The Dark Knight Rises Page #40

GORDON:

Give me a hand!

The Bat lands at the tunnel mouth. Gordon moves in to try

and grab the core but it is too hot.

Let's get a cable on it and drag it

out! Come on, we're almost there -

Laughter. Gordon turns. Talia, lying half out the truck.

Dying.

TALIA:

Fox showed me how to operate the

reactor core. Including the

emergency flood -

INT. REACTOR PLANT - CONTINUOUS

Fox pulls himself above the rising whitewater -

EXT. TUNNEL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS

Gordon looks down at Talia. Batman is at his side.

TALIA:

There is no way to stop this bomb.

Prepare yourselves... (Looks up at

Batman.) My father's work is done.

Talia smiles as her eyes flutter closed. Gordon turns -

Batman is at the core, plunging his hands into the heat to

attach a hoist from the Bat.

GORDON:

What're you doing?

BATMAN:

Two minutes. I can fly it out over

the bay...

Catwoman is at his side as he works.

CATWOMAN:

Rig it out to fly over the water,

then bail -

156.

BATMAN:

No autopilot.

She takes this in. He stands to face her.

CATWOMAN:

You could've gone anywhere. Been

anything. But you came back here.

BATMAN:

So did you.

CATWOMAN:

I guess we're both suckers.

She puts her arms around his neck. Kisses him. Batman moves

to the Bat, Gordon alongside.

GORDON:

So this is the part where you

vanish, only this time you don't

come back?

Batman opens the canopy.

EXT. GOTHAM BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Blake grabs at the smallest boys, shoving them onto the bus.

BLAKE:

Come on! On the bus!

FATHER REILLY:

What're you doing?

BLAKE:

Protection from the blast -

FATHER REILLY:

It's an atom bomb -!

Blake turns on Father Reilly, furious.

BLAKE:

You think they need to hear that in

their last seconds? You think I'm

going to let them die without hope?

157.

EXT. TUNNEL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS

Gordon puts a hand on Batman's arm.

GORDON:

I never cared who you were -

BATMAN:

And you were right.

GORDON:

But shouldn't the people know the

hero who saved them?

BATMAN:

A hero can be anyone. That was

always the point.

Batman sits into the cockpit, then looks again at Gordon.

Anyone. A man doing something as

simple and reassuring as putting a

coat around a little boy's

shoulders to let him know that the

world hadn't ended...

The canopy closes - and as the Bat fires up Gordon remembers

-

INSERT CUT:
Gordon, in his uniform, wraps the overcoat

around the Young Bruce's shoulders, his eyes reassuring,

loving.

Gordon looks up to the cockpit -

GORDON:

Bruce Wayne?

- but is dusted by downdraft as the Bat RISES. Gordon LEAPS

out of the way as the core is dragged along and out of the

tunnel mouth.

The Bat struggles with the weight of the smoking core... A

building is in the way - Batman fights the controls but

there's no power to get over it.

EXT. GOTHAM BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS

Blake shouts into the bus -

BLAKE:

Heads down! Heads down, now!

158.

FATHER REILLY:

Blake, they need to make their

peace.

Blake turns to him, furious.

BLAKE:

They're children! They have no

peace to make -

An EXPLOSION from downtown Gotham. Blake looks across,

startled, turns to the children on the bus.

Get down! This is it!

The smallest of the boys stares through the window past

Blake.

LITTLE BOY:

No. That's Batman!

Blake turns to see the Bat thundering out of the heart of

Gotham, trailing smoke, the core hanging from it. It curves

dangerously close to the bridge before heading for the mouth

of the river...the bay...the ocean...

Until a point of light fires into an enormous nuclear BLAST

- wind and light and dust blowing VIOLENTLY but harmlessly

over the bridge, the tunnel mouth, all of Gotham...

As the nuclear dawn fades over Gotham, and we see its

inhabitants start to raise their heads, and helicopters and

boats converge on the island, we hear a voice. Jim Gordon.

GORDON (V.O.)

'I see a beautiful city and a

brilliant people rising from this

abyss...'

Blake pulls out his badge. Throws it into the river.

GORDON (V.O.)

'I see the lives for which I lay

down my life, peaceful, useful,

prosperous and happy...'

EXT. GARDENS, WAYNE MANOR - DAY

Gordon is reading from A Tale of Two Cities. Opposite is

Fox, arm in a sling, and Blake, grim. Another figure is

there, whose face we do not yet see...

159.

GORDON:

'I see that I hold a sanctuary in

their hearts, and in the hearts of

their descendants, generations

hence. It is a far, far better

thing that I do, than I have ever

done...'

Gordon closes the book, looking down at Bruce Wayne's grave.

'It is a far, far better rest that

I go to than I have ever known.'

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