Synopsis:

The Dark Knight Rises has some of the strongest elements of the trilogy, but is ultimately weighed down by its bloated running time, illogical narrative (especially in the 3rd act), jokey one-liners, and arguably, the failure to stick the landing in the film's final moments. This edit aims to strip down the finale of Nolan's trilogy to its core, emphasising the stronger aspects of the story and hopefully offering a more emotionally satisfying conclusion to Batman's story as a whole.

Intentions:

This series of edits intends to streamline Nolan's Batman films, keeping the tone consistent throughout and emphasizing the strongest elements of the series.

Change List:

GENERAL GOALS: - Keep the movie moving, and remove scenes/characters unnecessary to moving the plot forward. - cut out Deputy Commissioner Foley and Selina's girlfriend from the movie as much as possible. - Simplify Bane's plan. He wants to terrorize and destroy Gotham, as has always been the plan of the league of shadows. - Removal of all references to Occupy wall street/99%, rich being overthrown by the poor, people's court etc. - Decrease Batman's poorly performed dialogue where possible. - Cut back on needless exposition/bad jokes. - Make the police less stupid. - Reconstruct the ending to have Batman actually die. No Hollywood happy endings. FULL CUTLIST: - Cut CIA agent’s, “Why does he wear the mask?”. That’s the question you’re willing to threaten someone with death for? Now he just says, “Tell me about Bane.” - Cut Mayor’s, “Now there’s talk of repealing the Dent act, and to that I say, not on my watch” - Cut almost all scenes throughout featuring Matthew Modine’s Deputy Commissioner, Foley. His character is grating and smarmy, adding little to the film’s central narrative. - Simplified Gordon’s speech, cutting “I have a speech telling the truth about Harvey Dent, maybe the time isn’t right. Maybe right now all you need to know is that there are 1,000 inmates in Blackgate prison as a direct result of the Dent act. These are violent criminals, essential cogs in the organised crime machine.” - Cut Alfred’s story to Bruce in the Batcave about going on holiday during his absence, hoping to see him there in a café happy with kids and family. - Cut all scenes of Selina’s girlfriend, as she adds literally nothing to the plot. - Cut “Call me” joke, after Selina tells congressman to keep pressure on his gunshot wound. - Cut Bane’s henchman searching Gordon in the underground lair. Bane’s reading of the speech has been deleted later, so no need to see it revealed here. - Shortened dialogue between Bane and Henchman, cutting “The water runs to any one of the outflows”. - Trimmed Selina and Bruce’s dance conversation, cutting: “I take what I need from those with more than enough, I don’t stand on the shoulders of people with less.” “Robin Hood?” “I think I do more to help people than most of the people in this room, thank you.” “You think maybe you’re assuming too much?” “Maybe you’re being unrealistic about what’s really in your pants other than your wallet.” “Ouch.” - Also cut “There’s a storm coming Mr Wayne. You and your friends better baton down the hatches, because when it hits, you’re gonna wonder how you could have lived so large, and left so little for the rest of us.” “Sound like you’re looking forward to it.” - Cut Lucius mention of Miranda being “quite lovely”, and “we all just want what’s best -for you Bruce.” - Cut all references to the Bat’s autopilot when Lucius shows Bruce “The Bat”. - Cut Alfred’s, “Sometimes, something rises from the darkness” - Cut unnecessary exposition: “Your mentor.” “Bane was a member of the league of shadows?” “And then he was excommunicated.” - Changed Alfred's, "Any man who is too extreme for Raz al Gul" to "Any man who was trained by Raz al Gul.", since I have deleted all references during exposition of Bane being excommunicated from League of Shadows. - Cut stockholders talking about stock prices: “Wayne coming back is change. Change is either good or bad. I vote bad.” How did you decide? I flipped a coin. - Cut Foley and banker conversation outside during Bane’s attack. “I’m not risking my men for your money” “It’s not our money, it’s everybody’s!” - Cut one shot of police cars arriving at the scene, and a shot of snipers on the roof. - Cut Henchman’s: “They cut the fiber. It’s still working” Bane: “For now”. - Cut cops “shoot the tires! There’s no shot…” - “Cut Foley’s, “Back off, back off they’ve got hostages!” - Cut policeman’s “What’s wrong with the lights?” “”What the hell was that?” Oh boy, are you in for a show tonight son!” - Cut cop nervously shooting batman’s ECG gun, “Sorry…” “Put that thing away before you hurt yourself!”. - Cut Foley and Blake’s dialogue, “I’m gonna do what Jim Gordon never could” “What’s that?” “I’m gonna take down the Batman!” - Cut “Sir, but what about the armed robbers?” - Cut, “He’s getting away!” “Who do you wanna catch, huh? Some robber, or the son of a bitch you killed Harvey Dent?” - Cut, “We lost him” “How could you lose him?” “He’s got a lot of fire power.” “What and you don’t?” - Cut, “He’s heading downtown.” “Then he’s as dumb as he dresses. Close it off gentlemen.” - Cut Dagart’s needless exposition to Catwoman: “The ultimate tool for a master jewel thief!” - Shortened dialogue between Batman and Catwoman, cutting “See you around!” “You’re Welcome” “I had it under control” “Those weren’t street thugs, they were trained killers. I saved your life. In return,…” - Cut Batman’s joke: “Ms Kyle? So that’s what that feels like…” - Cut Alfred’s “I see the power of belief” - Cut bruce/Alfred, “You said he was excommunicated.” “By Raz al Gul. Who leads them now?” - Cut Bruce arguing with Selina’s girlfriend outside her apartment - Cut Batman to Selina, “I acquired it to keep it out of the wrong hands”. - Cut Batman to Bane, “You were excommunicated by a gang of psychopaths” - Cut Foley and Gordon’s, “remind me to tell detail to keep hot heads out” and “we could use some hotter heads around here!” - Moved scene of Blake visiting Gordon in hospital to discuss the tunnels and getting a promotion to detective to after the Batman/Bane fight. - Cut Miranda and Bruce’s rain-soaked love scene/dialogue by the fireside at Wayne Manor. - Cut Blake knocking at Wayne Manor with no answer. - Cut Dr Pavel’s stating the obvious, “This is now a 4 mega-tonne nuclear bomb!” - Replaced audio/music/sound effects for football stadium and bane’s bomb reveal scenes. - Cut Star Spangled banner before football match. - Cut some of the explosions around the city to keep the pace moving - Cut one of the wide shots of bridges being blown up. - Cut “take control. Take control of your city!” - Cut “now we come here not as conquerors but as liberators to return control of the city to the people”. - Cut “Tomorrow you claim what is rightfully yours”. - Cut CIA’s exposition: “Pull back the fighters, start high level reconnaissance flights, get the president on the line”. - Cut “tanks and planes cannot stop us from detonating our device. Send and emissary to discuss turns of access for supplies and communication. - Cut “Bane says he’s given Gotham back to the people. They need to know I could lead.” - Also “Bane would lever let that happen” “He’ll show his true colours” “and you’ll be dead” - Substantially trimmed Bane’s monologue to the injured Bruce to exclude all mention of - Giving Gotham hope to create true despair (“There’s a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth. Hope. Everyman who has been in here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy. So simple. And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without Hope. So as I terrorise Gotham I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe that they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to stay in the sun.” - Cut convo between Selina and girlfriend in wrecked house. “This was someone’s home. Now it’s everyone’s home”. There’s a storm coming remember, this is what you wanted.” - Cut Blake and Orphanage director “Any news of the commissioner? The less you know the better” Also cut “how’re the boys doing?” “ok, they have some tv etc” - Cut exposition about the bomb, “they already know, and it will go off in 23 days regardless of Bane’s revolution or what we or the outside world choose to do.” - Your appeasement plan might not be as practical as you thought” - Cut Blake rescuing Tate from shootout. - Cut “There were people living upstairs.” “Round them up for judgement!” - BIG CUT: all peoples’ court/exile scenes. - Cut Gordon confronting coward Foley at his home. - Cut Talia from helping Gordon track the bomb, now we can assume she was arrested when trying to meet the police. - Cut Gordon getting arrested, and his subsequent ‘trial’ and exile/death, ice scene. - Cut Wayne to Talia “ I won’t forget you” “I know” - Cut Wayne/Lucius “Fly ok? “Yeah, even without the autopilot” - Cut Batman lighting up bridge with batsignal made of fire. - Cut Foley’s son/Foley looking at flaming bat signal out the window. - Cut Bane’s reaction: Impossible! He’ll come for her first. - Cut Salinas’s “you gonna wage a war to save your stuck up girlfriend?” - Cut Batman’s crazy screaming at Bane :WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IT? WHERE”S THE TRIGGER? YOU WOULD NEVER GIVE IT TO AN ORDINARY CITIZEN? WHERE IS IT? Etc” - Cut Talia’s “and though I’m not ordinary, I’m a citizen”. - Cut Blake’s argument with the policeman to try and get the bus across the bridge. - Shortened lingering shot over Foley’s dead body. - Cut Lucius’ “nothing like a little air superiority!” - Cut police blowing up the bridge to stop children crossing. - Cut Selina’s “Take it out over the water and then eject?” B: “No Autopilot!” - Cut Agent’s “That’s detonation!” - Cut Agent’s “It’s out over the bay, it’s clear of the city!” - Cut shots of police/children cheering/celebrating when the bomb goes off. Want to keep this a sombre moment. - Cut wide shot of bridge blown up, and nuclear cloud in the distance. - Cut Blake throwing away his police badge - Reordered reaction shots after the blast - Horizontally flipped shot of Blake looking out over the Bay, to keep him looking out at the bomb blast. Also slowed shot down to linger on Blake’s reflecting a little longer. - Cut part of Gordon’s funeral speech to fit new sequence of shots. - Cut conversation between Gordon and Blake about quitting the force: “You know what you said about systems becoming shackles? I can’t take it, the injustice…” etc. - Cut ‘Robin’ reference. - Cut Lucius’ autopilot scene - Cut Alfred at Café in Florence completely. Bruce is dead. - Rebuilt sound effects/replaced soundtrack over new scene order. - Reordered/extended scenes of Blake entering Batcave and Gordon revealing new batsignal to better fit music. - Added final shot of Blake in the batsuit overlooking Gotham, with Liam Neeson’s “Legend, Mr Wayne” voiceover. - Replaced ‘The Dark Knight Rises' title card with Dark Knight Saga Recut – Part III. - Added Bill Finger as co-creator of Batman in the end credits

Additional Notes:

Editing Software: Premiere Pro CS6, Encore CS6, DVDFab, Bigasoft Audio Converter, Photoshop.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Dwight Fry and INH5 for their wonderful ideas and feedback.