Spoilers: The Dark Knight Rises ending discussion

July 21, 2012 by | 77 Comments
facebook Imagetwitter Imagegoogleplus Imageemail Image

the dark knight rises movie images Image By now most will have had the opportunity to see The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Batman trilogy. Nolan likes to keep audiences guessing, so here’s a discussion of the film’s concluding moments (spoilers included), and what people liked or didn’t like about The Dark Knight Rises ending.

SPOILERS BELOW

christopher nolan batman Image

Christopher Nolan was saying just last week that The Dark Knight Rises would be his final Batman film, but from how The Dark Knight Rises ended it is clear there could be future films made by Warner Bros. that are set within the Batman universe he created.

dark knight rises ending spoiler Image

Batman Survived – The climax of the film involved Batman flying out to sea with a nuclear bomb to ensure it doesn’t blow up Gotham and kill everyone in the city. The bomb goes off, and Hans Zimmer’s booming, triumphant score blasts on, however Batman didn’t die. In the following scenes Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce Wayne had previously fixed the auto-pilot on the Bat, meaning he could have jumped out before the bomb exploded (although there will be questions about how he could have actually survived the explosion aftermath and radiation).

In a concluding scene Alfred is sitting at a cafe in Florence, and is seen giving the nod to Bruce Wayne who is accompanied by Selina Kyle. This is proof Wayne survived. There are no totems here (although could a grief-stricken Alfred have deluded himself into seeing an event he wanted so much for Bruce?)

joseph gordon levitt batman movie Image

Blake takes over – After going through the whole film by the name ‘Blake’, it is eventually revealed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is actually called Robin. After following coordinates left to him, Robin makes his way to the Batcave and the platform rises. If there are going to be future films within Nolan’s universe, it’s with this character. The only question is whether Gotham’s new guardian will be Batman 2.0 with Levitt’s character, or an entirely new hero (some have speculated Nightwing).

My bet is he’ll take on the mantle of Batman, which gives Warner Bros. the option of having a new Batman, but set within the same universe. Audiences won’t be fond of a reboot, but they’ll be more accepting of a continuation.

What do you think about The Dark Knight Rises ending? Should future films be made, or should this be the end of this Batman universe?

facebook Imagetwitter Imagegoogleplus Imageemail Image
Read more on: ,

Around the web


  • Mike

    I don’t want any more Batman films. Just leave it at Nolan’s trilogy and then reboot it in 10 years or so.

    I would like to see a Catwoman spin-off though. Anne Hathaway was one of the best things about the film.

    • sven

      during watching the film I felt it wasn’t a patch on Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance in “Batman Returns”, though i appreciate it was a very different character and scenario.

  • http://twitter.com/ReelxKnight Reel Knight

    It would be a miracle if warner brothers actually continues the story with a new director like the Bond franchise instead of playing it safe with an origin story fueled reboot. Just please Warners, no more directors with crazy ideas. We don’t need another instance of bat nipples or whiny sidekicks or pun injected dialogue. You saw what getting Nolan did for the franchise….monkey saw, monkey should do that again.

  • John

    If Alfred was deluding himself, what about Gordon? He found a new Bat-signal on the roof. We don’t need another Batman movie from Nolan’s world, though. He ended it much the same way as Inception. The audience can reach the conclusion it wants.

    • http://filmonic.com Liam

      Good point. Forgot about the Bat-signal.

    • http://twitter.com/jefflacs Jeff Lacs

      I think for the bat-signal it’s more of a commemoration since it’s batman who was the one who save the city…

  • mike

    Can’t really see anyone doing a better job the noaln. The movie was awesome. Kinda hope Nolan is just taking a break and back years later to do robin/nightwing.

    • John

      Zack Snyder loves adapting graphic novels. The Dark Knight Returns as a sequel, maybe?

  • naturallybornbad

    hopefully it’s setting up for jon nolans directorial debut with nightwing

    • John

      I think Nightwing or Robin will be a spin off, not a sequel. My bet is on a Teen-Titans film.

  • Sam

    Batman engaged the auto-pilot before he took it out to sea, then escaped. There were no shots of him in the cockpit whilst he was over the sea. Before Blake threw the small explosion device into the rocks that Batman gave him, Batman said to him about how he sees him wearing a mask and how he can be who he needs to be. Alfred didn’t imagine it because Selina was there, with him not knowing about her relationship with Batman. It’s leaves a nice path to crossroads with a number of options the film makers can discuss, but Robin will obviously definatley be involved – even though Nolan has previously said he didn’t care too much for the Robin character. He has obviously thought about his audience and what they would like. That I can admire.

    • John

      There was a shot of him in the cockpit while over sea. They then cut to a clock in the cockpit with 5 seconds left on it. So he was very close to the blast.

      • Jon Sandys

        Just came from seeing it – there’s a shot of him in the cockpit soon after he clears the bridge, then a few other shots, then the timer at 5 seconds. Given how fast it would have to be going to get 6 miles away in the time available (about 4 miles a minute – doable for a high-tech helicopter) he could have bailed out 20 seconds before the blast and still be over a mile away from the centre (and underwater, which would help too).

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Fanfan-Serber/1442338005 Fanfan Serber

        No, we just see his face; it’s not clear!

    • Iphoniez

      Dude, it showed him like sad and stuff before the explosion..

      • amccaffrey

        some mechanic guys tell fox at the end that bruce wayne fixed the auto pilot, ergo bruce escaped and used the auto pilot. Yes there was a scene of him in there being sad but he could have been sad knowing this was his last moment as batman. It doesn’t confirm he was in there during the blast

    • http://www.facebook.com/louie.ramirez.733 Louie Ramirez

      I agree, Nolan gave the fans what they wanted, but in his own unique way. Though the shot of Blake (robin) in the batcave does lead to the discussion of follow ups and spins offs, I think that the brilliant part was that the whole time ROBIN was in this movie. He was essentially batman/Bruce’s side kick through out the film, even taking orders from him at points. He gave him a partner, a robin, using slight of hand and not having to resort to the campiness of the traditional character that he swore not to include. Quite clever, in my opinion.

  • yuou

    “although there will be questions about how he could have actually survived the explosion aftermath and radiation”

    Obviously, he just jumped into a refrigerator.

  • http://twitter.com/RyanV252 Ryan Vincent

    will everyone please stop talking about radiation it wasn’t a nuclear bomb so there would be no radiation

    • http://www.facebook.com/seadraen Avivar Awasthi

      A neutron bomb would emit neutron radiation. I am not a physicist and Idk what would be the radius of the neutron radiation, but it would be massive considering the bomb was a 4 kiloton bomb.

      • Guy

        underwater=plenty of shieldingjust sayin

        • http://twitter.com/qcfred Le Fred

          true

      • Howard Woolley

        The film said a six mile blast radius. If we assume Bruce jumped out at the shore, “the bat” aircraft easily cleared that before detonation. You might want to avoid the beach for awhile though if you live in Gotham!

    • alaki

      It was a fusion bomb, so no. No radiation.

  • Patton

    It was a fitting ending but I can’t help think the more appropriate ending would have been batman dying in the explosion, After all that is the ultimate sacrifice batman has always been destined to make for Gotham City from the moment he took on the batman persona.

    • Derek

      Batman did die in it…and Bruce Wayne was reborn.

      • http://facebook.com/dudezombieswhoa dporter6

        Well said. That’s (I believe) EXACTLY what the scene and the following scene with Alfred is meant to imply. The Batman DIED saving the city (and the city finally recognized the hero they needed, deserved and finally earned), and a new hero (Nightwing?) takes his place.

  • http://www.facebook.com/seadraen Avivar Awasthi

    Idk if this is the right place to point this out /as a question but
    When Bruce goes to meet Fox in his office, won’t that be near about on the top floor?
    Further more when they go through the secret door into the applied sciences room with all the tumblers and the bat, doesn’t that mean that it is on the same level where his office is? Correct my naive self if I am wrong and read no further, but if I am correct till this part.. Does that mean that the sewer ran till the top floor of Wayne enterprises when Bane detonated a small hole in the roof of the sewer?

    • hawk25

      an elevator went down from Fox’s office

      • John

        Yep. They took an elevator. Just some editing.

  • The Joker

    After watching Dark Knight Rises I really hope they make a another, starring Christian bale as batman again cos he’s a great actor and fits the role of batman

    • John

      The Dark Knight Returns

  • michael clarke

    batman takes off in the bat-wing, programs in the destination on the computer and then makes a big explosion to draw away attention and mask his escape. there were numerous references this party trick scattered throughout the film

  • Ell

    No reboot regardless of whether or not that could work for justice league. Any reboot for the justice leage would be a complete downgrade. I vote sequels, and by nolan. The only way it can continue to flourish. In a way nolan’s ruined the prospect of a great justice league film by making such a glorious realistic adaptation. Curse Nolan’s genius.

  • Brian

    I really enjoyed the ending. Although I see how it would have been appropriate to not show Bruce Wayne later, I did like that part myself. Perhaps even if we just saw Alfred smiling and not even Wayne, that would have been enough of a clue too. I also totally thought Blake was acting in a “Robin” capacity even if he wasn’t officially Robin… I almost laughed when they said his real name was Robin. I was actually quite surprised they did the ending with Blake finding the cave and Alfred seeing Bruce. While this film ties them all together very very nicely and gives great closure, I was totally surprised about the teaser endings… while I do not want a reboot, I hope Nolan comes back someday, or whoever takes it over will continue the story universe he setup faithfully. Personally these movies were so great I wouldn’t mind there being no new batman films for decades… but I doubt the studios will let that happen.

  • kevin.m.92

    BATMAN BEYOND FOR JUSTICE LEAGUE!!!!!

  • Eric

    Look at the new bat signal at the end of the movie… It is a slimer more sleak bat design. Remember batman beyond??? Resembles that emblem. JGL is gonna be that guy. Can’t have a robin only movie. Nor can you with night wing. Got to be a batman.

  • jaws1977

    what was the blood transfusion for at the beginning, giving it to that young corpse? anyone have an idea. ;i thought it would come out in the end, and be Ra .s but nothing ever became of that ..

    • Anon

      So the Nuke Engineers DNA would be found in the plane crash and they would assume him dead.

    • jonv87

      that was for blood testing on the corpse during the autopsy

      • John

        But what if all that was left were his teeth?

  • rkd

    Someone said it was Superman who took the bomb and obviously since Superman is nearly indestructible, he saved Batman while the bomb detonated. 4
    Maybe a precursor to a Justice League movie.

    • John

      If there is a sequel, it should start with showing us how Batman escaped the blast.

    • http://twitter.com/qcfred Le Fred

      Unlikely but that would be awesome

    • david blau

      did anyone notice that this movie pretty much had the same plot ending as the the avengers, with tony stark flying a bomb out of Manhattan/Gotham?

  • bem3922

    I thought this movie was excellent. I loved that the film had a happy ending and the message of moving on and living your life.

  • mancunian singh uk

    if there is going to be a continuation of this story it is definatly going to be a batman film if its nightwing they wud have move to bludhaven which is never metioned in nolans trilogy

  • Antox18

    Did anyone notice the bat signal was fixed which would indicate Bruce wanted robin to become the bat

  • sgt_slaughter

    my memory of alfred’s exact words are a bit hazy..but when he was talking to bruce earlier in the film..he talked about how he would ‘fantasize’ about this cafe and bruce having a lady/family in his life…Alfred also calls catwoman bruces girlfriend earlier in the film..so i think the final cafe scene is just another one of alfreds ‘fantasies’ and batman is indeed dead..

    • jruss

      He never said anything about catwomen as his gf…go watch the movie again

      • Mr. E

        Could just reply that it was Morgan Freeman who called her his girlfriend and not Alfred…or respond like a jerk.

  • Charlie

    I believe the ending suggested that Batman will never leave Gotham and Blake will either retain the role as the new Batman or assume his persona as Robin. Though Bruce Wayne may be dead, he was also declared dead by Alfred in Batman Begins. Bruce Wayne can always come back if needed. I would be surprised if Robin adopted the role of Batman given his brash character. There were some details in Bruce’s will that pertained to Alfred retaining rights to the properties of Wayne manor, excluding what was designated to the boy’s home. It would be great to have Blake seek out Bruce (again) once he is healed to assist him as a partner with Hush, Riddler, or Grundy. I am satisfied with the open ended nature of the film and will look forward to the next director in keeping in line with the brooding nature of the original three films. I hope that they avoid an origin story.

    • davelevy3

      But you can’t just be “batman”. Bruce had money and resources, things that blake doesn’t have because Bruce is now broke…and he was trained by the league of shadows for gds sake. Who will Blake be trained by…

  • http://twitter.com/qcfred Le Fred

    HAHAHA The refrigirator joke is hilarious

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.hetrick.56 Jason Hetrick

    The shot of him inside the Bat was probably right near the shore, where he jumped out and had Selina waiting for him. Remember she asks him to come with her, and his response is basically “not yet.” He had this planned the whole time. Now, as for the radiation and and his stab wound, I’m not sure I have an explanation. I would imagine he planned being in Europe to show Alfred that he was still alive….I don’t see how Alfred could have dreamed that considering Selina Kyle wasn’t his girlfriend at the time.

  • The Grey Knight

    When Bruce had Selina “capture” him and bring him to court as if he were about to be executed, that was part of his plan, to make sure people saw him get caught and taken to Bane. Remember, he would want to make sure people knew Bruce Wayne had died, not just disappeared.

  • Bye Bye Bats?

    I truly hope they remain in Nolans universe and Jonathan goes on to direct/write some more. I think most people would prefer a continuation of this world rather than a reboot and hopefully they never make Justice League film that contains Batman. Superman can make a JLA film work with help from Green Lantern etc but Nolan has created a superhero franchise that stands alone and that we all believe in. If it is a continuation then I think we should have something simply called Gothan City, JGL can become Nightwing under the guidance of Alfred (who has confirmed he would do another and if he is to live in the mansion still then I guess he would run into JGL downstairs in the Batcave). Clearly Gordon would have to be sacked due to withholding the information about Dent, so Gary Oldman need not return and with the Dent Act scrapped the streets of Gotham would once again have time to turn to crime again whilst Nightwing goes through his training. Most people would like to see the Riddler done in a Nolan esqe way and personally I would like to see Clayface. I think Clayface can be portrayed in a way where he simply is a master of disguise rather than a lump of clay. I think a Clayface/Riddler team up would pose a less physical challenge for JGL/Nightwing which would seem to suit him more as he seems to be brave but more so intelligent than anything else.

  • Ace

    It’s this simple. Bruce Wayne did NOT survive simply because he cannot fake his own death! No, he can’t! Because he is Bruce Wayne, the prince of gotham city and you will have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who doesn’t know him! Someone…SOMEone would eventually recognize him.

    • Ben

      Someone did. Alfred.

  • http://lastblognameavailable.wordpress.com/ Mr. E

    I actually felt that they tied up a few too many loose ends. Instead of showing Bruce and Celina at the cafe we could have just been shown a slow close-up of Alfred looking up, looking a bit suprised, then happy. It would’ve been more ambiguous, but would have led to interesting discussion.
    The same goes for finding out that Blake’s real name was Robin. Perhaps just some hints at the name near the end instead of some random chick blurting it out to a collective sigh from the audience.(at least during the viewing that I attended.)
    While overall I loved the movie, my biggest gripe was the dispatching of Bane. Up until that point he’d been the largest obstacle Batman had faced, matching his brute strength with an equally impressive IQ. I thought it a bit odd for Bane to have such an intricate plan for Bruce and forget to check on him for however long it takes to recover from a “protuding vertabrea” which I can’t imagine would heal quickly with a rope for rehab.
    THEN, he’s killed rather quickly and unceramoniously by CATWOMAN??? He’d been nearly indestructible for 2 1/2 hours and then POOF….he’s gone. No grand finale, no 21 gun salute…more like a capgun.

    • Lockstock

      I felt the same way. BOOM and suddenly he was dead. What the hell?

  • Chris Etrata

    I am pretty sure Batmanand Bruce wayne died. Even if the bat was sturdy enough to have withstood the explosion, Batman would have been either too close to the explosion or breathed in too much radiation. The bat signal could have been repaired by anyone and its purpose might have been a commeration to batman, not that he’s alive. The autopilot could have sent the batplane back unnamed and “Bruce Wayne” in a resteraunt could have just been a vision of alfreds in response to his grievance over his death. That man to me was entirley different that brought a vision of Bruce Wayne.

    • Joe

      yeah… you missed all the points …

    • david blau

      “The bat signal could have been repaired by anyone and its purpose might have been a commeration to batman”- i think so too. if you notice the bat is silver and it doesnt look like there is glass on i it. also they show that seen right after the y show the statue.

  • loll

    cant be nightwing… nightwing is from krypton, like superman, yet superman shows powers due to the earth’s sun. in the movie gordon-levitt shows no powers. its obvious he will become robin, because of his name, and his presence as batman.

    • Nope.

      Umm. No. Nightwing is the grown up persona of Dick Grayson after he stopped being Robin. Grayson was replaced as Robin by Jason Todd, Tim Drake and then Damien Wayne. Perhaps you are thinking of another character?

  • taylor

    How did Batman get out of the copter thing before the bomb went off…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/dannyblizz Daniel Sala

    I’m going to give my two cents about “Batman escaping the explosion.” If you collect toys (Batman’s in these case) and you go to purchase “The Bat” It comes with a Batman Action figure that could be ejected from “The Bat.” The Toys are obviously in production before the movie. So, my point is, that Batman being ejected out of “The Bat” might have been a scene that was edited out of the movie, just to create commotion among the Fans.

  • matjes

    Great movie but a little to much in the end: Couldn’t they at least have left off the shot of Bruce+Selina in the café? Make Alfred nod to the camera and then go black/credits! –>epic! (everyone can paint its own ending…I personally would have liked Bruce to be dead, but I’m just not a happy ending loving guy))

    I’d like to see some type of Nightwing movie, but also a Nightwing-TV-series might work! Imagine a small series with like 6 one hour episodes per year, with the chance to show us the other Batman villans in this Gotham setting!

    If they don’t choose to bring back Robin, it still was great to have him basically as “Robin” helping Batman throughout the movie.

    • Louis

      To be honest I think the idea of the nod to camera -> cut to credits is far too similar to the Inception ending, and would just be lazy of Nolan to do that again.

  • http://www.facebook.com/natasha.reid.9400 Tash Reid

    It seems to me that Bruce Wayne must have died. Nolan has used the same tool in directing, as Bane uses in the film. Creates a false hope (for Bane, among the people and for Nolan, among the fans). It ties in with the theme of the film that there can be no true despair without hope. So our hope that Bruce Wayne lived, fueled by imagery of Alfred’s fantasy in the cafe and by learning that Bruce indeed upgraded to auto-pilot, creates a truer despair once it is realised that Bruce indeed died.

  • http://www.facebook.com/daniil.piispanen Daniil Piispanen

    I am think the should make a fourth movie that Robin is the new hero and he will travel to find Bruce wayne even could Batman dade he knows that he lives.

  • kdsjs

    can’t this be ‘robin’ the side kick of batman??? still in doubt…

  • America!

    Please no more Batman! This 3rd movie cannot be topped and I can’t stand it when movies go on and on until the story becomes garbage and its purely a money maker. Nolan won’t do any more Batman movies for this precise reason.

  • robins the best

    I want robin he is my favourite character and i think they might get bruce to train him ready to fight in gotham

  • Iron Wolf

    I personally think, that as they ended the “Batman trilogy”, they’ll have a “Robin/Nightwing” trilogy all by itself focusing on Robin/Nightwing alone, where i think they may have a lil clip or scene featuring Batman from the trilogy

  • vaibhav uchil

    Blake (Robin) was fixing something near the sewers along the highways throughout the film…Was he fixing explosives?