BRUCE thinks putting on the suit, cape and mask makes him a superhero again Alfred warns him about this - putting on the mask won't make you what you were, that time is passed
So, yes, Bane easily beats Bruce, because putting on the mask again does NOT make him Batman
When he is in the pit and embraces the Fear again, hence The Dark Knight Rises It is the Dark Knight, Batman reborn, who returns to Gotham and beats Bane
Bane says "I broke you" NO you didn't
You beat Bruce
You did NOT beat Batman
You did NOT beat The Dark Knight
Now you actually face Batman for the first time you feel what everyone else feels, you feel FEAR
You were not able to climb out of the Pit, neither was Bruce
BATMAN was
Even Superman, who spent his entire life on Earth invulnerable and afraid of nothing, learnt what Fear was when he faced Batman
As is revealed, Bane never escapes the pit, he was unable to.
Bruce was unable to.
The only people to ever escape the pit, to make the climb, are Talia and Batman.
When Bruce is in the pit he can't escape, same as nobody else can. Looking to the story of the child of Ras Al Ghul, the only person to escape he takes off the rope, embraces the fear and climbs out. That is when he becomes Batman again.
In the earlier scene, when Alfred is explaining this, it's foreshadowing these events. As Bruce listens the Batsuit rises from the floor as Alfred talks about sometimes the pit sends something back. Bruce is thrown in the pit, but Batman is sent back out. Hence the Dark Knight Rises.
Bane is not fighting Batman, he is fighting Bruce Wayne, and that is who he defeats. In the earlier scene Alfred tells him you can put on your mask again but that won't make you what you were. Putting the suit back on does not make him Batman again. The age, injury and inactivity is bad enough. Band takes full advantage by revealing he knows who Bruce is. No money, no Alfred, no business, Bruce no longer knows who he is. Bane uses all this against him, puts him in despair, and defeats him.
An internal defeat. However - inside Batman is Bruce and Bruce is defeated. Inside Bruce is Batman, and Batman comes back to win, so after an internal defeat, an internal victory. The Dark Knight Rises.
the pic in the comic is iconic - maybe it just couldn't have been captured on film, couldn't have done it justice. It does seem downplayed. But, as I wrote earlier, at the cinema it was dead quiet and everyone gasped in horror when it happened - it was a very powerful cinematic moment. Which is quite different from a piece of artwork you are looking at in a personal moment.
, that the mask is symbolic like the bat mask. However we know from the comics that Bane is fed Venom and needs to be otherwise he loses strength and feels pain. Though in the original story it is fed directly into his brain. Also in the film, his face was damaged in the pit, so it holds his jaw and maxilla in place, and of course feeds the drug to stop the pain.
The original Bruce Wayne, the innocent boy, died with his parents. What grew up was a hollow shell, a psychopath full of rage and hate. That is Bruce. He has 2 masks - the public Bruce Wayne you see in BB, the playboy, and then Batman, which allows him to live out his inner nature, to fulfill it. Under the bat skin is a man. But under the man skin is a Bat. You don't take off the mask to see his real face. As the Joker says in Arkham Asylum "that IS his real face".
Alfred then warns Bruce "you can strap up your leg and put on your mask but that doesn't make you what you were" - Bruce does that but is not Batman, which is why Bane defeats him. When he rises from the pit, as foretold, THEN he is what he was THEN he is Batman again - and THEN he defeats Bane.
Play the scene and listen to Alfred's words. It's a foretelling of events to come "a pit in which men are thrown to suffer", which is what happens to Bruce. "Sometimes a man rises from the darkness", the glass case with the suits rises (it is the suit itself that is Batman, the suit makes the man). "Sometimes the pit sends something back" the case doors open to reveal the suit.
I hold to my own continuing point that Bane never beat Batman, he beat Bruce. When Bruce becomes Batman again after rising from the pit, Dark Knight rises, then Batman goes on to defeat Bane. Batman has never been defeated.
dim and slow, no other sound, no music, is all about effect - and was set up this way by Nolan the director. The culmination is where Bane breaks his back and, as has been commented elsewhere, you could hear the whole cinema gasp in horror. Not as iconic as that image from Knightfall/Broken Bat, but again, maybe didn't need to be. It worked and that was Nolan's point.
I would have liked to see Knightfall done more like the comic. The elements of Bane beating Bruce and breaking his back are here, and used nicely. But a lot of the arc can't be used in this universe - no Jean Paul, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson as in Prodigal. Never made use of John Blake's potential version of Robin.
Yes in the comic, the whole Knightfall and Broken Bat arc, Bane's strategy is to get Batman exhausted rounding up the escapees. Then when he returns to the Cave, his sanctum then ascends up to the Mansion, his home, when he can become Bruce again, he runs into Bane. Which is why he loses. I still hold the theory that, even in costume, he had been stripped down to Bruce, and it is not Batman who loses.
Batman didn't lose, Bruce Wayne lost. Batman can't be beaten by anyone, even Superman.
Bruce Wayne was beaten in this fight. In the second fight, it is Batman who fights and beats Bane. Batman has never been defeated in a hand to hand fight. Even Superman lost to Batman! (see Dark Knight Returns Frank Miller graphic novel)
physically Bane is more than a match for Batman, due to Venom. This is down to Bruce no longer being Batman. When he rises from the pit he is Batman again and goes back to beat Bane. Hence Dark Knight Rises (from the pit)
The mask feeds him both anaesthetic and the Venom steroid, its the source of why he has super strength and can't be hurt, makes him a very dangerous enemy in a hand to hand fight.
And Bane's comment to "Bruce in the Bat Suit" (not Batman, think about it) that "you fight like a younger man, nothing held back", so Bruce was playing Bane's game. Bane went through pain and fights in the pit - of course he did get fucked up. The League then taught him the same Ninjutsu as Batman learnt, hence the comments about "initiated" v "uninitiated".
Bane and Bruce are both Ninjas, trained by the League. Remember Ras's line "Ninjutsu employs explosive powders", Bruce asks "as weapons?" Ras replies "yes, also as distractions". So someone "initiated" would know the tricks and wouldn't be fooled by them. Same as how a ninja/league member/Batman uses "darkness as a ally", what you expect from a "shadow warrior". Again, doesn't work against another "initiate"
The story Alfred tells about the pit sending something back - we are supposed to think that was Bane. In truth Bane was rescued by Ras Al Ghul, he never escaped on his own. What the pit sends back is Batman. In that scene we see the batsuit rising from the ground and the glass opening. Hence the whole film being The Dark Knight Rises.
Bane didn't beat Batman. Bane beat Bruce Wayne. Bruce gets sent down the pit. We think Bane was the only person to get out of the pit but it turns out that was Talia. Bane was never able to escape the pit. Bruce wasn't able to escape the pit. When he shed his fears and the rope he became Batman again. It is Batman who escapes the pit, the only man to ever do so, It is Batman who goes back to Gotham and beats Bane. Bane beat Bruce Wayne. Nobody can beat Batman.
