The Dark Knight Rises
Analysis
The opening of the film starts with the titles of the ‘DC
comics’ ‘Syncope’ production logo we then see ice cracking into the ‘Batman’
symbol breaking out of the ice, this could be broken down into meaning ‘Batman’
has to rise up again, he has stored his gear and almost retired from being
anything he cannot even be counted as being ‘Bruce Wayne’ as he has not been
seen for many years and the symbol cracking in the ice could mean he himself
has to break out of the dark and once again become the ‘Batman’.
From this it cuts to a gathering a social party to celebrate
‘Harvey Dent’ (Two Face) we can tell this from a picture of ‘Harvey’ in the
background we can also see Gary Oldman as ‘Commissioner (Jim) Gordon’ talking
about what happened to ‘Harvey Dent’ in the previous film this is called a
prologue and it is used to remind the audience what happened in the previous
film. From this shot we can tell where the gathering is taken place in a
wealthy manor with this knowledge the audience can assume it is the iconic
‘Wayne Manor’ which as we know is very ironic as ‘Two Face’ in the previous
film tried to kill ‘Commissioner Gordon’s’ son and kill ‘Batman’ as well so
seeing a fundraiser at the home of ‘The Dark Knight’ himself.
There is then a cut to a vehicle driving through a wheat
field with a straight cut from the vehicle to a CIA agent in front of an
airplane with a number of soldiers standing around him, the CIA agent is
wearing casual clothes but they can also be argued to be almost combat gear we
can tell he is on charge as the shot shows him in a position of dominance as he
is at the front and the largest of the men from a proportionate point of
view. It then cuts back to the vehicle
this time from the inside to reveal three men sat in the back of the vehicle
with their hands tied behind their backs and a black bag over their heads this
gives us as an audience the image of evil of terrorism and we can guess we have
our main antagonist but from this first glimpse we cannot tell which is which,
from the back of the vehicle it then cuts back to the plane where the vehicle
pulls up and the men in the vehicle get out there are the three masked men and
a character we find out to play a key role in the film a Doctor of Nuclear
Physics and the men who are delivering them over to the CIA agent are very
European Mafia sort of characters giving the audience a foreboding scene of
trouble in this scene.
The men and the Doctor are handed over to the soldiers the
CIA agent says to the doctor as he passes “you can’t bring friends” the Doctor
simply reply’s with “they are not my friends.” This tells the audience that one
of the men has to be our main antagonist ‘Bane’ the CIA agent asks who the men
work for the European man replies “they work for the masked man, the mercenary
… Bane”. With this knowledge the agent tells his soldiers to get them onto the
plane.
The plane is heading to an undisclosed location where these
men in the hoods and the Doctor are to be tortured, the music is very loud and
slow paced this is used to show the unusual fact that the CIA agent is at the
moment viewed as an antagonist, when usually the CIA are depicted as good
characters who are trying to save people rather than torture them. The CIA
agent then orders the men to talk and they do not so he threatens “the first
one to talk stays on my aircraft” and a door on the plane is opened the army
men throw and hold one of the masked on the floor with his head out of the
door, this is used to try and scare the character into talking when the masked
man the CIA agent shouts at the man “Tell me about Bane why does he wear the
mask?!” and he fires a shot from his sidearm by the masked man’s head this is
to try to scare him into talking he says nothing “lot of loyalty for a hired
gun” responds the CIA agent. We then hear very loudly (badly dubbed) over all
of the diegetic sound and the music a man’s voice with a strange accent, saying
“Or perhaps he is wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him
out of a plane” when the agent hears this he turns and a soldier closes the
door, we then see the tied up man from a tracking shot behind him leading the
audience up for a big reveal.
Then we see an almost reversal of roles from the CIA agent
crouching lower than the masked man giving the audience a feeling that the
masked man is much more dominant than the CIA agent, he states “at least this
one can talk, who are you?” the hooded man replies “it doesn't matter who we
are. What matters is our plan” this
tells us that there are more than just ‘Bane’ involved in the plot as he did
not say “I” instead he said “who WE are. What matters is OUR plan” we also know
that his men are willing to die for his cause and that this makes him a much
more feared man than we could of imagined that they do not care if they die as
long as their plan is pulled off. There is a close up of the agents hand as he
slowly goes to pull off the man’s hood to reveal the films main antagonist
‘Bane’.
The music (non-diegetic) starts to get louder and faster
giving us the knowledge that something is about to happen that is vital to the film,
the agent asks “if I pull that off would you die?” ‘Bane’ replies “it would be
very painful” he is interrupted by the CIA agent “you’re a big guy” ‘Bane
finishes “For you.” The music then gets louder and faster and we can hear
chanting although it is not clear what the chanting is it’s clear to the
audience that there is going to be an action sequence as everything in the shot
speeds up and we have a lot of handheld camera shots this shows how frantic
everything is meant to be and puts the audience in the shoes of someone on the
plane with the plane the CIA agent then asks “was getting caught part of you
master plan?” to which the music gets faster and ‘Bane’ answers “But of course”
and the agent then asks “what’s next” and ‘Bane’ finally answers “we crash this
plane … with no survivors!” and he breaks out of his bounds and punches the CIA
agent and with that we cut to an extreme long shot of another much larger plane
flying over the agents plane and we see four people repel down from the back of
the bigger plane onto the agents plane and
shooting the military men in the plane, then we see an extreme close up
of the hijackers shooting some sort of equipment into the plane (an almost grapple hook looking device). It
then cuts to another extreme long shot of the hijackers being pulled back up to
their plane and the agent’s plane being dragged vertically down and the wings
being ripped off (using CGI to give it a real looking effect) and the back of
the plane being blown off.
This sequence then involves ‘Bane’ kidnapping the Doctor,
the four men seen in the picture then climb into the plane and kill the rest of
the soldiers, and lower down a dead body into the plane, the majority of this
sequence is filmed close up by a hand held camera this is so it gives the
audience a feeling of how hectic this is meant to be and that we are meant to
feel the fear of the doctor that we are being taken by this mad man, in mid
air.
We then see in a close up shot the body bag being delivered
to ‘Bane’ and his men they open the bag to reveal a body with a tube connected
to the arm, bane then puts the tube onto the doctors arm via syringe transfers
the doctors blood into the body, this is to make the authorities think that the
body in the wreckage is the doctor, during this operation we can still hear the
music and the non-diegetic sounds of the wind through the back of the plane and
the doctor’s screams in the plane now there is only ‘Bane’ the doctor and one
of ‘Bane’s’ followers they are getting strapped up ready to be pulled back into
the larger plane, but ‘Bane’ stops his follower from getting strapped up and
says “they shall expect one of us in the wreckage brother!” The follower just
nods and replies, “Have we started the fire?” ‘Bane’ says “yes the fire rises”
this gives us the impression that this is only the very first steps in ‘Bane’s’
master plan he then looks to the screaming doctor and states “calm down doctor now
is not the time for fear … That comes
later” and ‘Bane pushes a trigger and the agents plane is released and falls
around them (CGI), the scene goes silent (although it ads suspense to the scene
it also creates a continuity error as we cannot hear the plane falling nor an
explosion) as we see and extreme long shot of ‘Bane’ and the doctor being
pulled back up to the larger plane.
We then cut to our next scene which starts with an
establishing shots of a city we presume is ‘Gotham’ and a bridge during this we
can hear the non-diegetic sounds of very light music and a clear voice talking
about ‘Harvey Dent’ (Two Face in ‘The Dark Knight’) and the ‘Dent Act’ we then
cut to a forward tracking establishing shot of ‘Wayne Manor’ and ‘Gotham
Cities’ Mayor continuing talking about the ‘Dent Act’, the mayor states “I’d
like to thank ‘Mr Wayne’ for hosting this event, even though he couldn’t be
here, I’m sure he’s here in spirit” this lets the audience know that ‘Bruce
Wayne’ does not want to be at an event that celebrates the man that tried to
kill him and his friend (‘Commissioner Gordon’). The Mayor then invites
‘Commissioner Gordon’ to the stage and we see a close up on ‘Commissioner
Gordon’ behind the podium with pieces of paper in his hand and he say’s “I have
a speech containing the truth about ‘Harvey Dent’.” but as he is talking we cut
to an extreme long shot of a man standing in the shadows on the top of ‘Wayne
Manor’ we as the audience assume this is ‘Bruce Wayne hiding in the shadows and
has been since the death of ‘Dent’. ‘Gordon’ continues “but perhaps now is not
the time” as he says this it cuts back to the man on the roof but we see him
just walking away, almost in disappointment about ‘Gordon’ not telling the
people of the truth behind ‘Dent’ or ‘Two Face’, ‘Gordon’ continues to talk
about how many criminals and high up gang members are in “Black Gate Prison”
because of the ‘Dent Act’ and act that the audience knows is a lie. (Whilst
‘Gordon’ was talking about the ‘Dent Act’ there were ‘Flashbacks’ to the previous
film with ‘Two Face’ and ‘Gordon’s’ family.)
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