwith the League of Shadows. Ra’s makes himinhale the smoke of a flowerand then hides amongst other Ninja.
Now, Bruce handles the Fear Toxin pretty well, but we see in the movie thatother people really, really don’t.
For example, Gordon’s partnerdraws his gun on some kidswhen he’s spooked on Fear Toxin. Bruce doesn’t have a gun, but he is atrained Ninjaby this point and if he had a “Bad Trip” he could have easily gone nuts and murdered at least16 or more Ninjas in a Fear Toxin-induced panicsince Ra’s continues to attack and provoke Bruce during his hallucination.
The League Burns Down
On the topic of the League asking for murder, to finish his initiation Bruce has tomurder a farmerto prove his “Commitment to Justice”. He does refuse, but wenever see that poor tied-up man againwhen the whole League of Shadows Headquartersburns down and explodesafter Bruce starts a fire, so he’s probably dead.
Along with every member of the League still inside, which isat least 22 peopleas we see multiple members lying on the ground and not moving during the climatic scene.
Another confirmed “death” we get onscreen is ofthe fake Ra’s Al Ghulwho has a large part of a burning ceiling fall on top of him whilst dueling with Bruce. We also get astill close-up shot of his faceto show that he is, in fact, dead.
For those keeping score, we’re40 minutes in and the body count is 26.
The League of Shadows detonates and it’s a big building so there were probably even moreNinjas, staff, peasants, and prisonersthat we didn’t see getting immolated, crushed, or blown into tiny gooey bits just off camera. But we’ll not count those as there’sno way to prove for surehow filled with people the hideout was.
We have anotherdisputable potential deathas Bruce and the real Ra’s (Liam Neeson) hang from an ice-covered cliff. Liam’s out cold andBruce is hanging on with a gauntlet, but that could have easily been another death.
If Bruce hadn’t been doing his upper arm workouts orthe Gauntlet didn’t catch, or the ice and snow weren’t providing grip, off he goes. But he’s not due to die yet aswe need an antagonistfor the rest of the movie.
Bruce Wayne Is Batman
We’ll be skipping ahead again as it’smostly worldbuilding, creating the Batsuit, and so on. The next meat-slapping scene where Batman can add to his tally comesaround an hour inwhen Bruce goes out as Batman for the first time and tries tointerrupt a shipment of Falcone’s.
We see the usual thing ofBatman grabbing guys into darkness, quick cuts of brief takedowns and it’s lovely and horror-filled. But there’snothing that could be classed as lethal, hospital visit and a potential night in ICU, but nothing fatal. That isuntil we get to Falcone himself, Batman grabs him out of his sunroof and then headbutts him.
Now, a headbutt may not seem lethal, butBatman’s cowl can stop knives, baseball bats, and direct shots from bullets— that’s a very solid object. Plus Falcone isinstantly out cold with one hit, so it’s implied that there was a lot of compressed force put into that smack. Hits that hard to the brain thatrender it unconsciousare never good. Especially in the long term.
After an injury like that you’re lucky to walk away with a concussion, let aloneminor brain damage, a cracked skull, a bleed, asubdural hematomaforming from the trauma on the brain, or you just maynot wake up at all. Thankfully Falcone does come around, but that’s after beingmoved across town and strapped to a signal light, still unconscious, for what’s probably been a few hours.
A scene immediately after this hasBatman appearing to Rachael whilst battering one of two mafia thugssent to silence her. One runs, but wenever see what happened to the body of the other guy. He’s just gone. Perhaps Brucetossed him over the sidebefore striking his menacing pose?
On The Trail Of An Investigation
We’ve gotmore world-buildingafter that though before our next potential corpse comes in the form ofGordon’s partner Flassin a scene that’s familiar from Blade 3. Batman gets Flass in a Leg Snare Trap whichwhips him up several stories to the rooffor Batman to interrogate him. What follows is ayo-yo-ing of the very large and rotund corrupt coptoward the ground and back up again.
Now, that tether has to be pretty darn strong tosupport all that weight of the actor Mark Boone Jrin the first place, let alone bungee him up and downa drop that’s at least five or six stories tall. If it were to snap, the detective would have turned into agore-filled abstract art installationon the ground. So that’sanother body on the pilefor Batman.
Late Night Visits At Arkham Asylum
Atone hour and 27 minutes,we have Batman ambushing the League of Shadows before using a henchmans gun toshoot another goon in the footat Arkham Asylum. This one couldcount as a two-feras not only is the one doing the shootingused as a human shieldand could have been potentially shot, but the guy who gets it in the foot could havebled out.
We then see another mercenarygrapple hooked into the darknessto a very high spot where he just disappears. Now, Bruce could have dropped him or those wild shots could easily havehit anyone in the water pipe roomthat just a few minutes ago was shown to be full of people,mercenaries and inmates alike.
Right after that Batman appears anduppercuts a guy down some stairs, so we can check off a broken neck for that one. Doctor Crane also gets anasty whack to the head off the edge of a concrete pathwaycourtesy of Batman and we know already what a bout oftrauma-induced unconsciousnesscan cause.
After the encounter we getBatman escaping from the policeusing Bats and explosives. It’s worth mentioning this scene briefly as Batman goes through asmall cell with two men in itbefore chucking an explosive that’s as small as his palm but big enough to blast throughthick brickwork and pipes.
Those two inmates are dead, theconcussive force of the explosivein that small sealed room would have either turned them into chunks or given themsevere internal damage. Think the same effects of anRPG Rocket Launcher fired in a small roomand you’re about halfway there.
The First Car Chase Of The Trilogy
Immediately after that, Batmandrives his Batmobile over a police carthat we’re shown has two officers in it. The Tumblercrushes the roof and the bonnet flat— if those cops didn’t move fast enough they would have been pancaked. So add anothertwo to the tallybecause now we’ve got a car chase going on.
During the chase we see the Batmobiledrive through a bus stop, which easily could have people in it as he goes through Gotham at top speed. He could have hit a pedestrian and annihilated them at any time.
Luckily he doesn’t but we’ll add anotherthree corpses to the listbecause another Police car plows into a barrier during the chase with enough speed tobend the metal protective barrier. There’s also one thatflips after he drops minesand another thatpirouettes into a smashed messwith another highspeed barrier collision.
Whilst youcould argue the police are finesince they didn’t show the Officers dead. The velocity they went into those flips is enough to warrantserious injury if not months in the ICU.
Showdown With The League Of Shadows
Now fast forward to the climactic showdown as the stakes get raised.The Fear Toxin is in the waterand the Microwave Emitter is on its way to themain water supply, but there’s still a small tally of bodies to take. The criminals from the Asylum are loose,The Narrows is dosed in Fear Toxinand it’s a bad time to be there.
The body count is fairly small as we close things out, though probablya lot of people died in the scuffles in The Narrows, Batman technically wasn’t at fault for that one. Our next two kills we see are when Batmanthrows one Ninja off a several-story drop, followed by riding a second down onto their head.
So we can scratch two bad guys and anunfortunate civilian that was hanging onto Batmanas he grappled onto Ra’s Al Ghul’s escaping train.
Finally, we have Ra’s himselfdying on a speeding monorail as it derails spectacularlyoutside of Gotham City’s Central Water Hub. That’s adefinite kill, plus whoever gets caught in the crumbling wreckage that travels for at least a block as itsmashes down into an underground parking garagebefore exploding in a massive fireball.
It’s implied it’s empty, but there could easily be a few people in their cars, milling around, or ahomeless person seeking shelterthat’s pancaked by a train. So we’ll it an evensix in the parking garage. Plus around ten for the wrecked streets, car crashes, andmanholes landing on peoplein the carnage that was wreaked on the train route to the Hub.
The body count for Batman Begins is sitting at61 potential kills for Batman.
The Dark Knight
Next up we’ve got perhaps one of the best Batman movies in the Nolan Trilogy for a number of reasons. Whether that’sHeath Ledger’s performance, the Bat Gadgets, the twisting plot, or all the lovely subtext and metaphors throughout.
But boy does this movie rack up the body count, especially whenThe Joker gets involved. Whilst Bruce doesn’t murder anyone, he is involved in a lot moretrips to the ICU for those thugsand probably a few civilians in that one Batmobile chase scene.
Our Caped Crusader Returns
The Dark Knight starts off strong with an introduction toThe Joker racking up his own little kill count in a Bank, but since we’re following Batman’s body trail we have to skip ahead for a bit. It’s aroundseven minutes inwhere we see our favorite Caped Crusader return with style.
Batman has been busy between movies andthe criminals of Gotham are now terrified at nightthat they might run into him, yet some still risk it. In this case, it’s areturn of Doctor Crane in a Multi-Story Parking Lotwhere we get the iconic line about Batmannot wearing Hockey Padsas he shuts down a vigilante group.
Crane is the only villain thatcameos in all threeNolan movies.
We also get some fun violence at this point. The Vigilantes attack andBatman rumbles onto the scenewith his remote-controlled Tumbler, where he could have easilyrun over two goonswho barely saw him coming. So we’ll start off early byclocking those two in as flat pancakesunder the treads.
Bruce alsosmashes in the front of Scarecrow’s van, which could have flattened Crane, so we can add another point to the scoreboard there. Other than thatthis scene is fairly bloodless, so we’ll be jumping to our next opportunity for death.
Dark Knight is a slower burnthan Batman Begins, but it’s worth it when it gets there. It’s alsothe last performanceof the late Heath Ledger.
Lau Takes A Plane Trip
It’s a big time jump to around about30 minutes inwhere Batman iscapturing the Mob’s money launderer Laufrom his Hong Kong Office. It’s abig set-piece scenethat’s worth bringing up because Batman’s target could have died at this point.
After assaulting Lau’s business like aheavily armored flying squirrel, Batman grabs Lau and uses a Fulton Recovery-esque device. Thenthe two are zipped out of the building and into the night skyby South Korean Smugglers hired by Bruce Wayne.
All that’s keeping Lau from becoming a street pancake isBatman’s grip and a tiny strap, so it could have gone wrong so fast. With how fast they’rewhipped out the window of Laus Skyscraper, all it would take isBatman’s gloves to be wet, or the tow rope to snap, or the tiny black strap holding Lau to the line to ripbecause Batman got his weight wrong and off they go.
Tumbling onto the streets of Hong Kong from extremely high up. It’s a reckless move, but in the movie it pays off.Laus also left outside Gotham PD all nightwhere he could have died from exposure, so we’ll put Lau in the tally with the others.
Whilst there are a lot of deaths in this movie,they’re all caused by the Joker. So we can’t pin those on Batman potentially screwing up, unfortunately.
Very Poor Choice Of Words
At around 49 minutes on the movie’s timecode, we haveThe Joker and his boys busting up Bruce’s partyand whilst the partygoers are herdered at gunpoint,Bruce nips into a panic roomto get on his Batsuit to take down the Clown.
Unfortunately,Rachel is held hostageand this is where we get another potential kill and a great line delivery from Heath Ledger.Rachel is hanging out of a window, Batman tells The Joker to let her go and Ledger replies:“Very poor choice of words”.
ThoughBatman technically causes the death of Rachelin this movie, he didn’t set off the bomb that led to her getting flame-grilled — he just chose the wrong person.
Hedrops her out of the Skyscraper windowand although Batman catches her in the movie, if he wasn’t fast enough, or hisglider cape didn’t slow their falldespite not being full of air enough to slow their descent already, then we’ve got another case ofBatman-induced Street Pizza.
Also, sinceRachel dies later in the movie, we can still count this as another potential death caused by Batman. Sorry, Rachel,you’re in for a rough timein this film.
During this scene,Batman fights Joker’s armed goonsin a room full of people. All it would take isone stray shot,but unfortunately theyforget how guns workand engage Batman in hand-to-hand combat instead. Good job guys.
Pick A Better Spot
Atone hour and five minutesin we’ve got Batman chasing down some mob boys for information on The Joker. We seeone guy get tossed over a banister in a nightclubonto the floor below followed by some screams, and another goesheadfirst down some stairs. That’stwo broken-necked bodiesfor Batman’s scorecard.
Then we see himholding one of the bosses named Moroni, the new head of Falcone’s old crime family several feet up threatening to drop him with said Mob Boss remarking thatthe height is too short and it won’t kill him. It doesn’t, and he breaks his ankles, but what ifBatman got his measurements wrongor Mr. Mafia landed on his head, that’sanother dead body for Batmanright there.
Time For Another Car Chase
It’s a little bit of a wait until the next big scene where Batman does something questionable, atone hour and fifteen minutes in the timecodewe see the second big chase of the Nolan Trilogy as Batman tries to rescue Harvey Dent from an ambush by The Joker.
There’s alot of collateral damage in this sceneas the Tumbler absolutely tears through an underground section of the highway.
In fairness, he is trying totake down a truck that’s firing RPGs and other heavy roundsinto the side of the S.W.A.T. column transporting Dent. Our first casualty is one ofThe Jokers Truck Drivers in a Garbage Truckwho gets smooshed inside the cab asthe Batmobile plows into it at high speed, thrusting it into the ceiling.
Our next big collateral moment is afterthe Batmobile takes an RPG to its side at point-blank rangeand crashes into a homeless camp. Now it looks like it’s far enough away from anyone, but what if it wasn’t and insteadtore through a bunch of tents and their occupants, grinding them under its chassis?
We’ll not be adding that to the tally, but what we will do isadd a rough estimation for all the cars that Batman blows upwith the Bat Bike as he tries to get out.
We do see that there arekids watching the explosions from inside a car in the next lane, so we can throw in an average of aroundfive to six peoplethat could have been inside the three that Batman detonates.
At the climax of the chase,The Joker shoots three cars driving towards him whilst aiming at Batman, it’s probably fair to pin those on Bruce. He could havetaken the fight to somewhere secludedinstead of charging The Joker down in the open, in public,surrounded by civilians, but he doesn’t. So that’s at least three we’ll add to the scorecard.
After Batman leavesthe Batmobile it self-destructs to cover his tracks, that shrapnel could have hit anyone inside that Homeless camp. Plus we’re shown that there’sa group watching just a few feet away, nice one Bruce.
The Joker’s Trolley Problem
At the climax of the movie,The Joker presents the city of Gotham with a Trolley problem. There are two ferries, one filled with50 or so prisoners, and another with the same amount of civilians. Plus, there areexplosives on both ships. Only one can remain andThe Joker will sink bothif a decision isn’t made.
The detonators for each boat areleft in the hands of the opposing side, but sadly nobody is blown up as neither side chooses to do the dark act andBatman takes The Joker downbefore he can trigger both bombs.
Now, ifBatman had been late or screwed upand gave The Joker an opening to detonate the explosives, well we got another50 people added to Batman’s body countright there.
We also seeBatman absolutely decimate a S.W.A.T. Teamsent into the Joker’s hideout to rescue more hostages.Five of which he hangs off the building— luckily their ropes don’t snap and it’s assumed they’re retrieved later. But what if their ropes gave way or weren’t secured properly forthe weight of five heavily armed men? That’s five corpses for the tally on that one Batman
Batman alsothrows three Rottweilers off the edge of the construction sitewhilst fighting the Joker, so we can add three dogs to the high score.
The final scene with The Joker itself is a great way to close out the film and we can also addone final kill to the tally for the loss of Harvey Dent, who ends up falling to his doom and breaking his neck at the hands of Batman. This happened as Dent washolding Commissioner Gordon’s family hostage. Then the movie closes out.
The final body count for The Dark Knight sits at a very modest28 people and three dogs. But it would be 77 if one of the Ferries exploded.
The Dark Knight Rises
Out of the entire trilogy, the Dark Knight Rises has probably one of thehighest potential body counts. Gotham isheld hostage with what’s essentially a nukeby the remnants of the League Of Shadows. If Bruce had dropped the ball at any point,the death toll would be in the thousandsif not hundreds of thousands. Gotham as a city would’ve ceased to exist.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, like the others we’ll roll it back to whereBatman comes onto the sceneand start marking up our tally of potential corpses from there. There are also afew legit kills, but we’ll get to those.
Batman’s Back, Alright!
Despite the third film in the trilogyopening with a plane crash, Batman is not involved in that one and it takes until around a long-awaited46 minutes into the movie’s timecodefor Bruce to show up in his fancy costume.
For the first part of the film he’shobbling around Wayne Manor being depressed.Now we’ve got him in the first of this movie’s car chases, and roughly the fourth in the trilogy so far.
Even though it’stechnically a motorcycle chaseas he’s in his Bat Pod, he doesn’t do anything particularly questionable until49 minutes inwhen he uses the Bat Pods canons to drop a ramp for himself.
It’s something worth pointing out that there’sa taxi stopped right next to the rampand all it would take is to be a millimeter off and the Taxi Driver and their potential Fare areturned into ground Beef Chuckinside the cab.
It’s a loose straw grab as you couldargue the Taxi was emptied by the policea few seconds beforehand, but there’s no fun in that. So we’ll start off strong withtwo fresh bodies for Batman.
He Can Fly?
For the first time in the trilogy we get to see Batmanfinally get his Batwingand boy, are there questions to be had about the design of it. Namely,the gigantic rotating dual fans directly underneath the craftthat spin at head height.
Theserotating circular blades give the craft vertical lift, but unlike the ones that drive it forward, they’re uncovered, unmarked, and unprotected. All it would take is Batman to be just alittle too low or not paying attentionto what he’s landing on and you’ve got aflying Blender making people smoothies.
Whilst Batmannever uses it for this obviously, there are a few moments where all it would take is the craft to dip in power a little and drop a few feet during that police chase and we’ve got a lot of dead Cops.
We never see that happen in the moviebut it’s definitely a design choice that’s worth picking at as it’s very odd.
Gotham Has Seen Better Days
It’s a big time skip right to near the end of the movie at aroundtwo hours on the timecodefor things to start getting spicy again. Mainly becauseBatman spends a lot of time out of action with a broken backat the bottom of The Pit after having a train run on him by Bane.
It’s worth mentioning though that everything that goes down during Bane’s reign of terror in Gotham at this point is on the shoulders of Batman.
Ortechnically Lucius Fox, as he was the one whoput all of the Wayne Tech Batman toys in one spotfor Bane’s men to break into. Whilst unintended, it gave them access to advanced weaponry and a couple of Batmobiles to use as IFVs. There’s alsothe Fusion Bomb.
Batman’s body count bumps up a little bit aroundtwo hours and twelve minutes. Batman appears suddenly on the scene between the Cops and Bane’s men. Using the Batwing heriddles three Tumblers with High Calibre bullets before flying off, the Tumblers were implied to havesoldiers in them manning the turrets. The cars stop becoming a threat immediately after.
It’s safe to chalk up anotherthree kills for Batmanthere, one for each dude in the cars. There’s also anotherthree more Tumblers that get taken out ten minutes laterby Batman once again in the same way as he chases down Talia in the Batwing. ThoughCatwoman does help.
There are two in each of these so that’ssix dead guys in total, then Talia and her driver make eight as the movie closes out. You could also argue there’sone incredibly unlucky fisherman out in Gotham Bayabout to have an extremely bad day, so we’ll close off on one last littleirradiated accidental murder.
During the final chase,Commissioner Gordon is in the line of fireinside a shipping container with the Nuclear Bomb. Any ofBatman’s High Caliber roundscould have gone through the crate and Gordon.
The One-Sided High Score
We end The Dark Knight Rises with a relativelysmall body count of 14. However, it’s worth noting that Bane’s body count in the last film alone, on his own,drastically dwarfs Batman’sby several hundred if not a few thousand.
Fromthe plane crashto the individual executions andthe bombingthat took out several bridges filled with cars, the Mayor, half of two Football teams, and whoever else washit with shrapnelin the other blasts throughout Gotham orthe sewer tunnel explosions.
There are also allthe murders and executions from Kangaroo Courtsduring Gotham’s fall into Chaos to be included, as well asthe Cops clipped in the shootout in the finale. Bane’s murdering mayhem becomes almost comical at times but it’s animpressive K/D Ratio.
Across the entire Batman Nolan Trilogy, the body count accrued by Bruce Wayne during his antics as Batman is102 people and three dogs.
