Let's hear from director Christopher Nolan first, and see what he'll divulge about the film. "It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state.

"With Bane, we're looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn't had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we're testing Batman both physically as well as mentally."

Speaking of physical challenges, what can Tom Hardy tell us about Bane? "He's brutal. Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action."

Costume designer Lindy Hemming also lets drop a few clues to his backstory as she talks about Bane's look. On the mask, she says, "He was injured early in his story. He's suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can't survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two cannisters."

completed Batcave

So 1-2 years between Begins and Dark Knight and 8 years between Dark Knight and Rises, so he has been Batman for roughly a decade without a Robin? Boo!!

I also like how they say he is an older Batman, not in a great shape anymore. They make it sound like he is 50+ years old, but he is only early 30s. :lol:

"he's not in a great state". That has nothing to do with his body but rather his psyche. And he became thirty in BB so he's around 38 now. You couldn't even get that detail right. -ohbfrank-

The large time gap has me wondering if we might get some references to other foes he might have faced in that time frame? Maybe a mention of Penguin, Riddler, or even Joker, who I am sure escaped Arkham a few times during that period. Also makes me wonder if Catwoman will have been in action for some time when the movie starts as well.

Also, somebody who has been fighting for that long is like a HB in the NFL. While they might still be relatively young, the toll it takes (both mentally and physically) makes them feel a lot older.

Where was it stated in Begins that Bruce is 30? I don't recall it. I had always assumed he was 25 like in the Year One comics, which is where Begins drew its inspiration, and that would make him at most 33-35 in Rises depending on how much time passed between the first two movies.

http://i.imgur.com/yyzwG.jpg

Are you not entertained?!?