10 Movie Villains Who Won AFTER They Died
4. Rā's Al Ghūl - Batman Begins
As Hollywood has learned, if they cast Liam Neeson in an action role - as hero or villain - they're bound to collect big bucks.
In Batman Begins (2005), Neeson portrays Henri Ducard, the emissary of Rā's al Ghūl, who trains Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, honing him to join Rā's's crusade to destroy Gotham City. Bruce disobeys Ducard and destroys Rā's's mountaintop eyrie, rescuing Ducard in the process. He then uses the skills that he has learnt to try and save Gotham as Batman.
Bruce later comes face-to-face with Ducard in Gotham and realises that he is actually Rā's al Ghūl. Although Rā's leaves him to die inside the burning Wayne Manor, Batman returns to stop Ra's from destroying Gotham with a weaponised hallucinogen. Intercepting The Demon's Head on a monorail train, Batman derails Rā's's scheme aided by Sergeant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) in The Tumbler. Leaving Rā's for dead, Batman has a hollow victory as, in The Dark Knight (2008), he can only prevent The Joker (Heath Ledger) from disillusioning all of Gotham by accepting the liability for a series of murders committed by District Attorney Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (Aaron Eckhart).
In The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Rā's's successor, Bane (Tom Hardy) and Rā's's daughter, Talia (Marion Cotillard) try to complete Rā's's scheme to destroy Gotham City as an example to humanity to stamp out crime and corruption. Although they do not succeed in this, their actions lead the world to believe that Gotham's saviour, Batman is dead (admittedly with Bruce Wayne's unintended cooperation), leaving the city in a state of flux as to its future.