2012 superhero action-thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote it with Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer. It is the sequel to The Dark Knight, set eight years later, and depicts a retired Bruce Wayne becoming the Batman once more to protect Gotham City from the terrorist Bane.
The Dark Knight Rises is aThe film was released to generally positive reviews from critics, who celebrated its action sequences, character work, and performances, and deemed it a worthy conclusion to the Dark Knight Trilogy, though some criticized its story and pacing. Earning over $1 billion at the box office, it is the highest-grossing Batman film to date.
Synopsis for "The Dark Knight Rises"
In Uzbekistan, the C.I.A. is extracting Leonid Pavel, a physicist. Some prisoners join the flight, but they are Bane and his men. They conquer the plane and abduct Pavel. Another plane hooks on and pulls the CIA plane causing the wings to snap off. It crashes into the mountains, staging Pavel's death in the process.
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham City is in a state of peace. Batman has disappeared since the night of Harvey Dent's death. Under powers granted by the Dent Act, Commissioner Jim Gordon has nearly eradicated violent and organized crime. However, he still feels guilty about the cover-up of Harvey Dent's crimes as Two-Face.
At a function celebrating Dent, he plans to admit to the conspiracy, but decides that the city is not ready to hear the truth. While following a lead in the abduction of a congressman from the function, Gordon's speech falls into the hands of Bane, who has arrived to Gotham City. Gordon is shot in the process and hospitalized, and he promotes patrol officer John Blake to detective, allowing Blake to report directly to him.
Bruce Wayne has locked himself inside Wayne Manor for the past eight years since he retired as Batman. Wayne Enterprises is crumbling after he invested in a clean energy project designed to harness fusion power, but shut the project down after learning that the core could be modified to become a nuclear weapon. Both Gordon and Blake — who has deduced Batman's identity — implore Bruce to return as Batman, but Alfred resigns in a failed attempt to dissuade him. Bane stages an attack on the Gotham Stock Exchange and uses a stolen set of Bruce's fingerprints to place a number of risky investments in his name, bankrupting Bruce and forcing him to relinquish control of Wayne Enterprises. Correctly suspecting that his business rival, John Daggett, has employed Bane to aid in an aggressive take-over of the company, Bruce entrusts businesswoman Miranda Tate to keep full control out of Daggett's hands.
Following a trail left by cat burglar Selina Kyle, Batman confronts Bane in the sewers, who says that he is there to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny. He reveals that he was using Daggett's construction firms to stage a heist on Wayne Enterprises' Applied Science Division. He steals Batman's arsenal before crippling him by slipping one of his spinal discs and sending him to an ancient prison, the Pit, from which escape is virtually impossible. The other inmates relate the story of the only person to ever successfully escape from the prison, a child driven by necessity and the sheer force of will, said to be the child of Ra's al Ghul.
Bane lures the vast majority of Gotham's police force underground and sets off a chain of explosions across the city which simultaneously trap the officers, kill Mayor Garcia at football game, and taking out almost every bridge to the city, turning Gotham City into an isolated city-state. Any attempt to leave the city will result in the detonation of a nuclear bomb, that was once the Wayne Enterprises fusion reactor converted by Pavel. Addressing the citizens, Bane executes Pavel at a football field, reveals the cover-up of Dent's death outside Gotham City Hall, and releases the prisoners locked up under the Dent Act. The rich and powerful are dragged from their homes and put before a show trial presided over by Jonathan Crane. After an attempt to sneak Special Forces soldiers into the city fails, the government blockades Gotham and the city further regresses into a state of anarchy.
Meanwhile, Bruce trains himself for five months, recovering from the injuries Bane inflicted upon him, and successfully escapes Bane's prison to return to Gotham. On the last day before the nuclear bomb is to explode, he enlists Selina, Blake, Miranda, Gordon and Lucius Fox to help liberate the city and stop the nuclear bomb before it grows too unstable and explodes. Batman confronts and subdues Bane, but is stabbed by Miranda as she reveals herself to be Talia al Ghul, Bane's friend whom he protected as a child and helped to escape the prison. She plans to complete her father's work (by destroying Gotham) and exact personal vengeance against Bruce for his death. Gordon successfully cuts off the bomb's ability to be remotely detonated while Selina kills Bane, allowing Batman to chase Talia. He tries to force her to take the bomb to the fusion chamber where it can be stabilized, but she remotely floods the chamber. Batman shoots her truck off the road and Talia dies in the resulting crash, confident that the bomb cannot be stopped. Using the Bat developed by Lucius, Batman hauls the bomb beyond the city limits, where it detonates over the ocean.
In the aftermath of the explosion, Batman is praised as a sacrificial hero and Bruce is believed dead as a casualty of the riot. Later Lucius finds out that Bruce had fixed the autopilot on the Bat 6 months ago, hinting that Batman wasn't inside the Bat when it exploded with the bomb. As Bruce's estate is divided up, Alfred attends his annual vacation and witnesses Bruce and Selina together alive in a cafe in Italy, while Blake inherits the Batcave.
Appearing in "The Dark Knight Rises"
Featured Characters:
- Batman (Bruce Wayne) (Flashback and main story) (Final appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Alfred Pennyworth (Final appearance)
- Gotham City Police Department
- Commissioner James Gordon (Flashback and main story) (Final appearance)
- Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley (Single appearance; dies)
- Det. R. John Blake (Single appearance)
- Capt. Jones
- The Cat (Selina Kyle) (Single appearance)
- Jen (Single appearance)
- Lucius Fox (Final appearance)
Antagonists:
- League of Shadows (Final appearance)
- Bane (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance; dies)
- Talia al Ghul / Miranda Tate (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance; dies)
- Barsad (Single appearance; dies)
- Ra's al Ghul (flashback and illusion only)
- John Daggett (Single appearance; dies)
- Philip Stryver (Single appearance; dies)
- Jonathan Crane (Final appearance)
Other Characters:
- Mayor Anthony Garcia (Final appearance; dies)
- Dr. Leonid Pavel (Single appearance; dies)
- Father Reilly (Single appearance)
- Harvey Dent (flashback and photo)
- James Gordon, Jr. (Flashback only)
- President (On a TV or computer screen)
- Thomas Wayne (flashback and photo)
- Martha Wayne (flashback and photo)
- Rachel Dawes (In a photograph only)
- Gotham Rogues
- Rapid City Monuments
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Bill Wilson (Single appearance; dies)
- U.S. Military
- Barbara Gordon (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Italy
- United States of America
- Gotham City (Flashback and main story)
- Wayne Manor
- Batcave (Flashback and main story)
- Wayne Tower
- Gotham Stadium (Destroyed)
- Blackgate Prison
- Gotham International Airport
- Wayne Manor
- The Pit (Flashback and main story)
- Uzbekistan
Items:
- Batarang
- Bat-Signal
- Grapnel Gun
- The Gotham Times
- Batphone (Cameo)
- Shakespeare bust (Cameo)
Vehicles:
Cast
- Christian Bale as the Batman
- Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth
- Gary Oldman as James Gordon
- Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox
- Tom Hardy as Bane
- Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle
- Marion Cotillard as Talia al Ghul
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Det. John Blake
- Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane
- Matthew Modine as Peter Foley
- Alon Aboutboul as Dr. Pavel
- Ben Mendelsohn as John Daggett
- Burn Gorman as Philip Stryver
- Daniel Sunjata as Captain Jones
- Aidan Gillen as CIA Op
- Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Garcia
- Chris Ellis as Father Reilly
- Juno Temple as Jen
- Josh Stewart as Barsad
- William Devane as the President
- Harry Coles as Younger Prison Child
- Joey King as Older Prison Child
- Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul
- Tomas Arana as Wayne's Lawyer
- Josh Pence as Young Ra's Al Ghul
- Patrick Leahy as Board Member #2
Notes
- A scene was cut from the film that fleshed out Bane's backstory, including his training with Ra's al Ghul.
- The Dark Knight Rises draws inspiration from the comics Knightfall, The Dark Knight Returns, and No Man's Land.
See Also
- Characters from The Dark Knight Rises (Movie)
- Other things related to The Dark Knight Rises (Movie)
- Movie Gallery: The Dark Knight Rises (Movie)
Links and References
- The Dark Knight Rises at Wikipedia