The Dark Knight Rises brought Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) back into action as Gotham was being threatened by Bane (Tom Hardy), and thanks to him, the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy featured an extremely rare Batman moment. After the failure of Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, it took the Caped Crusader almost a decade to return to the big screen, but it was worth the wait. Batman Begins marked the beginning of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, which saw Christian Bale’s Batman facing different villains – from mob bosses like Carmine Falcone to classic villains like the Joker and Two-Face – while also following Bruce Wayne through a complex personal journey.
After facing the Joker and Two-Face in The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises caught up with Bruce Wayne eight years later, with Bruce now retired from being Batman and becoming a recluse. Bruce was drawn back into action after Bane’s arrival in Gotham created panic and chaos, but it took him some time to get back into shape, more so as Bane was the strongest enemy he had faced. Bane pushed Batman to a physical and mental limit, and interestingly enough, it was thanks to Bane that The Dark Knight Rises featured a rare Batman moment that also flipped their first encounter.
The Dark Knight Rises Had Batman Fighting In Broad Daylight
In both comic books and movies, Batman is mostly shown fighting crime in the streets of Gotham at night, and different reasons have been given for this: crime rate during the daytime is lower, Bruce works during the day and has to maintain his image in order to not be linked to Batman, because he wants criminals to feel fear by fighting them in the dark, and/or because it’s a lot easier for him to blend in the shadows, giving him the upper hand when fighting villains and helping him keep his identity a secret. Surely, Batman has had some fights in broad daylight, but on the big screen, he’s mostly seen fighting at night – however, The Dark Knight Rises changed this by having a fight between Batman and Bane during the daytime, and it’s the only one in the Dark Knight trilogy.
While Bruce recovered at The Pit and prepared his escape, Bane freed the prisoners at Blackgate Prison, declared martial law, and proclaimed that Gotham now belonged to the people, causing chaos all over the city while awaiting the detonation of a bomb that would destroy Gotham. When Bruce returned to Gotham and put on the Batman suit again, he freed the Gotham City Police and clashed with Bane and his army in the streets, where Batman fought Bane and finally overpowered him by damaging his mask. The fight happened during the daytime, marking a rare moment in Batman’s big screen history so far.
Batman & Bane’s Final Fight Flipped Their First Encounter
Batman’s fight against Bane in broad daylight wasn’t their first encounter in The Dark Knight Rises, as months before they had met in Bane’s sewer lair, where things didn’t go well for the Caped Crusader. This was Batman’s first fight after years of isolation and lack of training, so he wasn’t in his best shape, yet he did his best to defeat Bane. Bane easily overpowered Batman and broke his back, but not before telling him that darkness wasn’t his ally as Batman believed, and he “merely adopted the dark” while Bane was “born in it, molded by it” and that the shadows betrayed Batman because they belonged to Bane. Surely enough, the shadows betrayed Batman this time and he was defeated and severely injured by Bane, who then took him to the Pit for further psychological torture, but in their final fight during the daytime, Batman finally won.