Warner Bros.
Christopher Nolan set the standard for superhero movies with the Batman trilogy that was capped off when The Dark Knight Rises came out in 2012. That film featured one climactic scene that was undercut by a fairly anticlimactic death, and Marion Cotillard, the actress at the center of it, has acknowledged she probably could have done a bit better.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since Christopher Nolan ushered in the Age of the Dark and Gritty Superhero Movie with Batman Begins only to outdo himself when The Dark Knight came out three years later.
Expectations were obviously high when The Dark Knight Rises brought the trilogy to an end in 2012, and while the movie largely lived up to the hype, there were some viewers who were left underwhelmed by some convoluted plot points, clunky dialogue, and the somewhat infamous demise of one of the movie’s villains.
Tom Hardy’s Bane is the primary antagonist in The Dark Knight Rises. However, we’re treated to a twist in the final act when we learn Miranda Tate, who was serving as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises after Bruce’s withdrawal from public life, was actually Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, the deceased League of Shadows leader (portrayed by Liam Neeson) who died in Batman Begins.
Talia meets her demise when the truck containing the decaying neutron bomb Bane was using to hold Gotham City hostage crashes, and her final scene ends with the ultimate whimper thanks to the decidedly underwhelming way she passes away after taking her last breaths.
Talia is played by Marion Cotillard, and while the French actress has repeatedly shown she can hold her own on the screen, it’s pretty easy to understand why plenty of fans were baffled by the decision to use what was presumably the best take the filmmakers had at their disposal.
According to Variety, Cotillard admitted that particular scene was not her strongest work when she addressed what transpired during a recent interview with a French outlet, saying:
“I didn’t nail that scene. I didn’t find the right position. I didn’t find the right way… I was stressed.
Sometimes it happens that you screw something up. So that, I screwed up.”
Nobody’s perfect.