'Dark Knight Rises' Trailer Hits The Net!

In exactly one year and two days, the Dark Knight will rise for the last time under the direction of Christopher Nolan. Fans flocking to the cinemas over the weekend to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" were lucky enough to catch the first teaser trailer of "The Dark Knight Rises," the final installment of Nolan's Batman trilogy. But now the official trailer has hit the Internet, teasing an apocalyptic conclusion to the beloved series. The latest clip appropriately teases the two elements of "The Dark Knight Rises" that have fans already so riled up. First off, a voiceover by Liam Neeson's "Batman Begins" character, Ra's Al Ghul, implies the connection to the first Batman movie that moviegoers have long suspected. "If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, then you become something else entirely," he whispers. "A legend, Mr. Wayne, a legend." When we last saw Batman, he was going into hiding after the destruction caused by the Joker and Two-Face. But the Batman must rise, and in new footage from the trailer, it's Batman's old friend, Commissioner Gordon, who asks him to do so. "We were in this together, and then you were gone," says an incapacitated Gordon, played by Gary Oldman. "And now this evil rises. The Batman has to come back." "This evil," the second key trailer element, seems to imply Bane, the new "Dark Knight" villain played by Tom Hardy. Several shots of Bane are mixed in with the final moments of the trailer, a follow-up to the previously released photo of the man who broke the Bat. Among these images is also the first shot of Christian Bale as Batman in "The Dark Knight Rises." The final look in the trailer — Gotham City's skyscrapers crumbling down in a shape of the Bat symbol — hearkens back to the poster released last week. It certainly seems to imply that Gotham City might be destroyed while the Dark Knight does rise. There are still several characters left unseen, though, including Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard in presumed there-must-be-more-to-it-than-that roles. The Neeson voiceover opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to the theory that Cotillard is actually playing Ra's Al Ghul's daughter, Talia Al Ghul, though whether that concept comes to fruition remains to be seen. What do you think of the first "Dark Knight" trailer? Tell us in the comments! Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises." For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com. Tom Hardy as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" trailer Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures