The Lost Dark Knight Rises Scene That Made Christopher Nolan Turn White

The Dark Knight trilogy lives up to its name with its darker themes, but there was one lost scene in The Dark Knight Rises that sparked a particularly visceral reaction in director Christopher Nolan. Nolan’s celebrated pre-DCU movie franchise is a far cry from its flamboyant predecessors, replete with grim motifs that have helped to redefine the Batman movies that have come since, with Matt Reeves now carrying the torch with The Batman trilogy. Neither iteration of Batman shies away from the violence inherent in the character whose M.O. is to maul but not kill DC’s prolific roster of villains – but there is a limit.

Despite the inherent violence, both recent movie adaptations have limited what remains in the final cut. The severity of Bruce Wayne’s punches can certainly be felt when he’s beating goons and kingpins alike, with plenty of death being dealt all the while by his sinister adversaries. Yet the movies stop short of showcasing the more gruesome effects, such as Joker’s victims burning on a pile of cash off-screen. The Dark Knight Rises ending also included a prominent death that wasn’t depicted in gory detail – but it wasn’t always supposed to be that way.

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The Dark Knight Rises Death Scene That Was Too Much For Christopher Nolan

A 2020 interview (via NME) with the actor who portrays Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley, Matthew Modine, revealed that one of The Dark Knight Rises‘ deleted scenes originally showcased the manner of his death in detail at the hands of Talia al Ghul. Specifically, it showed al Ghul running Foley over in one of the movie’s climactic scenes following the death of Bane. While violent deaths aren’t exactly uncharted territory for any of the Batman movies, this one in particular was enough to make everybody on set cringe, especially Nolan, whose “face was white.”

The final cut shows Talia driving up to Foley before the camera cuts to his body on the floor. The scene was originally acted out in full, however, by Modine’s stunt double, who in unseen footage was “hit” by the car, thrown into the air, and dropped 15 feet onto the cobblestone streets. It was the sound of the stunt double’s body hitting the stone floor that Modine described as particularly “sickening,” suggesting the shared belief on set was that it was too intense of a sequence to include in the final movie.

Why The Dark Knight Rises Cut Foley’s Death

Even though the stunt double was hit with a plexiglass panel and suspended by ropes, the visceral reactions of the crew involved in the scene speak volumes. Despite those parameters in place, the sheer violence of the act seems to have convinced Nolan that it would lead to an NC-17 rating. Given that a huge swathe of the audience would have been lost to such a rating, this was enough to spur the filmmakers to omit the sequence from the movie, choosing instead to let the audience connect the dots on how Foley’s death played out. Unfortunately, Foley’s death in The Dark Knight Rises is particularly unceremonious as a result.