A new companion book to 'The Dark Knight Rises' spills some very interesting and potentially very spoilerific info about the movie's big villain, Bane (Tom Hardy). Warning: read no further unless you're absolutely dying to know the deal.

First, a personal recollection: we'll never forget walking into a bookstore as a little kid and seeing a rack right out front with the paperback novelization of 'The Empire Strikes Back' sitting in it. As was the custom back then, novelizations often came out before a movie opened -- in a pre-Internet world, we suppose, there just wasn't the kind of paranoia over plot points and spoilers being leaked.

So we pick up the book in our little hands, flip it open totally randomly, and are greeted with this line: "'No, Luke,' said Vader. 'I am your father.'"

You can only imagine the stunned surprise on seeing this, followed a few moments later by the crushing disappointment of having the movie's big twist completely ruined -- just like that (and yes, we bought the damn book anyway).

We only relate this story because there is apparently a book on the shelves now called 'The Dark Knight Rises: The Secret Files Scrapbook,' and Blastr points out that the character bio for Bane reveals a bit of information that director Christopher Nolan might have preferred to keep under wraps.

We're not sure just how much of an impact this plot point has (certainly nowhere near as much as the Luke/Vader shocker), but if you're still with us and want to know the scoop, keep reading.

Ready?

Okay...

Anyone following 'The Dark Knight Rises' closely for the last year and a half, ever since Bane was announced as the villain, knows the theory that Bane comes to Gotham as an agent of the League of Shadows -- the organization once run by the late Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson) in 'Batman Begins' -- to both finish the League's mission of taking down Gotham and enacting vengeance on the Bat for Ra's's death (presumably on the orders of Talia al Ghul, who may or may not be played by Marion Cotillard).

But if this character bio is right, then Bane's back story casts quite a different spin on things (words in bold by us):

Bane: Little is known about Bane. He was born in prison and trained in the darkest forms of deception by the League of Shadows, but rumor has it he was cast out due to his extreme behavior. Bane is a ferocious hand-to-hand fighter who is willing to do anything in order to take down his opponents. Bane is in peak physical shape, but he must wear a breathing apparatus that feeds him with pain relieving gas due to an old injury. He's never been photographed without his mask and only a handful of people have seen his face. While his true motives remain a mystery, he appears to be building an army of followers in the dark tunnels underneath Gotham in order to create his own League of Shadows.

Whoa! If this is right, Bane's connection to the League is much more tenuous and the idea that he is operating on their behalf goes more or less out the window (and yes, we know the nature of what's he breathing through that mask has changed too, but that's another article). The new info also casts doubt on the fan community's certainty that Marion Cotillard is playing Talia al Ghul -- unless she's somehow there to help Batman stop Bane?

Should someone in Warner Bros. Pictures' legal department have read through this book before it hit the shelves? Do you think this is a big enough spoiler and how does it affect our thinking now about the plot of 'The Dark Knight Rises'?

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