(WARNING: SPOILERS…..SPOILERS….SPOILERS!)

If you were planning on seeing the trailer for ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ then you probably don’t want to read any further than this sentence as this article will be revealing some details. For you brave souls, read on…and don’t say you weren’t warned!

Last night at Universal Studios Hollywood, director Christopher Nolan hosted a special screening of the prologue trailer that will be shown with Tom Cruise’s movie ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.’ Almost everyone agreed that it was a mind blowing experience and a must see in an IMAX theater. Taking bits and pieces from those who attended the screening and wrote about it, I was able to piece together some details of this highly anticipated trailer.

In a nutshell, the trailer can be called ‘Bane on a Plane’ as it mainly introduces the type of villain Tom Hardy plays in the movie. The sequence is said to start with Commissioner Gordon speaking at the funeral of Harvey Dent then switches to an elaborate heist scene that involves Bane. Apparently the CIA makes a money- for-hostage deal with a local militia to turn Dr. Pavel and three additional masked prisoners over to them. (More on Dr. Pavel can be “read” in the” leaked” CIA files).

These prisoners are associates of the mercenary known as Bane. While on the plane, the CIA operatives try to strong arm their way to get the prisoners to reveal Bane’s whereabouts. All of a sudden, it’s revealed that Bane is one of the prisoners! Wearing the trademark face mask, the CIA agent (played by ‘Game of Thrones’ Aiden Gillen) asks, ‘Was it your plan to get caught?” To which Bane replies, “It was my plan to crash this plane”.

Thus starts a sequence of scenes worthy of being part of a James Bond film.  Another bigger plane belonging to Bane swoops in with a squad of tactical commandoes and metal cables and proceeds to crash the CIA jet and extract Bane in the process, all in midair!

Afterwards, there’s a quick minute montage of footage showing Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Selina Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, Christian Bale as Batman, scenes of the Batwing chasing the Batmobile, brawls on the streets of Gothan and more of Bane. The final shot (which brought a chill up everyone’s spine) was a startling glimpse of Bane holding Batman’s shredded, ruined cowl in his fist and throwing it to the ground.

The only negative that the reporters had to say of the trailer was that you couldn’t understand a word Hardy was saying. Many say he did have a British type accent but couldn’t be sure. A Warner Bros. rep in attendance told reporters that this is just a preliminary trailer and the audio has not been finalized yet.

The consensus of those in attendance do agree that this prologue sets up Bane as Batman’s greatest foe. They applaud Hardy’s ability to pull off this menacing character leaving no doubt that this will not be an easy fight for Batman. The trailer also alleviated many of those who felt that Nolan’s vision couldn’t get any better than his last film, ‘The Dark Knight.’ This movie has been said to prove them all wrong.

Based on what everyone who was present at the screening has said, the trailer sounds epic! It definitely sounds like it has to be watched in an IMAX theater or you won’t get the effect it’s meant to give otherwise. How excited are you now for the release of the film on July 20, 2012?

Sources: CBR, CBM, The Daily Beast