Ra's al Ghul (Nolanverse)

Note: this page is an incarnation of Ra's al ghul from Christopher Nolan's trilogy. The mainstream version can be found here.

"Gentlemen, time to spread the word. And the word is...panic"

- Ra's al Ghul to his men, just before they release the fear toxin.

Ra's al Ghul, also known as Henri Ducard, is the main antagonist of Batman Begins; the first of Christopher Nolan's trilogy. He was the former leader of the League of Shadows and was Bruce Wayne's mentor who helped him become the caped crusader.

He was portrayed by Liam Neeson.

He had a cameo in The Dark Knight Rises, appearing before Batman in a dream and his background becomes revealed.

Batman Begins
Ra's al Ghul first meets Bruce Wayne in a Chinese prison under the alias Henri Ducard who offers Bruce a chance to become a member of the League of Shadows. Bruce agrees and Ra's tells him to find a rare blue flower outside the prison and bring it to his lair on top of a mountian. Bruce does so and finds the lair and meets the imposter Ra's al Ghul. Bruce tells Ducard everything: his parent's death, his fear for bats, events prior to his imprisonment. Ducard teaches him to fight with a sword, hand to hand combat, etc. Bruce succeeds in Ra's tests and is sworn in to the League. His final test was to execute a murderer but he refused and Ducard and the decoy Ra's reveal that they plan to attack Gotham and destroy it. Bruce then sets the lair on fire, kills the decoy Ra's and brings Ducard to a village to have him recuperate.

Many months later, Bruce becomes Batman and slowly brings hope back to Gotham. He learns that Dr. Crane (the Scarecrow) is using his fear toxins on his patients and dumping it into the water supply. Scarecrow tells Batman he is working for Ra's al Ghul but Batman doesn't believe him as he saw the decoy get killed. Later that night, Ducard crashes Bruce's birthday party and reveals himself as the real Ra's al Ghul. He reveals that Scarecrow takes the toxin from the blue flowers near his lair and were able to weaponize it and make people see their worst fears. Ra's al Ghul's master plan is to destroy Gotham with biological warfare and make the citizens kill each other out of fear. Ra's then goes on saying that the League of Shadows have been around for centuries and were behind historical ecological disasters including the sacking of Rome, the Bubonic Plague and the London fire; believing they did what they did for the sake of the environment. Ra's then knocks out Bruce and sets Wayne Manor on fire.

Ra's al Ghul then goes to the Narrows and frees all the inmates from Arkham Asylum. He then takes the microwave emitter he stole from Wayne Enterprises and releases his toxin throughout the narrows. Batman then arrives whom Ra's admired for using the League's tactic of theatricality and deception. He unleashes a few of his soldiers on Batman to occupy him while he puts the emitter on the monorail and sets course for Wayne Tower where the emitter will cause a chain reaction and cover the whole city in the poison. Batman gives then Lieutenant Gordon the batmobile while he gets on the monorail and takes on Ra's. Ra's gets an advantage as Bruce fights the same way but Batman gets the upper hand. The fight was a ruse and Gordon destroys the monorail track and Batman destroys the stop switch to prevent the train from stopping. Batman then prepares to strike Ra's who welcomes it but Batman decides to leave him for dead remarking: "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you".

Batman then dismantles the train and escapes and Ra's falls to his death: the train derails and crashes into the Wayne Tower parking lot and the impact of the crash causes the emitter to explode; killing Ra's al Ghul.

The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, a new enemy attacked Gotham: Bane. Bruce learns Bane was once a member of the League of Shadows but was excommunicated by Ra's al Ghul for unknown reasons. Bane took over as leader of the league and vowed to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny: destroy Gotham. Bruce decided to come out of hiding and confront Bane as Batman. Bane proved too much for Batman and he broke his back, stole his entire weaponry arsenal and brought him to the prison where Bane grew up. There, Bruce learned of Ra's al Ghul's past.

Thirty years before the events of Batman Begins, Ra's al Ghul was a mercenary who served a warlord in Northern Africa. He fell in love with the warlord's daughter and they married in secret. When the warlord learned of the marriage, he sentenced Ra's to the pit. But unbeknownst to Ra's, the warlord's daughter offered to take his place in the pit and have Ra's be exiled. The warlord agreed. The daughter was imprisoned in the pit and was also with child; his daughter Talia. After a few years, she was attacked and killed by the prisoners but one of the guards, secretly Bane, protected Talia from the raid and raised her himself. One day, Talia escaped the pit and eventually found Ra's al Ghul who rescued Bane and initiated them both into the League. While learning all of this, Bruce believed that Bane was the child who escaped the pit.

In a dream, Ra's appeared before Bruce saying that he is immortal (a nod to his comic book counterpart). Bruce remembered Ra's telling him of once he had a wife who was taken from him and realized that he was the mercenary from the legend. Ra's never said Bane was his child but he would've made him his heir in destroying Gotham for good. Bruce finally escaped from the pit and returned to Gotham and as Batman, led an all-out assault on Bane. Batman defeated Bane and demanded to know where the bomb trigger was, but he gets stabbed by his girlfriend, Miranda Tate, who reveals herself as Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra's al Ghul.

Talia explains that she was the child who escaped from the pit and Bane was the prisoner who protected her. When she found Ra's, he stormed the prison and rescued Bane and gave him the mask to relieve the pain. Ra's al Ghul excommunicated Bane because his very existence kept reminding him of his wife and the Hell that his family lived in. Talia cut Ra's out of her life but when Batman murdered him, she and Bane teamed up and vowed to follow Ra's legacy. Their plans were foiled and were both killed and Batman got the bomb out of range; finally ending Ra's al ghul and the League of Shadows from beyond the grave.

Personality
Unlike his comic book counterpart, Ra's al Ghul was just an ordinary man who led a centuries old cult. There are no mentions of the Lazarus Pits at all but it is hinted when Ra's said that there are many ways of immortality. Like in the comics, he sought Batman as his heir and wanted him to lead the League although he refuses many times.