The Joker creates a nearly impo-ssible situation in the movie when he places the lives of two separate groups of people "literally" in each other's hands.
One ferry full of convicts from Arkham Asylum, another ferry full of "normal" people (including women and children). Both groups have a trigger which when activated will set off the explosives on the opposite boat.
Joker's rules are that only one boatload of people is allowed to survive, and that one group will be responsible for the death of the other. Joker will not permit them to delay their decision like a bunch of bureaucats though; he places asphyxiating constraints on both groups, less than an hour to make a decision with a deadline of midnight, and the sure knowledge that should either group fail to destroy the other, he will set off both sets of explosives himself and kill them all.
It is a terrifying social experiment. Joker picked his groups perfectly. The convicts are desperate men, who have already committed all manner of heinous crimes, including murder.
Going by the narrow-minded, unfeeling, black and white beliefs our society holds regarding the social "degenerates" we call criminals, it is expected that they will kill others without hesitation.
The Joker knows that "normal" people view criminals as he knows people view himself : as animals, beasts, who have long ago sacrificed any notions of decency, morality, or kindness, motivated only by bloodlust and a desire for destruction.
The Joker fully expects the upright, normal, "good" people on the other ferry to self-righteously judge themselves more deserving of life then the dregs of society whom "civilized" people fear, shun, and lock-away calling such reactions "normal".
The Joker is a man out to test the limits of what a society deems to call "normal".
At the same time, The Joker wouldn't be at all surprised if the convicts blew up the other ferryload of "innocent" people, after all, they're killers just like him.
The Joker is delighted with the ethical "conundrum" he has created, and he is further delighted by the fact that he is going to be able to prove his point to Batman, Gordon, and all the citizens of Gotham, that all people (especially, so-called, "normal" people) are essentially vicious animals, like himself, who will commit any sort of horror in order to survive.
It is a credit to the sheer vision of the movie that during the period of time the clock is winding itself down to midnight, both groups, appear prepared to sentence the other to a fiery death.
The convicts and the everyday people behave in a very real, very human way, struggling with the pain of making such a soul-scorching decision.
The Joker has to be given credit. In a society which basically numbs people to the point of feeling practically nothing, ceaselessly distracted from emotions by heedless consumerism and non-stop anaesthizing entertainment, the horrifying situation The Joker puts these two disparate groups of people in, irrevocably "forces" them to open up the rusty doors of their oft-forgotten hearts and actually "feel".
Maybe if The Joker (whose name we never learn in the movie) had been raised in a society where human beings lived in integration with their emotions, where a rage-filled Father, or a half-crazed Wife, felt, really felt deep down inside, they could express their feelings in ways instinctual and natural to human beings (crying, sobbing, screaming) instead of perverted, violent distortions of normal behavior, he would not have felt compelled to become an Agent of Chaos, sowing the seeds of madness, hell-bent on teaching a species in denial of its emotions, the undeniable reality of their repressed existence.
Misery loves Company. The Joker certainly wants the citizens of Gotham to experience misery as he has experienced it. Maybe if they understood what misery is, they would be less capable of easily dismissing it in the name of "normal" behavior.
On both boats, people are forced to search their souls to find how much value they place on human life.
On both boats the ship's crew is forced into the position of acting as the incorruptible, unbiased, and impartial observer.
On both boats, a single person from amongst the crowd, who senses the overall mood of his fellows, takes the initiative to decide the fate of the other boat.
It is a credit, fairly given, to the convicts, that the large, powerful, scarred man who decides to take the trigger, throws it out a porthole without a second thought, then, chastises the ship's Captain for not having done so immediately.
Convicts, men who spend endless days enmeshed in their own thoughts, searching their souls for meaning in life, pondering the circumstances that led them to being caged like brute animals, are much, much closer to knowing their feelings, and the true value of life and freedom.
For them, taking away life and freedom from another human being, is a decision charged with emotion. They know the line between life and death.
It is a much harder moral struggle for the "normal" man on the opposite ferry. He comes within a hair's breadth of fulfilling The Joker's vision of humanity.
Ultimately, it is a testament to human nature, that both men, decide not to execute their fellow human beings.
I think that this says, when human beings are amongst their fellows and given the freedom to search their souls quietly and deeply, without pressure or perversion, we choose to preserve life.
I think this shows human beings are saviors, not killers.
It is perhaps the most subtle and poignant point in the whole film.
The Joker watches the clock pass Midnight with neither boat exploding.
For a moment The Joker wears a face of genuine surprise, a glimmer of feelings seems to crest just a bit.
The Joker placed two groups of strangers, societal antithesis, at odds, with their lives hanging in the balance, certain one group would sacrifice the other in order to survive, and, to his utter amazement, both would rather choose death then be responsible for the deaths of others.
Maybe a society made of people raised with that kind of nobility in their hearts wouldn't have let an enraged, crazed father carve his son's face into a mockery of a smile, or been so hard and cold that a woman would get trapped in gambling debts pushing her aggrieved husband into an act of mutilation.
In that brief moment, I think, The Joker wondered what he would have been like, in a better world, a world where people are in touch with their feelings.
I also think, The Joker was secretly glad that Batman stopped him from destroying both ships.
This was a moment where Joker was ,deep inside, happy to be proven wrong.
When humanity evolves to the point where it chooses to understand people who are "aggressively disatisfied" with their society, instead of merely demonizing and ostracizing them, the label of "criminal" will no longer need to be applied to a human being.
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