The Dark Knight Rises cut a ‘sickening’ death scene due to its excessive violence

‘I looked at Christopher Nolan when we shot it and his face was white,’ said the actor

The Dark Knight Rises actor Matthew Modine revealed that his character’s death scene was cut from the film because it was excessively violent.

Modine played Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley in the 2012 Christopher Nolan blockbuster.

Speaking on the Cinema Blend Reel Blend podcast, Modine said: “[Nolan] cut my death scene out of Dark Knight Rises because he said it was so violent that it would have gotten an NC-17 rating.” 

A mature age rating would likely have damaged the film’s box-office profits. In the end, The Dark Knight Rises was given a PG-13 rating.  

Modine explained the scene in question: “After Bane dies and Batman gets stabbed, [Talia al Ghul] gets in one of those vehicles. 

"She starts to drive away, and I’m shooting at her. And I got run over. All it does is, it just cuts, and I’m on the ground dead.

Christian Bale as Batman in a scene from 2012's The Dark Knight Rises (AP)

“But it was so violent. The guy that was doubling me got hit by the car. They put a plexiglass thing on the front of [the car] and he got hit,” he said.

Modine added: “They had ropes to pull him into the air but he went up and they dropped him from about 15 feet, and the sound of his body hitting the cobblestone street in front of the New York Stock Exchange, it was sickening.”

The Full Metal Jacket actor recalled how the film’s director reacted to the violent scene. He said: “I remember I looked at Christopher Nolan when we shot it and his face was white.”

Matt Reeves’s The Batman resumed production last week following a hiatus due to a positive coronavirus diagnosis for a member of its team.

While Warner Bros did not officially confirm the identity of the infected employee, it was widely reported to be the film’s star Robert Pattinson.

The Batman has a scheduled release date of 1 October 2021.