The Dark Knight Rises brought Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed Batman saga to a close in 2012, but the ending remains a topic of fan speculation to this day. Batman/Bruce Wayne is presumed dead after he flies a neutron bomb out of town, only for Alfred Pennyworth to later find him and Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in a cafe in Italy. The meaning of the scene is often debated. One camp believes that Alfred imagined his surrogate son getting a happy ending, while the other purports that Bruce survived the explosion.
Although no one could survive a blast from that proximity, I always found it far more likely that Batman figured out an escape plan. I mean, we’re talking about the same guy who ran away from Lex Luthor with his whole body contained with only a sip of water in him. Justice League.
Granted, comparing a live-action film to a cartoon isn’t apples-to-apples, but regardless, Batman is known for being resourceful. On a character and a thematic level, the theory that Alfred hallucinates Bruce and Selina at the end of The Dark Knight Rises Doesn’t hold up, especially when you examine what Nolan set out to achieve with this film.
The ending of The Dark Knight Rises really isn’t as vague as it’s made out to be
The end of The Dark Knight Rises lets fans connect the dots
throughout The Dark Knight RisesBruce struggles with the physical and psychological damage of Batman. The beginning of the film sees him as a recluse after the tragic fall of Two-Phase/Harvey Dent, with Batman electing to take the blame for Dent’s crimes. He only returns to action when Bane forces his hand. Due to his prior inaction, both Bruce and Gotham suffer. The hero reaches the lowest of lows physically, financially and emotionally, but for the sake of his city and his crusade, Batman has to rally.
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finally, Batman wrestles control of Gotham back from Bone and the city’s criminal underworld with the help of the GCPD and Catwoman. However, when Bruce is left with self-sacrifice as the only option to save innocent people, he reveals his secret identity to Commissioner Gordon before flying the bomb into the ocean. Although, as mentioned, he only appears to die in the resulting explosion. Alfred sees him after his escape. The film does not show how he survived, which is likely why fans are divided about what happened.
The main arguments for why the end of the Dark Knight Rises may not be real do not hold up
The Dark Knight Rises features a very tired Batman
The last moments of The Dark Knight Rises Could serve as Alfred’s symbolic farewell to a deceased Bruce, but I think that’s reading too much into the scene. Obviously, Bruce would not have survived the blast if he had been on the plane. however, The Batwing has an autopilot function, which was broken earlier in the film, but Lucius Fox later discovers that it has been repaired. Bruce could have thrown out before the explosion. The climactic moment is shown in a non-linear fashion; Pictures of the plane and Bruce’s face are not necessarily happening at the same time.
Another argument suggests that Bruce was stabbed earlier in the battle, however Seeing as how he fully recovered from a spinal injury in the same film, it’s not far-fetched that he would have survived a stabbing. The time between his supposed death and the cafe scene is unclear, so Bruce may have fully recovered.
Furthermore, the film foreshadows the ending, with Alfred encouraging Bruce to pursue a normal life. He clearly says:I had this fantasy that I would look over the tables, and I would see you there, with a wife and maybe a couple of children. You wouldn’t say to me, and I wouldn’t say to you. But we would both know that you made it, that you were happy.“Alfred even explained the location of the cafe in Florence where he hoped to see Bruce. I took Bruce being there as his way of letting Alfred know he survived to give him closure.
Although, the biggest smoking gun that Alfred did not imagine the ending is simple. He never liked Catwoman. The nicest thing he said about her was sarcastically suggesting that she and Batman get coffee, though he also stated that he would set Bruce up with a chimpanzee just to get him to join the world. I think his ideal ending for Bruce would not have Selina, lending credence to the scene is real.
The ending is meant to be taken at face value
Beyond the ending is much more emotionally poignant when taken literallyBoth the star and the director of The Dark Knight Rises Insist the scene actually happened. Talk to Entertainment WeeklyBatman actor Christian Bale said: “With most films, I tend to always say that this is what the audience thinks. My personal opinion is [that] No, it wasn’t a dream. It was real, and he was just delighted that he finally freed himself from the privilege but finally the burden of Bruce Wayne.“
This aligns with Bruce’s arc of learning to heal and moving on. He wanted and needed to save his city, but He would never be able to save himself unless he let go of the grief that Gotham had caused him. Furthermore, Nolan revealed his opinion about the ending Collider:
“For me, The Dark Knight Rises is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it, and the open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is That Batman is a symbol he can be anyone, and that was very important to us. Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in Batman Begins, where the only way I could find to make a credible characterization of a guy who Transforming himself into Batman is if it was a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change, and therefore it was a temporary process, perhaps a five-year plan, which would be used to symbolically disrupt the good of Gotham to take back their city.
The director further clarified: “For that mission to be successful, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman is not important as a person, he is more than that. He is a symbol, and the symbol lives on.” Bruce retiring and Leaving the role of the caped crusader in the hands of optimistic former detective John Blake is keeping the symbol of Batman alive for Gotham.
If Bruce is truly dead, his character circle is never resolved. I, for one, prefer to think Nolan knew exactly what he was doing. of Batman begins Next, his trilogy focused on Bruce’s trauma driving his vigilantism, so the conclusion showing him letting go and embracing freedom is a full-circle moment. THe Dark Knight Rises Ends with Bruce surviving and Alfred being his surrogate son has finally started healing from his life wounds.
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Sources: Collider, Entertainment Weekly