Game Theory in The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight features the eternal struggle between Batman and the Joker in a conflict between good and evil. This conflict in the movie is serious and hard to solve due to the Joker’s expertise and strategic thinking. In multiple instances, game theory can be used to analyze the Joker’s success in manipulating both those he works with and those he works against.
One great example of game theory is the prisoner’s dilemma game that happens with the two ferries. One ferry is filled with criminals, while the other with random innocents. If one boat detonates the other, that boat is allowed to live. If neither boat detonates the other, the Joker blows both of them up. And obviously, if both boats detonate each other everyone dies. The payoff chart is as follows:
| Criminals | |||
| Detonate | Don’t Detonate | ||
| Innocents | Detonate | -2 / -2 | 0 / -3 |
| Don’t Detonate | -3 / 0 | -1 / -1 |
The payoff for both detonating and both not detonating is different because although they have the same outcome, both detonating would probably cause some psychological tension for each boat because they’d be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of others in addition to dying themselves. Here we can see that the dominant strategies for both players would be to detonate the other boat as the repercussions for not detonating the boat would lead to death regardless of what the other boat does. Joker realizes this and hopes for the destruction of both ships before Batman stops the Joker’s plot. Had this outside intervention not happened, it would not be hard to see how the principle of Nash’s equilibrium would’ve led to the deaths of all the passengers involved.