The Dark Knight Rises
“The legend must rise one final time.”
Director
Christopher Nolan
Release
20 July 2012
Runtime
164 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
Eight years have passed since Batman accepted responsibility for Harvey Dent's crimes. The decision allowed Gotham to preserve Dent as a symbol and helped authorities crush organised crime, but Bruce Wayne has paid the price. He has become a recluse, physically diminished and increasingly detached from the city he once protected. His isolation is interrupted by Selina Kyle, a skilled thief whose encounter with Bruce hints at something much larger unfolding beneath Gotham. That threat is Bane. Powerful, disciplined and backed by an army of followers, Bane has plans that extend far beyond defeating Batman. He wants to expose Gotham's foundations, turn its citizens against the institutions that protect them and complete a mission tied to Bruce's own history. Bruce returns to the cape and cowl despite warnings that he isn't prepared for what awaits him. This time, determination isn't enough. Bane defeats Batman and leaves Bruce facing something he has rarely confronted: the possibility that Gotham will fall while he is powerless to save it. To return, Bruce must first rediscover why he became Batman — and decide whether the symbol can survive even if the man beneath it cannot.
The Movie Trailer
The Dark Knight Rises brings Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy to an enormous conclusion, returning to Gotham City eight years after the events of The Dark Knight.
Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne has withdrawn from the world. Batman has disappeared, Gotham has enjoyed a period of relative peace and the truth surrounding Harvey Dent's death remains buried beneath a carefully constructed lie.
Then Bane arrives.
Played by Tom Hardy, the masked revolutionary isn't interested merely in committing crimes. He intends to break Gotham itself — and Bruce soon discovers that returning as Batman may demand more from him than ever before.
With Anne Hathaway joining the story as the elusive Selina Kyle, The Dark Knight Rises turns the final chapter of Nolan's trilogy into a battle over Bruce Wayne's legacy and Gotham's survival.
EIGHT YEARS LATER
Gotham No Longer Needs Batman — Until Bane Arrives
At the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises, Batman has become a memory.
Bruce Wayne's decision to protect Harvey Dent's reputation helped Gotham enter a period of relative peace, but that victory came at an enormous personal cost. Bruce has withdrawn from public life while Batman carries the blame for crimes he didn't commit.
Bane's arrival destroys that fragile stability.
Unlike an ordinary criminal looking to exploit Gotham, Bane intends to dismantle the structures holding the city together.
For Bruce, returning as Batman isn't simply about putting the suit back on. He has to confront whether the person he has become is still capable of being the symbol Gotham once needed.
GOTHAM'S RECKONING
Tom Hardy's Bane Gives Batman a Different Kind of Enemy
Following Heath Ledger's Joker was an enormous challenge, and The Dark Knight Rises deliberately takes its central villain in another direction.
Tom Hardy's Bane is controlled, physically imposing and frighteningly organised.
He doesn't merely want Batman dead. He understands that destroying what Batman represents requires breaking Bruce Wayne as well as Gotham City.
Their confrontation gives the film one of the trilogy's defining ideas: Batman can lose.
When Bane proves capable of physically overwhelming Bruce, the final chapter becomes less about defeating another villain and more about whether Bruce can find a reason to rise again.
THE END OF THE LEGEND
Christopher Nolan Brings His Batman Trilogy Full Circle
The Dark Knight Rises isn't simply concerned with whether Batman can stop Bane.
It asks what happens to the idea of Batman when Bruce Wayne can no longer carry it alone.
Characters and consequences from across the trilogy return as Gotham faces its greatest crisis, while Bruce is forced to confront the difference between sacrificing himself and genuinely finding a way forward.
That gives Nolan's final Batman film a scale beyond its action sequences.
The story that began with Bruce Wayne searching for a symbol capable of outliving one man ultimately ends by asking whether he succeeded.