The Dark Knight Rises (1992)

If The Dark Knight Rises was made 20 years earlier.

Directed By: Michael Mann

Plot
Bane, a masked terrorist and former member of the League of Shadows, abducts nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel from a CIA aircraft over Uzbekistan.

Eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared. Organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to the Dent Act giving expanded powers to the police. Commissioner James Gordon has kept the criminal acts of Dent after his disfigurement a secret and allowed the blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. He has prepared a speech revealing the truth but decides not to read it. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises is losing money.

Bane arrives in Gotham and sets up his base in the city sewers. Bane prompts Bruce's corporate rival John Daggett to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Cat burglar Selina Kyle obtains Bruce's prints from Wayne Manor for Daggett, but she is double-crossed at the exchange and alerts the police. Gordon and the police arrive and pursue Bane and Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Kyle flees. The henchmen capture Gordon and take him to Bane, where Bane discovers the speech. Gordon escapes and is found by rookie GCPD officer John Blake. Blake, a fellow orphan who figured out Bruce's secret identity, confronts him and convinces him to return as Batman.

Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange by using Bruce's fingerprints in a series of transactions that leaves Bruce bankrupt. Batman resurfaces after eight years while intercepting Bane and his subordinates. Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, is unconvinced that Bruce is strong enough to fight Bane and resigns in hope to save him but only after admitting that he burned a letter that Rachel Dawes left for him saying she was going to marry Dent. Bruce finds comfort in new Wayne Enterprises CEO Miranda Tate, and the two become lovers. Using the stolen transactions, Bane expands his operations and kills Daggett.

Kyle agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into Bane's trap. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham. Batman fights Bane in a brawl, but Bane defeats him, dealing a crippling blow to his back before taking him abroad to an underground prison where escape is virtually impossible. The inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before escaping — the only prisoner to have done so.

Bane traps Gotham's police in the sewers and destroys the bridges surrounding the city. He kills mayor Anthony Garcia and forces Pavel to convert the Wayne Enterprises fusion reactor core into a decaying neutron bomb before killing him as well. Outside Blackgate Penitentiary, Bane reads Gordon's speech to a crowd, revealing the truth about Harvey Dent. Shortly after he releases the prisoners of Blackgate, he instates martial law in the city, and exiles and kills Gotham's elite in kangaroo courts presided over by Jonathan Crane.

Five months later, Bruce escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham. As Batman, he frees the police, and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself as Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter. She attempts to activate the bomb's detonator, but the bomb fails to activate due to Gordon successfully blocking the signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Kyle arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Kyle pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes. Before takeoff, Batman subtly reveals his identity to Gordon.

In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat-Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the malfunctioning auto-pilot on the Bat. Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Kyle. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD and receives a parcel from Bruce leading him to the Batcave.

Cast

 * Kurt Russell as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire socialite who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld, as a feared vigilante.
 * Alec Guinness as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce's trusted butler and confidant, who acts as a father figure to Wayne but is unable to accept Wayne's desire to revive his Batman persona, even resigning from his position to impress the seriousness of his position upon him.
 * Harvey Keitel as James Gordon: The Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, and one of the city's few honest police officers.
 * Demi Moore as Selina Kyle / Catwoman: A professional cat burglar, grifter, and femme fatale who establishes a playful, teasing relationship with Wayne that "takes some of the somberness away from his character", and pursues a "clean slate" (a computer program rumored to be able to erase a person's criminal history) when she crosses paths with both Wayne and Batman.
 * Dolph Lundgren as Bane: A mysterious and physically imposing revolutionary villain who was excommunicated from the League of Shadows and portrays himself as a "liberator of pain". He is desperate to continue Ra's al Ghul's legacy by destroying Gotham.
 * Isabelle Adjani as Miranda Tate / Talia al Ghul: The current CEO of Wayne Enterprises who encourages a still-grieving Bruce to rejoin society and continue his father's philanthropic works but is later revealed to be the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and Bane's accomplice.
 * Christina Ricci as Young Talia al Ghul
 * Johnny Depp as John Blake: A young police officer whose instincts lead him to believe that there is trouble on the horizon and is promoted to detective by Gordon when the elder cop saw something of himself within the younger.
 * Ossie Davis as Lucius Fox: The ex-CEO turned executive vice president of Wayne Enterprises, who runs the company on Wayne's behalf and serves as his armorer for the Batsuit, providing him with high-tech equipment and discreetly developing cutting-edge technology and weaponry, even as Wayne Enterprises starts losing money.

Rating
Rated PG-13.

Trivia

 * Robert Downey Jr., Brad Pitt, Michael J. Fox and Charlie Sheen were considered for the role of John Blake.
 * Clancy Brown and Vincent D'Onofrio were considered for the role of Bane.