TheDark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan, and the story with David S. Goyer.[5] Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the final installment in Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, and the sequel to The Dark Knight (2008). The film stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, alongside Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Caine. Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist Bane forces Wayne to resume his role as Batman and save Gotham City from nuclear destruction.
Christopher Nolan was hesitant about returning to the series for a third film, but agreed after developing a story with his brother and Goyer that he felt would conclude the series on a satisfactory note. Nolan drew inspiration from Bane's comic book debut in the 1993 "Knightfall" storyline, the 1986 series The Dark Knight Returns, and the 1999 storyline "No Man's Land". Filming took place from May to November 2011 in locations including Jodhpur, London, Nottingham, Glasgow, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, and Pittsburgh. Nolan used IMAX 70 mm film cameras for much of the filming, including the first six minutes of the film, to optimize the quality of the picture. A vehicle variation of the Batplane and Batcopter termed the "Bat", an underground prison set, and a new Batcave set were created specially for the film. As with The Dark Knight, viral marketing campaigns began early during production. When filming concluded, Warner Bros. refocused its campaign, developing promotional websites, releasing the first six minutes of the film, screening theatrical trailers, and sending out information regarding the film's plot.
The Dark Knight Rises premiered in New York City on July 16, 2012. The film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2012. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics who deemed it a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the second film in the Batman film series to earn $1 billion, and the highest-grossing Batman film to date.[6] In addition to being Nolan's highest-grossing film, it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release, as well as the third-highest-grossing film of 2012. It was named one of the top 10 films of 2012 by the American Film Institute.
Meanwhile, eight years after the death of Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent[a], organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham by legislation, the Dent Act, giving expanded powers to the police. James Gordon, police commissioner, has kept Dent's killing spree a secret and allowed the blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. Bruce Wayne, still mourning the death of Rachel Dawes, has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises has stagnated.
Bane enlists businessman John Daggett to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Burglar Selina "Catwoman" Kyle steals Bruce's prints from Wayne Manor for Daggett, but he double-crosses her, and she alerts the police, who pursue Bane and Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Catwoman flees. The henchmen capture Gordon and take him to Bane, but he escapes and is found by Officer John Blake, an orphan who has deduced Bruce's secret identity and persuades him to resume his vigilantism. Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and uses Bruce's fingerprints to verify a series of fraudulent transactions, leaving Bruce bankrupt. Batman resurfaces to pursue Bane's henchmen. Fearing Bruce will get himself killed fighting Bane, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, resigns in the hope of saving him after admitting to burning a letter that Rachel left for him saying she was going to marry Dent. Bane expands his operations and kills Daggett while Bruce and Wayne Enterprises' new CEO, Miranda Tate, become lovers.
Catwoman agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into a trap under Wayne Tower. Bane gloats that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham City before he brutally cripples Batman in combat. He then takes Bruce to an ancient underground prison in the Middle East, where Bruce learns that Ra's al Ghul's child was born and raised in the prison but had a protector that aided the child in escaping, thought to be impossible. Back in Gotham, Bane traps the police forces in the sewers, destroys all but one bridge surrounding the city, kills Mayor Anthony Garcia, forces Pavel to convert a fusion reactor core into a decaying neutron bomb before killing him. He exposes Dent's crimes to the city (thus undermining the legal system) and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, taking over the city, and has Gotham's elite exiled and killed in proletarian kangaroo courts presided over by Jonathan Crane.
Five months later, Bruce escapes captivity and returns to Gotham. As Batman, he frees the police, and together, they clash with Bane's army in the streets. During the battle, Batman overpowers Bane, but Tate stabs Batman in the abdomen, revealing herself as Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's child. Unable to activate the bomb's detonator due to Gordon blocking the signal, Talia leaves to find the bomb. Catwoman returns, killing Bane and helping Batman pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman, after revealing his identity to Gordon, uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes.
In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the Bat's malfunctioning auto-pilot. In Florence, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina, and they silently acknowledge each other before parting ways. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD and receives a package leading him to the Batcave.
Other cast members include Rob Brown, Will Estes and Desmond Harrington as police officers; Christopher Judge as one of Bane's henchmen;[49] and Noel Gugliemi as an ex-prisoner who is in charge of exiling corrupt elites during Bane's revolution. Thomas Lennon, who had appeared as a doctor in Nolan's 2000 film Memento, again plays a doctor. Glen Powell makes a pre-fame appearance as a stock exchange trader that gets knocked out by Bane.
Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers have cameo appearances as members of the fictional Gotham Rogues football team in the film, including Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Wallace, Heath Miller, Aaron Smith, Ryan Clark, James Farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Casey Hampton,[51][52] and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues.[53] Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments.[54]
Aaron Eckhart expressed enthusiasm in returning for a sequel if asked, although he later stated Nolan verified that his character, Harvey Dent / Two-Face, was dead,[55] and only archive footage of Eckhart from The Dark Knight appears in the film.[56]
"The key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story [...] rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story [...] Unlike the comics, these things don't go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion."
In 2005, David S. Goyer confirmed that he wrote treatments for two Batman Begins sequels involving the Joker; the first would involve Batman, Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon hunting the Joker, while the second would have the Joker scarring Dent and turning him into Two-Face during his trial. The third treatment ended in the same way as the final version of The Dark Knight Rises.[59] Other aspects of the third treatment were incorporated into The Dark Knight.[60] However, Heath Ledger's family stated that he was planning on reprising his role as the Joker before his death,[61] a notion supported by Ledger's co-star Aaron Eckhart, who portrayed Two-Face in that film.[55] A deleted subplot from The Dark Knight involved Michael Jai White's Gambol surviving his encounter with the Joker to enable Jai White's character to return in a future film to try to take Gotham City over, but these plans were scrapped after Ledger's death and the film was edited to delete Gambol's subplot and have him killed off in the scene where the Joker originally simply mutilated him.[62] After Ledger's death, Christopher Nolan decided not to recast the role out of respect for his performance, and was initially hesitant to make a third film.[63]
Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov had hoped a third film would be released in 2011 or 2012.[64] Nolan wanted the story for the third installment to keep him emotionally invested. "On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question," he reasoned, "how many good third movies in a franchise can people name?"[65] Nolan said that he never even thought a third film was possible in the foreword for his book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy.[66] Nolan only agreed to a third film on the basis of finding a worthwhile story, fearing that he would become bored halfway through production if he discovered the film to be unnecessary.[67] By December 2008, Nolan completed a rough story outline, before he committed himself to Inception.[68] Later in December, Alan F. Horn confirmed that while discussions with Nolan about a third film were ongoing, no casting had been done, and Horn denied all such rumors.[69] Before Nolan confirmed his involvement, Gary Oldman had said he was confident Nolan would return.[70]
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