 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 198 pounds (90 kg). Hardy based Bane's voice on several influences, which include Bartley Gorman as well as a desire to honor the character's intellect and Caribbean 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.
