2. Breaking The Bat
You can't feature Bane in a Batman film and not have him break the Dark Knight's back, that was my immediate thought when it was announced Tom Hardy would portray the villain in The Dark Knight Rises. Nolan one again proved his deference to the source material by doing just that, taking the back breaking scene from Knightfall and putting it onto the big screen in spectacular fashion. Bane is perhaps Batman's most formidable foe in terms of both brains and brawn, and Hardy's Bane more than did him justice, serving up a huge beatdown in his first encounter with the bat. Nolan cuts the music and uses tight shots to really sell the ferocity of the fight, complete with wince-inducing sound effects. But it's Bane's dialogue that really makes for such a great scene as the menacing villain taunts an overpowered Batman. "There's no need to stand on ceremony here.... Mr Wayne." "Oh but we are initiated aren't we Bruce? Members of the League of Shadows." "You fight like a much younger man - admirable, but mistaken." "Ah, you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark, I was born in it." "Ah yes, I was wondering which would break first - your spirit, or your body." There are too many great Bane lines in that scene to quote them all, but they're all delivered in spectacular fashion by Hardy, whose colonial English accent and creates a unique, otherworldly and creepy character.