Rachel Dawes: Wait! You could die. At least tell me your name.
[pause]
Bruce Wayne: ...It's not who I am underneath... but what I *do*... that defines me.
Rachel Dawes: ...Bruce?
[Batman turns and leaps off the roof]
[as Wayne Manor is burning down]
Bruce Wayne: What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family... my father built...
Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir.
Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I failed.
Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick
ourselves up.
Bruce Wayne: You still haven't given up on me?
Alfred Pennyworth: Never.
Batman: [taps the Bat-signal] Nice.
Jim Gordon: I couldn't find any mob bosses.
Batman: Well, Sergeant?
Jim Gordon: Oh, it's Lieutenant now. You really started something. Bent cops running scared, hope on the streets.
Batman: But?
Jim Gordon: We still haven't
picked up Crane or half the inmates of Arkham that he freed.
Batman: We will. We *can* bring Gotham back.
Jim Gordon: What about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Jim Gordon: And, you're wearing a mask. Jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy.
[pulling out a file]
Jim Gordon: Armed robbery, double homicide, has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card.
[shows Batman a plastic evidence bag containing a Joker card]
Batman:
I'll look into it.
[turns away and walks to the edge of the roof]
Jim Gordon: I never said thank you.
Batman: [looks back at Gordon] And you'll never have to.
Bruce Wayne: You're vigilantes.
Henri Ducard: No, no, no. A vigilante is just a man lost in the scramble for his own gratification. He can be destroyed, or locked up. But if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.
Bruce Wayne:
Which is?
Henri Ducard: Legend, Mr. Wayne.
Henri Ducard: But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just... poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.
Alfred Pennyworth: Are you coming back to Gotham for long, sir?
Bruce Wayne: As long as it takes. I'm gonna show the people of Gotham their city doesn't belong to the criminals and the corrupt.
Alfred Pennyworth: In the depression, your father nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises combating poverty. He believed that his example could
inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city.
Bruce Wayne: Did it?
Alfred Pennyworth: In a way. Their murder shocked the wealthy and the powerful into action.
Bruce Wayne: People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be
destroyed; but as a symbol... as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.
Alfred Pennyworth: What symbol?
Bruce Wayne: Something elemental, something terrifying.
Alfred Pennyworth: I assume that as you're taking on the underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect those you care about from reprisals.
Bruce Wayne: You're thinking about Rachel?
Alfred Pennyworth: Actually, sir, I was thinking of myself.
Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.
[trying to lug a burning roof beam off of a helpless Bruce]
Alfred Pennyworth: What is the point of all those push-ups if you can't even lift a bloody log?
Henri Ducard: Your parents' death was not your fault.
[Bruce attacks Ducard with his sword]
Henri Ducard: It was your father's.
[Bruce furiously attacks Ducard, but is easily defeated]
Henri Ducard: Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.
Bruce Wayne: The man had a gun!
Henri Ducard: Would that stop you?
Bruce Wayne: I've had training!
Henri Ducard: The training is nothing! The will is everything!
[Ducard bests Bruce once again]
Henri Ducard: The will to act.
Carmine Falcone: You're taller than you look in the tabloids, Mr. Wayne.
[one of Falcone's attendant bodyguards gives Bruce a rough going-over to check for weapons but comes up with nothing]
Carmine Falcone: No gun? I'm insulted! You could have just sent a thank-you note.
Bruce Wayne: I didn't come here to thank you. I came
here to show you that not everyone in Gotham's afraid of you.
Carmine Falcone: Only those who know me, kid. Look around you: you'll see two councilmen, a union official, a couple off-duty cops, and a judge.
[points a gun at Bruce]
Carmine Falcone: Now, I wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off right here and right now in
front of 'em. Now, that's power you can't buy! That's the power of fear.
Bruce Wayne: I'm not afraid of you.
Carmine Falcone: Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through. You haven't thought about your lady-friend down at the D.A.'s office. You haven't thought about your old butler. Bang!
[Falcone pulls the
trigger, but the hammer falls on an empty chamber with a click; he puts the gun away]
Carmine Falcone: People from your world have so *much* to lose. Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life, but you don't. You've never tasted desperate. You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham; you'd have to go a thousand
miles to meet someone who didn't know your name. So, don't-don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand. Alright.
[Falcone gives his bodyguards a signal to remove Bruce; they take hold of him, and he struggles against their grip]
Carmine Falcone:
Yeah, you got spirit, kid. I'll give you that. More than your old man, anyway. In the joint, Chill told me, uh, told me about the night he killed your parents. He said your father begged for mercy. Begged. Like a dog.
Ra's al Ghul: Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.
Bruce Wayne: You attacked Gotham before?
Ra's al Ghul: Of course. Over the ages, our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham, we tried a new one: Economics. But we
underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens... such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself... and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job. And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the
courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice... you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart.
Jumpy Thug: [screaming] WHERE ARE YOU?
Batman: [appears upside-down behind him, whispering] Here.