The Dark Knight Rises - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[clayton]

To prepare for her role as Catwoman, Anne Hathaway worked out five days a week on a regimen that involved vigorous exercise, stunt training, and dancing. She called it her most physically demanding role to date.

[ruby]

Writer, producer, and director Christopher Nolan wanted Marion Cotillard so much for the role of Miranda Tate that he modified the filming schedule to accommodate her pregnancy. When Nolan invited Cotillard for this movie in 2010, she told him that she was pregnant, and didn't know if she would be able to do it, but Nolan decided to keep her in the movie. Cotillard started filming just one month after giving birth, and Nolan also made room on-set for her family. In the last months of filming, Cotillard also shot another movie at the same time in France, Rust and Bone (2012). She was flying back and forth between the U.S. and France to shoot both movies. During an interview for Vogue in August 2012, Nolan marvelled at Cotillard's ability to do her job so soon after giving birth, calling it "amazing to see" and describing her as "Superwoman".

[victoria]

(At around one hour and fifty-five minutes) When Jonathan Crane first appears as the "sentencing judge", he is wearing a heavily tattered coat that looks like it has straw coming out of the shoulders. This was a clear nod to his alter ego, The Scarecrow.

[nina]

(At around one hour and thirty-five minutes) When Bane rips the photo of Harvey Dent in half he does so vertically through the middle of Harvey's face, replicating his transition to Two-Face at the end of The Dark Knight (2008).

[christina]

This is the first Batman movie by Christopher Nolan that did not get an Academy Award nomination, and the second Batman movie (after Batman & Robin (1997)) which did not receive a single nomination.

[ethel]

Each movie from The Dark Knight trilogy is twelve minutes longer than the previous one, (Batman Begins (2005) is two hours and twenty minutes, The Dark Knight (2008) is two hours and thirty-two minutes, and this movie is two hours and forty-four minutes.

[frederick]

Anne Hathaway has revealed that during her audition, she thought that she was auditioning for The Joker's on again-off again girlfriend/partner-in-crime Harley Quinn. It was only after she had a discussion with Christopher Nolan that she found out that she was auditioning for Catwoman.

[alyssa]

At one point, it was rumored that The Penguin was to have been featured as one of this movie's major villains, and would have been played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Writer, producer, and director Christopher Nolan quickly denied the rumors, saying that the character would have been difficult to adapt for his version of Batman.

[bernice]

Selina's method of escaping Wayne Manor is highly reminiscent of a tall tale involving one of Catwoman's inspirations, Hedy Lamarr, who Anne Hathaway studied for the role. Lamarr claimed she escaped her possessive Austrian arms dealer husband by dressing as one of her maids, collecting all of her jewelry, and jumping out of a window.

[claude]

During one of the scenes involving the kangaroo court, Bane can be seen sitting in the rear of the courtroom quietly knitting. Given the numerous allusions to Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" in this movie, this is presumably an allusion to Madame Defarge and her practice of knitting while watching public guillotine executions.

[jeffrey]

(At around forty-five minutes) During the motorcycle chase scene, Bane is wearing a red helmet with black visor, as well as a brown motorcycle jacket. This is the original costume Jason Todd took under his Red Hood persona, which is a callback to The Joker's original criminal identity.

[chad]

In this movie there are a total of six Oscar winners: Christian Bale, Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, and Anne Hathaway; and three Oscar nominees: Tom Conti, Liam Neeson, and Tom Hardy. Additionally, Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal appeared in archive footage, bringing the total nominees to ten, unprecedented in a comic book movie.

[kristina]

At two hours and forty-four minutes long, this is the longest Batman movie released to date, as well as the second longest movie that Christopher Nolan has directed. Interstellar (2014) is his longest at two hours and forty-nine minutes.

[oscar]

The nickname "Catwoman" is never spoken in the movie; rather newspaper articles and police files refer to her as "The Cat". This is in keeping with the original incarnation of the character (not yet named Selina Kyle) who was a jewel thief, and was known only as "The Cat" before becoming "The Catwoman". However, various official merchandise and marketing material refer to Selina Kyle as Catwoman when she is wearing her masked costume. Furthermore, the shooting script refers to Kyle as "Catwoman" when in costume.

[darrell]

(At around thirty minutes) Bruce Wayne's doctor visit, in which the doctor lists off all the degenerative injuries to his body (lack of cartilage, scar tissue, et cetera) and the use of a mechanical knee brace, are reminiscent of Mark Waid's Justice League novel Kingdom Come (set in a hypothetical future), where an older Bruce Wayne requires the use of an exoskeleton to move, due to years of physical wear and tear on his body.

[marc]

During Bane's first encounter with Batman, Bane's footsteps on the steel grating of the walkways produce loud, heavy thuds, while Batman's footsteps make little sound at all. This was done by the sound effects team to further contrast Bane's "brute" style from Batman's "stealth" method of combat.

[carla]

According to costume designer Lindy Hemming, she took two years to design Bane's coat. It was inspired by a Swedish Army jacket and a French Revolution frock coat, to make Bane look equally dictatorial and revolutionary ("like an amalgam of all sorts of bits and pieces he cobbled together as he passed through some very remote places.")

[janice]

The Batsuit consisted of one hundred ten separate pieces. The base layer was made of a polyester mesh, utilized by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers due to its breathability and moisture-retaining properties. Molded pieces of flexible urethane were then attached to the mesh to form the overall body armor plating. Carbon fiberpanels were placed inside the sections on the legs, chest, and abdomen. The cowl was sculpted from a cast of Christian Bale's face and head to become a perfect fit for Bale.

[javier]

The plane used in this movie by the CIA operative to transport Dr. Pavel crashed almost a year after this movie was released. The aircraft, a Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante registered ZS-NVB, crashed on June 29, 2013 in Botswana. The pilot and co-pilot died in the crash.

[tom]

(At around twenty-seven minutes) When Officer Blake talks about "giant alligators" being in the sewer line, this may be an intentional nod towards Batman villain Killer Croc, who Bane out-wrestled to become head of Gotham's gangland.