Smoke rises from a Manhattan skyscraper, damaged by a violent explosion. This could easily be a 9/11 scene, yet we see Batman looking on darkly as a poster advertises that the film will be released soon. Clearly this film plays on the fear of terrorism. As depicted in The Dark Knight, the Joker plays the terrorist, while Gotham's leadership struggles to contain him. The film moves away from superhero ideals of pure good versus pure evil, showing a dark world where moral decisions must be made to stop evil. For this reason, The Dark Knight appears to be an allegory for the war on terrorism. This article will examine how the Joker represents terrorism, while Batman represents George Bush and his administration's war on terrorism. The Dark Knight opens with a predictable bank robbery. Masked thieves enter a bank, fire some shots and try to break into a safe. During the sequence some thugs argue about who exactly the Joker is. Due to the tilted camera angles something seems crooked. The Joker subsequently kills all of his thieving assistants, probably in an attempt to protect himself. According to a report by the Defense Technical Information Center, terrorist leadership often induces fanatics into suicide attacks because it leaves little evidence that they may also be linked (Miyasato). The Joker apparently killed his fellow robbers for similar reasons. In a random act of violence the Joker kidnaps a Batman lookalike - a man he knows is not his true archenemy - and proceeds to execute him in gory fashion. Then release this video to a TV station. It looks like the Al-Qaida video of the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl. Even the terrorists knew that Pearl was not their military adversary, yet they killed him anyway. ...... half of the document ...... ecy must not crush the rule of law." Wired. June 21, 2006. Web. November 30, 2009. Klavan, Andrew. "What Bush and Batman have in common." The Wall Street Journal. July 25, 2008. Web. November 30, 2009. Cavaliere, Chris. “The Dark Night Review: Holy Anarcho-Terrorism!” The National Post. 16 July 2009. Web. 25 November 2009. Miyasato, Merle. "Suicide bombings: profiles, methods and techniques". Defense Technical Information Center , Richard. “Osama bin Laden and the idea of ​​progress.” December 21, 2001. Network. November 27, 2009. Whitlock, “No Joke: The Dark Night.” Craig and Dafna Linzer. “Italy seeks arrest of 13 people for alleged rendition.” The Washington Post 25 June 2005. Web. 25 November 2009. Woodward, Bob Washington Post. January 14, 2009. Web. November 25. 2009.