Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
Bane breaks his handcuffs as if they were plastic, then ... Bane brings Batman down onto his knee, BREAKING his back with a horrific CRACK.
Typology: Lecture notes
1 / 165
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics
Batman created by Bob Kane
Transcribed to PDF from: "The Dark Knight Trilogy - The Complete Screenplays" Published July 2012 by Faber & Faber Ltd. (UK)
In memory of the victims of the tragedy in Aurora, CO, on July 20, 2012.
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
Harvey Dent was needed. He was everything Gotham has been crying out for. He was...a hero. Not the hero we deserved - the hero we needed. Nothing less than a knight, shining...
The sound of cracking. Splintering. A shape appears, in ice. The shape of a BAT. The ice disintegrates...
Gordon stands before a massive picture of Harvey Dent.
GORDON But I knew Harvey Dent. I was...his friend. And it will be a very long time before someone inspires us the way he did.
Gordon, choked with emotion, gathers the papers of his eulogy. I believed in Harvey Dent.
And we FADE TO BLACK.
CUT TO:
Racing along a cratered dirt road, and we are -
Three Hooded Men guarded by East European Militia. A third Militia drives. Next to him is a nervous, bespectacled man.
An airstrip overlooking a grey city rocked by artillery fire. A bland CIA Operative, flanked by Special Forces Men, stands in front of a commuter plane. CIA Man watches the Land Cruiser pull up, hard. The Militia Men jump out of the vehicle.
The Driver shoves the bespectacled man in front of the CIA Man.
Hooded Man 1 says nothing. CIA Man pulls out a handgun. The flight plan I just filed with the Agency lists me, my men, and Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you.
CIA Man opens the cargo door. Special Forces hang Hooded Man 1 out into the howling wind - CIA Man shouts above the wind.
CIA MAN FIRST ONE TO TALK GETS TO STAY ON MY AIRCRAFT! (Cocks weapon.) SO...WHO PAID YOU TO GRAB DR. PAVEL?!
Nothing. CIA Man fires out the open door and the Special Forces yank Hooded Man 1 back in, clubbing him quiet.
CIA MAN HE DIDN’T FLY SO GOOD! WHO WANTS TO TRY NEXT?!
The Soldiers grab Hooded Man 2, hang him out the door.
CIA MAN TELL ME ABOUT BANE! WHY DOES HE WEAR THE MASK?!
The prisoner says nothing. CIA Man presses the gun to the man’s hood - he cocks the gun...nothing.
CIA MAN LOT OF LOYALTY FOR A HIRED GUN!
THIRD PRISONER (O.S.) Or he’s wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of an aeroplane.
CIA Man turns to the Third Prisoner. Shuts the cargo door.
CIA MAN Wiseguy, huh? At least you can talk. Who are you?
THIRD PRISONER We are nothing. We are the dirt beneath your feet. And no one cared who I was until I put on the mask...
CIA Man, wary, approaches the Third Prisoner - pulls off his hood, revealing a dark mask with a breathing apparatus. The eyes behind it are cold. Still. This is Bane.
Who we are does not matter. What matters is our plan.
CIA MAN (fascinated) If I pull this off, will you die?
BANE It would be extremely painful.
CIA MAN You’re a big guy -
BANE For you.
CIA MAN (unnerved) Was being caught part of your plan?
BANE Of course. Dr. Pavel refused our offer in favor of yours. We had to know what he told you about us.
DR. PAVEL Nothing! I said nothing!
CIA MAN Why not just ask him?
BANE He would not have told us.
CIA MAN You have methods.
BANE Him, I need healthy. You present no such problem.
CIA Man laughs for the Special Forces’ benefit. A heavy bass tone is rising. The Sergeant looks out the window.
The commuter plane is dwarfed by a massive transport plane looming over it, dangerously close...
Like lightning, Bane has the CIA Man is his handcuffed arms, legs wrapped around a seat back, The entire cabin upends. Tumbling chaos - Soldiers falling - Bane cracks CIA Man’s neck and drops him onto the Sergeant - they tumble down the plane, smashing into the cockpit door with a terminal thud.
Dr. Pavel, strapped in, pushes against the seat in front of him - the plane vibrates, trying to tear itself apart.
The men climb the tail of the smaller plane as it dangles helplessly above the mountains. Its wings shear off.
Bane breaks his handcuffs as if they were plastic, then opens his legs and drops down the cabin, somersaulting gracefully and using his arms to stop himself halfway down, by Dr. Pavel.
The men attach explosives to the tail, then jump away, swinging out as the tail explodes.
An explosion takes off the rear door of the cabin - the Armed Men drop through the smoke on cables.
A body bag is lowered into the cabin. Bane lies it on the seat backs next to Dr. Pavel and unzips it to reveal a body the same age and build as Dr. Pavel.
Bane rips Dr. Pavel’s sleeve - pulls out a length of surgical tubing - pushes a needle into Dr. Pavel’s arm - runs the tube to the body’s arm... Dr. Pavel watches, horrified, as Bane starts compressions on the body’s chest, drawing Dr. Pavel’s blood across the tube and into the body...
An Armed Man pulls Hooded Man 1 up through the cabin and out. Bane stops Hooded Man 2.
Friend. They expect one of us in the wreckage.
The man nods, unhooks himself, takes Bane’s arm.
HOODED MAN 2 Have we started the fire?
BANE (nods) The fire rises.
Hooded Man 2 hands Bane his line. Bane clips it around Dr. Pavel, takes out a knife and cuts Dr. Pavel’s seat belt. Dr. Pavel panics, flails. Bane takes his arms. Gentle.
BANE Calm, Doctor. Now is not time for fear...
Bane slides Dr. Pavel out of his seat. They hang in the vertical, windblown cabin. Bane takes out a detonator.
BANE That comes later.
Bane presses the detonator - the cabin drops from around them, revealing the terrifying drop to the peaks below. Dr. Pavel screams as they are hoisted up towards the transport, and we -
CUT TO:
Drifting over the vast city...
MAYOR (V.O.) Harvey Dent Day may not be our oldest public holiday...
...moving past the enormous Gotham Bridge...
MAYOR (V.O.) But we’re here tonight because it’s one of the most important...
...over the Gotham river to the Palisades on the far side...
No one has. Not in years.
MAYOR (O.S) He can tell you about the bad old days, when the criminals and corrupt ran this town with such a tight grasp that people put their faith in a murderous thug in a mask and a cape. A thug who showed his true nature when he betrayed the trust of this great man - (Turns to picture of Dent.) And murdered him in cold blood.
The Congressman watches a tray of canapés breeze past, then grabs the ass of the maid carrying them. She freezes.
CONGRESSMAN Sweetheart, not so fast with the chow.
MAID (turns, tight smile) Shrimp balls?
The Congressman grabs two. The Maid moves off. The Congressman glances down at Gordon’s papers.
MAYOR (O.S) Jim Gordon can tell you the truth about Harvey Dent...
CONGRESSMAN Jesus, Gordon, is that your speech? We’re gonna be here all night.
GORDON Maybe the truth about Harvey isn’t so simple, Congressman.
MAYOR (O.S) But I’ll let him tell you himself - Commissioner Gordon?
Applause. Gordon approaches the mike. Looks down at his long speech. Thinks.
GORDON The truth...?
INSERT CUT: Harvey Dent, face half destroyed, threatens Gordon’s son with a handgun.
Gordon surveys the audience. Deciding. I have written a speech telling the truth about Harvey Dent...
Gordon folds up his speech. Maybe the time isn’t right...
Gordon stuffs the papers inside his jacket. The Congressman mutters under his breath.
CONGRESSMAN Thank Christ for that...
GORDON Maybe right now all you need to know is that there are a thousand inmates in Blackgate Prison as a direct result of the Dent Act. These are violent criminals, essential cogs in the organized crime machine that terrorized Gotham for so long. Maybe, for now, all I should say about Harvey Dent’s death is this...it has not been for nothing.
The figure on the balcony turns back into the mansion. People clap as Gordon leaves the mike. Gordon approaches Foley.
GORDON The second shift reports in?
FOLEY On your desk. But you should put in some more time with the Mayor -
GORDON That’s your department.
Gordon heads for the line of town cars in the gravel drive.
CONGRESSMAN Anyone shown him the crime stats?
FOLEY He goes by his gut, and it continues to bother him, whatever the numbers.
CONGRESSMAN Must be popular with the wife.
The Maid nods. Takes the tray.
Following the Maid through the empty house. She comes to the large oak door to the East Wing. Unlocks it...
The room is dark, quiet. The Maid places the tray on the table. She looks at the inner door opposite. It is ajar...
Alfred talks to an elegant woman, thirties, Miranda Tate.
ALFRED I’m sorry, Miss Tate, but I’ve tried. He won’t see you.
MIRANDA It’s important, Mr. Pennyworth.
Her accent is European. Hard to place.
ALFRED Mr. Wayne is as determined to ignore important things as trivial ones.
MALE VOICE (O.S.) Don’t take it personally, Miranda.
They turn to see a man in his fifties. Daggett.
DAGGETT Everyone knows Wayne’s holed up in there with eight-inch nails, peeing into Mason jars. (To Alfred.) Good of you to let me on the grounds.
ALFRED The Dent Act is about all Gotham. Even you, Mr. Daggett. Miss Tate, always a pleasure.
Alfred turns and walks off. Daggett smiles, glib.
Why waste your time talking to the man who threw away your investment on some save-the-world vanity project? He can’t help you get your money back. But I can.
MIRANDA I could try explaining that a save-the-world project, vain or not, is worth investing in, whatever the return. I could try, Mr. Daggett, but you understand only money and the power you think it buys, so why waste my time, indeed?
She walks away. Daggett watches her go.
Close on the dinner tray. We hear a labored step approach. Bruce Wayne appears, leaning on a cane. Gaunt. Grey temples. He lifts the lid of his dinner, then freezes, hearing something. He slowly limps into the next room...
The Maid looks at framed photographs of Rachel, Thomas and Martha Wayne. Some are half-burned. She notices an archery target, arrows stuck in it. She reaches out. WHAM! An arrow sticks into the target - the Maid spins around, flustered. Wayne, at the other end of the long room, lowers a composite bow. Picks up his cane.
MAID I’m, I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Wayne. It is Mr. Wayne, isn’t it?
Wayne nods, gently. Limps towards her.
MAID Although you don’t have the long nails... (Nervous laugh.) Or facial scars...
She trails off, embarrassed. Coy. She seems very young.
WAYNE Is that what they say about me?
Can I have a ride?
The Congressman, a little tipsy, looks at her hungrily.
CONGRESSMAN You read my mind.
Alfred enters, to find Wayne kneeling at the safe.
ALFRED Miss Tate was asking to see you again.
WAYNE She’s very persistent.
ALFRED And quite lovely, in case you were wondering.
WAYNE I wasn’t.
ALFRED What are you doing?
WAYNE Examining print dust. We’ve been robbed.
ALFRED And this is your idea of raising the alarm?
WAYNE (shrugs) She took the pearls. Tracking device and all.
ALFRED She?
WAYNE One of the maids, perhaps you should stop letting them in this side of the house.
Perhaps you should learn to make your own bed, then. Why are you dusting for prints?
WAYNE I’m not. She was.
Gordon brings a stack of files against the air duct, settles to read. Next to him is a rusty, broken searchlight.
YOUNG VOICE (O.S.) Sir?
A young Cop is standing there. This is Blake.
BLAKE I didn’t want to bother you up here, but they’re looking for you.
GORDON What’s the problem, son?
BLAKE Congressman Gilly’s wife’s been calling. He hasn’t made it home from the Wayne Foundation event.
GORDON That’s a job for the police?
BLAKE Sir, I’ve been a cop for a year and I’ve only logged half a dozen arrests. When you and Dent cleaned the streets you cleaned ’em good. Pretty soon we’ll be chasing overdue library books.
Gordon smiles at this. Blake looks at his stack of files.
BLAKE But here you are. Like we’re still at war...
GORDON Old habits.
Alfred takes his tray into the bedroom. The bed is empty.
ALFRED Master Wayne?
Alfred’s voice echoes through the vast mansion. No reply.
Alfred hits three notes on the piano. The bookcase opens.
Alfred descends into the caverns beneath Wayne Manor.
Alfred walks through the arches as the stone floor starts to lower, becoming a ramp. At the bottom, Alfred is level with a series of dark slate obelisks - a bridge over the water to where Wayne sits at a computer atop a massive slate cube.
ALFRED You haven’t been down here in a long time...
WAYNE Just trying to find out more about our jewel thief. I ran her prints from the photos she handled -
Wayne pulls up a mug shot - a fat, male armed-robbery suspect.
ALFRED She may be. But we have the trace on the necklace.
WAYNE We do, so I cross-referenced the address she went back to with police data on high-end B-and-E’s...
Wayne hits a key. A photograph of the Maid appears. Selina Kyle. The databases are full of close calls, tips from fences...
Newspaper headlines appear -
THE CAT STRIKES AGAIN, POLICE SUSPECT ’CAT’ BURGLAR IN JEWEL HEIST.
WAYNE She’s good, but the ground is shrinking beneath her feet.
ALFRED We should send the police before she fences the pearls.
WAYNE She won’t. She likes them too much. And they weren’t what she was after.
ALFRED What was she after?
WAYNE My fingerprints. There was printer toner mixed with graphite on the safe. Gives you a good pull, and it’s untraceable.
ALFRED Fascinating. Maybe you should exchange notes over coffee.
WAYNE Now you’re trying to set me up with a jewel thief?
ALFRED At this point, sir, I would set you up with a chimpanzee if I thought it would bring you back into the world.
WAYNE There’s nothing out there for me.
ALFRED And that’s the problem. You hung up the cape and cowl, but never moved on. You won’t get out there and find a life. Find someone -
WAYNE (bitter) I did find someone, Alfred.
