3. Batman Doesn't Die, Or Does He...?
Now this one is a contentious area, which has already split fans and critics alike. At the end of the film, Batman is seen to heroically fly off into the distance in the Bat, dragging the fusion core as far out over the bay as possible, despite the autopilot function of the vehicle being broken, as is qualified a number of times throughout the film. He altruistically chooses certain death to save Gotham, flying to as safe a distance as he can before the bomb detonates, vapourising him and sending out a shock wave that seems rather illogically not to cause a massive shockwave or tsunami that would have destroyed at least part of Gotham anyway... All scientific improbabilities aside it's one of those well-versed "hero moments", very similar to Iron Man's apparent hero suicide at the end of Avengers Assemble (a similarity I couldn't resist replaying during the screening), and it does offer that finality that Nolan had insisted would come. But then, that's not the end of the story. During a montage-like sequence following the action, in which we see characters dealing with the aftermath of Bruce Wayne's death - including a very, very touching scene for Michael Caine's Alfred - we see the realisation of a dream the butler mentions earlier in the film. He tells Wayne that during his 7 year absence, he would take a regular holiday and visit the same cafe, and his recurring wish was to see his charge seated at a table with a family, they would acknowledge one another but say nothing, and both would get on with their lives without the spectre of Batman between them. It makes for a strong monologue by Alfred, and gives Bruce Wayne's condition a tragic emotional piquancy that in turn gives the film a little more weight. Wayne is trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle by his sense of duty and his outcome from that moment is sign-posted as painfully inevitable. His death is the only reasonable response to that story arc. However, during that end montage, we see Alfred once more return to the cafe, and as the camera closes in on his face he smiles with recognition in his eyes, which is where the film SHOULD have ended. Instead it cuts to what Alfred can see, Bruce Wayne sitting opposite Selina Kyle at another table, very much alive. This has been explored as a Dream Sequence, since Alfred's fantasy for Bruce Wayne's emancipation from under the Bat-cowl was so profoundly strong, and the fact that Batman couldn't possibly have survived the explosion, no matter how early he ejected from the Bat. The suggestion of course is that Alfred is merely seeing what he wants to see - an imagined after-life for Bruce Wayne. My own feelings are that Bruce Wayne actually did survive - had there not been that tell-tale moment of explanation in which Lucius Fox discovered that Wayne had patched the problem with the Bat's autopilot which was initially presented as the tragic twist to his tale, then the "Dream Sequence Theory" would carry more weight. There's also the fact that Alfred would plainly not imagine Selina Kyle sitting opposite Bruce Wayne - he has very little sense of a blossoming romance between the two from his position, and it would have made more romantic sense for him to simply fabricate an unseen partner, or none at all. It would have been a far more successful ending if Nolan had merely cut at the point we see Alfred smile - another ambiguous offer of hope to fit not only the underlying themes of the film, but also to placate Nolan's own playful attraction to leaving endings open to interpretation.