Film News: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Prologue Revealed at Chicago’s Navy Pier IMAX

CHICAGO – For just a few minutes and to just a petite sampling of Chicago uber fans, Bane has risen. And if it were solely up to Nolan, he’d do it this way 20 more times.

“The Dark Knight Rises” mastermind would lure fanboys and girls everywhere into theatres to see another six minutes only… and another six… and another six – until he’s done it two-dozen times. Then when they’re drooling like rabid dogs, he’d present it in epic aggregate. But because it’s not just up to Nolan, only a thousand or so lucky Batman fans won free tickets to the Chicago reveal of the six-minute “The Dark Knight Rises” prologue.

Tom Hardy as the villain Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises”.
Image credit: Warner Bros.

Fans got access to threequel’s first clip by solving an enigmatic riddle at the end of a new viral marketing campaign. HollywoodChicago.com saw the full six minutes (as we wrote in Oct. 2011 [16] would happen now) and brings you this exclusive report out of Chicago now. The prologue (which can be thought of as an extended trailer) appeared after a break following the advance Chicago screening of Tom Cruise’s new “Mission: Impossible – The Ghost Protocol”.

Two prologue showings happened in Chicago on Dec. 13, 2011 – both at Navy Pier IMAX – the first of which started at 10 p.m. and the second at 10:30 p.m. Fans felt honored to brave spiraling lines before both showings to be among the first in the U.S. to see the prologue before it’s attached publicly this Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 to IMAX cuts of “Mission: Impossible – The Ghost Protocol”.

Spoiler alert! The prologue opens with Gary Oldman’s reprise as Jim Gordon. Gordon is mourning the fact that Aaron Eckhart wasn’t invited back in Nolan’s final Batman film because his Harvey Dent turns into a dead white knight. Gordon says: “I believed in Harvey Dent.” The line hits home with fans who fondly remember the “I Believe in Harvey Dent” campaign [9] in the film that took to Chicago’s streets and across the country in what seemed like a real political election.

The Oldman scene, which appears in wide-screen mode rather than in the IMAX format with which Nolan is so fixated, then cuts to full IMAX glory in an unknown third-world country where a CIA outfit is extricating people. All the while, new cast members are conducting a familiar exercise: trying to figure out the film’s new villain just as fans are anxious to glimpse him in action.

The conversation immediately reminds us of “The Dark Knight” opening where bank robbers discuss The Joker and then he’s unearthed in genuine terror. The same story arc happens here. Instead of a man removing a mask to reveal a lunatic with a spectacularly terrible make-up job, Tom Hardy’s distorted, Darth Vader-like voice is first heard and then his black face bag is flung off.

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The first official teaser poster for “The Dark Knight Rises” appeared on July 11, 2011. See a high-resolution version. [17]
Image credit: Warner Bros.

Bane’s garbled voice and exactly what he says is already a hot topic on the interwebs and will continue to be, but this much we heard clearly: Bane indeed says “the fire rises”. The line is again familiar for fans. It was revealed in a viral marketing campaign in May 2011 that established those words with the prize of seeing Bane’s first image [18]. If your complaint is that Bane’s voice is hard to understand, don’t whine about that. We know by now that Nolan is a calculated man, and if it’s done that way, it’s intentional and comes with purpose.

The “facehugger” creature in “Alien” reminds us of Bane’s “The Dark Knight Rises” mask. Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

So, the film’s new antagonist is exposed. While what we’re seeing here certainly isn’t a final print and much can change before its opening on July 12, 2012, Bane’s black and copper face contraption reminds us of a “facehugger” creature in the movie “Alien”. Like the “Alien” facehugger, Bane’s mask looks like a parasitic creature attached to its host, but Bane’s is pumping him full of mysterious fluids.

The prologue scene, which takes place in an airplane, sets up Bane as Batman’s nemesis and gives you a teaser into his psychosomatic agony and physical brawn. And after Bane summons his henchmen just like The Joker would to seize control of the situation, the prologue spends a minute cutting through various trailer-like scenes.

We see Anne Hathaway as a particularly pissed-off Catwoman and then again in orange prison garb as Selina Kyle. We watch citizen panic with police in a busy street like scenes shot on Chicago’s LaSalle Street in “The Dark Knight”. We witness a fleeting flirtation with Christian Bale as Batman squaring off against Bane – not yet breaking the bat’s back – as well as the Batpod thundering away on a Gotham City street (that’s no longer shot in Chicago). Leading his minions into battle, we also see Bane sporting what looks like reinforced chainmail.

The prologue is meant to be foreplay until the film’s next buzz-building event. And tease it does. Scores of questions remain unanswered, but just remember this: “In Nolan we trust.”

“The Dark Knight Rises” stars Tom Hardy, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Juno Temple, Matthew Modine, Daniel Sunjata, Josh Pence and Joey King from writer and director Christopher Nolan along with writer Jonathan Nolan. The film is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012.

When you see this prologue, comment below:
What did you think? Thumbs up or down and why?

[22]	By ADAM FENDELMAN [23] Publisher HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com [22]