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. Featuring the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the final installment in Nolan's Batman film trilogy, and it is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). Christian Bale reprises the lead role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with a returning cast of his allies: Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. The film introduces Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a sly, morally ambiguous cat burglar, and Bane (Tom Hardy), a mercenary bent on destroying Gotham City. Drawn back into action by new threats facing the city, an older Bruce Wayne is forced to come out of retirement and become Batman once again.
Christopher Nolan was initially hesitant about returning to the series for a second time, but agreed to come back 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 in various locations, including Jodhpur,[4] London, Nottingham, Glasgow, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, and Pittsburgh. Nolan utilized IMAX cameras for much of the filming to optimize the quality of the picture, including the first six minutes of the film. A variation of the Batplane 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 to help promotion. When filming concluded, Warner Bros. refocused its campaign; developing promotional websites, releasing the first six minutes of the film and theatrical trailers, sending random pieces of information regarding the film's plot to various companies.
The Dark Knight Rises premiered in New York City on July 16, 2012. The film was released in Australia and New Zealand on July 19, 2012, and in North America and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2012. Upon release it received a positive critical response and grossed over $1.081 billion worldwide. The Dark Knight Rises is currently the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, the third-highest-grossing film of 2012, and the second-highest-grossing superhero film of all time.
Plot
Eight years after Harvey Dent's death, the Dent Act grants the Gotham City Police Department powers which nearly eradicate organized crime. Feeling guilty for covering up Dent's crimes, Police Commissioner James Gordon writes a resignation speech confessing the truth, but decides not to use it. Batman has disappeared; Bruce Wayne has become a recluse. Cat burglar Selina Kyle obtains Bruce's fingerprints from his home, kidnaps a congressman, then disappears. Kyle hands Bruce's fingerprints to Phillip Stryver, an assistant to Bruce's business rival John Daggett, in hope of having her criminal record erased. Stryver double-crosses Kyle, but she uses the congressman's stolen phone to alert the police to their location. Gordon and the police arrive to find the congressman, then pursue Stryver's men into the sewers while Kyle flees. A masked man called Bane captures Gordon. Gordon escapes and is found by John Blake, a once-orphaned patrol officer who has deduced Batman's true identity from their similar backgrounds. Gordon promotes Blake to detective, with Blake reporting directly to him.Wayne Enterprises is unprofitable after Bruce discontinued his fusion reactor project when he learned that the core could be weaponized. Later, Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange, using Bruce's fingerprints in a transaction that bankrupts Wayne. Alfred Pennyworth, concerned that Bruce has not moved on from being Batman, reveals to him that Rachel Dawes had intended to marry Dent before she died, and resigns in an attempt to dissuade him. Fearing that Daggett, Bane's employer, would gain access to the reactor, Bruce asks Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate to take over his company. Bane later kills Daggett. After being promised the software to erase her criminal record, Kyle agrees to take Batman to Bane, but instead leads him into a trap. Bane appears and reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham with the League of Shadows remnant. He delivers a crippling blow to Batman's back, then takes him to a foreign, well-like prison where escape is virtually impossible. The inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, born in the prison and cared for by a fellow prisoner before escaping, the only prisoner to have ever done so; Bruce assumes the child to be Bane.
Meanwhile, Bane lures Gotham police underground and collapses the exits. He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia and forces an abducted physicist, Dr. Leonid Pavel, to convert the reactor core into a nuclear bomb before killing him. Bane uses the bomb to hold the city hostage and isolate Gotham from the world. Using Gordon's stolen speech, Bane reveals the cover-up of Dent's crimes and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, initiating a revolution. The wealthy and powerful have their property expropriated, are dragged from their homes, and given show trials presided over by Dr. Jonathan Crane, where any sentence means likely death with exile forcing the defendants to walk across the frozen bay to get to the other side.
After months of recovery and re-training, Bruce escapes from the prison and enlists Kyle, Blake, Tate, Gordon, and Lucius Fox to help stop the bomb's detonation. While the police and Bane's forces clash, Batman defeats Bane, but Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself to be Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's child who escaped the prison aided by her fellow prisoner and protector, Bane. She plans to complete her father's work by detonating the bomb and destroying Gotham, but Gordon blocks her signal, preventing remote detonation; Talia leaves to find the bomb. Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Kyle kills Bane using the Batpod. Batman pursues Talia with the Bat, an aircraft developed by Fox, to bring the bomb back to the reactor, where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely destroys the reactor before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses The Bat to haul the bomb over the bay, where it detonates.
In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and is honored as a hero. With Bruce also presumed dead, Wayne Manor is left to the city to become an orphanage, and Wayne's remaining estate is left to Alfred. Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed The Bat's autopilot, and Gordon finds the Bat-Signal refurbished. While visiting Florence, Alfred witnesses Bruce and Kyle together. Blake resigns from the police force and inherits the Batcave.
Cast
- A billionaire socialite dedicated to protecting Gotham City from the criminal underworld. Nolan has stated that, due to the eight-year gap between the events of The Dark Knight and those of The Dark Knight Rises, "he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state."[5] Bale employed a mixed martial arts discipline called the Keysi Fighting Method, but due to Bruce's current state and Bane's style, the method had to be modified.[6] Bale has stated that The Dark Knight Rises will be the final film in which he plays Batman.[7] He describes the character's arc as finally confronting the pain of loss that he has deferred for years by fighting criminals balanced against the need to internalize that pain lest he give into his emotions and become the killer the city already believes him to be. Bale also acknowledged that Batman is not a flawless individual, stating that "he's not a healthy individual, this is somebody that is doing good, but he's right on the verge of doing bad. He's got that killer within him that he's desperately trying to not let off his leash. And that's what I always return to."[8] Bale clarifies that "He doesn't want to forget [his parents [sic] deaths]. He wants to maintain that anger he felt at that injustice. But equally he wants to present this very vacuous, soulless persona to Gotham, so that hopefully no-one will suspect him but will just think he's a spoiled bastard."[9] Bale felt bittersweet about leaving the franchise, clarifying that it was like "saying goodbye to an old friend."[10]
- Bruce's trusted butler and confidant. Alfred has acted as a father figure to Bruce, and continues to aid Bruce on his missions as well as supplying him with useful advice. Alfred is unable to accept Bruce's desire to revive his Batman persona, even going so far as to resign from his position to impress the seriousness of Bruce's position upon him. Christopher Nolan emphasized the emotional bond between Alfred and Bruce, stressing its importance in the previous films and predicting that the relationship will be strained as it never has before.[6]
- Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, and one of the city's few honest police officers. Gary Oldman described the character's work in cleaning up Gotham City as having left him world-weary and slightly bored,[12] likening Gordon to a soldier who leaps at the chance to be on the front lines.[6] His life has taken a turn for the worse since The Dark Knight; his wife has left him and taken their children, and the mayor is planning to dismiss him from his job. Gordon feels guilty over his role in covering up Harvey Dent's crimes to the point where he is prepared to resign from his position as Commissioner over it, but refrains from doing so when he senses that Gotham is about to come under threat.
- Selina Kyle is a cat burglar described as "an associate" of Bane[15] who establishes a relationship with Batman that "takes some of the somberness away from his character."[6] Kyle is pursuing a "clean slate", a computer program rumoured to be able to erase a person's criminal history, when she crosses paths with Bruce Wayne. Hathaway auditioned not knowing what role she was being considered for, admitting that she had one character in mind, but only learned that the role was Selina Kyle after talking with Christopher Nolan for an hour.[16] Hathaway described the role as being the most physically demanding she had ever played, and confessed that while she thought of herself as being fit she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the demands of the role. Hathaway worked out five days a week for the role, including rigorous exercise and stunt training followed by an hour and a half of dance. She explained, "I've always thought that skinny was the goal, but with this job I also have to be strong."[17][18][19] Hathaway trained extensively in martial arts for the role, and looked to Hedy Lamarr—who was the inspiration for the Catwoman character—in developing her performance.[15]
- A militant revolutionary portraying himself as a "liberator", Bane is intent on destroying Gotham City. He was originally a member of the League of Shadows, before being excommunicated. The character was chosen by Christopher Nolan because of his desire to see Batman tested on both a physical and mental level.[5][20] According to costume designer Lindy Hemming, the character wears a mask that supplies him with an analgesic gas to relieve pain he suffers from an injury sustained "early in his story".[5] Bane has been described as "a terrorist in both thought and action"[5] and is "florid in his speech, [with] the physicality of a gorilla".[6] Hardy intended to portray the character as "more menacing" than Robert Swenson's version of the character in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin and that in order to do so, his portrayal entailed creating a contradiction between his voice and body. Hardy gained 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role,[21] increasing his weight to 198 pounds (90 kg).[21] Hardy based Bane's voice on several influences, which include Bartley Gorman as well as a desire to honor the character's intellect and Caribbean heritage.[22][23] Hardy describes Bane's fighting style as "Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks."[5] Bane proclaims that his revolution's enemies are the rich and the corrupt, who he contends are oppressing "the people", and fooling them with myths of opportunity. Political theorist and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek likens Bane to a modern day Che Guevara, counter-intuitively driven to violence out of a sense of love, while others have called him a "high-tech Robespierre on steroids," a melded triad of Lenin, bin Laden and Steve Austin set on fomenting "proletarian retribution," and "the one thing that's worse than the second film's raving anarchist: a demagogue."[24]
- A member of the Wayne Enterprises executive board who encourages a still-grieving Bruce Wayne to rejoin with society and continue his father's philanthropic works.[25] Cotillard denied speculation that she would be playing a dual role as Miranda and Talia al Ghul, stating that her character is a completely original creation,[26] though the final cut of the film revealed this to be misdirection. Tate was described as providing Bruce with a much-needed sense of hope at the behest of Alfred and Lucius Fox.[6] Child actress Joey King portrays a young Talia in flashbacks.
- A young police officer whose instincts lead him to believe that there is trouble on the horizon. Seeing something of himself in Blake, Commissioner Gordon promotes him to detective.[25] Blake represents the idealism that Gordon and Bruce Wayne once held, but soon lost in their battle against crime in the city.[6] The film reveals his legal name to be Robin John Blake, a reference to Batman's sidekick in the comics, Robin.[27]
- Fox runs Wayne Enterprises on behalf of Bruce Wayne and serves as his armorer, providing him with high-tech equipment. His position as President of Wayne Enterprises allows him to discreetly develop cutting-edge technology and weaponry, even as Wayne Enterprises starts losing money.
Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers make 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,[46][47] and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues.[48] Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments.[49] In 2008, the Rooney family sold a minority stake in the team to Thomas Tull, the CEO and president of Legendary Pictures, which is producing The Dark Knight Rises.[50] United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who also made a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight, returned for another cameo appearance in The Dark Knight Rises,[51] as a Wayne Enterprises board member. Thomas Lennon, who had a cameo as a doctor in Memento, once again has a cameo as a doctor. India Wadsworth plays the wife of Ra's al Ghul and the mother of Talia.[52]
Production
Development
"The key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us
is that we want to finish our story [...] rather than infinitely blowing
up the balloon and expanding the story [...] Unlike the comics, these
things don't go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end
is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the
right track about the appropriate conclusion."
—Christopher Nolan, confirming his involvement in The Dark Knight Rises.[53]
It was not until February 9, 2010, that it was announced that Nolan had "cracked" the story of a sequel to The Dark Knight and was committed to return to the project.[63] Shortly afterward, it was announced David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan were working on a screenplay.[64] Goyer would leave the project during pre-production to begin work on Man of Steel; Jonathan continued writing the script based on the story by his brother Chris and Goyer.[11] Chris Nolan said that his brother's original draft was about 400 pages.[65] The film's storyline has been compared with the Batman comic book series' story arc "Knightfall" (1993), which showcased Bane; the mini-series The Dark Knight Returns (1986), in which Batman returns to Gotham City after a ten-year absence; and the story arc "No Man's Land" (1999), which depicts a Gotham cut off from the rest of the world and overrun by gangs.[66][67] The nickname "the Dark Knight" was first applied to Batman in Batman No. 1 (1940), in a story written by Bill Finger.[68][69] Nolan confirmed the Joker would not return in the third film, and dismissed rumors that he considered using unused footage of Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight.[70] The Dark Knight Rises reunited Nolan with many of his past collaborators, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Lee Smith, costume designer Lindy Hemming, special effects supervisors Paul Franklin and Chris Corbould, and composer Hans Zimmer.[71]
Filming
Filming was scheduled to start in May and conclude in November 2011.[83] Principal photography commenced on May 6, 2011, in Jodhpur, India at the Mehrangarh Fort[84][85] before moving to Pittsburgh, where it operated under the working title Magnus Rex to reduce the visibility of the production.[86][87] Shooting locations within the city included Heinz Field, the site of an American football game,[88] with members of the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Gotham Rogues football team. More than 11,000 extras were used to depict the shot sequence.[6][46][47] Filming in Pittsburgh also took place at the Mellon Institute and Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.[87] A letter sent out to residents and business owners detailing road closures revealed that the streets of the city would be featured "as the start of [the] film".[89] 9-1-1 operators were told to expect an increase in calls related to gun shots and explosions in the film's production.[90] The Pittsburgh leg of production wrapped after three weeks on August 21, 2011, before moving on to Los Angeles and New York.[91] The Trump Tower replaced the Richard J. Daley Center as the location for the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises.[92] In November 2011, shooting shifted to Newark, New Jersey.[93][94] Newark City Hall and Military Park were among the locations used for filming.[95] Other shooting locations include London and Glasgow, the latter of which was used for "additional exterior filming".[96] Principal photography concluded on November 14, 2011.[97] The external waterfall scene at the end of the film was shot at Sgwd Henrhyd falls, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.
Production photos from filming in Pittsburgh showed a second Tumbler chassis after the first was destroyed, indicating that a new Batmobile would be in the film, following the destruction of the first in The Dark Knight.[98] Further set photos revealed a "new vehicle" being transported to Wabash Tunnel, prompting speculation as to its nature.[99] In June 2011, Autoblog confirmed the presence of the new Lamborghini Aventador on the film set.[100]
Shortly before Christmas of 2011, Christopher Nolan invited many of America's most prominent directors, including Edgar Wright, Michael Bay, Bryan Singer, Jon Favreau, Eli Roth, Duncan Jones and Stephen Daldry, to Universal CityWalk's IMAX theatre for a private screening of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises, which had been shot on IMAX film and edited from the original camera negative. Nolan, feeling that the use of film stock in cinema is currently being phased out due to the introduction of digital cinematography and projection, used this screening to make a case for the continued use of film, which he asserts still offers superior image quality to any digital format, and warned the filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, they may eventually lose it as an option.[105][106] Nolan explained; "I wanted to give them a chance to see the potential, because I think IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It's the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have, in my opinion. The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone's digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so. I felt as if I didn't say anything, and then we started to lose that option, it would be a shame. When I look at a digitally acquired and projected image, it looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one."[105]
Design
Costume design
The Batsuit consisted of 110 separate pieces, each of which had to be replicated dozens of times over the course of the production. The base layer was made of a polyester mesh that is utilized by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers because of its breathability and moisture-wicking properties. Molded pieces of flexible urethane were then attached to the mesh, to form the overall body armor plating. Carbon fiber panels were placed inside the sections on the legs, chest and abdomen. The cowl was sculpted from a cast of Bale's face and head to become a perfect fit for Christian Bale. The suit remained unchanged for the film since The Dark Knight.[6]
In creating Selina Kyle's catsuit, two layers of material were used, with the outer layer being polyurethane coated spandex, embossed with a hexagonal pattern. The catsuit also consisted of elbow-length gloves, a utility belt, and thigh-high boots with spike heels.[6]
Production design
Concept artist Tully Summers commented on Nolan's style of cinematography when asked about the difference between his designs for this film and fantasy-based designs for Men in Black 3: "The difference for me was Christopher Nolan's visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one that is very sleek and product design pretty. It's sort of a practical military aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers. The Dark Knight Rises is a war film."[110] Producer Emma Thomas stated this Batman film has a different visual aesthetic from the first two Nolan-directed features, explaining that "it's meant to be winter in Gotham, so that right there is going to lend a whole different look to the film."[111]The film introduces a vehicle that has been compared with the Batplane, dubbed "the Bat". In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to "fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the Batpod. The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the Harrier Jump Jet, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Boeing AH-64 Apache.[6] Chris Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical effects over computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat "fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with hydraulic controls to simulate movement.[6][112][113]
When designing the Batcave set, Crowley and fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh hit upon the idea of flooding the Batcave and having Batman's equipment, the Batsuit and a supercomputer rise from the water.[6] Another set was designed at Cardington as an "underground prison", a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss with a 120 foot (37 m) vertical shaft leading to the surface. Exteriors above the prison were filmed in Jodhpur, India, chosen because the "forbidding landscape added to the desolation".[6]
Music
Main article: The Dark Knight Rises (soundtrack)
In an interview in October 2010, composer Hans Zimmer confirmed that he would be returning to score The Dark Knight Rises. James Newton Howard was offered to return and write the score with Zimmer as he did for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but he chose not to because he noted that the chemistry established between Zimmer and Nolan during the making of Inception would make him seem like a "third wheel".[114]
Zimmer included several cues from the earlier scores, but explains that
he wanted to go in a "completely different direction" for Bane's theme.
While the theme accompanying Selina Kyle is deliberately ambiguous, the
musical thread spanning throughout the trilogy was composed exclusively
for Bruce Wayne.[6]The film features a prevalent Moroccan chant of the phrase deshi basara (proper transliteration: teeji basra) (Arabic: تيجي بسرعة), which translates to "rise up" (literally: "come quickly").[115][116] In November 2011, Zimmer crowdsourced online audio recordings of the chant to be used in the film's score.[117][118] When asked about the chant for clarification, Zimmer said, "The chant became a very complicated thing because I wanted hundreds of thousands of voices, and it's not so easy to get hundreds of thousands of voices. So, we Twittered and we posted on the internet, for people who wanted to be part of it. It seemed like an interesting thing. We've created this world, over these last two movies, and somehow I think the audience and the fans have been part of this world. We do keep them in mind."[119]
Marketing
The official website launched in May 2011 introducing a viral marketing campaign similar to the one used to promote The Dark Knight. The website streamed an encrypted audio file described by users as chanting. Users decrypted the audio to the Twitter hashtag, "#TheFireRises". Warner Bros. removed a pixel from the webpage for every tweet using the hashtag. The website revealed the first official image of Bane.[120]
Continuing a method used with The Dark Knight whereby the opening sequence of the film was attached to IMAX prints of I Am Legend seven months before release,[133] a six-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises was attached to 70mm IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, again approximately seven months before release.[134] Critical reaction to the prologue was positive,[135][136][137] with one critic commenting that "no one gets to make a film on this kind of scale anymore. Except for Christopher Nolan," though a round-up of reviews highlighted the way many critics found Tom Hardy's dialogue very difficult to hear.[138] Addressing the issue in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan said "I think when people see the film, things will come into focus. Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him."[139]
In January 2012, six months prior to the film's release, tickets for midnight IMAX showings in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles went on sale and sold out immediately. Purchased tickets surfaced for sale online for over $100, compared with their original price of $17.50.[144]
A video game of the same name was released on the same day as the release of the film for the iOS and Android devices for promoting the movie. The game features open world with primary focus on stealth and combat. The combat system of the game is inspired from Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. It takes place in Gotham city with somewhat similar but still significantly different plot from that of the movie. IGN gave it a mediocre score of 5.5/10.[149]
The film novelization, written by author Greg Cox and published by Titan Books, was released alongside the film on July 24, 2012.[150]
Warner Bros. partnered with Mountain Dew to do a cross-promotion that included a special paint scheme on the No. 88 Chevrolet Impala owned by Hendrick Motorsports and driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.[151] On June 17, 2012, the car won the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.[152] On July 4, 2012, the studio signed a deal with Formula One team Lotus F1 to have the film's logos appear on the Lotus E20s driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean at the 2012 British Grand Prix.[153] Räikkönen and Grosjean went on to finish the race in fifth and sixth place respectively.[154] Warner Bros. had previously followed a similar promotion at the 2008 British Grand Prix, when the now-defunct Toyota F1 carried a livery to promote The Dark Knight.[155]
Two digital comic books entitled Batman Origins[156] and The Dark Knight: Prologue[157] were released exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices. A special movie application has also been released, featuring trailers, wallpapers, movie schedules and Batman trivias.[158] Limited editions of the Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 were also released featuring a laser-etched Batman logo.[159][160][161]
Shooting in Aurora, Colorado
Main article: 2012 Aurora shooting
"I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the
shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe
movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared
experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and
joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone
would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably
savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever
adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this
appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."
—Director Christopher Nolan's reaction to the theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado.[162]
Warner Bros. stated that it was deeply saddened by the shooting, and announced the cancellation of the Paris, Mexico, and Japan premieres of The Dark Knight Rises,[170][171] and suspended the marketing campaign for the film in Finland.[172] Several broadcast networks also suspended television ads for the film in the United States because of the tragedy.[173] The trailer for Gangster Squad, another Warner Bros. movie which was included in the screening of The Dark Knight Rises, has been removed as it contains a scene which shows gangsters shooting submachine guns at moviegoers through the screen, similar to the shooting in Aurora.[174] Director Christopher Nolan released a public statement calling the shooting "unbearably savage".[162] Other stars of the film released statements expressing their condolences, with star Christian Bale paying a personal visit to the survivors and the memorial in Aurora.[175]
Release
On July 6, 2012, Warner Bros. held a special IMAX screening of The Dark Knight Rises for more than one hundred reporters and critics. However, technical issues with the computer device synchronising the sound and picture forced the studio to postpone the screening by a day.[176] The film later premiered on July 16 at the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York City, New York,[177] followed by a European premiere on July 18 at Leicester Square in London, England.[178] The film was released in Australia and New Zealand on July 19,[179] and was later released in North America and the United Kingdom on July 20.[180][181]Reception
The Dark Knight Rises received positive reviews from critics; Rotten Tomatoes sampled 296 reviewers and judged 87% of the reviews to be positive.[182] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 (out of 100) based on 45 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "generally favorable reviews".[183] CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an A grade.[184]The Telegraph granted the film a maximum score of five stars, stating that it is "a superhero film without a superhero," comparing it with The Godfather Part II and praising Hardy's performance as well as the film's intricate plot and narrative.[185] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times thought the film was "potent, persuasive and hypnotic" and that it was "more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard."[186] The Playlists Todd Gilchrist wrote " A cinematic, cultural and personal triumph, The Dark Knight Rises is emotionally inspiring, aesthetically significant and critically important for America itself – as a mirror of both sober reflection and resilient hope."[187] IGN gave it a 9 out of 10, noting similarities in tone and theme to Batman Begins over the trilogy's second installment The Dark Knight, but also describing Bane as "that bit less interesting to watch" than Ledger's Joker, despite praising his "menacing voice" and "body language-driven performance".[188] The Guardian scored the film four out of five stars, calling it a film of "granite, monolithic intensity", yet also calling it a "hammy, portentous affair".[189] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon writes "if The Dark Knight Rises is a fascist film, it's a great fascist film, and arguably the biggest, darkest, most thrilling and disturbing and utterly balls-out spectacle ever created for the screen".[190] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, stating "the film begins slowly with a murky plot and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax."[191] Film critic Richard Roeper gave the film an "A", calling it "a majestic, gorgeous, brutal and richly satisfying epic", and citing the final scenes of the picture as "the best five minutes of any film this year."[192] The London Film Review gave the film a B and said "Nolan's film is a reminder that superheroes aren't merely a frivolous distraction, but an embodiment of our best selves."[193]
The Daily Mail's Chris Tookey said that the film was bloated and overly long as well as criticizing the sombre tone and lack of humor, despite praising the film's visually impressive set pieces.[194] CNN's Tom Charity called this a "disappointingly clunky and bombastic conclusion to a superior series" and even went so far as to call it Nolan's worst film.[195] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker says that the "story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood".[196] ColeSmithey.com gave the film two-stars-out-of-five, saying, "Disconnected significantly from the flow of logic between the first and second installments of Christopher Nolan's "Batman" films, The Dark Knight Rises is a disjointed mess.[197]
In reaction to fan backlash to some of the negative reviews, Rotten Tomatoes chose to disable user commentary for the film leading up to its release.[198] Some fans had threatened violence against critics while others threatened to take down the websites of movie critics who had given the film a negative review.[199]
Commentary
Writing in Salon, David Sirota, a progressive[200] political commentator compared The Dark Knight Rises and the game Call of Duty to 1980s popular culture reflecting the political period of the time, accusing them of perpetuating a conservative agenda: "Just as so many 1980s pop culture products reflected the spirit of the Reagan Revolution's conservative backlash, we are now seeing two blockbuster, genre-shaping products not-so-subtly reflect the Tea Party's rhetorical backlash to the powerful Occupy Wall Street zeitgeist."[201] An article in Variety reported Chuck Dixon, the co-creator of the Bane character, as saying that Bane is "far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you're looking to cast him politically."[202] Catherine Shoard of the center-left[203] British publication The Guardian claimed the film "is a quite audaciously capitalist vision, radically conservative, radically vigilante, that advances a serious, stirring proposal that the wish-fulfilment of the wealthy is to be championed if they say they want to do good."[204] In contrast, liberal commentator Jonathan Chait opined in New York that "What passes for a right-wing movie these days is The Dark Knight Rises, which submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive."[205] Writing in USA Today, Bryan Alexander called Bane "the ultimate occupier" and reported that Christian Bale was amazed that the script had "foreseen" the Occupy movement.[206]Nolan has denied the film criticizes the Occupy movement and insists that none of his Batman films are intended to be political: "I've had as many conversations with people who have seen the film the other way round. We throw a lot of things against the wall to see if it sticks. We put a lot of interesting questions in the air, but that's simply a backdrop for the story. What we're really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that somebody would try to wedge open. We're going to get wildly different interpretations of what the film is supporting and not supporting, but it's not doing any of those things. It's just telling a story. If you're saying, 'Have you made a film that's supposed to be criticizing the Occupy Wall Street movement?' – well, obviously, that's not true."[207]
Alternatively, politically conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh alleged that the film was biased against 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney due to Bane's name being a homophone for Bain Capital, the financial service company Romney used to head, despite the fact that the character has existed as a major Batman foe since 1993.[208][209] In response, Nolan said that the comments were "bizarre",[210] while Dixon and Freeman said that the comments were "ridiculous".[209][211] Similarly, comparisons between Bane and Bain have also been made by bloggers on both sides of the political spectrum,[209] with Democratic adviser Christopher Lehane noting the similarities between the narratives of the film and the presidential campaign.[209][212]
Accolades
| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFI Awards 2012 | Movies of the Year | Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven | Won |
| British Academy of Film and Television Arts[213] | Special Visual Effects | Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Peter Bebb, Andrew Lockley | Nominated |
| Broadcast Film Critics Association[214] | Best Visual Effects | Nominated | |
| Best Action Film | Nominated | ||
| Best Actor in an Action Movie | Christian Bale | Nominated | |
| Best Actress in an Action Movie | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
| Golden Trailer Awards[215] | Best in Show | "Chant" | Won |
| Summer 2012 Blockbuster Trailer | "Chant" | Won | |
| Best International Poster | "UK Quad" | Won | |
| Best Summer 2012 Blockbuster Poster | "Teaser One Sheet – City" | Won | |
| Best Teaser Poster | "Teaser One Sheet City" | Nominated | |
| Grammy Awards[216] | Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media | Nominated | |
| Kids Choice Awards[217] | Favorite Female Buttkicker | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association[218] | Best Supporting Actress | Anne Hathaway (Also for Les Misérables) | Runner-up |
| MTV Movie Awards[219] | Best Movie | Nominated | |
| Best Hero | Christian Bale | Nominated | |
| Best Hero | Anne Hathaway | Nominated | |
| Best Villain | Marion Cotillard | Nominated | |
| Best Villain | Tom Hardy | Nominated | |
| Best Fight | Christian Bale & Tom Hardy | Nominated | |
| Best Shirtless Performance | Christian Bale | Nominated | |
| People's Choice Awards[220] | Favorite Face of Heroism | Anne Hathaway | Nominated |
| Favorite Movie | Nominated | ||
| Favorite Action Movie | Nominated | ||
| Favorite Movie Franchise | Nominated | ||
| Phoenix Film Critics Society[221] | Best Film Editing | Nominated | |
| Satellite Awards[222] | Best Visual Effects | Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin | Nominated |
| Best Art Direction & Production Design | Nathan Crowley, Kevin Kavanaugh, James Hambidge, Naaman Marshall | Nominated | |
| Saturn Awards[223][224][225] | Best Action of Adventure Film | Pending | |
| Best Director | Christopher Nolan | Pending | |
| Best Actor | Christian Bale | Pending | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Pending | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Anne Hathaway | Pending | |
| Best Music | Hans Zimmer | Pending | |
| Screen Actors Guild Awards[226] | Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture | Nominated | |
| St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association[227][228] | Best Music | Nominated | |
| Young Artist Award[229] | Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress | Joey King | Nominated |
Box office
Hours before the midnight release, several box office analysts suggested as much as a $198 million domestic opening weekend.[230][231][232] 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.[233][234] As a result, other distributors also delayed the release of their official estimates as well.[235] 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".[236] 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.[237][238][239] Warner Brothers 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."[240]- Worldwide
- North America
- Markets outside North America
Home media
The Dark Knight Rises was released on November 28, 2012 in Hong Kong and New Zealand. On December 3, it was released in the UK, and on December 4, it was released in the United States. It is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and as a Digital Download.[265] Coinciding with the release of this film, a box set of the Dark Knight trilogy was released.[266]
