It has been 16 years since The Dark Knight was released and left a mystery hanging over the DC film, but now the answers have been revealed. The Dark Knight is considered one of the greatest superhero films of all time, thanks to its exemplary interpretations of Batman lore, with Heath Ledger’s Joker being a standout. His frenzied, violent take on what was once a camp villain remains paradigmatic, with his motives a terrifyingly unpredictable antithesis to Batman’s concern for order.
The Joker’s desire to sow chaos is further exemplified by his reluctance to be kind to key members of Gotham’s criminal underworld despite their common enemy. Although the heads of various mobs formed an uneasy truce in an attempt to form a united front against Batman, the Joker would prove to be equally disruptive to their nefarious goals. One crime boss in particular quickly took offense to the Joker’s irritation and led the charge in disrespecting the Joker’s influence, which would be a fatal mistake. Or, at least, it seemed that way.
The Dark Knight left Gambol’s fate ambiguous
Joker apparently kills Gambol with a cut to the cheek
Of all the scheming crime bosses, Gambol was the most antagonistic to the Joker. It was one of his henchmen who fell into disgrace with the infamous “magic trick“this involved making a pencil disappear. Gambol would then attack Joker, offering $500,000 and $1 million to anyone who could bring back Joker alive or dead, respectively. This stunt would be his undoing, as Joker used it as a pretext to approach Gambol, and then he quickly outsmarted and restrained Gambol and his men before delivering one of the most recognized origin stories about his facial scars.
As Joker does this, he holds a knife to Gambol’s cheek as if to imitate his story. When his speech ends, we only see the grimace of a gang member while Joker presumably plasters a Glaswegian smile on Gambol’s face. In the next scene, Gambol’s limp body falls to the ground, apparently dead. The disconcerting implication here is that a cut to Gambol’s cheek was enough to kill him instantly. – which just doesn’t make sense. It’s easier to believe that the shock of the attack knocked him out and that Gambol survived the ordeal.
The Dark Knight Novelization Gave an In-Universe Answer to the DC Film Mystery
The Dark Knight novel describes Gambol’s death in more detail
The novelization for The Dark Knight (which has an identical title) provides much deeper insight into much of The Dark Knightevents and characters. Harvey Dent, for example, enjoys a much deeper backstory in The Dark Knight novel, which includes how he and Rachel met. It also helped to remedy the confusion surrounding Gambol’s fate.thanks to a clear description of his encounter with the Joker.
The novel describes how Joker actually slit Gambol’s throat to kill himwhich obviously makes a lot more sense than his death from a cheek laceration. Gambol being killed during this scene in The Dark Knight makes sense, as Gambol is definitely out of the picture from this point forward. Still, the editing of this scene is confusing for a reason, according to the actor who played Gambol in The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight’s Gambol ending may have led to a storyline in The Dark Knight Rises
Gambol was initially going to survive the Joker’s attack
Michael Jai White revealed the The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that Gambol really should survive his ordeal with the Joker. He references the “weird cut“by clarifying that he never filmed the death scene depicted in the final version, stating”The character shouldn’t have disappeared. This is something that happened in the later edit.” He continues to speculate that Heath Ledger’s death prompted the last-minute edit, as he believed the original intention was to have Gambol return in The Dark Knight Rises, which would obviously have seen him flashing his own Glaswegian smile.
How would Gambol’s return have affected the narrative for The Dark Knight Rises It’s purely speculationas the film was only written after Ledger’s death. Given that Joker was never killed in The Dark KnightIt stands to reason that Ledger’s celebrated performance would have led him to reprise the role in The Dark Knight Risesproviding an intriguing dynamic between him and the gang boss he maimed. Still, between the comments of Michael Jai White and The Dark Knight Clarifying the novel, the somewhat awkward editing of Gambol’s death now makes a lot more sense.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter