The Joker 2 (officially called Joker: Folie à Deux) is out and it’s not going very well. Critics don’t seem to like it, audiences don’t seem to like itand it doesn’t make nearly as much money as its 2019 blockbuster predecessor. And if you’re a big fan of the first joker and decided to watch the film anyway after all the negative press and reviews, well, maybe you didn’t like how director Todd Phillips decided to end his courtroom/supervillain/musical drama.
SPOILER ALERT: We will do it completely spoil the end of Joker: Folie à Deux. If you don’t want to know what happens at the end of the movie, well, uh… I would stop reading this article immediately! Seriously.
Here’s how to do it Joker 2 concludes. After witnessing the brutal death of a young inmate and confronting a traumatized victim of his rampage in 2019 Joker, Joaquin Phoneix’s Arthur Fleck realizes that this whole rebellious crime clown routine isn’t working. He then admits in court that he is just Arthur Fleck, that the Joker personality was never real, and that he committed these terrible crimes. He is found guilty, but a bomb explodes. He is rescued by his followers and brought to Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn, who has fully embraced her supervillain status and promptly dumps the lonely, boring Arthur Fleck.
Fleck is then recaptured and taken back to Arkham, where another laughing inmate tells him a joke. He then stabs Arthur and leaves him to die, while this young inmate puts a smile on his face, implying that this man is the “real” Joker, who will commit crime and mayhem as Batman’s arch-rival in Gotham.
Yes! Kind of wild. And this is not my or anyone else’s interpretation, but directly from director Todd Philips via a new interview with Weekly entertainment where he explained why he chose this ending and also confirmed that it wasn’t all a dream.
When asked why Arthur would confess his guilt and give up the role of Joker, Phillips said: “He realized that everything is so corrupt that it will never change and that the only way to fix it is to do it again.” is to burn everything down.” He continued:
“If those guards kill the child [Arkham] He realizes that putting on makeup and putting this thing on doesn’t change anything. In a way, he has accepted the fact that he has always been Arthur Fleck; He was never this thing that was imposed on him, this idea that the people of Gotham imposed on him, that he represents. He is an ignorant icon. This thing has been put on him and he doesn’t want to live as a fake anymore – he wants to be who he is.”
I wasn’t a big fan of the original jokerI think it was mostly fine and was buoyed by some solid performances, so I can’t imagine how superfans must have felt watching Fleck die while the new, real Joker rose. These people believed this story was the origin of the Joker, and then, at the very last moment, Philips pulls the rug out from under them and says “lol.” No.”
It’s a wild decision that isn’t brave enough Joker 2 A good film, but one that stays in the memory. Slide for two feels like the Hangover The trilogy’s director was able to trick Warner Bros. into financing a film that essentially serves as a giant middle finger to fans and is a defiant act of trolling that the Joker himself would probably appreciate. And taking reports into account Since Phillips had full creative control and there were no test screenings, maybe the whole “getting the studio to make a ‘fuck you’ movie” thing isn’t so far off…
In conversation with Weekly entertainmentPhillips also said, “The sad thing is, he’s Arthur and nobody cares about Arthur.” I disagree. I think Arthur Fleck is so close to a lot of people’s hearts that that first film made a billion dollars at the box office. But with this wild ending, bad musical numbers and boring dialoguesit’s unlikely the sequel will reach the same heights. At least we can be sure that Fleck and Philips’ lackluster DC film universe isn’t coming back. Probably.
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