10 Ambiguous Movie Endings That Had Ridiculously Simple Solutions
7. The Dark Knight Rises
The Ambiguous Ending: Did Bruce Wayne survive?
I think we all know the ending. The Dark Knight Rises divided many (particularly those on this site) when it was released last year. While the choice of villain and presentation of plot points had some up in arms, it was The Dark Knight Trilogy's final moments led to much of the backlash. Even though we've just seen The Batman fly off with the bomb, sacrificing himself to save Gotham, Alfred discovers that Bruce is actually alive and well. But the question remains how Bruce survived, prompting the notion that Alfreds just imagining his friend alive.
The Simple Solution: Of course he did.
Clearly some fans were watching the wrong Nolan film because to think Alfreds imagining Bruce means youre throwing out the realism of the previous two and a half hours (five if you count The Dark Knight). At no point in TDKR was anything other than it was shown on screen. In fact, the only moment stylised in any way was Bruce waking up groggy in the prison. But even if you think Alfred is imagining it, theres plenty more information in that final montage; the disappearance of the pearls, repairing of the autopilot and the new bat signal all point to Bruce being alive. I was initially unsure whether to put this entry in, but theres enough confusion out there for this clarification to be needed.