The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Most people think so. 82% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 82%.

Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent's crimes to protect the late attorney's reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years later, Batman encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and the villainous Bane, a new terrorist leader who overwhelms Gotham's finest. The Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy. Wikipedia ↗

The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 British-American superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, serving as the epic conclusion to his acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy. Set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the film finds Bruce Wayne as a reclusive figure who has retired from crime-fighting. When the masked terrorist Bane, played by Tom Hardy, emerges with a plan to destroy Gotham City, Wayne is forced to return as Batman for one final confrontation.

The film also stars Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, a skilled cat burglar whose ambiguous allegiances complicate Batman's mission. The production was overshadowed by the tragic mass shooting at a midnight screening in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, 2012, which killed twelve people and injured seventy others — an event that profoundly affected the cast, crew, and the broader cultural reception of the film. Despite this tragedy, The Dark Knight Rises earned $1.08 billion worldwide.

Tom Hardy's portrayal of Bane, with his distinctive mask and distorted voice, initially divided audiences but became iconic over time. Christopher Nolan employed IMAX cameras more extensively than in any previous film, with over an hour of footage shot in the large format. The film's themes of revolution, class warfare, and personal sacrifice resonated with contemporary political movements, and its climactic sequence remains one of the most ambitious finales in superhero cinema.

Nolan's decision to definitively end Batman's story was unusual for the genre and gave the trilogy a sense of narrative completeness rare in franchise filmmaking.