| “ | We're wise to your act; you got rules. The Joker, he got no rules. Nobody's gonna cross him for you. You want this guy you got one way. And you what that is. Just take off that mask of yours, let him come find you. Or you can get a lot more people get killed while you make up your mind? | „ |
| ~ Sal Maroni challenging Batman. |
Salvatore Vincent "Sal" Maroni is the secondary antagonist of the 2008 superhero film The Dark Knight, the second installment of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.
He was the head of the Maroni crime family who takes over the Falcone crime family upon Carmine Falcone's incarceration, thus cementing his status as the most powerful crime boss in Gotham City. However, when Batman threatens his control over Gotham's criminal underworld, Maroni partners with fellow mob bosses Gambol and The Chechen to prevent Batman from putting them out of commission. This ultimately leads to them deciding to hire The Joker, setting the film's plot in motion.
He was portrayed by Eric Roberts, who also played The Master in the Doctor Who movie, James Munroe in The Expendables, Nash in National Security, Paul Snider in Star 80, Dr. Albert Beck in the Stalked by My Doctor series, Governor Hughes in The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence), Dark Danny in Danny Phantom, Mongul in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and Richard L'Italien in Oz. In Batman: Gotham Knight, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen, who also portrayed Batroc the Leaper and Boomerang in Ultimate Spider-Man, and Jimmy Figgis in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Biography[]
Background[]
Sal was the only son of Luigi Maroni, Don of the Maroni crime family, and grew up in the care of the Maroni family. The Maronis battled for control of Gotham with the ruling family, the Falcones. That changed once Luigi died and Sal inherited his mob and slowly rose to prominence in Gotham's underworld and take over it once Falcone met his end.
Batman: Gotham Knight[]
Maroni in "Crossfire".
Maroni first appears in the second short titled "Crossfire". Detectives Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez along with the criminal Jacob Feely who was in their custody had gotten caught in a crossfire between Maroni's gang and the Russian mob. Maroni's men are gunned down and Maroni takes refuge behind Allen and Ramirez's patrol car, which the Russian leader subsequently destroys with a rocket launcher. Ramirez and Maroni manage to get clear in time, while Allen is rescued by Batman who proceeds to take out the Russian leader and his men. Sal Maroni then threatens to kill Ramirez, but he is dispatched by Batman.
He appears in the following short "Field Test". Maroni and his men have dealings with the Russian mob on the former's boat, that is until Batman shows up with a new deflector suit. Maroni and the Russian leader get thrown into an attempted truce by Batman himself, which gets interrupted when one of Maroni's own men gets injured by his own bullet.
The Dark Knight[]
Maroni during the mob meeting.
He forms an alliance with Chechen and Gambol to fight Batman and Harvey Dent. In a meeting with Gotham's underworld, Sal and his fellow mob bosses are confronted by the Joker, who himself offers to murder the Batman for half of all their money, but the mob refuses. They change their minds after Batman captures their accountant Lau in Hong Kong and delivers him to the Gotham police. Lau's testimony allows Dent to put all the mobsters in Gotham on trial, but as one of the bosses, Maroni is able to make bail. Maroni is next seen when he is being interrogated by Batman above a club hours after the apparent murder of Lieutenant James Gordon. Despite Batman breaking one of his legs by throwing him off a building, Maroni does not disclose the Joker's whereabouts, instead, lecturing Batman about letting people die by not turning himself in to the Joker. Later in the film, due to the Joker's madness, Maroni realizes that joining forces with the Joker has created more chaos than he can handle and he tells Gordon the Joker's location.
He is interrogated by a scarred Harvey/"Two-Face" later. Using his coin to determine Maroni's fate, Two-Face flips it over. For Maroni's luck, the coin lands on the unscarred side, leading Two-Face to spare him and call him a "lucky man". However, when Two-Face flips over the coin again, it lands on the scarred side, leading Two-Face to shoot the driver of his limo, causing it to flip over. While Two-Face survives the accident, Maroni's status goes unspecified afterward, but it's possible that he was killed in the accident because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.
Trivia[]
- Both the late James Gandolfini and the late Bob Hoskins were considered for the role of Maroni, before Eric Roberts was cast.[1]
- If Maroni survived the car crash, he's the only mob boss to survive the movie.
- In the comics, Maroni is the one responsible for scarring Harvey Dent and causing him to become Two-Face; whereas in the film it's The Joker.
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 Villains
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