7. Bruce Wayne Goes Bankrupt
The Dark Knight Rises is riddled with contextual reference points, particularly a potent allegory of the current financial situation as well as an obvious channeling of the spirit of rebellion that has spread across the globe in the past couple of years. As already qualified, Bane's rise is aided by the financial situation of Gotham; the rich bloated and removed from the plight of the ordinary Gothamites (who are presented as lower class and either struggling or openly criminal). Part of that wider financial context is a power shift within Wayne Enterprises, led by Bruce Wayne's business rival Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn) and propelled by the poor state of the company's finances. Profits have turned into losses - helped by an attack on the stock exchange by Bane - and eventually Wayne loses everything, including his control of his own company and goes bankrupt fairly swiftly. That bankruptcy leads Wayne to seek a wealthy ally to rescue the company, and he turns to Miranda Tate, a philanthropist and Green Energy activist who he and Lucius Fox bring in in order to fund the suppression of the renewable energy programme that they shelved in case it fell into the wrong hands. Fairly key plot point right there...