THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Tom Hardy First Batman (2012) Set Photo

The first Tom Hardy set photo from The Dark Knight Rises has premiered. Tom Hardy is playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), a physically powerful villain, a gym rat with a vast intellect. Tom Hardy  is part of the Christopher Nolan cast for The Dark Knight Rises that already includes Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Sunjata, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence. Look at the first Tom Hardy The Dark Knight Rises set photo below and leave your thoughts on it. Click to enlarge.

Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises Set

For those that do not know the history of Bane, from Vengeance of Bane I:

Bane was born in the fictional Caribbean Republic of Santa Prisca, in a prison called Peña Dura (“Hard Rock”). His father Edmund Dorrance had been a revolutionary and had escaped Santa Prisca’s court system. The corrupt government however decreed that his young son would serve out the man’s life sentence, and thus Bane’s childhood and early adult life are spent in the amoral penitentiary environment. Though imprisoned, his natural abilities allow him to develop extraordinary skills within the prison’s walls. He reads as many books as he can get his hands on, builds up his body in the prison’s gym, and learns to fight in the merciless school of prison life. Despite his circumstances, he finds teachers of various sorts during his incarceration, ranging from hardened convicts to an elderly Jesuit priest, under whose tutelage he apparently receives a classical education. Bane murders this priest upon his return to Santa Prisca years later. However, he commits his first murder at the age of eight, stabbing a criminal who wanted to use him to gain information about the prison. During his years in prison, Bane carries a teddy bear he calls Osito (Spanish for “little bear”), whom he considers his only friend. It is revealed that Osito has a hole in his back to hold a knife that Bane uses against anyone who bullies him.

Bane ultimately establishes himself as the “king” of Peña Dura prison. The prison’s controllers take note and eventually force him to become a test subject for a mysterious drug known as Venom, which had killed all other subjects; the drug is administered by a doctor who bears a passing resemblance to another Batman foe, Dr. Hugo Strange. Later, in Vengeance of Bane II the very same doctor encounters Bane again in Gotham and it can be confirmed that it is not Hugo Strange, who at that point in Batman continuity was a crazed psychologist and not a surgeon. The Peña Dura prison Venom experiment nearly kills Bane at first, but he survives and finds the drug vastly increases his physical strength, although he needs to take it every 12 hours (via a system of tubes pumped directly into his brain) or he would suffer debilitating side-effects.

Soon after the initial experiments, Bane escapes Peña Dura, along with several accomplices based on the Fabulous Five (his friends Trogg, Zombie, and Bird, all of whom are named after 1960s rock bands: The Troggs, The Zombies, and The Byrds, and were designed to mimic three of Doc Savage’s assistants Monk, Ham, and Renny). His ambition turns to destroying Batman, whom he had heard tales of while serving his sentence. He is fascinated with Gotham City because, like the prison, it is a place where fear rules: in this case, fear of Batman. Bane is convinced that the demonic bat that haunted his dreams since childhood is a representation of the Batman.

The Dark Knight Rises Bane Movie Poster by Ryan Luckoo

The Dark Knight Rises open in US theaters on July 20, 2012.