Why Bane Must Break the Bat: How "The Dark Knight Rises" Must End

PK Note: Millions of people (tens of millions even) will spend their Friday searching the Internet in vain to view the leaked seven-minute prologue from the upcoming Dark Knight Rises film. Millions more will search for a boot-legged copy of the new trailer for the film that is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most anticipated movie of all-time. 

The pirated or bootlegged version of the second The Dark Knight Rises trailer can be found here.  From this, it appears the Catwoman/ Selina Kyle character is an Occupy Wall Street/Robin Hood type character, telling Bruce Wayne/Batman, "that a storm is coming... you're all going to wonder how you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."


The pirated versions of both the prologue and the trailer have been taken down due to copyright infringement, but this won't stop millions of Bat-crazed fanatics from trying to view scenes from Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to his interpretation of the Batman mythology that comes out in July of 2012.


I can vividly remember when I saw Batman Begins in 2005; it was at midnight with my then girlfriend and about 400 virgins dressed up for their version of early-summer Halloween. At the movies conclusion, I turned to her and ,"we just saw a game-changer."


Flash-forward three years and 2008's The Dark Knight; has one movie - a comic book story nonetheless - told such a compelling, multidimensional story that seemed so, illiberal? Nolan's first two movies have set the stage for a film that, in my humble opinion, will be the highest grossing movie of all-time.

The following essay is a departure from the mild-mannered commentary you'll usually find at SBPDL. The world of Christopher Nolan's Batman - played by Christian Bale - is one that exists without Black-Run America (BRA). 


Gotham City's criminal problem is primarily a white one (and most of the city's elected officials seem to be primarily white, unlike in our world where a delicate peace exists between the overwhelmingly white business sector and the Black elected officials who 'run' the city). Indeed, a hero like Batman who fights street criminals, gangs, and villains couldn't exist in our world; he'd only be fighting Black and Brown people in a bid to make the streets of Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Birmingham, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, etc. safer. 


More importantly, in our world the greatest destabilizing force for a city is the lethal combination of white flight mixed with a toxic dose of the Black Undertow assuming control of that city's infrastructure. Think Detroit or Birmingham, two of the world's former great cities. Unlike in Batman Begins where the League of Shadows plots to destroy Gotham City for the vice, corruption, crime, and overall decadence found there that are so entrenched no chance for its salvation exist, no such secretive organization was needed to undermine the greatness of Detroit: you just had to remove white people from positions of power and from the citizenry and replace them with Black people. 

We'll be back to normal SBPDL later today, I just wanted to try and capture some of that Web Traffic by posting this.


Christopher Nolan's conclusion to his interpretation of the Bruce Wayne/Batman saga nears its end with this summer's highly anticipated release of The Dark Knight Rises. Scant details about this film are known, save the events of the film will take place eight years into the future after we last saw Gotham City nearly destroyed by an anarchist clown in The Dark Knight.

The movie must end with Gotham and Batman destroyed

The Joker - played by the late Heath Ledger - nearly succeeded in breaking in Gotham's will, and you have to ask what Nolan would have planned for the final film had he not died of a drug overdose.

When we last saw Batman (played by Christian Bale), he told Commissioner James Gordon - while staring at the dead body of District Attorney Harvey Dent/Two-Face - that he would take the blame for the murders committed by Two-Face.

The people of Gotham need a "white knight" and if the truth of Dent's being broken by the Joker was made public, Gotham City would lose one of the few heroes - outside of the Batman - who stood up to the corruption endemic in every sector of the city. This is the final scene of The Dark Knight. It's epic and the symbol that Bruce Wayne created because "it takes dramatic examples to shake the citizens of Gotham from their apathy and indifference" in Batman Begins can protect the false image of Harvey Dent that must be crafted and maintained if the city can continue to limp along.

Fitting that we learned in Batman Begins the death of Wayne's parents by a mugger - a white guy by the name of Joe Chill - galvanized the managerial elite (perhaps the perfect embodiment of James Burnham's concept) of Gotham to protect their own interests by enacting momentary measures to make the city safer. It was this desire to hold their positions of power that allowed Gotham's upper-class to slowly turn to more unconventional measures to guarantee their security and continued riches.

In fact, most of the criminals Batman disposes in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were mobsters, who used leverage on elected officials and judges to fund their enterprises. But it is the organization known as The League of Shadows - who offer Wayne the training that eventually helps him become Batman - that represents the true threat to Gotham City in the first film, and, I believe, will ultimately arrive in The Dark Knight Rises with a new figurehead to finish off their plans for the city. 

The fictional world Nolan has created has Gotham City as the biggest, most influential city on earth. After Wayne's parents were murdered (and after he watches the killer get gunned down), Bruce decides to travel the world seeking aid in finding the means to fight injustice.

His travels find in the presence of Ducard - played by Liam Neeson - who offers him a chance to become "more than a man." Wayne trains with this shadowy individual named Ra's Al Ghul, and his group - The League of Shadows - and ultimately finds out the plan is for him to return to Gotham and help bring about its demise.

Wayne believes Gotham isn't beyond salvation  - though the entire reason he sought this journey is because his parents were murdered by the very people his father was trying to save - and fights off members of The League of Shadows and, he believes, kills Ducard in the process.

But he didn't kill Ducard, nor was he who he claimed to be. Neeson was actually Ra's Al Ghul - it should be noted in the movie novelization, Ghul is able to ward of age and death by bathing in "the pits" - and he shows up toward the ending of Batman Begins during Wayne's 30th birthday party.

It is here, Ghul exchanges the plans to finally destroy Gotham and the true reason the League of Shadows exists:

Bruce Wayne: You're going to destroy millions of lives.

Ducard: Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime.  Despair. This was not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.

Bruce Wayne: Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.

Ducard: You are defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and showed you a path. You were my greatest student It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.

Bruce Wayne: I'll be standing where I belong: between you, and the people of Gotham.

Ducard: No one can save Gotham. [nods to henchmen, who begin vandalizing the house and set it on fire] When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.  Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

Bruce Wayne: You've attacked Gotham before?

Ducard: Of course. Over time, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one - economics. But, we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens. Such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city unto saving itself and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time, no misguided idealists will stand in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them, and stab them in the heart.

In the real United States of America, such actions would be unnecessary; a city becomes overrun in crime only when the percentage of Black people becomes a noticeable problem and property value begins to depreciate.

Because Nolan has crafted a world where the population dynamics of 1950s America - 90 percent white/10 percent Black - never changed, the story of his Batman unfolds in a universe vastly different from ours. But does it change the fact that the League of Shadows actions were wrong? Gotham City's decadence is obvious and only through the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne did the managerial elite even decide to notice the poverty, crime (though crime isn't a symptom of poverty in our world), and encroaching destitution in the city.

Only when those in power feel their position is threatened will emergency measures and actions be taken to improve the situation for everyone else. Because it reinforces their position at the top.

The Batman of Nolan's creation exists to keep the current managerial elite in power, without realizing it was on their watch that Gotham City decline became permanent.

So a hot shot District Attorney in Harvey Dent came along offering the city hope and a salvation because he was tough on crime (in The Dark Knight)? Big deal. By the end of Nolan's second Bat-film, Dent was broken and it took a noble lie concocted by Batman and Gordon to keep the delicate peace in the city alive.

Flash-forward to the events that will unfold in The Dark Knight Rises. All of this is speculation mind you, but based on all available evidence, the movie will center around the final assault on Gotham City by the League of Shadows.

This time, instead of Gotham's favorite son leading the charge, it will be Bane (played by the soon-to-be top actor in Hollywood Tom Hardy). Remember this fact: The League of Shadows never fails: they destroyed Rome; burned London; loaded rats with the plague onto ships (gosh, the League sure is Euro-Centric...) and have acted as a check to corruption for centuries.

Back in the 1990s, the Knightfall story came out which introduced Bane to the world. What was his first action? To release all the inmates of Arkham Asylum forcing Batman to push himself to the brink of physical exhaustion in apprehending these villains. At his weakest moment, Bane broke Batman's back (he had deduced the identity of Batman in the process).

Now Christoper Nolan has already stated this will be his last film. Indeed, his Batman trilogy will supplant all others as the Hollywood trilogy, a reminder that deeply philosophical art can still find an audience. Even better, the questions Nolan has confronted in his first two films sets the stage for what needs to happen in The Dark Knight Rises:

Bruce Wayne/Batman being broken by Bane, and the League of Shadows sacking Gotham City.

Remember, the League of Shadows never fails. It was stymied before by, 1. The death of Wayne's parents and, 2. Batman's actions.

It's hard to think of a film where the "villains" win, save perhaps Seven. Happy endings are the stuff of celluloid, but the story Nolan has crafted can only logically end with the destruction of Gotham City. 

The "white knight" that has maintained the delicate peace and hope for a better tomorrow in Gotham is based on a lie. It is my belief that this will be one of the tactics of the League of Shadows in The Dark Knight Rises; to break the myth of Harvey Dent.

Tom Hardy replicating the infamous "Breaking of Batman" scene

More importantly, the League of Shadows already knows that Bruce Wayne is the Batman. As one of Gotham's leading citizens, Wayne must be broken as well, not Batman. Recall: For the past eight years (after the events of The Dark Knight) Batman has been sent into exile for the murders committed during the Joker's reign of terror.

The decadence of Gotham will have only gotten worse during the events of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Thus, the only logical ending to The Dark Knight Rises is for Wayne to broken, for Gotham City to see their is no salvation in the "false history of Dent" or in their "Dark Knight."

Bane must break the Bat. Gotham's decadence is a mirror image of what the managerial elite in charge of the city tolerate. Only when those managerial elite feel threatened will they enact measures to improve the city.

Wayne's parents murder wasn't enough; the existence of a Batman wasn't either; nor was the noble lie of Harvey Dent.

The promotional material for The Dark Knight Rises has the tag-line: The Legend Ends, with a broken cowl as Bane walks away.

It might not be the ending most people want to see; it might not be the ending Warner Brothers wants to see; but it's the ending that must happen.

Bane must break the Bat. Better yet: bring back Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul to stand next to Bane as the credits roll, signifying the films end. 

After all, "the pit" mentioned in the novelization of Batman Begins helps sustain  or give life...

Gotham City must be destroyed in The Dark Knight Rises. Besides, after the events of this film, why would Wayne want to keep fighting to save Gotham City? He seemed ready to leave behind the cape and cowl during the events of The Dark Knight...

Regardless of what happens, Christopher Nolan is to be congratulated for telling a story that shames all the other crap coming out of Hollywood right now.