Christopher Nolanloves to make our heads spinand knock us around with his intricate plot machinations. Nolan has yet to meet a storyline that he didn’t complicate by bending time to his will and strategically remixing chronology, even in an allegedly stagnant genre likethe biopic. That often leads to moments in all his films that are equally baffling, confounding, and exhilarating, with Nolan turning his ingenuity at finding new narrative angles in well-worn material into his calling card. And yet somehow, someway,the most shocked I’ve ever been while watching one of his films is having to sit through the death of Talia al Ghul(Marion Cotillard)inThe Dark Knight Rises, the rare moment where Nolan seems to have been possessed byEd Woodin the shoddiness of his execution.
Talia’s Villainy Is Supposed To Be a Surprise in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
In the grand conclusion toThe Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) spends most of the movie thinking he’s saving Gotham City from the bald circus strongman, Bane (Tom Hardy), as he carries out a domestic terrorist plot. But no, Batman was caught slipping, asthe real mastermind was Talia al Ghul(Cotillard), daughter of his deceased mentor, Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson), and current leader of the League of Shadows. She’d spent the whole film masquerading as Miranda Tate, new CEO of Wayne Enterprises, since Bruce’s retirement, and Bane has been acting as her official protector and human junkyard guard dog the whole time.
Batman ultimately must save the day by stopping Bane and Talia from triggering a nuclear bomb in the city, and in his efforts to stop them, he and his accomplice, Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), chase Talia down in a truck. In the ensuing chase, Talia winds up crashing, triggering the bomb’s countdown before ultimately dying from… I’m going to assume the crash, but it’s honestly hard to tell, which is one of the many problems with this scene.
Talia Bleeds Out With No Visible Injuries in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
First off, Talia is supposed to have sustained life-threatening injuries from the crash, and yetthere’s barely a blemish or scratch on her face or body. Nolan has long been squeamish when it comes to depicting graphic violence in hisPG-13 blockbuster fare, usually not showing any bleeding or injury visuals even when it would seem unavoidable. I still can’t unsee the shot ofWilliam Fichtnergetting shot in both legs inThe Dark Knight’sbank robbery opening, yet not a single ounce of blood pools under his legs on the polished bank floor.Talia’s death is the most egregious instance of this, as I’m supposed to believe that she’s gotfatalinjuries that make her bleed out in under a minute, and yet Nolan couldn’t bother to put even a couple of dabs of blood or a gash wound across her forehead? It’s just plain bizarre. All I’m saying is, if Christopher Nolan is going to give usThe Odyssey, he needs to finally dump the buckets of blood for those epic monster fights. It would have made her death more plausible, were it not for the actual delivery of the death.
Even Marion Cotillard Knew That ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Scene Didn’t Work
I’m not going to be dumb and argue that Marion Cotillard is responsible for this scene feeling so cringe. She’s an Academy Award-winning actress who gaveone of the definitive screen performances of the 21st centuryinLa Vie en Rose, and has consistently delivered performances of shattering sensitivity. Even outside this one scene, she’s quite good inThe Dark Knight Rises, salvaging Talia from being the one-note walking red flag that she functions as for plot purposes. But even so,it can’t be denied that she wound up doing the kind of death scene that gets mocked as amateur hour, full of sharp breaths in a melodramatic slump. It’s made worse by how Batman, Catwoman, and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) all just stand there in prolonged silence, like they’re twiddling their thumbs and resisting the urge to go, “well that just happened.” EvenCotillard herself knows that she mucked the moment up,quoted as 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.”
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Somebody of Marion Cotillard’s proven skill doesn’t randomly act a bad scene out of nowhere, and if anybody’s to “blame,” it’s Christopher Nolan. For somebody often accused of being too coldly technical in his approach to actors,it feels like he swung too far in the opposite direction of having Cotillard go “big” for the grand finale. People can complain aboutplot holes in the Dark Knight trilogyall they want, butthe real fatal flaw ofThe Dark Knight Risesis a lack of attention to detailthat’s uncharacteristic of Nolan, and the Talia death scene is the perfect example of that. For as many surprises and rug pulls that Nolan has committed, watching Talia’s soul leave her body is the most out-of-body experience he’s given me.
The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the Joker’s reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.
