The biggest stunt in The Dark Knight Rises, for instance, were really executed rather than being VFX, and the truck scene in The Dark Knight is another memorable example of this.
The chase sequence is the big action setpiece in the middle of The Dark Knight, as Harvey Dent’s (Aaron Eckhart) police transport. Batman (Crhstian Bale) ejects the Batpod out from the Batmobile and attaches tow cables to the Joker’s semi-truck. Using those cables, he manages to flip the 18-wheeler truck over, stopping the Joker (though his real plan to get caught goes off without a hitch). While many moviegoers may assume this was CGI - and many filmmakers surely would've used that option - Nolan opted for the real deal.
The big truck flip in The Dark Knight was done without CGI, with the film's crew actually flipping over a semi-truck in the Chicago banking district. The special effects team added a piston to the underside of the trailer with a TNT charge set up at its base. When the charge was set off, the piston struck the ground hard enough to flip the truck over, the trailer going over the cab. For as simple as it was in principle, there were a lot of complicating factors. They had to do the full stunt multiple times because of the damage it would’ve caused if things went wrong. According to stunt coordinator Paul Jennings, “If it gets halfway up and falls to the side – we were in the middle of the Chicago banking district – it would’ve gone through a bank’s window.” (via IGN).
Even the street presented problems, as La Salle street had several sewer lines and underground structures like bank vaults. This meant that there were only a couple places on the street they could fire the piston without causing serious damage to something underground, making it so the driver could only trigger it at one of a couple of specific locations. Yes, there was also a driver involved: stunt driver Jim Wilkey was in the truck during the stunt.
The truck had been reinforced for the Joker’s truck was done purely with practical effects, in keeping with Christopher Nolan’s preference for using real effects and stunts whenever possible.
