Bane’s origin sequence was cut from “Rises”

Though many would argue that the strength of Heath Ledger‘s Joker in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight was the ambiguity of his origins, it’s hard not to wonder at which, if any, of his wild tales of childhood were actually true. And while Nolan was (almost) equally cryptic about the roots of Tom Hardy‘s Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, he did give us a tiny glimpse at what made the character into the man he was. But if costume designer Lindy Hemming can be believed, audiences were due to see a whole lot more of the man in the mask’s origin. When talking to GQ about designing the look of Bane, Hemming was notably particular about moments that were not in the final film. “The thing that you should have seen during that sequence is [Bane] being injured in his youth,” she tells the magazine. “So one of the fundamental things about his costume is that he has this scar from the back injury. Even if he hasn’t got the bulletproof vest on, he still has to wear the waist belt and the braces.”

Continuing on, Hemming begins to talk about scenes that most certainly were cut from the film. “In that scene in the prison,” she says, referring to the edited moments, “where he’s learning to fight the same way Batman learned to fight, he’s wearing an early version of his waist belt. It’s showing support, but it’s not the finished one he eventually wears… If you look at the film, unless they’ve cut it—and I’m sure they haven’t—there’s a whole early section for Tom Hardy where he’s fighting and being taunted by people. He’s got chains on him, and he’s standing on a wooden thing while people are attacking him. And in that scene, he’s wearing a much more ragged, primitive version of the mask.”

While none of that was seen in Nolan’s conclusion to his Dark Knight trilogy, Hemming also refers to a scene where Nolan explains why Bane “had the mask and where it came from.” The exact reason as to why these scenes were cut out of the final film is likely a mystery to everybody except for Nolan himself, but it’s possible that the footage may surface when The Dark Knight Rises hits home video later this year.