Joker
Joker’sending leave the true statement of theDCvillain ’s stemma almost as orphic as before it began . What was genuine , and what was just in Arthur Fleck ’s head ? And what was his last joke ? We ’re here to excuse what just was decease on in Todd Phillips ' very - against - type risible al-Qur’an movie - and what it really entail . WithJoker : Folie à Deuxout October 4 , 2024 , the sequel will look to build up on some of these questions advance .
Ostensibly assure the Clown Prince of Crime ’s backstory , Jokerfollows the outsider Arthur Fleck(Joaquin Phoenix ) in his descent into insanity . Fired from his job as a clown for claim a gunslinger into a children ’s infirmary and cut off from his social care , the struggling stand - up comic begins to miss raceway of himself . He shoots and kills three Wayne Industries employees when assault on a train , trigger off a working - class protest social movement , and do to believe that businessman - turned - politicianThomas Wayne is his father .
This is where the pic really begins to explore the ramifications that Arthur Fleck will have on the entirety of Gotham once he begins to turn into the Joker . The ambiguity that succeed in the terminal third of the flick is what the entire narrative revolve around , prompting more questions than answers . When the last shot of the film vanish , what really happened ?
What Happens In The Joker’s Ending
After Arthur Fleck light upon the Sojourner Truth that he was adopted and blackguard as a child , it send him over the edge . He suffocates his mother ( Frances Conroy ) , stabs the former cobalt - worker ( Glenn Fleshler ) who gave him that gun , and chance on his relationship with Sophie Dumond ( Zazie Beetz ) was n’t literal . Invited to The Murray Franklin Show after footage of his failed bandstand - up becomes a hit , he transform into Jokerand makes the proclamation to Gotham . He shoots Murray ( Robert De Niro ) in the headspring on lively television , incite riots that , among other offence , kill the Waynes .
How Much Of Joker’s Ending Is Real (And How Much Is In Arthur’s Head)?
The real question withJoker ’s ending for those who ’ve been paying attention is n’t as much " what happened ? " as it is " what was real ? " As Gotham burns , the Waynes shed blood out and Arthur hide his final joke , there ’s an unsettling sense that far too much of the previous two hours were a figment of the villain ’s imaginativeness .
EvenJoaquin Phoenix has reservation about what actually happens in the end . On the Reel Blend Podcast , he opens up about the film ’s ending , stating,“The joy of this script and the great unwashed ’s response is how everybody has a different kind of feeling about it , and different ideas of what it could think , and what ’s real and what is n’t . "
As the highly - anticipated Joker moving-picture show at long last attain theatre of operations , the audience is leave inquire on the button how much of what they saw actually happened .
Joker is a highly unreliable narrator in whichever physique you take him : The Killing Joke , from whichJokerpulls a not unreal influence , secernate a stand - up comedian origin level , only for the goof to finally declare " if I ’m live to have a past , I favor it to be multiple choice”;Heath Ledger ’s take inThe Dark Knighthad various version of how he get those scars . But this equivocalness is also rootle inJoker ’s cinematic influences .
The picture is , as much a DC adaptation , a mashup of Martin Scorsese’sTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy . Both wizard Robert De Niro as a throw out of kilter societal outcast driven to crime - a mentally inauspicious veteran and wannabe resist - up comic , respectively - and paint an unsettling portrayal of the characters ' genial states , piddle the consultation question the realness of what ’s been shown before an conclusion that skews fantastic , giving the protagonist an unearned happy ever after . Is it dream or reality ? That ’s the difference between barren and misanthropic or tragical and just .
InJoker , Phillips plays with reality in a very alike manner to Scorsese . As naturalistic as the film appears at first , it start to fray as Arthur ’s mind splinters . Aspects of the world hang weird . Arthur sees himself in an suppose flashback to his female parent ' psychiatrical assessment . He imagines himself on the Murray Franklin show , but the audience meet only him alone ( another nod toThe King of Comedy).Alfred Pennyworth is a British bruiser . Arthur even says he matt-up like he had " never existed " .
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker is an origin story for Batman’s most iconic villain. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a down-on-his-luck clown who is trying to become a successful stand-up comedian. When things don’t go according to plan, and Arthur feels Gotham is oppressing him and others with mental illness, Arthur sparks a violent revolution within the city.
Joker left many motion , among those whether Arthur killed Sophie or not . Now that it ’s confirm that he did n’t , here ’s why he let her subsist .
The openhanded , though , are the succession where Arthur ’s mind takes over . Early on , he imagines himself on The Murray Franklin Show as an interview member call up to the big leagues .
Then , as he fend on the precipice of sanity , Arthur discovers his romancing of Sophie was entirely fictitious . She never saw his endure - up routines , went on a date , helped him wish for his mother : to her , he was just the weird guy down the hall . Even then , there are big query unanswered : was the accelerator pedal to the head exhaustion , something that plays into Joker ’s previous assassination , actual or just playing into Arthur ’s desires ; and what did he do to the intelligibly nervous Sophie after leaving her apartment ?
Those are the only parts ofJokerthat are explicitly in Arthur ’s head , but you ’re certainly meant to be left asking that in the closing curtain also . Was the invite to The Murray Franklin Show literal or a coping mechanics ? Did he really drink down Randall in his matte ? Was the reaction to Murray ’s slaying genuinely so destructive ? Did the goofball - masked rioters raise their accidental creator up as a messiah figure ?
What we can say with some foregone conclusion is thatJoker ’s final scene , with Arthur in Arkham and questioned by a head-shrinker , is happen .
The hopeful reply to all those questions is that everything was in Arthur ’s imagination , a fantasy where he consistently got retaliation on those who ’d wronged him and become the inadvertent fighter of his own story . But that ’s slap-up , and the world ofJokeris ragged and , from the very commencement , paints it as a discrete possibleness .
What we can say with some certainty is thatJoker ’s final scene , with Arthur in Arkham and questioned by a psychiatrist , is happening . It ’s the cap to the narration , suggesting that regardless of what crimes he actually dedicate , Arthur does end up captured . But as we ’ll see , even at that moment there are some full-grown head left about what we ’re shown , not least the chilling image in his head of a new boy standing above his dead parents .
Joker’s Ending Explained By Todd Phillips
Director Todd Phillips does n’t seem too interested in arrive to a single answer to what really is going on by the ending ofJoker . In an interview with the LA Times back in 2019 , Phillips opened up about the ending and what it could possibly mean . He speak about how it ’s up to the audience to interpret what happens , saying,“It ’s less you being kind of introduce with the facts than you being presented with these possibility . "
Phillips is n’t concerned in finding a result to the answers because it makes the plastic film that much stronger session in that ambiguity .
When coming aspect - to - face withwhat is material throughout the film and the closing , Phillips seems to want to brush that aside . There is no concrete answer to what was going on in Arthur Fleck ’s judgment . They purposely stick around away from having a diagnosing for the character reference , stating,“I did n’t want Joaquin as an worker to start research that kind of affair . We just said , ‘ He ’s off . ’“It seems Phillips is n’t interested in finding a solvent to the answers because it makes the photographic film that much stronger sitting in that ambiguity .
Todd Phillips submit he enjoyed working onJoker , because he"could take this fictional persona and do what we wanted with it . " This is discover throughout the picture show , incorporating the gens of character and various preferences within the Batman mythos , but block up there with the source material . Phillips even open up up the hypothesis that Arthur Fleck might not be the " real " Joker , mentioning:“Maybe Joaquin ’s character inspire the Joker … You do n’t really know . His last line of reasoning in the movie is , ‘ You would n’t get it . ’ "
Joker Created Batman - And That’s What He Remembers Of The Riot
AlthoughJokeris very much a standalone stock tarradiddle for the Clown Prince of Crime , it ’s still per se tied to the DC Comics universe . This is present from very early on thanks to Penny Fleck ’s obsession with Thomas Wayne , place the groundwork for the put on hint Arthur is really his Logos and , by extension , Bruce Wayne ’s half - brother .
But it ’s inJoker ’s ending where things really go to line up . The wow have by Murray ’s slaying occurs as Thomas , Martha and Bruce are leaving a pic theater . Any Batman fan sleep with what ’s next : the Waynes are shoot , leaving Bruce watching them lento bleed out as he pick out his first steps towards becoming the Dark Knight .
Except this is n’t the Batman lineage we ’re wonted to . For one , the gunman is specifically targeting Thomas Wayne for his words and action against the knead class ; Martha ’s pearls are put down as a by - ware . But more significantly , this intact no-account state of affairs is sparked by Arthur Fleck - his murder of the Wayne employee was put down the powder , now his on - air execution of instrument has fire up the fuse . In this universe , the Joker make Batman .
Now , this is n’t the first time this has happened in media : Batman1989 had a youthful Jack Napier stand - in for Joe Chill , and a pre - makeup crook played a key theatrical role in Phantasm ’s rootage which prevail parallel to Bruce ’s journeying of breakthrough . But this is nevertheless a striking , seismic twist on the comics . It targets the ill of Gotham directly at untried Bruce - a character who , in his unmarried previous appearance , was shown as incredibly inactive , almost as if medicated . Batman has always been take over out of his metropolis ’s shadow , butJokerhas the hurt it takes to get there be straightaway unite to Gotham ’s sudden prostration , a sign of thing hold to go to their awful apex of the sun’s way before salvation .
This entire mind is not without a last crinkle . When asked what jape he ’s laughing at by the infirmary worker at the end , the first thing Joker ’s mind flash to is Bruce with his bushed parents . It ’s a strange edit . Apart from where Arthur ’s nous is present as having gone , he ’s still implicated with the Waynes , that one double - murder out of all the infliction and hurt caused is the pinnacle for him . And , even though it ’s not focused heavily on , that photo of the phratry tear from the newspaper with a unsure Bruce in the corner is in his notebook before dash Murray , a monitor and possible motivator .
So, Does That Mean Arthur Fleck Was Thomas Wayne’s Son?
The flipside of the Bruce Wayne fixation is the lingeringquestion of whether the Joker is Thomas Wayne ’s son . It ’s surely build up to as a seismal turn ; his mother is a scorned fan forced to live in poverty , but digging deeper seems to disprove that . Thomas pip down the delusion before Arthur can say anything ; and Penny ’s psychiatric record reveal her schizophrenia and an acceptation credential ( with no name , preserve some mystery story to Joker ’s past times ) . From that stop on , Arthur comes to almost accept it , killing his mother and suffer all lack of pellucidity about the world that the discovery almost gave him .
It ’s a distinctly open hypothesis that Thomas Wayne aggressively covered up the truth that Arthur Fleck was his son .
But not everything adds up : a pic Joker face at before head to Murray ’s show is signed lovingly from a " T.W " ; it ’s from Wayne , not the prescribed records , that the musical theme of adoption is first plant ; winking - and - you’ll - miss - it , but the photos of untested Arthur bet spookily similar to Bruce ( indeed , actor Dante Pereira - Olson played a younger rendering of Joaquin Phoenix ’s part inYou Were Never Really Here ) . That ’s all slight as concrete grounds , but in the framing of the Waynes being crucial and a need to not trust everything you see , it ’s a distinctly open opening that Thomas Wayne aggressively covered up the truth that Arthur Fleck was his son .
That is , of course , not a subject in the latter part of the moving picture , and if it ’s true , it ’s not what drive Arthur in the final act . It ’s not crucial for crackingJoker ’s on-key meaning . But it even being a discussable possibility only highlights the aloofness and profoundness of Joker ’s fall … and how strange it all lines up .
Is Arthur Fleck The One True Joker?
As a whole rioting of human beings wearing masks terrorizes Gotham , there ’s one substitute possibility to this so - dub " origin " . Is Arthur Fleck the true Clown Prince of Crime who will go on to become the transparency to Batman ? Or is he just the inspiration for another , unknown human beings to take up the true mantle ? It ’s something that those involved have carefully sidestepped in audience , and perhaps with good reason .
There ’s sly evidence against Arthur Fleck being the one true Joker . AlthoughPhillips has n’t confirmed the character ’s historic period , logically , he ’s in his former - to - mid - thirties ( younger than the 44 - year - erstwhile Phoenix ) ; if Bruce is around 10 , then that means Joker will be 50 or elderly by the clip the Dark Knight emerges ( no bargain - ledgeman , as Nicholson at 57 showed , but a notable disruption ) . And whileJokerbeing the name of the movie is a case for it being about , well , Joker , the lack of the definite article has an openness that transfer it from being a single soul .
But what ’s more powerful is the scope of the moving picture and how this one Joker is far from the individual villain with this fussy modus operandi . The whole Occupy - esque protest subplot that simmers under the movie and when they raise Arthur up as some sort of messiah , the biotic community becomes one . It ’s not a jump to have any of these characters be deemed the Joker . The corporate hurt is the true cost .
If Arthur is n’t the Joker we know , then that completely reframes what the film is about : it ’s not an origin fib for the famed DC villain , it ’s one for Batman ’s Gotham . The Joker is a metaphor , a product of both a mentally ill piece and a metropolis that neglects him - Arthur is an influencer and conduit , but he ’s not the end game . The Waynes are killed because of the clown movement , and the material Joker will , if this is straight , lift out of it .
Joker’s Final Scene Explained: What Is Arthur’s Final Joke?
All of these questions are rooted inJoker ’s final scene , in the first place find out as one of the film ’s undisputed moments of reality . In it , Arthur is being questioned by an Arkham doer about his progress , to which the affected role begins express mirth uncontrollably . When asked what the jape is , he responds " you would n’t get it . "
What is the joke ? Is it Thomas Wayne , and how Arthur ’s drive dubiousness give up to matter ? Is it Bruce Wayne , the legitimate son now robbed of his innocence as a issue of Arthur ’s actions ? Is it what he inhale , and how , with nary a motivation , the Joker ideology was able-bodied to tear Gotham asunder ? Is it on the shrink herself , who Arthur presumptively murders based on the reddish roue coating the soles of his shoe in the final prospect ? This odd question may seem intend to go unanswered , highlighting how , even after two hour in his bearing , Joker is still ultimately unknowable . However , there is a clear solution .
Joker ’s final scene takes place in a white - walled room that depend suspiciously standardised to the one he saw - or envisage - his mother in during the flashback 30 geezerhood prior , a sequence in which he incongruously placed himself . The shrink is reminiscent of his social actor from the start of film , in terms of eld , appearance and manner : both are nonchalantly ( or incautiously ) see his well - being in its clear absence seizure , focalise on the replication - chamber journal . All of this seems to be grounds that the movie just witnessed was unreal .
So , Arthur himself is the joke . The most fitting conclusion toJokeris that his entire animation - one he describes while suffocate his female parent as a funniness - is what ’s cause him so much mirth . Perhaps everything is a lie , a trick on the audience imagined in his head . Perhaps he ’s merely reveling in the new life-time linear perspective clear . But that is the closest to a the true in Arthur Fleck ’s aliveness that can be reached . He take his Arkham fate as Frank Sinatra ’s " That ’s sprightliness " plays over an unstoppable , vain competitiveness .
What Joker’s Ending Actually Means
One of the most well - worn meme aboutJokeris that the picture show ’s ultimate subject matter is simply " we live in a society " , but that ’s a rather reductive lesson to take . Yes , the moving-picture show is definitely explore that idea , from the documented underfunding of the genial healthcare system to a talking show master of ceremonies externally mock a clearly poorly person , and underpins Joker ’s proclamation : " What do you get when you cross a mentally - ominous lone wolf with a system that abandons him and treats him like chicken feed ? I ’ll recount you what you get . You get what you f***king deserve . " But the film ’s angling from the perspective of that mentally - ill loner make it more inner and the case study more uttermost . The Gotham presented is already on the brink , but it need a substantial stack of extremes for things to moil over .
There ’s something unsettling about Joker ’s presentation of mental illness for trusted , but the ultimate supplication is for greater care . InThe Killing Joke , Joker infamously states " All it take is one forged daylight to subdue the sanest man alive to lunacy . That ’s how far the human race is from where I am . Just one bad day . " The veracity of this claim is left open in the comic - he fails to break Jim Gordon , yet in the terminal Batman shares a laugh ( and potential strangles his foe ) - butJokerfully refutes it : Arthur is no sane piece to begin with and his breakdown is a gradual one instigated from harm at a very immature age . When he suppose to Sophie he ’s " has a badday " , it ’s a gross understatement . His is a story of neglect from those who should be creditworthy .
On the flipside , Joker ’s impact on society is , crucially , unintended . Every action is have for the ego , its wider impact not take until afterward . The riots are a spine to the film , but he ’s utterly disinterested as they evolve from a proletarian revolution into asinine violence . And whether these are regular people swept up in the movement or other grievous mortal lying dormant in society and given strength as part of a group ( in all probability a mix of both ) , it show the ease by which structure can crumble .
The point is n’t verbatim , asJokerhas designedly disordered politics . Thomas Wayne is presented far from the polished altruist many are used to ; his seedy manner and political run conjure up Donald Trump parallels ( Alec Baldwin was once linked to the part ) , yet his use of " clown " as a derogative terminal figure reclaim by those diss instead reminds of Hillary Clinton ’s " deplorables " statement during the 2016 election . There ’s a wave-particle duality there that further plays into the film ’s unreal nature , suggesting this is Wayne as Arthur sees him , not as Bruce nor the cosmos does .
How Joker Sets Up The Sequel Joker: Folie A Deux
Joker : Folie à Deuxexplores the fallout of theJoker , with the film follow Arthur Fleck in Arkham Asylum as he wait trial for the offence and murders he commit throughout the first film . Lady Gaga plays Harley Quinnin the film , adding another interesting layer to the narration asJokerdealt with the repercussion of Arthur call back he was romantically affect with his neighbor . This clip , it seems that the feelings are reciprocate .
Joker : Folie a Deux will admit a pregnant Batman character who has a classical laughable book of account moment that was teased in The Dark Knight .
The ambiguity ofJokerallows its sequel to really go in any direction it wants to . Since there is no clear - turn off answer to the questions it raises , there is an countless figure of possibilities to explore . Still , Arthur Fleck protrude as a nobody in the first film and , by the end , he is looked to as a savior for the downtrodden , which is absolutely lay out up to dive even profoundly into that melodic theme inJoker : Folie à Deux .
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Cast
Directed by Todd Phillips , Joker is an descent story for Batman ’s most iconic scoundrel . Arthur Fleck ( Joaquin Phoenix ) is a down - on - his - luck merry andrew who is trying to become a successful sales booth - up comedian . When things do n’t go agree to program , and Arthur feel Gotham is oppressing him and others with genial illness , Arthur sparks a wild gyration within the city .
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Source : LA TimesandReel Blend Podcast
