WMG / The Dark Knight Rises

John Daggett: Oh clearly you don't know much of anything do you?

The Dark Knight Trilogy takes place in the Stargate universe

The President who gives the speech reassuring the citizens of Gotham that they are not alone is played by the same actor who plays President Hayes in Stargate SG-1. Since he's not named in the film, he could very well be President Hayes. It's probably not the case though; otherwise the movie would end abruptly with Bane and the bomb being beamed into the Daedalus' brig....

• It's all just a big coverup. Aliens were the ones holding Gotham hostage. Bane's mask covers up the truth.
• A casting case that might suggest a link: Christopher Judge, the actor who played Teal'c in the Stargate franchise, is the captain of the team of henchmen that captures Blake during his aborted attempt to rescue cops from underground.

That nuclear explosion at the end will lead to the rise of a new superhero

That superhero's name? AQUAMAN! What, you didn't think you could detonate a nuclear warhead in the ocean without any resultant consequences, did you? It's likely that the blast reached Atlantis, and at the very least, an Atlantean warrior will come to the surface world to investigate what happened. Take it from there. The sequel possibilities are endless.

• The teaser for Man of Steel that was attached to the Dark Knight? It opens up on the ocean, featuring a fishing boat...I HONESTLY thought it was for an Aquaman film at first!
  • Until I saw pieces that suggested Superman (before it actually showed him flying at supersonic speeds) I was just confused. Personally I don't think I could ever take an Aquaman movie seriously.

Batman/Bruce was being Incepted by the idea that he should move on. Or had his memories of Rachel's acceptance Extracted.

Alfred hired his secret son in law to do it before Mal died. Fischer is there because he either went crazy after being incepted and turned into the Scarecrow, changed his name because he didn't want to be associated with his father's company so he could truly become his own man (if it was after the inception and Talia was just looking like Mal to screw with the architect and was also a forger like Eames), or he is a disgraced twin brother.

• Extraction doesn't actually remove the information. It's the retrieval of information without the target realizing it's been accessed.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character is Nolan's way of completing his story while allowing for the character to continue specifically so he can be developed for a Justice League movie.

Gordon-Levitt has secretly signed on to appear in such a movie if it is ever made!

Bruce Wayne does really die at the end of the movie.

Notice how the scene where Alfred sees Bruce and Selina in the cafe is rather dreamlike, reminiscent of Cobb's vision of his kids in Inception? That's because it is a dream: it's just Alfred imagining the happy ending he had wished for Bruce that never came to be. As for the autopilot thing, all we know is that Bruce had updated The Bat with an autopilot program, but maybe it didn't work properly, or maybe Bruce didn't trust it enough to carry out such a crucial mission, so he chose to fly manually until the bomb exploded. Look at scene where Batman is flying above the sea: the time that elapses between the last shot of him in the cockpit and the bomb's explosion is way too short for him to have made it outside of the bomb's radius. And it's not like there's some missing time between those shots, during the finale the clock is ticking in real time. And the fixed Batsignal Commissioner Gordon finds? Before his death, Bruce simply fixed it himself, or arranged someone else to do it, trusting that Blake would take up the mantle of Batman after him.

• Now that you mention it, it does seem kind of suspicious that Bruce and Selina knew exactly which cafe to go to, and that they knew exactly what time to be there to see Alfred. When Alfred first told Bruce about his recurring dream, he never actually told him which cafe in Florence that he vacationed at. Even for someone like Bruce Wayne, "a cafe in Florence" probably isn't enough information to pinpoint an exact location.
  • Not only that but they had no idea when exactly Alfred was gonna visit Florence, or if he was gonna visit Florence at all; maybe he was so grief-stricken by Bruce's death that he didn't want to visit Florence or the cafe anymore? Did Bruce and Selina hire a private detective to follow Alfred every day, so that they would know if and when he buys tickets to Florence? Did they move to Florence and sit in that cafe every day, so that they would be there when Alfred eventually visits it? (But what if he never comes?) Both options sound quite unlikely. The only way they could make sure he comes to Florence and to the cafe is to send Alfred an anonymous invitation to come visit the place, but in that case Alfred would've guessed the letter is from Bruce, and he wouldn't have looked as surprised as he did when he saw Bruce and Selina. Plus the whole trip would've been unnecessary, because the letter alone would've told Alfred that Bruce is alive. So it makes much more sense that the scene in the cafe wasn't real. Maybe Alfred did actually visit the cafe, but Bruce and Selina being there was merely a bittersweet product of his imagination.
    • Unless Alfred went to the cafe just to sit there, the record of his purchases of food and drink would probably be on his credit account. Between the two of them, he and Selina could surely hack that information, even without whatever special file-cracking app they could reverse-engineer from Clean Slate.
  • Umm or its a coincidence.
    • Detectives aren't allowed to believe in coincidence.
  • C'mon people, it's BATMAN. With enough prep time, he could have searched all the cafes in Florence to know which one Alfred was talking about. In fact, it's far-fetched to think he DIDN'T.
  • There's actually a few ways they could've done it.
    • Bruce might've asked Alfred the name of the cafe off-screen, just out of curiosity. Or Alfred has mentioned his favorite cafe in Florence before, but just never in that context, so Bruce always knew.
    • Or, Bruce managed to narrow down his search by Alfred's preference and then asked around if a nice British gentleman ever came around each year and ordered the same drink. Once he knew the cafe, he and Selina might've gone there each day for lunch, just for the chance of meeting Alfred. Which would explain why Selina looked so bored in that final scene. Bruce has been dragging her there everyday! Yawn.
    • Or, they always kept tabs on Alfred and knew when he was taking his vacation, and followed him the moment he got off the plane at Florence so they could stage a meeting.
    • Alfred, being an ex-soldier and butler, will also most likely have a routine, which can be pieced together. Assuming he takes his holiday around about the same time every year, this narrows down the timeframe you have to be in Florence for. He'll most likely stay in the same hotels, go to the same places, etc — people will recognise and remember him. He also says that the cafe is 'on the banks of the Arno', which narrows it down a bit; find out which cafes sit by the river, go in them, ask about an Englishman who comes in around about the same time every year and order the same drink every time. If he goes there regularly, people will remember him or he'll leave a trail that can be followed. In short, it might take some time, but it's doable.
  • Unlikely, since Alfred wouldn't have dreamed Bruce with Selena, who he knew only as a thief. He would've pictured Bruce with Miranda, who he knew only as a lovely woman he tried to set Bruce up with.
    • Commissioner Gordon, who witnessed Talia gloating in her final moments about how she overwrote the reactor so the bomb would go off and said that her father's work was done, was there at Bruce's funeral; most likely he told Alfred the truth about Miranda. (Even if he didn't, the truth about her had probably become public knowledge anyway, because what reason would Gordon have to keep it a secret?) Gordon probably also told Alfred the story of how Selina courageously helped Batman to save Gotham. Hence Alfred's image of Selina was changed, and he imagined Bruce with her, since he knew Bruce was attracted to her.
    • Selena may have actually been at the cafe and he only imagined Bruce with her.
    • I can't see Alfred imagining Bruce and Selina together, since, even if Gordon told him about her, personally he still doesn't know enough to think that Bruce would make a life with her.
    • It was always Alfred's dream that he would see Bruce in that cafe with a woman he loves. Since Selina was the only person who could possibly fill that role at that point (Rachel and Miranda having died), that's who Alfred saw. It's a dream image, it doesn't have to be completely coherent with what Alfred thought of Bruce's and Selina's relationship prospects. Since Rachel, Miranda, and Selina seemed to have been pretty much the only proper love interests Bruce had since he returned to Gotham, the only alternative to imagining Bruce with Selina was to imagine him sitting alone in that cafe. And that's something Alfred didn't want to see, because that would mean Bruce still hadn't settled down and still hadn't given up Batman, and would probably return to donning the cape.
    • And besides, Alfred suggests that Bruce hook with Selina the moment he sees her picture. He just wanted to see Bruce stop being a shut-in and date somebody, and he wasn't picky about who.

The scene where Lucius Fox discovers the autopilot on the Bat is also false. Specifically, it is Alfred's rationalization of how Bruce could have survived.

• Reason One: Either the Bat survived a point-blank, city destroying nuclear explosion, or there was a second Bat. This second Bat was never mentioned before. It would have been stored with the other bat-equipment in Fox's cache, but wasn't stolen like the other bat-stuff. Apparently the League of Shadows couldn't see any use for a flying death machine. Finally, since it was in Lucius's cache and Lucius had no idea that Batman had patched it, Batman would have had to secretly break in to Lucius's vault in order to reprogram the second Bat. There would have been absolutely no reason for Batman to do this. Imagine if, in the big climax, the Bat had suddenly flown into a building because Bruce didn't ask the genius inventor to double-check his work.
• Reason Two: Lucius Fox couldn't make a working autopilot for the Bat. The technological genius, the guy who Batman consults on all his computer and gadgetry needs, couldn't do it, but Batman did. Bruce has never previously shown any programming experience. Did Bruce take programming classes while wandering the world, or did the League of Shadows train him in theatricality, deception, and HTML? If he's really a better programmer than Lucius Fox, a skill never shown mentioned before, why does he need to consult Fox?
  • Uh, Lucius pretty much states outright that he hasn't created a working autopilot for the Bat because he doesn't have time, not because it's impossible, which is why he suggests Bruce, who at that point had nothing but time, do it. The fact that he makes the suggestion (mostly) seriously should indicate he thinks Bruce has the actual capacity.

Thematically, Batman has to be dead. One of the big themes of the movie was that the Dent Act was a mistake. It was built on selling people a lie about a dead hero. You can't just replace that with another lie about a dead hero - that invalidates the entire point.

• I'm not sure I'd agree with this, at least not entirely. The lie about Harvey Dent was harmful not just because it was a lie about a dead hero, but because it was a lie that called a man who ultimately didn't deserve it a hero and raised him up as a symbol of good and hope when he was ultimately no such thing; Dent failed as a symbol because he was ultimately just a man, and a broken, ruined, corrupted man at that (just as the first movie said could happen). The Dent Act was a mistake not just because of the lie, but because the lie was based on a rotten foundation to begin with. But Batman was always intended to be and ultimately became ‘more than just a man’, something bigger and better than just a man ever could be. To say that Batman "has to be dead" is ultimately to say that Batman is ultimately just a man, is ultimately just Bruce Wayne, when all three movies clearly stress the opposite; the symbol is more than just the man playing it. Ultimately, Batman doesn't need Bruce Wayne, alive or dead, because Batman is more than Bruce Wayne ever could be. So while Batman can survive Bruce Wayne's death, on the flip side, Bruce Wayne can walk away from Batman to live a happy life with the woman he loves and never look back because either way Batman doesn't need Bruce Wayne, alive or dead. Put simply, regardless of how many nuclear devices blow up over the seas outside Gotham the idea of Batman will ultimately never die, so the man calling himself Batman doesn't need to die.
  This, of course, doesn't necessarily invalidate the WMG above — Bruce Wayne could just as easily be dead — but the movies also state that good people deserve to have their faith rewarded; Alfred is a good man, and he deserves to have his faith that Bruce Wayne is able to move on with his life and find happiness rewarded. So this troper finds it more fitting and will personally continue to take the more optimistic interpretation that Bruce Wayne survived.

  • Or, a certain reporter in metropolis was alerted and saved Batman.

Alternately, The Bat was actually his TARDIS, and Batman is a Time Lord.

• This theory only exists to explain how Batman is STILL ALIVE AFTER A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION! He must have gotten it working, and teleported just before the explosion.
  • Also, wouldn't it be awesome if Batman was a time lord?

Bane is really Bronson

After causing so much trouble in the UK's prison system, Bronson was dumped in the pit at Pene Dura.Bronson's only weakness was being extremely protective of children, and thusly became Talia's protector.After he was rescued by the League of Shadows, he joined them briefly but was thrown out due to lack of ambition.

• ...Mr. Bronson?

Bane was raped

Think about it. The last thing Talia saw of Bane before she escaped was a legion of angry, probably horny prison inmates piling on top of him. If this is the case, it could explain why he is in constant pain, as his anus has been completely and utterly WRECKED.

• You've seen what he wears on his face, YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW what he wears on his butt.
• First of all, dude, not funny. Second of all, yeah, probably. Whether or not Bane was literally born in the Pit, he's been there since he was a kid (or at least a young teenager). He knows firsthand what a bunch of violent, unrestrained criminals will try to do to someone much smaller and more vulnerable than they are, and it's highly implied that Talia's mother was gang-raped to death. Even if he wasn't assaulted when the mob sweeps over him for helping Talia escape, that's not unthinkable as part of his personal history, and it was probably part of why he protected kid Talia so fiercely. He probably helped shave her head and helped clothe her to hide her gender.

The only reason Crane is running the Kangaroo Court is...

...because he's the only person in the Nolan Batman universe with a Ph.D, and lorded it over all the other criminals until Bane caved and gave him the job to shut him up.

• Or because every villain with a living actor got a cameo.
  • Except for most of them (like Maroni, Falcone, Zsasz, Two-Face unless you count archive footage, and all the other minor criminals)
• Crane got to run the Kangaroo Court because he was a former League of Shadows conspirator.

The last name Bruce and Selena selected as their new identity is "Bertinelli"

Naturally, their first and only child, a daughter, will be named Helena and will take up the family business as The Huntress after they die in an unfortunate accident, probably having an apprenticeship as sidekick to Robin Blake's Batman first.

The last name Bruce and Selena selected as their new identity is "McGinnis"

And they have twins; a son named Terry and a daughter named Helena who marries into the Bertinelli family only to her husband and kids murdered in front of her via car bomb. This starts her path to becoming Huntress. Meanwhile, Terry becomes Batman after Blake retires from being Batman so he can serve the "Old Man Bruce" role.

Whether he realizes it or not, Bruce is only taking an extended break; at some point he will return to Gotham as Batman, this time with Selina by his side

We all know that Bruce is way too obsessed to ever really give up on being Batman. Even though he knows the city is in good hands, it's inevitable that at some point he'll feel the need to intervene again; possibly if and when the Joker escapes (Heath Ledger is deceased, RIP, but as far as we know the Joker is still alive in the Nolan-verse), Bruce will decide that he can't justify letting Robin face him alone, and he and Selina will return to Gotham, rested and refreshed, and ready to fight evil once more.

• Possibly, though the point about The Joker has been Jossed. Word of God is that he was put on trial and quietly executed after The Dark Knight.
  • No, it hasn't. The novelization of Rises even states that the Joker is still alive and is currently the sole patient at Arkham, with no one else being allowed to plead insanity under the Dent Act, and even opens the door for the possibility that he's escaped.
    • That's just the story the novelization goes by. Without it, one could assume the Joker may have been shot in the head by that SWAT officer.

Bruce and Selina kept in touch with Alfred after the movie.

We see Alfred start to get up in the final scene. Despite the whole plan of "I wouldn't say a word to you, nor you to me," he was too emotionally moved to not say anything, so he went over and there was much hugging and rejoicing. The happy couple then continues to meet with him at the cafe on his annual holiday, exchanging Christmas cards and photos of their children. *Happy sigh*

• Agreed. Not only that, but if and when Bruce and Selina have children (Huntress?), we all know that there is only one man that Bruce would entrust to take care of his child while he and Selina are busy.

The next chapter is Batman Beyond

• Wayne's leg-brace is a clear precursor to a powered exoskeleton, which Blake will use to compensate for his lack of martial prowess; and the Nolan-verse seems to have tech rivaling Beyond's already.
• As for what he'll call himself; assuming the name Batman would bring the criminal underworld out against him and null the heroic sacrifice, and he definitely won't go by Robin (it's his friggin' name), so he'll adopt the Nightwing persona.
• Working title: Beyond Batman
  • Alternately: The Dark Knight Beyond
• And one of the orphans staying at Wayne Manor is named Terry McGinnis
• Clint Eastwood as older Bruce. Not sure who would play Terry McGinnis though.
  • Alternately, Clint Eastwood will play an older Blake, who will be an Expy for the older Bruce Wayne. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Terry McGinnis, a reference to the fact that in Batman Beyond Terry is Bruce Wayne's biological son.
    • Or given the upcoming movie Premium Rush, maybe Bruce Willis will be the one who plays an older version of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Robin.

Bane killed The Joker

An in-universe explanation to where the Joker was during the events of The Dark Knight Rises. As mentioned in the novelization, the Joker was left as Arkham Asylum's sole inmate due his insanity. Well, during the League of Shadow's takeover of Gotham City, it happens that Bane comes to believe that the Joker may present a problem to them if he gets free, so he quietly goes to Arkham and kills him as while the Joker wanted anarchy in Gotham, the League wants to destroy it.

• Alternatively, perhaps the Joker was tried by the Scarecrow and killed or sentenced to exile, but either way ends up with death. As such, so long Joker.

Robin John Blake will go by the hero name Robin

Using the same reasoning as a WMG about Artemis Crock says you wouldn't think to look for someone who actually shares the name Hidden in Plain Sight

• Considering the fact that he is embarrassed by the name Robin, he would probably take the name Nightwing.
  • Or Knightwing

John Blake will become a Canon Immigrant

Bane was not just her Dragon

Given their relationship it's not hard to believe they would consider each other equal partners rather than a master and an underling. It's just that one's contribution to the scheme was visible, the other's hidden. He was the theatricality, she was the deception, as some wise person said. OR he could even have similar dynamic with her as Joker had with Maroni in the previous one; one as the active mastermind and other provided resources. What leads one to believe this is the fact that Bane's motivations and values were dominating in the Evil Plan - It wasn't just the old "purge the society of corruption and rebuild", it was Bane's twisted power fantasy version of it, leading to even worse society and ultimately just total pointless destruction.

• Besides, the last villain dealt with is not necessarily the main villain, as was the case with the previous film too.
• The point of the destruction Bane caused was to demonstrate to Bruce just how fragile the victory he won in The Dark Knight really was; getting rid of the mob was meaningless. The corruption was in the city's bones, just below the surface, ready to rise again. That the morality he inspired in the city was a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble.
  • Still, he drew out the Evil Plan needlessly with his way of "torturing an entire city" for months, and apparently intended to blow up along with the rest of Gotham, so screw Ra's al Ghul's vision. The point is, it was Bane's agenda that dominated.

The Vampire Diaries Katherine Pierce is an ancestor of Selina Kyle.

They both like to dress dark and seductive. They are both better people than they seem, but have to look out for themselves.

Bane is the real mastermind of it all, and manipulated Talia to get the support of the League of Shadows.

This guess provides a possible solution the Fridge Logic of Talia wanting to continue her father's work even though she stated she hated him.

The idea is that because Bane is established as a dangerously intelligent man, it's not too implausible to suggest that when he was "protecting" her in the Pit, he also began to brainwash her. The prisoners attack him because they realize the monster his brainwashing created. Talia is now a sort of fanatic devotee to him, which is why she comes back. After Bane got expelled from the League, he used Talia to gain the League's support again and as a mole. The revelation that she was a sort of Woman Behind the Man to Bane is either part of the trick or a clever bit of improvisation/lying to throw Batman off.

• Before Selina Kyle comes to the rescue, they have Batman at their mercy and are about to kill him. Why would they lie to him when he would be soon dead anyway?
  • OP here. Bane could have been willing to let Talia think she was in charge, or at least an equal partner. After all, he made Daggett think that. So, Talia wasn't lying, exactly, because she didn't know the truth herself. Bane was the only one who knew the truth, and rather than lose Talia's and the League's support he rolled with it, as there wasn't much of a drawback.
• But if Bane was calling the shots, then he'd have no particular motive for completing Ra's work or destroying Bruce in the first place. Batman hadn't done anything to Bane except eliminate his predecessor in the League, whom he had no familial onus to avenge and several reasons to resent. Granted, he might've wanted to test his own strength and cunning against an opponent like Batman, but that's hardly something he'd have been willing to die for.
• It's clear that Bane is calling the shots in a lot of his scenes. The entire abduction of Dr. Pavel is clearly done by Bane and his men without Talia having anything to do with that. The robbery at the Stock Exchange was orchestrated, planned, and executed by Bane, and he made it look like he was doing it for Daggett.

Robin John Blake name was originally Richard John Grayson but he changed his name after his parents died

• It's so awesome that it's true.
  • He choose Robin as his first name because of a childhood nickname his parents created and Blake because he was adopted by the Blake's at on point in his life and his parents may or may not have been apart of the Hayley's circus in the Nolanverse.

In light of what happened, the Dent Act still stands.

• Even though it was found on a lie, it no longer matters now that Gotham is saved.

The Clean Slate program truly didn't exist... until Bruce made it.

• Note that Bane was the one who originally offered it to Selina as a means of false hope, since Daggett taunted her for thinking that it was real.

However, the description is essentially a search engine, which can burrow through state and federal databases without authorization, combined with a delete button, that has enough power to destroy a lot of data across multiple websites in one shot. Both delete buttons and search engines exist, simply not on such a large scale. The only prototype was completely unusable and shelved somewhere as a failure, like most of Batman's things.

Since Bruce needed a way to persuade Selina onto his side, actually creating the Clean Slate saved some thinking time for persuasion, and also established him as being more credible than Bane.

The pit is an actual Lazarus Pit, not just metaphorically speaking.

• Ra's Al Ghul is still alive. He was down there with Bruce all the time, fascinated to see if he could break his daughter's Evil Plan. In the end, he recovers Talia's body and resurrects her and, who knows, maybe hooks her up with Bruce Wayne, his faith in his old pupil restored. I not only like to think that this is so, but i think it actually makes sense. The League of Shadows can't be dead just yet.
  • Oh, and maybe Ra's will resurrect Bane too.

Selena Kyle is bisexual

She and Jen were a little more than just roommates, but something happened to Jen in the chaotic intervening months giving Selena time to get over the loss of Jen and thus become interested in Bruce.

• We do see what happens to Jen — they grow apart ideologically, as shown in the "this used to be somebody's house"/"now it's everybody's house" scene. Jen even reaches out to touch her and Selina shrugs it off.

---

Selena Kyle's roommate's real name is Pamela Isley

And she will become Poison Ivy.

The events of this film were secretly orchestrated by the Joker himself

• After his arrest in The Dark Knight, the US government wanted nothing more than to execute the Joker. Unfortunately, due to his skill at manipulation, he made a mockery of the legal system while simultaneously having many people the world over in an uproar over America trying to get someone so obviously mentally ill executed. Finally Uncle Sam simply decided to just throw the Joker in the deepest, darkest hole they could find. One that made Guantanamo look like Disneyland. Since there were a few League of Shadows members in high places in the government, it quickly became obvious where to put him. The famously cruel Peña Duro; that would show that stupid clown! After murdering several (dozen) other prisoners, all the while thinking the 'hope' the pit offered was hilarious, the Joker came to the attention of the prison's current master, Bane. Bane and Talia remembered reading all about this clown, and the horror he put Batman through, and had to meet him. In the prison, even they were not immune to the Joker's mind games; and he slyly manipulated them into coming up with "their" plan to attack Gotham (telling Talia about the virtues of a 'slow knife,' for example). He offered them lots of ideas - free of charge - on the condition that neither Bane or Talia ever mention him to anyone. Finally the Joker talked them into letting him go free, satisfied Gotham was doomed. He wandered deep into the Middle East and no one knows where he is now.◊

The Clean Slate was supposed to be used for espionage.

There were two functions of the Clean Slate. The first use on a name would delete all prior records. The second use would restore the records. They succeeded at making a person disappear. But as in The Prestige, the hard part was figuring out how to bring the vanished person back. Thus, the half-operational program was unsuitable for government use. Also, once the criminal underworld got word of it, they had extra incentive to destroy it, or pretend it was destroyed.

The Bat was designed to airlift the Tumbler, and conversely it could be deployed by it.

When Bane is knitting at the "sentencing" tribunal...

He's just making Talia a scarf. When we first see kid!Talia out in the open for the first time, she's wearing a blue headscarf/cowl like the other prisoners, but hers appears to be knitted rather than woven. Bane's been taking care of her for an unspecified period of time before this; it's not unthinkable that he could get the supplies for a fairly basic handicraft. His sewer lair also appears to feature a blue knitted blanket.

Selena Kyle's roommate's name is really Harley Quinn.

She definitely seems to fangirl Catwoman. And she's in love with Bane's chaos.

Bane has a physical injury affecting his ability to speak.

Hardly a wild mass guess, but while Bane's resistance to raising his voice makes him seem weirdly affable, it'd actually be very reasonable and justified, no matter his temperament if any of the injuries sustained in the backstory riot resulted in physical damage to the structures of the throat and jaw that control speech. It's not that Evil Sounds Deep, it's that evil sounds hoarse and a little garbled. The times where he does appear to raise his voice (during his speech at the stadium and when he reads the letter about Dent and delivers his manifesto) his voice sounds strained and hoarse, and his face (or what's visible of it) starts to really redden and get veiny. There's probably a microphone built into the mask to start with, as implied throughout the film, but even with the additional help of another microphone as in the stadium scene, it's still difficult and probably painful for him to strain his voice too much.

Bruce Wayne's fake "death" will not last very long at all

There are still people refusing to accept the deaths of Elvis, Jim Morrison, Tupac, and others; there's no way they will accept the death of Batman. It's only a matter of time before people connect Bruce Wayne (the other celebrity that died that day without a body) and Batman, and the sightings of Bruce pile up. Realizing that trying to hide himself (since he is technically two of the most famous people in recent history) is implausible, he'll either go into hiding in a (bat?) cave somewhere or just give up and admit everything.

• But as far as people know, Bruce Wayne disappeared months earlier, during Bane's initial attack.
  • That really only lends credence to the theory, since that was when Batman originally disappeared also. And when Bruce returned to the city at the film's climax, he spent some time out of costume, during which he could have been sighted as Bruce.

Robin John Blake will not become the new Batman... or Robin, or Nightwing

He will undergo a series of surgeries and eventually become Batgirl. That, or tumble into some chemicals left in the Batcave and become the Creeper.

• Or he could become Azrael by being a Batman that uses deadly force and considering that Bane breaking Batman was what made Azazel become Batman sooner than he expected. So a reversal of Azazel becoming Batman doesn't seem to far-fetched.

Having his plane crashed 'with no survivors' was all part of Littlefinger's plan

And Bane played right into his hands, though we have yet to see what the endgame is.

Selina Kyle was cooperating with the police even before meeting with Stryver

Watch the meeting with Stryver at the bar. Notice that Selina hands Stryver her cell phone and tells him to hit the send button. Jen comes in, exchanges a few words with Selina, then leaves. Selina reveals that her "date" is actually the Congressman and subtly slips to Stryver that he used the guy's cell phone when he prepares to shoot her. Immediately, a SWAT team arrives as Selina fights with the thugs. She shoots two of them, and then the SWA Ts breach the place.

Since it's very unlikely that a full SWAT team already suited up in full gear would be ready to descend on such short notice (as under normal circumstances, in a large city, SWAT officers would be scattered wide across the city doing regular patrol duties while carrying their special gear in the trunks of their cars), it seems possible that Selina had told the police that someone would attempt to kill her. That the police were treating it like a sting operation would account for why Gordon and Foley, a police commissioner and a deputy commissioner, would be rolling on what would otherwise be a regular emergency call.

• The police are actively looking for the congressman, they know he is missing, and they fear a hostage situation. That SWAT team was likely on standby already to be ready and capable of rescuing the congressman as soon as they located him, which they did. If I remember right, Gordon ordered every cop in the city out looking for him.

  • Not every cop. Remember that they still had to have a good portion of the force assigned to respond to regular 911 calls or perform street patrols, to whom the congressman would be second priority.

  • Still, given that there's about two minutes between when Selina tricks Stryver into making the phone call and when the SWAT team arrives at the door, it seems as if the SWAT team had to have been no more than two to three blocks away from the bar at most. There are two possibilities from here on out:
    • A) If the bar happens to be in a high-crime area like the Southwest Side of Chicago, and certain neighborhoods of St. Louis and Cleveland, the police respond so quickly because they perform saturation patrols.
    • B) Before entering the bar, Selina Kyle uses the cell phone herself nearby to call the police so that they'll be brought to the area, but moves before they arrive so they're busy left wondering where in the nearby several blocks the Congressman is. When the phone pings a second time in the bar, they immediately home in on it because they're already doing a close search of the area, so the SWAT team immediately is sent to storm the place.

Bane killed a real motorcycle courier to get the outfit he wears for the stock exchange heist

Very unlikely that Bane would have an Unlimited Wardrobe on hand in his lair, so it's possible he killed people to get stuff he needed. This would explain where he gets his motorcycle uniform, his helmet, and possibly even bikes and helmets for his accomplices in the robbery.

Bane may have survived being blasted with the Batpod cannons

This was brought up on the IMDB FAQ. Some viewers speculate that since Bane is wearing his flak jacket when Selina blasts him with the Batpod's cannons, there's a chance he may have lived.

• At the same time, however, it should be noted that even if the round didn't pierce his armor, the impact trauma alone would have likely been enough to pulverize his insides and stop his heart. And given that this is the end of the trilogy, it's generally suggested Bane dies.

The Joker invented the Clean Slate

With all his other bits of technical genius, his Keyser Soze-esque masterstroke was inventing an algorithm which would completely erase his identity, making him the ultimate chaotic master criminal with no records of his existence and thus no way of properly pinning any crime on him. After he used it, he destroyed it but kept records in case he ever needed something valuable to offer as a bribe. This is how Selina and Daggett heard of it

Bane's line on the plane - "No one cared who I was 'til I put on the mask" - foreshadows how his attack on Gotham works

After the plane hijacking, Bane and his men set up in the sewers below Gotham. No one knows of his existence, except for Gordon (who only accidentally discovers the lair due to the shootout that Selina Kyle instigates). I think no one in the Gotham public even knows that Bane exists until he and his men attack the Stock Exchange. After the Stock Exchange heist, Bane gets away and is not seen by anyone in the general public again until the football stadium attack, his second public appearance, where he quickly sets himself up as the warlord who just appeared out of nowhere.

This makes "No one cared who I was 'til I put on the mask" a case of foreshadowing.

Bruce Wayne will become Batman again after...

The Penguin becomes the mayor of Gotham and turns it back into a crime ridden city.

Wayne Enterprises creates a product that messes with DNA and creates Man-Bat, Killer Croc, Posion Ivy, and/or Clayface.

Catwoman steals from Black Mask who then goes after her for revenge.

Lady Shiva regroups the League of Shadows and continues the assault on the Bat Family.

The Joker is He Who Must Not Be Named

That's the in universe reason why no one ever mentions him.

• And James Gordon is Sirius Black. Why so Sirius?

The Joker has been bronzed

and is now residing in Warehouse 13.

Bane survived the shot and is made the second inmate of Arkham

After being put in a cell quite near to Joker, and after a good minute of awkward silence, Bane's first question is "What's the food like?"

• Jossed. For all it's worth, gas mask or not, you can't survive being thrown backwards after being shot at point blank range with a motorcycle-mounted cannon that is designed to destroy cars and concrete walls.

Zsasz is still at large.

He escaped from Arkham in Batman Begins. Promotional material for The Dark Knight said that he was still at large, and we never see Batman meet him again in that movie, at the end of which he apparently retires. Zsasz does not appear in The Dark Knight Rises. He probably left Gotham to add more scars...

Like her father, "Talia al Ghul" is just an alias name, and Miranda Tate is in fact her real name

It was suggested on the WMG page for The Dark Knight Trilogy that "Ra's Al Ghul" is simply a title inherited by whoever is the leader of the League Of Shadows, and thus, Liam Neeson's character's birth name was Henri Ducard all along. If this is the case, then 'Talia al Ghul' could be just an alias for Marion Cotillard's character in The Dark Knight Rises, and her birth name hence was Miranda Ducard, until she either changed her name or married someone with the surname 'Tate', and moved to the United States sometime around the time Batman Begins happened. There's no evidence to confirm this, but it seems plausible.

Batman did not eject from the Bat before the bomb detonated

.The "software patch" did not actually work (Bruce isn't a coder, after all). It was just put in as a message to Lucius. Bruce did indeed survive (thus the scene in Italy at the end is real), he was able to withstand the blast because he is the Goddamn Batman.

Talia's goal was to destroy the League of Shadows.

She would have no particular reason to admire the organization, or its leader, even if he was her father. All he did was abandon her and her mother in "the worst place on earth", and then try to separate her from the man she loved. So she decided to get back at him after his death by destroying the organization he spent his life serving. She and Bane had 8+ years to systematically run the League into the ground, changing it from an Ancient Conspiracy that subtly influenced history without the public's knowledge (Black Plague, Fire of London, etc.) to a publicly-known terrorist group being hunted by the CIA. Then they gathered all the League's remaining members in one city and tried to blow them up.

The Dark Knight Trilogy takes place in the Person Of Interest universe

The third board member who turns on the fusion device is played by the same actor who played John Greer from Person of Interest. In the first movie we are told that the League of Shadow's has infiltrated all levels of society, so it's entirely likely they've recruited a member of the Wayne Enterprises board who also believes in the decline of Western Civilization and the need to begin anew. After the Gotham plan failed, the League decided to invest their hopes in Samaritan instead. This is why we never find out who Decima Technologies are in the POI universe, as they're just another front of the League of Shadows.

John Blake becomes a vigilante crimefighter, and eventually meets someone he thought he'd lost forever: his older brother Thomas...

...Who's spent time in Africa and was inspired by Selina to go into business for himself as Catman.

John Blake is or was originally intended to be, the Nolan-Verse Tim Drake

Think about it, he's a detective who comes into Bruce's life after a tragedy (A Death in the Family in the comics, Racheal's death here). Finds out who he is all on his own with nothing but his detective skills. And after Bruce's supposed "death" prepares to take over the mantel of Batman. Of course Tim in the comics was just a boy when he was introduced so he became the third Robin instead but still. Their last names are also similar, though that could just be a coincidence. The reason he wasn't explicitly named Tim Drake in the movie? They were planning for a big surprise but DC/WB veto'ed it hence the whole "Robin won't appear in the Dark Knight Trilogy." He was supposed to, but DC or WB said no.