5 Predictions Before The Dark Knights Rises Blows Us All Away

Were just days away from the 3rd and finale installment to the rebooted Batman movie franchise, The Dark Knight Rises. I’m excited. Really. Really. Excited. But before I redeem the arm and a leg I spent on my IMAX tickets for what might be the best 164 minutes of my summer I had to get these 5 predictions off my chest…

Marion Cotillard Is Talia al Ghul

According to IMDb Marion Cotillard’s role as Mirana Tate is as follows: a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne continue his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. I call baloney, despite the actress definitively stating several times that she is not Talia al Ghul. I guess they just needed a foreign actress in the following non-businessy getup…

…to play “a very, very small role” as a board member. The connections between Bruce and Ra’s Al Ghul, father to Talia Al Ghul, in the first movie – which was partially written by David Goyer, same as The Dark Knight Rises is, and who has been quoted as drawing inspiration from the comics, where Talia and Bruce have a complicated relationship, complicated as in they dig each other, as in they kiss, as in whats going on in the trailer – to make me think that Talia isn’t going to be in the movie and that a renowned actress such as Marion Cotillard was brought in to play a minor role as a concerned board member. And lets not forget that her father wasn’t exactly truthful about his identity in the first movie either. You know what they say, like father like…daughter.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Is Isn’t Robin

Joseph Gordon-Levitt becoming Robin at some point during this film might be the most popular rumor to date, and for good reason; he’s the right age, it’s the end of the Batman trilogy, Batman’s survival is in question, and unlike Marion Cotillar Mr. Gordon-Levitt isn’t exactly denying the rumor…

 

…and robin has kinda already made an appearance in the trailer…

…while a robin easter egg is hardly evidence that he plays any role it at least gives the rumor some legs to stand on; still going with my gut though, no Robin. If for no other reason than it would be the typical after-the-credits teaser thing to do when setting up some eventual next movie, and Chris Nolan has been clear that this is the end of the road for him and Batman movies, clear that there will be no Robin in his trilogy, and his movies have been void of just about all things “typical” of a superhero film. Consider too that’s he’s done very little to expand the DC Universe outside of it’s necessity to the plot, so ending his trilogy with an added hero seems to buck the trend.

Now – I’d leave some room for something to happen with Gordon-Levitt’s character, because it does seem odd to push him so heavily in the trailers if he’s just a rookie beat cop, but I don’t see him doing anything that involves a cape and cowl.

I kinda hope I’m wrong though.

No Man’s Land [Kinda]

In one of the comic’s biggest crossover events, No Man’s Land, a massive earthquake destroyed the majority of Gotham. The government had the city evacuated and then put on lock down, no one was allowed in, no one allowed out. All but abandoned from the outside world you can imagine the chaos that ensued.

In the trailers and behind-the-scenes feature we’ve seen the bridges leading in and out of Gotham being destroyed, the wars in the streets, and even heard someone say over the police scanner, “City of Gotham, we have not abandoned you.” Which Gordon takes to mean, “Were on our own.” We even get markings on the walls:

Which are similar to the tagging Batman and other characters would do when marking their territories during No Mans Land:

Neither Batman Begins or The Dark Knight were based entirely from single comic stories, instead they pulled from different sources such as Year One and Long Halloween to help piece together a more original story. I imagine we’ll see the same thing here, drawing a big influence from No Man’s Land – no one goes in, no one goes out, Bane ignites chaos.

Ra’s Al Ghul Is Behind It All

Batman may have burned down the League of Assassin’s temple in Batman Begins and Ra’s Al Ghul may have “died” but who’s to say the mission to destroy Gotham isn’t still in the works? I mean, what if Ra’s Al Ghul didn’t “die,” or visits that pit of his (which is thought to be in the movie), or has his daughter help him? It just seems too unlikely that Bane in one movies time would build up the kind of hatred to want to destroy Gotham, the same Gotham that just a few years ago the League of Assassin’s (who are responsible for the destruction of cities such as Constantinople and Rome and are still at large) wanted to destroy.

My guess: this is a second attempt to scorch Gotham by Ra’s, Bane is trigger puller.

Batman Dies Doesn’t Die

Now, it appears that the ending to the film or at least the fate of Batman has been spoiled already; however, I’m not going to go looking for the link and have steered clear of as many spoilers as I can, so I’m working without knowledge of the end but the general consensus seems to be that Bats won’t survive this film, some sort of “sacrifice” perhaps. And while this does seem like a fitting end it just doesn’t seem right to me. Call it [another] hunch but I just don’t see Chris Nolan ending his trilogy on the death of Batman.

A major theme in both previous films has been the hope that Batman brings to Gotham and how it needs Batman, and while it would certainly be in character to give himself up it would also seem odd for the cities only hope to be no more, for Chris Nolan and crew to end their trilogy with, “Well, Batman saved the day this time but you know…he’s gone forever now.” And that’s how it all ends. No doubt, this would be epic, and I’m sure I’ll be holding my breath at some point for Batman’s life but I’d put my money on Mr. Nolan having something greater up his sleeve than the ol’ hero-sacrifices-himself-and-saves-the-day motif.

Plus, it seems too obvious at this point, and Chris Nolan is usually anything but obvious.

Course, he’s also capable of doing the expected in a completely unexpected way.

Right or wrong the good news is we get to find out this week! The Dark Knight Rises officially opens up July 20 and is sure to dominate the coming week/weekend. Do yourself a favor and see it in IMAX, then come back here for the review.

Tags: Batman Comics Comic Book Movies Dark Knight Rises LISTS