Christian Bale might not be a superhero in real life, but he showed this week that he certainly is a do-gooder. The star of the last three Batman films made a surprise visit to Colorado on Tuesday to meet survivors of the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises that took the lives of 12 and injured 58.

Bale also met with medical staff who worked for days on end in the wake of the shooting.

Bale reportedly contacted the Medical Center of Aurora to say he wanted to visit, and asked them not to alert the media. But after patients and staff began tweeting about the surprise, reporters arrived quickly and captured Bale and wife Sandra Blazic as they visited the makeshift memorial across from the movie theater.

Earlier in the week, Bale issued a statement on the shooting, saying:

Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.

Warner Brothers, the studio behind The Dark Knight Rises, stated that Bale was “there as himself,” and not representing the company.

[via The Denver Post; photos via Carey Rottman/Facebook]

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