Despite years of jokes aimed in its direction, I genuinely believe Tom Hardy’s Bane voice in The Dark Knight Rises was right for the DC movie and the broader trilogy it sat within. While Nolan’s Batman trilogy is arguably the best Batman movie series in history, no film franchise is without its flaws. In the time since its successful release, praise of the series has been balanced out with criticisms of its pacing, plot, and tone, most notably regarding its final film, which suffers from having to tie up a vast selection of loose ends while also trying to not end everything too concretely, letting audiences imagine their own future for the characters within it.

Perhaps the most popular criticism of The Dark Knight Rises, though, is regarding Tom Hardy’s Bane performance. Viewers who were already aware of Hardy’s acting career were no doubt surprised by his muffled, higher-pitched voice as the DC villain, and even those who knew he’d be behind a mask that’d likely alter his voice based on the character’s comic history couldn’t have anticipated the specific one that would grace the film. While I think jokes about this somewhat unexpected plot twist are fair, the prevalence of them tends to avoid addressing the various factors that meant it was needed.

Tom Hardy’s Bane Voice Got More Criticism Than It Ever Deserved

The Dark Knight Rises’ Bane Deserves More Credit Than He Gets

Tom Hardy’s Bane voice was essentially the 2012 iteration of his later Venom voice for the Marvel movies – distinctive, specific, and full of notable intonations that made lines stand out and gave them extra dimension. While Bane is perhaps the most joked-about villain in Nolan’s trilogy, he’s also quoted far more than Ra’s Al Ghul or Scarecrow, and it’s in no small part because of the pathos that this characteristic voice gave lines – even if those lines are often delivered by people doing a questionable Bane rendition.

Bane could have been given a more conventional “tough action guy” voice, but I think this would’ve majorly risked simplifying the character, or otherwise simplifying the audience’s understanding of him by suggesting he was just another buff adversary for Batman to face. This issue has come up in Batman comics, games, movies and more, where it’s clear there has to be active efforts to show Bane’s intellect and cunning in order to effectively depict him as more than his immense strength. As such, giving Bane a voice and lines more Shakespearian than Fast & Furious-esque immediately helps clue audiences in.

The one core aspect of complaints regarding Tom Hardy’s Bane voice that is understandable is that of legibility. While audiences now can watch the movie with subtitles if Bane’s voice provides them particular trouble, I remember sitting in the cinema for The Dark Knight Rises and having to focus in order to make sure I was completely understanding all of the villain’s dialogue and what it meant for the movie.

However, it is worth noting Bane’s biggest moments tend to be much slower monologues, wherein his voice deepens and his syllables are drawn out, making things much clearer than they can otherwise be. This seems like an intentional move, meaning there were seemingly efforts to avoid this voice sacrificing the audience’s understanding of the story.

Tom Hardy’s Bane Voice Was The Perfect Counter To Christian Bale’s Batman Voice

Christian Bale’s Batman Voice Needed Its Own Rival

While Christian Bale’s Batman voice is also understandably goofed about, I think giving a Dark Knight with a voice like gargled nails a villain with equal verbal distinctiveness makes sense for the audio side of the movie. Audiences had already heard Bale’s Batman for two films by the point of The Dark Knight Rises, meaning Bane shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise, working on around the same level of specific vocal alteration.

Similarly, providing Batman with a villain who audibly contrasts the hero – higher pitched and verbose to counter the base tones and often monosyllabic lines – makes Bane naturally seem the opposite of the Caped Crusader, giving their conflict layers that would have otherwise been missing had Tom Hardy gone with a less altered voice for the character. Indeed, every supervillain shown in the series plays their vocal talents up within the trilogy, but audiences expect this more from the likes of Joker or Scarecrow during the midst of doling out fear toxin than they do Bane.

The Dark Knight Trilogy’s Bane Needed Tom Hardy’s Voice To Work

The Dark Knight Rises’ Stakes Warranted Tom Hardy’s Bane Voice

As the climactic finale to one of the biggest superhero movie series in the history of the colossal genre, The Dark Knight Rises needed to be as lively as possible to provide a fitting sendoff to the trilogy. This is clear from the story of the film, which contains major plot twists galore, a huge action scene that decides the fate of Gotham, and the retirement of Batman as we knew him, setup to possibly be replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character.

Bane’s side of the story is no different, containing plane crashes and exploding football fields, and most notably dramatically the villain snapping Batman’s spine during an intense battle. Given the spine-snap is one of the most dramatic parts of an already dramatic plot, making Bane underwhelming would’ve been a fate worse than death for the movie. This means Tom Hardy’s amped-up Bane performance was warranted, in order to ensure his brand of menace kept audiences on their toes and as unable as possible to know what to expect from the villain.

While I don’t consider The Dark Knight Rises the best movie in the series’ roster by a long shot, I do think the reputation the trilogy has maintained all these years later makes it clear the film ensured the legacy of my favorite series for decades to come. To some degree, the conversation surrounding these less universally loved elements is what part of keeps the franchise in modern discussions and brings it to new audiences. As such, I’m grateful for Tom Hardy’s Bane voice, even if it still has a divisive reputation even over a decade down the line.