The Dark Knight Rises Anticipation Station

Batman dying does kind of fit in with Nolan's more grounded, down to earth version of the character. He's always portrayed him as being much more human and real than the more mythical Burton Batman, or the indestructible Batman of the comics.

It would still be interesting to see, but somehow I doubt he's really going to go there. If anyone big is going to die, it's more likely to be Gordon or Alfred.

 

I am not sure if Batman is going to die since that seems a tad too predictable. It has to be something jarring, though, because I've heard time and time again that Nolan's ending didn't sit well with Warner Bros. Whatever the ending is it's going to be risky and it's going to have a very monumental impact on Batman, his story and these movies. Plus I don't see how you can call a movie "The Dark Knight Rises" with Batman dead.

 

Plus as we've talked about before in the thread...dying doesn't really make sense with regards to "Rises" being in the film title. I don't think Bruce will die either.

 

Maybe he rises to Heaven.

 

^ The dark knight rises then falls?

 

Joseph Gordon Levitt becomes Batman or Azarel

 

Maybe he rises as a symbol, and Batgirl and Nightwing take over.

I say Shailene Woodley for Batgirl.

 

River: "The Batman will Rise ever so high and then fall further than ever before."

Plus "The Dark Knight Rises" might not actually refer to "The Dark Knight" since we see Bane holding a picture of Harvey Dent or maybe it hints at the return of someone else.

 

The one thing the Nolan movies have done extremely well, in terms of creating a deep mythological feel to them, is to focus on Batman's relationship to Gotham - that is, it's been Gotham at stake in each of the two movies before. Ra's wanted to destroy Gotham to cleanse civilization. The Joker wanted to break Gotham's spirit by sowing chaos. Bruce has wanted to fundamentally change Gotham so that he could feel he had corrected his own tragedy, and therefore, go on to live a normal life. At the end of The Dark Knight he's plainly given up on the idea of living a normal life, by taking Harvey Dent's sins onto his own head - and with Rachel gone, his main motivation for desiring a normal life is dead.

Each of the previous movies has also had Batman triiumphing (saving Gotham) but at great personal cost - In Batman Begins his family home destroyed, his beloved mentor revealed as a betrayer and madman, his love alienated; in The Dark Knight, his love dead, his hopes for being a redeeming symbol to Gotham twisted as he is now believed to be a murderer - basically he has nothing left.

So Dark Knight Rises is likely to start with a much more hard-bitten Bruce Wayne - a man without hope, only a grim determination to fight on and on, believing somehow that by fighting he's still making a difference. But this determination by this time probably seems more like madness, especially if Gotham has descended further. Or if it decends further in this story due to Bane's appearance, which seems to be the direction it's been hinted that the story will go.

If the ending didn't sit well with Warners - well, I've always felt the voice over at the end of TDK felt a little tacked on, a way to try to snatch a triumphant ending out of the jaws of a pretty dark close. I would expect something similar here. Nolan's Batman rarely wins - he mostly just manages to barely hold back chaos from taking over. I wouldn't be surprised if this movie ends with an embittered, rage-filled Batman who has truly become something frightening. Nolan seems to be telling the tale of an idealistic young man who makes an extreme choice to dance with darkness, and slowly gets taken over by it, losing love, losing hope, being hammered into a hero who is inches away from the things he fights. Rather than Batman dying or being maimed at the end of this movie, I imagine we'll see him snap Bane's spine, or some other equally vicious tactic that begs the question of what has Bruce become in his effort to save Gotham - a hero or a monster?

That's a theme that many of the Batman comics have embraced, but I could see where a studio would want a more uplifting ending for a tentpole summer blockbuster.

 

I think we might end up having Bruce Wayne reveal that he's Batman to the people of Gotham.

 

^ He already tried doing that in "The Dark Knight" and instead Harvey prevented him from doing so by claiming he was Batman. Although if it proves to be true that Bane reveals Harvey was Two-Face in the film as has been speculated then perhaps this will force Bruce to reveal his identity but I doubt this will happen.

 

Considering that the rumor of the day is that Ellen Page has been hired to play Barbara Gordon, your thought may not be too far off the mark.

Linky

 

^ http://batman-news.com/2011/11/22/ellen-page-is-not-playing-barbara-gordon-in-the-dark-knight-rises/

 

Yeah I was wondering when that rumour would be brought up in here. As JacksonAcher pointed out to me while he and I were discussing this, the film is wrapped so that wasn't even logical.

I think a key scene that will shine some light on the film's plot and tone was shown in the teaser trailer. I of course am referring to Gordon talking to whom we assumed was Bruce Wayne inside the hospital. There was a reason for that conversation to be included in the teaser. I don't think we paid enough attention to it at the time...lack of information.

 

Aww bummer... I've been missing a lot of the Batman news, so I thought that might be a good one.. Damn.. Actually, Ellen Page would have been kind of fun in the role.. As Barbara, NOT batgirl.. I don't want to see a Robin OR a Batgirl in these films... But I love Ellen Page.. Such a good actress..

 

Barbara wasn't even mentioned in TDK, would they just say she was returning home from college or something?

 

I always thought it was interesting that Nolan showed and implied Babs but never named her...and she wouldn't be college age yet in this. High school maybe. I think she was eight or nine in "The Dark Knight".

 

I'm waiting for Bob the Goon to reappear.

 

I wish we would have got to see Matches' Malone

 

Chief O'Hara! Begorrah!