Granted, there might not be quite as many "iconic" moments inherent to The Dark Knight Rises as its predecessor, The Dark Knight, but there is one stand-out sequence that defines the very word: the one in which Bruce Wayne, defeated and broken and reduced to a shadow of his former self, manages to do the impossible and escapes from "The Pit," where Bane (Tom Hardy) has left him to rot. This also happens to be the moment in which the movie really "kicks" into gear, soaring towards the finale. After Bruce Wayne takes on Bane in the sewers of Gotham, you see, the villain breaks his back and transports our hero to somewhere unknown, presumably in the Middle-East, where he's held captive in a prison at the bottom of a pit. Captives are invited to escape whenever they want, but must navigate a treacherous climb in which missing the final jump (near impossible as it is) results in certain death. Only by giving into his fears and jumping without a harness allows Batman to escape. Like we doubted he would, though - he's freakin' Batman!
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
