As people started to arrive at  Wherenberg 18 Thursday at midnight, in St. Charles, it became clear that this was not going to be an ordinary midnight premiere. Fans of all shapes, sizes, races, and ages poored into the cramped theatre, moving quickly, pushing towards the screens as though batman himself was waiting.

And he was.As the movie began, and the lights dimmed, silence fell over the entire building. The kind of  silence that sends shivers down the spine, and the viewers seemed to hold their breath in anticipation. As the movie played, raw emotion flew out of the mouths of the viewers. Gasps, awe, tears, sobs, and laughter filled the room. Bruce Wayne seemed to evoke a common bond in each of the people sitting in that theatre. He brought out the need for a hero, and the complex feelings that only a movie can provide, and that each person shared.

The film had viewers silently chanting along with it in Maracan Arabic: Deshi, Deshi, Basara, Basara. Deshi, Deshi, Basara, Basara. and when they wondered what they’re chanting:

He Rises.

This was more than a movie. It was more than a beginning, and an ending. It brought tears, and pain and joy. It brought betrayal, forgiveness, failure, triumph, and revelation.  And the most emotional, inspiring, turbulent ending of any recent movie will leave most breathless and drowning in air. The Legend ends. And another begins.