Highlights
- Batman's tragic past, including the death of his parents, fuels his brooding character and his desire to clean up Gotham City, making for some truly tragic film moments.
- The death of Robin at the hands of the Joker and the circumstances surrounding it, including his torture and descent into madness, deeply sadden fans and showcase the impact of the Joker's evil.
- The death of Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a shocking and heartbreaking moment in comic book movie history, leaving audiences saddened by the loss of such an iconic superhero.
The Batman movie franchise has helped the Caped Crusader become the most famous superhero on the planet. However, one of the things that the franchise and the character are known for today is darkness. A superhero moniker like The Dark Knight prompts thoughts of someone who loves to brood, and the often-nocturnal hero loves to hide in the shadows and exact justice on his enemies, before going home and brooding some more.
Often Bruce Wayne just comes off as a loner, in spite of the many great Bat-Family characters around him. However, on occasion, he does seem to have more reason for his brooding manner, often as the result of the heartbreaking deaths of those close to him. On these particular occasions, the audience watching his movies empathize the most with the Caped Crusader, making for some truly tragic film moments.
7 Batman’s Parents
Thomas and Martha Wayne have died a lot of times, similar to characters like Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man comics. This particular death is an integral part of the nature of Batman. Bruce Wayne, having grown up without his parents, was led to become a dark vigilante in his desperation to clean up Gotham City.
Usually performed by a random man in the street as a young Bruce leaves the opera with his parents, neither of them survived the ensuing assault. Of course, it isn’t the most heartbreaking death in the films, as audiences never get to know Thomas and Martha before their untimely demise, making the blow easier, as does the knowledge that it is going to happen. Few times have audience members been surprised by this loss, as Batman’s origin is so well known and documented by now.
6 The Joker
Batman’s arch-enemy and top villain has proven time and time again how much he deserves to spend his life in jail or even die, but Batman has always spared him and refused to give him the death that he deserves. However, there was one occasion when Joker was murdered, and by Robin no less, in the Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker animated movie, a film which acted as a culmination for two separate Batman television shows.
The Joker would return in this film to trouble an older Bruce Wayne and his successor Terry McGinnis, after having been presumed dead for many years. This was troublesome in itself, but it became even worse when flashbacks showed how Joker and Harley Quinn had kidnapped Tim Drake, a previous Robin, and tortured him for three weeks, leaving him demented enough to eventually kill the Joker in the most brutal fashion. It wasn’t the death but the surrounding circumstances, with the Joker feeling like he had driven Tim into being exactly like him, that broke the hearts of fans.
5 Harvey Dent
The saddest part of Harvey Dent’s death is the potential he had. When both Harvey and Rachel are kidnapped and set up for death by the Joker, Batman is forced to choose between them. Based solely on the idea that saving Harvey could save Gotham itself, the idea that Harvey could be the white knight to Batman’s dark knight, so seeing Harvey fall to the dark side later after experiencing his injuries was truly heartbreaking.
The influence of the Joker and Harvey’s injuries helped lead him down a much darker path to becoming Two-Face. Eventually, his actions, including the threatening of Jim Gordon’s family, lead to Bruce having to stop Two-Face at any cost, leading to his death. Unnaturally, the death of Gotham’s white knight rallied the city to an even greater hatred of Batman.
4 Jason Todd
One of the most famous deaths in the Batman comic book mythos is that of former Robin, Jason Todd. Despite returning later as the Red Hood, Jason’s death at the hands of the Joker is one of the most famous in comic book history, and despite never strictly occurring in live-action, the effects of it are felt by Ben Affleck’s version of the character. Additionally, the moment did occur in the surprisingly brutal DC animated movie Batman: Death In The Family.
This interactive film was a fascinating version of his story, where viewers can decide different paths, including the one where Jason Todd’s Robin dies at the hands of the Joker. This heartbreaking death is one of the definitive tragedies in the history of Batman, with the much darker Red Hood version of Jason being the dominant incarnation in modern DC history, all due to the fallout of his previous death at the hands of the Joker.
3 Everyone
Zack Snyder’s Justice League ended with a view into the future of a nightmarish version of the DC Universe. In a ruined, desert-covered sequence, it is made clear that everyone died in the vein of X-Men: Days of Future Past. While there are a few survivors, the majority are in opposition to the new world regime, which is ruled over by Superman after he was driven insane by the anti-life equation.
All of this followed Darkseid killing Lois Lane, which Batman tried and failed to prevent, leading to Superman’s new world order. Batman, along with a few others, finally fails in their attempts to hold off Superman. This led to Barry Allen going back in time to warn a much earlier version of Bruce Wayne. With the Flash in the earlier time changing the timeline, it is likely that this timeline is completely averted, but the casual deaths of so many beloved characters made for a heartbreaking sequence.
2 Superman
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ended with a shocking and heartbreaking death, one of the most surprising and sad moments in the history of comic book movies. The death of Superman himself made for a huge surprise, as the two heroes following their conflict with each other came together, along with Wonder Woman, to try and defeat Lex Luthor’s Doomsday creation.
The resurrected Zod that became Doomsday was a massive threat that just kept gaining in power, but as a Kryptonian, the Kryptonite spear wielded by Batman was capable of killing him. Unfortunately, only Superman was able to get close enough to Doomsday to use the spear on him and perished in the attempt. Despite his later resurrection by the Justice League, Superman’s death remains one of the saddest in any Batman movie.
1 Rachel Dawes
The Dark Knight is considered by many to be the very best Batman movie, and even the best superhero film ever to exist. However, it is also one of the darker superhero tales, telling of the horrific downfall of Harvey Dent in addition to the various monstrosities enacted by the Joker. But one loss was far worse for the audience and on a personal level for Bruce Wayne, that of his childhood friend Rachel Dawes.
An on-and-off love interest for Bruce, Rachel was recast from Katie Holmes in Batman Begins to Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight, and a great performance allowed the audience to get to know her very well and fall in love with the idea of her and Bruce potentially ending up together. When she dies, the horrible heartbreak that Bruce went through helped the scene become the most devastating in Batman movie history.