As loathe as I am to admit it, Batman needs to die. Actually, that’s inaccurate and detrimental to my point: Bruce Wayne needs to die. It’s very important to separate Bruce Wayne and Batman as two individualized entities, something the comics have done to great effect in the last couple of years and also something that Nolan seems to be hinting at (according to the teaser material we’ve seen thus far; I had goosebumps the first time I heard Christian Bale whispering ‘What if [Batman] doesn’t exist anymore?’).
Death closes many doors in the films of Nolan. Not entirely (Inception and, to an extent, The Prestige, cases in point; the latter actually goes an indirect way of defying death as finality), but mostly. Death is a great act of signification to Nolan, and perhaps the ultimate act of sacrifice that Bruce Wayne will need to perform in order to immortalize Batman in the eyes of Gotham.
Isaac and I have discussed our ‘perfect TDKR ending,’ which mostly involves a grey funeral scene as Bruce Wayne is lowered into the ground beside his parents. In attendance are Alfred, Commissioner Gordon (having finally figured out the Batman’s identity), and Lucius Fox. Gordon and Alfred nod knowingly at each other. Over the soundtrack, Hans Zimmer’s ‘Time’ pulses, or perhaps a Batman-ified version. We can live with an unaltered version, though. It sets that perfect somber tone that quickly yet subtly transitions into roaring triumph as the funeral cuts away to a shot of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, having taken over the mantle of the Batman, overlooking Gotham in his new suit. As the final notes intone, Blake/Batman, from behind, stands at the edge of the building, scanning the city below before jumping, arms outstretched, to deliver Gotham from injustice.
SMASH. Credits.
I’m 85% sure Nolan is going to kill Bruce Wayne. I believe the Batman as an identity will remain, in one capacity or another (John Blake makes the most sense to me; I believe Nolan would keep the physically embodied Batman over the memory of him, as he’s doing with Harvey Dent in the form of the Harvey Dent Act that Gordon creates). I believe Gordon will in fact come to know Bruce Wayne’s secret and will be present at the end of the film to do something with that knowledge. Beyond that, I’m not entirely sure.
