Todd Phillips Breaks Down the Ending of ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ – Arthur Fleck Was Never The Joker: “He’s never been this thing that’s been put upon him”

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ premiered last week to horrifying critical and audience reception. The movie is also a notable box office bomb, at least according to the opening weekend, as it grossed less than ‘The Marvels’ and ‘Morbius’ at $37.8M domestically. The movie’s development was described by insiders as the stuff of nightmares.

To say that the fans of the first movie did not like the sequel would be an understatement. Throughout the movie, Arthur undergoes an extensive humiliation ritual, being used and abused in the most horrible of ways.

His only shining light is the romance with Harleen Quinzel played by Lady Gaga. A lot of people including Harley, want Arthur to be something that he is apparently not. Instead of being a symbol of the revolution, and class fight, he is a lonely and broken man.

Sick to his core and twisted by years of abuse and loneliness, Arthur has finally seemingly found a place to belong. But ultimately, this brings him no happiness, as he is facing a death sentence for the crimes he has committed over the course of the first movie.

Arthur successfully, for a time, plays the part of the Joker. He is giving performance both to his “fans,” the prison guards, and for Harley Quinn herself. He is a cocky, rude, confident man whose moments of confidence are interrupted by his foolish musically-infused daydreams about his upcoming future with Harley.

Ultimately, Arthur realizes that’s not what he is, he can’t be the Joker, and he was never THE Joker. He was always a broken and lonely man. Just as Arthur admits as much to the judge and jury, the explosion interrupts his guilty verdict.

Arthur is given one opportunity to meet with Harley. Harley admits that she never loved Arthur she loved the Joker. Something that was obvious throughout the movie. Harley sought the excitement, fame, and attention that being with the Joker got her.

When the reality of Arthur’s real personality landed, she broke up with him. Arthur returns to prison, this time as himself. As he is walking down the hallway Arthur is approached by one of the supposed “fans” of the Joker.

The fan tells him a joke, very much like the joke he told the TV host before he shot him in the head. The fan promptly stabs Arthur several times in the stomach, leaving him to bleed out on the prison floors.

While Arthur is dying, the real Joker carves a smile on his face. You see, Arthur was never THE Joker, he only served as a conduit for a real Joker to rise.

Todd Phillips recently broke down the ending for the movie and confirmed that it was never in Arthur’s cards to truly become this symbol for the people:

He realized that everything is so corrupt, it’s never going to change, and the only way to fix it is to burn it all down.

When those guards kill that kid in the [hospital] he realizes that dressing up in makeup, putting on this thing, it’s not changing anything. In some ways, he’s accepted the fact that he’s always been Arthur Fleck; he’s never been this thing that’s been put upon him, this idea that Gotham people put on him, that he represents.

He’s an unwitting icon. This thing was placed on him, and he doesn’t want to live as a fake anymore — he wants to be who he is.

Phillips also confirmed what we’ve seen on screen, that no one cares about sad little broken men. Harley Quinn wanted to climb some kind of twisted social ladder by associating with Joker, and not Fleck.

in the film until she leaves him on the same steps he danced atop in the original movie. “[She’s] realizing, I’m on a whole other trip, man, you can’t be what I wanted you to be

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Phillips confirms that the final exchange between Lee and Arthur, despite its dreamlike quality, is “actually, really happening” and not an imagined interaction, unlike Arthur’s fabricated romance with Sophie (Zazie Beetz) in the previous film.

The best part is, that Phillips actually spoiled the ending of the movie several months ago, as he revealed that Arthur will not become the Clown Prince of Crime.

We would never do that. Because Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that.This unwilling, unwitting symbol now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the only thing he ever wanted, which was love.

That’s always what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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