Intrigue

Bane, a former member of the League of Shadows, leads an attack on a CIA plane over Uzbekistan to abduct nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel and fake Pavel's death in the plane crash. Bane's team approaches the CIA flight mid-air, and fast-rope out of a C-130 Hercules. They land on the small plane's wings and shoot out the side windows with guns. The henchmen attach cables to the plane with hooks behind the wings, and plant bombs in the fuselage. As the plane begins to nosedive, the stress tears the wings off. Two henchmen then climb up and set off charges to blow off the tail section. The mercenaries also lower in a body bag containing the corpse of a man who resembles Dr. Pavel. Bane grabs Dr. Pavel and pulls out a small tube with needles on both ends. He inserts one end into Dr. Pavel's arm and the other into the corpse and starts to perform a blood transfer. Bane attaches the harness to himself and Dr. Pavel. He sets off a detonator, which releases the fuselage. Bane and Dr. Pavel are then reeled up into the bigger plane.

Eight years after the death of district attorney Harvey Dent, the Dent Act grants the Gotham City Police Department powers which nearly eradicate organized crime. Police Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) feels increasingly guilty for covering up the crimes committed by Dent, who was turned into a murderer by the Joker. He writes a resignation speech confessing the truth but decides not to use it. His Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley (Matthew Modine) talks with the city's congressman Byron Gilly (Brett Cullen), who informs him that with the drop in crime, Gordon is "a war hero in peacetime", and the mayor plans on dumping him in the spring. Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy investor, and businessman John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn) try to meet the reclusive Bruce to get him to invest in her clean energy project, but are unable to meet him.

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse in his mansion, broken by the death of Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and has retired as Batman after taking the blame for Dent's crimes, as well as Dent's death. Wayne Enterprises has stagnated as a result.

Bane conspires to help Wayne Enterprises board member John Daggett take over the company, and they begin by trying to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) obtains Bruce's fingerprints from his home and kidnaps congressman Byron Gilley (Brett Cullen). Selina broke into the Wayne mansion to pick Bruce's fingerprints and also steals his mother's pearl necklace by cracking his safe.

Bruce notes that by using the pearls' tracking device, he was able to get their thief's address and cross-reference it with police information to produce Selina's name. Selina is a master jewel thief nicknamed as "the Cat". Alfred suggests that Bruce go out with Selina and move on from the grief he's had over Rachel's death eight years ago.

Officer Blake and his partner Officer Tyler Ross (Reggie Lee) show up at a sewage treatment plant, where a dead body has washed up out of one of the tunnels. Blake recognizes the body as that of a kid staying at St. Swithin's orphanage. Blake has a very close relationship with the orphanage and with Father Reilly (Chris Ellis), the warden, as he grew up in that orphanage, which had been funded by the Wayne Foundation until recently. One of the kids at the orphanage informs him that the sewers provide good employment, which makes Blake suspicious.

Selina sells the fingerprints to Phillip Stryver (Burn Gorman), an assistant to Bruce's business rival John Daggett. In return, she requests her payment: a 'clean slate' that can wipe all traces of a person from the internet. Stryver double-crosses Selina, but she uses Gilley's phone to alert the police to their location.

Gordon and the police arrive to find the congressman and then pursue Stryver's men into the sewers while Selina flees. The police attempt to follow them into the sewers, but the men that enter the sewers are killed, and Gordon is captured, while the rest of the police are gunned down by sniper fire.

The assailants drag Gordon to Bane (Tom Hardy), a masked mercenary, who has him searched and finds his resignation speech. Bane's men open fire on Gordon as he floats away, hitting him several times. Gordon escapes and is found by John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a patrol officer. Blake jumps out of his car near the sewer outlet, and rushes to the exit grate, where he finds Gordon, soaked and barely clinging onto life. John Blake is an orphan who has deduced Bruce's secret identity. Blake's mother died in a car accident, and a few years later, his father was shot dead in a gambling dispute. He's figured out Bruce's identity from the fact that while growing up as an orphan, Blake learned to smile in the mirror to hide his anger.

Gordon promotes Blake to detective, with Blake reporting directly to him. Blake meets Bruce and tells him about Bane kidnapping Gordon. He reveals that Bane was mentored by Ra's Al Ghul, the same man who mentored Bruce, & the one who tried to destroy Gotham. Alfred mentions that Bane is a mercenary, and it is known that he and his men carried out a coup in a West African country that secured diamond mining operations for Daggett. Bruce asks Alfred why his foundation stopped funding Blake's orphanage, and Alfred reveals that the Wayne Foundation is funded by Wayne Enterprises profits. Bruce meets Gordon and fears that Bane is after the same mission. Bruce sees Blake's argument to come out of isolation.

Bruce next tracks down Selina Kyle to her apartment in a rundown neighborhood, using the tracking device planted in his mother's necklace. Bruce ends up tailing Selina to a gala costume ball. Bruce cuts in with Selina's dancing partner as the next routine begins. She is annoyed that he came. As they slowly waltz, Selina reveals her desire to get a fresh start, and claims she wants to see the rich lose and the city burn. Bruce tells her that all of her assumptions of him are wrong. Selina tells him that there's a storm coming, having some knowledge of Bane's plans.

Meanwhile Bruce meets Fox & sees the new weapons that could allow him to become Batman once again. He takes Bruce down to the R&D department and shows him a new toy - a sleek flying aircraft. It is a U.S. army project designed for urban combat, with rotors that make it capable of navigating between buildings without re-circulation. The project, which has a long project designation, is one that Fox simply nicknames "the Bat". Alfred is not happy with Bruce taking up the Batman mantle again. Alfred says that Bane escaped from a middle eastern prison known for brutality and simply called the "Pits of Hell." Bane then became a member of the League of Shadows and was trained by Ra's Al-Ghul. Bane was excommunicated from the group for extreme behavior beyond the boundaries of the League.

Bane and multiple accomplices attack the Gotham Stock Exchange, using Bruce's fingerprints in a transaction that bankrupts Bruce.

Selina breaks into Daggett's safe looking for the Clean Slate software program, which has the potential to expunge her criminal record. She is using special safe-cracking goggles that flip up and look like cat ears when she is not using them. When she opens the safe, she is enraged to find that it is empty. Catwoman/Selina attacks Daggett in response to him double crossing her. Selina pins Daggett down, and jams Stryver's pistol into his neck, trying to get him to talk. Daggett admits that he lied about the Clean Slate, which he considered a "gangland myth". As Selina tries to control herself and takes this in, Bane's men surround her. Batman helps her, when she gets into trouble and they both realize that Daggett is sponsoring Bane.

Fearing Bruce will get himself killed fighting Bane, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), resigns in the hope of saving him after admitting to burning a letter that Rachel left for him saying she was going to marry Dent.

Bruce learns from Fox that in the course of the robbery, Bane made stock trades to bankrupt Wayne Enterprises, meaning Wayne Enterprises is about to fall into Daggett's hands. Wayne Enterprises is losing profits after Bruce discontinued his fusion reactor project when he learned that the core could be turned into a lethal weapon. But now, with Bruce bankrupt, Daggett makes a hostile takeover bid for the company to get his hands on the fusion reactor project. Fearing that Daggett, Bane's employer, would gain access to the reactor, Bruce asks Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate to take over his company.

Bruce and Fox show Miranda the fusion reactor. Fox and Miranda intend to use it for generating clean energy for the entire city, although Bruce is afraid of the chance that someone will turn the reactor into a nuclear weapon, as Dr. Pavel managed to discover. None of them are aware that Bane has in fact kidnapped Dr. Pavel for this purpose. The reactor is hidden in a chamber underneath the river so that it can be flooded for containment in emergencies. Bruce wants Miranda to become acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises to safeguard the reactor. Bruce ends up sleeping with Miranda at his mansion.

Meanwhile, Daggett is not happy to have Miranda join the board and confronts Bane. Daggett is not happy about the fact that Bane also has been working Daggett's construction crews around the clock all across the city for unknown purposes. Bane kills Daggett. Blake has files that show Daggett's name all over construction permits for underground digging across the city, which make him suspect that Daggett was somehow associated with Bane.

Catwoman agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into Bane's trap. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's Al Ghul's (Liam Neeson) mission to destroy Gotham with the League of Shadows remnant. He engages Batman and delivers a crippling blow to his back, before taking him to a foreign, well-like prison where escape is virtually impossible. There, the inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's Al Ghul's child, born in the prison and cared for by a fellow prisoner before escaping-the only prisoner to have ever done so. Bruce assumes the child to be Bane. While in his cell, Bruce sees several prisoners attempt to escape by using a rope, and climbing up the shaft towards the light, but fail to clear the final jump on to a ledge required to escape, instead falling and being slung into the brick walls on the sides of the shaft, severely wounding them.

Selina tries to escape via the airport, but Blake finds and apprehends her. Blake talks to Selina in an airport office, asking her why she's trying to run. He is able to determine that she's trying to escape from Bane. Selina says she's not sure if Batman is alive, given what she saw of his fight with Bane. She is then arrested and placed in Blackgate prison.

Bane takes control of Wayne Enterprises and takes Miranda and Fox hostage. With this move, Gordon is forced to send all his officers into the sewer system to flush out Bane and his henchmen. Bane lures Gotham police underground into the sewers and traps them there by exploding strategically placed bombs which block all exits. Bane destroys all but one bridge surrounding the city.

He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia (Nestor Carbonell) and forces Dr. Leonid Pavel (Alon Abutbul), a Russian nuclear physicist he kidnapped from Uzbekistan six months prior, to convert the reactor core into a 4-megaton nuclear bomb. Bane uses the bomb to hold the city hostage and isolate Gotham from the world.

The mayor shows up at Heinz Field to watch the Gotham Rogues play against the Rapid City Monuments. Bane and his men arrive at the stadium, breaking in through the boiler room, and take up positions in the locker room tunnel as a young boy sings the national anthem. Using Gordon's stolen speech, Bane reveals the cover-up of Dent's crimes and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, initiating anarchy. The wealthy and powerful have their property expropriated, are dragged from their homes, and are given show trials presided over by Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), where all are sentenced to death.

After spending months recovering and re-training, Bruce escapes from the prison. He enlists Selina, Blake, Tate, Gordon, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) to help stop the bomb's detonation. He hands the Batpod to Selina, tasking her with helping people evacuate and saving herself. She asks him to come along, leaving Gotham to its fate, but he refuses.

While the police and Bane's forces clash, Batman overpowers Bane. He interrogates Bane for the bomb's trigger, but Tate intervenes and stabs him. She reveals herself to be Talia Al Ghul, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter. Bane is her protector, who aided her escape from the prison. She uses the detonator, but Gordon has successfully approached the bomb and blocks her signal, preventing remote detonation. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman.

However, Catwoman returns, killing Bane and helping Batman pursue Talia, hoping to return the bomb to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman, after revealing his identity to Gordon, uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes.

In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat-Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the Bat's malfunctioning auto-pilot. In Florence, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina, and they silently acknowledge each other before parting ways. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD and receives a package leading him to the Batcave.