By: Scott Johnson on August 11, 2012
While The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers were two very different movies, there were a surprising amount of similarities between the two movies. The tone of the two movies was completely different as The Dark Knight Rises was dark, serious, and suspenseful; and The Avengers was more light-hearted and fast-paced. However, there were a couple characters and specific scenes that were very similar. Here are five ways that The Dark Knight Rises was like The Avengers.
5. Vicious Villains – While quite different in appearance, both Bane and Loki had the same dark and menacing tone as villains. Both Bane and Loki were the type that seemed to ooze pure evil, where they would and did kill without a second thought. The way that they both carried themselves with a quiet confidence in certain scenes also seemed similar, such as Loki waltzing into the museum gala in Germany and Bane entering the stock exchange building in Gotham City.
4. Cities Under Attack – Both The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers showed cities under siege. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane and his henchman destroyed part of a football stadium and collapsed bridges leading into Gotham City. In The Avengers, the Chitauri leveled buildings and blew up cars and buses as they attacked New York City. Both Gotham City and New York City are thrown into a state of chaos and essentially cut off from the outside world.
3. Women In Black – Probably the most obvious comparison between The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers is that the most prominent female character in both movies dressed in a skin-tight black costume. But the similarities go far beyond just how Catwoman and Black Widow dress. Both Catwoman and Black Widow have somewhat sketchy pasts, but they ultimately proved themselves to be heroes.
2. Self-Sacrificing Hero With A Nuke – In The Avengers, Iron Man steers a nuclear missile that was heading toward New York City into an alien portal to destroy the alien mothership. In the beginning it looks like riding the nuclear missile into the portal will be a one-way ticket, so Iron Man is willing to sacrifice himself to save the city. In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman uses The Bat to fly a nuclear bomb away from Gotham City. In the beginning it looks like The Bat has no autopilot, so Batman is willing to sacrifice himself to save the city. That a central plot point of both movies involves heroes who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save their cities from a nuclear explosion is probably one of the biggest similarities between the two movies.
1. Restaurant Ending – There is a lot of intense action and destruction in both The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers, but one of the final scenes in both movies involves a rather calm restaurant scene. At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are shown dining at a café in Italy. After the credits in The Avengers, the entire team is shown enjoying some shawarma. Both scenes offer that reassurance to the audience that despite everything that has happened that it’s all going to be ok.
