What you didn't know about 'The Dark Knight'

A storm is coming...Brace yourself for an onslaught on your senses as Bruce Wayne fights to save Gotham from Bane..

Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Nolan's 2008 'The Dark Knight' revolutionized and set the standard for films based on comic books by being both high-minded and crowd-pleasing.

With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005's 'Batman Begins,' Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.

Here, as director and co-writer, he's unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow, the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight.

Gotham is under siege in ways that tonally and visually recall 9/11; what is obviously the island of Manhattan gets cut off from the outside world at one point.

'The Dark Knight Rises' features the kind of impeccable production values we've come to expect from Nolan's films.

Many members of his core team are back, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith and production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan.

Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent.

'The Dark Knight Rises' takes on an even grittier look than its predecessors as Gotham City devolves into desperation and ruin.

The antagonist this time is Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City.

Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman in the Batman universe, a slinky thief who punctures Bruce's bubble when she lifts his fingerprints from his safe, along with a beloved pearl necklace.

Morgan Freeman is gadget guru Lucius Fox.

She's selfish and cynical, only looking out for herself, but at least she goes about her crimes with some verve and style.

Tom Hardy plays Bane, as fearsome a figure as a large and hulking one.

Gary Oldman returns as Commissioner Gordon.

Bane wears a cage-like muzzle that covers his nose and mouth and alters his voice.

'The Dark Knight Rises,' a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.

With a running time of 164 minutes, this epic finale to the Batman trilogy will determine the fate of Bruce Wayne and the city of Gotham.