I kind of find it hard to believe that a movie based on a comic super hero was one of the best films of 2008. This is partly because not that many good movies were released that year, but also because ‘Batman, the Dark Night’ offers more than just the mindless entertainment you would expect from such a block buster. Most recent super hero films have tried to make the genre more interesting by making their villains more nuanced. Lex Luthor in Superman is a prime example of the well respected society man by day, and evil doing genius by night.

The Joker in the latest installment of the Batman franchise however bucks this trend. He has no visible nuances at all. He’s just plain psychopathic. But it’s his evil deeds that are quite remarkable: He’s not really out for personal gain and greed like most common bad guys. Instead, he’s simply intent on creating mayhem. And not just any sort of mayhem. He also has a penchant for placing his victims in situations where they have to make really difficult choices. This because on one hand, no matter what choice they make, the outcome is most likely always going to be bad. More interestingly though: many times, that choice is also influenced by the decisions of others instead of coming from just one individual. And this is where game theory comes into play.

If you haven’t seen the Batman film or “A Beautiful Mind”, the following may contain spoilers.

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