Na'vi-gation.

Saturday 28 July 2012

The Dark Knight Rises: Ending Theories

SPOILER ALERT- SPOILERS OF THE DARK KNIGHT RISES LIE AHEAD
The Dark Knight Rises is the cinema event of the year, a loud, bombastic, clever, engaging super-hero movie. Christopher Nolan and his team did an incredible job with the film, and I thoroughly enjoyed it; it's made it's way into my top 10 favourite films of all time, nestled between Alien and The Dark Knight (I decided that, whilst the two films are on par in my opinion, as it stands at the moment I would rather watch the final installment over the 2nd film). But despite the film's triumph, the ending of The Dark Knight Rises had cinemagoers confused. In this article, I will attempt to explain the ending.


Near the very end of the film, it dawns on Batman and the crew that the countdown to the detonation of the nuclear bomb is dangerously low. The bomb has a blast radius of 6 miles, meaning that it had the potential destroy a large portion of (Or the whole of, the size of Gotham isn't ever specifically stated) Gotham City. Bane killed the only man that was able to defuse it earlier on in the film. So, Batman attaches the nuclear bomb to his flying machine, 'The Bat', and flies off, over the ocean, where it blows up, and everyone cheers and stuff. But, what happened to Batman? He was in The Bat, right? So how did he get to Europe if he got blown up?

Theory A- Batman's Invincible
What the film DOESN'T tell you is that Batman's invincible. And that he can also teleport. And then he teleports to Europe with Selina Kyle, to the exact restaurant that Alfred goes to (you know, that one he never mentioned the name of?), and they have a lovely life. Hey, he's Batman, he can do these things!


I can't afford proper pictures


Theory B- The Exploding Building
So, you remember when he set off, and flew up towards that building? Well, think carefully. He flew up to the building, the building exploded, Blake shouted "GET DOWN IT'S STARTING", and then The Bat flew up and out over the ocean. That explosion wasn't the nuclear bomb detonating ... So what was it? Was it Bane? Did Batman accidentally hit a fuel tank or something?
Nope, it was a missile. One of Batman's missiles. He fired a missile at the building, ejected, and flew into the building safely. Then The Bat used it's newly installed auto-pilot feature to fly out over the ocean by itself. The camera keeps cutting back to Batman, at the wheel, in what we assume to be The Bat. So, we're left with one of two options; either, they keep showing earlier shots of Batman in The Bat, or, Batman is in a different vehicle. In The Dark Knight, Batman had a car called 'The Tumbler'. This had an escape pod called, inventively, the Batpod. When the Batpod ejected from The Tumbler, it worked as a motorbike. It's not out of the question that The Bat could also have an escape pod that ejected from it, which works as a flying machine. So, those shots could actually be of Batman flying in The Bat's escape pod, whilst The Bat flies up and over the building and out to sea. Then, he runs off to find Selina Kyle, they go to Europe, and use the money from her cat-burgaling to fund their new start (Which was also helped by Bruce giving Selina the 'Clean Slate Program').

Oh, check out that beautiful explosion! Don't look at anything else though.


Theory C- Alfred's Mad
So, Batman flies out over the sea, over 6 miles away from Gotham, and the nuclear bomb explodes, taking Batman with it. Bruce Wayne dies. He donates all his assets and gives some of them away to charity. Selina Kyle runs away, with a clean slate, with her blonde 'friend', and she also has her cat-suit, because the cat-suit must live on. The death of Bruce Wayne drives Alfred to insanity, as he feels that he has failed the Waynes, and he has lost a great friend. The final scenes in which he sees Bruce at a table with Selina are in fact just Alfred's delusions.


I think I should probably work on my drawing skills.

So, what do you think? Got your own theory? Let me know!

2 comments:

  1. it is absolutely unthinkable that Catwoman fled without her catsuit. The catsuit lives on ...

    You might want to look at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/faq#.2.1.61 to expand on your exploding building theory :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thankyou for that link, that's really helpful! I'll make some additions.

      And thanks for reading :)

      Delete