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NOTE: This page is for the incarnation of Two-Face from Christopher Nolan's movies. The mainstream version can be found here: Two-Face (DC).

Villain Overview

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.
~ Two-Face ranting about his own vigilantism.

Harvey Dent, later known as Two-Face, is the tritagonist of the 2008 superhero film The Dark Knight, the second installment of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.

Upon being elected as Gotham City's district attorney, the idealistic Dent dedicated himself to ridding the city of organized crime. However, he was horribly disfigured in a bombing rigged by the Joker that also killed his fiancée Rachel Dawes. Driven insane with grief, he became a vigilante and swore revenge on everyone he held responsible for Rachel's death, including his former allies Batman and Commissioner James Gordon, blindly blaming them for her demise when they couldn’t save her in time.

He was portrayed by Aaron Eckhart, who also played Chad in In the Company of Men and 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, an anarchistic criminal mastermind 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 enough time to save one. Batman chose to save Rachel, while the cops went to secure Dent. However, the Joker lied about the locations, both to philosophically challenge Batman and orchestrate Dent's downfall.

Transformation[]

Twofaceorigin

Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face.

When the Joker's bombs went off, Rachel was killed, and the left side of Dent's face caught fire (due to being covered 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 double headed 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 spun 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.

Two-Face screenshot

Two-Face takes his revenge.

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 and children, and called Gordon to have him meet him at the building where Rachel died.

Death[]

Two-Face's death

The death of Two-Face after Batman stops him from killing Gordon's son.

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 shows up, confronts Harvey, and rightfully tells him to "judge the people truly responsible for Rachel’s demise". Two-Face decides to flip for Batman, himself, and Gordon. Two-Face shoots Batman through the stomach when the coin landed on bad heads. He then flips for himself, sparing himself when the coin came up on good heads. He then decides to judge Gordon's son and flips the coin. Before he could decide the fate of Gordon's son, Batman, who was wearing body Armor, tackles Dent off the ledge of the roof, to his death, putting an end to his murder spree.

Legacy[]

Gordon: The Joker won. Harvey's prosecutions, everything he fought for: undone. Whatever chance you gave us of fixing our city dies with Harvey's reputation. We bet it all on him. The Joker took the best of us and tore him down. People will lose hope.
Batman: They won't. They must never know what he did.
Gordon: Five dead, two of them cops—you can't sweep that up.
Batman: No. But the Joker cannot win. Gotham needs its true hero.
~ Batman and Gordon during the aftermath.

Batman decided to take the blame for Dent's crimes in order to preserve the late DA'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 organized 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 former leader Ra's al Ghul had sought to destroy Gotham, which he believed to be corrupt and decadent beyond redemption. When Bane found out about Dent's crimes, he publicly exposed the truth about Gotham's "fallen idol" as he led the League of Shadows in taking over the city, turning it into an isolated "no man's land".

Eventually, however, Batman resurfaced and, after defeating both Bane and Ra's daughter Talia, went on to foil the League of Shadows' plan by apparently sacrificing his life to save Gotham City from a nuclear explosion. In reality, he faked his death and started a new life under a new identity. Batman was thereafter remembered as the savior of Gotham City, while the Dent act was eliminated, and Dent's legacy was tarnished because of his crimes.

Personality[]

Harvey Dent starts off as selfless, charismatic, astute, idealistic, fearless and cerebral. He showed slight cynicism and borderline cruelty towards criminals, such as Lau and Thomas Schiff. He was also extremely self-confident and rationally independent. He was motivated by his care for the people of Gotham and was selfless enough to do anything in order to protect them, even endanger his own life to the mercy of someone as sadistic and masochistic as the Joker. Largely because of his past of being a victim of repeated child abuse by his father, a retired cop, and the cops' failure to help him and his mom, he also had a pronounced hatred of the corruption that infamously plagued the Gotham City Police Department. However, after Rachel's death, Harvey was embittered beyond sanity and became murderous and smug. He also implied when encountering Detective Wuertz that he considered himself "half-dead." He became vengeful and obsessed with killing the men whom he believed to be responsible for Rachel's tragic death. He was ruthless, callous and showed all the signs of becoming a sociopath: High intelligence, paranoia, carelessness, violence, manipulation, elusiveness, mercilessness, and disregard for the people's, and his own life. He also showed signs of deep-seated nihilism (although not to the extent of the Joker) during this time by declaring his belief his murderous actions were the closest thing in the world to true fairness during his final confrontation with Batman and James Gordon.

Similar to the Joker, he also was shown post-transformation to back out of earlier promises and at the same time technically keep his word, which is best demonstrated by how he dispatched Sal Maroni: After confirming who the cop who sold Rachel out was, he tried to flip a coin while threatening Maroni at gunpoint, doing so because he said earlier it "didn't hurt [Maroni's] chances" at surviving, and later proceeded to technically spare Maroni from being directly shot by him due to the coin landing good side up, but then proceeded to shoot Sal Maroni's driver after choosing his fate via coin flip due to it going bad side up. And although he did not necessarily hate Gordon, he was still angry with him and held him responsible for Rachel's death and tried to teach him a lesson to know what it feels like to lose everything, and still dispatched him as well. During his final confrontation with both Batman and Gordon, Dent, when told by Gordon that the cops were creating a perimeter around the building they were in and that the place was surrounded, Dent said "You think I want to escape from this? There is no escape from this!", implying that he by that point was willing to commit suicide. This was also reinforced when he willingly put a gun to his own head when deciding to judge via coin toss those most responsible for what had occurred, with it being strongly implied that he was willing to kill himself had the coin gone bad side up. However, that could have just been due to Batman telling him to point it at either him, Batman, or Gordon. After his death, he became incredibly charismatic: The people of Gotham looked up to his legacy and for what he was believed to have stood for. Batman decided that Harvey Dent was the hero of Gotham, not him, showing that he knew that Dent would appeal to the people as the fallen idol. However, Dent's legacy was tarnished when Bane revealed the true circumstances of his death.

He was still capable of showing mercy to a certain extent, as he spared Ramirez from being killed despite her role in selling him and Rachel out to the Joker, and by extension the latter's death (settling only for punching her out instead), spared Joker, and avoided killing Sal Maroni directly via gunshot. However, it's heavily implied if not directly stated that he only spared them because the coin went good side up. On that note, he implies with his final words to Wuertz before shooting him that he would have spared Wuertz if his coin went good side up.

Relationships[]

Allies[]

Enemies[]

  • Joker - Former enemy turned situational ally
  • Bruce Wayne/Batman - Former ally and love rival turned enemy, attempted victim and unvoluntary killer
  • Salvatore Maroni †? - Possible victim
  • Lau
  • Thomas Schiff
  • G.C.P.D.
    • James Gordon - Former frenemy/situationaly ally turned enemy and attempted victim
    • Michael Wuertz † - Kidnapper and victim
    • Anna Ramirez - Accomplice in kidnapping and instigator in his madness
  • Barbara Gordon - Hostage
  • James Gordon Jr. - Hostage and intended victim

Quotes[]

RACHEL!
~ Harvey Dent before having his face accidentally burned after Rachel's death.
Harvey: Remember that name you all had for me when I was at Internal Affairs? What was it, Gordon?... Say it... SAY IT!
Gordon: Two-Face. Harvey Two-Face.
~ Harvey to Gordon in the hospital after his disfigurement.
No. No you're not. Not yet.
~ Harvey indirectly swearing vengeance on Gordon.
Your men... Your plan.
~ Harvey to the Joker on Rachel's death.
You live... You die.
~ Two-Face shows his coin to the Joker before passing judgment.
Going to join your wife? You love her? You ever imagine what it would be like to listen to her die?
~ Two-Face threatening Sal Maroni.
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.
~ Two-Face questioning Maroni on who abducted Rachel.
Can't hurt your chances
~ Harvey to Maroni on if he will be spared by revealing who Rachel's abductor was.
Two-Face: 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?
Two-Face: [buckles himself in] Your driver...
~ Two-Face to Maroni before killing his driver, causing the car to flip over and crash.
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.
~ Two-Face to Gordon about Rachel's death.
So, is it your wife?
~ Two-Face threatening Gordon's wife.
We have a winner.
~ Two-Face chooses Gordon's son to judge.
You brought your cops?
~ Two-Face upon hearing the GCPD nearby.
You think I wanna escape from this? There IS no escape from this.
~ Two-Face to Gordon.
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.
~ Two-Face attempts to justify his crimes to Batman whilst explaining his view on the world's judgment.
Then why is it ME who was the only one who LOST EVERYTHING?
~ Two-Face to Batman after the latter tries to explain that Rachel's death wasn't by chance.
Two-Face: The Joker chose ME!
Batman: Because you were the best of us. He wanted to prove that even someone as good as you, could fall.
Two-Face: And he was right.
~ Two-Face explaining how the Joker made him
Fair enough. You first... [flips the coin; it lands bad side up, causing Harvey to shoot Batman in the chest before turning the gun on himself] My turn.
~ Two-Face shooting Batman and then judging himself.
I'm about to. Tell your boy he's gonna be alright. Lie. Like I lied.
~ Two-Face preparing to judge Gordon's son - his last words before being tacked by Batman and falling to his demise.

Trivia[]

  • Two-Face had a slogan called "I believe in Harvey Dent".
  • 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's alter-ego "Harvey Two-Face" as he feels a bit of Harvey 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.
  • 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.

External links[]

Navigation[]

           The Dark Knight Trilogy Villains

Batman Begins
League of Shadows
Ra's al Ghul | Henri Ducard | Scarecrow

Gotham Mob
Carmine Falcone | Victor Zsasz | Arnold Flass

Others
Joe Chill

The Dark Knight
Gotham Criminal Underworld
Joker | Two-Face
Gotham Mob: Sal Maroni | The Chechen | Gambol | Lau | Bank Manager | Michael Wuertz | Anna Ramirez
Joker's Thugs: Thomas Schiff | Chuckles | Kilson | Happy | Dopey | Grumpy | Bus Driver

Others
Burmese Bandit

The Dark Knight Rises
League of Shadows
Bane | Talia al Ghul | Barsad | Ra's al Ghul

Others
Catwoman | John Daggett | Phillip Stryver | Scarecrow

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