SPOILER ALERT: This story includes details about the ending of “Joker: Folie à Deux‘
Joaquin Phoenix‘s Arthur Fleck is dead. “Joker: Folie à Deux” ends with the brutal stabbing of Arthur by a fellow inmate at Arkham Asylum, but Phoenix and director Todd Phillips both told IGN that the character is at peace once the credits start rolling on “Folie à Deux.”
“There’s a warmth in that scene, which is nice,” Phoenix said about Arthur’s death. “That’s all that I was thinking about that I was after, is here’s this young man who’s telling me a joke and he’s nervous to tell me the joke, I can tell that he’s nervous, and I’m going to hear him out. And it’s a pretty good setup.”
The scene unfolds as the inmate approaches Arthur to tell him a joke. Arthur obliges, which Phoenix and Phillips view as a peaceful gesture for the character. Arthur has finally chosen himself and renounced the Joker persona that society placed upon him, which leads him to take interest in someone else’s joke.
“I think Arthur has found peace with the idea, with the struggle that it’s okay to be yourself. And that’s really what he’s always struggled with, you know what I mean?” Phillips said. “I like to think he died at peace in a way being himself.
“The kid says to him, ‘You want to hear a joke?’ And even though he thinks maybe it’s (Lee) downstairs. We don’t even know what’s downstairs, but that sort of optimism that Arthur has, that’s still in him,” the director continued. “He’s like, ‘Well, yeah, okay, of course’ because he knows that feeling of wanting to make somebody laugh. So he gives the kid that moment, right? Obviously it goes bad because, again, everything goes bad for Arthur, but I always think that’s such a beautiful moment where it’s like Arthur still has hope.”
Phillips concluded, “I think Joaquin is so beautiful in that scene. It’s such a small nothing. I mean, beyond the death thing. That moment where he’s looking at the kid and he’s kind of giving the kid a polite laugh in the setup. He’s showing appreciation for the comedy and appreciation for putting yourself out there. You know what I mean? Something nobody ever did for him in the first movie in some ways.”
“Joker: Folie à Deux” has ignited outrage among comic book movie fans since its release, most notably for its musical elements and its ending. Arthur dies and never becomes the Joker that comic book fans have known. Instead, the inmate who stabs him to death used the blade to cut a Glasgow smile onto his face. The implication is that this inmate is actually the true Joker and was inspired by the saga of Arthur Fleck.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever saw the script of the first movie. The first film is called Joker. It’s not called The Joker, it’s called Joker,” Phillips told IGN. “And the first film under the script always said “An origin story.” Never said the origin story. It was this idea that maybe this isn’t the Joker. Maybe this is the inspiration for the Joker. So, in essence at the end of this movie, the thing you’re being left with is ‘Wait, what is that thing happening behind him? Is that the guy?’”
“Joker: Folie à Deux” is now playing in theaters from Warner Bros.
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