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Toward the end of Dark Knight Rises, the biggest city in the United States has been held hostage for nearly five months. Bane has threatened to destroy the city via nuke if anyone leaves the city. Bane has also explained to the world how the nuke is going to detonate on its own after five months (update on this last sentence: apparently Bane did not announce the five-months thing -- only a handful of characters were aware of it).

So at some point, perhaps as the five months was almost over, wouldn't the US government have nothing to lose by directing the military to try some sort of raid? Given Bane's army consisted mainly of homeless teens with small arms, seems like the world's most advanced military could probably have put together more than one plan-of-attack to choose from, especially with five months to think about it -- and the military would probably be eager to take a shot at saving millions of citizens from obliteration.

Why would the U.S. government let the nuke detonate without even trying to stop it?

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Bane never stated the bomb was on a timer. He only stated that he is taking over the city with the bomb. –  TylerShads Jul 30 '12 at 12:12
Thank you, I must have misunderstood. I thought Bain announced the five-months limit in his stadium speech to freak everyone out. I didn't realize it was only certain characters who were aware of five-months thing... seemed like common knowledge –  Shiz Z. Jul 30 '12 at 14:05

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up vote 5 down vote accepted

Watch the movie, Bane never states to the public the bomb is on a timer, as far as the goverment is concerned it can only be detonates by the mystery citizen, so they had no reason to worry about the 5 month limit they knew nothing about

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I was also confused when the OP spoke about Bane telling the public about the 5 month timer, which would also have made the citizens of Gotham panic (including those citizens helping Bane). Therefore I wonder who downvoted this answer. –  Napoleon Wilson Jul 30 '12 at 7:36
I did watch the movie and I must have mis-remembered Bane's stadium speech including something like "it's going to blow and there's nothing anyone can do about it." And also just about every significant character in the movie is aware of the 5 months thing, so I'm not sure how gov't would be in the dark. But I suppose I should suspend disbelief, eh? ;) –  Shiz Z. Jul 30 '12 at 13:55
@ShaneFinneran I don't think the few people knowing about the timer could get this information out of the city that easily (I guess the occupiers blocked communication with the outside world). If I remember correctly in the scene where they got this external Spec-Ops team into the city to help them take control (who are then killed in a shoot-out in Wayne Tower), it was the first time they heard about the timer from Gordon/Blake. –  Napoleon Wilson Jul 30 '12 at 15:50
Those Spec-Ops guys were such an obvious plot device! In other words, they were clearly inserted into the story to provide necessary exposition, such as what is noted in comment above. Part of why I didn't love Dark Knight Rises. –  Shiz Z. Oct 16 '12 at 21:04

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