The Dark Knight Rises was the blockbuster of the summer, as audiences around the world flocked to see the final chapter of Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of the Batman saga. It received widespread critical acclaim and I am sure it must have earned everyone involved a lot of money. That said, for all the people that watched and worked on it, how many out there really took it to heart?

Now, I don’t mean that we should all try to emulate Batman in some sort of real life Kickass style. The world doesn’t need thousands of people running around the streets at night looking for lost cats in spandex costumes. What I am trying to assess is how much movies like Batman have influenced us as individuals. Who, in their own hour of darkness, has thought to themselves that they need to dig deep within themselves and rise up to their tormentor just as Bruce Wayne did?

I know I do. Whenever I need inspiration I think back to some wise words from Rocky Balboa about the world not being all “sunshine and rainbows” and how “it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” . As corny as it is, it always works. Rocky may not be real but the influence he and characters like him have had on people is overwhelming.

The Rocky Statue

The world needs these inspirational characters to motivate us, to guide us and to provide us with a sense of self. We all know life doesn’t always have the happy ending a movie does but that doesn’t make the impact of people like Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption), John Keating (Dead Poets Society) and Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) any less important. Everyone needs a hero to look up to, whether they’re fictional or not doesn’t make what they represent any less real to us and whether you’re 15 or 50, I’d like to think everyone can still find someone on their cinema screen to admire. What characters have inspired you?