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THE DAWN IS COMING… A Look At The Unexplored Possibilities of Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY

By Stefan Blitz

With the release of this week’s The Dark Knight Trilogy – The Ultimate Collection, I took the opportunity to go back and reflect on roads not taken.

Batman Begins is purely set up.

There’s the introduction of many characters from the mythos, appearing in live action for the first time.  Among them are Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow), Ducard, Carmine Falcone, Ra’s Al Ghul, Lt. Flass, Lucius Fox, Commissioner Loeb, Joe Chill, The League of Shadows and Victor Zsaz.  The love interest, Rachel Dawes, a friend since Bruce’s childhood, is the major addition to the mythos.

Nolan has mentioned that his inspirations include the James Bond series and in many ways, Batman Begins emulates that with Gordon serving as his M and Lucius Fox’s character transforming from longtime business confidant in the comics, to mirror Bond’s Q; developing and modifying weapons, gadgets and vehicles as needed.

Honoring the same sense of verisimilitude that Richard Donner applied to his work in Superman: The Movie, Nolan’s Gotham and the world of Bruce Wayne are firmly planted in reality.

No resurrecting Lazarus Pits for Ra’s Al Ghul, rather in the words of Liam Neeson’s Ducard, “theatricality and deception are powerful agents.”

There are two appearances in the film from an unnamed young street kid played by Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones) that caused speculation that this was an Easter Egg for a future Robin.

This plot thread never came to fruition unless that boy’s name happened to be John Blake (more on that later).

The film ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, setting up both The Joker in the sequel, but also the concept of escalation, inferring that Batman’s very existence welcomes the concept of costumed criminal into Gotham.

In The Dark Knight, we see an evolution that opens up the series to much more speculation. 

An opening bank robbery establishes both the continued presence of organized crime and also introduced The Joker to the franchise.  Combining the multiple variant origins with a post modern punk aesthetic, this Joker is no character with skin and hair dyed from chemicals, but rather as one of his own thugs describes it, wears, “you know, war paint, to scare people.”

Original speculation predicted that the film would follow The Long Halloween graphic novel (in part thanks to an introduction from Christopher Nolan in a newer edition), but instead, The Dark Knight introduced more characters from the established mythos including Harvey Dent, Sal Maroni and Gordon’s children, Barbara and James Jr.

A throwaway line hinted at an abandoned concept when Fox provided Bruce with new armor following a dog attack.  Fox warns Bruce that the new, more flexible armor leaves Batman more vulnerable to knives.

Later in the film, during the Harvey Dent Fundraiser, The Joker reveals a blade in the toe of his shoe that he uses during his fight against Batman.

No injuries are caused by the knife, but shouldn’t they have?

Chekov’s quote, “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there” seems rather apropos.

Another speculative Easter Egg was the introduction of Coleman Reese, a Wayne Enterprises employee that discovers plans of the Batmobile and approaches Lucius Fox hoping to blackmail Wayne for ten million dollars a year to keep his identity secret. It’s Fox’s calling him “Mr. Reese” that hinted at the possible that the character’s name (which is pronounced as “mysteries”) was an indication that the character was in fact an interpretation of Edward Nigma aka E. Nigma (pronounced “enigma”) aka The Riddler.

The film’s conclusion features a face-off between the now-ruined Harvey Dent (Two Face) and his former allies Jim Gordon and Batman while holding Gordon’s family hostage.  The confrontation  ends with Dent falling to the ground, breaking his neck, and dying instantly.  Batman takes the fall for Dent’s crimes, rather than let Gotham’s “White Knight” reputation become tarnished.

Which leads to what could have been in the trilogy’s final installment, The Dark Knight Rises.

Seven years later, Bruce Wayne has become a hermit, living safely behind the walls of Wayne Manor.  We are introduced to Bane (marking the third time that that the film’s villain is revealed as a member of his own crew in the trilogy), a mercenary headed to Gotham.

Going into the film, publicity revealed that Bane was one of several characters being introduced into the film.

Others mentioned were Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Roland Daggett and the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate.

Based on the material presented, I never felt that Dent’s death was legitimate.

I honestly felt that Gordon and Batman covered up Dent’s actions and had him committed to Arkham in an effort to preserve his legacy.

My theory was what what would the citizens of Gotham think if a scarred and crazy Dent reappeared to terrorize the city?

Who would they trust and how would they react when Batman returned?

Bane, who from the beginning was rumored to be aligned with Ra’s Al Ghul and his League of Shadows made me wonder if, The Joker was also part of the plan; would letting a man who would plunge the city into chaos be a backup plan?

The casting of Gordon-Levitt also propelled my theory thanks to the similarity in looks to Ledger.

Although Nolan stated that The Joker would not appear in the third film, my theory was that we might see him (Gordon-Levitt?) in flashback, before his madness, perhaps providing an honest revelation where those facial scars came from.

Cotillard’s Miranda Tate was, in fact, Ra’s Ah Ghul’s daughter, Talia.  And she accomplished what was hinted at in The Dark Knight, stabbing Batman between the plates of his armor.  Utilizing elements from various storylines including No Man’s Land, Knightfall, and The Dark Knight Returns as well as an homage to the 1966 Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises completes Nolan’s vision with both a definite ending for Bruce Wayne as well as an ending opening the franchise to further speculation.

John Blake, who discovered Wayne’s dual identity and became an ally during the film is left a series of co-ordinates and supplies by the presumably deceased billionaire, finds himself led to the Batcave and pehaps his future destiny.

And now, with the announcement that Ben Affleck will don the batsuit, one that will exist only in the imagination of the fans.

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