Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman — The Dark Knight Rises

"Not a lot people know what if feels like to, like... to be angry, in your bones. I mean, they understand. I mean, foster parents, everybody understands. For a while, at least. But then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can’t do: move on. So, after a while, they stop understanding. They send the angry kid to a boys home. I figured it out too late: you gotta learn to hide the anger, practice smiling in the mirror. Its like putting on a mask. So, you showed up this one day in a cool car, pretty girl on your arm. We were so excited! Bruce Wayne, billionaire orphan? I mean, we use to make up stories about you, man. Legends. And, you know, with the other kids, thats all it was, just stories, but... right when I saw you, I knew who you really were. Id seen that look on your face before. It was the same one I taught myself. I dont know why you took the fall for Dents murder, but Im still a believer in the Batman, even if youre not."

"[eulogy at Harvey Dents funeral] I knew Harvey Dent. I was his friend. And it will be a long time before someone inspires us the way he did. I believed in Harvey Dent."

"[eulogy at Bruce Waynes funeral] I see a beautiful city. And a brilliant people, rising from this abyss. I see the lives, for which I lay down my life - peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. 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; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

"What passes for a right-wing movie these days is The Dark Knight Rises, which submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive."

"The Epic Conclusion to the Dark Knight Legend"

"You say you want a revolution? Well, you know, there’s a comic-book movie for you. The Dark Knight Rises concludes the trilogy of Batman movies so distinctively rebooted, reimagined, and reinvigorated over the past seven years by director Christopher Nolan at the helm and actor Christian Bale in the Batsuit. And the highly anticipated project arrives with outsize political and cultural ambitions. Theme-wise, Nolan tackles nothing less than societal upheaval, urban unrest, class warfare, personal sacrifice, and spiritual salvation, with some nuclear brinkmanship thrown in for timeliness. That’s epic stuff, as grounded in serious social commentary as the literature of Charles Dickens that the director and his coscreenwriter brother, Jonathan Nolan, have cited as inspiration. This is a Batman narrative for a post-9/11 age of anxiety, morally split between the best of times and the worst of times."