| abstract
| - As a child, Bruce Wayne falls into an abandoned well filled with bats, causing him to develop a phobia. Soon afterward, he witnesses his parents' murder at the hands of mugger Joe Chill, leaving him to be raised by the family's butler Alfred Pennyworth. Years later, Chill is granted parole in exchange for agreeing to testify against crime boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce, now a young man, goes to the courthouse intending to shoot Chill, but one of Falcone's assassins does so first. Bruce confides in his childhood friend Rachel Dawes, now a Gotham City assistant district attorney, who is disgusted by Bruce's desire for vengeance. Bruce leaves Gotham to learn the ways of the criminal underworld, in hopes of learning skills that will allow him to return to Gotham and free it from the crime and corruption that threaten to consume it. In a Bhutanese prison, he meets Henri Ducard, who offers to train him as a ninja of the League of Shadows led by Ra's al Ghul. As he completes his training, Bruce learns of the League's true intentions: to liberate Gotham from the evils that plague it by destroying the city. He burns down the League's temple, killing Ra's in the process, while saving Ducard's life. Bruce returns to Gotham. While publicly posing as a reckless playboy, he takes an interest in his family's company, Wayne Enterprises, a technology and defense conglomerate run by the unscrupulous CEO William Earle, who intends to take the company public. Bruce meets Lucius Fox, who introduces him to the company's experimental prototype technologies, including an armored car and protective bodysuit, which Bruce uses to form his crime-fighting persona, Batman. As Batman, Bruce intercepts an illegal drug shipment, empowering Sgt. James Gordon and the Gotham police to arrest the previously untouchable Falcone. Meanwhile, a Wayne Enterprises cargo ship is raided and an experimental weapon is stolen, a "Microwave Emitter" that uses microwaves to vaporize an enemy's water supply. Back in Gotham, Falcone and his henchmen are declared mentally unfit for trial and transferred to Arkham Asylum by the corrupt Dr. Jonathan Crane, who had been using Falcone to import a dangerous hallucinogenic drug that causes severe psychosis. Crane exposes Falcone to the toxin while wearing a burlap mask, driving Falcone insane with fear of the "Scarecrow." While investigating Crane, Batman is also exposed to the drug and is rescued by Alfred and given an antidote by Fox. Rachel goes to Arkham, where Crane reveals that he has been dumping the toxin into Gotham's water supply before dosing her with it. She is rescued by Batman, who exposes Crane to the toxin and interrogates him. Crane reveals that the toxin is only dangerous if inhaled. Batman inoculates Rachel and gives her two vials of the antidote, one for Gordon and one for mass production. At his birthday celebration at Wayne Manor, Bruce is confronted by Ducard, who reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Ghul. Feigning drunkenness, Bruce kicks his guests out so they'll be safe, leaving him alone with Ra's and his ninjas. Ra's reveals the League's plan to destroy Gotham: having stolen the Microwave Emitter and conspired with Crane, they intend to vaporize the city's toxin-riddled water supply, creating mass hysteria and violence. The League sets fire to the mansion and Bruce is nearly trapped inside, but Alfred saves him at the last minute. As the League begins unleashing the toxin, Batman rescues Rachel from a drug-induced mob and reveals his true identity to her. He entrusts Gordon with the Tumbler and pursues Ra's, who is using Gotham's train system to deliver the weapon throughout the city. Batman confronts Ra's on the train and escapes just as Gordon uses the Tumbler to destroy the elevated tracks, leaving Ra's to die in the ensuing crash. Batman becomes a public hero, but simultaneously loses Rachel, who cannot bring herself to love both Bruce and Batman. Bruce buys a controlling stake in the now publicly traded Wayne Enterprises, fires Earle, and replaces him with Fox. Jim Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant, showing Batman the Bat-Signal and mentions a costumed criminal who leaves Joker playing cards at crime scenes. Batman promises to investigate this new criminal while disappearing into the night. In Gotham City, the Joker and his accomplices rob a mob-owned bank. After orchestrating their deaths, he escapes alone. Batman and Lieutenant Jim Gordon decide to include the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, who is dating Rachel Dawes, in their plan to take on the Mafia. Impressed with Dent's idealism, Bruce Wayne offers to throw him a fundraiser. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and The Chechen are informed by Lau, a Chinese accountant, that he has hidden their funds and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts the meeting, warns them that Batman is unhindered by jurisdiction, and offers to kill Batman for half their money. The mob bosses refuse, and Gambol puts a bounty on the Joker. Later, the Joker kills Gambol and takes control of his gang, while Batman captures Lau and delivers him back to Gotham, where he agrees to testify. The Joker issues an ultimatum that people will die each day unless Batman reveals his identity; he makes good on the threat by killing Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trials. The Joker targets Dent at the fundraiser but Bruce hides him, while Rachel is looked after by Alfred Pennyworth. The Joker tries to assassinate Mayor Garcia during Loeb's memorial service, but Gordon foils the attempt, apparently sacrificing himself in the process. As a result, Bruce plans to reveal his identity, but Dent instead names himself as Batman to protect the truth. Dent is taken into protective custody and pursued by the Joker across the city as Batman rushes to aid. Gordon, who faked his death, helps apprehend the Joker and is promoted to Commissioner. However, Dent and Rachel disappear. Batman interrogates the Joker and learns each are in separate buildings filled with explosives. Batman finds Dent moments before the buildings explode, killing Rachel and scarring half of Dent's face. The Joker then uses a bomb to escape from the police department with Lau. Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces Batman's secret identity and plans to blackmail him. The Joker kills Lau and The Chechen, and threatens to bomb a hospital unless Reese is killed. Gordon rescues Reese, while the Joker visits Dent in the hospital, convincing him to get revenge. Dent uses his burned lucky coin to decide the fates of those responsible for Rachel's death, killing Maroni and two corrupt cops who had helped kidnap Rachel. After blowing up the hospital and escaping with hostages, the Joker gives two explosive rigged ferries, one of citizens and the other of Arkham Asylum inmates, the choice to blow the other up until midnight—otherwise, both will explode. Batman asks a reluctant Lucius Fox to use a city-wide tracking device to find the Joker; Fox agrees, but says he will resign immediately afterward. Batman rescues the hostages, who are disguised as Joker's gang, by fighting off the Joker's real men and Gordon's SWAT team. The ferry passengers refuse to kill each other, and are saved as Batman apprehends the Joker. Nevertheless, the Joker gloats that he has won, as the citizens of Gotham will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge. Batman leaves to find Dent as the Joker is taken into custody. Dent lures Gordon to the building where Rachel died and holds his family hostage, as Batman confronts him. Dent judges the fates of Batman, himself, and Gordon's son with three coin flips. As a result, he shoots Batman in the abdomen, spares himself and flips to determine the boy's fate. Batman, who is wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building before Dent can kill the boy, resulting in Dent's death. Batman convinces Gordon to hold him publicly responsible for the murders so that Dent will remain a symbol of hope for the city. A manhunt for Batman ensues, as he escapes on the Batpod. Alfred burns a letter written by Rachel to Bruce announcing her engagement to Dent, Fox watches the signal tracker self-destruct and Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal before delivering a eulogy at Dent's funeral. Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham City is in a state of peace. Under powers granted by the Dent Act—legislation inspired by the late Harvey Dent—Commissioner James Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department have nearly eradicated violent and organized crime. Gordon feels guilty about the cover-up of Dent's crimes, and writes a resignation speech confessing the truth; however, he decides that the city is not ready to hear it. While following a lead in the abduction of a congressman, Gordon is captured and his speech falls into the hands of the terrorist Bane. Gordon is shot while escaping and is found by patrol officer John Blake. While recuperating, Gordon promotes Blake to detective, allowing Blake to report directly to him. As Batman has disappeared from Gotham, so too has Bruce Wayne, becoming a recluse. Wayne Enterprises is nearly bankrupt after he invested in board member Miranda Tate's clean energy project, designed to harness fusion power, and then shut it down after learning that the core could be modified into a nuclear weapon. Both Blake—who has deduced Batman's identity—and Gordon implore Batman to return. Bane attacks the stock exchange and bankrupts Bruce, forcing him to relinquish control of Wayne Enterprises. Correctly suspecting that his business rival, John Daggett, employed Bane to aid in this hostile takeover, Bruce entrusts Tate to keep full control out of Daggett's hands. However, Bane has other plans and kills Daggett to take control of his construction empire. Cat burglar Selina Kyle leads Batman to Bane, who reveals that he took control of the League of Shadows following Ra's al Ghul's death. Bane and Batman fight, but Bane dominates Batman, breaking his back. Batman is sent to a foreign prison under Bane's control from which escape is virtually impossible. The inmates relate the story of how Ra's al Ghul's child was the only person to ever escape the prison; Batman believes that the child was Bane. Meanwhile, Bane lures most of Gotham's police force underground and sets off explosions across the city, trapping the officers. Using weapons and artillery stolen from Wayne Enterprises, he turns Gotham into an isolated city-state. Any attempt to leave the city will result in the detonation of the fusion core, now converted into a bomb. Bane publicly reveals the cover-up of Dent's crimes and releases the prisoners in Blackgate Prison who were prosecuted under the Dent Act. The rich and powerful are brought before a show trial presided over by Jonathan Crane and given the choice between death and exile. Over the course of five months, Bruce recovers from his injuries and retrains himself. He successfully escapes the prison and returns to Gotham, enlisting Selina, Blake, Tate, Gordon and Lucius Fox to help liberate the city and stop the fusion bomb. As Batman, he subdues Bane, but Tate intervenes and reveals herself to be Ra's al Ghul's daughter Talia. It was she who escaped the prison as a child, returning with her father and the League of Shadows to rescue Bane, the one person who aided her in prison. She plans to complete her father's work by destroying Gotham while avenging his death at Bruce's hands. Gordon destroys the bomb's remote detonator, while Selina kills Bane. Batman tries to force Talia to take the bomb to the fusion chamber where it can be stabilized, but she remotely floods the chamber. Talia crashes the truck, and taunts Batman as she dies that the bomb will still go off. Using an aircraft developed by Fox, Batman hauls the bomb beyond the city limits, where it detonates over the ocean and apparently kills him. Batman is later praised as a hero, while Bruce is presumed killed in the riots. After Bruce's funeral, Blake wants to reveal Batman's identity to the world as a tribute to Bruce, but Gordon reminds him that Batman's anonymity gives people hope that anyone can take a stand. Gordon later finds that the Bat-Signal has been repaired. The Wayne estate is divided up to cover any debts, with the manor left in the city's possession to become an orphanage and the rest going to Alfred Pennyworth. Fox discovers that Bruce programmed the autopilot on the aircraft six months prior. Alfred witnesses Bruce and Selina alive together at a café in Italy, while Blake inherits the Batcave.
- Following the critical failure and box-office disappointment of Batman & Robin (1997), Warner Bros. rebooted the film franchise. The trilogy stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Each film in the series was a box-office success, in particular the second and third films, which both earned over $1 billion worldwide. In addition, the trilogy has gained widespread recognition as being the crowning achievement of the superhero genre.[citation needed] Batman: Gotham Knight, released direct-to-video in July 2008, is a collection of animated shorts set in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Because the trilogy was meant to be a stand-alone series, the character is set to be rebooted once again for the upcoming DC Extended Universe, starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016.
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