5. Bring Your Protagonist To His/Her Knees
Here's something that
Rises does well, given that one of the major plot points of the movie concerns Bruce Wayne's journey to transform himself into the Dark Knight after he's mentally and physically destroyed. And bringing your main character to their knees is a screenwriting notion that will always guarantee you good results, because what's more interesting that watching somebody fail and later trying to succeed at the same task? Here, Batman is tricked into facing off against Bane in an underground sewer. Ill prepared, he's beaten within an inch of his life. In any good screenplay, this is a good way to explore your character's motives. Either it happens towards the beginning of the flick, like here, so that the character can "rise" up and aim to defeat whatever it was that defeated them before. Or, as in
A Fistful of Dollars, it can happen towards the end, where the character is almost killed, but manages to re-stabilize, gather and come back with a vengeance... However you employ this trope, bringing your character to the brink of destruction is a great way to ensure they have at least one goal going at a given time.