Christian Bale's Batman delivered on the title of The Dark Knight Rises, bouncing back from having his back broken by Bane (Tom Hardy) and dominating his rematch against him. The Dark Knight Rises wraps up Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy with the fiercest apprentice from the League of Shadows - the masked mastermind who attacks the city when its righteous defender is nowhere to be found. Although reluctant to return after the deaths of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Bruce Wayne dons the cape and cowl once again to put a stop to Bane's revolution. He suffers his worst physical and psychological defeat, but this same failure is what ultimately leads him to victory.
Bruce Wayne is driven both by fear and a strong sense of justice due to his childhood trauma of bats and the murder of his parents. This motivates him to train with Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson) in the League of Shadows, but it also helps him decide not to follow their plan to destroy Gotham and instead become the lonesome vigilante, Batman - a hero who harnesses his own fears to apprehend Gotham's most wicked criminals and instill integrity into the corrupt city. In contrast, Bane is born and raised in the most ruthless prison on Earth, where he learns to deal with fear, pain, and despair on a daily basis to survive. Yearning to carry out his own idea of justice, he trains his body and his mind to their limit and devises a plan to unleash anarchy and obliterate Gotham.
Batman's first encounter with Bane ends in a brutal beatdown. None of his gadgets have any effect on the villain, as the latter knows how they work, and the darkness in which the hero thrives only signifies an advantage to Bane. Bane towers over him and seems unfettered by his strikes before finally crushing Batman's back and sending him to the prison where he suffered throughout his childhood. However, Bruce Wayne recovers from his injuries in The Pit and succeeds in embracing his fear to climb his way out of it. He then travels to Gotham and incapacitates Bane in hand-to-hand combat. It seems illogical for a recently wounded Batman to achieve this feat, but that's because his victory is not a result of raw strength; it's his will to feel fear that forces him to put it all on the line and deliver strategic impacts on the villain.
One of The Dark Knight best left behind. So when a major threat appears, no amount of armor or physical training could replace Batman's will to fight. Besides, Alfred (Sir Michael Caine) resigns prior to the battle, and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) lures Batman into Bane's preferred arena - a couple of blows that add to the Dark Knight's commotion. But the same fear that he feels when he makes the final jump on his way to the top of The Pit without a rope to protect him is the feeling that drives him to focus on dodging Bane's punches and breaking his indispensable mask. He knows everything is at stake in his last chance to claim Gotham back, and with just a few hits, Batman's wisdom triumphs over Bane's strength.
Batman's internal struggle to put the fate of Gotham on his shoulders once again is part of what makes The Dark Knight Rises a first-class conclusion to Christopher Nolan's trilogy. Bruce Wayne has to rediscover himself to beat a villain who challenges his reliable methods and destroys his body, proving that the main theme of "rising" sung in the Dark Knight Rises chant is the key to the culmination of his cinematic journey.
