Rachel Dawes – The Dark Knight
Listen, not everyone is a huge fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, but her death at the hands of The Joker in The Dark Knight remains one of the most heart wrenching out there. The backstory of a former failed romance between Rachel and Bruce Wayne adds not only unrequited love to the mixture, but also a flavoring of who Bruce Wayne once was, before Batman took over his life.
In the movie, Rachel is kidnapped along with Harvey Dent at the hands of the Joker, famously played by Heath Ledger. Like all classic Joker plans, he turns their lives into a game for Batman to play. Both Rachel and Harvey are tied up in separate rooms filled with explosives. They have phones so that they can talk to each other. It is during this exchange that Rachel tells Harvey that she’d like to marry him.
Batman is given the location of both rooms and of course speeds off to save his former love, Rachel. But the Joker tricks him and Batman winds up saving Harvey Dent. The Joker had swapped the addresses of the rooms. They do not save Rachel in time and she dies in her room explosion and the result of her death not only devastates Batman but drives Harvey Dent, now Two Face, insane. Of all comic book movie deaths, this is one that has the biggest impact on our hero.
