THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' Bane Reminds Christopher Nolan Of Darth Vader

“When we chose Bane as the antagonist and I thought about asking a great actor to cover his face up for the whole [movie] — you could just see his eyes and just hear his voice — I knew immediately that Tom would be up for that,” the director told Access Hollywood at the press junket for The Dark Knight Rises.”

”[He’s] something you’ve never seen before. It’s a little bit of Darth Vader, a little bit of this, little bit of that… It’s very unique and that’s what you get with great actors like Tom Hardy, he’s not just going to go through the motions, he’s going to try and craft a character that really makes sense for him. He has really gone in through the roots of the character and approached the evil,” the director explained.

“He had to make himself huge for the role. He learned how to do all of this fighting with Christian Bale, both of them wearing these crazy outfits where they could barely breathe. In Tom’s case, with this mask over his face, very tough to breathe, very hot, working in some very challenging environments,” Nolan told Access. “There was a lot of preparation that went into it, and it really shows on screen.”

It has been eight years since Batman vanished into the night, turning, in that instant, from hero to fugitive. Assuming the blame for the death of D.A. Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight sacrificed everything for what he and Commissioner Gordon both hoped was the greater good. For a time the lie worked, as criminal activity in Gotham City was crushed under the weight of the anti-crime Dent Act. But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar with a mysterious agenda. Far more dangerous, however, is the emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist whose ruthless plans for Gotham drive Bruce out of his self-imposed exile. But even if he dons the cape and cowl again, Batman may be no match for Bane.