TDKR...what if Batman dies???

[Warped9]

There's a great deal of speculation regarding the ultimate fate of Batman/Bruce Wayne in the forthcoming The Dark Knight Rises. The promos themselves play on the idea "the legend ends" and Nolan is finishing off his trilogy with a sense of finality.

This could mean that Bruce Wayne finally accepts his role as Batman without any remaining reservation, that he finally becomes the Batman of the comics.

Yet there is also a lot of speculation that Bruce Wayne/Batman is finally killed and someone else might take the role of Batman.

Personally I'm really looking forward to this film after Nolan has done a damned good job with the previous two films. Personally, I'm really hoping that the sense of finality is that Batman has returned to stay by the end of the film as the person he was always meant to be.

Candidly, if they do kill Bruce/Batman off, even with someone else to take his place, I will be royally pissed about it. Some might see it as balsy, but I think it would be a like dissing the fans. For myself I want my favourite superhero ultimately triumphant over terrific odds and to live on to fight the good fight.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Candidly, if they do kill Bruce/Batman off, even with someone else to take his place, I will be royally pissed about it. Some might see it as balsy, but I think it would be a like dissing the fans. For myself I want my favourite superhero ultimately triumphant over terrific odds and to live on to fight the good fight.

Being a symbol of hope and justice that inspires others to do good is also living on and triumphing over the odds, albeit in a less literal sense.

The decision to have Bruce live or die in and of itself doesn't bother me either way, but it all depends on the execution of it. I trust in Nolan's ability to give Bruce a poignant death after an epic struggle, or to have him live to fight another day.

Live or die, I would prefer to have the film end on a hopeful note for the people of Gotham or for Bruce, either by Batman's sacrifice or the continuation of his life's work in a more mundane way after giving up the Batman persona or turning it over to someone else. Something like Bruce retiring and following in his father's footsteps with a charitable rebuilding/revitalization of Gotham.

 

[Trekker4747]

Dying could make him into a martyr and drive the people of Gotham to stand up to their incredible high level of criminals once and for all.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

What if he dies? That's fine, it's the end of the trilogy anyway. Bring on the next incarnation!

 

[Kirkman1987]

He should go down fighting Malcolm Mcdowell on a bridge.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

For me, the biggest hurdle I have accepting TDKR is the idea that it is a trilogy. To me, Batman simply is. It's not a story like Lord of the Rings, where an endpoint (destroy the ring) is defined relatively early in the first part of the trilogy. He might have a "beginning" but to tell his story as if it had a predetermined endpoint is just strange to me. I can perhaps, imagine and endpoint after a culmination of many stories in which he is thwarting criminals - so if it was a serious-toned Batman television serial with a series finale that looked somewhat like how TDKR is looking, I'd be happy, but , to me "Batman" and "Trilogy" don't seem to go together as concepts.

 

[Warped9]

He should go down fighting Malcolm Mcdowell on a bridge.

Bad enough if he dies, but if he also dies under a bridge then that'll suck double.

 

[Kirkman1987]

He should go down fighting Malcolm Mcdowell on a bridge.

Bad enough if he dies, but if he also dies under a bridge then that'll suck double.

"It was...fun.......oh my....."

 

[Set Harth]

If he's smart, he'll leave the Nexus at an earlier point and just arrest Bane in Ten Forward.

 

[Trekker4747]

For me, the biggest hurdle I have accepting TDKR is the idea that it is a trilogy. To me, Batman simply is. It's not a story like Lord of the Rings where an endpoint (destroy the ring) is defined relatively early in the first part of the trilogy). He might have a "beginning" but to tell his story as if it had a predetermined endpoint is just strange to me. I can perhaps, imagine and endpoint after a culmination of many stories in which is thwarting criminals - so if it was a serious-toned Batman television serial with a series finale that looked the TDKR is looking, I'd be happy, but , to me "Batman" and "Trilogy" don't seem to go together as concepts.

I sort of agree. I sort of always felt the "arc" of this movie franchise would be to establish a "status quo" for Batman and it would end with him being Batman and doing everything we know he'll end up doing to fight for Gotham; and be mostly accepted by the citizenry and officials of the city and being a much needed part of it all.

Doesn't seem like it needs to be "closed story" just the first three chapters for a story we'll never see the remaining chapters of.

If he's smart, he'll leave the Nexus at an earlier point and just arrest Bane in Ten Forward.

Why not go back to when he was a child and save his parents? That could be better for Gotham as a whole and have an untold chain of positive events!

 

[Warped9]

Doesn't seem like it needs to be "closed story" just the first three chapters for a story we'll never see the remaining chapters of.

Basically how I feel.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Trekker, thanks for putting that into words. It was really what I was trying to say but couldn't figure out how to say it.

 

[Captain Craig]

No matter how it might unfold creatively the WOM would be bad I think.

 

[IndyJones]

I'd rather not see Batman die, but what the Hell do I know? Nolan's done a great job with this series, so I suppose I'll just trust him for now.

 

[Trekker4747]

If he doesn't die, it would've been... "nice" to see this movie series actually set-up a Dick Grayson Robin, have Bane get break Batman's back and Robin take on the Batman cowl.

Or we could've had a building drop on Jason Todd in movie form. That would've been nice too.

 

[Captain Craig]

A third Batman origin film....YEAH!!!

 

[Mr Light]

Since this is the last film in this continuity, they might as well kill him. It'd be the only time you could see an actual Bat-death

 

[shivkala]

^
That's kind of how I feel. Except for stories like "Batman R.I.P.," they really haven't shown us Gotham post-Bruce. Even in the case of "Batman R.I.P.," Bruce returned and so did the status quo.

The Dark Knight Returns came closest, with it's ending, but even then, Bruce is still around. And, if you're sadistic enough to read it, The Dark Knight Strikes Back brings him back as Batman.

If Bruce does die, I'd rather not see someone else take up his mantle (though in the trailer, I got the sense that Nolan might be setting up Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character to do that. Nothing concrete, just a feeling I got from the trailer). Given the foreshadowing when Bruce talks to Rachel about when he'll stop being Batman, coupled with his talk with Harvey about dying as a hero and the Romans appointing a soldier to stand guard over the city, I get the sense that Batman's death (should it happen) will ensure peace in Gotham.

He should go down fighting Malcolm Mcdowell on a bridge.

Bad enough if he dies, but if he also dies under a bridge then that'll suck double.

For some reason, I read that rather quickly and didn't think Generations, but, rather Sherlock and Moriarty. Not sure why, considering Malcolm McDowell only played Moriarty once, and that was in a Tom and Jerry cartoon and Reichenbach Falls is not a bridge. Either way, I can see Bane and Batman plunging to their deaths from a bridge or something, with it being left open to interpretation as to whether or not Bruce survives.

The thing about Batman is that you just know he's going to die in action. I think Clark even says something along those lines in Dark Knight Returns. Superman's story usually ends with him retreating (to his Fortress in Kingdom Come, to space in DC 1,000,000, or to suburban life in Whatever Became of the Man of Tomorrow). I just can't see that happening to Bruce and the likelihood of him surviving into old age is rather small. Aside from the fact that, padded suit or not, someone doing what Bruce is doing in the movies should be dead, Nolan has kept things as "real" as possible. There's no more "real" than having Bruce go out in action.

Not that I necessarily want him to die, but it just seems...inevitable.

 

[Kelthaz]

Well if Batman dies, then there goes my sliver of hope that we'd see a Justice League movie this decade.

 

[Trekker4747]

Since this is the last Nolan-directed Batman movie any use of Batman in any future JLA movie will be a completely different Batman and a movie version played by and created by someone else with his own established look and atmosphere.