Every Clue To The Talia Al Ghul Twist In The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, drops clues to its Talia al Ghul twist throughout. The Dark Knight is set to return next year in Matt Reeves’ The Batman – a reboot which will undoubtedly be compared to what many consider the best on-screen depiction of Batman yet: Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. The British director set a standard not just for Batman, but for superhero movies in general with his iconic films. And while it’s debatable whether The Dark Knight Rises lived up to previous entries Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the film certainly has its fans.

The Dark Knight Rises brought the trilogy full circle with the return of Batman Begins‘ villainous organisation The League of Shadows. While Tom Hardy’s Bane was the central foe, the real big bad was arguably Marion Cotillard’s Miranda Tate, who at the end of the movie is revealed to be Talia al Ghul. The daughter of Batman Begins‘ central villain Ra’s al Ghul, Talia is the mastermind behind a plot to destroy Gotham and finish the work Ra’s started in the first movie.

When Cotillard first joined the The Dark Knight Rises cast, her character was announced as Miranda Tate – a businesswoman that fans assumed was an original Christopher Nolan creation. It was a reasonable assumption given the director had already introduced a slew of original characters in his first two Batman movies. For the majority of The Dark Knight Rises, Miranda Tate’s secret identity is kept hidden, until the third act where she drops the facade by jamming a knife into Batman’s ribs, revealing herself to be one of the lesser known Batman villains, Talia al Ghul. Leading up to that moment, Nolan had dropped several clues to Miranda Tate’s true identity.

Miranda Tate’s Scar

Throughout the film, Miranda Tate manages to insinuate herself into not only Wayne Enterprises, but Bruce Wayne’s personal life. The relationship becomes romantic when Tate spends the night with Bruce at his manor. At the beginning of the scene Miranda says the line “I’ll take care of your parents legacy,” which in retrospect is an ominous foreshadowing of her sinister intent. But as the scene progresses there’s a more obvious clue as to Miranda’s real identity. When the couple are in bed, a brief shot shows Bruce touching a scar on Miranda’s back. It obviously signifies the character has a more intriguing past than the audience may be aware of, but there’s more to it than that.

It appears Miranda’s scar could be the brand used by the League of Shadows – the villainous organisation from Batman Begins which was originally headed by Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul. In the first movie of the trilogy, Bruce spends time training with the League before he returns to Gotham and assumes the Batman identity. At the end of Bruce’s training he’s compelled by Ra’s to brand a supposed thief but instead flips the branding iron out of the bowl, starting a fire that burns the League’s headquarters to the ground. In The Dark Knight Rises, as Bruce touches Miranda’s scar – likely produced by the same branding iron – she talks about how she grew up with “almost nothing”, further hinting at her past as the daughter of Ra’s and her childhood spent in the pit – the underground prison where she met Bane. The small branding iron detail is both a clue to Miranda’s true identity and one of many Easter eggs in The Dark Knight Rises.

Bane’s Backstory

When Bruce is thrown in the same pit Talia grew up in, he learns of Ra’s al Ghul’s child that escaped the underground prison. It’s assumed by both Bruce and audience that the child was Bane. But in the flashback scene, the child who escaped is not wearing a mask. Bane’s mask give him his infamous muffled voice – which sounded a lot different originally –  and was supposedly given to him in the pit after he was brutalized by the other inmates for helping Talia escape. In the flashback, there’s no facial scarring or evidence of the brawl that disfigured him in the first place, suggesting the child escaping the pit in the flashback is most certainly not Bane.

What’s more, during the first major fight between Bane and Batman, Bane says that he “didn’t see the light until [he] was already a man,” confirming he couldn’t have been the child in the flashback leaving the pit – the cavernous prison from where the ominous Dark Knight Rises chant originates. While this doesn’t immediately establish Miranda as the child of Ra’s, when put together with the other clues it all starts to point in the right direction.

The Brunette At The Stock Exchange

Just as Bane is preparing to attack the Gotham Stock Exchange, the scene opens with two men having their shoes shined. A brunette walks past and the two men briefly watch her walk in. The audience only sees the woman from the back, but many fans have theorized that she’s actually Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul. The brief shoe shining scene certainly seems like an odd inclusion unless the woman had some sort of significance.

It may seem tenuous, but there’s a further subtle hint that Bane might indeed be joined at the Stock Exchange by his fellow conspirator. Once he pushes one of the traders across the floor, Bane turns to survey the room and seemingly nods at another character off-screen. It’s quick, but it’s definitely there. Of course, this could have been an ad-lib on the part of Tom Hardy who may have simply been nodding at one of his henchmen off-screen. It could also have been an actual direction from Nolan, which is something only those working behind the scenes of the Dark Knight trilogy would know. But within the context of the mysterious brunette in the opening shot, it’s certainly intriguing.

Miranda Sounds A Lot Like Her Father

More subtle hints at Miranda’s duplicitousness can be found in the way she speaks. Her sentences often sound like they could have been spoken by her father, Ra’s al Ghul: the central villain in Batman Begins. The most obvious example is at the charity ball where Miranda is talking to Bruce and says “you have to invest if you want to restore balance to the world.” The line is reminiscent of Ra’s’ line in Batman Begins where he explains the League’s plan to disperse fear toxin throughout the city, telling Bruce “every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.”

Miranda also tells Bruce to “do what is necessary” when he comes to rescue Lucius Fox from Bane. This is also a direct quote from her father, who in Batman Begins can be heard repeatedly telling Bruce the same thing. Another hint at Miranda’s hidden identity comes from her apparent indifference towards money – much like her father and the League of Shadows, in general. When talking to millionaire and Bruce Wayne-rival John Daggett – himself a potential reference to Clayface from Batman: The Animated Series – she says, “you understand only money and the power you think it buys” – a line echoed by Bane later in the movie. When Daggett complains about how he’s provided Bane with financial backing, the masked villain responds with “and this gives you power over me?” In this same scene, Bane seems unperturbed by Miranda Tate being named the new CEO of Wayne Enterprises, telling Daggett, “our plan is proceeding as expected.”

For those paying attention, this irreverence for money and power is a key indicator of League of Shadows members and their personal ideology. It’s also reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, who burns a pile of the mob’s money in front of them in a symbolic act demonstrating how meaningless the cash is. Coupled with Bane’s calm reaction to Miranda gaining power, the language used by Miranda and Bane is a huge hint at the forthcoming twist.

Miranda Marks The Wrong Truck

As The Dark Knight Rises reaches its ending, Commissioner Gordon and his men try to trace the nuclear bomb that threatens to blow Gotham off the map. The bomb is said to be in one of three military trucks which are being driven through the city to avoid detection. Using a Geiger counter, Miranda signals to the team that she’s located the truck with the bomb inside, but when they open it, the truck is empty. At that point it’s unclear whether Bane has managed to trick Gordon and his cohorts, but soon afterwards, the Talia twist is revealed and all becomes clear. Talia intentionally misled the others to avoid her master plan being foiled.

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