Great Movie Scenes - The Dark Knight Rises: The Climb

"Why do we fall, Bruce?"

Lost amidst the action and chaotic abandon of The Dark Knight Rises' second act is a sequence that confuddled those not accustomed to keeping time in a modern, chronologically un-linear film, one that at its heart is perhaps the purest and most beautiful of a saga hatched out by a man who's devotion to the whole inspires any storyteller failing in their attempts at a quick fix. I'm speaking of the climb, the blockbuster megolith's spark to a climax that sees Bruce Wayne escape his prison and earn freedom sufficient to rise and return to Gotham to face Bane and ultimately save his city.

It's easy to miss, even for the most focussed of fans. After all, we've grown accustomed to seeing Batman simply knocking down the obstacles set in his path by whatever villain has have had the temerity to face him, sometimes with ease and other times by precision thought. But this is his hardest challenge, the grandest of troubles to overcome. And symbolically, it ties back to the very origins of a hero we've seen from the earliest point of his troubled journey. Fans of the action and the epic may very well scoff, but those who have witnessed a modern fairy tale and associated ourselves with a hero's journey will purr in delight.

Think back to 2005, and to Batman Begins. In the very first scene, a young Bruce steals an arrowhead from his friend Rachel and runs away. This would be the same friend's soul who's death refuses him the yearning for a better life years later. The child Bruce falls in to a pit as he tries to hide from her, and lands in the bottom of a well. Above is a circle of light, meagre hope of escape. Ambushed by terrified bats, he is assailed by fear.
 
That is until a hero arrives, his father. He coils down on a rope, holding a hand of rescue to his young son, offering passage from the despair of his own making. A child indeed, Bruce gladly accepts. As he recovers from his ordeal, Bruce learns humility and returns the arrowhead to Rachel, then is nursed by his loved ones, and his father states; "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up". By tragic chance, within days his parents are slain, sparking Bruce's crusade for justice and adventure in to the bat suit.

Fast forward years and years. Bruce has been imprisoned by his actions at the bottom of a pit, a prison where daylight reminds him how close he is to life and the world. But nobody is there to save him, the father he dreams of long since dead. His friend, Rachel his dearest, is now gone forever and has spelt the end for his search for happiness. The city he strived to protect is now in the hands of a crazed mercenary, a monster in a mask, engulfed by bitter hate at loss. The dark visage of what he could have been.

All he fears now is dying here, without being able to return to Gotham. And back then, he feared all. But he knows something; the monsters fear him, especially the scary ones. His father may be dead, but the words and the inspiration are not. So he faces the top of that pit again, looks up to the sky and knows he will not be rescued, the reasons for which have put him down there once more. So, inspired by the words of a man who knows the power of fear who doesn't use them, he finds his advantage.

He finds his strength and scales the rocks, climbs upwards to the heaven of choice and life, and ascends towards life. For the second time in his life, he knows true fear, and finds the only escape is to climb towards the day and the earth above him. So he does, and he finds only himself as the last obstace, the doubt that has made his life not worth living. And bats scramble, escape their nest and ambush him...

...He ducks...but then stops, no longer afraid of bats and of mortal creatures. All he fears is death. Somewhere, a child smiles.

Bruce jumps, and graps the ledge on the other side. The prisoners cheer. The man cries. And Bruce finally wins the ultimate battle within himself. Compared to this, Bane and Talia are nothing.

Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.

And how.