The Dark Knight Rises: 20 Things You Didn't Know

10. "Now...where was I?"

iwatchstuf It appears that the Dark Knight Trilogy might very well be in the same "continuity" as Christopher Nolan's second film (and his major breakthrough as an indie director), Memento. The doctor who examines Bruce Wayne (€œI€™ve seen worse cartilage in knees€that€™s because there is NO cartilage in your knee€€) is played by Reno 911€™s Thomas Lennon, who made a small appearance in Memento as the doctor who examines Sammy Jankis. €œI like to think I'm exactly the same doctor and it's all happening inside Guy Pearce's mind,€ Lennon said later. €œWhether or not that's true is probably for Nolan to say. I'd like to think that's happening.€ Maybe the World's Finest movie can have a crossover scene, with Batman explaining to Leonard Shelby that vengeance is bad for the soul?

9. €œRestoring Balance to the World€

talia For anyone paying close attention, The Dark Knight Rises€™ script is full of little hints that Marion Cotillard€™s €œMiranda Tate€ is going to turn out to be Talia, the (in this iteration, at least) murderous daughter of Liam Neeson€™s (apparently deceased) Ra€™s al Ghul. In Miranda€™s first scene with Bruce, she talks about €œrestoring balance to the world€, which was pretty much Ra€™s mantra throughout Batman Begins; the ability of Bane€™s men to show up at the worst possible time all throughout The Dark Knight Rises€™ second act is pretty handily explained by the fact that Tate is always present, and always fouling things up. (Notice that the truck she marks off for Gordon and his men is not the truck with the bomb in it.) Even the fact that Miranda has environmentalist sympathies €“ she€™s supporting a clean energy reactor €“ might be a nod back to the comics, where Ra€™s was much more of an ecoterrorist. (And maybe the scene of a shirtless Bruce on the floor post coitus with Miranda is a nod to all those €˜70s comics with Batman as a €œbare chested love God€...? Are we on our way to seeing Damian Wayne on film?)
Contributor

C.B. Jacobson pops up at What Culture every once in a while, and almost without fail manages to embarrass the site with his clumsy writing. When he's not here, he's making movies, or writing about them at http://buddypuddle.blogspot.com.