Several media outlets have drawn comparisons between President Donald Trump’s inaugural address and Bane’s oration from the 2012 Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. Played by actor Tom Hardy, Bane was the film’s primary antagonist and was the only villain capable of breaking Batman, both literally and figuratively.
Trump’s populist speech was unusual, and diverged from the typically bipartisan words spoken by incoming presidents. Writers from the New York Daily News, Jezebel, The Independent, Entertainment Weekly, and many others, remarked upon how it echoed lines from the iconic Christopher Nolan film.
Jezebel was the first to point out the supposed similarities of their speeches:
Trump:
“But we are transferring power from Washington D.C. and giving it back to you… the people. For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have born the cost.”
Bane:
“We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you… the people. Gotham is yours. None shall interfere.”
Beyond simply noting their parallels, Jezebel flat out accused Donald Trump of plagiarism. “[I]n an inaugural address he promised many things, some of which may sound familiar, because they were directly lifted from the D.C. comics villain Bane,” they wrote.
The words “directly lifted” would imply Trump copied the lines wholesale, and yet nothing beyond “giving it back to you… the people” matches up.
The Independent remarks that Trump’s speech “shares eerie sentiments” with lines from the movie. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane forced anarchy upon Gotham and executed members of the city’s ruling class — it’s quite unlike any rule of law promised by the President.
The publication went even further, suggesting that Trump’s presidential slogan for the next election would be “Keep America Great,” the tagline used in the 2016 dystopian blockbuster The Purge: Election Year, in which people are allowed to murder each other with impunity for one night annually. It’s a silly suggestion as it’s fairly obvious Trump would want to use that line. Also, the film was developed during the current political season.
Inverse suggests that Trump’s lines echoed the a meme popular among “predominantly young, white nationalists who vocally supported him,” which the publication says “were largely drafted from GamerGate.” As I’ve previously pointed out, the claim is false.
The publication attempts to tie the use of the line with the meme-makers of GamerGate, with whom Bane was used in parodies through lines like “The fire rises!” and “Do you feel in charge?”
It is true that a portion of the movement’s supporters originated from 4chan, where Bane was a popular meme in 2014. “Baneposting,” which refers to a awkward dialog from the movie’s opening scene, remains the subject of parody.
The sentiments in Trump’s speech bear similitude with Bane’s lines from The Dark Knight Rises, but it’s only because they’re both populist speeches.
In a 2016 speech in New Mexico during the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders said, “I think it’s time to transfer some of that wealth back to the people who need it.”
Was Bernie also channeling Bane? That’s a big claim… for you.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
