Batman: Knightfall (film)

In Gotham City, Azrael preys on members of the Kobra Cult to punish them for their sins, but Batman intervenes at the last moment to save a human trafficker from his lethal wrath. After dueling Batman, Azrael snaps out of his murderous rage when the trafficker is struck and killed by a tank truck. Revealing his true identity as Jean-Paul Valley, he begs Batman for help.

Years earlier in the Caribbean island nation of Santa Prisca, a young boy and his mother are forced to serve out his rebel father's term at Peña Duro Prison. Under his mother's intense indoctrination, he learns to despise weakness, assiduously educates himself, and develops aggression as a result of his captivity. After seeing Thomas Wayne and his family featured in a tattered Gotham Today, he dreams of ruling Gotham City—especially noting that the Waynes' son, Bruce, was about his own age on the cover. Following his mother's death, the boy beats a pedophilic janitor to death with a book and violently fights off the guards and warden attempting to restrain him. As punishment, the boy is confined to a pit, where he refines his body. After reaching adulthood, his peak physical condition allows him to survive experiments with Venom, a volatile super-steroid. Armed with superhuman strength, he slaughters the guards and warden before the terrified doctors, escaping the facility with the inmates' awe and the name Bane.

In the present, Dr. Shondra Kinsolving questions Bruce Wayne about the successive tragedies in his life. Her inquiry covers the murders of his parents, his estrangement from Dick Grayson, and the death of Jason Todd. Acknowledging their pasts as Robin, she warns the secretly masked Batman to seek help before their successor, Tim Drake, suffers a similar fate. Simultaneously, the plot escalates as Bane breaches Arkham Asylum and detonates an explosion that frees the inmates.

Two days later, Batman and Robin confront the escaped Mad Hatter. The two can save the Mad Hatter's captives, but Batman reprimands Robin for not staying in the Batmobile as ordered. In the Batcave, Jean-Paul continues his recovery and training, revealing to Alfred Pennyworth that his actions resulted from his father's conditioning. After returning to the Batcave, Batman orders Robin to investigate the destruction of Arkham and immediately heads back out, ignoring Alfred and Tim's concerns about his crippling fatigue.

At an all-girls boarding school, Batman saves hostages and one of Commissioner Gordon's detectives, Renee Montoya, who entered against orders, from serial killer Victor Zsasz. Batman pummels Zsasz nearly to death before Renee stops him. As the night goes on, Batman becomes increasingly exhausted and injured while fighting and capturing the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Mr. Freeze, Catman, and Firefly. After hallucinating Jason due to Scarecrow's fear gas, he reaches out to Shondra but is called away by the Bat-Signal. At a clock tower, Batman confronts the Riddler, whom Bane forcibly injected with Venom to attack and further exhaust Batman. Riddler plants a bomb and flees, but Batman disposes of it. Gordon confronts Batman about his stress-induced breakdown, but Batman rejects the lifeline. Bruce goes to Shondra's office, where she tends to his wounds and they both fall asleep.

After tracing the asylum's explosive residue to the Bertinelli Cartel, Robin and Jean-Paul confront its leader, Franco Bertinelli. They discover that before Arkham's destruction, Bane had ambushed the syndicate and seized their arsenal. However, when Franco's security detail opens fire, the sudden violence triggers Jean-Paul's deep-seated brainwashing, forcing him to retreat in a blind panic. While Robin investigates the stolen bombs, Bane ambushes him. Awakening to captivity, Robin learns the depth of Bane's obsession with the Waynes. Armed with a meticulous knowledge of Batman and his protégés, Bane schemes to conquer Gotham City by systematically breaking Thomas Wayne's son. Robin breaks free and narrowly escapes after unable to defeat Bane. In a church, Jean-Paul confesses, but he hallucinates a priest and a Knights Templar who instruct him to listen to the Order of St. Dumas and embrace his role as Azrael.

When Bruce awakens and returns to the Batcave, Tim attempts to warn Bruce about Bane, but Bruce is furious that Tim disobeyed him and fires him. He later attempts to apologize to Tim and Alfred but instead finds them unconscious and is confronted by Bane. Although a weakened Batman attempts to resist, he is no match for a Venom-enhanced Bane, who beats him through Wayne Manor and the Batcave while mocking his failures. Driven by frustration at Batman's defiance, Bane fractures his spine, choosing the torment of paraplegia over the mercy of death.

While Commissioner Gordon, Detective Montoya, and Jean-Paul witness the event firsthand—with Tim, Alfred, and Shondra watching via a live television broadcast—Bane hurls Batman's incapacitated body from the roof of Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) headquarters, declaring that the city must now fend for itself. Detective Harvey Bullock subsequently warns Gordon that Bane's actions will plunge Gotham into chaos.

• Anson Mount as Bruce Wayne / Batman^[3]
• Michael Mando as Bane^[3]
  • Noah Mendes as young Bane
• Pablo Schreiber as Jean-Paul Valley / Azrael^[3]
• Jeff Bennett as Arnold Wesker / Ventriloquist and Scarface
• Luis Bermudez as Thomas Blake / Catman
• Bruce Boxleitner as Commissioner Gordon^[4]
• Jessica Camacho as Renee Montoya
• Anthony Crivello as Franco Bertinelli, Priest, Prisoner
• David Dastmalchian as Edward Nygma / Riddler^[5]
• Jason Flemyng as Jervis Tetch / Mad Hatter
• Jack Griffo as Tim Drake / Robin^[4]
• Adriana Isabel as Bane's mother
• Max Mittelman as Jason Todd / Robin
• Andrew Morgado as Victor Zsasz
• Bayardo de Murguia as the Peña Duro prison warden
• Toks Olagundoye as Shondra Kinsolving
• Simon Templeman as Alfred Pennyworth
• Mick Wingert as Harvey Bullock