The Dark Knight Rises

"You think this can last? There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."

- Selina Kyle

The final film in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, released on July 20th 2012. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Cillian Murphy returned in their specific roles (Batman/Bruce Wayne, Alfred, James Gordon, Lucius Fox, and Dr. Crane/Scarecrow), and new cast members include Anne Hathaway (Catwoman/Selina Kyle), Tom Hardy (Bane), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (GCPD officer John Blake/Robin), Marion Cotillard (Talia al Ghul/Miranda Tate), Josh Pence (a young Ra's al Ghul, in a flashback sequence), and Juno Temple (Jen). Liam Neeson reprised his role as Ra's al Ghul in flashback form.

Eight years after the end of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne is "not in a great state" (according to Nolan). Further plot details are scarce at this point, but it's apparent that the story, along with Bane, will be the most physically and mentally challenging yet for Batman -- and for Bruce Wayne. Quoting Christian Bale's take on the film: "How long will you let the pain and loss define your life? Walking around chasing bad guys is very heroic and attracts attention, but at the end it all accounts for is a means to deal with the pain of a huge loss. It's time for Bruce Wayne to face the pain that has always stirred his life."

The film was critically acclaimed and got over $1 billion at the box office. Oddly, the film had no Academy Award nominations. Batman was later rebooted for the DC Extended Universe, with Ben Affleck taking the role of Batman in 5 films.

"Bane: I'm Gotham's reckoning."
 * Badass Boast:

"Batman: Why didn't you just...kill me? Bane: Your punishment must be more severe."
 * Bald of Evil: Bane.
 * Be All My Sins Remembered: Bane ends up exposing Dent's crimes to the public after eight years of secrecy.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Bane and Talia al Ghul.
 * The Cameo / As Himself: Pittsburgh Steelers player Hines Ward cameos as himself, playing for the "Gotham Rogues". He outruns the imploding football field and drops the football in shock. McFarlane toys even made a special action figure of him in the Gotham Rogues uniform.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Joker isn't even mentioned in this film.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Tom Hardy described Bane's fighting style as this, less about a fair fight and more about caving your ribs in and crushing your skull.
 * Combat Stilettos: Catwoman apparently wears them.
 * The trailer shows her fighting in regular boots, but that could just be movie magic editing, since staging actual fight scenes with high heels is kind of...impossible. They did the same thing with Silk Spectre in Watchmen.
 * And then this poster pops up.
 * Darker and Edgier: Bane is every bit as formidable a fighter as in the comics, but his ostentatious luchadore gimmicky mask has been completely discarded, in favour of a rather intimidating looking breathing apparatus.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Bane, in another villainous example. Even in his first scene he's snarking about how the CIA's pretend Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique is obviously fake, as it would be both illogical and dangerous to bother shooting a prisoner before you throw them out of a plane.
 * Death Faked for You:
 * Bane fakes the death of his associate Dr. Pavel by taking a blood transfusion and injecting it into a corpse that's about to be mangled beyond recognition in a plane crash. It's also strongly implied that he plans to do far worse to Pavel once he gets him out of there.
 * Batman faked his death by dropping Talia's bomb to the ocean and retiring with Selina Kyle.
 * The Dreaded: Bane is this; as even Catwoman states her fear of Bane.
 * Drop What You Are Doing: Bane collapses most of a football field in the middle of a game. A single player makes it to safety in the endzone, then looks back on the gaping hole in the ground, dropping the ball in shock.
 * Evil Brit: How Bane has been reimagined.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Bane.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Invoked.

"Catwoman: My mother warned me about getting into cars with strange men. Batman: This isn't a car."
 * Flying Car: The Bat, à la the Batmobile from Batman Beyond or the more standard Batwing.
 * Defied:

"Broker: What are you? Bane: I'm Gotham's reckoning."
 * Forced to Watch: Judging from Bane's dialogue in the trailers, it seems he wants Batman to see Gotham burn before he kills him.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Bane asserts, "Nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask."
 * Genius Bruiser: Bane. This is accurate to the comics, and a marked contrast to most adaptations which portray him as Dumb Muscle. See the relevant page for more.
 * Grand Finale: Of The Dark Knight Saga.
 * Handicapped Badass: Bane has been re-imagined as one of these. After receiving a bad injury in his backstory, he gets through the pain by wearing a mask that constantly supplies him with anesthetic gas.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Bane gives a lengthy speech at the Gotham stadium.
 * High Altitude Interrogation: To gain information on Bane, a CIA operative interrogates his mooks by threatening to throw them out the open door of a plane in mid-flight.
 * Informed Attribute: The CIA operative notes in the intro that Bane is "a big guy". The film otherwise makes little effort to hide that Tom Hardy is actually a cm shorter shorter than the American average of 175.9 cm and noticeably shorter than Christian Bale.
 * Just Between You and Me: He pretty much exposits his plan to his enemies while captured. Justified, as he knew they wouldn't be able to live to talk about it, anyways.
 * Leitmotif: Bane gets his within the first six minutes of the film.
 * Masquerade Ball: Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul, and Selina Kyle in attendance.
 * Meaningful Echo: A stock broker at one point asks Bane the same question Carmine Falcone asked Batman almost a decade earlier.

"Bruce: (during the ball) It's a brazen costume for a cat burglar. Selina: Yeah? Who are *you* pretending to be?"
 * Mythology Gag: The "R" in the cheer sign is the logo of Red Robin.
 * No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Averted. After the first Tumbler was destroyed in the previous film, a number of replacements have been built. Unfortunately, Bane has at least some of them.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: "Deshi Basara", Bane's thematic chant (although it's not Latin, but Moroccan Arabic meaning "He Rises").
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Catwoman.

"Mook: Have we started the fire? Bane: The fire rises."
 * Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Seems we'll get a heroic example with
 * Race Lift:
 * Bane was half-Hispanic, half-Anglo-Brit in the comics, being the son of the English B-list Robin villain King Snake and an unnamed woman he had a brief affair with. In the film, he is played by the full Anglo-Brit Tom Hardy, though his accent is harder to place.
 * Also, Talia is usually an Arab in the comics. In this film, she is Caucasian.
 * The Reveal: Miranda Tate is actually Talia al Ghul.
 * Engineer Exploited For Evil: Going by how Dr. Pavel reacted when Bane got him out of the plane, it's likely that he willingly defected to the Bane's enemies' side and did not want to return to him.
 * Ripped from the Headlines: Even though writing and production took place well in advance of the headlines in question, a very common reaction to the release of the second trailer is that Bane and Catwoman sound like they're organising the Occupy Gotham movement. Nolan even thought about filming footage of the Occupy protests for Rises, but ending up not doing so.
 * A Storm Is Coming: Said by Selina Kyle/Catwoman to Bruce Wayne/Batman at the Masquerade Ball.
 * Tagline: The Fire Rises and The Legend Ends.
 * Tempting Fate: According to the trailer, Gotham's mayor plans to fire Gordon, simply because a decorated hero cop who made his name fighting crazed supervillains isn't necessary in the now-peaceful climate. Yeah, they're going to feel very stupid by movie's end.
 * Time Skip: Takes place eight years after the previous film, according to Word of God.
 * Trojan Prisoner: Apparently, Bane allowed himself to be captured so his soldiers could then take over the plane and cause it to crash as part of his plan to bust out Dr. Pavel.
 * Tuckerization: At the football game, the visiting team's quarterback bears the name Ravenstahl, after current Mayor of Pittsburgh Luke Ravenstahl. The majority of filming for Rises was done in Pittsburgh.
 * The surviving home player in the end zone is real life Steelers player Hines Ward who was one of many current and former Steelers players involved in the filming. Steelers coach, Bill Cowher, even makes an appearance as the Gotham Rogues' team coach.
 * Undying Loyalty: Bane's underlings appear fanatically loyal to him. For instance, when he tells one of his mooks to remain on a crashing plane in order to fool the authorities, the mook simply nods happily... and asks an ominous question.