End Explanation of the movie "Joker (2019)"

End Explanation of the movie "Joker (2019)"

I have been following Joker since the day it was announced. Undoubtedly, it was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Heath Ledger had set bar very high and Jouquin Phoenix has true potential to match (or even surpass) that, given his previous portayels of mentally disturbed/unstable/odd/wierd characters. But director choice was bit odd. Todd Philips had no known history with serious gritty drama, but still studio decided to go with him - means something convincing must be there in story line he came up with (he is both writer and director) and his vision for the movie! So expectations were set beyond excepectations only!

Then, It won golden lion at Venice film festival. Standing ovation (though 8 minutes seems too long :)). Regular news for Scorsese tribute and that era or style of film making. Initial reviews were excellent. IMDb rating stood at 9.5+ with 1000+ of users. But as release date was approching, metascore kept on dropping (and today it stands at 58), many poor/mixed reviews started coming in. So the question, was it just marketing gimmick? Paid reviews, bumped up ratings? Crazy fans? I am pretty sure many of movie lovers and followers, would have been in same dilemma. Only way was to decide by myself! So wait for 2nd October begins ...

Quick recap :

Arthur Fleck. Sad, lonely, malnourisht, late 30s guy living with his old mother in Gotham, working as clown for hire. Has some uncontrollable laughing condition but struggling hard to put smile on his face. Wants to become standup comedian. Bullied on regular basis. Has previous history of mental illness. (Classic stereotype for ticking time bomb). City is going downhill. His medication stops. Delusions start taking over. Kills three employees of Wayne Enterprise when he was dressed as clown. Feels empowered and enjoys killing (with slow and wierd dance). First time experiences freedom! Kisses single mom neighbour. Begins dating her. His standup show. Thomas Wayne comments about 'clown' and lower class. Unrest emerges in city, he being the trigger. Chase for killer is ongoing. He discovers that he is son of Thomas Wayne. Meets Thomas and Bruce Wayne and gets rejected. Knows truth about sadistic, mentally ill and delusional mother. In rage, kills his own mother. Meanwhile, Murry Franklin (his inspiration) makes fun of his standup show on TV. Later he also gets invitation to attend his show. On the day of show, his clown friends arrive at his home, he kills one of them brutally and let other leave. After killing, dresses up as Joker we want to see, decieves police on his tail. Tricks them and provokes crowd to hurt them. On Murray's show, confronts him for humiliation, gives lousy speech about system and all, and shoots him in the face in front of audience. City is already in chaos due to clown incidence. Clown has become symbol of lower class workers. Riots everywhere. While police are taking him, he got hit by truck. Clown mask crowd rescues him. He stands up on wrecked car with bloody smile on his face. Joker rises! We see Arthur with psychiatrist. Has gained weight than earlier. Looks different. Smiles and jokes. Kills therapist and leaves room dancing.

Some twists half way. That his single mom girlfriend doesn't really know him. It was his delusion. This and end therapist scene, makes you question whatever you saw!

Analysis :

If you interpret whole story in linear and literal terms, it appears as movie about mentally ill person going downward spiral turning into joker. Nothing really special about it! Except cinematography, brilliant lighting and exceptional acting by Phoenix.

Unfortunately, he doesn't get any great (worth remembering) lines like Heath Ledger's joker instead Phoenix's acting lies entirely in his body language! All his dance moves (especially one in bathroom with that background score) satisfies you. A strong Oscar worthy performance for sure! Hope he wins this time.

But real beauty of the movie lies somewhere else!

We see whole movie from Arthur's point of view. So he is kind of 'narrator' of this movie. Whatever he sees, feels, experiences; we also see the same, feel and experience. There is no other person or scene in the movie who confirms if it's the reality. Except Sophie incident, where we realize she doesn't really know him. And it's all his delusion! That point onwards, you can't really trust anything you are going to see or saw previously, because he is 'untrustworthy narrator' and we are seeing his narration.

Only way to decipher truth from delusion (as movie provides insufficient data to conclude), is isolating highly improbable events. Whole movie is nothing but sequence of highly improbable events happening in life of single person, which can only happen in mind (or dream, you will know if you are day dreamer :)) and you are calling the shots, controlling world in your head.

We get first glimpse of delusion when he imagines being on Murray's show. He wants to come in front, wants world to see him, love him, and be like the son of Murray like father wanted.

His mother is ill and worked at Wayne mansion seems true.

Getting gun from his fat clown friend is highly unlikely. Why a normal person give a gun to mentally unstable person? May be a knife is enough. Or just empty gun. Unless, person giving a gun is not normal but ... More about it later!

If getting gun is still possible, then killing three Wayne Enterprise employees in empty subway train on empty subway station without anyone witnessing or hearing 6,7 shots or getting caught is also highly unlikely! But possible!

Whole sequence after that (kissing Sophie, standup comedy scene with her) was total delusion. If you want to do stand up comedy at some night club, they can't allow you to go straight on the stage, unless you convince owner/club manager about your stand up gig first. And Arthur has no talent of stand up comedian. So it's again unlikely to get such chance and succeeding in making people laugh, as shown. He doesn't understand what humour means.

Movie explodes after this. Arthur seeing the letter, so easily going near Wayne mansion and meeting Bruce appears too easy to happen. Easily sneaking up in movie theatre without anyone noticing, standing in middle, and meeting Thomas Wayne in bathroom is again too easy to happen. He really wanted father like Thomas wayne (or some famous person like Murray), so he created that version of reality.

At this point of time, he has lost grip of reality and convinced that his mother is root cause of his condition. Actually, 'delusional psychosis' and 'NPD' seems like mental illness of 'real Joker'. He kills his mother, this can be real.

Any sane TV show host cannot show footage of such mentally challenged person on national television. It's sure invitation of public anger, and hampering to his image. Anyways, if standup routine didn't happen, it means Murray showing it on his show and further invitation is all delusion.

On the day of show, if killing fat clown is assumed real then his dwarf friend would have informed police or neighbours or someone by now. But he ends up tricking two policemen and still reach show with gun (bullets of which have already been finished during three murders). So killing Murray didn't happen. It was his version of act for world to notice. Anyways, if standup routine didn't happen, then we can't reach this point of story, unless it is also delusion. Also, his whole speech wasn't that great to serve as climax (according to me).

After such high profile murder, just two police men taking him through riot ridden route is unlikely. He would be followed by media vans, people till his last destination. But no one was with them.

It means some high profile murder didn't happen but he has committed some crime (killing his fat clown friend maybe) for which he is being taken to police custody.

Final act of accident, rescuing, crowd cheering, standing like hero can only happen dreams. If Murray murder didn't happen, then crowd has no reason for cheer unless they are cheering for just one more clown face like them..who has woken up from severe accident.

There is parallel track as well. Where Thomas Wayne's clown remark triggers chaos in city. And unintentinally, Arthur is reason for that chaos. 'Clown' becomes symbol of lower class workers rebellion or revolution against capitalist rich people like Thomas Wayne and bullies like Murray (as per him). Unknowingly, Arthur becomes agent of chaos!

And, All these riots happen because Arthur gets gun!

And, the person who gives gun in hands of mentally unstable person and triggers this chaos - is real 'Joker'! I don't mean his fat friend, but the joker sitting in asylum whose version we are seeing. He is the cause and creater of all this!

Conclusion :

Given this long boring analysis, story of movie Joker is - mix of excerpts from his past and future plans of Joker to create chaos in Gotham.

Arthur is just a decoy. Real joker is the last one sitting in Arkham asylum, admitted there for 'delusional psychosis' and 'NPD'. Mostly he was abused as child and lived life without knowing who his father is. Probably, he has killed his mother and a friend, because of which he is there. These are possible excerpts from joker's life.

Arthur is a just another weak guy (a symbol of lower class who is bullied and abused by rich) who joker will manipulate and make him kill Wayne Enterprise employees. Create situation such that Thomas Wayne remarks something about lower class, and social unrest begins. Liberation of Arthur Fleck is nothing but uprising and revolution of lower class. Anyways, Arthur is too weak and stupid (even after his liberation) to become future JOKER and to go toe to toe against Batman.

So we still don't know who the real joker is, what's his story? What's his point? We just saw one mixed up version of past and future plans from which we can never tell for sure. We believed Arthur is Joker, but he is not and that's the real joke!

Real origin of JOKER is still a mystery, as expected!

On fun side, it's a joke played by Todd Philips on audience by hiding true meaning of movie from studios, even Joaquin Phoenix. A joke played by him on us!