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    It’s almost impossible to imagine a bat-world pre-Christopher Nolan, where the caped crusader was a laughing stock, a Day-Glo covered punchline forced to trade lame quips with A-listers cashing in whatever goodwill they had with the public. But Nolan went back to the beginning, started from scratch, rebuilt Bruce Wayne brick by brick, and created one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. As the final chapter, “The Dark Knight Rises,” arrives on Blu-ray and DVD Dec. 4th, it’s time to look back and learn a few things about Gotham’s solitary protector…

    10. Michael Caine helped flesh out the backstory for his take on Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, including hints at Alfred’s former military career. In the British army, privates who act as valets for officers are referred to as “batmen.” Caine liked to quip that Alfred is “Batman’s batman.”

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    9. During a trip to “the Narrows” in “Batman Begins,” Batman runs into a kid on a fire escape and gives him a spy device as a souvenir. Little did we know that that wide-eyed little moppet would grow up to be “Game of Thrones’” most despised character, the bratty child King Joffrey Baratheon (the actor’s name is Jack “Don’t Call me Jackie” Gleeson).

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    8. The score for “Batman Begins” was actually a tag team effort between Hans Zimmer (“Gladiator,” “The Last Samurai,” “Crimson Tide”) and James Newton Howard (“The Fugitive,” “The Hunger Games,” “The Bourne Legacy”). Each composer worked on separate pieces of music to represent Bruce Wayne’s split personality. The bizarre track list names – “Vespertilio,” “Eptesicus,” “Myotis” – are the Latin names for species of bats.

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    7. Being a well-connected bat-fan has its privileges. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is such a renowned Batman fanboy that he not only scored a cameo in “Batman & Robin,” he’s done voice work on the animated series, and appeared in “The Dark Knight” as the Harvey Dent fundraiser attendee who stands up to The Joker (“We’re not intimidated by thugs.”) Leahy returned for a quick cameo in “Rises” as well.

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    6. “The Dark Knight” is the first Batman movie not to physically feature Wayne Manor. Not that that’s entirely without precedent – Bruce Wayne actually did rock a penthouse pad in the comics from the late 60s to the early 80s. Among TDK’s other firsts – it’s the first Batman movie to not have “Batman” in the title, and it’s the first to feature Batman fighting villains outside of Gotham City. 

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    5. How’s this for roundabout inspiration? The “smile” scars sported by The Joker are similar to ones inflicted upon the infamous “Black Dahlia” murder victim Elizabeth Short in 1947. Her killer was believed to have been inspired by a creepy 1928 film called “The Man Who Laughs,” about a man whose face is permanently frozen into a freakish grin. That same film inspired Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger when they originally dreamed up The Joker in 1940.

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    4. Actor Cillian Murphy holds a unique position in Batman-history. He’s the first actor to reprise a villain role in any of the Batman movie series. He plays Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow in all three of the Dark Knight films.

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    3. One of the major set pieces in “The Dark Knight Rises” takes place in the Gotham Rogues football stadium (actually Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field). Most people know that the Rogues are played by actual members of the Pittsburgh Steelers (including a very prominent Hines Ward), but did you know that the kicker for the opposing team is played by Luke Ravenstahl, the mayor of Pittsburgh?

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    2. Christopher Nolan refused to even mention the Joker in “The Dark Knight Rises” out of respect for the late Heath Ledger, but there are some clues out there as to what exactly happened to the Clown Prince of Crime. The movie’s novelization stokes the mystery:  "Now that the Dent Act had made it all but impossible for the city’s criminals to cop an insanity plea, it (Blackgate Prison) had replaced Arkham Asylum as a preferred location for imprisoning both convicted and suspected felons. The worst of the worst were sent here, except for the Joker, who, rumor had it, was locked away as Arkham’s sole remaining inmate. Or perhaps he had escaped. Nobody was really sure. Not even Selina.”

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    1. The massive showdown in Gotham’s financial district between Bane’s army, Batman, and the Gotham PD was actually pieced together from two entirely different shoots. Part of it was shot in the middle of winter in New York’s snow-covered Wall Street (while the Occupy Protests were going on), while the other was shot earlier in the heat of summer at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University while fake snow was pumped in.

    The location shift happens right in the middle of the action. Bane attacks Batman and knocks him onto the steps of a large building. The initial hit was from the first shoot and its impact is from the second, according to Nolan: “Bane literally kicks Batman from Wall Street in New York to the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh. That’s one big kick.”