Christian Bale and Heath Ledger in 2008's "The Dark Knight"

Scene Stealer is new column that will be bringing you a classic, iconic, or just plain awesome movie scene as often as possible. Since Christoper Nolan’s much anticipated film Inception is released this Friday I figured his filmography would be a good place to start. However, most of the iconic scenes in Nolan’s pictures involve heavy spoilers due the plot twists in those stories. So, I had somewhat of a hard time picking today’s first showcase.

The natural solution was as clear as day in the end though. While Memento may be Nolan’s most individual work The Dark Knight is his most successful. Not only because of the classic characters, but the pathos in which they were written, preformed, and directed. Therefore, what scene in the film is the both the centerpiece of the story and the culmination of both Batman and The Joker’s ideals? The Interrogation Scene.

It’s been the focus of hundreds of YouTube parodies and general memories surrounding the film. It’s easy to see why, both actors are bringing their A-Game, and since the scene was shot early on in the film’s production it gave the crew extra time to get it right.

In the scene The Joker has been arrested and Batman has been sent in to find out what he did with Harvey Dent. Little does he no that The Joker has bigger plans for the both of them. Batman soon becomes enraged and is in danger of crossing the line while The Joker is soaking that fact up in all of it’s glory. Here are some of Nolan’s thoughts on the moment in the film from the L.A. Times:

We wanted it to be the point at which Batman is truly tested by the Joker and you see that the Joker is truly capable of getting under everybody’s skin. I’m realizing this now about that scene — I haven’t thought this through before — the synthesis of all the different elements that I’m most interested in within filmmaking all come in that scene.

"The Dark Knight" and Michael Mann's "Heat"

The Dark Knight is often compared to Michael Mann’s Heat and this scene is one of the key reasons. Like Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro’s diner confrontation that is at the center of that story, the interrogation scene is the The Dark Knight‘s defining moment. When it ends our hero has gone closer to a place that he may never come back from. He learns much about the chaos, in the form of Heath Ledger’s Joker, that will become his arch enemy.

What’s my favorite part of the scene below? It’s seeing the care in which some of my all time favorite characters were brought to life. For in this moment, and the entirety of the film really, Gotham City was real.

For more from Nolan on this classic scene, check out this interview from the L.A. Times.