While The Dark Knight Rises is seen by many as the weakest installment of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, one special area where it arguably bests its predecessors is in the depth of its cast. Beyond the headlining stars like Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard, this is a blockbuster with a supporting ensemble brimming with tremendous talents includes Ben Mendelsohn, Burn Gorman, Juno Temple, Aidan Gillen, Brett Cullen, William Devane and Matthew Modine. If you're paying attention, you'll even spot a young Glen Powell in one scene – a decade before his breakout role in Top Gun: Maverick. It's a fun thing to notice when rewatching the blockbuster, and even with everything that has happened in the last few years, Powell apparently still considers his one-on-one moment with Bane to be a highlight of his career.
Glen Powell shows up in The Dark Knight Rises at around the 42 minute mark. Credited as Trader #1, he has a prominent role in the scene where Tom Hardy's Bane invades the Gotham Stock Market. The villain approaches him while he is sitting in a rolling chair, and he protests that there is no money in the place to steal. Bane retorts saying, "Really? Then why are you people here?" and then he drags him by his tie to a computer terminal. After ramming into the desk, Trader #1's head is slammed into a keyboard, and he is knocked out cold. During a recent press line interview with Discussing Film, Powell acknowledged that the cinematic moment is one that he fondly remembers, and he has a lot of pride in it as a title on his filmography. Said the actor,
As far as Dark Knight Rises goes getting my head smashed in by Bane, I’ve talked about that for years afterwards. If nothing ever happened in my career, at least I got my ass kicked by Bane.
Things have obviously changed a lot for Glen Powell since 2012 – which is the same year that he was credited as "Good Looking Frat Guy" in Josh Boone's romantic drama Stuck In Love. A couple years after The Dark Knight Rises, he got another taste of blockbuster action when he joined the cast of The Expendables 3, and it was a couple years after that when he joined the talented young cast of Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! (alongside fellow then-up-and-comers Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, and Zoey Deutch). Powell later reunited with Linklater for the rotoscoped Netflix feature Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, and it was a few months after that streaming release when audiences got to see him in action as Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin in Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick.
His star has been on the rise ever since, and his most recent film, the romantic comedy Anyone But You, just recently crossed $100 million at the domestic box office.
Those of you now wanting to revisit Glen Powell's small role in The Dark Knight Rises can easily do so, as the film is available to instantly stream with a Max subscription. And for those of you who have not yet seen Anyone But You, the film has a special Valentine's Edition soon coming to theaters.
