Where to Get a Mask Like the Ones From the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises: Why Bane Has To Wear A Mask

The Dark Knight Rises' villain Bane had to wear a mask all the time, but why and what did the mask do for him? Let's take a look.

The Dark Knight Rises introduced the audience to Bane (Tom Hardy), one of the villains of the story and who stood out for the mask he had to wear at all times – and here's why he had to. In the comics, Batman has encountered a variety of villains, with many of them becoming part of pop culture, and as such, many of them have followed the Caped Crusader on his many adaptations to TV and film. Among those is Bane, who made his big-screen debut in Joel Schumacher's infamous Batman & Robin in 1997 and was given a second chance thanks to Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

After the failure of Batman & Robin, Batman was given a new opportunity on the big screen with Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, formed by Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises. Each movie saw the Caped Crusader facing against a different villain (with Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow being the only one who appears in all movies), and The Dark Knight Rises brought Bane back in a much more grounded and darker way than what Schumacher did, and gave him a different origin story and reason to wear his now-iconic mask.

Bane has to wear a specific mask at all times, and the only moment where he's seen without it in The Dark Knight Rises is in a flashback, where he helps Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard) escape from The Pit, an underground prison that was virtually impossible to escape from. Although Bane's full backstory and real name are not revealed in The Dark Knight Rises, the reason why he's attached to the mask was confirmed by Christopher Nolan in an interview with Rolling Stone (via Batman News), and it further adds to the tragedy of the character. As explained in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane was also a prisoner of The Pit, and he was brutally attacked by the other inmates for letting Talia escape, and though he was helped by a doctor (who was also imprisoned there), he wasn't the same. The mask, then, as explained by Nolan, dispenses a type of anesthetic that keeps his pain controlled enough so he can function, which is why when Batman damaged his mask in the final act of The Dark Knight Rises, Bane was effectively defeated.

This is different from the reason why Bane wears a mask in the comics though it's still somewhat linked. In the source material, Bane was subjected to the Venom experiment, and though he almost died as a result, he found that the drug increased his physical strength, but he needed to take it every 12 hours via some tubes pumped directly into his brain. In Batman & Robin, Bane (played by Robert "Jeep" Swenson) was transformed against his own will with the help of Venom, but he ended up being an inarticulate thug who served as the henchman of Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), and as he was barely capable of speech as a side-effect of the drug, he communicated with growls and roars. Just like in The Dark Knight Rises, this version of Bane was defeated when Robin (Chris O'Donnell) and Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone) kicked the tubes out of the back of his head.

Bane's most defining physical characteristic is what made him so menacing (and in the comics and Batman & Robin, it was also the source of his strength), but it also turned out to be his biggest weakness. Christopher Nolan managed to keep the essence of Bane, his origin, and the purpose of the mask while also giving his story an even more tragic twist, but it was very fitting with the tone of The Dark Knight Rises and the Dark Knight trilogy in general, which went for a more grounded and dark approach to Batman, Gotham City, and everyone living in it.

Next: How The Dark Knight Rises Set Up Bruce Wayne's Ending Twist

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About The Author

Adrienne Tyler (2971 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she's not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said "hi" to her once. It was great.

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Where to Get a Mask Like the Ones From the Dark Knight

Source: https://screenrant.com/dark-knight-rises-bane-mask-reasons-explained/

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