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Film Theory: Joker Ending Explained (ft. Pitch Meeting)

Feb 25, 2020
Full spoilers for "Joker" incoming, but, you know, you clicked on a video titled "Ending Explained," so I guess you already knew that... Still, if I don't do this explicitly at the beginning of After the video, the comments will get angry, so consider this your warning. So do you have a new comic book movie for me? Yes, sir, I do. His name is "Joker." Wait, wait, you're not the usual guy. I sure am! Well if you say so. So tell me about this movie. So it follows a mentally ill man named Arthur Fleck, who, you know, is having the worst luck possible.
film theory joker ending explained ft pitch meeting
That's terrible! He works as a clown. That's nice, but then they beat him up in the streets. That's terrible. He performs in front of sick children in the hospital. That's nice, but then he drops a gun in front of them and gets fired from the job. Wow, okay, you're really taking me on a rollercoaster of emotions here /: And that's just the beginning! Oh really? Yes Yes Yes! So he gets on the subway and shoots some bankers, right? Which starts protests throughout the city where all the people of Gotham want to kill the rich! Kill the rich!
film theory joker ending explained ft pitch meeting

More Interesting Facts About,

film theory joker ending explained ft pitch meeting...

Kill the rich! Oh, I hope they don't find out about my salary... (laughs) Yes, I hope not (tense music) Please stop looking at me like that. Okay, I'll stop doing it. Then, anyway, Arthur's life really starts to change. He finds himself. a new girlfriend He gets invited to his favorite late-night talk show He becomes the leader of this public rebellion Good for him! He kills his mother, his coworkers, his favorite celebrity, and a bunch of other people. Oh my God, it's not good for him. Oh, no, no, no, don't worry. None of that actually happens. It's fine.
film theory joker ending explained ft pitch meeting
Because for a second... Or not?! Hope for? You see, it's possible that it's all vivid fantasies stemming from Arthur's mental illness. That sounds confusing. I bet he is! Almost like everyone has to watch an online video explaining everything that happened in the movie to differentiate what was real from what wasn't (Meta). I hope so! You will see all the complete videos, are you going to explain it to me? Of course! It will be super easy, it will hardly be an inconvenience. How much time do you have? Hello Internet! Welcome to Film Theory, where "Joker" literally just hit theaters.
film theory joker ending explained ft pitch meeting
I was lucky enough to have Warner Brothers fly me to the Toronto International Film Festival to see it a few weeks early, which is partly why I was able to post this video. But I have to say that I haven't stopped thinking about it since I first saw it. Like "Batman Begins" and "Iron Man" before it, I firmly believe this movie will have a huge impact. "Joker" is a

film

that constantly blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. As a result, many people will probably leave the theater this weekend excited by what they saw, but also a little perplexed.
What exactly did they see? What is the REAL story of Arthur Fleck? That, dear moviegoers, is the question we are exploring today. You see, if taken at face value, "Joker" is a self-explanatory movie. We begin with Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man suffering from multiple disorders, including pseudobulbar affect. a medical condition that causes him to spontaneously burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. He is in a desperate condition, stricken by poverty and left alone to care for his sick mother, Penny. He has big dreams of one day doing stand-up like his hero, the late-night talk show host Murray Franklin, but in the meantime he makes a living as a clown, doing concerts, twirling signs, and performing at various events throughout Gotham.
City, it's a thankless and brutal job with him being attacked in the streets by a group of young thugs who, for some reason, are really into stealing signs, which, on its own, would be bad enough, but then To add insult to injury, his employer fines him for the broken sign. Hey, it's not his fault that sign was built. in a way that would easily explode into pieces. Seriously, it's almost like that thing is an accessory or something... and that's where the story really begins. A coworker offers him a gun for protection, but the gun falls out of his pants while he was performing for children at the hospital and he is fired. the work together And, can I just say, the hospital scene in this movie was brilliant, perfectly balancing tension, fear and humor.
It's just a testament to how good this

film

is at balancing multiple tones. Anyway, his day continues to get worse as, on the subway home, he is mugged by a trio of rich Wall Street traders. But this time, Arthur fights back, literally taking his gun and reflexively killing his first two attackers before hunting down and taking out the third. And it is this spark that ignites all the other plot lines of the film. The first, and largest, directly follows the consequences of this trio of murders of Thomas Wayne, father of the future Batman, in the midst of his campaign to become the next mayor of Gotham. , he mocks crime and, in a nutshell, labels Gotham's underprivileged as "clowns." This results in the downtrodden inhabitants of Gotham taking the nameless killer clown as their figurehead, adopting the clown's persona, and ultimately calling for a mass elimination of the rich as Arthur watches the chaos he inadvertently started.
On the more personal front, Arthur becomes involved in a blossoming romance with Sophie, a single mother from her apartment building down the hall, even inviting her to a stand-up routine at Pogo's Club. The routine doesn't go well. Her condition prevents her from telling a single joke, and as his mother says, "Well, he's just not that funny." In fact, it goes so wrong that a clip of his performance goes viral, or at least viral in the '80s New York sense, and ends up on the same show he and his mother loved to watch: Ellen, Right Next Door from that singing guy at Wal-Mart Wait, that doesn't sound right... let me check my notes.
Oh yeah...the clip of him ends up on the Murray Franklin Show where he is ridiculed by his personal hero. And if that sounds bad, well. , it is until, of course, Murray's team reaches out to see if Arthur would like to appear on the show because his clip was a huge hit again, as was Ellen. This time we will make fun of you in person. , but, you know, it's okay, because we'll make you famous for 15 minutes. Arthur says yes to the concert. More on that in a minute. Speaking of being let down by parental figures, his mother, Penny, used to work for Thomas Wayne.
And she insists, if he knew about his desperate condition, he'd be willing to offer them a hand. Arthur is skeptical that he cares about her, until, in reverse, he reads a letter his mother wrote to Thomas telling him that he, Arthur, is actually Thomas Wayne's secret son. He then goes to Wayne Manor, which has surprisingly terrible security, scares Alfred and Bruce in a fantastic scene that's honestly only there for fan service and trailers, and then confronts Thomas Wayne in a movie. prime minister about being his dear father in the most appropriate place to have that kind of conversation, the men's room.
Talk about your awkward urinal conversations. But wait, double twist, Thomas reveals that he never had a relationship with Penny. That instead, Arthur was adopted. and that it was all a last ditch attempt to get the Wayne family to pay attention to him. Wanting to learn the truth for himself because of course Thomas Wayne wouldn't recognize that kind of thing, he actually steals Penny's file from Arkham Asylum. only to find out that Wayne was actually telling the truth. Not only was he adopted, but Penny and her boyfriend abused him, chained him to a radiator, malnourished him, and assaulted him.
This neglect and trauma are largely to blame for his mental disorder. , with this information in hand, he quickly engages in a very aggressive pillow fight with his mother, to thank her for her role in everything Penny loses. (Top 10 Fight Scenes) It's also important to note this important turning point in Arthur's story. At this point, Joker now has no identity. He's not a Fleck, he's not a Wayne, he's just an adopted child with no registered name. True to form him. for any good Joker So, suffice to say, Arthur is having a tough time. He's the prime suspect in the subway murders, his ancestry is like a game of hot potato and his career as a comedian is on the rocks.
The only thing he has going for him is that appearance on Murray Franklin. We see him practicing his entrance. He is weak. His jokes are a little harsh. And the only final joke of his. A knock-knock joke that Arthur has no intention of fully finishing, hoping the death of him lives on. on camera it will have more meaning than his life. Since Murray called him "Joker" when he was made fun of on the show, that's the name he adopts - his clown persona but, in a meta sense, it's more than just a reference to that moment on the show Remember, Arthur is now a blank slate, erased from the past I thought I knew.
The Joker's personality is the only piece of identity he has left now. He is the only person who has ever made him feel it. noticed and empowered Sure, it's empowerment through fear, but it's empowerment nonetheless. He physically and mentally transforms into the Joker, and is finally free and unrestrained. This is reflected in his dancing on the city steps that is on all the posters. Loose and wild like a tube man in front of a used car dealership. He compared that to his previous little ballets in the movie, which were cautious, restrained, shy, hiding in dark bathrooms and abandoned.
He is a free man, unleashed, without restrictions. But for something as empowering as this. The Joker costume is for him. To the rest of the world, he is seen as a political statement: for him to side with these rioters in Gotham, for him to side with a killer who killed three rich people on the subway. Murray, when faced with this decision, overrides his team's fears and allows Arthur to continue despite the risk, believing that the controversy will likely increase the show's popularity. The show starts off well enough, with Joker speaking to the cameras at his grand entrance, kissing his fellow guest on the couch. , but it quickly changes when Murray asks Arthur to tell him a joke.
The Joker reveals that he is the murderous subway clown and goes on a rant about how everyone is horrible these days, how people like him have been made to be society's joke, ignored and mocked by everyone, including Murray himself. In other words, what he's saying is that the oppressed are actually the clowns here. And it's time for clowns to make a change. He is no longer interested in taking down himself on the show, and points the gun at Murray for his final finish. What happens to you when you cross a mentally ill loner with a system that treats him like garbage?
You get what you deserve And with that he shoots Murray live on camera before the police drag him away. But spurred by that broadcast, the Gotham riots explode into a violent frenzy. The Wayne family flees the local opera house fearing for their lives. only to be cornered in an alley by a random rioter and shot, flying pearls, and all the Jokers rescued from the police car by their now devoted followers and placed, with a Christ-like figure on their hood. When he finally comes to, he stands up. all of them, painting a big smile on his face with blood He's found his voice, he's found his audience Look who's laughing now The important point to keep in mind in all of this is that it's all random Arthur never intended to start a rebellion He was just some guy who got attacked (and attacked again) on the subway.
He didn't go on Murray's show with a political speech ready; in fact, he intended to do exactly the opposite. She intended to kill himself on camera, hoping that his death had some kind of meaning behind it. He had no idea what it would be, only that he would do something. Instead, he not only stays alive, he simply stumbles over the words that end up setting the city alight. There's no big plot against the Wayne family to get retribution for the way they treated him and his mother, it just happens that some random troublemaker pulls the trigger. , driven by the words of the Joker It's a domino effect, completely random True to the essence of this character that is the Joker, everything is chaos For the last stinger of the film, we cut to Arkham Asylum, a scene that is very reminiscent to your previous interviews with your social worker.
We see him laughing at what he describes as an inside joke that is, quote, "Between him and me." The scene then cuts to a young Bruce Wayne standing over the bodies of his dead parents in an alley. That's the "he" this joke is for. As for what the joke really is, well, as I interpret it, it's that For a while it seemed that the two might havebeen related, only for it to be revealed that they weren't, but now the two will be forever intertwined, because Joker was the reason Bruce lost his parents. It's a black irony that Arthur leaves the room, leaving a trail of bloody footprints before being chased through the hallways by an orderly So that's crystal clear, right?
Why would a movie like this need any kind of explanation? I mean, sure, the stuff about his parents gets a little confusing in the middle, and you can overlook the subtext of him losing any sense of identity, just to fill that void with the Joker character, but the rest has Pretty logical flow, right? Well, not entirely. You see, while a purely superficial reading of this movie absolutely works, it's also not likely to be one hundred percent correct. Our first hint that everything we're seeing on screen might not be exactly what it seems, occurs fairly early in the film.
Arthur arrives home, settles in for the night, and joins his mother for their usual evening activity of watching the Murray Franklin Show, except the film then shows Arthur in the audience as a bachelor. Murray appears to take the stage and tell his story. Murray even says that if he had a son, he would want that son to be like Arthur. Clearly, this is not a memory of anything that happened before. It's a fantasy sequence. that has blended perfectly with the rest of the narrative. And that's just the first example of how this happens. When he is fired from his job as a clown, the scene then cuts to Arthur in an alley, aggressively stomping on a body, before cutting back to Arthur's Smiling Face.
He is fantasizing about killing his boss at that moment. But does he really do it? No, there's no sign of him actually doing anything like that during the course of the movie. These scenes establish exactly what we predicted in our previous "Joker"

theory

: that, true to the spirit of its predecessor, The King of Comedy, this film mixes hallucinations, delusions, fantasy and reality without any indication of what is really what. But perhaps the biggest and most obvious example of this blurred line between reality and fantasy comes in the form of Sophie, the neighbor with whom Arthur has a crush and eventually pursues a romantic relationship with his first interactions being incredibly awkward.
She tries to make small talk in the elevator with him, and Arthur barely manages to respond, only responding minutes later in a very socially inappropriate manner. He follows her to her work, and instead, they eventually go on a series of seemingly normal dates, and the awkwardness between the two disappears completely. But at the end of the film, when the police begin to close in and he discovers the truth of his horrible childhood, he enters his unlocked apartment looking for support, but when Sophie enters the room, she is terrified. She does not identify him as Arthur, nor as the man she has been dating.
Instead, he's the guy on the other side of the hallway. he then opens the curtain. We get brief glimpses of earlier scenes of their relationship, but this time, Sophie is no longer in the picture. The entirety of their relationship was a fabrication, an elaborate series of fantasies that happened inside Arthur's head. helps explain how Arthur went from an awkward social loner to a womanizer seemingly overnight. If this was all a lie, literally anything in the movie could be a lie. So how can you tell what's what? Well, there seem to be some definitive clues, the first being Sophie herself.
When Arthur and Sophie visit her mother in the hospital, there is a very clear and pointed moment in which she leaves the room just before her failed comedy routine plays. on the Murray Franklin Show That seems to suggest that moment is actually happening. It's a cinematic trick that tells us that the fantasy element, Sophie, has left the room, leaving only Arthur and the reality of the situation - his clip, which plays on Murray Franklin Another clue is the behavior of the people around to Arthur in any given scene. Observe your reactions, or lack thereof, in relation to his behavior.
Again, this is a cinematic convention that is established with the first fantasy scene of the film: Him in the Murray's Show audience. Before this clip from the trailers, which, obviously, I can't show you because the film is so new, Arthur's behavior is inappropriate for the setting of being in the audience of a television show. Hence he has been selected from the rest of the crowd and yet, as disturbing as it is, no one around him reacts negatively. They are all neutral to positive. And then, in all these fantasy sequences, he is hugged by all the people that Murray loves, Sophie.
In his fantasies, he is the hero. The mother in the subway car, protecting her son in the trailers. ? Absolutely real. She is scared for him. Her failed stand-up routine? Real, but what we hear is the public reaction is actually false. That's why when we watch this clip again, only on the Murray Franklin Show, the audience is silent. They don't laugh. What he was perceiving at that moment on stage is not What was really going on with him at Pogo's Comedy Club, watching another comedian perform? False We know this because he laughs in all the wrong places during the routine.
He laughs in the middle of the jokes instead of at the end, but no one in the audience around him reacts to the disturbance he's causing. Those murders in the subway. car? Yes, they are real. But now he takes a closer look at the conversations he is having with his social worker. Many of the lines Arthur says get no reaction from her, particularly this one about her never listening: "You don't listen, do you?" Just as he fantasizes about killing her boss, these scenes bridge reality and reality. fancy. He imagines what he would say to her, he has the conversation in his mind, but he doesn't always say those words out loud.
I mean, we've all been there. , good? Which undoubtedly brings us to the most important question of all: The

ending

. Do you really follow Murray Franklin? Does he really kill his hero? Does he really become the face of a revolution? The answer, in my opinion, is yes and no. Honestly, it depends on how you want to interpret his final scene in Arkham Asylum. Based on the cinematic clues we discussed (the reactions of others around him, the news coverage the Murray incident incited), yes, it appears to be real. The fact that there is a scene included in the film showing Murray's transmission mixed with other real-world transmissions from a neutral third-party perspective seems to suggest that this was a real thing.
That moment reads to me like: This horrible act of violence happens live. on television is just one of thousands of moments that happen on television and is simply overlooked and ignored, mixed in with all the noise that happens around us all the time. If you include a declaration scene like that, it probably won't be like that. mixed with a fantasy sequence, right? However, it can be argued that most of this movie is not real. The turning point really comes halfway through the film. Arthur, during a

meeting

with his social worker, is informed that this will be the last time.
The scene ends with him asking. where he can get his medication. The implication is that he won't be able to. And without his medication, don't you know? From there, we get some of the most incredible parts of the story: His stand-up routine appearing on television, being invited to the Murray Show, easily sneaking into the movie premiere to corner Thomas Wayne in the bathroom, being rescued from a police cruiser, surviving an accident that was fatal to everyone else in the car, and then being hailed as a figurehead of this powerful rebellion. He becomes more eloquent, more confident, more motivated to action, more assertive.
He openly tells other characters that he no longer takes his medication and, as a result, he feels better. All of these scenes could be lies, caused by his untreated mental disorder. I mean, watch the movie again and look at the newspaper headlines. Kill the rich? Don't get me wrong, clickbait headlines are common these days. But do you really think newspapers will print that in big, bold letters on their front page? Well, yes, maybe. But still, how about the Joker's entrance on the Murray Show? This is a man who could barely walk through a curtain when he was practicing at the moment at his house, but now he's running around flawlessly, kissing other people on the show without any consequences?
Even the way Murray speaks as he interviews the Joker is reminiscent of the stilted way he addressed Arthur in the film's first fantasy sequence. In both scenes, one of which we know is a fantasy, Murray is simply there asking softball questions that allow Arthur to climb onto his soapbox and say the things he fantasizes about saying. Speaking of parallel scenes, consider that final moment before the credits We're in Arkham Asylum, in an interview that directly parallels all the scenes with the social worker from the At the beginning of the film We have similar camera framing, a very similar actress , not only in terms of race and sex, but also in terms of clothing, hairstyle, and speech.
Is it just cinematic shorthand to show the absurd repetition of his life? Or was it to suggest that all those earlier scenes were just him in this room? Is the personal joke that Arthur finds so funny just him going over an elaborate fantasy during his therapy session? The exact fantasy we just saw plays out in extreme detail inside his own head. A prank in which he takes revenge without consequences on literally everyone who has ever wronged him. Bullies, co-workers, mothers, TV hosts and ultimately you end up on top. I don't know if there is a correct answer here.
Don't get me wrong, just as "Inception" has a definitive answer if you look closely enough, "Joker" can also have a definitive answer. Having only seen the movie. twice, and without the ability to go frame by frame, it's hard for me to say it and get the necessary details. But you can bet I'll watch it several more times to come to a conclusion. Suffice it to say, what? What I appreciate most about the movie is how he manages to thread the needle. It gives you a backstory for this iconic character who never had one, but then rips it away and makes you question literally everything you just saw.
True to the spirit of the Joker. , the character's origin in this movie is also multiple choice "If I'm going to have a past, I'd rather be multiple choice." But hey, (CROSSOVER CONFIRMED?!?! Nah, it's actually just a meme because it felt familiar) that's just a

theory

Wow, that sounds super complicated No, no, no, that'll be cool! The internet will be debating this for YEARS. Can we at least add something like a Batman credit card or something? I'm not even going to consider that idea with an answer. Well, it's just that if no one knows what's real and what's not, how are we supposed to tie this in with Wonder Woman and Aquaman and all those other charming little scoundrels?
Actually, it will be super easy! It's hardly an inconvenience! What... what... what did you say? I said... I said I had a script for you, called "Joker." But... what happened to the other guy? What... what other guy? Wait... was... that was all just a hallucination too? *TRIPLE TWIST* Probably, I mean, your desk is covered in strange pills (laughs) Oh yes, it certainly is. So do you mind if I get to my speech? I am very excited about this movie. Oh yeah, let's do that, but let's do it in our regular office, okay? You guys can get there by clicking on the box on the screen.
There are a ton of videos on Screen Rant's YouTube channel. Who are they talking to and what is a Screen Rant channel? Did you take one of your desk pills again? Oooh, so I did it Oops! Whoopsie But seriously, Screen Rant is filled with hundreds of

pitch

meeting

s like this. I guarantee you'll end up watching at least ten in a row. I certainly did. (laughs) We are addictive! Like these pills! :D

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