About two weeks ago the first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises arrived in theatres (if you went to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows) and online through the film’s bare facebook page. Before I was even aware it was out there, and friend of mine asked me what I thought of it, at the time I was somewhere where I had no chance of seeing it. For the next day I thought about what could possibly be on it, I didn’t want to ask and have it tainted for me. I wanted to go press play, knowing absolutely nothing about what I was about to see.
Before I go any further, there are no spoilers what so ever in this piece of writing for The Dark Knight Rises, as I don’t know any, and don’t want to know any.
The trailer is obviously very heavy on the end of a journey theme. One of the final images of the trailer is of the cloud filled bat symbol descending onto the dark city of Gotham. There are two ways to look at this, if you were to read into this imagery, and take it as being at all relevant to the overall plot.
Firstly, there is the, Batman will die at the end of the film way of thinking. Secondly, you could go that it is Batman saving onto the city and finally earning the trust of all its law-abiding citizens and it’s officials. Both at this time are perfectly plausible from a story point of view, more so the later as it would directly continue the story on from The Dark Knight where Batman sacrificed himself for the good of city, regarding Harvey Dent’s post accident business.
As Christopher Nolan has alluded to “bringing the story full circle”, then maybe this is the scenario we could see playing out in the story. Bruce Wayne finally achieving what he set out to do all those years ago when he returned from his seven-year absence. To become something that the people of Gotham could have faith in, and look up to, knowing that he is there to protect them from any danger. The trailer uses some dialogue from Batman Begins where Ra’s Al Ghul talks about what Bruce could be capable of, “making himself more than a man, and by doing that becoming a legend.
I am aware that the term Legend can be used in many different ways when referring to any kind of person, fictional or real. While the use of the line The Dark Knight Legend in the trailer could be seen as a way of merely stating that this is the end of this particular story, what I believe will probably be known as The Dark Knight trilogy, and the hyping the last instalment of a franchise always helps to get people into the cinema (look at The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings numbers), it could also mean that by the time the credits roll Bruce Wayne may be dead.
The trailer throughout doesn’t hold much joy for both Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon, who is the character we see the most of. Gordon lays in pain and talks to a mysterious man for majority of the trailer, by what Gordon says and the way in which it is edited, we are led to believe it is Bruce Wayne, as he talks about the Batman coming back. No doubt, if this is an actual scene from the film, then Bruce more than likely has told Gordon who he is. The image of Gordon, who has suffered throughout the series, despite being the genuinely good man is a shock, and no doubt that was the point of using this for the trailer.
As I mentioned earlier, Gordon has suffered throughout the series, no more so than in the finale of The Dark Knight when his family’s future is decided on the flip of a coin by Harvey Dent. However, the state he is in on that hospital bed, is something else entirely. It’s more akin to severe beating or someone involved in a vehicle accident. By using a bit of comment sense, it wouldn’t be far to imagine that Gordon has had a run in with Bane, having to deal with him without Batman.
But the most shocking image of the trailer is saved for the last one or two seconds. It shows Batman staggering backwards, exhausted as Bane pounds into view up a flight of stairs, from our point of view, full of energy. It’s clear to see that this shot was chosen for a specific reason, it puts the idea of Batman dying as a very real possibility. However, knowing Christopher Nolan’s history with his Batman films, and their trailers, this shot could not even be from the last act of the film. Neither the trailers for Batman Begins or The Dark Knight had imagery from the finales in them. By finales I mean the siege of the Narrows or the Monorail fight in Begins or the skyscraper siege and coin toss sequence in Knight. This is however my assumption, and me going off what we have seen previously.
It is here I must admit to their being maybe a slight whiff of a spoiler, by my own fault I came across three set photos from the shoot in Pittsburgh.
If you don’t want to know anything, like myself then please jump to the next paragraph. Which features two pictures of Batman and Bane in a different location, fighting again, and which could make be the finale, if you take into consideration the contents of the third. Which feature neither Batman nor Bane, but certainly gives one or two clues away. Nothing though that any fan of Batman with a decent amount of knowledge of the characters history and the full cast list wouldn’t be able to put together if they had some spare time on their hands. Without knowing anything, I did think it was one way for them to link some characters together, and it seems at least going from this picture that I could be right.
Something to take into account when considering what the death of Batman would mean. Would the citizens of Gotham stand up and defend themselves and each other, making the city a better place, riding itself of crime and corruption. As much as we would all like to believe a city would do that, it would be unlikely. Gotham would quite possibly regress to what it was, but with the more dangerous criminals also in the mix. Christopher Nolan at times, especially with his Batman films encourages us to think about the possibilities after the film ends, the Joker card a prime example. How would Gotham fair with Batman gone, if the Joker were to escape or one of the other rogues emerged. The possibilities go are endless.
With the news that Warner Bros. will reboot the Batman franchise after this film coming out earlier in the year it is hard to say what the Nolan’s and David Goyer have in store for us this time next year. We don’t even know what kind of reboot they mean, it could be route that Marvel have taken with Spiderman, and starting a fresh with a knew cast and crew, or they could be just be passing the creative responsibility onto a new team, albeit with Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas serving as producers. This character especially in this version continuity has proven very popular, and it would be a strange decision for everyone involved to merely step away from it. Batman is one of the few comic book characters that has always been able to attract the big names, both in front of and behind the camera, and given the success of the first two, and it’s a safe bet to say the third, then attracting another talented team would not be difficult.
The one fear is that Warner Bros are rebooting Batman so as to one day put together their own team-up movie with the Justice League, as a way of rivalling Marvels The Avengers. Why they would want to do this, I have never understood, a good Batman film will always do better that these kind of films in both financial and critical terms.
Will we see Batman die next summer and become a legend that the people of Gotham look up to when they are lost or their city is in danger? Or will we see Batman finally become Gotham’s protector, accepted by all.
We’ll have to wait to next July to find out.
