The Dark Knight Trilogy Summary

(Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises)

As a child, Bruce Wayne falls down into a dry well and is attacked by a swarm of bats, subsequently
developing a phobia of bats. While watching an opera with his parents, Thomas and Martha, Bruce
becomes frightened by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, mugger Joe
Chill murders Bruce's parents in front of him. Orphaned, Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred
Pennyworth.
Fourteen years later, Chill is freed in exchange for testifying against Gotham City mafia
boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce intends to murder Chill, but one of Falcone's assassins does so first.
Bruce's childhood friend, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, berates him for attempting to
undermine the justice system, saying that his father would be ashamed. Bruce confronts Falcone,
who tells him that real power comes from being feared. Bruce decides to travel the world and learn
how to confront injustice. While serving a prison sentence for theft in Bhutan, he meets Henri
Ducard, who trains him as a member of the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. After
completing his training and purging his fears, Bruce learns that the League intends to destroy
Gotham, believing it to be corrupt, decadent, hypocritical and beyond saving. Bruce rejects the
League's cause and burns down their temple during his escape. Ra's is killed by falling debris, while
Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard.
Bruce returns to Gotham intent on fighting crime. Inspired by his childhood fear, he takes up
the vigilante identity of "Batman" and sets up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor. He takes
an interest in his family's company, Wayne Enterprises, now run by the unscrupulous William Earle.
Company archivist Lucius Fox allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies, including a
protective bodysuit and a heavily armored car, the Tumbler. Bruce poses as a shallow playboy to
allay suspicion.
Batman intercepts a drug shipment, provides Rachel with evidence against Falcone, and enlists
Sergeant James Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in Gotham, to arrest him. In the prison,
Falcone meets Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychologist whom he has helped smuggle drugs into
Gotham, and threatens to reveal his complicity if he does not declare him mentally unfit for trial.
Crane puts on a scarecrow mask and sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen that drives
him insane (which causes Falcone to constantly mouth the word "Scarecrow"), and has him
transferred to Arkham Asylum. While investigating "the Scarecrow", Batman is exposed to the
hallucinogen and left incapacitated. He is saved by Alfred and given an antidote developed by Fox.
When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, Crane reveals that he has been pouring his fear-inducing
drug into Gotham's water supply. He drugs Rachel with it, but Batman saves her and subdues
Crane, who claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety,
administers the antidote, and gives her a vial of it for Gordon and another for mass production.
Ducard reappears at Bruce's birthday party and reveals himself to be the true Ra's al Ghul. Having
stolen a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham's water
supply, rendering Crane's drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He sets
Wayne Manor aflame and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him.
Ra's loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham's monorail system, intending to release the drug as
the train travels toward the city's central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob
and indirectly reveals his identity to her. He pursues Ra's onto the monorail and fights him just as
Gordon uses the Tumbler's cannons to destroy a section of the track. Batman refuses to kill Ra's, but
also chooses not to save him, gliding from the train and leaving Ra's aboard as it crashes and
explodes, killing him.
Bruce gains Rachel's respect but loses her love, as she decides she cannot be with him while he is
Batman. Bruce buys a controlling stake in the now publicly traded Wayne Enterprises, fires Earle,
and replaces him with Fox. Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant of the Gotham City Police Department,
shows Batman the Bat-Signal, and mentions a criminalwho leaves Joker playing cards at crime
scenes. Batman promises to investigate, and disappears into the night.
A gang of criminals rob a Gotham City mob bank, murdering each other until only the mastermind
remains: the Joker, who escapes with the money.
Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to rid Gotham
of organized crime. Bruce Wayne believes that, with Dent as Gotham's protector, he can retire from
being Batman and lead a normal life with Rachel Dawes – even though she and Dent are dating.
Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and the Chechen hold a videoconference with their corrupt
accountant, Lau, who has taken their funds for safekeeping and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker
interrupts and warns them that Batman has no jurisdiction and is unhindered by the law, offering to
kill him in exchange for half of their money. After Gambol puts a bounty on his head, the Joker kills
Gambol and takes over his gang. The mob ultimately decides to take the Joker up on his offer.
Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and brings him back to Gotham to testify, allowing Dent to
apprehend the entire mob. The Joker threatens to keep killing people unless Batman reveals his
identity, and starts by murdering Police Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over
the mob trial. The Joker also tries to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia, but Gordon sacrifices himself to stop
the assassination. Dent learns that Rachel is the next target.
Bruce decides to reveal his secret identity. Before he can, however, Dent falsely announces
that he is Batman. Dent is taken into protective custody, but the Joker appears and attacks the
convoy. Batman comes to Dent's rescue and Gordon, who faked his death, apprehends the Joker,
securing a promotion to Commissioner. Rachel and Dent are escorted away by detectives on
Maroni's payroll; Gordon later learns that they never arrived home. Batman interrogates the Joker,
who reveals that they have been trapped in separate locations rigged with explosives. Batman races
to save Rachel, while Gordon attempts to rescue Dent. Batman arrives at the building, but realizes
that the Joker sent him to Dent's location instead. Both buildings explode, killing Rachel and
disfiguring half of Dent's face. The Joker escapes with Lau, who leads him to the Mob's funds. The
Joker burns the money before killing Lau and the Chechen.
Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go
public with the information. Not wanting Reese's revelation to interfere with his plans, the Joker
threatens to destroy a hospital unless someone kills Reese within an hour. Gordon orders the
evacuation of all the hospitals in Gotham and goes to secure Reese. The Joker gives Dent a gun
and convinces him to seek revenge for Rachel's death, then destroys the hospital and escapes with
a busload of hostages. Dent goes on a killing spree, deciding the fates of people he holds
responsible for Rachel's death by flipping his lucky coin.
After announcing Gotham will be subject to his rule come nightfall, the Joker rigs two evacuating
ferries with explosives; one containing civilians and the other containing prisoners. He says that he
will blow them both up by midnight, but will let one live if its passengers (who have been supplied the
trigger to the other boat's explosives) blow up the other. Batman finds the Joker by using a sonar
device that spies on the entire city, with the reluctant help of Lucius Fox. Both the civilians and the
prisoners refuse to kill each other, while Batman apprehends the Joker after a brief fight. Before the
police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once
Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge.
Gordon and Batman arrive at the building where Rachel perished. Dent shoots Batman, spares
himself, and threatens to kill Gordon's son, claiming that Gordon's negligence is responsible for
Rachel's death. Before he can flip for the boy, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles Dent
off the building to his death. Batman persuades Gordon to hold him responsible for the killing spree
to preserve Dent's heroic image. As the police launch a manhunt for Batman, Gordon destroys
the Bat-signal, Fox watches as the sonar device self-destructs, and Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter
from Rachel saying she planned to marry Dent.
Eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared and organized
crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to the Dent Act. Police Commissioner James
Gordon has kept secret Dent's murderous rampage and allowed blame for his crimes to fall on
Batman. He writes a resignation speech revealing the truth, but decides that the city is not ready to
hear it.
Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises is losing profits after Wayne
discontinued his fusion reactor project when he learned that it could be weaponized. Cat
burglar Selina Kyle obtains Wayne's fingerprints from his home and tries to sell the fingerprints to
Wayne's corporate rival John Daggett. She is double-crossed at the exchange, but alerts the police.
Gordon and the police arrive and pursue Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Selina flees.
The men capture Gordon and take him to Bane, a mysterious masked figure and former member of
the League of Shadows, who has set up his base in the sewers. Gordon escapes and is found by
rookie officer John Blake. Blake, a fellow orphan, confronts Bruce and convinces him to return as
Batman.
Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange by using Wayne's fingerprints in a transaction that leaves
Wayne bankrupt. Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, reveals that Rachel Dawes had intended to
marry Dent before she died, and then resigns in an attempt to convince Bruce to move on with his
life. Wayne finds comfort in Wayne Enterprises CEO Miranda Tate, who becomes his lover.
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, and then steals Batman's technology from
Wayne Enterprises. Bane fights Batman and delivers a crippling blow to his back, before taking him
abroad to an underground prison. There, the inmates tell Wayne the story of Ra's al Ghul's child,
who was born and raised in the prison before finally escaping — the only prisoner to have done so.
Bane lures Gotham's police underground and uses explosives to trap them and destroy the bridges
surrounding the city. He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia and forces a nuclear physicist to convert the
reactor core into an atomic bomb before killing him as well. Bane reads Gordon's speech to the
public, and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, initiating anarchy while holding the city
hostage and isolated with the bomb.
Months later, a recovered Wayne escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham. Batman frees the
trapped police and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers
Bane. Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself to be Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's
daughter. She activates the detonator, but Gordon blocks her 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 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 is honored as a hero. With Wayne presumed dead
as well, Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and his remaining estate is left to Alfred. While
visiting Florence, Alfred discovers that Wayne is alive, and in a relationship with Kyle. Blake resigns
from the police force and, in accordance with Wayne's will, inherits the Batcave.

Source: Wikipedia