Ever since the second trailer for The Dark Knight Rises hit, fans were left wondering what insidious weapon Bane (Tom Hardy) used to level the Gotham Rogues stadium.  In a newly released image from the movie, Wayne Enterprises itself gives us the answer.  Just yesterday we brought you some viral marketing tidbits for The Dark Knight Rises that not only gave us some insight into the absence of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) from his business responsibilities, but also clued us into a mysterious R&D project that had been shut down.  This new image seems to jive nicely with that information.The Dark Knight Rises also stars Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard. Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy conclusion opens July 20th in IMAX.  Hit the jump to check out the weapon.First up, here's the image of Bane's weapon that's been circulating for a while:the-dark-knight-rises-bane-weaponBecause of its effects on the Gotham Rogues field, people assumed it was some sort of Tesla-fied earthquake machine.  Once we consider that the viral letters between Lucius Fox (Freeman) and Wayne concerned a certain energy initiative, the following image makes more sense (via CBM):dark-knight-rises-bane-weaponA fusion reactor, based on the principles that govern nuclear fusion in the sun for example, is a current area of exploratory research as a source of energy.  You'll remember that Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) in Spider-Man 2 built a similarly functioning device which almost tore Manhattan (and more) apart.  That didn't end too well for him, but I doubt Bane has Dr. Octavius's conscience.Click here for all of the-dark-knight-rises-tom-hardy-posterour previous coverage or browse the links below:

the-dark-knight-rises-batman-poster