The Dark Knight Rises (2012)- When Themes Trump Logic/The Most Important Scene in the Trilogy

To be perfectly honest, when I thought myself to do all of these Batman perspectives in anticipation for The Batman, this was the one movie that made me most motivated to do just that. Not only to take another look at each individual Batman picture that has been released onto the big screen but more to tackle one big, important aspect of it that I think we all could benefit and even learn from. When it comes to The Dark Knight Rises, I had MANY ideas for what I wanted to talk about with this one. From how this movie practically foreshadowed the future that we are currently living it with Trump’s presidency, mask madidates, January 6th, 2021, etc.., to how the film itself is basically a meta-commentary on Christopher Nolan leaving the superhero movie genre to even how Bane might have actually been the good guy all along (Yes, really?!), I wasn’t quite sure which specific topic to cover with this movie. That was until I thought long and hard about one particular scene. The one scene that acts as both a defense and critique of The Dark Knight Rises as a whole, that one scene being when Bruce Wayne climbs out of the pit and makes his way towards Gotham.

Ever since this movie came out 10 years ago, it’s has been highly debated among fans and critics. Not just of whether or not it was a worthy conclusion to this version of Batman but whether or not, it even needed to exist in the first place. While The Dark Knight does operate well as a conclusive middle chapter of a trilogy, it also matches perfectly with Batman Begins as being a flawless two-part rise and fall story arc, making it the equivalent of The Godfather Part I and II. Regardless of the actual quality of the film, it’s mere existence was always going to be a huge question mark.

It’s not secret that Christopher Nolan himself was very hesitant on doing a third Batman film. After losing Heath Ledger and the scared reputation of most threequels out there, he had every reason to be skeptical about doing one more. Heck, he was even initially hesitant on doing a second Batman film as well. At first, Nolan only planned on making one film with Batman Begins and he would later pass the baton on to someone else. There are even rumors and speculations that Warner Bros was actually trying to form their own Justice League movie and would start by emerging Bale’s Batman with Brandon Routh’s Superman. However, after the polarizing reception to Superman Returns along with being an absolute disappointment at the box office, Warner Bros decided to scrap that plan all together and continue to strongly focus on Batman. It’s then that they asked Nolan to come back again for another Batman movie. Nolan agreed because despite not initially planning on returning for another film, he did have an idea for a sequel, especially with what his take on the Joker would be. Then came The Dark Knight. Not only was it a massive hit for Warner Bros but it Christopher Nolan on the same map with the likes of Stephen Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, as directors that everyone would be first in line for whenever movie they decide to release. Two years later, we got Inception, which is not only considered to be one of the best films that came out in 2010, but one of the best sci-fi films ever made. So after the success of two films that were not only big box office successes and considered absolute masterwork, Nolan was expected to make lighting strike for a third time with his next film. And thus, we have The Dark Knight Rises.

It’s unknown exactly what made Nolan decide to return for one final Batman flick. Some have spectacled because that would be the only way that Warner Bros would fund Inception, others have claimed because he couldn’t imagine having someone else directing a third one of a series he started. There was also rumors and speculations that WB wanted to yet again implement his Batman into a Justice League or future DC team-up movie. After all, the studio was trying (and failing) yet again to start the process of a shared universe and Justice League movie again with the 2011 critical and financial bomb that was Green Lantern. However, both Nolan and Bale were STRONGLY against this and wanted this incarnation of Batman to be it’s own complete thing. Because of that, Nolan decided to put on the cape and cowl one last time and make a film that would conclude his trilogy in spectacular fashion. And did he do that? Well, yes and no!

Look, I’m not going sit here and argue about the film’s overall quality. Many people have pointed out the films overall logical lapses, editing errors, bugs, and it’s so called “plotholes”. I’m not going into detail of all that because I don’t have all day. But, the one scene I want to talk about is the one of the more famous/infamous scenes in the entire movie, Bruce escaping the pit.

When re-watching this movie, I wanted to pin-point a scene that I felt aligned perfectly with the overall themes and messages of the entire trilogy. The one scene that perfectly ties with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight while showcasing it’s own justifiable reason for existing. The scene I kept coming back to do is with the overall arc with Bruce in the prison and what gives him the energy to climb out of it.

The whole story of The Dark Knight Rises is about how Bruce Wayne has been unable to move on from the Batman legacy despite accomplishing his one goal as the caped crusader. Gotham City is more at peace than it ever has been and is because of the dirty lies and secrets that have been buried that has led to this once corrupted town feel whole again. That seems like it should be enough for everyone except for Bruce, he hasn’t been able to move on from it. Even though he won the battle and the war, Bruce still feels completely sad and empty on the inside. There’s something that feels missing within himself. The reason for this is that, like with many different Batman stores out there, Bruce Wayne is just as much Batman as Batman is just as much Bruce Wayne. That’s at least what Bruce believes at the very beginning of the film.

Even when he finally comes out of hiding with the emergence of a cat burglar named Selina Kyle (who is never once called Catwoman in this movie btw) and the ex-League of Shadows member/mask mercenary Bane, something still doesn’t feel right. Not just because he’s more washed up and deadbeat than before, but Batman is not acting as a hero or a symbol of hope for Gotham, he’s only acting for his own selfish pride. That’s why despite the title of the film, The Dark Knight himself doesn’t truly rise in the first hour of the film. Despite technically becoming Batman again, Bruce still hasn’t remembered the sole reason as to why he became that.

What shortly follows is the showdown between Batman and Bane where Bane bested Batman easily breaking him, mentally and physically. His back is broken, his heart is broken, and the city is on the verge of breaking too with him out of the picture. It’s then that Bane takes Bruce to an ancient pit. Instead of killing him, Bane feels it’s best to let him see everything that Batman has fought for be destroyed first. As he states in this one scene.

While this can be seen as a lazy contrived way of the villain not killing the hero when he has the chance, perhaps actually pay attention to what the movie is trying to say. In that, there are in fact worse things than death. With Bane in this movie, he doesn’t want Bruce to die, he wants him to suffer. Bane wants Bruce to show Gotham the way that the League of Shadows, that was once lead by Bruce’s and Bane’s former mentor Ra’s Al Ghul, saw the city has, a town that is corrupted and beyond saving. And this all leads to the scenes with the pit.

This pit not only goes back to where Bane started his journey but where Bruce did as well when he was a young kid. Well it was technically not at this same exact pit, it does perfectly resemble the exact moment where Bruce started to show his first few glimpses as Batman. However, there are two things that Bruce don’t have with him this time that can make him climb out of the pit, his parents and his fear, which were the two distinct traits that motivated Bruce Wayne to becoming Batman. While Bruce has never forgotten the haunting night of his parents being murder, he lacks fear for himself. Not Gotham but himself.

It’s been a common thing to claim that fear can hold someone down on what they want to do. If you’re overwhelmed with fear, then there’s a big chance you’re never going to get anywhere in life. Those kind of statements can be true. However, a lack of fear all together can be an even greater threat. Having no fear whatsoever can lead you to doing stupid and reckless actions that can have dire consequences on yourself and the people you love. The key to this is using fear not as fire but as fuel. That is how Batman uses fear which makes it his greatest strength instead of his biggest weakness.

When trying to escape the pit, Bruce fails at least two times. The reason being is because of his overall lack of fear, the kind of fear that has always been the defining motivation for Batman. His lack of proper fear is what has held him back throughout the whole film as much as the rope does. Just like the child who was able to take a leap of faith to escape that hell hole, Bruce must follow down in those same steps. It’s only in that exact moment that Bruce finds the thing that was missing from him the whole movie up to this point. The thing that was missing even in the first hour of the movie where he put on the suit again. His own proper version of fear. It’s because of that, Bruce was able to escape the pit and rise once again. Finally, finding that fuel of fear that he had been missing this whole time. And all he had to do was do the one thing he did many years ago, fall so he could learn to pick himself up.

This, in my humble opinion, was the moment that practically define this entire trilogy and is arguably the most important one. In a way, it feels as if this was the one scene of the movie that inspired Christopher Nolan and realized that only he is the one that can make this film. Just like with Bruce finding his fuel to drive him forward, Nolan was able to find the justification to make this film.

Now that being said, while no doubt this scene is perfectly risen thematically, it does fall a bit logically. To bring up the meaning of the title of this blog, The Dark Knight Rises excels at translating it’s themes into the film but it often at times does so for the sake of it’s own absurd logic. For example, it seems very strange that a little small child was able to do something that many people have failed to do and even died trying. Also, Bruce had his back broken at one point along with a cast on his leg. Wouldn’t the whiplash effect of falling down those first few times had broke his back again and does he even still have that knee brace on? And if he doesn’t have that cast, shouldn’t even not be able to move well at all since there’s no cartilage in it? And of course, the big deal breaker is what happens after this beautiful moment!

After we see Bruce escaping the pit and making his way towards Gotham, he’s able to get back safely into Gotham, which at that point in the movie had been heavily guarded, without any real explanation as to how he did it. This is where the themes vs logic argument comes to play. Logically, it seems like lazy writing and makes Bruce comes across as a glorious deus ex machina with the way he’s able to teleport himself back into Gotham without any scene to showcase how exactly he did it. But thematically, it makes perfect sense for this to be the very next scene. Because the overall journey that Bruce goes through in the second act is not strictly about getting back to Gotham but finding the purpose and reason to do so. The thematic journey in this case was not strictly about getting back to Gotham but it was about Bruce climbing out of that deadly pit and finding his main motive once again to be being Batman. It’s not just this scene but many scenes through out that shows how Rises‘s clash of letting themes get in the way of logic. More or less, that has been a sole reason of the divisiveness of Dark Knight Rises over the years.

The thing I’ve always wonder though is that Rises shares similar flaws to Dark Knight when it comes to plot holes and logical leaps of the story (as much as I praise it, it does have some big glaring flaws) yet many people are able to overlook those exact same flaws in the latter but not the former. Why is that? While one can claim that because of how fast and break neck the pacing is in The Dark Knight, it’s not flaws that you think about much when watching it because the movie itself doesn’t give you time to do so unlike with Rises. But I think the one thing major factor in that is The Dark Knight never sacrifices it’s own logic to contribute it’s themes, where Rises does on occasions. Oddly enough, that is honestly been a common factor with a lot of threequels out there, The Godfather Part III, Alien III, X-Men: The Last Stand, Spider-Man 3, and even dare I say Return of the Jedi (Yes, I’m going there!), it’s desire to make its themes, stakes, and setpieces as big and “epic” as possible even if it comes at the expense of it’s own logic and connective tissue with the storytelling. But yet, despite all of that though (and even because of it), I still love watching The Dark Knight Rises.

I’m not gonna argue if the flaws in The Dark Knight Rises should be absolutely glossed over because of how complex it’s themes and overall importance to the trilogy is. That is entirely up for you to decide. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of watching this movie over and over again. And heck, I can even think about an argument or two that can counter with these so-called, “plotholes”. For example, if you’re gonna complain about Bruce being able to get back to Gotham without any explanation, why didn’t you do the same in Batman Begins where Bruce was able to travel all across the world by himself with only a handful of supplies to show for it with little to no context on that? Plus, the movie is already 2 hours and 45 minutes long for crying out loud! Do we really need to waste another 10 minutes just to show how exactly Bruce got back into Gotham? And considering how this movie feels like a bit of a reflection with the future we are current leaving in, from Donald Trump once paraphrasing Bane’s “power” speech to everyone needing to wear masks to a terrorist organization being able to easily overthrow the government for a quite short period of time, I’ve come to the realization that this might connect to real world logic more than we all initially thought back in 2012.

Rises is not perfect by any means, not even close, but that’s why I like watching it. Not because it’s perfect like The Dark Knight, but because it’s imperfect. It’s a mess no doubt but it’s still an interesting, fascinating mess that always gives me so much to chew on every time that I watch it.

And every time I watch this movie, I always go back to that one scene with Bruce getting out of the pit. When watching it, I just can’t imagine these movies being the way they are without that one particular scene. It just makes everything whole and even the things that are wrong with the movie feels kinda right. Just like how that moment brings Bruce within himself to become the Batman one last time, I believe that was also the exact moment where Christopher Nolan found it within himself to direct this movie. The one moment that the Dark Knight behind the camera was able to rise again.

A couple of other notes:

• Han Zimmer’s score is everything throughout this entire trilogy.
• We don’t talk enough about how consistently great Gary Oldman is as Commissioner Gordon.
• Anne Hathaway is a damn fine Catwoman, which is ironic considering she would have played the role of Black Cat if Spider-Man 4 got made. I’m glad she was still able to play that character in some way shape, or form.
• I never really had a problem understanding Bane’s voice to be honest. Tom Hardy is STACKED as well!
• Bane’s death was pretty lame though, along with Talia’s.
• The “Robin” reveal at the end was a bit on the nose.
• When re-watching this, I was most surprised to see how Bruce in the beginning of the film in a way reflects where I am in my life has well. I accomplished one thing but still have yet to move on from that. I sure hope I get my own pit climb moment one day (except without my back getting broken, of course).
• And as for bad guys falling down for no reason, maybe they slipped or thought they were shot because of the loud gun noises or something like that. Just a thought!

Next up: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice