8. Bane
And with every chapter of the Batman tale there must be a new villain. With the impossibility of including the Joker, there lay a whole in the plot that needed to be filled by an almighty match for our favourite comic anti-hero. After great debate and a lot of going back to the drawing board for a story worthy of the conclusive ending of the trilogy, Christopher Nolan and the team landed upon Bane. The League of Shadows-aligned character was a perfect choice for a monster that stands to represent everything Batman stands against and also brings back some plotline from Batman Begins, tying the three movies together perfectly. Audience members that were already fans of Tom Hardy will have seen him play Charles Bronson and, not unlike Bane, play a monstrously violent and ruthless man of incomprehensible strength. This is something that Hardy brings brilliantly in the film, giving the audience a seemingly straight-forward killing machine as Batman's enemy. However it's the idiosyncrasies and small traits of the character that transform what could have been a simple comic book villain into an anarchic and deep character. One that didn't disappoint. With elements of Joker-like mentality and chaotic tendencies, it seems this was another deliberate subtle way of connecting the films as it seems this is another way of Batman fighting for the people, proving that they are not ready to complete Ra's Al Ghul's destiny (and tear each other apart). There is also the much awaited plot twist involving Miranda Tate and her history with Bane's character which also left the audience stunned as the depth of this character increased even more. Personally, I feel this is a villain to compete with the Joker and both will go down in history as Batman's greatest and most realistic enemies to date.