The Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed Batman saga ended in 2012, but the ending remains the subject of fan speculation to this day. Batman/Bruce Wayne is presumed dead after he flies out of town on a neutron bomb, but Alfred Pennyworth later spots him and Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, at a café in Italy. The meaning of the scene is often debated. One camp believes that Alfred envisioned his surrogate son getting a happy ending, while the other claims that Bruce survived the explosion.
While no one could have survived an explosion this close, I always thought it was much more likely that Batman had come up with an escape plan. I mean, we’re talking about the same guy who escaped from Lex Luthor with his entire body tied up just by drinking a sip of water in Justice League.
Of course, comparing a live-action film with a cartoon is not a clear comparison, but nevertheless, Batman is known for his resourcefulness. On both a character level and a thematic level, the theory that Alfred is hallucinating Bruce and Selina at the end The Dark Knight Rises doesn’t hold water, especially considering what Nolan set out to achieve with the film.
The ending of The Dark Knight Rises is actually not as unclear as it was made out to be
The ending of The Dark Knight Rises allows fans to connect the dots
Through The Dark Knight RisesBruce struggles with the physical and psychological damage caused by his role as Batman. At the beginning of the film, he is seen as a recluse following the tragic fall of Two-Face/Harvey Dent, with Batman deciding to take the blame for Dent’s crimes. He only returns to action when Bane forces his hand. Because of his previous inaction, both Bruce and Gotham suffer. The hero reaches his lowest point physically, financially and emotionally, but for the sake of his city and his crusade, Batman must rally.
Ultimately, Batman wrests control of Gotham from Bane and the city’s underworld with the help of the GCPD and Catwoman. However, when Bruce is forced to sacrifice himself as his only option to save innocent people, he reveals his secret identity to Commissioner Gordon before sending the bomb into the ocean. Although, as already mentioned, he only appears to have died in the explosion. Alfred sees him after escaping. The film doesn’t show how he survived, which is probably why fans are divided on what happened.
The main arguments for why The Dark Knight Rises’ ending may not be real don’t quite hold up.
The Dark Knight Rises features a very tired Batman
Last moments The Dark Knight Rises could have served as a symbolic farewell for Alfred to the deceased Bruce, but I think that gives too much meaning to the scene. Obviously, Bruce would not have survived the explosion if he had been on board the plane. However, Batwing has an autopilot function that was broken earlier in the film, but Lucius Fox later discovers it has been fixed. Bruce could have ejected before the explosion. The climax is shown non-linearly; the shots of the plane and Bruce’s face do not necessarily occur simultaneously.
Another argument indicates that Bruce was stabbed earlier in the fight, but Given that he fully recovered from his spinal injury in the same film, it is not impossible that he would survive the stabbing. The amount of time between his supposed death and the café scene is unclear, so Bruce may well be fully restored.
Additionally, the film foreshadows this ending by having Alfred encourage Bruce to lead a normal life. He says directly: “I had a fantasy that I would look across the tables and see you there, with your wife and maybe a couple of kids. Neither you said anything to me, nor I to you. But we would both know that you did it, that you were happy.Alfred even names the location of the café in Florence where he hoped to see Bruce. I took Bruce’s presence as a way to let Alfred know he had survived and put an end to him.
Although the biggest smoking gun is something Alfred didn’t envision, the ending is simple. He never liked Catwoman. The kindest thing he said about her was sarcasticly suggesting that she and Batman go out for coffee, although he also stated that he only framed Bruce as a chimpanzee to force him to rejoin the world. I think his ideal ending for Bruce would not have Selina, which would confirm the reality of this scene.
The ending should be taken at face value
Besides the fact that the ending is much more emotionally poignant if taken literally.both star and director The Dark Knight Rises insist that this scene actually happened. Talking to Entertainment WeeklyBatman actor Christian Bale said: “With most films, I tend to always say that it’s what the audience thinks. My personal opinion [that] no, it wasn’t a dream. It was real, and he was just glad to finally be freed from the privilege, but ultimately the burden, of being Bruce Wayne.“
This is in keeping with Bruce’s focus on learning to heal and move on. He wanted and had to save his city, but he will never be able to save himself unless he lets go of the grief Gotham has caused him. Moreover, Nolan shared his opinion about the ending Collider:
“To me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitively the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it, and the open-ended nature of the film was just a very important thematic idea that we wanted to put into the film. namely, that Batman is a symbol. He can be anyone, and that was very important to us. Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with this interpretation of the character’s philosophy, but for me it all comes back to the scene between the two. Bruce Wayne and Alfred on a private jet in Batman Begins, where the only way to believably characterize the guy who turns into Batman is if it were a necessary symbol and he saw himself as a catalyst for change. , and so this was a temporary process, perhaps a five-year plan that would be implemented to symbolically encourage the good of Gotham to reclaim their city.”
The director further clarified: “for this mission to succeed it has to end, so for me it’s the ending, and like I said, all the elements of the open ending tie into the thematic idea that Batman isn’t important as a man, he’s more than that. . He is a symbol, and this symbol continues to live.Bruce retires and leaving the role of the Caped Crusader in the hands of optimistic former detective John Blake keeps the Batman symbol alive for Gotham.
If Bruce is indeed dead, then his character has never been revealed. I, for one, prefer to think that Nolan knew exactly what he was doing. From Batman Begins His trilogy went on to focus on Bruce’s trauma that led to his vigilantism, so the conclusion showing him letting go and embracing freedom is a full-circle moment. The: The Dark Knight Rises ends with Bruce surviving and Alfred knowing that his surrogate son has finally begun to heal from the wounds of a lifetime.
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Sources: Collider, Entertainment Weekly