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I honor my father by finishing his work. Vengeance against the man who killed him is simply a reward for my patience. You see, it's the slow knife... the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between the bones... that's the knife that cuts deepest.
~ Talia as she prepares to destroy Gotham City

Talia al Ghul (alias Miranda Tate) is the central antagonist of the 2012 epic superhero film The Dark Knight Rises, the final entry in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. She is the daughter and heir of terrorist Ra's al Ghul who seeks to accomplish her father's mission of destroying Gotham City. She is the film's interpretation of the DC Comics villain of the same name.

She is portrayed by Marion Cotillard, who also portrayed Lady Macbeth in the 2015 film adaptation of Macbeth and Scarlet Overkill in the French version of Minions.

Early Life[]

Talia was born in the Pit, a hellish prison in "a more ancient part of the world". Talia's mother had been pregnant with her when she was willingly imprisoned in the Pit in return for her husband, Ra's al Ghul, being released. The other prisoners killed Talia's mother, but Talia herself was rescued by Bane, who became her protector. With Bane's help, she escaped, the only person in the prison's history to do so.

She found her father, who helped her rescue Bane, who by this time had been horribly disfigured by the other prisoners. Ra's' terrorist group, the League of Shadows, took in Talia and Bane and trained them in combat, similar to how Ra's would later train Bruce Wayne along his journey to becoming Batman.

However, Ra's could not accept Bane, seeing him as a monster and a constant reminder of his wife's death, and excommunicated him from the League. Talia was outraged, and cut ties with her father - until his death while fighting Batman. She dedicated herself to avenging her father's death and completing his mission of destroying Gotham City. She and Bane devised an intricate plan to steal a fusion reactor created by Wayne Enterprises and use it as a nuclear bomb to destroy the city. To that end, Talia infiltrated Wayne Enterprises posing as Miranda Tate, a wealthy business executive with a social conscience, and became acting CEO of the company.

In The Dark Knight Rises[]

Talia attends a party at Wayne Manor, where Bruce's main business rival - and Bane's accomplice - John Daggett tries to persuade her to let him run Wayne Enterprises and recoup the money Bruce lost when he cancelled the fusion reactor project. She refuses, and belittles Daggett's obsession with money and the power he thinks it buys. Meanwhile, Selina Kyle, a cat burglar hired by Daggett, steals Bruce's fingerprints, which Bane uses to make fraudulent stock trades that bankrupt Wayne Enterprises and leave Bruce penniless. Talia steps in to take over the company in Bruce's stead, while Bane murders Daggett.

Talia accompanies Bruce back to Wayne Manor, where she comforts him as the power is shut off by helping him build a fire; they then become lovers. Soon afterward, however, Bane and Selina lure Bruce, who has once again become Batman, to Bane's underground lair, where the terrorist cripples him and then imprisons him in the Pit. When Bane takes over Gotham City, he and Talia set the reactor to go off in a matter of months. She then allows Bane's men to kidnap her as part of the ruse.

Months pass, during which Talia and Bane turn the city into an isolated, anarchic "No Man's Land". The day the reactor is set to explode, Batman, having recovered and escaped the Pit, fights and incapacitates Bane. Talia then stabs Batman in the side and reveals her true identity, as well as her connection to Bane and her plan to destroy Gotham. When she activates the reactor's detonator, however, nothing happens; Wayne Enterprises' chief scientist, Lucius Fox, has stalled the explosion by extending the reactor's timer by 10 minutes. After bidding a loving farewell to Bane, Talia goes to recapture the reactor and set it off herself.

After killing Bane, Batman and Selina go after Talia, hoping to take the reactor from her and stabilize it. A car chase ensues in which Talia's truck crashes into a wall, mortally injuring Talia. With her last ounce of strength, she remotely destroys the reactor chamber, and gloats that she has fulfilled her father's work, before dying. Ultimately, however, Batman thwarts Talia's attempt to destroy the city by flying the bomb over Gotham Bay in the BatPlane, where it detonates harmlessly miles away from the city.


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