Geeking Out About Cinema #1: The Overlooked Genius of The Dark Knight Rises

Years after watching the The Dark Knight Rises for the first time in the theaters back in 2012, there simply hasn’t been a film with a more impactful hero-villain confrontation than Batman’s first face off against Bane (not yet anyway) that I"ve encountered. This specific fight scene encompasses so many great and admirable directional elements if you pay close enough attention to what’s taking place on multiple levels throughout the fight. Unfortunately, this scene can easily be overshadowed by the simple fact of just coming across as yet "another comic book movie fight scene but with less spectacle" for the average moviegoer, but this is exactly why I decided to make this editorial. The film overall has had a universally mixed to positive reception with some of the criticism highlighting that the fight scenes lacked in quality regarding their choreography. Despite also sharing my thoughts on the matter, I feel that the mass audience has significantly overlooked the masterpiece of our first encounter between Batman and Bane where it’s not about the flashy fighting whatsoever. It’s about the impending doom that both smothers the hero and the audience simultaneously in a more than clever fashion. Here is the original post that I typed back in 2015 that garnered a huge response with moviegoers with a few extra new comments inserted.

It was this specific scene. This was the moment that completely sold me on Bane being an awesome and unforgettable villain during my initial theater viewing. It's also the only fight scene in a movie, at this point in time, to ever make me consider the bold possibility of the central hero actually dying halfway through the story despite how crazy that would be for a huge Hollywood blockbuster to attempt. I remembered everyone in the theater being completely silent when this scene took place with previous surrounding chattering and loud munching of snacks instantly being halted. That special moment in cinema where a slightly or majorly rowdy audience completely becomes still and silent with anticipation of what’s taking place onscreen. In this case, it honestly felt like I was helplessly watching my greatest hero or idol spectacularly lose a fight to a much bigger and imposing guy right before my eyes. What makes it even more dramatically impactful powerful is then watching said "big guy" walk off in complete victory like the whole thing was a walk in the park for him. It actually emotionally did something to me as a big fan of the Batman character and what he stood for overall.

My only issue was with the actual "fight" and the lack of power from Batman as a gadget tactician and martial artist. We hardly see him utilize his tactical awareness and gadgetry to best his enemy in this scenario, but one can argue that it goes along his character being a little out of shape and touch at the time (or even intentionally rushing in with not the best mentality on living after years of being broken down). I remember re-watching this scene over and over admiring it even more with all the various context in mind. But let’s talk about our spotlight villain of the hour, Bane. Bane’s voice and dialogue during this confrontation is best expressed than anywhere else in the film. It’s menacing, powerful, yet calm and calculating (if only they kept the character like that consistently audio-wise throughout the rest of the movie as the sound mixing of his voice became really distracting during other scenes but that’s a different story for another time). The filmmaking is brilliant here utilizing lighting and the lack of a booming soundtrack to put all emphasis on Batman’s confrontation with "defeat" so to speak.

Music Is The Key...Or Lack Of

At some point you’d imagine that every hero encounter at least one or two villains confident enough to take them down doing what past criminals couldn’t. It’s something that we’ve seen time and time again and as usual, the heroes make quick work of them or, after a little struggle, eventually brings them to their knees in some fashion. Well...here inserts Bane who doesn’t just feel confident in taking down the Bat, he knows that he can do it without any outside help whatsoever and brutally proves it. The moment Batman comes in ready to take down yet another bad guy showing up in Gotham causing problems, we (the viewers) are only left in a sea of shrouded mystery with Bane’s character here. The previous scenes of the movie never revealed enough context to go on except for him being portrayed as a man on a mission to take down Gotham from within with a large crew of mercenaries. We’re never given any idea of whether or not he can hold his own against Batman in a fight until now. We’ve only seen him knock down a few clearly weaker people (in comparison to Batman) in the movie’s beginning plane set action scene as well as the stock market heist. However, if you listen closely, the music weaving through the action scene prior to the confrontation as well as the confrontation itself brilliantly foreshadows Bruce Wayne’s fate.

Leading up to the one-on-one stare off, you had your typical dramatic and epic Batman theme playing as we see our hero and Catwoman taking down Bane’s henchmen one by one before he reaches the big boss himself. As Batman walks into the central arena (if you will), the cage closes behind him and what happens to that badass triumphant hero theme? It ends with the bang of the cage closing down behind him. Batman's theme music is officially absent from the rest of what follows with his battle against this mysterious new threat. Literally what shuts down Batman’s theme is the object that seals his fate. We are now in the lair of unknown evil that is in the form of one large brutish man standing at the end of a bridge (Bane) with surrounding henchmen doing absolutely nothing but looking at a distance. The music almost shuts down Batman’s "moment of justice" subtly giving the impression that something unexpected may or may not happen. Now what? The only sounds that follow are Batman’s exhausted and desperate attacks followed by Bane’s calm yet intimidating voice. The music only slowly chimes in when Bane is about to break Bruce completely. That’s where the music shows the audience that this has now become "Bane’s moment of justice".

Bane’s Dialogue & Gestures

"Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you" - Bane

As for the dialogue in this scene, Bane has some of the best written lines that I have ever heard in any comic book movie (or any type of movie for that matter). What’s even better is the context of the scene itself considering how he’s able to deliver these profound statements. Batman, being the all-powerful symbol of fear to the criminals of Gotham City, should theoretically be the one giving the intense one liners in a fight scene. However, the moment the cage door drops down on him, followed by him telling Catwoman that she made a serious mistake betraying him, we hear Bane from a distance menacingly saying "But not as serious as yours...I fear". Bane himself at that point is setting up the idea that Batman made the mistake of coming after him. And although we've seen several villains do this in the past (especially with comic book properties), never has such a statement been proven so strongly immediately after.

Usually when a villain confidently tells the hero that they should’ve left them alone, the hero is then surrounded by an army of armed henchmen ready to take them down which is where the villain gets their boost of confidence from. Yet here, we only see Bane in the spotlight on Batman’s level of the building when he makes this bold statement. As Batman calls him out by name (which usually puts his enemies in a temporarily state of surprise for having their identities revealed), Bane tells him "Let’s not stand on ceremony here...Mr. Wayne". The fact that Bane quickly yet calmly responds by calling Batman’s name out while implying that they should remove the formalities of introductions altogether says a lot about his character already. This is the first time that a major villain (unlike Ra’s Al Ghul obviously) has known Bruce’s identity in this franchise so the whole "secret identity" thing is completely thrown out of the window at this point which already puts Bane at an advantage without even moving a muscle.

As the two begin to physically confront each other, Bane calmly walks over to Batman while holding onto his vest straps in an almost mockingly "waltzing manner" (the vest straps gesture is also a cool subtle detail visually connecting back to how Ra’s Al Ghul carried himself at times during Batman Begins). Batman then begins to charge at him throwing his first flurry of attacks. This is possibly the most crucial indicator if the music  part of the fight where we see During this moment, Bane is shown still holding onto his straps while getting hit doing absolutely nothing to defend himself initially This is our next indicator of Batman’s impending defeat following the absence of the music and Bane’s first verbal strike on Bruce. At this point in the franchise, no one has ever been crazy enough to fight Batman toe to toe without some form of weapon, and if they did, they more than likely didn’t know what they were running into or desperately had no choice before ultimately getting swiftly taken down. 

So to witness this vulnerable looking character (armor-wise comparatively to Batman) without any weapon of sorts intentionally get hit without any form of major struggle is practically shocking and downright insane. Bane then easily catches Batman’s fist delivering my favorite line of the film, "Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you". Not only is it a badass sounding line, but it also shows how much he is fully aware of Bruce being out of shape after years of Gotham’s decreased criminal activity. This was the moment where the atmosphere in the theater’s audience transitioned from what was once cheering for Batman beating down henchmen leading up to Bane to now an increasingly intense feeling of nervousness. It felt like being in a room full of people watching the launch of a new rocket in space or a rescue team dealing with a massive life threatening situation on the news. It’s the "what if?" fear creeping in that no one wants to admit because everyone wants to keep optimistic believing that everything will work out fine. It’s an unmistakable feeling that you can only get being in the midst of a room full of people all watching the same event take place.

How is this guy able to effortlessly catch Batman’s fist? Although no one in the theaters verbally yelled it out, you can hear it through the subtle gasps in the room that no one expected this character to be able to actually counter Batman with ease. Following this scene, we see Bane basically toying with our caped crusader by intentionally getting hit showing almost no physical impact while dealing noticeably heavy blows in return. Again, this is something that we have never seen before in the franchise. It’s the equivalent of watching an alternate version of David versus Goliath where Goliath is calmly tossing David around, knocking away his sling shot attacks like swatting mosquitos all while calling out all of David’s flawed thinking as some confident underdog. It’s important to note that the sound design of their fists hitting each other is heavily emphasized on in its impact showing how much Batman is using his full strength to fight Bane. As we see and hear Batman’s heavy punches being thrown at Bane, we see Bane showing little to no effort in evading or blocking them.

It’s at this point one would begin to have fear inducing thoughts as they see their beloved hero struggling to take down this one man. This initially thought to be a simple fight scene between Batman and someone who may be formidable to at least give him a little trouble has slowly become an underlying emotional roller coaster of a nervous wreck. There’s a moment where Bane silently and calmly walks up a small flight of stairs towards Batman who is yelling out in a desperate for adrenaline battle cry after Bane previously knocked him around. It’s moments like these that start to play around with one’s perception on who is really in charge of the situation. There’s also little moments sprinkled in where it seems as though Batman is about to turn the tables with a gadget or two (what the audience would expect from previous movies), but these glimmers of hope get completely torn down as Bane counters every single attempt with a terrifying confidence and success rate. In emergency situations, we’ve always seen Batman find some strategic manner to get out of a heated situation alive or take down his enemies by utilizing some sort of tech in a badass fashion. Bane’s nonchalant response to these strategic maneuvers is our next indicator that things are much more serious and high stakes than initially thought.

Where Batman throws his concussion or flash bang pellets, Bane stands firmly in the midst of the smoke saying "Theatricality and deception...powerful agents to the uninitiated. But we are initiated; aren’t we Bruce? Members of the League of the Shadows". That line alone again not only sounds badass in delivery and on paper, but carries storytelling context to it. Bane is basically letting Bruce (and the audience) know that fancy gadgets won’t save anyone at this point implying that he still has the upper hand as well as repeating the line that Ra’s Al Ghul told Bruce in the first film when he practically trained him. 

There’s also a moment where Batman completely shuts off the lights in the room (which normally would put his enemies on edge) only for Bane to just calmly walk around in the dark talking about his story adding to the intensity of the audience’s concerns on the fight’s potential end. Bane tells him as the darkness shrouds over the scene "You think darkness is your ally? You’ve merely adapted the dark. I was born in it". Bane is telling us a story about himself which is strange at a time where Batman is trying to use the darkness as a tool to take him down. There’s also some foreshadowing here regarding a later story point reveal but that’s a topic for another time. The highlight here is that you have a villain who is literally doing everything that a criminal has never done before during Batman’s fear tactics.

Eventually, he grabs Batman right out of the shadows (where we know from previous films is Batman’s strongest home field advantage area) and punches him to the ground shattering his mask. It’s a very intense scene and visual resulting in sounds of gasping and fearful reactions in the theater. It’s important to note that when Batman shuts off the lights with his gadget, the background sound of the rushing water that flowed through the fight scene from the setting dimmers down just enough for Bane’s voice to be amplified. It’s a genius filmmaking tactic as Bane becomes the dominant figure not only visually onscreen, but audio-wise. Again using subtlety to show that Bane is in full control of the situation, in this case, the elements in the room. When Bane knocked Batman to the ground, the audio of the rushing water rises back to normal as the lights switched back on almost as if Bane is both figuratively and literally forcing Batman out of his comfort zone (the silent darkness) pulling him right back to his world.

We then get our iconic moment where we see Batman struggling to walk towards Bane after Bane reveals his plan to steal Bruce’s armory. Bane tells him "Ah yes, I was wondering what would break first. Your spirit or your body!". Bane’s voice at this point is at a slightly higher pitch and is louder. This shows a sense of triumph in his tone as if knowing that he has already won and is simply shining a light on it. Bane then lifts up Batman (another thing we have never seen any of the villains do in the films) and breaks his back with a loud "snap" and "thud" to the floor. At this point in a comic book movie (in regards to the villain having a quick victory over the hero), most villains would deliver some form of victorious words on their behalf of finally beating the hero just to stroke their ego. However, Bane simply takes off the cracked half of Batman’s mask that he bashed in, looks at it, and gently throws it to the side while walking away in that same mocking-like demeanor.

The entire audience is now in a jaw dropping and speechless state with total disbelief as to what just happened. This wasn’t just some in the middle of the movie traditional moment where the villain hurt our hero pretty badly and now we have to find some spectacular way to defeat them in the end. No, this was a defeat on multiple levels that essentially played out in a way that might as well be labeled as the "death of our hero". There’s no Gotham City S.W.A.T. team strategically called in by Alfred or Gordon to scare away Bane and his men, no Morgan Freeman having some crazy Bat tech to get Bruce out, no nothing. Just the imagery of a paralyzed Batman on the floor and Bane walking away like he just checked off something on his To-Do list that's been bothering him. It’s all in the imagery.

Bane’s Henchmen

I mentioned before on how the audience were not aware of whether or not Bane could take down Batman without his henchmen (which every Batman villain aside from Ra’s to a degree needed so far). However, the entire setting is filled with Bane’s henchmen simply watching from a far distance in total silence acting as sort of an audience for their leader. So, the fact that Bane is taking on Batman without any help whatsoever and actually having his henchmen look from a distance as spectators is already adding some a dimension to his character's supposed power as a commander to these mercenaries. Bane’s henchmen is a very important key to the emotional impact of this scene and the foreshadowing of Bruce potentially not making it out on his own terms.

During this entire fight scene, we constantly get cuts of them staring blankly with no type of cheering or reaction for their commander or any form of negative reactions to Batman whenever Batman gets a couple of hits in whatsoever. We only get this strong sense of discipline and devotion of silence as they witness Bane patiently breaks down the legendary hero. Through their seemingly strong confidence in Bane, or Bane’s strong confidence in himself for that matter, we have no choice but to subconsciously introduce the idea of Bruce possibly either dying or at the very least losing this fight. It sounds preposterous as the film is nowhere close to ending, but again, the key is in their actions (or lack of in this case).

Still Just A Generic Fight Scene?

Director Christopher Nolan at work [right]  

Speaking as an honest fan and critic of film, yes, the actual fight choreography of Batman and Bane’s battle is rather slow and sometimes even a tiny bit sloppy in comparison to what we’re used to in comic book action movies. Does it feel a bit lazy at times with fists clearly shown swinging at nothing but air resulting in miraculous body reactions (as well as some choppy editing in certain points)? Yes it does. However, as much as I could expose its obvious flaws, I would also love to point out its beauty and brilliance. Unlike the second climatic fight scene involving the two fighting in a massive crowd of extras in the snow, this one actually felt like a lot more thought was placed into the scene’s impact. Its a fight scene that offers a lot of admirable artistic sensibilities in its amazing delivery of multilayered cinematic elements without delivering on the basic spectacle principles that audiences are used to. This for me is what I’d like to call "an underrated gem of a scene" and one that I think needs a lot more mainstream attention.