Why Nolan will kill Bruce Wayne

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that makes a shitload of sense

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After making Batman Begins (part 1 in The Dark Knight Trilogy), Nolan made The Prestige, a film about magicians and David Bowie. In it, Nolan gave us the three steps to performing an illusion: The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. The Pledge is the setup. It presents to you something ordinary that is most likely not ordinary at all. The Turn takes that ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Something unexpected. And then there's The Prestige, which basically just blows your fricking mind. It takes the unexpected something from The Turn, and turns it on its head and makes you believe in magic.

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I just want to be clear about the kind of storyteller I think we're dealing with: The insane and awesome kind. But it also establishes a pattern. Christopher Nolan tells us what he's going to do to us years before he makes the movie that actually does it. And Nolan has already told us in his previous Batman movies what he's going to do to us with the third. We just need to connect the dots. With Batmath.

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The love interest in the first two films was Rachel Dawes and she's (spoiler alert) fricking dead now. Rachel was the last connection Bruce had to his former self, before his parents died, before The Batman (BTB).She told him as much in Batman Begins:

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"No, *this* is your mask. Your real face is the one that criminals now fear. The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all [from BTB]. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again."

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On the other side of the faces we have Harvey Dent, the White Knight of Gotham. The White Knight that The Joker (AND BATMAN A LITTLE) eventually turned into Two-Face. Then? He fricking died. Rachel and Harvey, sittin' in a tree, b-e-i-n-g d-e-a-d. Their deaths were both huge Turns for a Batman Trilogy to make. Aside from some Robins every now and then, nobody dies. Yet The Batman, in all his glorious Batmanry, couldn't save the good guy OR his love interest. Batman may have proven The Joker wrong with the two bombed boats at the end of Dark Knight, but The Joker proved Bruce Wayne wrong with Two-Face and Rachel. That's the joke. Ha.

With each death, a piece of Bruce died, and a piece of Nolan's Prestige was being placed. By the end of The Dark Knight, Bruce is metaphorically pretty fricking dead already. Alfred keeps him hanging on a bit with his "so we can pick ourselves back up" talk, but he knows he's not saying it to Bruce anymore. He's saying it to The Goddamn Batman. A Batman that now only has one goal: Hardcore Batmanry. In terms of story within a Batman Trilogy, that's... well, that's close to the end of the line. All that's left is a bunch of episodes of Batman being Batman, fighting villains as Batman. But that's not what Nolan's in for. He's making a Trilogy. This is the end of the line. So who do we turn to but...

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If you're a fan of the comic book, you know that Bane is most famous for breaking Batman's back.
Christopher Nolan isn't about recreating moments from Batman comics. He's about reinventing ideas from Batman comics. He's about creating his Batman. And in his Batman, things are grittier. The stakes are higher. Things break harder.



Bruce The Batman can be broken until he's dead because Nolan's Batverse is real, or at least it's the realist. Aside from the fact that there are Batmen, Nolan tries really hard to keep his Batverse within the realm of possibility. And death, as he has shown us already, is very possible. Don't feel bad for Bruce, though, because above all else Nolan's Batman is...

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"People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol... as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting."- Bruce Wayne

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Bruce Wayne creates a symbol of fear and justice, Batman; Bruce Wayne becomes Batman; Batman just Batmans the frick out of Gotham City; Batman becomes more of an ideal/symbol than a bat/man; Bruce Wayne dies; Batman lives on as others don the cowl.- Me, hi!

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That's the story we've been watching in this trilogy. Nolan has even recently said, "It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story... Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight."

No, that's not surprising at all. Eight years is enough time for Batman to solidify his place in Gotham as The Goddamn Batman. Eight years is enough time for Bruce Wayne to solidify Batman as the Legend of the Dark Knight we know. If I can briefly quote The Sandlot (I can and am about to): "Heroes get remembered; Legends never die." This Hero's Journey may end with the death of Bruce Wayne, but the Legend doesn't stop after that. When the Dark Knight falls, the Dark Knight must also rise...

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a Lazarus Pit can breathe new life into the dead. However, there is no indication of their existence in either films, the mere idea of them is far too magical for anything Nolan would put in his trilogy, the film is called The Dark Knight Rises not The Dark Knight Rises Just Like Jesus Because We Certainly Don't Get Enough Jesus Imagery In Films And As We All Know, Christopher Nolan Is An Uncreative Hack. Catchy title, sure, but not an accurate one.

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Bruce Wayne sacrifices himself and The Dark Knight picks itself back up. But who will rise as the Dark Knight? Nolan has said that he will never include Robin in his Batman films. Robin, after all, isn't necessary for the Dark Knight Legend. But if there's no Robin, who will put on the cowl? I've come this far, there's got to be someone who's up for the job, and it had better not be some 12-year-old acrobat or some Chris O'Donnell-aged acrobat. Oh, here he is.

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This officer's name is John Blake, and not much is known about him. He's "a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon". He's played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He's a brand new character in the Batman Universe, created by Nolan for this film. Except that John Blake has actually shown up, just once, in a single page of a Batman coloring book:

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It's already been pointed out that Nolan potentially uncepted the idea for Inception from an old Donald Duck comic. It appears that once again he is a sneaky bastard. No, the kid's parents didn't die, but that's not a requirement for Batmanry; it's just the origin of it. Here we have a beat cop named John Blake. He's tough, he has a heart of gold, and he's committed to justice. He's tight with Commissioner Gordon, who had a close relationship with the currently-dead Batman. And Gotham still needs a Batman. The Prestige ends here, but the legend has just begun.

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I really hope that doesn't happen. He was in a crashing train car that fell 10+ stories.

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not flaming, but...
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pull a Batman Beyond and have Bruce retire and train John Blake


what is different between having a robin and doing this?

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