4) Ra’s Al Ghul And The League of Shadows – Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy generally keeps to Batman’s no-killing rule, except in the infamous moment in Batman Begins. As Ra’s al Ghul is trapped in a crashing tram car, Batman tells his former mentor: “I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you.” Er, I’m pretty sure that still counts as killing him, Bats. Or at least, it’s manslaughter.
While this scene is vexing enough, there’s actually another instance of Batman ignoring his own rule earlier in the same movie. When Ra’s orders Bruce to kill a local criminal, he refuses. So, in retaliation, Bruce starts a fight which ends with the entirety of the League of Shadows burning to death. So, in order to not kill a man, you ended up killing dozens? Hey, you’re the World’s Greatest Detective, Bruce, if it makes sense to you, we’ll go along with it.
If you think about it, and if you subscribe to the view that Batman’s responsible for these deaths, then Christian Bale’s Batman might even have a higher kill count than the more outwardly overzealous Michael Keaton.
