1. Batman: A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.
2. Jim Gordon: [reading from the book “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens] 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.
3. Bane: Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated… but we are initiated, aren’t we Bruce? Members of the League of Shadows!
4. Bane: [to Batman] Peace has cost you your strength! Victory has defeated you!
5. Bruce Wayne: …It’s not who I am underneath… but what I *do*… that defines me.
6. Henri Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.
7. Henri Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just… poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.
8. Bruce Wayne: People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol… as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.
Alfred Pennyworth: What symbol?
Bruce Wayne: Something elemental, something terrifying.
Alfred Pennyworth: I assume that as you’re taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals.
Bruce Wayne: You’re thinking about Rachel?
Alfred Pennyworth: Actually, sir, I was thinking of myself.
9. Ra’s al Ghul: When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.
10. Alfred Pennyworth: What is the point of all those push-ups if you can’t even lift a bloody log?
11. Henri Ducard: You traveled the world… Now you must journey inwards… to what you really fear… it’s inside you… there is no turning back. Your parents’ death was not your fault. Your training is nothing. The will is everything. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely. Are you ready to begin?
12. Alfred Pennyworth: Why bats, Master Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread.
Bruce Wayne: They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I’ve looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge… Me.
13. Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
Bruce Wayne: That’s why it’s so important. It separates us from them.
14. Bruce Wayne: Mm… I’m not finished. To all of you, uh, all you phonies, all of you two-faced friends, you sycophantic suck-ups who smile through your teeth at me, please leave me in peace. Please go. Stop smiling. It’s not a joke. Please leave. The party’s over. Get out.
Fredericks: The apple has fallen very far from the tree, Mr. Wayne.
15. Bruce Wayne: Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues.
16. Bruce Wayne: [as Alfred opens the curtains] Bats are nocturnal.
Alfred Pennyworth: Bats may be, but even for billionaire playboys, three o’clock is pushing it. The price of leading a double life, I fear. Your theatrics made an impression.
Bruce Wayne: Theatricality and deception are powerful weapons, Alfred. It’s a good start.
Alfred Pennyworth: If those are to be the first of many injuries to come, it would be wise to find a suitable excuse. Polo, for instance.
Bruce Wayne: I’m not learning polo, Alfred.
Alfred Pennyworth: Strange injuries a non-existent social life, these things beg the question as to what exactly does Bruce Wayne do with his time and his money.
Bruce Wayne: And what does someone like me do?
Alfred Pennyworth: Drive sports cars, date movie stars, buy things that are not for sale… who knows, Master Wayne? You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident.
17. Jim Gordon: Yours?
[Batmobile blasts out and races by]
Jim Gordon: I’ve gotta get me one of those.
18. Bruce Wayne: The first time I stole so that I wouldn’t starve, yes. I lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong. And when I traveled, I learned the fear before a crime and the thrill of success. But I never became one of them.
19. Bruce Wayne: Well, it’s a good thing I left everything to you, then.
Alfred Pennyworth: Quite so, sir. And you can borrow the Rolls if you like. Just bring it back with a full tank.
20. Thomas Wayne: Gotham’s been good to our family, but the city’s been suffering. People less fortunate than us have been enduring very hard times. So we built a new, cheap, public transportation system to unite the city. And at the center… Wayne Tower.
By: Archa Dave
