Here's an interesting article from Business Insider about modern mercenaries (what Bane and his men appear to be).
It's a booming trade. G4S is the second-largest private employer in the US and it's very clever that Christopher Nolan is going to make these guys the villains on American soil. It mirrors how in reality these companies are coming back from crisis-zones around the world and bringing their business and technology with them. Just look at all the recent news of military drones being deployed over American skies. Private companies are going to rule America militarily as well as politically.
The idea of a private military has been used in Marvel films already. Iron Man's Stark Enterprises is one and so is S.H.I.E.L.D from The Avengers. Even in Hulk (with Edward Norton) it isn't the American military chasing him and creating Abomination (Tim Roth's creature) it's a private company.
Of course we know that Wayne Enterprises is one of these companies too. The microwave emitting device from Batman Begins is a military-grade weapon and Bruce even uses his companies military-research equipment to become Batman. The sky hook and sonar technology at the end of The Dark Knight show that Wayne Enterprises is still firmly in the private military sector, so it's totally fitting that a terrorist-militia will want to cripple the company supplying weapons for conflicts around the world.
Perhaps, as much as Batman 'rising' and overcoming the lies set-up for Harvey Dent, we will also see Bruce shutting down the military aspects of Wayne Enterprises and fighting the real evil that's sweeping the world.
The American argument in such matters is 'we need to arm ourselves first, in case we get attacked', but I think this generation is gradually realising that it's actually a much more dangerous situation to put yourself in; similar to the never-ending arms race in the Cold War.
Further, we're all well aware that there are themes within Nolan's Batman trilogy that makes it much more than a simple superhero movie: fear leading to chaos, terrorism on American soil, political corruption and corporate corruption amongst others.
These themes are added around the archetypal story of Bruce Wayne who exhibits incredible loss, fear, anger and determination.
If TDKR really hammers home the idea of a private military I think the trilogy will act as more than a superhero story, but an omen for the future. Setting TDKR in our future means we're going to see a glimpse of how an alternate world could occur. The western world is edging ever closer to a perceived collapse and protests and rioting are becoming common place. When our money runs out; the private militaries come home and they're going to be asked to clean-up the public dissent.
Nolan's trilogy could be a very important analogy for how modern civilization has cornered itself into a dark and dangerous place. Bane will represent both the disenfranchised public ("a man they didn't fully understand"), but also the effects of a military society.
Whether Bruce/Batman can truly overcome a societal shift is beyond me. This film could either end catastrophically giving us all a clear message of what we're getting ourselves into... or as Bruce/Batman wants it to be, he could transcend his physical form and embody a change for better.
God knows what Nolan's got in store for the ending, but I'm certain that it's going to end fatally for either Gotham (a metaphor for our society) or Wayne (a metaphor for the individual).
The Disabled Cubicle
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