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I'm Dana Steven, Slate's movie critic, and this is a Slate Spoiler special podcast on The Dark Night Rises, Christopher Nolan's last chapter to his Batman trilogy.

Joining me from the Slate Bureau, I love saying Bureau.

The Slate DC Bureau is Dan Khoes.

Hi, Dan.

Hi.

And Dan, you are a senior editor at Slate.

That's me.

Also, I am now deaf due to the Dark Night Rises.

So this is being interpreted for you?

That's correct.

I have my assistant here interpreting everything, and then I will speak when I have a chance.

So I'm eager, very eager to know what you think of this movie.

This is obviously a movie that's been awaited for years, very heavily

hyped. The whole release is surrounded by this sort of constant hum. I mean, more like a roar

of marketing at all times. And as you say, the movie itself is roaringly loud. So can you pull

yourself out of the pit and tell me what you thought? I'll drag myself by my fingernails out of the pit because now I finally fear death.

So I don't hate it enough to have people send me death threats, but I don't love it nearly as

much as I love the dark night.

So that you'll only be threatened with grievous bodily harm, basically.

That's correct. That's correct. I'll be threatened with severe back injuries that lead to

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