Hello, everyone! So, this isn't going to be the chapter 4 you would be expecting, it's an announcement. I'm not going to be continuing this story, for a number of reasons. First of all, these "My Versions" take a lot of time to do, I have to watch the movies again and again, pretty much frame by frame to get the details and the dialogue right, and I'm really not having fun writing it. I had fun with Amazing Spider-Man 2, I had fun with Star Trek Into Darkness, but I'm just not enjoying this. I also want to focus on more original stuff, because I've come up with some ideas that I really want to write lately, and I don't want to feel obligated to do this first because people are expecting a new chapter sometime. Finally, and most simply, I just have a lot of stuff that I have to do, and this is kind of unnecessary to me.
But, I'm not abandoning this idea entirely. Instead of writing it all out, I'm going to be turning the outline for this story, as well as my story for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, into a series of videos on YouTube. I just feel that it'll be simpler, and I can add a bit more personality by explaining my changes as I make them.
However, if you don't feel like waiting a while for these videos, I will tell you how the rest of the story will go right now:
So, at the beginning of Chapter 4, we have the stock exchange setpiece. This scene will play out pretty much the same, except Bane and his men aren't there to mess up the Wayne stocks, because it always bothered me that those changes would be allowed to stand after Bane's illegal takeover, where several people saw him running a program, and so on. Basically, they're just trying to bait out Batman, so Bane can see if he's still worth fighting. What I'm doing with Bane in this story is making him closer to the comics, because while I like how the trilogy came full circle, I didn't think they needed to do the League of Shadows again, because they weren't even mentioned in The Dark Knight. So in my version, Bane is just a mercenary, who has a militia army, and is fighting Batman out of revenge for Ra's but also to prove himself the best. So Bane and his men wait around inside the stock exchange until they have to leave to avoid certain capture. So the motorcycle chase sequence happens verbatim, except for Batman picking up the tablet (because that tablet doesn't exist), and Batman escapes with the Bat. So now we're at Daggett's house, and it's supposed to be a reveal that Daggett is working with Bane, because there's no Miranda Tate, I kind of combined those two. So you're supposed to initially see Daggett as just a businessman, but then you see him with Stryver, and you see Selina in his house, and then you see Bane show up there. So Selina grabs him after cracking the empty safe, and in my version, she was just promised enough money to get away from Gotham, instead of the computer program that can erase you from the Internet, which is just dumb, and it makes Selina look dumb for believing it could exist. So then Batman shows up, the rooftop fight/escape happens (Batman says "No killing" instead of "No guns, no killing", because that makes him a bit of a hypocrite. When Batman and Selina have their rooftop conversation, Selina explains that they promised her the money, but she never got it, and she doesn't know what they want with the pearls. And when she leaves, Batman says "That's what that feels like" in his normal voice. So Batman returns to the Batcave, and gets into his argument with Alfred, but Alfred doesn't suggest that Bane has any further affiliation with the League (because he doesn't). Alfred also doesn't leave, he can still make that great speech, but he stays around.
Chapter 5 begins the next morning, where Lucius arrives at Wayne Manor and tells Bruce that Wayne Enterprises has slipped beyond the point where they could manage on their own, and now Daggett is taking over, and that he'll have control of the nuclear fusion project again. Lucius reminds Bruce of the story of Dr. Pavel when Bruce is concerned about the project, and Bruce wants to keep the potential out of anyone's hands. Lucius hands Bruce a picture of the reactor room to establish it for the audience, and Bruce reminds Lucius that it can be flooded whenever they want. So then there's the Wayne Enterprises boardroom scene, where it's confirmed that Daggett will take over the company, and Bruce is kicked off the board. Bruce leaves the building, seeing his car being towed, and gets into Blake's car. We then have the scene where Daggett meets up with Bane, but this time he's celebrating his victory, as well as congratulating Bane on drawing out the Batman and "giving the police a good chase". Bane replies with "You don't truly understand", and Daggett gives him the file on the energy project. Bane then kills Daggett. In the scene with Blake and Bruce in Blake's police car, Blake asks him questions about why Batman did what he did, and Bruce asks Blake if the police have heard anything about Gordon, to which the answer is no. Blake drops him off at Selina's apartment, and in the scene between Bruce and Selina, we get more of Selina's backstory, because that was desperately needed in the original. I'm not sure exactly what the story would be, but there could be some sort of crime/mob/thievery backstories that are interesting.
In Chapter 6, the scene of Blake and Gordon in the hospital is replaced with a scene of a recording of Gordon reading his speech about Harvey Dent being released by Bane. Blake comes into the police station to report Daggett's death and the construction permits while Foley and the rest of the GCPD are watching the video and learning the truth about everything they'd done, and how it was all built on a lie. Foley and Blake get on better terms here, and Blake starts working directly for Foley, and finally gets his investigation. Next, obviously, there's no Bruce and Miranda Tate love scene (because she doesn't exist), but instead, Bruce was getting ready to go out and search for more leads, but the Gordon video appeared. He and Alfred are watching it in the Bat-Cave. When the video finishes, Bruce sees that the pearl's tracker has re-activated, and that it's coming from Wayne Manor, upstairs. Bruce puts on his cowl, comes up from the Batcave, and finds Bane waiting for him in the living room. Bane taunts him with the pearls, and crushes them in his hand (we can assume that he knew about the pearls from sources he planted inside Wayne Manor, and stole them to mess with Bruce). Bane soliloquies for a bit about why he's there, what he wants, (he knows who Bruce is from returning to the League of Shadows and (referencing) Talia telling him about Bruce, and what happened with Ra's) and clicks a switch on his vest, starting to breathe in a steroid formula, which is basically the "Nolan-ized" Venom. Bane and Bruce begin to fight, with Bane dominating, throwing Bruce around the room. Alfred comes up from the Batcave, and Bruce tells him to get out. Alfred manages to escape, and Batman distracts Bane momentarily, getting into the elevator. But when it starts to descend, Bane jumps on top of it, and they both ride down into the Batcave. The fight continues down there, but Bruce is getting tired at this point, and Bane is beating him even worse, against the Batcomputer, rocks, breaking the cowl, etc. (and we can fit in Bane's "born in the dark" speech when Bruce EMPs the Batcave.) In the end, Bane breaks Batman's back and leaves. And in a new scene, Alfred returns to the Batcave with a medical crew. Bruce tells him that it's dangerous to stay, and Alfred tells him that they're leaving Gotham.
Chapter 7 begins with the scene of Selina in the airport, which plays out verbatim. In the original, what would follow would be the first pit scene, but the pi isn't a part of my version. Instead, we see Alfred and Bruce are on a plane to Santa Prisca. Bruce is hooked up to medical equipment, and the two have a conversation about Bruce being beaten. Bruce feels defeated, and is pretty mentally screwed from the experience, and Alfred gives an ominous warning about what could be happening in Gotham. We'd then see Selina in Blackgate, and the members of the Wayne Enterprises being kidnapped by Bane. Instead of the hospital scene afterward, Blake comes into police headquarters to tell Foley about Bane kidnapping the Wayne Enterprises board members. Blake tells Foley that they sent another team into the sewers, and they hadn't reported back. Foley being angry about Gordon and the missing police causes him to approve all of the police being sent down into the sewers, instead of Gordon's most likely painkillered ramblings. Instead of the seond pit scene, we see Alfred and Bruce arrive on Santa Prisca, where they meet Dr. Shondra. Bruce gets set up with proper medical equipment now, and Alfred tells Bruce that he'd set this up a while ago in case Bruce ever suffered an extreme injury (like he just did), and Alfred turns on the TV to check on Gotham.
Chapter 8 opens with Lucius and the board members being led into the sewers, where Dr. Pavel begins turning the reactor into a bomb. But it's not going to take about 3 seconds, it'll take him an hour at least, we can cut to something else, and cut back and have Bane mention it's been an hour. Pavel warns them that the slightest adjustment to the core could destabilize it, and it will begin to deteriorate. Bane then removes the reactor, and everyone moves out. The scene where Blake interrogates the construction men is verbatim, and he informs Foley about the explosives, just as the police are loading into the sewers. We then go to the football stadium, where the singing and bombing scenes happen verbatim, killing the mayor, destroying the field, and trapping the police underground. The only change to this sequence is that Blake doesn't go to the hospital and rescue Gordon, because Gordon's still captured by Bane. So Bane gives his speech, kills Pavel, and we see the military watching Gotham, and the bridge exchange scene verbatim. During the President's speech, Alfred and Bruce watch from Santa Prisca, and Blake and Foley drive off together to regroup.
Chapter 9 begins with the Blackgate breakout scene. Blake and Foley are making a plan in Foley's house with the few police officers left during Bane's speech. Gordon watches in the sewer on a TV, devastated as everything he'd worked for crumbled. After this, I'd add the scene of Gordon rolling into the water and escaping from the sewer here, except he isn't shot. He gets into the street and someone recognizes him, he gets their phone, he calls Foley, and they agree on a place to meet up. After this, we see the poor overthrowing the rich scene verbatim. The third pit scene would be replaced by Santa Prisca, where Bruce is starting to try to move on his own, with little success. Bruce complains about how Bane beat him and broke him, and Alfred leaves because Bruce doesn't want him to see him like that. Shondra tries to comfort him by telling him about Bane's backstory, and revealing that she created the steroid formula that he uses to be stronger. She moves him to a different machine, he groans and yells as he moves, until he's hooked up in a standing position. Shondra tells him that right now, strength is what he needs, and injects him with some of the serum. Bruce passes out and has a nightmare about Ra's Al Ghul, but the dialogue is different from the original. When Bruce wakes up, Shondra tells him that he's been passed out for three weeks, and his spine has now been set properly. Bruce begins to walk, and refuses help.
Chapter 10 opens with the scenes of Selina and Blake verbatim, giving us more information about their characters. The fourth pit scene is replaced by a scene where Bruce starts exercising, one hundred push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups per day, Alfred warms him not to strain himself, but Bruce just keeps going. He's started to jog and climb up rock faces, but slips, and doesn't have all of his energy back yet. Back at Gotham, there's the bridge supply / police infiltration scene, which plays out the same, except without Miranda Tate. The fifth pit scene is replacd with Bruce seeing the police officers hanged, and throws a chair at the TV. Later, he's climbing a mountain, talking to Alfred through an earpiece about being angry, a rock breaks, he falls and hangs from the rope, and there's a flashback to Batman Begins. Bruce has a conversation with Shondra about fearing death, then Bruce climbs up the mountain without any equipment at sunset, and finally succeeds, and smiles, seeing a cave, he walks into it, and bats swarm around him, he closes his eyes, accepting his fear (as a parallel to Batman Begins).
Chapter 11 begins with the courtroom scene, and Stryver's exile, which plays out verbatim. There's no scene where Foley abandons everyone, instead we have a scene of Bruce saying goodbye to Shondra, and getting into a plane, flown by Alfred. The plane flies over Gotham, and Bruce jumps out, gliding like in The Dark Knight, and landing inside the top floor of a building. He starts to move down towards the streets to get to Wayne Manor and the Batcave. We then have the scene where Selina saves the kid from the thug, and Bruce finds her because she happens to be outside the building he lands in, instead of just appearing out of thin air. Bruce promises her that he'll help her get away if she helps him, and Bruce reveals to her that he's Batman when she asks about his powerful friend. After that, Gordon and the police are captured by Bane's soldiers, but because Foley sold them out to protect his family. We then see Gordon and the police in the Scarecrow court, and they're just sentenced to death, not "Death...by exile", and they're lead away.
Chapter 12 would begin with the scene between Blake and his partner verbatim. Bruce then infiltrates the courtroom, and Bruce and Lucius escape with the help of Selina verbatim to the original, except without Miranda Tate. The scene between Bruce and Lucius in the Batman cavern from The Dark Knight is verbatim, along with them going to retrieve the Bat. The police are then lead out to the river, and put on their knees to be shot. Before they're executed, Batarangs fly in from one side and take them out. There's obviously no mention of Miranda Tate here, and Instead of the big fire Batman logo on the bridge, Batman says they'll stay quiet for tonight, wait in the shadows, and wait for the morning. For war. We then see Blake's failed rescue attempt of his partner, and then is rescued by Batman. When Blake throws the bomb to free the police, Blake's counting is correct in my version. It should also be noted that the police are ragged and tired, but the promise of freedom seemed to be re-energizing them.
Chapter 13 opens with the conversation between Batman and Catwoman near the Batpod, which is verbatim from the original. The only difference is that Batman is just speaking in his Bruce Wayne voice now, because everyone knows who he is, so there's no real point, and it seems goofy. We then go to the morning, where the police line up against the mercenaries. When Batman flies over, he destroys all of the Tumblers' weapons instead of just one. A large group of Gotham citizens come out to help the police as well, so many more police die in the initial charge, but the two sides are even in numbers. Intercut with that is the boys home evacuation scene, which plays out verbatim. At this point in the fight, Batman and Bane meet up in the middle of the fight. I'd want to make the moves quicker and more powerful, because the fighting in the Dark Knight Trilogy is really generically choreographed. Bane's fighting with everything he has, and Batman's being reserved at first, only really attacking when he has an opening. Bane's stronger because of the serum, but Batman eventually manages to sever the wires connecting the mask to where it's stored in his vest with Batarangs, and then manages to overpower him, beating him down until he's unconscious, standing over him and saying "Now you have my permission to die". Bane tells him at some point during the fight that there's no detonator. Catwoman rides in, and says she was surprised that she didn't kill him. Batman says that he didn't because he didn't have to, and he never has to. Then they both go out after the bomb. Gordon climbs onto the correct truck verbatim to the original, and the Blake on the bridge scenes play out exactly the same. The truck with Gordon is still on the move, and the driver calls to the remaining Tumblers who had been patrolling for support, and they arrive and surround it. And I'd add a scene here where Bane wakes up, and a large group of police and citizens are coming into the courthouse, all holding weapons. He pleads with them, saying that he gave them their freedom, but none of them respond, they just advance on him, implying that they kill him.
Chapter 14 picks up with Catwoman on the Bat-pod and Batman inside the Bat chasing after the bomb truck. They're in communication through earpieces, as well as with Lucius, who's on his way to the reactor room to make it ready for returning the bomb. Batman fires at one of the Tumblers, crashing it, and Catwoman takes out another one with the Batpod before it can destroy the Bat. The third fires its missiles, and the missile chase through the buildings happens, while Catwoman takes out the third Tumbler. Batman evades all of the missiles and takes out the last Tumbler with the last one. Batman comes back around and shoots the truck, accidentally killing the driver and sending it flying over the edge of the street levels. Lucius arrives at the reactor site and finds that it's been flooded, and so he leaves, telling Batman, and Batman realizes that Bane got the information to do that from Daggett. Batman then gets the idea to fly the bomb over the bay, and gets ready to. Gordon crawls out of the back of the truck, severely injured, figures out that he's Bruce Wayne, and then Bruce says the "coat around the shoulders" line, and tells Selina to get him to a hospital. Batman hooks up the bomb to the Bat and flies over the bay, and the bomb explodes. Most importantly...HE'S DEAD.
Chapter 15 is the epilogue, where we see the aftermath scenes from the end of the original play out verbatim. Bruce's funeral scene is also verbatim. I've made several changes to the ending scenes, there's no autopilot scene, when Alfred looks up, he doesn't see Bruce, it just cuts away. The last scene is dialogue taken from the end of the funeral, it's Gordon and Blake on the Major Crimes roof with the new Bat-signal, Gordon greets him as "Lieutenant", and they talk about some other things, possibly the new mayor or something. Blake asks if it bothers Grdon that nobody will ever know who saved Gotham, Gordon replies with "They know..."
"...he was the Batman".
And so, like the last two Nolan films, we end The Dark Knight trilogy with a badass line.
And, that's my version of The Dark Knight Rises. Hopefully you like what I changed and some of my ideas, and I will be turning this story into a video sometime in the future. I don't know when, or how you'll find it, but if you're curious, PM me or something. Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoyed, and I'll see you all around.