Joker, the much-anticipated new take on the DC Comics villain of the same name, weaves
such a winding narrative that it leaves behind plenty of fascinating implications, and huge
questions, after the credits roll.
Spoilers ahead.
Let's get this one out of the way first.
Arthur Fleck spends a lot of time lost in fantasy.
We see this almost immediately in the film, when he's watching Murray Franklin and fantasizes
about being an audience member who gets called down in front of the cameras.
Later, this goes even further when we realize that Arthur has imagined an entire romantic
relationship with his neighbor Sophie.
This tendency toward fantasy, coupled with things like the dreamlike way he walks out
of the interview room in the final shot of the film, are enough to make us wonder how
much of the story takes place in Arthur's head.
We know for sure that some elements are imagined, but what else might be?
Did he ever actually make it out of that cop car in the middle of the riot?
Did he actually kill his therapist?
Was he even, perhaps, in the asylum the whole time?
It's hard to be certain, but the rest of these questions rely on at least some of these events
being true.
Arthur Fleck's life is unraveling from pretty much the moment Joker begins, but things only
get worse when he learns that his mother Penny believes that Thomas Wayne, her former employer,
is Arthur's father.
At first, Arthur has no reason to believe his mother is wrong, but when he confronts
Wayne about it, the billionaire insists that Penny is just delusional.
Later, Arthur recovers paperwork from Arkham State Hospital that apparently confirms that
he was adopted, but is that the whole story?
Even later in the film, he finds a photograph of his mother that Thomas Wayne apparently
inscribed on the back with a comment about Penny's lovely smile... so how much of the
Wayne story was really true?
Joker is a film that keeps most of its very precise focus on Arthur Fleck and his very
small life, but he's accidentally a catalyst for a much larger picture.
He tells Murray Franklin that he doesn't consider himself political, but the subway murders
he commits spark a sweeping political movement, and by the end of the film, that movement
considers him its leader, cheering at his feet in the streets of a burning Gotham.
While this de facto Joker Gang was founded on anti-rich sentiment amid worsening conditions
for the working class in Gotham City, by the end of the film their protests have turned
into full-on riots.
This begs the question: are they ever actually able to achieve anything?
Does the murder of someone as important as Thomas Wayne drive them back into the shadows...
or do they become more active than ever?
A key subplot in Joker follows Thomas Wayne's campaign to become mayor of Gotham City, and
his criticisms of the demonstrators who revere the subway shooter.
Wayne is portrayed in the film as a powerful, blustery man who happens to be sitting atop
the powder keg that is Gotham City politics, and he's more than just a little oblivious
to the lives of the less fortunate.
But no matter how out of touch Thomas Wayne is, why on earth would he take his wife and
young son to a movie theater in the middle of Gotham on the night of a planned protest
against the rich?
And even if he did want to take that risk, why didn't he at least have a driver waiting
to escort them out?
Whether courageous or just clueless, it seems like a really bad time to go to the movies
when you've got a perfectly good mansion to chill in.
There have been many similar versions of Batman's origin story, but they all involve the death
of Bruce Wayne's parents, whether they're gunned down by a random mugger, or a guy specifically
named Joe Chill or Jack Napier.
In Joker, the Waynes are killed by a random, clown-masked rioter who happens to have a
gun, but there's no way Bruce Wayne won't later learn that the whole ordeal happened
because of Arthur Fleck.
With that in mind, is Batman's eventual mission to fight crime cast in a different light?
It's no longer just "crime" that killed his parents; it's the violent movement surrounding
Joker.
In this world, does Bruce Wayne still become Batman, or does his mission change?
Will he focus on Arthur Fleck exclusively?
And if he does become Batman, how does knowing what he knows about Arthur change him?
Arthur Fleck is at first reluctant to embrace the violence within him, but by the end of
Joker, the dam has clearly broken.
"All I have are negative thoughts."
Arthur is no longer interested in holding himself back, from killing Murray Franklin
on live TV, to murdering the therapist interviewing him at Arkham.
As the film ends, Arthur's potential escape is left up in the air.
Because he's the Joker now, we can reasonably assume that he did manage to get out of Arkham
that day, and is on the loose again after the credits roll.
If that happened, what's his purpose now?
Who does he go after next?
His mother's old abusive boyfriend, or his birth parents?
Or will he become like the comic book version of the Joker, and simply act as an agent of
chaos, pursuing random bloodshed?
Whatever he does, it won't be pretty.
Gotham City is a metropolis teetering on the brink even before Arthur Fleck's rampage.
It's dirty, covered in graffiti, and mountains of garbage are piling up amid a strike while
super rats stalk the darker parts of town.
It's a city infested with crime, unemployment, and anger.
The rise of Arthur and those who sympathize with him only makes things worse.
It all seems to culminate in the murders of Thomas Wayne and Murray Franklin, but surely
that's not where it ends.
With Thomas Wayne dead, the divide between the privileged and the underprivileged in
Gotham could deepen very quickly.
The police could crack down even harder on people who don't deserve it, and the Joker
Gang could respond with even bigger, more violent riots.
The city is on edge, and it won't have Batman to come to the rescue for at least another
decade.
So what does Gotham do?
How does it cope?
There's no easy answer.
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