Eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared and organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to the Dent Act. Police Commissioner James Gordon has kept secret Dent's murderous rampage and allowed blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. He writes a resignation speech revealing the truth, but decides that the city is not ready to hear it.

Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises is losing profits after Wayne discontinued his fusion reactor project when he learned that it could be weaponized. Cat burglar Selina Kyle obtains Wayne's fingerprints from his home and tries to sell the fingerprints to Wayne's corporate rival John Daggett. She is double-crossed at the exchange, but alerts the police. Gordon and the police arrive and pursue Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Selina flees. The men capture Gordon and take him to Bane, a masked terrorist and former member of the League of Shadows, who has set up his base in the sewers. Gordon escapes and is found by rookie officer John Blake. Blake, a fellow orphan, confronts Bruce and convinces him to return as Batman.

Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange by using Wayne's fingerprints in a transaction that leaves Wayne bankrupt. Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, reveals that Rachel Dawes had intended to marry Dent before she died, and then resigns in an attempt to convince Bruce to move on with his life. Wayne finds comfort in Wayne Enterprises CEO Miranda Tate, who becomes his lover.

Kyle agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into Bane's trap. Bane reveals that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham, and then steals Batman's technology from Wayne Enterprises. Bane fights Batman and delivers a crippling blow to his back, before taking him abroad to an underground prison. There, the inmates tell Wayne the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before finally escaping — the only prisoner to have done so.

Bane lures Gotham's police underground and uses explosives to trap them and destroy the bridges surrounding the city. He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia and forces a nuclear physicist to convert the reactor core into an atomic bomb before killing him as well. Bane reads Gordon's speech to the public, and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, initiating anarchy while holding the city hostage and isolated with the bomb.

Months later, a recovered Wayne escapes from the prison and returns to Gotham. Batman frees the trapped police and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself to be Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter. She activates the detonator, but Gordon blocks her signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Kyle arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Kyle pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses the Bat to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes. Before takeoff, Batman subtly reveals his identity to Gordon.

In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and is honored as a hero. With Wayne presumed dead as well, Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and his remaining estate is left to Alfred. While visiting Florence, Alfred discovers that Wayne is alive, and in a relationship with Kyle. Blake resigns from the police force and, in accordance with Wayne's will, inherits the Batcave.

• Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman:

A billionaire socialite who dedicates himself to protecting Gotham City from its criminal underworld. Nolan has stated that, due to the eight-year gap between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, "he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state." Bale employed a martial arts discipline called the Keysi Fighting Method, now modified for Bruce's current state and Bane's style. Bale has stated that The Dark Knight Rises will be his final Batman film. Bale acknowledged that Batman is "not a healthy individual, this is somebody that is doing good, but he's right on the verge of doing bad". Bale clarifies that "He doesn't want to forget . He wants to maintain that anger he felt at that injustice". Bale felt bittersweet about leaving the franchise, saying that it was like "saying goodbye to an old friend."

• Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:

Bruce's trusted butler and confidant, who acts as a father figure to Bruce but is unable to accept Bruce's desire to revive his Batman persona, even resigning from his position to impress the seriousness of his position upon him. Christopher Nolan emphasized the emotional bond between Alfred and Bruce, stressing its importance in the previous films and predicting that the relationship will be strained as it never has before.

• Gary Oldman as James Gordon:

The Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, and one of the city's few honest police officers. Oldman described the character's work in cleaning up Gotham City as having left him world-weary and slightly bored, likening Gordon to a soldier who leaps at the chance to be on the front lines. His life has taken a turn for the worse since The Dark Knight; his wife has left him and taken their children, and the mayor is planning to dismiss him from his job. Gordon feels guilty over his role in covering up Harvey Dent's crimes and is prepared to resign from his position as Commissioner over it, but then senses that Gotham is about to come under threat.

• Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle / Catwoman:

A professional cat burglar, grifter, and femme fatale who establishes a playful, teasing relationship with Bruce that "takes some of the somberness away from his character", and pursues a "clean slate" (a computer program rumored to be able to erase a person's criminal history) when she crosses paths with both Bruce and Batman. Hathaway auditioned not knowing what role she was being considered for. Hathaway described the role as being the most physically demanding she had ever played, and confessed that while she thought of herself as being fit she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the demands of the role. Hathaway trained extensively in martial arts for the role, and looked to Hedy Lamarr—who was the inspiration for Catwoman's character—in developing her performance.

• Tom Hardy as Bane:

A mysterious and physically imposing revolutionary who was excommunicated from the League of Shadows and portrays himself as a "liberator of pain". He is desperate to continue Ra's al Ghul's legacy by destroying Gotham. The character was chosen by Christopher Nolan because of his desire to see Batman tested on both a physical and mental level. According to costume designer Lindy Hemming, the character wears a mask that supplies him with an analgesic gas to relieve pain he suffers from an injury sustained "early in his story". Hardy intended to portray the character as "more menacing" than Robert Swenson's version of the character in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin and that in order to do so, his portrayal entailed creating a contradiction between his voice and body. Hardy gained 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role, increasing his weight to 200 pounds (90 kg). Hardy based Bane's voice on several influences, which include Bartley Gorman, and the character's comic book heritage. Bane claims that his revolution's enemies are the rich and the corrupt, who he contends are oppressing "the people". Political theorist and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek sees Bane as fighting "structural injustice", while likening him to a modern day Che Guevara who is counter-intuitively driven to violence out of a sense of love.

• Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate / Talia al Ghul:

A recently promoted member of the Wayne Enterprises executive board who encourages a still-grieving Bruce to rejoin with society and continue his father's philanthropic works, but is later revealed to be the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and Bane's accomplice. Joey King portrays the younger version of Talia.

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake:

A young police officer whose instincts lead him to believe that there is trouble on the horizon and is promoted to detective by Gordon when the elder cop saw something of himself within the younger. Blake represents the idealism that Gordon and Bruce Wayne once held, but soon lost in their battle against crime in the city. The film reveals his legal name to be Robin John Blake, a homage to Batman's sidekick in the comics, Robin.

• Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:

The CEO and later Executive President of Wayne Enterprises, who runs the company on Bruce's behalf and serves as his armorer for the Batsuit, providing him with high-tech equipment and discreetly developing cutting-edge technology and weaponry, even as Wayne Enterprises starts losing money.

Matthew Modine appears as Peter Foley, Gor