- Jim Gordon: I never cared who you were...
- Batman: And you were right.
- Jim Gordon: ...but shouldn't the people know the hero whot saved them?
- Batman: A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended.
- [takes off in the Bat]
- Jim Gordon: Bruce Wayne?
- Alfred: I'll get this to Mr. Fox, but no more. I've sewn you up, I've set your bones, but I won't bury you. I've buried enough members of the Wayne family.
- Bruce Wayne: You'll leave me?
- Alfred: You see only one end to your journey. Leaving is all I have to make you understand, you're not Batman anymore. You have to find another way. You used to talk about finishing a life beyond that awful cape.
- Bruce Wayne: Rachel died believing that we would be together; that was my life beyond the cape. I can't just move on. She didn't, she couldn't.
- Alfred: What if she had? What if, before she died, she wrote a letter saying she chose Harvey Dent over you? And what if, to spare your pain, I burnt that letter?
- Bruce Wayne: How dare you use Rachel to try to stop me?
- Alfred: I am using the truth, Master Wayne. Maybe it's time we all stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day. I'm sorry.
- Bruce Wayne: You're sorry? You expect to destroy my world and then think we're going to shake hands?
- Alfred: No... no, I know what this means.
- Bruce Wayne: What does it mean?
- Alfred: It means your hatred... and it also means losing someone that I have cared for since I first heard his cries echo through this house. But it might also mean saving your life. And that is more important.
- Bruce Wayne: Goodbye, Alfred.
- Blind Prisoner: You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.
- Bruce Wayne: Why?
- Blind Prisoner: How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death.
- Bruce Wayne: I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there's no one there to save it.
- Blind Prisoner: Then make the climb.
- Bruce Wayne: How?
- Blind Prisoner: As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.
- Bruce Wayne: Why didn't you just... kill me?
- Bane: You don't fear death... You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe.
- Bruce Wayne: Torture?
- Bane: Yes. But not of your body... Of your soul.
- Bruce Wayne: Where am I?
- Bane: Home, where I learned the truth about despair, as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth... Hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy... So simple... And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to "stay in the sun." You can watch me torture an entire city and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny... We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die
- Jim Gordon: [reading from the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens] I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.
- Alfred: [to Bruce] Remember when you left Gotham? Before all this, before Batman? You were gone seven years. Seven years I waited, hoping that you wouldn't come back. Every year, I took a holiday. I went to Florence, there's this cafe, on the banks of the Arno. Every fine evening, I'd sit there and order a Fernet Branca. I had this fantasy, that I would look across the tables and I'd see you there, with a wife and maybe a couple of kids. You wouldn't say anything to me, nor me to you. But we'd both know that you'd made it, that you were happy. I never wanted you to come back to Gotham. I always knew there was nothing here for you, except pain and tragedy. And I wanted something more for you than that. I still do.
- Bane: Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated... but we are initiated, aren't we Bruce? Members of the League of Shadows!
- [Lifts Batman by the neck]
- Bane: And you betrayed us!
- Batman: You were excommunicated... by a gang of psychopaths!
- [Bane viciously beats Batman and throws him to the ground]
- Bane: I AM the League of Shadows, and I'm here to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny!
- Bane: You fight like a younger man, with nothing held back. Admirable but mistaken.
- [Batman uses an EMP device to cut the lights]
- Bane: Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING!
- [grabs Batman from the shadows and continues to beat him]
- Bane: The shadows betray you, because they belong to me!
- [repeatedly punches Batman in the face, breaking his cowl]
- Bane: I will show you where I have made my home while preparing to bring justice. Then I will break you.
- [hits detonator, blowing a hole into the bottom of Wayne Enterprise]
- Bane: Your precious armory, gratefully accepted! We will need it.
- [Batman desperately stands and swings at Bane]
- Bane: Ah, yes... I was wondering what would break first...
- [lifts Batman high]
- Bane: Your spirit, or your body?
- [slams him on his knee]
- CIA Agent: [to three prisoners] The flight plan I just filed with the agency lists me, my men, Dr. Pavel here but only one of you! First one to talk gets to stay on my aircraft!
- [grabs a hood]
- CIA Agent: Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
- [No answer, the agent fires his gun away from the prisoner's head]
- CIA Agent: He didn't fly so good!
- [pulls the hood back into the plane]
- CIA Agent: Who wants to try next?
- [grabs another prisoner]
- CIA Agent: Tell me about Bane! Why does he wear the mask? A lot of loyalty, for a hired gun!
- Bane: Or perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man, before throwing him out of a plane?
- CIA Agent: At least you can talk. Who are you?
- Bane: It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
- [the Agent removes the hood]
- Bane: No one cared who I was until I put on the mask.
- CIA Agent: If I pull that off, would you die?
- Bane: It would be extremely painful.
- CIA Agent: You're a big guy!
- Bane: For you.
- CIA Agent: Was getting caught part of your plan?
- Bane: Of course... Dr. Pavel refused our offer in favor of yours, we had to find out what he told you.
- Dr. Pavel: Nothing! I said nothing!
- CIA Agent: Well, congratulations! You got yourself caught! Now what's the next step in your master plan?
- Bane: Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
- [In the pit]
- Crowd: [chanting] Deshi basara! Deshi basara!
- Bruce Wayne: What does that mean?
- Prisoner: Rise.
- Selina Kyle: There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.
- Bruce Wayne: You sound like you're looking forward to it.
- Selina Kyle: I'm adaptable.
- Bruce Wayne: Must've lost my ticket.
- Valet Attendant: Your wife said you were taking a cab home.
- Bruce Wayne: My wife?
- [Bane wrecks the CIA plane and grabs Dr Pavel]
- Bane: Calm down, Doctor! Now's not the time for fear. That comes later.
- John Blake: Not a lot of people know what it feels like to be angry, in your bones. I mean, they understand, foster parents, everybody understands, for awhile. Then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can't do, move on. So after awhile they stop understanding. They send the angry kid to a boys home. I figured it out too late. You gotta learn to hide the anger, practice smiling in the mirror. It's like putting on a mask.
- Bane: [addressing media reporters outside the prison] Behind you is a symbol of oppression. Blackgate Prison, where a thousand men have languished under the name of this man,
- [holds up a picture of Harvey Dent]
- Bane: Harvey Dent, who has been held up to you as the shining example of justice!
- John Blake: [to Gordon, at Blake's apartment] Commissioner, we need to keep you moving until we can get you in front of a camera.
- Bane: You have been supplied with a false idol to stop you from tearing down this CORRUPT CITY! Let me tell you the truth about Harvey Dent from the words of Gotham's police commissioner, James Gordon.
- [holds up Gordon's speech papers and begins to read]
- Bane: "The Batman didn't murder Harvey Dent, he saved my boy then took the blame for Harvey's appalling crimes so that I could, to my shame, build a lie around this fallen idol. I praised the mad man who tried to murder my own child but I can no longer live with my lie. It is time to trust the people of Gotham with the truth and it is time for me to resign."
- [calls to prisoners]
- Bane: And do you accept this man's resignation? Do you accept the resignation of all these liars? Of all the CORRUPT?
- [prisoners roar with approval]
- John Blake: Those men locked up for eight years in Blackgate, and denied parole under the Dent Act, based on a lie?
- Jim Gordon: Gotham needed a hero...
- John Blake: It needs it now more than ever. You betrayed everything you stood for.
- Jim Gordon: There's a point, far out there when the structures fail you, and the rules aren't weapons anymore, they're... shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. One day... you may face such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did, to plunge their hands into the filth so that you can keep yours clean!
- John Blake: [disgusted] Your hands look plenty filthy to me, Commissioner.
- John Daggett: What. The hell. Is going on?
- Bane: Our plan is proceeding as expected.
- John Daggett: Oh really? Do *I* look like I'm running Wayne Enterprises right now? Your hit, on the stock exchange, it didn't work, my friend! And now you have my construction crews going around the city at 24 hours a day! How exactly is that supposed to help my company absorb Wayne's?
- Bane: [to Stryver] Leave us!
- John Daggett: No! You stay here, I'm in charge!
- Bane: [puts his hand on Daggett's shoulder] Do you *feel* in charge?
- [Stryver leaves]
- John Daggett: I paid you a small fortune.
- Bane: And this gives you *power* over me?
- John Daggett: What is this?
- Bane: Your money and infrastructure have been important... 'til now!
- John Daggett: What are you?
- Bane: I'm Gotham's reckoning. Here to end the borrowed time you've all been living on!
- John Daggett: You're pure evil!
- Bane: I'm *necessary* evil!
- [breaks Daggett's neck; Stryver flinches]
- John Blake: Bane? What do you know about him?
- Selina Kyle: That you should be as afraid of him as I am.
- Lucius Fox: This conversation used to end with an unusual request.
- Bruce Wayne: I'm retired.
- Lucius Fox: Well let me show you some stuff anyway. Just for old time's sake.
- Bane: We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Blackgate, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For and army will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, as they learn to serve true justice. This great city... it will endure. Gotham will survive!
- John Blake: You made some mistakes, Miss Kyle.
- Selina Kyle: A girl's gotta eat.
- John Blake: Well, you got quite an appetite.
- Doctor: I've seen worse cartilage in knees.
- Bruce Wayne: That's good.
- Doctor: No, that's because there is NO cartilage in your knee, and not much of any use in your elbows or your shoulders. Between that and the scar tissue on your kidneys, the residual concussive damage to your brain tissue, and the general scarred-over quality of your body, I cannot recommend that you go heliskiing, Mr. Wayne
- Bruce Wayne: Right.
- Bane: I broke you. How have you come back?
- Batman: You think you're the only one who can find the strength to escape? Where's the trigger?
- Bane: But I never escaped.
- Batman: But the child... the child of Ra's al Ghul made the climb.
- Miranda Tate: [from behind Batman] But he's not the child of Ra's al Ghul
- [She stabs Batman with a knife. He reels in pain and shock]
- Miranda Tate: I am. And though I'm not ordinary, I am a citizen.
- [She reveals the trigger]
- Batman: [anguished] Miranda... why?
- Miranda Tate: Talia. My mother named me Talia before she was killed, the way I would've been killed if not for my protector: Bane.
- Alfred: [about Selina Kyle] You two should exchange notes over coffee.
- Bruce Wayne: So now you're trying to set me up with a jewel thief?
- Alfred: At this point, I'd set you up with a chimpanzee if it'd brought you back to the world!
- Bruce Wayne: There's nothing out there for me.
- Alfred: And that's the problem. You hung up your cape and your cowl, but you didn't move on, you never went to find a life, to find someone...
- Bruce Wayne: Alfred... I did find someone.
- Alfred: I know, and you lost her. But that's all part of living, sir. But you're not living. You're just waiting, hoping for things to go bad again.
- [a couple thugs go to attack Lucius while he's handcuffed. Catwoman intervenes and beats them down]
- Lucius Fox: [to Batman] I like your new girlfriend!
- Catwoman: [she undoes his cuffs] He should be so lucky.
- John Blake: I just can't take it. I mean, nobody will ever know who it was who saved an entire city.
- Jim Gordon: They know who it was; it was the Batman.
- [Batman and Selina have just escaped from Bane and his mercenaries in the Bat. Batman lands it on top of a skyscraper and Selina immediately hops out]
- Catwoman: See you around.
- Batman: You're welcome.
- Catwoman: I had it under control.
- Batman: Those weren't street thugs, they were trained killers. I saved your life. In return I need to know what you did with Bruce Wayne's fingerprints.
- Catwoman: Wayne wasn't kidding about a "powerful friend".
- [beat]
- Catwoman: I sold his prints to Daggett. For something that doesn't even exist.
- Batman: I doubt many people get the better of you.
- Catwoman: Hey, when a girl's desperate.
- Batman: What's he gonna to do with them?
- Catwoman: I don't know. But Daggett seemed pretty interested in that mess at the stock market.
- [Batman is distracted by the spotlight of a police chopper doing the rounds. He looks up at it, then turns back to Selina]
- Batman: Miss Kyle?
- [Catwoman has vanished]
- Batman: So that's what that feels like...
- Bruce Wayne: If this man is everything that you say he is, then this city needs me.
- Alfred: This city needs Bruce Wayne, your resources, your knowledge. It doesn't need your body, or your life. That time has passed.
- Bruce Wayne: You're afraid that if I go back out there I'll fail.
- Alfred: No. I'm afraid that you want to.
- Bane: [Sewer thugs have captured Jim Gordon, who is barely conscious] Why are you here?
- Sewer Thug #1: [thug kicks Gordon, who groans] Answer him!
- Bane: I was asking you.
- Sewer Thug #1: It's the police commissioner.
- Bane: And you brought him down here?
- Sewer Thug #2: We didn't know what to do.
- Bane: You panicked, and your weakness has cost the lives of three others.
- Sewer Thug #1: No he's alone...
- [Bane grabs the thug and crush his throat, he drops dead to the ground]
- Bane: [to the second thug] Search him, then I will kill you.
- Sewer Thug #2: [Jim Gordon throws himself over the balcony into the running sewer water, the thugs shoot at him] He's dead.
- Bane: So show me his body.
- Sewer Thug #2: The water runs to any one of the outflows. We'll never find him.
- Bane: [Bane puts a GPS in the thug's pocket] Follow him!
- Sewer Thug #2: Follow him?
- [Bane shoots the sewer thug]
- John Blake: [to Bruce Wayne] I don't know why you took the fall for Dent's murder, but I'm still a believer in the Batman.
- Batman: He was trying to kill millions of innocent people
- Talia al Ghul: 'Innocent' is a strong word to throw around Gotham, Bruce. I honor my father by finishing his work. Vengeance against the man who killed him is simply a reward for my patience...
- [Talia twists the knife in Batman's side]
- Talia al Ghul: You see, it's the slow knife... the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between the bones... that's the knife that cuts deepest.
- Lucius Fox: It has a long uninteresting name. I just took to calling it... The Bat, and yes, Mr. Wayne, it does come in black.
- [Bane's men announce their entry into the stock exchange, as the food delivery man shoots down a trader, while the shoeshiner and janitor fire their guns into the trading screen. As the screens shut off, Bane comes in and walks over to one trader]
- Trader #1: This is a stock exchange! There's no money you can steal!
- Bane: Really? Then why are you people here?
- [Bane drags the trader by his tie across the floor to a computer terminal, slams his head against the table, and uses his security card to log-in and start the application on the shoeshiner's laptop]
- Bane: [after imploding the football field, Bane and his mercenaries appear, and Bane picks up a microphone off one of the coaches] Gotham, take control! Take control of your city.
- Bane: [the bomb is wheeled in] This... this is the instrument of your liberation!
- [His mercenaries bring Dr. Pavel forward and make him kneel in front of Bane]
- Bane: Identify yourself to the world.
- [holds microphone in front of Dr. Pavel, as if he is conducting a news interview]
- Dr. Pavel: Dr. Leonid Pavel, nuclear physicist.
- Bane: And what... what is this?
- Dr. Pavel: It's a... fully primed neutron bomb, with a blast radius of six miles.
- Bane: And who is capable of disarming such a device?
- Dr. Pavel: Only me.
- Bane: Only you. Thank you, good doctor!
- [snaps Dr. Pavel's neck. The crowd screams in terror]
- Bane: Now, this bomb is armed! This bomb is mobile! And the identity of the triggerman is a mystery. For one of you holds the detonator! And we came here not as conquerors, but as liberators to return control of this city to the people. And at the first sign of interference from the outside world, or for those people attempting to flee, this anonymous Gothamite - this unsung hero - will trigger the bomb. For now, martial law is in effect. Return to your homes, hold your families close, and wait. Tomorrow you claim what is rightfully yours.
- [Bane drops the mike, turns, and leaves the playing field]
- Ra's al Ghul: You, yourself fought the decadence of Gotham for years with all your strength, all your resources, all your moral authority and the only victory you achieved was a lie. Now you understand Gotham is beyond saving and must be allowed to die.
- Gangbanger: [Two street thugs catch a little boy that has stolen an apple from them] You steal from us, you little bastard?
- [Selina appears and twists his arm from behind]
- Selina Kyle: You boys know you can't come into my neighborhood without asking politely.
- [She cracks his arm, knocking the apple into her hand. The boy watches as she knocks both thugs out]
- Selina Kyle: Never steal anything from someone you can't outrun, kid.
- [takes a bite out of the apple, and tosses it to the kid, who takes it and runs off]
- Bruce Wayne: Pretty generous, for a thief.
- [Selina turns to see Bruce approaching]
- Selina Kyle: I thought they killed you.
- Bruce Wayne: Not yet.
- Selina Kyle: If you're expecting an apology...
- Bruce Wayne: It wouldn't suit you.
- Jim Gordon: [Gordon and his men have been brought into Crane's kangaroo court] No lawyer, no witnesses? What sort of due process is this?
- Dr. Jonathan Crane: Your guilt has been determined. This is merely a sentencing hearing. Now, what will it be? Death or Exile?
- Jim Gordon: Crane, if you think we're going to walk out on that ice willingly, you got another thing coming!
- Dr. Jonathan Crane: So it's death then?
- Jim Gordon: Looks that way.
- Dr. Jonathan Crane: Very well. Death!
- [smashes gavel]
- Dr. Jonathan Crane: By exile!
- Bruce Wayne: Mind if I cut in?
- [the old man who was dancing with Selina leaves, annoyed, as Bruce starts dancing slowly with her]
- Bruce Wayne: Oh, you don't seem happy to see me.
- Selina Kyle: You were supposed to be a shut-in.
- Bruce Wayne: I felt like some fresh air.
- Selina Kyle: Why didn't you call the police?
- Bruce Wayne: I have a powerful friend who deals with things like this.
- [notices the cat ears that are Selina's goggle lenses]
- Bruce Wayne: That's a brazen costume for a cat burglar.
- Selina Kyle: Yeah? Who are you pretending to be?
- Bruce Wayne: Bruce Wayne, eccentric billionaire. Who's your date?
- [referring the old man she was dancing with and who is now watching them]
- Selina Kyle: His wife's in Ibiza. She left her diamonds behind, though. Worried they might get stolen.
- Bruce Wayne: Mm. It's pronounced Ibeetha. You wouldn't want any of these folks realizing you're a crook, not a social climber.
- Selina Kyle: You think I care what anyone in this room thinks of me?
- Bruce Wayne: I doubt you care what anyone in any room thinks of you.
- Selina Kyle: Don't condescend, Mr. Wayne. You don't know a thing about me.
- Bruce Wayne: Well, Selina Kyle, I know you came here from your walk-up in Old Town, a modest place for a master jewel thief. Which means that either you're saving for retirement, or you're in deep with the wrong people.
- Selina Kyle: You don't get to judge me just because you were born in the master bedroom of Wayne Manor.
- Bruce Wayne: Actually, I was born in the Regency Room.
- Selina Kyle: I started out doing what I had to. Once you've done what you had to, they'll never let you do what you want to.
- Bruce Wayne: Start fresh.
- Selina Kyle: There's no fresh start in today's world. Any twelve-year-old with a cell phone could find out what you did. Everything we do is collated and quantified. Everything sticks.
- Bruce Wayne: Is that how you justify stealing?
- Selina Kyle: I take what I need to from those who have more than enough. I don't stand on the shoulders of people with less.
- Bruce Wayne: Robin Hood?
- Selina Kyle: I think I do more to help someone than most of the people in this room. Than you.
- Bruce Wayne: I think maybe you're assuming a little too much.
- Selina Kyle: Maybe you're being unrealistic about what's really in your pants other than your wallet.
- Bruce Wayne: Ouch.
- Alfred: If you're seriously considering going back out there, you should hear the rumors surrounding Bane.
- Bruce Wayne: I'm all ears.
- Alfred: There is a prison in a more ancient part of the world, a pit where men are thrown to suffer and die. But sometimes a man rises from the darkness. Sometimes the pit sends something back.
- Bruce Wayne: Bane.
- Alfred: Right. Born and raised in hell on earth.
- Bruce Wayne: Born in prison?
- Alfred: No one knows why or how he escaped, but they do know that once he did he was trained by Ra's Al Ghul, your mentor.
- Bruce Wayne: Bane was a member of The League of Shadows.
- Alfred: And then he was excommunicated. And any man who is too extreme for Ra's Al Ghul is not to be trifled with.
- Batman: [Hands over device] This blocks the remote detonator signal to the bomb. Get it onto it before sunrise. They might hit the button when it starts.
- Jim Gordon: When what starts?
- Batman: War.
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