Um, What's The Joker Dropping?

I think WATCHMEN stays. That's Zack Snyder's weekend - his other films opened then, and it's his birthday.

I actually warned Yomad about not screen-capping that very image. It seems that several different news sources have conspired to potentially spoil a key plot element of the film.

Great trailer though, glad I waited for an official release rather than watching youtube bootleg.

News sources have conspired? That's an official trailer. Warner Bros and Nolan have conspired.

I guess I'm really, really stupid because I saw the trailer on the big screen and on my laptop and didn't notice that shot.

What I was saying was [SWIPE TO READ]

There's an article in the LA Times where Eckhart explains Two Face's motivation "His fiancée is killed. He's horribly injured" which when shown with the image of the Joker dropping Rachel pretty much tells you that Batman ain't gonna save her

That story at AICN also has a spoiler square around it so I didn't click on it.

It's an image of Joker dropping whoever Batman's or Dent's love interest is in the movie, we don't know if she is saved or killed, etc. But by making a big deal about it, you are really the ones spoiling it for those of us who don't know all the details of the movie.

Yeah I caught that while watching the trailer. No frame by frame quicktime discovery for me.
I think she'll probably wind up as a stain on the street. We've seen Batman leap out of buildings and catch people with the help of his grappling hook that always wraps around something, but I don't think that can happen in the Nolan world of realism.

They knew geeks would be scrutinizing every shot in that trailer once it was up in glorious Quicktime. Why they would want to spoil that is beyond me, but between this shot in the trailer and Eckhart's LA Times article... I mean, this spoiler was bound to be plastered all over creation before the movie hit theaters. It's not the news sources fault that the studio, director and actors want to spoil this.

Okay, sorry for the wrong use of words.

In fairness to the trailer that might not be the scene where the spoiler occurs but a fake-out for a suckerpunch later in the film. But the LA Times and Eckhart have no fucking excuse.

What's exciting about this is that it strikes me as a second reel spoiler.

Vicki Vale got dropped off the roof in '89, without a splat.

So that's why Bats is so sad in his high rise then.

I think it could go either way. Depends if they think they've got something that Oscar might be interested in.

You can't say a shot of a supervillain dropping the female lead off of anything is definitive of the character's demise. C'mon, there must be 10 such scenes in the Spider-man films alone.

But are Rachel Dawes and Mary Jane Watson on the same level of importance in Batman and Spider-man's storylines?

You know, if this is really a spoiler and Bats can't catch up, my anticipation just went up. Perhaps this is what makes Gotham turn on Batman...who knows? I like that they're going dark. The The Departed trailer gave away Sheen's death big time and that didn't ruin the movie or even the scene.

I never really bought Batman was moping in the tower because Dent got messed up.

In the sense that they are both romantic interests for the hero, I'd say yes.

My point is that after years of seeing similar scenes in superhero films, you don't assume that she's street pizza just from that shot. In fact, you assume Batman's gonna save her. And I still maintain he might...in that scene. My guess is that she gets blowed up later and is underneath that big pile o' rubble Bats is moping on.

I'll make the case that she gets the "Josh Brolin in Into the Blue" exit.

The rooftop bit seems like a fake-out.

Whatever the Joker drops, I'll be there with fucking bells on.

If this leads to Rachel's demise, and this is a big time IF(after all, the trailers for all three Spiderman movies showed MJ getting dropped/dangled/kidnapped and no one seemed to make a huge conspiracy theory over that, now did they?), it would certainly explain her lack of screentime in this trailer. IF this is the way it's gonna go, I say good on Nolan and co. for having the balls to kill off the female love interest. I'm a female, and I can't STAND the females in movies like this. They are nothing more than plot devices to lure the hero into some trap or something after the girl gets kidnapped. They don't feel like they naturally belong there. They are shoehorned in to get the female demographic to come see the movie. GUESS WHAT? If she serves no purpose, then all you are doing is INSULTING every woman in the audience by telling us that all women are basically useless and disposable. If you aren't going to give her something significant to do, CUT THE BITCH OUT. Iron Man had the good sense to make the character of Pepper indispensable. Batman movies never have had an indispensable female. EVER. "Oh, but Rachel is Bruce's conscience", you say? I'm sorry, I thought that was ALFRED's job, and he's done a damn fine job of it, too. If they can nip this love triangle mess in the bud by turning her into road kill, I'm all for it. Drop her, Joker. Drop her!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, but you do realize that when/if a third Nolan Bat film is made there will more than likely be a new love interest introduced? Whether that be Nolan's version of Catwoman or not.

Not necessarily. If a guy just saw his lifelong friend and love get dropped off a building because a baddie was using her against him, I doubt he'd be ready to jump into the dating pool again.

You're not thinking like a movie studio.

I know. I'm too smart for my own good

Most of the images shown of Rachel's character in the movie are from that cocktail party. Very likely that she dies. Awesome.

Best moments of the trailer are the "Here's my card" and "Gotham deserves a better kind of criminal"
And love the "Here.. we.. GO" shot.

You couldn't tell it was Sheen in that shot (never see his face); could have been anybody being dropped off a building, it being a movie about the mob and all.

I avoided watching the trailer at AICN because they spoiler-tagged the bejesus out of it. You didn't, I read your article, and you spoiled it. With a fucking screengrab, no less. What's worse is you basically thumbed your nose at your readers with some half-baked arseholery about it being fair game because it's a trailer. It's not fair game. Lots of people don't watch trailers at all. I expected more from you, being honest, your writing is always top class. Just put the fucking spoilers in invisi-text. It's a really easy thing to do and detracts in no way from your article. And to anyone who wants to object to what I'm saying, first you should go and fuck yourself till your baloon-knot looks like a clown's pocket. I don't care whether she survives, Bats saves her or she lands vadge first on Penguin's umberella. I didn't want to know what I now know.

That balcony kind of looks like the one that Rachel and Bruce talk on earlier in the trailer, she might die at that cocktail party.

Hmmm.

Invisi-text that shit!

Well she wears the same dress in both shots so there is this.

There ya have it, the great mystery now revealed for the world to see! Goddammit to hell Phil. Goddammit to hell!

I'd love to see Watchmen released earlier, but I feel that March 6, 2009 is too good of a release date to mess with. There's that whole clock motif that 3-6-9 is perfect for. Besides, I'd hate to see Watchmen get domineered by the holiday releases.

Oh, and I thought it seemed pretty obvious that the Joker is pushing off Rachel Dawes; that's what flickered through my mind when I saw the trailer, at least.

Falling to your death in the Bat-flicks is the equivalant to getting your arm removed in the Star Wars franchise. If I was in a Batman movie, I'd stay the hell away from heights.

BATMAN '89: Joker RIP
BATMAN RETURNS: Catwoman (survived the fall, but ouch), Penguin RIP
BATMAN FOREVER: Twoface RIP, Ed Begley Jr (Stickley) RIP, Dick Grayson's parents RIP
BATMAN BEGINS: Rha's RIP (he fell and crashed and blew up)

Miles better than the first trailer. Ledger looks absolutely fantastic. I have to side with those that think Bale's Wayne is better than his Batman, though. Favorite part though was the exchange between Alfred and Dent:

"Any psychotic ex-boyfriends I should be aware of?"
"Oh, you have no idea."

Caine can be so awesome when he gives a shit.

Bale's Wayne is extremely boring.

Yeah.....

Is that what you meant Andre? Second reel spoiler meaning she dies pretty early?

QFT.

How Supremacy-like. I hope Two-Face isn't just some angry douche with a bad haircut that gets some of his face burnt off.

Not too worried about spoilers

I'm not particularly worried about spoilers from screencaps. I've read enough Batman comics, watched the animated series, and all the other assorted stuff that comes along with being a fan of Batman. It's hard for them to surprise me. I'm more concerned with how this story plays out.

One major thing I'm happy about from this trailer is that it seems that Nolan has gotten better at staging his action. I hated the majority of the action in Batman begins. I thought it looked terrible. Does he have a different editor on this movie? Because the Batman Begins editor had no clue how to stage hand to hand combat.

Alfred ordered shitty helmets again...

I'm with Phil on this one. There's clearly enough grey are here as to how much Warner Bros./Nolan 'conspired to spoil' with one shot from a trailer -- I saw that shot in context, and didn't think anything of it -- so it seems like the simple/professional thing to do would have been to err on the side of safety, and throw some inviso-text in there.

Yes, you could tell it was Sheen. Earlier in the trailer, you see Sheen talking to DiCaprio on a roof and wearing a jacket that looks exactly the same as Mysterious Person Who Fell From a Roof.

A death is obviously a spoiler, and apparently that's what we're talking about, according to Eckhart and the other evidence. But by itself, the screengrab is nothing - getting thrown off a rooftop doesn't have much of an effect on a character's chance of survival in a superhero movie. It may even increase it.

Some people have an OCD level attention to detail in trailers. This is a minor case of that, but it still falls into that category.

It's easier to notice Sheen falling in that trailer than Maggie G falling in this one because Sheen's descent was in slo-mo.

When I saw the trailer Monday night, I thought it was her but I wasn't sold on it. Then last night I was certain when I saw it before IRON MAN.

Speaking of IRON MAN, going to catch a 7:20 right now.

Yeah, but most people were shocked when he was killed in the film. I saw The Departed several times in the theater and there were always shocked gasps when he fell. Almost no one knew it was coming (including myself), and I'm sure most of them saw the trailer (as did I).

The shots are much too quick in the trailer for you to piece those kinds of things together, unless you dissect it and watch it frame by frame, but who does that? In the shot of Dicaprio with Sheen on the roof, you don't even see Sheen's face, it's an over the shoulder shot of Sheen looking at Dicaprio, and the shot is so quick you barely notice his jacket. You can tell it's him if you've been paying very very close attention, but who's doing that?

You're assaulted with imagery and it's a purely visceral experience when watching most trailers today. So even though it was a spoiler, it wasn't noticed much and therefore a moot point.