Which character in "The Dark Knight Rises" is played by Liam Neeson?

In The Dark Knight Rises, Liam Neeson plays Ra’s al Ghul. His appearance is brief and largely connected to a flashback involving Bruce Wayne, but it links the final film directly to Batman Begins, where Neeson first portrayed the character.

Ra’s al Ghul was the leader of the League of Shadows and Bruce’s former mentor. In Batman Begins, he trained Bruce before revealing his plan to destroy Gotham. In The Dark Knight Rises, Ra’s legacy continues through Bane and Talia al Ghul, making him important to the trilogy’s larger story even when he is not the main villain.

The role can be easy to misremember because Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne, Tom Hardy plays Bane, and Marion Cotillard plays Talia. Neeson’s Ra’s appears as an older version of Bruce’s mentor in a vision or memory, helping explain the emotional and ideological roots of the film’s conflict.