Here are some of the key locations where The Dark Knight Rises was filmed. The Batman movie franchise was stopped cold following the reception to 1997’s Batman & Robin – which is somewhat fitting, given that Mr. Freeze was a primary villain. The film’s underwhelming box-office and horrific critical reception led to Joel Schumacher’s planned sequel Batman Unchained – where Scarecrow and Harley Quinn were set to be villains – being cancelled. Batman & Robin left such a stink that the studio knew a reboot was the only path to success, with different projects like a live-action Batman Beyond or a gritty adaptation of Batman: Year One from Darren Aronofsky being developed.
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Eventually, Christopher Nolan took the reins for 2005’s Batman Begins. This trilogy starter cast Christian Bale as the new Bruce Wayne and charted his origin as Batman. Nolan attracted an amazing cast for his reboot – including Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman – and its grounded approach would be hugely influential to the genre. Nolan’s sequel The Dark Knight is considered one of the greatest comic book movies ever made, with the late Heath Ledger’s turn as Joker becoming instantly iconic.
The Dark Knight Rises from 2012 is commonly considered the weakest of Nolan’s trilogy, but it’s still a solid and fitting conclusion. The sequel pit Batman against Tom Hardy’s fanatical Bane, who is determined to bring a reckoning to Gotham. The sequel shot in a variety of locations around the world, including the UK, the U.S., and India. For the U.K. side, key locations include the Senate House Library in London for the costume ball sequence, Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and Osterley House in Middlesex for the exteriors and interiors of Wayne Manor and Stansted Airport for the scene where Selina is arrested.
Other U.K. locales for The Dark Knight Rises include The Farmiloe Building in London for the GCPD and Delta Point in Croydon for Gotham General Hospital. A key final scene were Alfred spots Bruce and Selina in an “Italian” cafe was really shot at the Old Royal Navy College in Greenwich, London, which was also prominently featured in Thor: The Dark World. The opening scene featuring Bane’s daring aerial escape was shot at locales in Scotland like Loch Glass and Loch Bealach Culaidh. For the extended sequence of Bruce imprisoned in The Pit, the production filmed at Chand Baori in India, while exteriors were filmed at Mehrangarh Fort.
For the U.S. side of The Dark Knight Rises, a lot of filming took place in Pittsburgh, with the Gotham Rogues Stadium found at Heinz Field, and both Blackgate Prison and Gotham City Hall being shot at Carnegie Mellon University. The film shot on Wall Street, One Liberty Plaza and Queensboro Bridge in New York while scenes like Scarecrow’s kangaroo court was shot at Union Station in Los Angeles.
