New Theory Explains How Batman Found Harvey Dent In The Dark Knight

Incredibly, we’re nearly a decade removed from the initial release of Christopher Nolan’s thrilling crime saga The Dark Knight, and we’re still uncovering minutia that’s altering the way in which we venerate the immortal superhero feature.

Most notably, after rewatching the eight-time Academy Award-nominated motion picture earlier this year, actor and pop culture aficionado Patton Oswalt explicated the long-hypothesized assumption that Heath Ledger’s Joker is an ex-military man to deduce that the Clown Prince of Crime is actually ex-military intelligence. Specifically — interrogation. Since then, however, the rumor mill has gone silent. Until now, that is.

Earlier this week, a Redditor devised his own conjecture regarding The Dark Knight, but this time it’s surrounding Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Thomas Schiff (David Dastmalchian) and Batman (Christian Bale). Granted, this theory is nowhere near as vital, nor as intriguing, as the “Oswalt Theory,” but it does provide insight into a believed plot hole.

According to user Alberhans, the Caped Crusader was able to locate Harvey Dent and seemingly stop him from killing the Joker’s paranoid schizophrenic accomplice, Thomas Schiff – despite the fact Dent hadn’t given any indication as to his whereabouts – by tracking his cell phone. We know this because just prior to the interrogation sequence, in which Dent flips his coin to decide the fate of Schiff, he calls Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), thereby alluding to the tracing.

Here’s how the Redditor explains it:

So for a long time it seemed like we had a plot-hole right there. The fact that Batman was able to track down Dent so fast to stop him from (seemingly) killing the paranoid Joker’s accomplice, while Dent had given no clue of his whereabouts to anyone and he could literally be anywhere in the city, required a major suspense of disbelief. No further explanations were given (other than, well… him being Batman).

However I recently realized that just before Dent begins his interrogation he calls Rachel. So we could assume that’s how Batman located Dent, as he could be tracking phone calls when he needed to. Especially for people close to him like Rachel or Harvey.

Again, it’s hardly the most crucial discovery, nor is it likely to change how we view the film, but it’s nice to see that The Dark Knight is still on people’s minds after all these years and continues to inspire debate and discussion.