The Dark Knight Rises on Wall Street

So you know that last weekend there was some filming going on for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. You also know that someone very near and dear to me was involved in the filming as an extra. As I mentioned, Eric signed all sorts of confidentiality agreements, so I am not here to tell you anything he may or may not have mentioned to me about his experience. (Well, I can probably tell you that he said it was AWESOME, but we'll leave it at that.)

However, I did head into the city on Saturday to see if I could catch sight of any of the filming action for myself, and THAT I can tell you about!

As soon as I got off the PATH at the World Trade Center and started walking towards the Stock Exchange, I knew things were happening in the neighborhood. I could hear tons of people yelling, fake gunfire, the works! I knew this scene that was being filmed was going to be a big one - over 1,000 extras were involved, and all the big stars were rumored to be a part of it. So yeah, it would be a little hard to miss it.

Of course, I hate downtown because the streets are named, not numbered (terrible idea), so I wandered in circles for a bit before I found a spot where I could actually stand around and see some action. By pure chance (yeah, that's what we'll call it) I ended up along the barricades at the corner of Pearl St. and Wall St. It just so happened that was where many of the "Gotham City cops" were lining up for their scene.

Photo posted to Twitter by @CMay22 of the Gotham Police lining up

Another photo posted to Twitter, this time by @DarylLang, of more Gotham PD

Cluster of police standing around at Pearl & Wall St.

There were also various GPD police cars around the area:

Gotham PD

Gotham City license plate

While I waited at the barricades, the cops weren't really filming anything - they were just sort of standing around waiting for instruction. They did gather up to do a bit of yelling at one point.

VIDEO: Cops being filmed yelling

Besides the yelling, I just really got to see them wandering around amongst the fake snow (yes, it's fake, don't worry - no more snowstorms for us yet). One particularly good-looking Gotham PD officer came over towards the barricades, so I had to take his picture.

I love a man in uniform.

Looking good!

I hung around there for a bit then started circling the area a bit more to see if there were any better views. I did get a pretty good angle that gives you an idea of the sheer number of extras being used in this scene:

Looking down towards Wall Street from Trinity Church - check out the huge screens and tattered flags!

Tons and tons of people

There is plenty of evidence on the internet that this was a big, giant brawl scene between the Gotham PD and the "bad guys," and they were repeatedly filming the two groups running towards each other, crashing into each other, and fighting. I'm certainly not the only one posting photos, videos and recaps of what they saw during filming. There are lots more pictures to be seen here, along with some videos. I particularly enjoyed the video below...in fact, if you keep your eyes towards the back of the group near the scaffolding (especially around :27, and :40-ish), you might even catch a glimpse of that hot cop I took a picture of earlier brawling with the bad guys:

VIDEO: Fight scene in progress!

All that brawling left the aforementioned hot cop a little bloodied, and definitely pretty sore:

Okay, so he really just looks more handsome than battered here, but look! A cut on his face! He looks so dangerous. And you should have seen the other guy!

Even when filming wrapped for the day, there were lingering signs that Downtown New York had been turned into Gotham City:

Gotham Stock Exchange, with tattered flags hanging from the building

Guide for tourists to Gotham City

Exploring Lower Gotham

There are three camoflage tumblers under those tarps!

Pretty cool, right? I wish I had been able to personally catch sight of the tumblers, or Anne Hathaway, Matthew Modine or Christian Bale (oh man, I wish it), but it's still fun to see traces of Gotham City here in New York, and of course, I enjoyed the Gotham PD! Now, we'll just have to wait for the movie to come out to see if I recognize anyone...