Chapter 857: Good Elasticity is What Truly Matters

Two heavily muscled men clashed desperately before the cameras in the dim soundstage, occasionally letting out furious roars. Aside from their voices, the massive space—a converted airplane hangar—was dead silent. Whenever the two actors finished a sequence, Duke's shout to cut echoed through the room. Jimmy Carter and his stunt team would then hurry onto the set, walking Dwayne Johnson and Christian Bale through the crucial beats of their next bout.

Filming had entered its final stretch. After returning to Los Angeles from New York, Duke had wrapped up all location shoots and headed back to the Hughes Aircraft Plant, where the last two sets had just been completed.

This was Bane's underground lair in Gotham City. The crew had constructed a sixty-foot-tall cylindrical steel structure with four levels to bring it to life. The first two floors were reserved for the main characters, while the upper two housed the extras during the final showdown between Bane and Batman.

Beyond that, the entire set was incredibly dark and damp, as water representing runoff from the Gotham City sewers was actively pumped into the scene.

The centerpiece of this location was undoubtedly the brutal hand-to-hand brawl between Batman and Bane. Duke envisioned them as gladiators fighting to the death in an ancient Roman Colosseum.

However, the action sequence between Batman and Bane would offer far more spectacle.

The film's style dictated that they couldn't rely on kung fu for the brawl; it had to be driven by raw power. Still, Duke and Jimmy Carter had discussed the choreography at length, deciding to weave in just enough agility to keep the ferocious fight from looking too clumsy on screen.

Before the cameras, the bout ended with Batman finally getting slammed to the ground.

For the scenes they had already wrapped, Duke had made a few adjustments to Bruce Wayne's subsequent scenes.

It was well known that in the original Batman Trilogy, Batman Begins tackled the theme of fear, while The Dark Knight explored chaos. The Dark Knight Rises, in turn, was about conviction.

To highlight the power of conviction, the director of that previous version had made Bruce Wayne's recovery far too bizarre. A man with a broken spine was hoisted up and slapped on the back by a random doctor, only to miraculously heal in a short period of time purely through the power of belief...

It was the kind of plot point that left audiences utterly speechless.

How could they make it more convincing? By turning the underground prison doctor into a mysterious ancient Indian healer or a legendary, all-powerful practitioner of Chinese medicine? That would likely just invite even more ridicule.

Therefore, Duke simply had Bane break Batman's legs instead.

Theoretically speaking, broken legs could heal over the course of a few months with the proper treatment. It was a far more convincing injury, keeping the film's world from veering too far into fantasy.

Besides, Batman managing to push past his defeat and climb out of that underground prison would still perfectly highlight the power of conviction.

As the production entered its final stages, Warner Brothers released another wave of promotional materials, including the first official reveal of Catwoman's look.

As soon as the poster dropped, the design—which was a stark departure from previous cinematic iterations—was met with a barrage of criticism.

However, Gal Gadot's striking gear also piqued a lot of curiosity. Several media outlets and websites quickly published dedicated breakdowns of the outfit.

"Judging from this still, Gal Gadot's design completely upends the classic 'Catwoman' look we all remember. It's a tight leather suit paired with goggles. It looks incredibly cool, but there are no cat ears. The sex appeal has been drastically reduced, leaving only a striking pop of red lipstick. This perfectly aligns with a description of the costume leaked by an insider last December—Gal's suit is designed to be highly clever and practical, looking much closer to the comic books than previous Batman films. She wears goggles. It might not be as sexy as Halle Berry's or Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman outfits, leaning instead toward the look of a thief."

"Looking at the details, the blue lights glowing on the sides of 'Catwoman's' goggles give the whole outfit a distinct sci-fi edge. She looks exactly like a high-tech master thief, which brings her much closer to her original comic book identity—a burglar."

"But the biggest plot mystery this still leaves us with is the vehicle: 'Catwoman' is riding the Batcycle! What does this mean? Did she steal the bike from Batman, or have the two of them formed an alliance?"

Following the reveal of Gal Gadot's latest look, fans weren't sure if this was her only costume from start to finish, nor did they know for certain if she was actually playing "Catwoman." But all that uncertainty did nothing to stop the media from picking the outfit apart.

When asked about the criticism during an interview with MTV, Gal Gadot said, "If you don't like the photo, it's only because you've seen a tenth of what this suit can actually do on screen. But if you do like the photo, then that just proves you have fantastic taste."

Her response, however, couldn't completely silence the critics.

Still, this was a good thing. After all, controversy brought attention.

Warner Brothers kept up a steady stream of updates. Soon, the media leaked that Tom Brady and the Los Angeles Raiders would be making an appearance in the film. With the Raiders dominating their current season, the news immediately drew the attention of countless football fans.

Shortly after, several actors from the Batman cast appeared at a major promotional event for Armani.

Armani was also one of the sponsors for The Dark Knight Rises.

Despite being a superhero film from DC Comics, the Batman franchise's deep partnership with Armani meant it never fell short of a fashion film in terms of style. Every single outfit worn by the wealthy, handsome young master Bruce Wayne came from Armani, and that pinstripe suit was even specially handcrafted by the brand. Even though the old butler, Alfred, always maintained a low profile, the cardigans and shirts he wore were mostly expensive pieces recommended by the Armani brand.

Not to mention the head-to-toe brand-name outfits worn by Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon and James Franco's young cop...

Superhero movies never explicitly flaunted fashion and brands the way Sex and the City or Gossip Girl did, but the heroes' style was definitely not lacking. Batman wore Armani, Iron Man had Jaeger-LeCoultre watches, and Superman usually wore stylishly geeky glasses. Black Widow's full-body tactical suits and sandals were extremely sharp and sleek. Even Loki, an evil god from another planet, had a lot of thought put into the three-piece suits he occasionally wore in his human guise. As for the villain Bane, audiences might have only noticed the big guy's massive muscles and eggbeater-like mask, but his leather jacket was a premium British brand, and the fur-lined coat he wore during his speech was custom-tailored in Sweden.

Also, don't laugh at the Hulk's pants. Good elasticity is what truly matters...

In these films, the heroes and villains didn't just need to save or destroy Earth, or create or quell chaos; they also had to look handsome or uniquely striking while making their entrances, posing, delivering powerful strikes, and showing off their aura. For all of that, the right clothing and packaging were essential.

As filming neared its end, all sorts of rumors swirled everywhere. The media later revealed that Selina Kyle's roommate, played by Margot Robbie, likely had another identity, and might be the latest iteration of Batgirl or Harley Quinn.

Fan-made posters of her as Harley Quinn even appeared online.

Even though Duke was still holed up in the soundstage shooting the remaining scenes, Christian Bale had already wrapped his portion of the film and sat down for a dedicated interview under Warner Brothers' arrangements.

An era had thus come to an end.

In an interview late in January, Christian Bale said, "A few days ago, I finished shooting all my scenes for The Dark Knight Rises. That was the last time I will put on Batman's Batsuit. I hear the entire film will wrap in two days. It's all over. For both me and director Duke, the era of Batman has ended."

He then specifically brought up Catwoman. "When Duke reviewed the dailies, he said Gal Gadot was doing an incredible job. In many ways, her scenes were the hardest part. Because so many people believe that Catwoman has already been portrayed perfectly in the past, I think Gal had the most difficult role out of all of us."

Seemingly to coordinate with Christian Bale's interview, Warner Brothers released another poster of Selina Kyle right after his interview was published.

Some newspapers even published somewhat exaggerated reports in response—Thank the heavens! Because The Dark Knight Rises' Catwoman has ears!

Fans could see in the latest poster that when Selina Kyle pushed her night-vision goggles up onto her head—much like someone resting sunglasses on top of their head—the shape of the goggles perfectly resembled a pair of ears, creating Catwoman's signature pointed cat-ear motif. Furthermore, she wore a half-mask beneath the goggles, leaning heavily into her identity as a thief.

Immediately after, Warner's media outlets published an exclusive interview with Gal Gadot.

When asked how she felt about the Catwoman design and the photos being published online, she said it was "too powerful." Asked for her thoughts on the actresses who had played Catwoman in previous films, Gal Gadot said she was honored to join them as a Catwoman actor, but she didn't want to borrow from their methods to play Catwoman, because everyone had their own unique approach.

When the reporter asked if she felt this film was important for her career, Gal Gadot said it was Duke's movie and she hadn't thought too much about it. She had already forgotten what martial arts she had trained in for the film, only remembering that there was a lot of kicking, and it was all done while wearing metal-heeled stilettos!

In late January, after more than three months of grueling location shoots, Duke ended all filming for The Dark Knight Rises on the soundstage at the Hughes Aircraft Plant. However, he couldn't relax just yet; an even more intense post-production phase was waiting for him and his crew.