Today we have for you a fan­tas­tic set report from Chicago thanks to our tip­ster “Tony”, where he viewed first hand the action, dam­age and destruc­tion that trav­els along­side The Joker. Warn­ing, Spoil­ers ahead.

So I’m still at work and decided to look down at the street below and can see the crews set­ting things up for tonight. LaSalle is closed head­ing south of Mon­roe because it appears there is a “mock up” heli­copter in front of the Chase build­ing. Looks like it will be a fun night and I might actu­ally get to see some­thing blown up. An all-nighter at work is actu­ally a good thing tonight! My cam­era is ready to go so I will send pic­tures if I can get them.

He con­tin­ues,

Okay, so I went down­stairs and the Joker semi is right out­side my build­ings front door. There was a crew rig­ging stuff up inside the trailer and there was a dummy body lying on the ground. I also noticed they added “teeth” to the front of the truck (think of a cir­cu­lar saw). The Mer­cedes cam­eras were out and the PA said they were going to flip the truck end over end (cab over trailer). Lots of hydro­gen (gas) bot­tles in the back of a truck and Chicago PD every­where, along with fire trucks and ambulances.

And a short while later,

Patience is a virtue. I finally got to see real Bat­man action and it was well worth the wait.

I just wit­nessed the Joker’s semi being flipped over from the back to the front. It drove North on LaSalle and shortly after it crossed Mon­roe it did the flip. I would give it a 10 for nice form and degree of difficulty.

Turns out that the spikes in the front were for the front end to dig into the pave­ment to help it flip. Now the truck is crushed!!

Saw The Joker in full makeup hang­ing around in front of North­ern Trust Bank. He was doing things any vil­lan would do…high-fiving, text mes­sag­ing, smok­ing, and actu­ally look­ing bored.

And here are some pic­tures and the report summary:

So, I work for an invest­ment bank in down­town Chicago and had a great view of today’s film­ing action which was the Joker’s semi being flipped end over end. Heath Ledger was on hand in full makeup but not full wardrobe and there were a TON of peo­ple work­ing on the set. My view was much bet­ter than even Nolan’s and I was able to get this video and pictures.

If you look beneath the truck in the pic­tures you will see a black pis­ton and then “teeth” on the front grill. The pis­ton is what cre­ated the force to send the truck over and the teeth were used to dig into the asphalt to help flip it over.

The pic­ture of the white heli­copter shell is a prop. Appar­ently they blew up a heli­copter last night and did it again tonight. The helo was the start­ing point for the Joker’s semi and was on fire when I left work, after they flipped the truck. As I was walk­ing to the bus I saw just the cab of the Joker’s truck with a bul­let hole filled wind­shield but it was attached to a tow truck rigged w/ lights and pos­si­ble cameras.

MyFox Chicago were also on the scene and they have some higher qual­ity but ground floor footage of the event, which is also worth a watch. Thanks for the heads up Steve, check the video out here.