Jim Gordon Quotes in The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Jim Gordon: I never cared who you were...

Batman: And you were right.

Jim Gordon: ...but shouldn't the people know the hero whot saved them?

Batman: A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended.

[takes off in the Bat]

Jim Gordon: Bruce Wayne?

Jim Gordon: [reading from the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens] I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

Bane: [addressing media reporters outside the prison] Behind you is a symbol of oppression. Blackgate Prison, where a thousand men have languished under the name of this man,

[holds up a picture of Harvey Dent]

Bane: Harvey Dent, who has been held up to you as the shining example of justice!

John Blake: [to Gordon, at Blake's apartment] Commissioner, we need to keep you moving until we can get you in front of a camera.

Bane: You have been supplied with a false idol to stop you from tearing down this CORRUPT CITY! Let me tell you the truth about Harvey Dent from the words of Gotham's police commissioner, James Gordon.

[holds up Gordon's speech papers and begins to read]

Bane: "The Batman didn't murder Harvey Dent, he saved my boy then took the blame for Harvey's appalling crimes so that I could, to my shame, build a lie around this fallen idol. I praised the mad man who tried to murder my own child but I can no longer live with my lie. It is time to trust the people of Gotham with the truth and it is time for me to resign."

[calls to prisoners]

Bane: And do you accept this man's resignation? Do you accept the resignation of all these liars? Of all the CORRUPT?

[prisoners roar with approval]

John Blake: Those men locked up for eight years in Blackgate, and denied parole under the Dent Act, based on a lie?

Jim Gordon: Gotham needed a hero...

John Blake: It needs it now more than ever. You betrayed everything you stood for.

Jim Gordon: There's a point, far out there when the structures fail you, and the rules aren't weapons anymore, they're... shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. One day... you may face such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did, to plunge their hands into the filth so that you can keep yours clean!

John Blake: [disgusted] Your hands look plenty filthy to me, Commissioner.

John Blake: I just can't take it. I mean, nobody will ever know who it was who saved an entire city.

Jim Gordon: They know who it was; it was the Batman.

[Bruce, wearing a ski mask, visits Gordon's hospital room]

Jim Gordon: [lying in a hospital bed] We were in this together, and then you were gone.

Bruce Wayne: The Batman wasn't needed anymore. We won.

Jim Gordon: Based on a lie. Now this evil... rises from where we tried to bury it. The Batman has to come back.

Bruce Wayne: What if he doesn't exist any more?

Jim Gordon: He must... he must...

Batman: [Hands over device] This blocks the remote detonator signal to the bomb. Get it onto it before sunrise. They might hit the button when it starts.

Jim Gordon: When what starts?

Batman: War.

Jim Gordon: [Gordon and his men have been brought into Crane's kangaroo court] No lawyer, no witnesses? What sort of due process is this?

Dr. Jonathan Crane: Your guilt has been determined. This is merely a sentencing hearing. Now, what will it be? Death or Exile?

Jim Gordon: Crane, if you think we're going to walk out on that ice willingly, you got another thing coming!

Dr. Jonathan Crane: So it's death then?

Jim Gordon: Looks that way.

Dr. Jonathan Crane: Very well. Death!

[smashes gavel]

Dr. Jonathan Crane: By exile!

Jim Gordon: Can I change your mind about quitting the force?

John Blake: You were right, about the structures becoming shackles.

[first lines]

Jim Gordon: I knew Harvey Dent. I was his friend. And it will be a very long time before someone... inspires us the way he did. I believed in Harvey Dent.

Jim Gordon: We could use some hotter heads around here.

[Blake finds Gordon on the police station roof next to the broken Bat-signal]

John Blake: Sir, Congressman Gilly's wife has been calling in. Apparently the Congressman never made it home after the Wayne Foundation event.

Jim Gordon: That's a job for the police.

John Blake: When you and Dent cleaned up the streets, you cleaned them good. Pretty soon we'll be chasing down uh... overdue library books. And yet, here you are, like we're still at war.

Jim Gordon: What's your name, son?

John Blake: Blake, sir.

Jim Gordon: You got something you wanna ask me, Officer Blake?

John Blake: It's about that night, this night, eight years ago. The night Dent died, the last confirmed sighting of the Batman. He murders those people, takes down two SWAT teams, breaks Dent's neck and then just... vanishes?

Jim Gordon: I'm not hearing a question, son.

John Blake: Don't you wanna know who he was?

[Gordon looks at the broken Bat -Signal for a moment]

Jim Gordon: I know exactly who he was. He was the Batman.

[starts walking]

Jim Gordon: Let's go see about the Congressman's wife.

Batman: [taps the Bat-signal] Nice.

Jim Gordon: I couldn't find any mob bosses.

Batman: Well, Sergeant?

Jim Gordon: Oh, it's Lieutenant now. You really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets.

Batman: But?

Jim Gordon: We still haven't picked up Crane or half the inmates of Arkham that he freed.

Batman: We will. We *can* bring Gotham back.

Jim Gordon: What about escalation?

Batman: Escalation?

Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.

Batman: And?

Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.

[pulling out a file]

Jim Gordon: Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.

[shows Batman a plastic evidence bag containing a Joker card]

Batman: I'll look into it.

[turns away and walks to the edge of the roof]

Jim Gordon: I never said thank you.

Batman: [looks back at Gordon] And you'll never have to.

[last lines]

Jim Gordon: I never said thank you.

Batman: And you'll never have to.

Batman: [meeting Gordon carrying an unconscious Rachel out of Arkham] How is she?

Jim Gordon: [handing Rachel over] She's fading. We gotta go. I'll get my car.

Batman: I brought mine.

Jim Gordon: Yours?

[Batmobile blasts out and races by]

Jim Gordon: I've gotta get me one of those.

Ra's al Ghul: You are just an ordinary man in a cape! That's why you couldn't fight injustice and that's why you can't stop this train!

Batman: Who said anything about stopping it?

[Ra's al Ghul looks up, confused, and sees his own sword jammed into the brake panel]

Jim Gordon: [blows up the train supports] Yes!

Batman: [reverses his grip and pins Ra's al Ghul to the floor] You never learned to mind your surroundings!

Bruce Wayne: Don't turn around. You're a good cop, one of the few.

Jim Gordon: What do you want?

Bruce Wayne: Carmine Falcone brings in shipments of drugs every week, no one brings him down, why?

Jim Gordon: He's paid up with the right people.

Bruce Wayne: What will it take to bring him down?

Jim Gordon: Leverage on Judge Faden, and a DA brave enough to prosecute.

Bruce Wayne: Rachel Dawes.

Jim Gordon: Who are you?

Bruce Wayne: Watch for my sign.

Jim Gordon: You're just one man?

Bruce Wayne: Now we're two.

Jim Gordon: We?

Jim Gordon: [hearing bat sounds] What is that?

Batman: Back-up.

Flass: What the...?

[bats swarm around Arkham]

Jim Gordon: [sideswipes several cars with the Tumbler; grimaces] Sorry!

Batman: [perched on the railing of a stairway behind Gordon's home] Storm's coming.

Jim Gordon: [closing the door to his kitchen where his wife and son are] The scum is getting jumpy because you stood up to Falcone.

Batman: It's a start. Your partner was at the docks with Falcone.

Jim Gordon: Well, he moonlights as a low-level enforcer.

Batman: They were splitting the shipment in two. Only half went to the dealers.

Jim Gordon: Why? What about the other half?

Batman: Flass knows.

Jim Gordon: He won't talk.

Batman: He'll talk to me.

Jim Gordon: Commissioner Loeb set up a massive task force to catch you. He thinks you're dangerous.

Batman: What do you think?

Jim Gordon: I think you're trying to help...

[Gordon looks away momentarily; upon turning back, he finds that Batman has disappeared]

Jim Gordon: But I've been wrong before.

Batman: Well, Sergeant...

Jim Gordon: It's Lieutenant now.

Flass: [taking a bribe] Don't suppose you want a taste? I just keep offering, thinking maybe some day you'll get wise.

Jim Gordon: There's nothing wise in what you do, Flass.

Flass: Well, Jimbo, you don't take the taste... makes us guys nervous.

Jim Gordon: I'm no rat! In a town this bent, who's there to rat to anyway?

Jim Gordon: We need reinforcements! TAC teams, SWATs, riot cops!

Loeb: Gordon! Gordon! All the city's riot police are on the island with you.

Jim Gordon: Well, they're completely incapacitated!

Jim Gordon: This guy did deliver us one of the city's biggest crime lords.

Loeb: No one takes the law into their own hands in my city. Understand?

Jim Gordon: I hope you two had a good time, 'cause Hap paid the check.

Jim Gordon: [after Woody joins a sortie against Jim's orders, in a fighter without ammo or a radio, and gets himself shot down] Where do you think you are, with some broken-down flying circus?

Woody Jason: Aw, it would've been a cinch; I was ridin' the murder-spot right above those Jap bombers! If I had ammo, I'd have blown them clear out of China!

Jim Gordon: Instead, you wasted a good ship!

Woody Jason: Hey, you talk like that crate's more important than me.

Jim Gordon: I can't afford to lose planes OR pilots...

Woody Jason: It's like I told you earlier, Pappy: All I get out of this is the dough, so you can't blame me for trying. In a skeet match, the guy who knocks down the most pigeons wins the cup.

Jim Gordon: ...I also can't have grand-standers trying to hog the whole show! Results around here are based on co-operation and understanding. Discipline in the air is strict, because that's the only way an outfit like this can operate!

Woody Jason: ...And here I thought it was every man for himself.

Jim Gordon: Not these days, it isn't. Just wait until the day you look over your shoulder and see a Jap sittin' on your tail, in a ship that you can't out-maneuver! THEN you'll know what I'm talking about.

Jim Gordon: [following Hap's medical examination] Come on in, Hap... I gotta hand you one on the chin, but I'd rather it came from me than from anybody else: You're through flying.

Hap Smith: The doctor said I'd out-live Confucius.

Jim Gordon: Sure, if you stay on the ground... I can't send a man out there who doesn't know whether he's flying upside down or not! Take a look at that eye chart; your depth perception's a mile off! I know you've been gunning 'em since they were box-kites with broomsticks for rudders. But you gotta believe me, I'm doin' this for you! You've been close-winging in formation, overshooting your landings...

Hap Smith: [sounding as if he might cry] You don't have to say any more!... What else COULD I do around here?

Jim Gordon: Well, taking care of these ships on the ground is just as important as gunning them upstairs. I need a man I can trust for that... I wish you'd take that job, Hap.

[Woody has "broken the camel's back", by getting Hap killed]

Jim Gordon: There's an army truck out of here for Rangoon the day after tomorrow. Be on it.

Woody Jason: Don't say that, Jim!

Jim Gordon: Until then, you're confined to your quarters.

Woody Jason: I'm still a good flier, Jim! I'll knock down five Japs for every one of our boys!

Jim Gordon: It's out of my hands now. None of THESE men will ever fly with you again. And they HAVE to fly.

[after the first sortie]

Jim Gordon: A little rough in spots, Dale, but I think after you've learned a few things about... Dale?

[finds him dead]

Jim Gordon: ... Mike! Take care of Dale, would you? Thanks.

Jim Gordon: Don't try to win this war all by yourself.

Jim Gordon: [reading Woody's final letter] Do me a favor, will you, Pappy? Give my leather jacket to Reardon, he's a cool character. Divide my address book evenly among the boys in the barracks. And give my silk scarf to the next hedge-hopper who thinks this is an easy racket we're in. Woody.

Woody Jason: [almost crashing into mountain] Pull 'er up!

Jim Gordon: Didja you know I used to drive a roller coaster?

Woody Jason: Delivering nitro?

Jim Gordon: Yesss.

Woody Jason: Were you killed?

Jim Gordon: Uh-huh.

Woody Jason: [after hitting bridge and supply train] Give the gentleman a cee-gar!

Jim Gordon: If they wanna cross that river, they'll have to swim it!

Jim Gordon: [referring to the flight of replacement pilots] Any word on that flight yet?

Rangoon hotel clerk: Yes sir, it was attacked and fired on by Japanese aircraft. She's coming in on one wing and a prayer.

Jim Gordon: Get 'er closer!

Woody Jason: If we get any closer to that bridge, we'll have to pay a toll charge!

Woody Jason: [Woody has just inadvertently insulted Jim's girlfriend, who walks away] Did I do something wrong?

Jim Gordon: Do you ever do anything right?

Maureen Cummings: Erik got injured today. And do you know the first thing I thought when I saw him go down?

Jim Gordon: What?

Maureen Cummings: "I wish that was me." So that made me think, you know, 'cause that's not a normal reaction. How much of what you liked about me was because I was a ballet dancer, and how much because I was me?

Maureen Cummings: I've got priorities. I mean, you only get to be a dancer for ten years. Maybe fifteen if you don't get injured. So for the next decade at least.

Jim Gordon: Hey, all I'm asking for is a date.

Jim Gordon: Have you seen my girlfriend? Tall, Thin, legs for days?

Eva: Yeah I pitched her overboard.