50 Greatest Dark Knight Rises Facts

Targets Locked

The Fact: Bane’s terrorist attack won’t be restricted to the home ground of the Gotham Rogues – last week saw the release of new viral material listing a number of strike zones throughout the heart of the city.

The Glorious Implication: Gotham will really be put through the wringer by Bane and his followers. The theme of the film is destruction, after all…

Nuclear Power

The Fact: Bane may very well have a nuclear weapon at his disposal, if the viral material concerning nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel is anything to go by. Perhaps that’s what that big bomb we’ve seen pictured is all about…

The Glorious Implication: If Bane and/or The League Of Shadows have got their hands on a nuclear weapon, it could be precisely the sort of grandiose threat to push Batman to make the “great sacrifice” Nolan has been hinting at…

New Toys

The Fact: Batman has also tooled himself up with some new weaponry, including the rather impressive-looking firearm he brandishes in the full trailer.

The Glorious Implication: We’re not sure quite what Batman’s new gadget is capable of, but it’s reassuring to see that he’s made some additions to his armoury. Adfter all this talk of a weaker, more vulnerable Batman, we still want to see him kick some arse.

Let It Snow

The Fact: From the looks of the swirling snowstorms captured by on-set photographers, it seems as though some of the film’s pivotal moments will be set during a bitter Gotham winter.

The Glorious Implication: Batman Returns was set at Christmas, and the festive backdrop only added to the Gothic eeriness of Tim Burton’s film. We’d like to see a touch of that chilly magic in Nolan’s grand farewell.

Boys In Blue

The Fact: Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play a police officer called John Blake, a non-canon creation brought in especially for this movie.

The Glorious Implication: In a movie stuffed with big-name actors, surely there is more to JGL’s casting than simply having him play one of Gotham’s finest. Could both he and Marion Cotillard be harbouring secret identities? Internet rumour-mongers have suggested his character will become a version of Robin, but we prefer the theory that he is Albert Falcone, son of Tom Wilkinson’s deposed mobster Carmine.

Jailbreak

The Fact: The trailer shows a horde of orange jumpsuit wearing crims brandishing assault weapons as Bane looks on. Presumably, he’s just busted them out of prison to help spread his mayhem across Gotham.

The Glorious Implication: If Bane has sprung Gotham’s common or garden crims, will he also do the same for the inmates of Arkham? And is Catwoman one of the lucky few to be given her freedom, having been shown in one of said jumpsuits at the end of the IMAX prologue?

Nothing To Lose

The Fact: Bane will go to any lengths to achieve his agenda, including deliberately crashing a plane in order to escape custody. Check out the six-minute prologue for further details…

The Glorious Implication: Like the Joker before him, Bane cannot be manipulated by threats to his personal safety. As a wise man once said, some men just want to watch the world burn.

Lazarus Rising

The Fact: Part of the project was filmed in the Indian city of Jodhpur, with local photographers snapping an image of a large trench filled with a green-screen background…

The Glorious Implication: Could this be the Lazarus Pit, the mystical bathing pool through which Ra’s al Ghul is able to regenerate? Surely not in Nolan’s hyper-realistic universe? But if not that, then what is it? Gaah, next July really can’t come soon enough!

Pearls Of Wisdom

The Fact: Less a fact than an observation, but indulge us because this is interesting: is the pearl necklace Selina is shown trying on not the very same as the one given by Bruce’s father to his mother in Batman Begins ?

The Glorious Implication: We may be in for a spot of romance between Bruce and Selina after all. Why else would she be wearing his mother’s necklace?

Goodbye And Farewell

The Fact: Nolan is adamant that The Dark Knight Rises will be his final Batman film. “It’s been quite a journey,” says the director. “It was pretty emotional as we would finish these characters and say goodbye to Alfred for the last time and say goodbye to Commissioner Gordon and eventually, with Christian, fairly close to the end, saying goodbye to Batman … it was a big deal.”

The Glorious Implication: Nothing glorious about this one. This really is the end! But what a way to go…