TDKR Story Spoilers and Rumors (NO DISCUSSION)

[MagnarTheGreat]

The Devin Faraci rumors before filming began:

January 30th, 2011:

I’ve now heard from three different sources that there is another character in The Dark Knight Rises, one who ties the whole thing together. [...] I don’t know the answer to any of this, but I think that we’re going to soon learn this movie isn’t just about Bane and Selina Kyle.

March 2nd, 2011:

As she herself confirmed, Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman in the movie. I can’t tell you what role she has in the beginning, but by the end of the story Catwoman isn’t a villain but rather an ally of Batman. And who are they teaming up to take out? The League of Shadows. Headed by Talia Al’Ghul. With Bane, who is her muscle/possible love interest. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow. Is he playing Black Mask? My source didn’t know, but did know that Levitt is certainly an antagonist and involved with the League of Shadows.

April 8th, 2011:

My guess, based on the rough plot outline we broke last month, is that Pence’s scenes will involve the young Bane; what I’ve heard is that Bane becomes to the League of Shadows what they had hoped Bruce Wayne would be. In Star Wars parlance, ‘there is another.’ I’d guess that Ra’s was aware of young Bane growing up in a prison, and that the flashbacks will feature that. Might they also feature The League of Shadows attempting to destroy Gotham previously, when Bruce was a boy? In fact, might the flashbacks not compare and contrast young Bruce and young Bane? I wouldn’t be surprised at all. And by the way - do you think Pence will be the only actor playing Ra’s Al Ghul in this film? Hmmmm…..

April 19th, 2011:

I suspect that Miranda Tate will be revealed as Talia Al Ghul, much as Ducard was revealed as Ra’s Al Ghul. Blake, on the other hand… my sources told me he would be someone sowing chaos in Gotham at the start of the film. Is my source wrong or is the description presented misleading?

April 27th, 2011:

Expect a bunch of the League of Shadows. My sources – who have been pretty good so far – tell me that they’re casting Ra’s Al Ghul’s wife right now. We may get a serious look back at the life of Ra’s.

June 15th, 2011:

As I said before, my scooper was under the impression that [Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul is] a cameo. I’ve also been told that they’re casting Al Ghul’s wife, so I suspect that both appear in a flashback.

Gary Oldman's comments before filming on the story:

March 8th, 2011:

The scope of it and also the way he brings it back to 'Batman Begins,' and really what Bruce Wayne discovers about himself, what he learns about himself at the end of this one [will top off the trilogy]

March 9th, 2011:

I think it's a villain from one of the old, old, from way back from the old comics. It is a Batman villian... It's not going to be the Joker. If I told you who the villain was, they'd kill me.

March 27th, 2011:

I have quite a bit to do with Tom [Hardy] in this one.

He sort of brings it back… he brings it around [to Batman Begins].

Gary Oldman's comment after finishing filming on his scenes with Tom Hardy:

December 14th, 2011

The DARK KNIGHT RISES movie I’ve honestly had hardly anything to do with [Tom Hardy] as well. “Hardly Hardy.” [laughs] I’ve gotten to know him socially. Our paths crossed on the set of DARK KNIGHT, but we weren’t really… I’m in one scene with him, and then I’m unconscious and another scene where he’s in the room.

[IainND]

Scarecrow will be back:

http://batman-news.com/2011/09/29/a-...-knight-rises/

[Rocketman]

Batman is being chased by the GCPD. Whether or not this is directly after the end of TDK is still speculative.
Helicopters, cop cars, SWAT vans, vs. Batman on the Bat-Pod.

[Reel]

Here's everything I know about the film:

- Bane is involved with the League of Shadows and Talia al Ghul. He is seen as an appropiate successor to Ra's al Ghul who thought Bruce Wayne would be ideal until he became Batman and destroyed their base. Bane and Talia ARE NOT in a relationship however.

- Bane comes to Gotham to hunt down Batman with his mercinaries and severely injures Batman and puts him out of actions for months. Not sure whether its a broken back however. Bane and his mercinaries then dominate the city and the Police can't cope and people lose hope which was built up in "The Dark Knight". Many people decide that to survive in the city is to be corrupt. Commisioner Gordon is now fighting the battle on his own without Batman and the ending result is him in hospital.

- Bruce Wayne hasn't been seen for months either and is using a cane. He goes to visit Commisioner Gordon as Bruce Wayne but enters wearing a mask so Gordon knows its Batman. (Seen in the trailer) Gordon pleas with Batman and it gives him the inspiration to push through and return.

- Catwoman fits into the story as a Gotham Citizen who in the chaos created by Bane, turns into Catwoman to survive and get by in new Gotham City. She has confrontations with a returned Batman who sees she isn't all evil and in the end she ends up aiding Batman in getting rid of Bane and Talia.

- Miranda Tate IS Talia al Ghul. As Miranda Tate she befriends Bruce and is a sort of love interest to him as she comforts him.

- The Catwoman origin in Year One is heavily influenced in the story.

- The flashback scenes involving young Ra's al Ghul do involve Bane as a baby who is selected as an heir to Ra's al Ghul. The baby is rescued from a fire by Ra's but has damaged lungs and so needs a breathing aid for the rest of its life and has horrible scars.

- Nixon is a FBI or CIA agent or some sort of special agent

[MagnarTheGreat]

Christopher Nolan, January 2012 issue of Empire magazine:

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place at the end of The Dark Knight. His reputation in tatters, on the run. And I think, perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later. Eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne. He's not in a great state." "Not that he was ever in a great state! He's frozen in time. He's hit a brick wall."

On Bane: "He's a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hadn't been tapped before. Because the stories from the comics are very epic and very evocative–very much in the way that Bruce Wayne's origin story is epic and evocative. We were looking to really parallel that with our choice of villain. So he is a worthy adversary."

Costume designer Lindy Hemming comments on Bane (my summary) from January 2012 issue of Empire magazine:

She said that Bane was injured early in his story and needs gas in order to survive the pain. She also said his tech "stuff" was made on the move over the mountains of the world and it accounts for the slightly "clunky" element to him. She said he is more warrior/mercenary than wrestler.

Gary Oldman interview about Gordon, published December 6th, 2011:

"We find him -- obviously I can't give too much away because I'm sworn to secrecy -- but when we meet him, things are calmer in Gotham. It's reminiscent of the Gordon that we met in the first one. There's a world-weariness to him, and even though things on the surface are now calmer, he's cleaned up Gotham with the Harvey Dent Act, it's seething underneath." "It's great. It's a terrific conclusion to the trilogy. Nolan rounds it off: he brings in a bit of the first one, from 'Batman Begins,' and he does some really surprising things with it. I thought his choice of villain was very interesting, to use Bane instead of Riddler or Penguin. He's not gone with the most obvious choice."

[benhs1898]

If you've read the comics, you know that the lazarus pits are for VILLAINS because they cause brain damage that result in violent tendencies.

We know that the police chase with Batman does not end in Batman's arrest, rather the detainment of someone else on a motorcycle.

We know that the field erupting at Heinz field doesn't kill the whole audience because there are men with guns keeping everyone in place. (I was there). That this is also Gotham's first time ever seeing Bane (because the DP kept directing us to react as if we'd never seen this "strange person" before). Possibly the prologue.

[MagnarTheGreat]

Christopher Nolan, LA Times, December 12th 2011:

"[The leap forward in time] will make a lot more sense to people when they see the film." "But it’s not a great mystery — it’s the jumping-off point for the film — but it’s hard for me to articulate it. I think the mood at the beginning of the film will make a lot of sense. If I had to express it thematically, I think what we’re saying is that for Batman and Commissioner Gordon, there’s a big sacrifice, a big compromise, at the end of the ‘The Dark Knight’ and for that to mean something, that sacrifice has to work and Gotham has to get better in a sense. They have to achieve something for the ending of that film — and the feeling at the end of that film — to have validity. Their sacrifice has to have meaning and it takes time to establish that and to show that, and that’s the primary reason we did that. It’s a time period that is not so far ahead that we would have to do crazy makeup or anything — which I think would be distracting — but it gave them something to get their teeth into, particularly Christian in terms of [portraying] this guy who has been frozen in this moment in time with nowhere to go. He really has done an incredible job figuring out how to characterize that and express that."

Christopher Nolan, IGN, December 10th, 2011:

"Well, that's funny, I didn't read [Gary Oldman's comments on the Harvey Dent Act]. But there is a piece of legislation, and we are dealing with a Gotham that's moved on. In the last eight years, it has come to revere Harvey Dent in the way that Batman intended at the end of the last film.

Story in U.K. news about a young actress, December 9th, 2011:

The young actress was offered the part of "young Talia al Ghul", who, in the Batman comics, is the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, the man who trained Batman's alias Bruce Wayne in Martial arts.

Leilah's mother, Paula De Meza, said: "After careful consideration we turned it down as they were insistent that Leilah had to shave all her hair off."

[IainND]

Description of the prologue:
http://batman-news.com/2011/12/09/of...ction-of-bane/

Ice. Cold. Crystalized imagery and a very familiar logo of a Bat.
Jim Gordon at Harvey Dents funeral gives a eulogy, a few words about
inspiring others…
CUT—
An unnamed mountainous region.
A jeep rides along the landscape. Hooded men in the back of a jeep are
driven to a small plane… the jeep is met by an armed CIA agent who
takes into custody a political VIP, who is traveling with these hooded
men… or is he? The CIA Douche learns that one of the hooded men is
BANE?!
The hooded men, along with the political VIP are loaded onto the plane.
The plane takes to the air as the CIA douchebag interrogates those
taken on board. One of the hooded men is dangled outside the plane and
questioned/threatened and when the CIA agent doesn’t get what he
wants, he fires his weapon (next to the hooded man’s ear, he is not
killed) and then begins to question the other hooded man. That hooded
man is unmasked and revealed to be… Bane!
CIA DOUCHE: Was it your plan all along to be captured?
Suddenly, a much larger plane overtakes the smaller plane occupied by
CIA Douche, Bane and hostages. Operatives from the larger plane
descend onto the smaller one–
Bane in all his Ventilator glory is revealed….CIA DOUCHE: If I take
this off, will you die?BANE: No. But I will be in a lot of pain.
BAM!
Operatives from the larger plane fire upon the interior of the plane
interrupting the interrogation.
The larger plane has ahold of the smaller one as it pulls it by wires
throwing all the passengers downward in a disorienting fashion.
After quickly overtaking the plane, Bane’s operatives bring in a man
with inside a body bag. This man is dead or looks barely alive. Bane
then takes the VIP political prisoner and inserts a tube and transfers
blood from the body bag man. (It’s confusing as to why this is
important.)
AND THEN… in a scene that no words will be able to do justice, a
hole is cut from the smaller plane and a wire takes Bane and the VIP
politico through the rear of the plane as the smaller plane is ripped
apart and is destroyed while members of Bane’s team sacrifice their
lives going down with the small plane. (Again, it should be stressed,
this description pales to what you will actually see, it’s a true
spectacle.)
The chant can be heard at the end… Deh-Shay! Bah-Sah-Ra!
The scene is followed by a montage that includes many images we’ve
seen, the most striking includes the Bat-copter chasing down fatigued
Batmobiles down the streets of Gotham, and a final shocking image of
Bane tossing away a shattered and torn Batman mask into rubble…
The only complaint about the 7 minute prologue was echoed by all in
attendace: Bane’s dialog is very difficult to understand. Imagine
Darth Vader with a very thick accent. Hopefully this will be fixed in
the final film.
Overall this opening scene is confusing, epic, and will leave
audiences speechless. All in a good way.

Read more: http://batman-news.com/2011/12/09/of...#ixzz1gZxl5pQF

[arnold friend]

from someone at Nolan Fans:

Don't know if this is true or not, but it is related to the scene in the prologue/teaser with Batman's broken mask when Bane and Batman fight underground in the sewer area.

"My friend was fortunate enough to get to work with the sound crew for The Dark Knight Rises in this past month or so during their first haul of post production work , due to his skill in the field and acquaintance with one of the crew members. He said it was very early in the production for this kind of work, but WB wants to stay ahead of schedule. He got to see one very important scene from the film. The information I’m about to post is from him word for word. I asked him if I could share it, and he said I could as long as I do not mention his name.
The scene I saw is the fight scene between Bane and Batman that Warner Bros has been promoting for the last couple of months. The scene takes place in the sewers underneath the city’s football stadium. It begins with Batman entering the sewer and taking out Bane’s men one by one. This is very similar to the dock scene from Batman Begins. Batman employs a lot of stealth here.
Bane’s men catch on and point their guns at Batman, forcing him out. Bane himself steps out of the shadows.
Bane: Ah, we are so thankful that you accepted our invitation.
Batman: What do you want?
Bane lifts his hand to reveal a detonator. He presses it and there is an explosion behind him. Batman looks concerned as if to expect something else to happen, but nothing does. Bane laughs(His laugh is freaky, man. He doesn’t laugh like someone who knows how to laugh, but rather someone who’s mimicking laughter. As if he’s never had a time to laugh in his life. Combined with the mechanical sound created by his mask, it’s absolutely chilling).
Bane: A mere example of what is to come. Just above us are 30,000 people who have been lied to their entire lives. They have been manipulated by a system of corruption and greed, forced to live in a city of decadence. The very air they breathe is polluted by the lies of the city. Lies that you have created. They are slaves, yet they do not even realize it. We are here to liberate them. Starting today, the people of Gotham will finally have their eyes opened.
Batman: You can’t change Gotham this way.
Bane: Come now, you of all people must understand the importance of dramatic example. This is the way it must be, there is no other way. Gotham will be set free.
Batman: Gotham won’t bend to the will of a terrorist.
Bane: They will bend to me. However, I haven’t answered your question Batman. You asked me what I wanted. Truthfully there is only one thing I want. I want to break you.
After saying this Bane charges Batman and a fight ensues. For the first half the fight it’s pretty even, then near the middle Batman begins to gain the momentum, but ultimately loses it, and Bane just brutally demolishes Batman with every blow after that. It’s done in a way that it seems Bane was toying with Batman for most of the fight, letting him think he had a fighting chance, but by the end it’s apparent Batman never stood a chance. He gets Batman to the ground and rips his mask off. He looks at the piece of Batman’s mask in his hand.
Bane: For so long you have dedicated your life to a dying cause. Change is coming, and it begins today.
In one of the most brutal shots of the entire series, Bane then stomps on Batman’s face with is boot, knocking Batman out.
Bane: Take him
Two of Bane’s men grab Batman and start dragging him away. Bane walks away and drops Batman’s mask.
That is all I saw.
Some notes:
-He only has about three lines, but from what I heard Batman’s voice is perfect. It is not the unintelligible growl we heard in The Dark Knight. There is a slight growl to it, but it’s more like his voice from Begins, but not even that. It’s very similar to the whisper we heard in the teaser, but a lot more aggressive and stern. It’s hard to explain, but it should not be getting any criticism this time around. Well, it probably will, but I think it’s an improvement from The Dark Knight.
-Tom Hardy as Bane is absolutely brilliant and terrifying. My description does not do his performance any justice what’s so ever. It’s completely subtle and nuanced, particularly his delivery of the “break you” line. I’ve seen a lot of fan films with Bane where he screams the line like a barbaric buffoon. Hardy’s delivery of the line is the exact opposite. It’s very quiet, but completely sinister. The way his eyes widen when he says, it’s scary. There’s a sort of longing in his voice, as if this is something he’s been waiting for, for a very long time. The way he charges Batman is terrifying as well. It’s edited in a way that it takes you by surprise, believe it or not. It causes a very physical reaction in you. You don’t expect him to charge. It’s that feeling you get when you’re on a roller coaster and you get to the very top, right before you drop. That’s what it feels like when he charges, and he charges like some kind of strategic gorilla, he shows no sign of stopping or slowing. It’s wonderful.
-The full scene is a lot longer then I described. It’s a good 10 minutes long. Bane has one line during the actual fight “Is this all you can offer? I expected better from Gotham’s champion”. Batman has no dialogue in the fight. The key here is the environment. So much of the sewer environment is used in the fight. Whether it’s Bane pushing Batman against the railings, plowing through the water fall, or even Batman throwing a batarang to take out one of the supporters of a rusty beam. Through out the entire fight Bane’s men have their guns pointed at Batman, but they don’t intervene. They just watch.
Warner Bros is keeping so much of this filmed closed up it’s amazing. None of the promotional material has even scratched the surface and none of what I‘ve written is doing it any justice. I only saw one scene, but this whole movie is big, I can’t even imagine what the climatic fight will be like"

[Dragon_316ca]

Someone over @ IMDb (yeah, I know ) made this post. Take this one with a huge grain of salt.

caleb-danielt:

This is before the official ending. The actual ending ends with a montage of some sort. Apparently Bruce "dies" at the end. It ends with Bruce and Bane battling it out in their final battle, a maskless Bruce goes up against Bane and manages to unmask Bane in the process or from what I've heard both of them are maskless, this is from the scene where Bane holds half of Batman's cowl. The fight takes place in the Batcave. The rumors that are going around seem to be true, the fight is brutal and leaves them both dead. It does not end in a sad way despite Bruce dying. After the montage, Bruce is infact in hiding and re-emerges in the same fashion that was in the comics of the Dark Knight Returns sans the horse-riding and followers. I believe he emerges in full Bat costume on, standing atop a ledge of a skyscraper in what can be described as an "iconic" shot. He has no dialogue. It merely shows that Bruce is still alive.

I am trying to find the script for this but I know Nolan and co have not written in down and it has already been shot. I do have parts of the script, one part where we see a young Ra's al Ghul and a board meeting. The tumblers are stolen from Wayne Enterprises too and Dr. Pavel is executed at one point in the script. After the prologue, Bane doesn't show up for a bit where he reveals his master plan, a machine that will wreck the entire city closing Gotham off from the public. He uses it as a threat to make sure the National Guard doesn't come into the city, otherwise he will detonate it all through out Gotham.

Bruce doesn't get his back broken nor does he end up a quadriplegic. He does end up walking with a cane though after the first fight with Bane.

Miranda Tate assists Bane, I believe she is Talia but I didn't see that mentioned in the script. She basically supplies Bane with the tumblers.

Selina is in the final montage at the end.

Sorry, there won't be another sequel. Bruce does indeed re-emerge at the very end of the film and continues his plight as Batman full-time. No more Bruce Wayne, just Batman.

Blake is a beat Cop on the rise and is pretty much Gordon's most trusted officer and handpicked by Gordon himself. He is initially assigned to bring Batman down but eventually learns the truth about all the events that happened in TDK. He is one of the good guys, he's sort of like a young Gordon.

Selina Kyle eventually finds out as does Miranda Tate.

The (end) montage basically recaps everything from Begins, TDK, a segment featuring Ra's telling Bruce to overcome his fears, Bruce "rising", per say, Rachel, Dent, Gordon, Selina Kyle weeping believing Bruce is dead with Bruce's gravestone next to his parents. It's very powerful.

Nolan actually told the ending to most of the main cast, Bale, Hardy, Oldman and I believe Hathaway as she shot one of the scene. Oh and Michael Caine got bits and pieces of it too as he filmed a bit in the montage.

Q&A:

1. Is Bane working with the League of Shadows? How much do the LOS feature in the story.
Bane has his own army, Tate is associated with the League. Basically Bane's outfit are hired mercenaries and the League pays them a great deal to bring down Gotham.

2. Is the back-story of Bane explored?
Not that I know of, Tate's origin is explored more as it features a young Ra's al Ghul.

3. Does Bane reveal the crimes Harvey Dent committed to the populace of Gotham?
Yes, he does. Which causes the riots.

4. Is the Joker referenced in any way at all?
No.

5. What has happened in the eight years that separate TDK and TDKR has Batman been active for all those years?
Bruce has still been performing his duties as Batman, however, he is growing extremely exhausted.

6. What is the exact nature of the Earthquake device?
It is used as a deterrent to keep the National Guard from entering Gotham. Bane threatens to tear down the city if the National Guard starts entering Gotham. He takes over Gotham using this weapon of mass destruction (as it's called in the script).

7. To what extent does Scarecrow appear in the film and if its only a cameo how does he feature in it.
Scarecrow presides over a court-room like environment, it's a wonderfully fun scene. Scarecrow plays the judge with prisoners being the jury.

[KalMart]

Edit

[Léo Ho Tep]

Originally Posted by Dragon_316ca

Someone over @ IMDb (yeah, I know ) made this post. Take this one with a huge grain of salt.

caleb-danielt:

yeah, i'll really take it with a grain of salt... I don't believe it at all actually.

[Dark Sentinel]

No discussion.

[Banes_Dealer]

I talked to a few friends back home from Philly who claimed (KEYWORD: CLAIMED) they were at the "Rogues" game. They were saying that the vibe for the Bane scene was "Everyone was told to act either baffled or leery of him at the beginning of the speech" and "Then look absolutely horrified when things got ugly".(i.e.:When the hostage is drug out to be slaughtered in front of them.)

They also said Bane has a way about him where he speaks and acts as if he is the hero, doing Gotham a favor by doing the things he does. This could be 100% legit or could be my friends smoking too much of the chronicles and just talking head. I just found it interesting when he said Bane was acting as if he was correct and righteous in his actions. That actually sounds pretty scary.

[MagnarTheGreat]

Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2011:

Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it’s Bruce Wayne, one of Gotham’s most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase.

“Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself,” says sultry Selina Kyle, played here by actress Anne Hathaway, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight. She also wears high-tech goggles that, when not in use, flip up and resemble feline ears.

[IainND]

Rumours about Scarecrow:
http://www.themoviepool.com/audience...carecrow?.html

[87vertgt]

Wheres the prologue?

edit sorry wrong section

[Batman4ever]

n/m

[Batman4ever]

n/m

[Vengeance of Bane]

no discussion!

[MagnarTheGreat]

Entertainment Weekly, December 9th, 2011:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Like several of your other films, this opening sequence just begins — we’re in it from the get-go. Why do you like to do that?

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: You know, I probably haven’t thought it through intellectually, if you like. My feeling, particularly on an action film, is you want to be thrown into a situation that somehow takes your breath away early in the film. I think rhythmically — you know, I view these films as pieces of music — if you start with a bit of a bang, it buys you more time to then calmly move into the story and the characters. We have a lot of characters in this film, a lot of people to introduce, a lot of catching up to do with the audience. So I think it was important to really throw something big on screen and then take our time.

Entertainment Weekly, 2012 Forecast issue:

The Dark Knight Rises [...] explores the ramifications of The Dark Knight's chilly "heroic" climax.

[...]

"If Batman's plan was to stamp out crime," says Jonathan Nolan, "the new movie asks: What if the plan actually worked?" And so the story begins eight years later, with Bruce Wayne still recovering from the physical and psychological traumas of his Joker/Two-Face double whammy. Batman still a reviled cultural scapegoat, and Gotham prospering from the deception. "At least superficially," says Christopher Nolan. "The movie deals with the idea that if you've papered over the cracks, then you're just solving problems in a way that may not hold for the future."

While grappling with the repercussions of the conspiracy he hatched with Gotham's police commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Bruce Wayne will have to repair his troubled relationships with faithful butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and weapons master/vehicle designer Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman).

The article names Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Fritz Lang as some of the Nolan brothers' inspiration for TDKR.

[IainND]

Joey King is now confirmed to be young Talia:
http://batman-news.com/2012/01/19/jo...ses-character/

I play young Talia al Ghul. I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie.

[Frodo]

Liam Neeson confirms he is indeed in TDKR, though that's about as much as he's willing to say.

[Dragon_316ca]

Yes/No response from JordanDaniel. Take this with a grain of salt.

Liam Neeson? Yes

Bane working for the League Of Shadows? Yes

Is Miranda Tate really an older Talia Al Ghul? Yes

Ras Al Ghul, and Bruce Wayne meet during the film's present time? No

Scarecrow? Yes

Any main characters meet their demise? Yes

Bane responsible for Gordon being in the hospital bed? Yes

Will Bruce become the Batman again near the end of the story? Yes - but this is a very interesting question. The answer is technically yes, but there's a lot more to it than that. Actually, this is a hilarious question.

Cat puns? Ha! Very yes

Hints at Robin or another Batman? No

Barbara Gordon and/or Batgirl? No Batgirl

Broken Bat? This is also a fun one. I would say yes, but the answer to your question might be no.

Injured Batman sans broken back? Yes

Return of Bat-signal? I'll simply say: Deshay deshay, basara basara! Deshay deshay, basara basara! Deshay deshay, basara basara! Which actually almost gives away the climax of the movie.

Q: Is there a crazy memento style twist?
A: Yes. Although I don't know what you mean by "memento style." It's way different, but it's on par with Memento's twist in terms of being crazy. And I don't know if there's another one at the very end of the movie.

Q: Does the title have something to do with the twist?
A: Yes.

Q: Is Bruce's secret identity revealed to the public?
A: Yes.

Q: Is dent/two-face still alive?
A: No.

Q: Joker?
A: Yes and no. No idea how to answer this one.

[MagnarTheGreat]

Old news (late 2010 & early 2011) on love or romantic interest or villain:

Deadline, November 11th, 2010:

I’m told one of the roles is a love interest for Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, and the other is a villain.

The Hollywood Reporter, January 11th, 2011:

Dark Knight Rises needs to fill two big female roles, a villain and a love interest. Sources say one character is Talia, the daughter of villain Ra's Al Ghul, who was portrayed by Liam Neeson in Nolan's first Gotham-set crime pic Batman Begins. In the comic books, Talia is both Batman's lover and antagonist, ultimately siring his alter ego Bruce Wayne's son.

WB announced on January 19th, 2011, that Anne Hathaway was cast as Selina Kyle.

The Hollywood Reporter, February 14th, 2011:

Nolan had been focusing on finding the romantic lead for Christian Bale in recent weeks, reading and meeting with several actresses, including Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts, according to insiders.

While Anne Hathaway is cast as Catwoman, the other female role is suspected to be that of Thalia Al Ghul, the daughter of the villain played by Liam Neeson in Nolan's first movie, Batman Begins.

WB announced on April 19th, 2011, that Marion Cotillard was cast as Miranda Tate.