“ | You think all this can last? There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you are all gonna wonder how you thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us! | „ |
~ Selina Kyle to Bruce Wayne. |
Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, is the deuteragonist of the 2012 superhero film The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.
She is a masked criminal who had formerly associated herself with the terrorist Bane through their mutual illegitimate employer John Daggett. However, Catwoman only assists Bane out of fear and later turns against him by helping Batman in his plight to stop the League of Shadows from destroying Gotham City.
She was portrayed by Anne Hathaway, who also played the Grand High Witch in the 2020 The Witches film adaptation.
Biography[]
Selina Kyle first appeared in disguised as a maid at Wayne Manor. While no one is looking she attempts to steal from its owner Bruce Wayne and succeeds in making off with a pearl necklace that had once belonged to Bruce's mother. Bruce would later manage to confront Selina for the theft and reclaim his mother's necklace, but this leads an angry Selina to steal Bruce's car as revenge. It is later learned though that Selina has grown tired of her life as a criminal and desires to start fresh, due to so many past arrests and convictions have become bitter and cynical, feeling that the world would never give her a second chance, especially with the ease at which knowledge of her past can be shared.
Bruce's business rival John Daggett hires her to steal Bruce's fingerprints as part of his plan to take over Wayne Enterprises, promising to give her the Clean Slate - a computer program that erases criminal records - in return. While stealing the necklace, she also takes Bruce's fingerprints, in the process crossing paths with Bruce's alter-ego Batman for the first time. Daggett ultimately double-crosses her, however, and reveals that the Clean Slate does not actually exist.
When Bane makes his presence known in Gotham, Selina fears for her life and in desperation sells Batman out to Bane, though she is shown to be remorseful over her actions and visibly upset by seeing Bane beat Batman mercilessly. As Gotham City subsequently descends into chaos and anarchy with Batman gone, Selina attempts to leave Gotham but is arrested again by detective John Blake. She is not locked up for long though before Bane causes a mass prison break, allowing Selina to flee and reacquire her equipment. Though she initially revels in the ability to take what she feels has been owed to her for so long, she becomes remorseful and guilt-ridden upon seeing the devastation caused by Bane's actions, at one point taking up residence in a building that she notes once belonged to an innocent family.
When Batman returns, she reluctantly aids him but also plans to leave Gotham for good as soon as possible. Batman appeals to her inner goodness and Selina, rather than flee Gotham when she has the chance, chooses to instead help Batman, arriving just in time to save him from Bane, who she kills with the Bat-Pod's cannons. Right before Batman then seemingly sacrifices his life to save Gotham, Catwoman kisses him, also noting that they're "both suckers". She is later seen by Alfred living a new life with Bruce Wayne, the two finally able to start fresh and leave their painful pasts in Gotham behind.
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Trivia[]
- Anne Hathaway has revealed that during her audition, she thought that she was auditioning for The Joker's on again-off again girlfriend/partner-in-crime Harley Quinn. It was only after she had a discussion with Christopher Nolan that she found out that she was auditioning for Catwoman.
- Anne Hathaway based her performance off of Hedy Lamarr and while reading Catwoman comic books.
- She is never referred to as Catwoman in the actual film, though a newspaper headline does refer to her as "The Cat", which in the comics was her alias before becoming Catwoman.
- She is the third love interest of Bruce, after Rachel Dawes and Talia al Ghul.
- Selina shifts between all three alignments throughout the film, firstly being a bad character involved with Bane and enemies with Batman, then becoming neutral and staying to the sidelines during the battle, and eventually becoming good.
- In The LEGO Movie continuity, Catwoman has gone back to being evil and is working with the Joker in The LEGO Batman Movie. Chris McKay, the film's director, confirmed that the previous live-action Batman movies all happened in this universe.
- This is one of the only versions of the character to act as a henchwoman to another major villain.
- This version of Catwoman has brown hair and brown eyes (similar to Julie Newmar's version of Catwoman from the 1966 Live-Action TV series) while her mainstream counterpart has black hair and green eyes.
- This version of Catwoman wears fake cat ears and a domino mask, while her mainstream counterpart wears a cat-like cowl.
External Links[]
- Catwoman on Heroes Wiki.
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