Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal)

Rachel Dawes was a District attorney of Gotham City.

Early life
See: Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes)

Life with Harvey Dent
Rachel, by this time, is the assistant DA to Harvey Dent, a man who is challenging the mob in Gotham in a legal way. She has also started dating him, creating a love triangle between herself, Dent, and Bruce.

When the mob hires the Joker to kill Batman out of desperation, the Joker says he will kill people until Batman reveals his identity. Harvey, realizing how important Batman is, says that he is the Batman in order to keep the real Batman free. Rachel confronts Alfred about this deception, but Alfred simply suggests that Bruce and Harvey both recognise that Batman represents something more than a man. When Joker tries to kill Harvey, the real Batman and Commissioner Gordon capture him.

But during this time, Joker manipulates two cops into bringing Dent and Dawes to different buildings in the city. There, both of them are tied up with bombs and barrels of gasoline surrounding them, along with a radio that allowed the two of them to speak to each other. Joker reveals the locations to Batman and the police during his interrogation, but deliberately switches the locations. Batman sets out to save Dawes, while Gordon goes to rescue Dent, unaware of the falsehood in Joker's words until Batman arrives at the storage to find Dent, not Dawes as he believes, inside. Still, Batman manages to get Dent out- arriving moments after Rachel had told Harvey that she would marry him, having previous requested time to consider his proposal-, although half of his face is caught on fire and hideously burnt in the explosion that occurs seconds after their escape from the building. However, Gordon arrives too late to save Rachel, and she dies when the bombs surrounding her are detonated, her last words being to assure Harvey that him being saved instead of her is OK.

Earlier before her abduction and death, Rachel has left Alfred a note for Bruce, leaving it unsealed so Alfred could also read it and know the right time for Bruce to read it. She explains in the letter that because she truly loves Harvey and thinks that Bruce will not be able to give up his life as Batman, she is going to marry Harvey. Alfred goes to give it to Bruce after her death, but instead takes it back moments later when he decides it's not yet time, and then later burns it when he hears that Bruce is sure that she would have waited for him, knowing that it would never be the right time, recognising that- just as Batman and Gordon would later sacrifice Batman's reputation to preserve Harvey's- sometimes people need the lies to fulfil their hopes.

Behind the scenes

 * Maggie Gyllenhaal's portrayal of Rachel Dawes should be viewed as a continuation of Katie Holmes' from Batman Begins.
 * First major female character to be killed off in the Batman films.
 * It is unknown if Rachel's mother was alive during Rachel's death.