This page is about the incarnation of Two-Face from Tim Burton's Batman and Batman '89. The mainstream version can be found here: Two-Face (DC). For his Earth-97 counterpart, see: Two-Face (Burton and Schumacherverse).
✓
 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | You've helped me enough. Do you know what's in this briefcase? More power than I ever dreamed of having. And I am an ambitious man! None of this would have happened if you hadn't broken up that heist. So thank you, Batman. I can't serve in Heaven......but I can rule in Hell! | „ |
| ~ Harvey Dent to Batman, blaming him for everything that happened to him because of Batman stopping a Joker-copycat gang on Halloween. |
Harvey Dent, later better known as Two-Face, is a minor character in Tim Burton's 1989 superhero film Batman and the main antagonist of its 2021-2022 comic book threequel miniseries Batman '89. He is the District Attorney of Gotham City and the fianceé of Barbara Gordon, Commissioner James Gordon's daughter.
Following the deaths of the Joker and the Penguin and the rise of a Joker-copycat gang, Dent sets himself to capture Batman for "inspiring" criminals as well to further his political career. However, after he suffers from a terrible accident, his whole world changes.
He was portrayed by Billy Dee Williams, who also played his The Lego Batman Movie incarnation and Agent Jeffries in Mask of Death.
History[]
Past[]
Much of Harvey Dent's past is explored in the Batman '89 comic book series. When Harvey was just an infant, his young mother was walking him throughout Gotham City's streets when a drunk driver accidentally hit his mother, killing her. Dent grew up in Burnside, a black prominent neighborhood from Gotham. When he was a child, Harvey used to spend some of his time at the Royal Autobody garage and repair shop of Jerome Otis, whom Dent saw as a father figure. That said, it's unknown what happened with Harvey's biological father or if he even was part of his life.
Since his childhood, Dent grew to obsess with deciding his fate by flipping a coin, which could decide whether he would become successful or a "bum". Otis gave him a coin, but this always assured Harvey that he would succeed due to being a double-headed one. Dent took the coin well into his adulthood to reassure himself in his decisions. Later during his adolescence, Dent was invited by his friend Curtis to drink, but declined the invitation so he could study to be a lawyer. By doing so, Harvey prevented himself from being caught when Curtis committed a crime, allowing him to get a scholarship at law school and getting a career. He was considered handsome by his supporters, with Burnside's girls swooning when he smiled at them.
After finishing his law studies, Dent became a politician at Gotham City, and despite all prospects, he managed to become an influential one. At some point during his political career, Harvey proposed to build a train station connecting Burnside to other parts of the Gotham, which would have allowed his fellow neighbours to not have to take the bus twice to go to stores or to get to their workplaces. Unfortunately, money ran out and the planned Burnside train station was left abandoned. Regardless of this, Harvey kept fighting to make Gotham better and rose up to become its District Attorney.
Eventually, Harvey met Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon from the Gotham City Police Department and police sergeant, whom Dent admired by his own admission. They eventually started to date.
Batman[]
D.A. Harvey Dent first appears during a press event announcing his and Mayor Borg's plans to make Gotham City and safer place for decent people, mentioning how Comissioner James Gordon was dismantling several front companies used by the Gothamite crime lord Carl Grissom to carry out his illegal activities, unaware that Batman, whom Dent believes to just be "stories of ghosts and goblins", has also been aiding in their crusade to stop Grissom by providing them with evidence. The next day, Dent meets up with Gordon and Borg to discuss the preparations to celebrate Gotham City's Bicentennial, though Dent and Gordon are concerned with the public safety, yet Borg dismisses their concerns and promises to allow businesses back once Grisson is behind bars. That night, Dent attends with them the fundraiser party at Wayne Manor. During the event, he is asked by reporter Alexander Knox about his opinion of Batman, leading Dent to dismiss Batman's existence as just lies.
Once the Joker rises to prominence and Grissom and Vinnie Ricorso are killed, Dent and Borg appear on Action News, though Dent declines to comment. He is later tasked by Borg to find the deadly health and beauty productions filled with the Joker's Smylex venom so the celebration of Gotham's Bicentennial doesn't go wrong. While they eventually get the deadly mixtures, Dent goes along with Gordon and Borg to announce their decision to cancel the 200th Anniversary Parade, but the Joker interrupts their announcement by giving "free money" before Batman appears on scene to stop him. Later that night, the Joker is killed and Batman is hailed as a hero. Sometime afterwards, Dent attends a conference to read a letter he received from Batman, who asks him to unveil the Bat-signal to call him whenever the Gothamites are in danger, leading Dent and Gordon to make use of the Bat-signal for the first time.
Batman '89[]
Sometime after the deaths of the Penguin and Max Shreck, Harvey invites Barbara to the Janus restaurant on the night of Halloween and tells her about his intentions to campaign to become Attorney General before trying to propose to her. However, their evening is ruined by riots between a Joker-copycat gang and a Batman-copycat gang to rob the Lincoln Savings and Loan bank. While Batman appears to stop the criminals, Dent and Barbara leave the restaurant and Harvey calls the National Guard, but one of the Joker copycats steals Barbara's purse, leading Harvey to pursue him until he is ambushed by another Joker copycat. However, Dent easily fights them back and later tosses his coin, threatening to kill them if the coin laded on heads. Barbara arrives shortly afterwards and Harvey assures her that he just scared the would-be muggers and that he's fine. However, as he sees Batman departing on the Batmobile, Dent concludes that the streets are now more dangerous thanks to Batman inspiring riots and criminals. Later on, Dent decides to remove Commissioner Gordon from his position due to Gordon's alliance with the Dark Knight, convincing Barbara to help him with her access to the Gotham City Police Department evidence to discover Batman's secret identity, as the GCPD had in possession a Batarang, proving that Batman has access to high technology.
The next day, Harvey pays a visit to Bruce Wayne and asks him for support in sacking Gordon, unaware that Wayne and Batman are one and the same. When Wayne declines, Dent leaves but also warns him that the National Guard will stay there until Batman is apprehended. Without Bruce's support, Harvey seeks help from the people of Burnside, asking Otis to contact other important persons from their community to gather enough support to sack Gordon from his position. That night, Dent sets up a trap alongside Detective Harvey Bullock and three officers for Batman at the police department's headquarters with the Bat-signal. The trap fails, but Bullock informs Dent that Gordon and Batman communicate through a communications channel, unaware that Batman is monitoring them.
Shortly afterwards, Harvey and Barbara analyze the Batarang until they conclude that the weapon cost millions of dollars, leading them to realize that the one who ordered must be someone's rich. However, Dent gives up after this and goes to Royal Autobody to request the aid of Drake Winston, one of Jerome's mechanics, to track down the Batmobile, but Drake refuses to help due to disliking the Gotham City Police Department. That said, many of Dent's allies criticize his act of calling the National Guard, as a confrontation between them and Batman caused five casualties for the community, including a teen, but Dent suggests making use of such protests in their favor, much to the disgust of Reverend Cecil Culp of the Gotham Congressional Church. As such, Dent decides to help his allies by giving an improvised yet controversial speech during an event to help them.
The following day, Harvey and Barbara are interviewed by journalists and confronted by Bullock, who feels betrayed by Dent. Dent later meets up with Bruce in his office, who will help him set up a meeting with the people of Burnside, with Bruce promising to look after the education of Burnside's children, having Dent promised to his allies that they could trust in Bruce. However, following the meeting, Harvey and Barbara realize that Bruce knows much more than he let them know as he knew about the family of the deceased teen. Suddenly, the Royal Autobody is burned by the Batman copycats (who are apprehended by Catwoman without anyone but Batman knowing) and Harvey bravely goes into the building to rescue Drake, who is supposedly inside, only to discover that Drake had already left. Before he could escape, Harvey is knocked out after he falls from a collapsing stairway, allowing some leaked battery acid to reach his face and disfigure him.
As he lays unconscious and disfigured, Harvey dreams about rescuing Drake, becoming Gotham City's Governor, realizing that Bruce Wayne is connected to Batman due to what he previously told him about the teen's death, etc. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne and Drake Winston find and rescue him before the Royal Autobody explodes, but Dent wakes up only to fall unconscious again due to the acid burning his face and difficulting his breathing. Immediately, the paramedics take Dent and Barbara to an ambulance and one of the them tells Barbara that he doesn't know if Harvey would survive past six months or not. Bruce offers Barbara to pay plastic surgery for Dent once he heals, paying his trip to Switzerland if he chooses so. While at the hospital, Harvey faces an hallucination of his previous self, who takes him to see alternate possibilities of what could have happened with him had things been different prior to that, assuring him that his previous self is the world he dreamed to have but will no longer have, making Dent conclude that he should put himself in control of his fate. Upon regaining consciousness, Harvey asks Barbara to give him his coin and defaces one side with a nail file. He then tosses it to see if he should continue their relationship, and agrees when the coin says that he should despite Barbara's insistence that he doesn't need it to decide that. He then tosses the coin to decide if he should stop fighting for Gotham City's "soul" or not.
As the African American citizens of Gotham rally in front of the hospital to support Harvey, Harvey decides to see his supporters despite Barbara's attempts to talk him out of that, reminding him that Bruce has been speaking with some Swiss doctors to reconstruct his face, but Harvey insists that he "has already died" and that his destiny must be decided by his coin, which he can't find, much to his anger. Concerned, Barbara calls Bruce, but as she does so, Harvey knocks out an orderly and steals his ID before leaving the hospital with a supply of painkillers. The police later track Dent down to his office, where Dent steals back a box with his possessions, among them his coin, and knocks out a police officer before escaping from another one and sneaking into a subway. He then makes his way into the abandoned train station he planned to employ to connect Burnside with the rest of Gotham, decided to make the station his headquarters while he discusses with himself how his plans will help his friends and destroy his enemies.
With the files he stole from his D.A. office, Harvey kidnaps Karp, a member of the Joker-copycat gang who was involved in the Halloween riots, and interrogates him about what he knows about the gang. While Karp initially denies knowing about the gang, Dent flips his coin while having him at gunpoint and offers to double the pay he would have received in the botched robbery, leading Karp to tell him everything he knows and arrange a meeting with the Joker copycats at the Burnside train station. Recruiting the Joker copycats to his cause, with them switching their loyalties from the late Joker to him, Dent sends a note to Barbara asking her to meet him up at the Burnside Park before sending his henchmen to blow up the subways surrounding the Gotham City Police Department headquarters and having snipers shoot everyone who tries to fleet from the building. During the ensuing chaos, Dent and one of his men comes to the GCPD's roofs to confront Commissioner Gordon, who had activated the Bat-signal to alert Batman. However, Batman suddenly arrives, incapacitates his henchman and knocks Dent out with a single punch. While Drake Winson, who is now Batman's sidekick Robin, gets rid of Dent's snipers, Batman takes Gordon to safety. Meanwhile, Dent goes to assist his henchmen in stealing the money they failed to rob previously from the police station's evidence room, but Bullock gets on their way. Dent shoots Bullock, but Batman and Gordon arrive to stop him.
However, Harvey throws Batman the Batarang that Barbara had shown him previously, incapacitating Batman, who in turn accidentally shoots a tranquilizer dart intended for Dent to Gordon, knocking him out. Dent and his men then leave the station with the stolen loot and the unconscious Gordon, knowing that Batman will stay behind to help the wounded Bullock first. The following day, all Burnside residents receive $900,000 from the 31 million dollars Dent stole with his gang. Dent takes Gordon to his lair and handcuffs him to a railing. When Gordon asks Dent why didn't he kill him while he was unconscious, Dent reveals that he spared him because his coin twice landed in favor of sparing Gordon. Harvey then leaves to meet with Barbara, unaware that Gordon slipped a tracing device on him so Batman can track him down.
Harvey meets up with Barbara the Burnside Park shortly afterwards. Although all seems to go well, with Barbara accepting the flowers Harvey brought for her and assuring him that they will work out all the problems they have, it turns out that Barbara has realized what Harvey has done and declares him arrested despite still loving him, ordering him to handcuff himself to the park's bench where she was waiting him. Nervous, Harvey assures Barbara that he knows that there's no world in which she would pull the trigger as he is taking her father hostage. Before Barbara can shoot him non-fatally to prevent his escape, Catwoman jumps into the scene and knocks Barbara to the ground, allowing Dent, unbelieving that Barbara betrayed him, to escape into the sewers. Upon returning to his lair, he is confronted by Gordon, who calls him out for excusing his actions with his tragedy, pointing out that his tragedy just revealed him as a spineless opportunist. Furious, influenced by his dark side, Harvey fatally shoots Jim in the stomach, despite his coin telling his good side that he should let Gordon live. Before expiring, Gordon assures Harvey that Barbara loved him and would have forgiven all his actions, but she will not forgive him for doing that.
As Gordon lays dying in the station's floor, the two sides of Dent argue with each other, with the good side expressing his admiration for Gordon and the bad side insisting that good is weak and that they should be far eviler for those evil because monsters fear worse monsters. That's when Batman arrives, willing to still help Harvey, but Harvey insists that the money inside the briefcase he has contains more power than he would ever dreamed with, blaming Batman for everything that has happened since he caught the Joker copycats in Halloween. As Batman tries to prevent his escape, Harvey decides to blow up the train station so he presses a detonator, knocking Batman out and killing Gordon with the ensuing explosion. This incidentally causes Batman's mask to be ripped off and exposes his face, leading an astonished Dent to realize that Batman was Bruce Wayne all along. He takes a photo of Batman's face with his camera, and quickly leaves the scene, overhearing Robin and Catwoman when they approach and take Bruce back to Wayne Manor so Alfred can heal him.
It turns out, according to Catwoman, that the briefcase Dent possesses contains documents that prove that Lincoln Savings and Loan had been associating with dummy corporations owned by Gotham City's mob to run federal aid funds. However, as they didn't want to be exposed, they hired the Joker-copycat gang to steal the documents that prove their connection not only to Gotham's mobsters, but also to some corrupt politicians, including a governor, a senator, a mayor and a new police commissioner, so as long Harvey possesses the briefcase, all these individuals are gonna have to serve him. This makes Batman start thinking what to do as he heals to go back to work, aware that he must stop Dent before it's too late.
Meanwhile, the corrupt politicians meet with Harvey, who demands them to drop all charges against him and have all investigations about his activities cancelled, threatening them with exposing their corruptions if they don't follow his orders, like forcing them to relinquish their dirty money to Gotham's citizens. Carmine Falcone, one of the men present in the meeting, threatens Dent with sending his men after him due to his great influence over Gotham, so Dent flips his coin to determine if he does something nice or something crazy, leading him to end up doing something nice for Gotham City by shooting Falcone dead. He then has Falcone's dead body placed in a car's trunk offpanel. Dent then goes to visit Otis, who, much to his surprise, reveals to be aware of the money he received having been stolen. Harvey sees nothing wrong in his actions, as he argues that such money was stolen from them and he stole it back, but a disgusted Otis criticizes him for attacking the station with snipers, as they fired at a crowd of people who supported Harvey and were marching for him. Harvey tries to dismiss such casualties as necessary losses, promising that he now has the power to make Gotham better, but Otis, realizing that Harvey is beyond saving, decides to call Reverend Culp to make a public statement about what Harvey did.
Although Harvey's good side insists that they can just walk away and escape, Harvey's bad side insists on flipping the coin to determine Jerome's fate. Drake arrives shortly thereafter, but discovers in horror that Harvey murdered Otis, so he angrily decides to beat Dent for what he did. In order to escape, Dent accuses Drake of having shot Jerome, turning all of Burnside's citizens against Drake as he punches Dent, leading Drake to be beaten up and restrained until the police comes and takes him to one of the police station's cells while Dent leaves on his car. He then calls to Wayne Manor to request an audience with Bruce, something Alfred alerts Bruce of while he heals of his injuries. Bruce decides to accept the request and lets Harvey into the Batcave, who threatens him into cooperating with him if he doesn't want to be exposed to the police with the photo of him unmasked.
Bruce firmly turns down such blackmail, so Harvey prepares to kill him until Bruce proposes him to, instead of killing him, say that he was working with Batman all the time to dismantle the mob and the corrupt politicians in addition to pay for reconstructive facial surgery and psychological therapy to let him heal, insisting that they can both clean up Gotham City from corruption. However, Harvey doubts about the proposal due to having gone too far, so Batman offers to flip his coin to allow him become "the man he was always meant to be". However, the Batcave's giant penny suddenly falls and rolls towards their direction thanks to Selina Kyle, who is bent on killing Dent. Harvey barely holds himself of a ledge, pleading Bruce to save him. Despite Selina's lack of cooperation in pulling the Batmobile's cable to save Harvey, Bruce goes himself with some difficulty to reach Harvey's hand, stabbing the cable's hook into it accidentally, but Harvey deludedly imagines different scenarios of him surviving the situation as he hangs on his dear life: him killing Bruce and going after Selina, him saving Gotham or him being forgiven by Barbara. However, Harvey's two sides ultimately conclude that it's for the best to finally let go and the cable snaps, allowing Harvey to fall thousands of feet to his death in the absolute darkness of the Batcave's pit, ending with his threat once and for all.
Legacy[]
Despite all the things he did, however, Bruce couldn't help but feel immediate horror at Harvey's death and anger at Selina's interference, as he had secretly given Harvey a fake coin with both palmed sides, meaning that he would have been able to set Harvey on his path to redemption. Selina still sees no wrong on her actions, insisting that Harvey was broken and could have still killed him, but Bruce retorts that he could have redeemed Harvey, concluding that he isn't a killer like her. Enraged, Selina reveals that the coin Bruce gave back to Harvey was actually Harvey's, proving that his life was in danger, but Selina concludes the same and officially cuts ties with Bruce for good, leaving him just a cat collar which Bruce later discards, meaning that Harvey ultimately crushed any possibilities for Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle to live a normal life.
Following Harvey's death, Bruce takes his gun to the police to prove that Drake didn't kill Otis, leading the police to release him and proving that Dent was the one who committed all those crimes, ensuring that Dent will be remembered as a disgrace for his corruption. Bruce and Winston then part in good terms, with Winston deciding to operate solo after Bruce gives him the Batcycle. However, even in death, Harvey still plays one last card against Bruce, sending a copy of his incriminating photo to Barbara, leading her to discover that Bruce and Batman are the same person in addition to a letter of Catwoman proposing her a possible partnership. This results in Gordon forcing Wayne to quit being Batman if he doesn't want to be arrested, making Bruce go into retirement.
Two years after Two-Face's death, some Batman copycats arise with no success as their street-level vigilantism get all of them killed, leading Barbara to visit Wayne Manor to check on from Alfred Pennyworth if Bruce has been keeping his word when the murderers of his copycats show themselves to be irrationally horrified from his sight. It's also noted by Detective Harvey Bullock that no one ever found out what happened to Harvey Dent, with most assuming he just vanished, with Barba acknowledging that Bruce never told her what happened to her boyfriend.
Trivia[]
- Billy Dee Williams originally played Harvey Dent in the 1989 Batman film hoping that he could eventually play Two-Face in a sequel. However, when Batman Forever was put in development, Tim Burton was replaced by Joel Schumacher, who opted to recast the role with Tommy Lee Jones. Contrary to rumors that Schumacher paid him a fee to resign from the role, Williams has stated that he was only contracted to appear in Batman. While Williams is African American and Jones is Caucasian, it's commonly assumed that both versions are the same, as the four films did feature Pat Hingle and Michael Gough as Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth.
- That said, in light of Batman '89, DC Comics stated in 2020 that Batman and Batman Returns take place in the Burtonverse (Earth-89) and that the upcoming DC Extended Universe film The Flash will revisit Earth-89 while retconning Batman Forever and Batman & Robin out of continuity, firmly setting the last two films in the Schumacherverse (Earth-97) according to Sam Hamm. However, as Warner Bros. hasn't confirmed yet that the Burton/Schumacher film series are two separated duologies, this wiki keeps treating Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face as the later appearance of Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent, unless Warner states otherwise.
- Interestingly, before the announcement of Batman '89, Williams did get to voice Two-Face in The Lego Batman Movie, with that movie's version of the character designed to how Williams could have looked in the role had Burton not been fired as director of the film series.
- According to some stories, Harvey Dent was originally going to play the role Max Shreck ultimately had in Batman Returns, with him trying to kill Catwoman for discovering his dual personality and getting scarred by her at the end with a taser (whereas Max is killed by Catwoman in this way in the finished film). However, these rumors have been disproven due to both Williams saying it wasn’t true , and Dent being absent from Sam Hamm's early drafts of the script, in addition that Warner Bros. preferred to use the Penguin and Catwoman due to being more popular than Two-Face at that time, though Wesley Strick did plan to feature Dent in a small role in which he flips his coin , and it lands on the good side .
- He is the only version of Harvey Dent to become Two-Face because of Batman (albeit indirectly).
- Two-Face's death in this timeline is similar to how his Earth-97 incarnation died.
External Links[]
- Harvey Dent on the Heroes Wiki
- Two-Face on the DC Wiki
- Two-Face on the Batman Wiki
- Two-Face on the Batman Anthology Wiki
- Two-Face on the Wikipedia
