Question: When Bruce escaped the pit, did he throw the rope down so the rest of the prisoners could escape? I know they helped him, but isn't letting them go free a bad thing (they're prisoners for a reason, some of them could've been rapists like the ones that killed that little girl's mother)? And how did Bruce get to Gotham so fast? Do we know what country the pit is in?
Answer: As far as the country the Pit is in, it's never stated in the film, only that it's in the ancient part of the world. In the comics, Bane was born and lived in the prison Peña Duro, although it doesn't share much with the Pit other than being where Bane was in prison. Peña Duro Is located in the fictional country of Santa Prisca, which is located in the northern part of the Caribbean.
Answer: It should be noted that the Pit was now Bane's. While it's a prison in the sense that the people can't escape, it wasn't specifically filled with criminals convicted of a crime in a legal setting. They were Bane's enemies who had been put there to be tortured. While it's likely some of Bane's enemies were criminals, they were probably free before Bane put them there. Remember, before Bane bought or took over the Pit, Ra's al Ghul had killed the prisoners as revenge for the murder of his wife. Although they also might not have been criminals convicted legally and would have been the Warlord's enemies.
Answer: While the actual pit was a set and Hollywood magic, the exterior of the prison [once Batman escaped] is Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India. A set of circular stones mark the supposed "entrance" to the pit. However, the interior of the prison, which had all of the wall/stairs, have a real life inspiration. Chand Baori, was built in the ninth century, and has 3,500 steps across 13 stories. Apparently, the priests who lived there also liked to chant as they descended the steps to reach water, which sent vibrations through the stairs. (Per Cracked. Com, "5 Mind-Blowing True Stories Behind Famous Movie Locations).
Although this is interesting, this not an answer to the question. I'd recommend to post this again as trivia.
I originally wrote it to answer the second part of the question, as I also wondered where it was set in, but I went overboard with the details. I submitted it to trivia.
Question: When Bruce Wayne steps out of his sports car to enter the fundraiser, a lot of paparazzi start photographing Bruce Wayne then you hear a strange noise and all the photographers cameras shut off/down. Did Bruce Wayne have a gadget to cause this or was it someone else.
Chosen answer: Yes. Bruce is seen to have pressed a device similar to car alarm. It was most likely a small scale electric magnetic pulse. One designed to switch off certain devices (such as cameras). The same technology is used later during the movie when Batman re-appearances during the chase scene (the lights turn off temporarily).
Question: Bane has a nifty facial device that apparently keeps him alive. When Batman damages it a bit, Bane looses power, nearly faints even. Bane is a beefy fellow, but how does he eat?
Answer: The mask doesn't actually keep Bane alive, it feeds him a constant stream of pain-killing gas in order to stop the excruciating pain from his injuries preventing him from functioning normally. When the League of Shadows rescue him from the prison, Bane appears to simply have his face wrapped in bandages, and certainly would have no access to a constant supply of painkillers in that environment. With this in mind, it seems safe to say that he is capable of removing the mask, it's just highly unpleasant for him to do so. Most likely when he wants to eat, he simply mentally prepares himself, takes the mask off and puts up with the pain long enough to finish his meal.
Question: When we go through the scenes of Bruce preparing to come back as Batman and face Bane, we see a nifty little device that helps with Bruce's knee and allows him to demolish rocks with a kick. My question is, why is this device all but forgotten about in the fights against Bane? It's one thing to ignore pain through use of constant painkiller exposure it is entirely another to physically move if the force of such a kick breaks a limb.
Answer: The device is just a high tech leg brace, it merely allows Bruce the ability to use his leg somewhat normally. It does not give Bruce super kicking strength. He does not demolish rocks with his kick, he kicks a brick or two off an old brick structure in the batcave. An impressive display of strength to be sure but hardly superhuman. He would be no more likely to break Bane's bones than he would be without the device.
Question: This has always bothered me, Isn't it very convenient that all the cops go down to the sewers and get trapped on the exact same day that Bane takes over Gotham? How could Bane know that was the day the cops were going to try and capture him in the sewers? I admit I may have missed something.
Chosen answer: No handy coincidence involved, it's all part of the plan. Bane's intentionally luring the police down into the sewers. He's made himself a major threat with his attack on the stock exchange, so he knows that it's only a matter of time before the police launch a major search of the tunnels under Gotham to try to find him. As soon as it becomes obvious that the time has come, and a mobilisation of that size would be impossible to pull off with any stealth (we see the mayor having to fend off questions from the press), Bane puts the rest of the plan into action so that he can be ready to launch his takeover once the police have walked into the trap he set for them.
Question: Each film in this trilogy had its own theme. According to Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins was "Fear," The Dark Knight was "Chaos" and "Escalation." Did he ever say what the theme for The Dark Knight Rises is? I've heard it could be "Redemption" or "Pain."
Answer: Yes, the theme for The Dark Knight Rises is pain.
Question: Did Bruce/Batman plan on faking his death before the flood made reconnecting the bomb impossible? It seemed like before that happened the plan was just to deactivate the bomb, then hopefully things would go back to normal. Does Bruce just realize the opportunity this would create in the last minute and take it? Also, does Bruce have to sneak back into Gotham to tell Selena that they're going to run away and start a new life, because it seems impossible it was a plan they already had worked out as a nuclear bomb was about to go off.
Answer: Well, as no details regarding Bruce's thought processes are given in the film, it's impossible to say for sure, but, no, the most likely chain of events is that he never intended to fake his own death in such a manner, because the aim all along was to reconnect the reactor core and prevent the bomb from ever detonating. Most probably the plan was to eliminate Bane, stop the bomb from going off and then simply retire Batman again, once the city was back on its feet, just as he did before. When the plan to reconnect the reactor core was scuppered, he had to improvise, the result being that the world considers Batman to be dead, rather than simply having disappeared again. And, no, Bruce snuck back into Gotham to stop Bane - given that she betrayed him to Bane, it's pretty unlikely that he had any serious thoughts regarding a new life with Selina at that point. Although he believes that there's more to her than she claims, it's only when she selflessly returns to help him save the city, despite the very real chance of dying in a nuclear blast, that a life together really becomes a possibility.
Question: I have a few questions actually: 1) Who was Miranda Tate's father? They said Ra's al Ghul, which I thought to mean Liam Neeson. Which made sense as they showed Liam at some point as well in a vision to Bruce. But I just watched Batman Begins and Liam doesn't play Ra's al Ghul he plays some dude named Bucard. Ra's al Ghul is actually played by the guy who played Sato in Inception. Also, when you look at Liam's imdb page, it shows he did indeed play Ra's in The Dark Knight Rises, even though it shows him playing a different character in Batman Begins. Huh? 2) Smaller question but just before the plane crashes in the beginning Bane takes blood from Dr Pavel. There's no explanation of what that was about? 3) How does going on the ice kill you? Do we take this to mean at some point the ice cracks? 4) There was a suggestion at the end that there'll be another movie, not sure if with just Robin, or both Batman and Robin. Is that actually happening?
Answer: 1) Liam Neeson's casting as Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins was kept secret, including crediting him as playing Henri Ducard, the name he gives Bruce when they first meet. He isn't revealed as the actual Ra's Al Ghul until later in the film as a surprise to both Bruce and the audience. 2) Bane draws some of Dr. Pavel's blood and injects it into an already dead body in order to help fake Dr. Pavel's death. The plan was to make it look like he died in the plane crash. 3) The ice cracks under the weight and you sink into the freezing cold water and drown. This is specifically shown happening in the film. 4) The ending implies not that there will be a new film (Christopher Nolan planned the trilogy to have a definite end with this particular film), but that Gotham would always need a Batman. It implies that Blake will be the new hero Gotham needs as Bruce is retired.
Question: The part where Talia's mother gets attacked and the doctor forgets to lock the cell, why did he need to lock the cell, and why did they attack her? Were there no other women in the Pit?
Chosen answer: The prison had a very large male population. It didn't appear to hold too many women. Thus, though it is never stated in the film, she was obviously always in danger of being physically attacked or sexually assaulted by prisoners. Hence, her cell door needed to be locked.
Question: How exactly does Batman acquire the "Clean Slate" that Catwoman has been looking for the whole movie, and from whom? Daggett suggests that it's a little too good to be true, so is it even real?
Answer: Daggett suggests that it's too good to be true because he believes that it doesn't exist; that it was in development, but it never worked. From what we see in the movie, however, it seems that that's a cover, that Bruce obtained the "Clean Slate" in order to keep it out of the wrong hands. Exactly how he did that is unclear - most likely he covertly bought up the company developing it, Rykin Data, moved all the project materials to somewhere secure, paid the developers handsomely to sign strict confidentiality agreements, then let Daggett buy the company to find that the "Clean Slate" wasn't there, leading him to believe that it was simply a gangland myth.
Question: Why did Bane take blood from the professor on the airplane at the beginning?
Answer: He needs people to believe that the professor is dead. He therefore takes some of his blood and puts it into the body they're carrying with them, so that there'll be evidence that the professor died in the crash.
Question: Why aren't the police officers' uniforms dirty, and how are they clean shaven, after being trapped in the sewers for so long?
Answer: They were getting care packages from Gordon. This was shown.
Question: When Officer Blake leaves Wayne Manor after telling Bruce Wayne that he knows he is Batman and that funding has stopped to the Smithens Boys' Home, Bruce asks Alfred "Have you run that name? Bane?" and Alfred responds with his findings. How did Bruce hear of Bane in the first place? Nowhere prior in the movie is Bane ever mentioned to Bruce. It's not mentioned by Selina Kyle, by Officer Blake and there is no news media mentioning anything. How did Bruce come-about asking Alfred to run Bane's name in the first place? (00:29:22)
Answer: Officer Blake does mention the name Bane to Bruce when visiting him (Blake says Gordon was babbling about an army and a masked man named Bane). That seemed to be his primary purpose coming over, to get Batman to help fight Bane. When Blake is at the door about to leave, the scene cuts to him outside walking to his car, so we don't know how much time passes. And while we don't see Alfred, it was possible he was listening. I don't know if there was a cut scene, but in the film it does seem there's meant to be enough time for Alfred to do a quick check on the name.
Answer: Officer Blake did in fact mention Bane to him, in the conversation that they just had. At the start of the conversation, Bruce asks "What can I do for you, officer", then Blake tells him Commissioner Gordon's been shot. After saying that, Blake says "He chased a gunman down into the sewers. When I pulled him out, he was babbling about an underground army. A masked man called Bane." That was how Bruce found out about Bane. (This line is said at 00:26:47).
Answer: Yes, he threw the rope to let the prisoners out. It may have been a dumb move on his part, although there is the potential that numerous prisoners there were also wrongfully imprisoned by Bane, and Bruce is intimately familiar with the criminal world and mindset - he may have simply judged that the remaining prisoners in the pit were worth freeing. Bruce has connections all over the planet, any company, or one could have dropped off billionaire Bruce Wayne back off at the states. It is never mentioned where the prison is located.
MasterOfAll