The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, 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 Bruce Wayne to resume his role as Batman and save Gotham City from nuclear destruction.
The Dark Knight Rises
- Jonathan Nolan
- Christopher Nolan
- Christopher Nolan
- David S. Goyer
Characters appearing in comic books published
by DC Comics
- Emma Thomas
- Christopher Nolan
- Charles Roven
Warner Bros. Pictures
- July 16, 2012 (New York City)
- July 20, 2012 (United States and United Kingdom)
165 minutes[1]
English
$1.085 billion[4]
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 specifically 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.
Plot[edit]
Bane, a former member of the League of Shadows, leads an attack on a CIA plane over Uzbekistan to abduct nuclear physicist, Dr. Leonid Pavel, and fake Pavel's death in the crash.
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. Cat burglar Selina 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 Kyle 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's new CEO, Miranda Tate, become lovers.
Kyle 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 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. Kyle 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 Kyle, 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;[47] 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.
United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who had made a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight, returned in The Dark Knight Rises,[48] as a Wayne Enterprises board member.
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,[49][50] and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues.[51] Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments.[52]
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,[53] and only archive footage of Eckhart from The Dark Knight appears in the film.[54]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Hours before the midnight release of the film, several box-office analysts suggested as much as a $198 million domestic opening weekend.[198][199][200] However, in the wake of the mass shooting during a midnight screening of the film, Warner Bros. decided to not report further box-office figures for the movie until Monday, July 23, 2012.[201][202] As a result, other distributors also delayed the release of their official estimates as well.[203] The shooting is also speculated to have hurt the ticket sales as E! Online reported that a North Carolina audience member had stated that "this theater was kinda empty".[204] Some reports released on July 21, 2012, said that rival studios estimated that the film grossed $75 million to $77 million on its opening day.[205][206][207] Warner Bros. shortly after released a statement to ABC News stating that they delayed the release of their estimates for the opening day total of the film "out of respect for the victims and their families," and added "Warner Bros. Pictures will not be reporting box office numbers for The Dark Knight Rises throughout the weekend. Box office numbers will be released on Monday."[208]
The Dark Knight Rises earned $448.1 million in North America, and $632.9 million in other countries, summing up to a worldwide total of $1.081 billion.[4] Worldwide, it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time[209] and the third-highest-grossing film of 2012.[210] It had a worldwide opening weekend of $248.9 million.[211] The film set a worldwide IMAX opening-weekend record with $23.8 million (overtaken by Avengers: Age of Ultron)[212][213] and also broke the record for the fastest movie to make over $50 million in IMAX theatres. IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond explained this by claiming, "Audiences are clearly seeking out and embracing the film the way it was meant to be seen – in IMAX."[214] On the 2012 Labor Day weekend, it became the third film distributed by Warner Bros. and the thirteenth film in cinematic history to cross the $1 billion mark.[215] The film also became the second movie (after Avatar) to reach $100 million in worldwide IMAX grosses.[216]