History Film / TheDarkKnightRises

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: In-universe, Batman has become this to the GCPD and the rest of Gotham in the interim since ''The Dark Knight". The last confirmed sighting of the fugitive vigilante was the night of Harvey Dent's murder. He was last seen fleeing the scene of the crime and vanishing into the night on his motorcycle. That was 8 years ago and nobody has any idea what became of him (or whether he's even still alive). Blake lampshades the trope (and is rightly suspicious of this).

''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero thriller and is the third and [[GrandFinale final entry]] in Creator/ChristopherNolan's ComicBook/{{Batman}} film series, ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''.

** Bruce's failing health due to leading a highly injury-prone life of superheroics. Unlike the comic books where Bruce has been Batman for decades, the film acknowledges that rather like a heavyweight boxer (or any other athlete who endures abuse regularly like a football player), a flesh and blood human being couldn't fight crime for many decades without destroying themselves. Bane exploits this easily.

!! ''The Dark Knight Rises'' contains examples of the following tropes:

''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012) is the third and [[GrandFinale final entry]] in Creator/ChristopherNolan's Franchise/{{Batman}} film series, ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''.

-->'''Bane''': [[CallBack Theatricality and deception are powerful agents]]... to the uninitiated! But you and I ''are'' initiated, aren't we, Bruce?

** The private elevator from Fox's office to Applied Sciences is revealed by a button-press to a slideaway bookcase.

** The beginning and ending of the movie features Gordon at a public ceremony commemorating a fallen hero. The first time is for Harvey Dent and, knowing the truth about Dent's FaceHeelTurn and sickened by the lie he has to tell, Gordon is clearly conflicted and tormented by what he has to do. [[spoiler:At the end, he's at the ceremony unveiling the memorial statue of Batman in City Hall, and seeing the ''real'' hero finally be recognised by the city clearly brings Gordon some peace.]]

*** Even getting shot in the leg during the resulting blastout didn't stop his crush on her, for this comes up when Blake detains Selina at the airport:

* DramaticDrop: When the games begin, Bane sets off the detonators, and collapses most of Heinz Field in the middle of a game. Hines Ward makes it to safety in the endzone, score the touchdown, then looks back on the gaping hole in the ground, dropping the ball in shock.

** Given that Bane wouldn't be Bane without his mask, the trope is fulfilled by having him be introduced to the audience as one of several FacelessGoons, tied up and hooded. The CIA agent removes Bane's hood when he realises who their prisoner is.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: After Bane's bombs, Blake comandeers an SUV while rushing to the hospital to save Gordon. He drives pretty recklessly through the freshly bombed-out area for one shot. He's forced to use a vehicle without a bubble light or a siren, so he compromises by laying on the horn.

* EvilSoundsDeep: Creator/TomHardy has a fairly nasal and high-pitched voice, naturally. When playing Bane, his anasthetic mask deepens his voice a bit, especially his sotto comments. Some foreign dubs, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2OuDUw8gg the French Canadian one]], have Bane use a very deep voice (possibly due to his VocalDissonance in English), though in this particular dub the final film toned it down a bit.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Compare and contrast Batman's choreographed martial arts with Bane's seven-ton kidney punches. Bane even struts like an old timey pugilist with his thumbs hooked into his vest as if he were wearing suspenders.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Selina, true to form, regularly switches from unwitting accomplice of Bane's to Batman's ally. [[spoiler:At the end of the film she soldifies as a face by blowing Bane away with the Batpod cannons.]]

* HiddenSupplies: A major plot point involves Bane requisitioning the hidden Wayne R&D warehouse with Tumbler-like vehicles at his disposal. The final act also involves Bruce going to various supply depots he had around Gotham to get the ordnance he needed, including the stand-in batcave that was used by [[Film/TheDarkKnight the previous movie]].

** Downplayed. Bane takes a megapolis hostage but doesn't make any demands.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Gordon's attitude on keeping the truth behind Batman and Dent from the peoptle of Gotham. [[WhatTheHellHero Blake isn't having any of it, though.]]

** Zigzagged with [[spoiler: the League of Shadows. The secret society's ''technically'' trying to complete the same plan Ra's al Ghul was pursuing back in ''Batman Begins'', i.e. destroy Gotham City. However, Ra's was executing the League's ancient mission of restoring balance to a civilization that had reached the peak of corruption and decadence. Talia and Bane, by contrast, have completley abandoned those traditional goals and ideology. For them, destroying Gotham isn't about restoring balance at all, but instead honoring the memory of Ra's and punishing Bruce for his betrayal. Unlike Ra's, they're also willing to go so far as to kill themselves and the entire League just to triumph. The decay is justified in-story, as Bane and Talia's more extremist faction seized control of what's left of the League after ''Begins'' and are completley consumed with vengeance.]]

** Lucius Fox has been recollecting the Tumbler prototypes and various other tech to Wayne Industries's storeroom to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. [[spoiler:Then again, storing them all in one room makes it very easy to lose them all in a flash, as happens when Bane and his men blow up the floor of Applied Sciences to "acquire" these resources.]]

** Early on in the film, Mayor Garcia staunchly refuses to appeal the Dent Act. This leaves crimminals denied parole by the Act stewing in Blackgate and ripe for exploitation when Bane 'liberates' them and recrutis them to his army.

** The look on Batman's face when he realizes that Bane isn't the rinky dink pushover thug he expected him to be. And then proceeds to get his ass handed to him by Bane.

** While Bruce is only in his late-thirties, his accumulated injuries mean he is not nearly fit or strong enough for his first fight with Bane. Why else would the doctor not be able to recommend he go heliskiing?

* RuleOfScary: Bane's anasthetic mask would be impractical in real life but it looks damn scary and it would be very awkward for Bane to be dragging a gas-filled tank around, so it gets a pass.

** [[spoiler: The League of Shadows surviving the events of ''Batman Begins''. This is, after all, a secret society that has endured since the time of the Roman Empire (or at least so they claimed in ''Begins''). So, Bruce defeating Ra's al Ghul would ''not'' automatically destroy the League as he mistakenly and arrogantly believed. ''However'', Bruce's actions ''did'' leave the organization severely crippled between the destruction of their Asian headquarters, the death of Ra's, and the massive expenditure of funds, resources, and manpower invested into the ultimately failed Gotham operation. The ensuing power vaccuum also left the society vulnerable to takeover from extremist or exocommunicated parties like Bane and Talia.]]

*** In his Harvey Dent Day speech, Mayor Garcia rightly points out that even with the passage of the Dent Act, it's impossible to fully erradicate ''all'' crime from a major metropolis like Gotham. The Act's success lies in erradicating ''organized'' crime.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Bane's accent, according to Tom Hardy, is supposedly based on an Irish Traveller. In Bane's first fight with Batman alone, it seems like Hardy's voice does a full tour of Europe.

* WholePlotReference: A balding, DeathSeeker foreign mercenary-terrorist deemed extreme by his own group, who FeelsNoPain after a rescue of a young girl gone wrong, comes out of the shadows after several years to wreck havoc either because he has been hired or to enact his revenge scheme against the heroes; in fact, he is working for / with the LoveInterest of the hero, who was posing as an HonestCorporateExecutive but is in fact a vengeful DiabolicalMastermind with daddy issues plotting to set off an atypical nuclear bomb in a major city - using a plot to revolutionise the fuel market as a cover. The hero must overcome a crippling injury (that actually doesn't bother him as much as it should) and team-up with another LoveInterest (who gave him up to the vilains earlier, albeit because she didn't know the full story) to save the day. Why do I get the feeling that apart from names, this film is a remake of ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough''?

** Bane demonstrates during the Stock Exchange robbery that gender is not a factor in who he chooses to attack. His first combat action once he walks through the metal detectors is to use his motorcycle helmet to disarm three security guards. The first one, the female, he smacks in the nose so hard that you can feel it in the movie theatre. Ouch. Also, the hostage he has on his motorcycle when escaping is female.

'''Bruce Wayne:''' RobinHood?\\

** While confined in the Pit, Bruce asks "Has anyone made it?" when inquiring about how escape is impossible. Later, when Stryver is being sent into "exile", as he is being pushed out onto the ice, he asks the same question to a thug who tells him he'll be dead in minutes.

** Also the {{Kangaroo Court}}'s penalty for its defendants. You are not given a trial, but a choice of sentencing: ''Death'' or ''Exile''. If you pick ''Exile'', you are forced onto the frozen East River near the Brooklyn Bridge, which is [[MortonsFork a death sentence anyway]] as the ice will crack under your weight, you will fall in, and you will die from drowning or hypothermia. Choosing ''Death'' just gets you sentenced to "death by exile". It's the same as picking ''Exile'', except that when you pick ''Death'', the "executioners" won't warn you not to tread on the thin ice.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkknightrises.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine The legend ends.]]'']]

* CelebratingTheHero: At the end of the film, after Batman saves the city from the bomb [[spoiler:at the supposed expense of his life]], the city has a statue of him installed in the center of City Hall in his honor.

Eight years after the events of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Bruce Wayne (Creator/ChristianBale) has retired from his work as the Batman and settled into an unhappy (and secluded) life as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. The Dent Act has helped the police slow the spread of organized crime in Gotham City to a controllable crawl without Batman's help. Commissioner James Gordon (Creator/GaryOldman), now resigned to paperwork instead of fieldwork because of the downturn in crime, has to deal with attempts by other city officials to drive him out of office for good -- while keeping the truth about Batman's disappearance a secret so Gotham can retain its newfound peace. But the peace Batman has given his beloved city comes under threat just when Gotham needs him the most. A wily thief named [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]] (Creator/AnneHathaway) draws the Batman out of hiding by robbing Bruce Wayne, but it is the appearance of the masked terrorist ComicBook/{{Bane}} (Creator/TomHardy) in Gotham that sets off a firestorm of events that ultimately forces Batman to consider how much he's really willing to sacrifice in order to save Gotham City.

* ShirtlessScene: Played with: Bane is shirtless when the two sewer goons bring the semi-conscious Gordon to him, but it's played less for {{Fanservice}} and more for giving us that "Holy crap, that guy is enormous" feeling. WebVideo/HonestTrailers even uses it in their parody trailer for this movie.

** Played straight with Bruce due to the ending of the previous film. The whole point of Batman was suppoused to present a sybmol to the people of Gotham to rouse them from their apathy and bring peace to the city. But Bruce had to sacrifice the symbol to ensure Harvey Dent's crimes as Two-Face did not tarnish his legacy. Becoming Batman again in this film is ''ostensibly'' to protect Gotham from the threat Bane poses, but Alfred calls bullshit. He fears Bruce's depression over Rachel's death and losing the Batman identity for nearly a decade have left him a DeathSeeker. It ultimately gets reconstructed, though, as Bane's beating and his imprisonment in the Pit gets Bruce to snap out of his own apathy and finally, truly re-embrace his original mission statement.

* GenderNeutralWriting: [[spoiler:In order to hide that Talia, not Bane, was the child that escaped the pit, every conversation about Talia only refers to her as "the child."]]

** The Dent Act, a law which amongst other things denied parole to every inmate locked up in Blackgate and allowed exceptions to prison gender segregation, which was passed by the Gotham City Council. In real life, no American city would have this amount of authority over the criminal justice system -- that belongs to the state governments, and it would certainly have been struck down by the courts for being unconstitutional.

** Downplayed, but the American agents who investigated Dr. Pavel's plane's crash off-screen following the events of the prologue. Not only did they fail to realize 'Pavel' was the wrong man (due to Bane's blood transfusion and the justifiable state of the body after the crash landing), but nobody apparently was supsicious at all about how the plane could've crashed where it if the wings had been ripped off miles away.

* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler:Talia's mother]] was raped and murdered because the prison doctor forgot to lock the cell door one day.

** When Batman damages Bane's mask, Bane's fighting style and shattering the walls with his fists, mirrors his comic book counterpart's Berserker Mode which is a result of the Venom pump being damaged and contantly overflowing Bane's system. This turns in turn makes Bane into a mindless superstrong monster.

* HannibalLecture: Bane's introduction shows him demeaning his supposed captor/interogator before turning the tables on him.

* HeroicSacrifice: {{Implied}} with the nuclear flash, mushroom cloud, and the characters mourning [[spoiler:at Bruce's grave. Later subverted. While Batman is believed to have perished in his epic attempt to detonate the nuclear bomb away in the ocean with the Bat, Alfred sees [[EarnYourHappyEnding Bruce Wayne alive and happy on a date with Selina]] on his annual vacation to Italy.]]
* HeroKiller: Bane is rightly feared by Alfred and his appareance constitutes a GodzillaThreshold for the return of The Batman. Like his comic book counterpart, Bane is the first opponent Batman faces who physically overpowers and breaks the Bat.

* HopeSpot: A big part of Bane's M.O. of breaking people's spirits is to offer them false hope. One example is when the US Special Forces sneak into the city to assess the situation there. Only someone within Wayne Enterprises [[spoiler:namely Talia al Ghul]] has tipped off Bane to the team's meeting with Fox and Blake, so when the team leaves to call in their analysis, Bane's men ambush them and shoot all of them down. Bane then appears and crushes Captain Jones's neck, then orders the soldiers' bodies hanged from the Brooklyn Bridge where the world can see.

'''Bane:''' Round them up for judgement. And hang them ''[points to the Special Forces' bodies]'' where the world can see.

* {{Joisey}}: The scenes where Selina takes Batman to Bane were filmed in the Newark City Subway's tunnels near Military Park station. This system was also used in some of the scenes of police officers going into the tunnels - the shot where characters are seen at a tunnel junction appears to be near Newark Penn Station (to be fair, the reason they filmed in these tunnels instead of New York's subway tunnels may have been because Newark has overhead catenary and New York's systems have third rail that would need to be de-energized).

* PlayingGertrude: The thing about the entire [[spoiler:Talia and Bane relationship is that Talia is supposed to be in her thirties and Bane is supposed to be at least 20 years older than her, putting him in his fifties. This gets very weird when you look it up and discover that Creator/MarionCotillard is actually two years ''older'' than Creator/TomHardy.]]

Eight years after the events of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Bruce Wayne (Creator/ChristianBale) has retired from his work as the Batman and settled into an unhappy (and secluded) life as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. The Dent Act has helped the police slow the spread of organized crime in Gotham City to a controllable crawl without Batman's help. Commissioner James Gordon (Creator/GaryOldman), now resigned to paperwork instead of fieldwork because of the downturn in crime, has to deal with attempts by other city officials to drive him out of office for good -- while keeping the truth about Batman's disappearance a secret so Gotham can retain its newfound peace, but the peace Batman has given his beloved city comes under threat just when Gotham needs him the most. A wily thief named [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]] (Creator/AnneHathaway) draws the Batman out of hiding by robbing Bruce Wayne, but it is the appearance of the masked terrorist ComicBook/{{Bane}} (Creator/TomHardy) in Gotham that sets off a firestorm of events that ultimately forces Batman to consider how much he's really willing to sacrifice in order to save Gotham City.

''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012) is the third and [[GrandFinale final entry]] in Creator/ChristopherNolan's , Franchise/{{Batman}} film series, ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''.