10 Truths We Don't Want To Admit About The Dark Knight Rises

2. Bruce Wayne Probably Should Have Died

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohQY7kpOc50 Here's one that I wrestle with constantly. When Batman flies the bomb away and it explodes, I was gutted, and genuinely believed that Nolan had pulled the ballsiest move in comic book movie history by killing off his superhero. Alfred sobbing at the grave and the Batman statue were enormously emotionally resonant, and yet, in the film's final moments, we discover that Bruce escaped the blast and is now living in Florence with Selina. While this is a rare superhero film to focus on its protagonist's existential anguish - the film lingered on Bruce's pain and as such we actually wanted him to find peace - the sheer implausibility of Bruce's escape makes me wonder whether it would have been better for him to simply die in the blast and have John Blake take over as Batman, nice and cleanly. Firstly, the editing of the bomb's explosion is manipulative in that we see Batman sitting in the Bat cockpit just seconds before it explodes, when of course he would have had to bail minutes before to avoid the sizeable blast of the bomb. Secondly, isn't it pretty risky for Bruce Wayne to be hanging out in a fancy cafe in Florence? Surely someone would end up spotting him and completely give the game away? Perhaps Bruce didn't need to die - there were countless ways to have Alfred know Bruce was alive that weren't so overt - but it would have been a lot tighter.