Did he, or didn't he?
Joker is a film that challenges its audience to distinguish between fantasy and reality,
and the task is never more harrowing than in the final interaction between Arthur Fleck
and his would-be girlfriend Sophie.
It's particularly maddening because it's impossible to know for sure what went down - unless you
have a voice from on high to clue you in.
Let's get to the bottom of things, and be advised: spoilers ahead.
The film's director Todd Phillips recently went on record as to whether or not Arthur
actually killed Sophie near the film's end, and we'll get to his comments in just a moment.
First, though, let's do a little refresher course on what happens.
In the movie, failed comedian Arthur slowly transforms into the amoral Clown Prince of
Crime after a series of humiliations, rejections, and outright physical beatings.
It seems that the only thing that may be helping him cling to sanity is his burgeoning relationship
with his kind, pretty neighbor Sophie, one of the only people in his life who seems to
accept him for the extremely odd, troubled man he is.
"It's so awful, isn't it."
The final straw comes when Arthur discovers a letter from his extremely ill, unstable
mother Penny which indicates that he is the illegitimate son of billionaire Thomas Wayne,
who is in the thick of Gotham City's mayoral race.
After a confrontation with Wayne, who tells Arthur in no uncertain terms that his mother
is delusional, Arthur pays a visit to Penny - a visit that turns shockingly deadly, as
Arthur kills his mother and flees the scene.
His next stop is Sophie's apartment, and when he arrives, it becomes clear that the relationship
has all been in Arthur's head.
Sophie recognizes him as nothing more than her neighbor, and she insists that he leave.
He does - but given his state of mind, his extremely recent matricidal activities, and
the fact that Sophie is never seen again, fans have speculated that Arthur must have
done the poor girl in.
Joker's cinematographer Lawrence Sher has weighed in on whether or not Arthur killed
Sophie in the past, and now, Phillips has confirmed Sher's take on the situation.
Not only is there a definitive answer, but it turns out that a scene was cut from the
film which would have confirmed Sophie's fate.
The short answer is no, Arthur did not kill Sophie.
The simple reason: even in his twisted mind, it wouldn't have made sense.
Sher alluded to this when he made his remarks to Slashfilm in late October 2019.
As he explained,
"Some people have asked me, 'Was she killed?'
[Phillips] makes it clear she wasn't killed.
Arthur is killing people who've wronged him in a certain way, and Sophie never wronged
him."
Phillips expanded on this during a more recent conversation with IndieWire, saying, quote,
"He doesn't kill her, definitively."
"As the filmmaker and the writer I am saying he doesn't kill her.
We like the idea that it's almost like a litmus test for the audience to say, 'How crazy is
he?'"
Phillips went on to say that most people he's spoken to about the movie seem to understand
that Sophie survived, and that Arthur's character wouldn't have taken that extreme step of doing
her harm.
"He clearly has a code he lives by.
Of course he did not kill this woman down the hall and her child."
Phillips went on to describe a short deleted scene which was intercut with Arthur's appearance
on Murray Franklin's talk show.
In it, Sophie was seen at home, watching the proceedings on television with growing horror;
while the scene would have unambiguously confirmed that Arthur did indeed leave Sophie alive
and well, it was cut for a pretty darn good reason.
According to Phillips,
"We made a choice in the film to only show everything from Joaquin's perspective...We
cut out a great scene with Marc Maron and Bob De Niro that didn't involve Joaquin, because
it didn't involve Joaquin.
Everything was being told through his point of view and perspective, so to suddenly cut
to this woman, it would just literally [have changed] the DNA of the film."
Well, that certainly makes perfect sense.
We can't help but think, however, that the side effect of leaving Sophie's fate up in
the air may have cemented that scene's fate.
Joker is a film that is absolutely meant to be open to multiple interpretations, and the
question of whether Arthur killed his fantasy love interest is one of the film's great mysteries
upon first viewing.
That mystery, though, has now been solved.
We wouldn't expect Phillips to shed much light on any more of Joker's scintillating questions,
however - up to and including whether or not any of the movie's events actually happened,
or whether they all took place in Arthur's troubled mind, as many fans have speculated.
Sure, we now know that Sophie is safe at the film's end...unless, of course, she never
existed at all.
With a movie like Joker, answers have a way of just leading to more questions.
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