Heath Ledger As The Joker Voted Most Iconic Movie Moment In Last 21 Years

To celebrate its 21st birthday, review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes has compiled a list of the best movie moments from the past 21 years, ranked by a public vote - awarding the top spot to Heath Ledger for his turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Now, the eagle-eyed among you will realise that Heath Ledger's turn as Batman's iconic nemesis is less of a 'moment' and more so a performance that spans an entire movie. Well, Rotten Tomatoes argued Ledger's entire performance justifies the victory as it was simply so, well, memorable.

The second film in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, it was released as a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, and saw Christian Bale reprise his role as the caped crusader alongside the likes of Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman.

Most notably, The Dark Knight introduced Heath Ledger to the franchise, where he was able to give a career-defining performance as The Joker - just before his untimely death mere months before the film was released.

PA

Arguing that Ledger's Joker was 'one that changed the course of what people thought possible in superhero films,' the site said: "It was bigger than a single scene, or a single line, or a look, or a bit of action - which is why we titled the moment simply, 'The Joker'.

I mean, I don't think we're going to find anyone arguing with that, let's face it.

It also said the role was one that 'remains the benchmark against which all movie villains are compared to this day,' which isn't bad going considering the film is now more than a decade old.

Buena Vista

Other moments to make a 'serious impact' in the last 21 years that make up the rest of the list's top 10 are: 'The Snap' from Avengers: Infinity War, "I see dead people" from The Sixth Sense, Carl and Ellie in the opening of Up, the Avengers assembling in New York from Marvel's The Avengers, the government lobby scene from The Matrix, Gollum talking to Smeagol from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 'No Man's Land' from Wonder Woman, the upside-down kiss from Spider-Man and Juan teaching Chiron to swim from Moonlight.

Further down the list, the chest-waxing scene from The 40-Year-Old Virgin also got a nod, as did the similarly cringe-inducing food poising sequence in Bridesmaids, while that rainy kiss in The Notebook also honoured.

Topics: Film, Entertainment, TV and Film

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman