14 Movies You Didn't Realise Stupidly Broke Their Own Rules

10. Batman Undermines The Impact Of His Own Symbolism - The Dark Knight Rises

The Rule

After grumbling on about his role in Gotham, and how dependent the residents are on him as a crime impediment, Batman ultimately decides that Gotham only ever really needed a symbol to build their hope on. They didn't need to be protected, just to be under the impression that they were being protected - in order that he could go and sit in cafes with his new girlfriend in exotic far off lands.

But Wait...

Didn't Batman establish pretty quickly in The Dark Knight that symbolism wasn't enough, given that the vigilantes who tried to copy his shtick ended up on the sharp end of villains' weapons, and would definitely have died if the real deal hadn't swooped in?

It is patently obvious that the Batman as a symbol is not enough to keep crime in check, and the phooey claim that Blake would be able to take over because of that (if that's how you read the film) is plainly ridiculous, because we've already seen what happens when symbolism attempts to trump actual head-kicking superheroism.