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According to IMDB

Selina leads Batman to Bane and sticks around long enough to hear Bane call Batman his real name, shocking both Bruce and Selina. John Blake discovered as a child when Bruce came for a charity donation to the orphanage Blake resided in. Upon seeing Bruce, Blake worked out he had severe suppressed emotions that would give him a motive to become The Batman who appeared years later. He challenges Bruce with his suspicions of his alter ego when visiting. Though Bruce does not confirm his theory, he doesn't deny it either giving Blake the evidence that Bruce really is The Batman. James Gordon is the only character directly told by Bruce Wayne (as Batman) that Batman is his alter ego. Batman reveals his identity by referencing the act of kindness Gordon showed him as a boy by putting a coat around his shoulders after his parents' death. Gordon remembers the incident with the child and puts two and two together, working out Bruce is The Batman.

Selina Kyle learns Batman's true identity from Bane, who calls Batman by his real name. But how did Bane know Bruce is the Batman?

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  • 1
    Related: movies.stackexchange.com/questions/3413/…
    – user1027
    Jul 23 '12 at 14:23
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    Everybody knows: collegehumor.com/video/6781885/batman-blows-his-cover
    – Chris B. Behrens
    Jul 23 '12 at 14:46
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    A more pertinent question might be why nobody in Gotham City knows. Gotham's Favorite Son re-appears suddenly, back from the dead, at precisely the same time as a masked vigilante with a millionaire's resources appears on their streets. Some years later the same eccentric millionaire becomes a recluse... and Batman disappears from the streets. And nobody makes the connection?
    – Django Reinhardt
    Nov 24 '12 at 14:00
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    @DjangoReinhardt Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And now your plan is to blackmail this person?
    – Mason Wheeler
    Mar 29 '16 at 14:38
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Bane is mentioned as having been excommunicated from the League of Shadows in the movie, so presumably had access to their knowledge. It's not linked explicitly in the movie, but I therefore assume that the knowledge that Bruce Wayne was Batman would have come from this link. After all, Ra's al Ghul definitely knew Bruce Wayne was Batman in Batman Begins.

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    Not to mention, Talia hadn't been excommunicated so she probably was in the loop with the League long after Bane was out.
    – Ryan
    Jul 23 '12 at 15:38
  • It is said Bane was in the League of Shadows when Ra's was alive so therefore it must have been before Bruce trained with them. Therefore Ra's couldn't tell Bane who Batman was because Batman didn't even exist at that time.
    – PriestVallon
    Aug 26 '12 at 0:53
  • Check out snail's answer below.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Nov 20 '12 at 16:14
  • Talia's father was a mere mercenary himself known a Henri Ducard who was exiled and found Ra's Al G'hul later and grew in rank of the League of Shadows. It wasn't till that Ra's Al G'hul was killed and the former mercenary became the new Ra's Al G'hul on the principle that Ra's never dies. So it's a higher probability that Bane was found after the first Ra's Al G'hul was killed which means Bane was excommunicated before he came to destroy Gotham. My thoughts.
    – user12108
    Jan 22 '13 at 21:21
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Bane couldn't have known Batman's identity via the League of Shadows. That makes no sense chronologically.

  • Talia was a child when she escaped the pit.
  • Then she journeyed to find her father, who then rescued Bane out of the pit.
  • Bane was excommunicated, and Talia then began hating her father.

[Note: It's established that she never forgave him until his death, and that she regrets this. So after Bane was kicked out of the League of Shadows, she got really mad at her father and didn't talk to her father ever again.]

  • Only after this did Bruce Wayne join the League of Shadows.

[Note: we know this because Talia seems to be about the same age as Bruce, which means that when she escaped as a child and Bane was saved, Bruce wasn't Batman yet. Even if she only found her father years after escaping, it couldn't have been after Ra's Al Ghul met Bruce since between the ending of Bruce's training and Ra's Al Ghul's death in the first film a relatively short amount of time goes by - even though the narrative in Batman Begins doesn't make it clear how much time exactly, it seems to be just a few days. This is irrelevant however, since, as mentioned, it is quite established that by the time Bruce blew up the League of Shadows' headquarters Talia hadn't spoken to her father in a long time.]

  • Then Ra's Al Ghul died. This is the person that one of the people answering above thinks told Talia about Batman's identity.
  • Yet only after Ra's Al Ghul's death did Talia want to complete his father's wish of destroying Gotham. So since she last talked to him before he trained Bruce Wayne, how could she know Batman's identity?
  • Additionally she had no link with the League of Shadows by then, and the whole organization might as well be over or seriously splintered after their master was defeated and died.

So who could have told either Talia or Bane that Bruce Wayne was Batman? Isn't this a plot hole here?

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  • Great answer! How does he know? Hmmm!
    – Django Reinhardt
    Nov 20 '12 at 16:13
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    Counter argument: It's possible that since wanting to finish her father's work she got back in touch with the remnants of the League of Shadows, and given what happened in the first film, it's highly likely they would all be aware of who Batman was.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Nov 24 '12 at 13:59
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    Agreed with Django. Once the League of Shadows knew Bruce Wayne was Batman, there were a thousand ways that knowledge could have reached Talia. Information can very easily propagate without specifically talking to the head of the organization. Maybe the League had a wiki?
    – jono
    Jan 23 '13 at 18:18
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    @jono: oh man, a public League of Shadows wiki would have been a great marketing tool for the movie. “The League of Shadows will make glorious fire rain down upon Gotham, purging this corrupt and fetid organ from the face of the earth! [citation needed]”
    – Paul D. Waite
    Mar 24 '13 at 14:59
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Bruce Wayne/Batman was trained by the League of Shadows as was Bane. Wayne was their finest student according to Ra's Al G'hul hinself. They are probably the best in the world and the style & skills are so distinct it's probably not hard for him to figure out. Common sense would also say he would have needed years of training to do what he can do & Bruce did disappear for seven years after university. You'd also need a heck of a lot of money to fund all those toys which he obviously has.

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    Miranda Must have been helped for the generator, and for the armory he must have had guess. Because only two people know about it: Fox and Bruce. And If I were bane I would check only two buildings to look for the armory, Wayne Manor or Wayne Enterprise building. As creating and developing such a marvel(oops!! :P) you need a safe place where you can ban visitors, and should be out of any suspicion. In that case Bane's first target should have been wayne enterprise building. :)
    – Prasham
    Jul 24 '12 at 4:47
  • +1 for reasoning. A dedicated school of ninjutsu / martial arts / illusion / assassination such as the movie-version League has a style of its own, easily recognisable to another skilled practitioner.
    – Tynam
    Dec 4 '12 at 19:29
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I just had an idea about this:

  • Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.
  • After the destruction of their mountain base, League of Shadows members are kicking it back in another base, watching the news from Gotham about Batman.
  • Ra's and Bane sit there, intrigued, Ra's says "Hey, that's Bruce Wayne! I trained him."
  • Ra's excommunicates Bane, goes to Gotham.

I couldn't remember when it said Bane was excommunicated, so just for fun I decided to run with this theory that it was actually fairly later on.

Or you could go with the comics theory that he recognizes his unique physique (which actually isn't visible through his Batsuit, so go figure) and fighting style.

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They took part of the movie from the comics. Her and her father never spoke. But after the destruction of the league of shadows HQ. Ra's went and found his daughter and bane and warned them about what happened. Told them his plan thinking in time he might need bane and talia's help. And in the Dark Knight comics she was in Gotham during the time of her father attacking it her and bane were helping. But her father dies and that sends her and bane underground to plan out just how they are going to get Bruce. And then they use The Joker to do it they needed someone insane enough to go at the city the mob and the bat all at once all alone but they gave him the set up money in the first place. In the end batman does what talia wants and saves the day but becomes an outcast in the processe. Everything that happened was her an bane's plan. And there plan was almost perfect but Batman found a way like always. But he sacrifices himself to do it or so it seems. This sets it up for the nightwing movie and the come back of batman and the bat and nightwing have and eventful time with killer croc the penguin and poison ivy.

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After the death of Ra's, Bane became leader of the LoS, as is stated in the movie. Even though not many mercinaries in his army were members of the LoS, it is likely that he or Talia must have talked to at least one person who was between the end of Batman Begins and the beginning of the Dark Knight Rises, as they hold positions of great power. That member (or those members) could easily tell them that Bruce was Batman, as they trained with him and then fought against him.

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I have a theory. When commissioner gordon went into sewer trying to find the people who to police thought took congressman, he was caught and taken to bane's lair. At that point one of the guy searched gordon and handed bane a paper stack from gordon's suit pocket. I am assuming its the same paper that had commissioner's speech about the truth of dent and batman. Not to name who he is but may be enough information which helped bane figure out who batman was. Just a theory..:)

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I believe that in the Knightfall story arc it is with the assistance of Bird and Talon (his falcon) that Bane is able to learn the identity of Batman.

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    I'm just reading that arc and Bane "knew" Bruce Wayne was Batman before Bird had confirmed it, although he attributed it to a gut feeling/intuition upon seeing Bruce.
    – dlanod
    Aug 12 '12 at 20:45
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What if, few loyal associates of Ghu'l who survived and are functional, helped Talia with all the information about her father's killer? Dr. Crane for example.

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  • Bane had already called Batman by his name in the fight before he smashes the mask and sees his face so this isn't it. Also you've phrased this as a question as if you are unsure yourself. Answers here should answer the question and should read like answers rather than continuing the discussion as this is not a discussion forum but a question and answer site. You may want to take the tour.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 23 '20 at 8:36
  • You've changed your answer now into a completely different one but it is still a wild stab in the dark reading more as a continuation of the discussion rather than an answer in its own right. Please only answer when you're confident you know the answer and you can back it up with supporting evidence.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 23 '20 at 8:37
  • Almost every answer here is a kind of assumption, plus how can I present it as an absolute answer when I know what I'm saying is a personal theory not a fact.
    – Human
    Apr 23 '20 at 8:47
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    Sure this is a poor example of Q/A but I haven't read the other answers properly. I'm more pointing out the way you've worded it: "What if...", "...?", "for example."...
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Apr 23 '20 at 8:52

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