Eight years after the death of Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse, living out his days pining for what he has lost. He is woken from this slumber by two things, Selena Kyle (Anne Hathaway) a cat burglar who makes an immediate impression, but more dangerously the emergence of Bane (Tom Hardy), a new criminal whose brute force is matched only by his sharp intellect. Bruce Wayne returns to the Bat, but finds himself at odds with Alfred (Michael Caine) about the direction his life should be headed.