11. Bane Breaks The Bat
Probably the least surprising moment in the film for forward-looking fans, thanks to the hints made by the early marketing material (and particularly that broken Bat cowl), and what we knew of the approach Nolan was taking to the character. Rather than going with Joel Schumacher's overly-camp and grotesque portrayal of the super-villain as a neon-tinged luchador with green blood and an almighty case of roid rage, Nolan took him in the right direction. Bane should always have been considered Batman's equal, a walking behemoth of power and speed with a tactical brain and supreme intellect who could and indeed had bested the Bat in combat, leading to one of the most iconic images in Batman's history - of a broken Bat lain across the villain's knee. Tom Hardy had already fuelled the rumours that we would see that image in the film by playfully posing for this picture with a cast member...
And it does indeed happen in the film: led to Bane's underground lair by Selina Kyle (who at this stage remains a conflicted anti-hero drawn more to self-preservation rather than altruism) and then forced to fight Bane, who overcomes him with relative ease, before lifting his prone body above his head and smashing him down over his knee to break his back. As if that wasn't enough, he then unceremoniously throws Bruce Wayne, minus his suit and cowl, into the inescapable prison he grew up in to watch Gotham's destruction on a tiny screen in his cell. Bane wants to destroy Wayne's soul by forcing him to helplessly watch his city disintegrate (the "more severe" punishment he mentioned in the trailer), and the broken bones in his back form an important part of that plan. It is a particularly poignant sequence, not only for that fan-baiting image of the back-break itself. The only reservation is that the impact of the iconic moment is a little undermined by how quickly Wayne shakes off his injuries to emerge unscathed from the prison.