FAQ

This Joker is a completely standalone non-canon take on the character. It doesn't tie into any other comic book or movie continuity, but is still based on the DC character. The movie does not directly tie into Ledger's portrayal in "The Dark Knight" as it takes place in the 80s. The Joker famously said in "The Killing Joke" that his origin story is "multiple choice," and this movie certainly upholds that claim with a vengeance for Arthur Fleck (mostly by making him an unreliable narrator and leaving the audience to guess how much of what it's seeing is real and how much is just hallucinatory or a self-serving memory). Like much else in this movie, whether this is *THE* Joker's origin story or just *A* Joker's origin story is left to the audience to guess.

In preparation for his role, he only lost 15 pounds (as revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) by eating an apple per day according to director Todd Phillips. Phoenix revealed that is the standard way he loses weight for a role.

It is not uncommon for dedicated actors to go through seemingly extreme weight loss for a part (former Batman Christian Bale in 'The Machinist' for example) .Because of the costs involved with making these films ,insurance requirements & partly due to Heath ledgers death after previously playing the Joker, the Physical & mental wellbeing while under contract is monitored very closely by the production companies involved. Where Joaquin took it as far as he could with Joker, Heath took it way too far, although that wasn't Heath' fault (he's a method actor afterall) so getting into the Joker was a mentally demeaning task than previously thought possible for both actors involved, Joaquin got a more monitored but mostly freed-freely abled performance as Heath went all out during production AND filming to preserve the persona.

Bruce Wayne is only a child in this movie and doesn't really play a high-impact part, although Bruce's dad is a big part of the film.

In the movie Arthur is an adult. He would have been separated from her as a child but, once he turned 18, if he wanted to live with his mother as soon as she was released nobody could stop that. He also likely repressed a lot, even buying the Thomas is actually his father theory that still means we have no idea where Arthur was when she stayed at the asylum, how he contacted her and ended up living with her. If the document is a fake or not does not change that he would have been taken by child services for a while yet in his daydream he says he always lived with his mom as the only man of the family. It's not impossible he just never met her again until he was an adult after she was committed rightfully or not and tried to live back a fantasy. PS: Because if things didn't fall into place, the director would have no way to make arthur fleck the joker, and justify the name of the movie

Passive people dont always stand up for their rights. He also brought a gun in a children hospital and lied by saying it was a prop when asked why he has a gun on him. Even if he throws Randall under the bus how is the boss supposed to believe him when he tries to dodge the fault altogether on instinct because he knew he'll lose the job if he tells the truth. Plus he did bring the gun in the children hospital (the same way he started dancing with it and shot the wall in his apartment) not something he did for no purpose he did want to carry the gun for self-defense even though it's a firing offense if he is caught with it. Arthur can't blame all his decision on other people being jerks or his illnesses some are his own poor judgement, like not reporting the beatdown to the store owner or calling the cops about it. Also worth noting despite initially claiming to like Arthur, his boss clearly doesn't with the sign incident having him be prebiased against anything what Arthur says because he is inherently untrustworthy as a mental patient, not even Arthur's heavy bruises seemed to convince him. Also it's possible Arthur may have decided to not bother explaining why he had the gun because he felt (possibly correctly) that nobody would listen to him anyway.

1981- 82 .The Cinema seen near the end the end of the film is showing 'Blow Out' .This film was first released in New York in July 1981. And the cinema appears to be an 'upmarket venue' showing 'First or 2nd' runs of films ... Also Arthur & his mother have Video Players & telephone answer machines - not common to 'lower working class families' in the 70s. Few characters are wearing flared Jeans,Bright suits or have long hair ,these were very much Out Of Style by the '80s This films many similarities to 'The King Of Comedy' ,filmed in 1981 & released in 1982 may also be a pointer to the time it is set. PS: Random nothing specific to point to, but the director tried to make us believe sometimes in the 80's when charlie chaplin's movies were still played in the halls.

Another hint is the theater at the end that Thomas Wayne exits with his family during the final rioting, it has a movie poster for the film "Excalibur" which was released in 1981.

Penny used to work for the Wayne family and may have been able to afford it at the time. She may also have been gifted it as a way to work from home or a parting gift

Gotham could possibly have its own Wall Street. Additionally Wall Street is a metaphor or metonym for rich people. Also even though 'Gotham' is a 'Make Believe' city it is clearly modelled on New York - as seen in previous films & the 'City out of control' matches the New York of the early '80s when the film appears to be set - in 1981 there was the highest number of murders recorded & the reported crime figures eventually led to various measures including the eventual 'urban renewal programs'.

Arthur suffers from schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, post-traumatic stress and gelastic seizures (uncontrolled laughter). He also shows signs of hallucinations and depression.

Previously, this condition was referred to as "hebephrenia."

Although it's never mentioned in the film, it's heavily implied that Arthur may have anorexia nervosa, which is a disorder that affects women and men. He is obviously very thin, his skeletal appearance is similar to that of a person suffering from anorexia. We never see him eat, but we do see him feed his mother, and eat nothing himself. when he climbs into the fridge, there is very little food inside. Nicotine is also an appetite suppressant, so there could be another reason why he smokes so much adding to his frail physique. Anorexia is sometimes considered a form of body dismorphia, which could also be why he seems more comfortable when wearing his clown makeup.

.

There's one possibility that she's always been a genuinely disturbed woman, there's another that she was basically set up by Thomas Wayne to conceal his affair, or possibly even a mixture of the two. Ultimately, given the sheer volume of Unreliable Narrator going on in this movie, there's no possible way of knowing for sure. That said, it's likely that Penny's issues have a deeper root cause than mere sadness.

It's implied that Arthur killed the psychologist who was talking to him and asked him about what he was laughing about at the end of the movie.

Note that he had handcuffs on as he spoke with her, and continued to have them when he was walking down the hall, dancing, and being chased by staff.

It's called Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), or emotional incontinence, which is a type of emotional disturbance characterized by uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing, or other emotional displays. PBA occurs secondary to a neurologic disorder or brain injury. Patients may find themselves crying uncontrollably at something that is only moderately sad, being unable to stop themselves for several minutes. Episodes may also be mood-incongruent: a patient may laugh uncontrollably when angry or frustrated, for example. Sometimes, the episodes may switch between emotional states, resulting in the patient crying uncontrollably before dissolving into fits of laughter.

Yes, he smokes the American Spirit brand. Although Phoenix is a smoker in real life, the cigarettes smoked in the film are likely "safer" prop cigarettes that don't contain nicotine.

Four possibilities:

1) It's to show how escape has become hard for Arthur. He wants to shut himself away from the world completely, and the fridge provides a quick and easy way to do just that, but only temporarily.

2.) Metaphorically Gotham is presented to us as a cold place, in which whatever the character does he's punished for. The fridge can be understood as a representation of Gotham itself; it's cold, cramped, uncomfortable and suffocating. The character feels like he can no longer breathe, which is reinforced his consistent laughing which often appears to choke him.

3.) It's a form of rebirth. The fridge can be seen as a womb of sorts, with Arthur climbing inside taking the fetal position and emerging anew as Joker. This also reinforces the idea that he's a product of his environment - cold and dark.

4.) It's a suicidal fantasy, which would explain why it quickly cuts to him lying on the bed. In the first act of the film, we see Arthur's fantasy of meeting Murray play out on the screen, and perhaps this is just another case of that. Others have been quick to point out that he'd have been unable to get out once he climbed inside, so it's certainly plausible. Nevertheless, it works brilliantly as a metaphor for being born again.

5) He's nuts.

If your boyfriend is much stronger and bigger than you, how are you going to stop him abusing your child? Going to the police might only make things worse.

Yes

The film's script clarifies that while his producer tries to end the interview, Murray refuses because he believes that it's making great television and that he may win an Emmy or a Peabody for it. Viewers have offered several possibilities:

1.) He could've been stalling you can see his producer motioning to him indicating that they called the police.

2.) It's possible that Murray wanted to continue making fun of Arthur Fleck to amuse the audience's thoughts on TV. Arthur even makes it very clear on the show that Murray was replaying his video to make fun of him and that's why he calls Murray "awful."

3.) He probably knew that he was gonna die either way. May as well try and see how the maniac's mind works.

4.) He didn't know that Arthur brought a gun with him, and there were several other people in the studio. With that knowledge, Murray would most likely think he wouldn't do anything to him, and even if he did, he probably assumed that everyone in the studio would gang up on Arthur.

5.) He appeared to be trying to show Arthur the error of his ways during the conversation

6.) Murray may have realized that either he was going to get lots of ratings or make television history. Too tempting to let go.

7.) He simply doesn't believe Arthur.

The steep stairs are connected to Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues at West 167th Street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, New York City.

It's repeatedly shown in the movie that Arthur lives in a city of corruption. Accepting that, it's easy to accept that any nurses who'd be required to step-in were just busy or neglectful/incompetent. While to assume that everyone in it is either corrupt or lazy and shiftless is perhaps getting into Arthur's nihilistic viewpoint a bit too closely. Another possibility exists; the movie makes a point of establishing that the city's budget is practically nonexistent and funding for city services has been slashed to the bone. This would presumably also include the hospitals. Simply put, there probably aren't enough nurses on staff at the time to cover all the stations and respond to all the alerts, affording Arthur an opportunity he might otherwise not have in a better healthcare system.

It was a Pre-Model 36 version of the Smith & Wesson Chief's .38 Special, it was mistakenly misidentified as a Colt Detective Special.

Arthur's therapy and medication are paid for by the city government. The entire program was cut and Arthur can't afford it on his own.

You can see that Murray himself does little goofy dances all the time during his show and Arthur sorta seems to have taken that trait from him. It's also supposed to be a highly emotional moment for him, the first time he takes control of his own life. He basically celebrates that.

"comedy is subjective", It is sort of a truism but it does fit, some people like a certain kind of humor that can fall completely flat for others. except for the fact that obviously he's using it to justify his own actions to the point of considering 'funny' to commit murder in the context of the perspective change when he starts considering his tragic life a whole big joke with no punchline.

Many fans doubt the reason behind Murray's inviting Arthur was to help him or get famous. He clearly was mocking him. For example when he implied that Arthur laughed in his stand up comedy performance because he thought laughing so much would force the viewers to laugh too (suggesting that he was bad at jokes so he chose this as an alternate way to entertain people instead)

Also, Murray's face expressions clearly explained that he was taunting Arthur through every word that he spoke, and that he was not being amused by any of his jokes. He had just called him to increase the ratings of his show by interviewing a person who had gone viral because of his weird behavior. (Laughing previously during his performance instead of doing comedy)

The real life late night talk show host David Letterman was known for inviting quirky people onto his show and subtly mocking them, especially if they had low social awareness

However many fans prefer to believe that the invitation was real and that Murray's motives were not merely to make fun of Arthur. Showing the clip of the lousy performance and then having Arthur give another lousy performance live would have been bad television, and Murray is, if nothing else, a good television host. Fans imagine that he was hoping that Arthur could defy the studio audience's expectations, have a successful (or even semi-sucessful) routine, and have people cheering for his bravery at taking the stage. A little bit like the William Hung experience on "American Idol". Hung was a bad singer, but his bravery at taking the stage and his good spirit about the audience's reaction soon won them over. Murray was, hoping for something similar.

Todd Phillips suggests that this isn't necessarily supposed to be the actual Batman-fighting Joker. It's possibly him, but it could be someone who inspired him, or someone who wants to be him, or any number of possibilities. Leaving out "the" introduces a necessary ambiguity; after all, a key part of most versions of the Joker is that no one, not even he, truly know knows who he is or where he comes from. Or the studio is just waiting to use "THE" in the sequel.

The comedy club probably had a disclaimer that they owned the rights to all footage taken inside the club, and authorized the use of the video.

The suit is an homage to The King of Comedy, which the director cited as major inspiration.

Maybe. Arthur and a number of Gotham's lower-class residents certainly seem to think so. Since this movie takes place through Arthur's eyes, and he is shown to be a far from reliable and unbiased observer, however, one might do well to take these opinions with a grain of salt.

The film is geared to provide a more sympathetic look into who the Joker is and less towards who Thomas Wayne is, the opposite that is normally done regarding Batman's history.

Randall gave the gun to Arthur for money (which he intended to demand from him later). Even then Randall takes advantage of the good nature of Arthur by talking him into taking the gun.

When things go awry, Randall quickly (and successfully) tries to push the blame on Arthur, which is when Arthur realizes the true colors of Randall.

Then later, when the walls are closing in on the gun, Randall makes contact with Arthur again, to ensure that "their stories will align". This shows us that it is not an imagination of Arthur or a misinterpretation but rather that Randall is fully aware of his role in handing the gun over to Arthur.

Most of these contacts are also contrasted by Gary. Who is never mean to Arthur and is treated rather mean by by everybody (even (maybe unintentionally) Arthur). Only in the last scene Arthur will spare him because he never was mean towards Arthur.

Based on that logic, the last encounter of the trio gave Gary and Randall what they deserve

So Randall lied that Arthur got it from someone else and that Arthur even tried to buy one from Randall. The point of this is to show the self-serving nature of the world around Arthur, and how willing people are to throw others under the bus.

The point is that Randall wasn't as good of a friend as we thought he was. The point is that he threw Arthur under the bus even when he didn't need to.

No, WB wanted Leonardo Dicaprio instead of Joaquin Phoenix but Todd Phillips refused that because he wrote the script with Joaquin in mind.

When Arthur gets his mother's records from the hospital, where it can be seen that she was involuntarily admitted at the age of 25 on November 2, 1952. Also in those records are some newspaper clippings that reveal Arthur was three years old when the authorities learned that his mother's boyfriend abused them. This puts Arthur's birth year in 1948 or 1949, meaning that he was 32-33 years old during the events of the film.

The guy in the subway was singing badly.

Probably.

It's unlikely. Joker is a serious drama that has very little to do with silly comic book antics of most comic films. The Pattinson Batman is more akin to the typical comic book formula.

Clowns are silly and Wayne though the people were silly. Ergo, him calling them clowns.

Script-wise it was an easy way to make Thomas Wayne unlikable. In-story, this possibly being one of Arthur's hallucinations or self-serving memories, it specifically serves to justify Arthur's increasing animosity toward him. If this incident (or something like it) did in fact happen, Thomas was most likely "flying off the handle" at Arthur for having put his fingers in his son Bruce's mouth; a rather creepy violation of the child's personal space that would seriously upset any decent parent or guardian, though not necessarily to the point of provoking such a violent reaction.

He was just doing his job. This movie took place a long time ago and people were not as knowledgeable on conditions like Arthur's

He certainly was in Arthur Fleck's eyes. Fleck being a rather unreliable observer, one can see how Wayne would have a rather different opinion of himself. More broadly speaking, Wayne's publicly stating on television that Gotham's underclass were "clowns" like that guy who murdered those three brokers from his company (referring to Fleck, though Wayne didn't know he was that guy at the time) certainly made him seem "rude" in their eyes as well.

Very likely in a shop or store. Very likely.

If Arthur didn't drink alcohol, they probably wouldn't have brought him wine as a present. It's more likely that Arthur became overpowered with rage, when Randall began to discuss the police investigations, and forgot about the wine.

No one really knows.

No-one.

Todd knew, that Joaquin is the perfect role for the Joker. He was writing the script with a thought, that Joaquin is the Joker. Joaquin played the role perfectly. Todd revealed, that he tried to convince Joaquin several times, before Joaquin accepted the role. He even refused to play any comic book characters in the past. But luckily, he read the script and talked with Todd about the movie. Joaquin loves the Joker. He has expressed his interest in playing the Joker again stating that there is a lot more to explore with that character.

But aside from him, Leonardo DiCaprio was considered by WB to play the Joker but he wasn't available at the time. Also, Todd did not want him in the film, because he wrote the script with Joaquin in mind.

He never saw Arthur as reliable because of his mental condition. He probably didn't believe Arthur and assumed that he misplaced or broke the sign.

You may have noticed that Arthur smoked in a lot of public places, including his SW's office. It was a different time, with much different attitudes about smoking.

As long as Arthur was able to pay for his cigarettes, he would have been allowed to have them. Forcing a mental patient to quit cold-turkey was probably viewed as unnecessarily stressful, particularly at a time when only the most strident anti-smoking crusader would have even cared. Also, cigarettes were cheap, and probably viewed by the staff as a type of pacifier.

It would have been fairly easy for Arthur to get smokes. He could have gotten them through a visitor of another patient, or perhaps even through a cigarette vending machine at the hospital.

No one has answered this question yet.

In a way it makes it more realistic since Arthur is that one guy that never knew the right thing to say or how to make himself look good or likable hence the villain outcast perception. He always got in trouble even when he didn't do anything wrong like when he got fired or when his boss thought he stole the sign so he started doing things intentionally to get in trouble and escalate events since either way he was always punished.

Enough to make a sequel, or at least the money.

No one has answered this question yet.