Joker (2019 film)

Joker is a 2019 American psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Silver. Based on DC Comics characters, it stars Joaquin Phoenix and provides an alternative origin story for the Joker. The film follows Arthur Fleck, a failed clown and aspiring stand-up comedian whose descent into mental illness and nihilism inspires a violent countercultural revolution against the wealthy in a decaying Gotham City. Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy appear in supporting roles. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Joker was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, Bron Creative and Joint Effort.

Phillips conceived Joker in 2016 and wrote the script with Silver throughout 2017. The two were inspired by 1970s character studies and the films of Martin Scorsese, particularly Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982); Scorsese was initially attached to the project as a producer. The film loosely adapts plot elements from Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) and The Dark Knight Returns (1986), but Phillips and Silver otherwise did not look to specific comics for inspiration, nor did they wish for it to be connected to any prior Batman film continuity. Phoenix became attached in February 2018 and was cast that July, while the majority of the cast signed on by August. Principal photography took place in New York City, Jersey City and Newark, from September to December 2018. Joker is the first live-action theatrical Batman film to receive an R rating from the Motion Picture Association.

Joker premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on October 4. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office success, setting records for an October release and going on to gross over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the first R-rated film to do so. It held the record for highest-grossing R-rated film until being surpassed by Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. It was also the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2019 and received numerous accolades. A sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, was released in 2024, to negative reviews and an underwhelming box office performance.

Arthur Fleck is a party clown and aspiring stand-up comedian who lives with his mother, Penny, in a crime- and recession-ridden Gotham City. He suffers from a neurological disorder that causes him to have random, uncontrollable laughing fits, requiring medication he depends on social services to obtain. After Arthur is attacked by street youths while on the job, his co-worker Randall gives him a revolver to defend himself. Arthur pursues a relationship with his neighbor, single mother Sophie Dumond, and invites her to see his routine at a comedy club.

Arthur accidentally drops his gun while performing at a children's hospital, leading to his firing. While riding home on the subway and still wearing his clown make-up, he is mocked and assaulted by three drunk businessmen from Wayne Investments. He fatally shoots two of them in self-defense and murders the third as he attempts to flee. Their employer, billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, condemns the killings, but supporters begin sporting clown masks in Arthur's image. Budget cuts shut down the social services program, leaving Arthur without his medication.

Sophie attends Arthur's stand-up routine, which fails due to his disorder and his jokes falling flat. Arthur intercepts a letter from Penny to Thomas indicating that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth of his parentage. He goes to Wayne Manor, where he meets Thomas's young son Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Penny suffers a stroke after being questioned by two detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the subway murders, and is hospitalized. Arthur's idol, popular late-night talk show host Murray Franklin, presents clips of Arthur's failed performance on his show and mockingly calls him a "joker", much to Arthur's distress.

Arthur confronts Thomas at a movie theatre. Thomas denies being his father, claiming that Penny is not his biological mother. Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and reads Penny's file, which states she was a delusional narcissist who adopted Arthur while working as a housekeeper for the Waynes. She developed an imaginary intimate relationship with Thomas, which included Arthur being their biological son. At the same time, Penny raised Arthur with a boyfriend who physically and sexually abused them, leading to his neurological disorder. A distraught Arthur enters Sophie's apartment unannounced. Frightened, she kindly asks him to leave, revealing their relationship to be a figment of Arthur's imagination. The following day, Arthur smothers Penny with a pillow at the hospital.

After being invited onto Murray's show, Arthur is visited by Randall and another ex-colleague, Gary. Arthur fatally stabs Randall, but spares Gary for being kind to him in the past. The detectives investigating Arthur pursue him onto a train filled with clown protesters. Arthur incites a brawl, during which one detective accidentally shoots and kills a protester. The other protesters, in turn, beat the detectives while Arthur escapes.

At the studio, Arthur asks Murray to introduce him as "Joker", a reference to his earlier mockery. As the show broadcasts live, Arthur tells morbid jokes, confesses to the subway murders, rants about societal neglect of the downtrodden, and berates Murray for ridiculing him. After a final joke, Arthur fatally shoots Murray in the head. Arthur is arrested, and riots erupt across the city. Looters in an ambulance crash into the police car carrying Arthur and free him. Meanwhile, one rioter corners the Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha in front of Bruce. Arthur stands atop the police car, dances to the cheers of the crowd, and smears the blood on his face into a smile.

Sometime later at Arkham, Arthur laughs to himself about a joke during a session with his new therapist. He declines telling it to her, affirming she would not understand it. He leaves behind a trail of bloodied shoeprints as an orderly chases him down.

Between 2014 and 2015, Joaquin Phoenix expressed interest to his agent in acting in a low-budget "character study" type of film about a comic book villain, like DC Comics character the Joker, before Phillips pitched Joker in 2016. Phoenix had previously declined to act in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) because he would have been required to reprise a role, such as Bruce Banner / Hulk (initially portrayed by Edward Norton before he was recast by Mark Ruffalo) or Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange (ultimately portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch), in multiple films. Phoenix ruled out the Joker for his "character study" idea and tried to think of a different one. "I thought, 'You can't do the Joker, because, you know, it's just you can't do that character, it's just been done'". Phoenix's agent suggested setting up an exploratory meeting with Warner Bros., but he declined and let go of the idea. Similarly, Todd Phillips had been offered to direct comic-based films a number of times, but declined because he thought they were "loud" and did not interest him. According to Phillips, Joker spawned from his idea to create a different, more grounded comic book film. He was attracted to the Joker because he did not think there was a definitive portrayal of the character, which he knew would provide considerable creative freedom.

Phillips pitched the idea for Joker to Warner Bros. after his film War Dogs premiered in August 2016. Prior to War Dogs, Phillips was mostly known for his comedy films, such as Road Trip (2000), Old School (2003) and The Hangover (2009); War Dogs marked a venture into more unsettling territory. During the premiere, Phillips realized "War Dogs wasn't going to set the world on fire and I was thinking, 'What do people really want to see?'" In addition, he found that it was difficult to make comedy films in the "woke culture", throughout opposition of "30 million people on Twitter". He finally thought that "How do I do something irreverent, but fuck comedy? Oh I know, let's take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this". He proposed that DC Films differentiate its slate from the competing Marvel Studios' by producing low-budget, standalone films. After the successful release of Wonder Woman (2017), DC Films decided to deemphasize the shared nature of its DC-based film franchise, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). In August 2017, Warner Bros. and DC Films revealed plans for the film, with Phillips directing and co-writing with Scott Silver and Martin Scorsese set to co-produce with Phillips. According to Tatiana Siegel of The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese considered directing Joker before Phillips was chosen, though a Warner Bros. source said he only became involved because the film needed a New York City-based producer.

According to Kim Masters and Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, Jared Leto, who portrayed the Joker in the DCEU, was displeased by the existence of a project separate from his interpretation. In October 2019, Masters reported that Leto "felt 'alienated and upset'" when he learned that Warner Bros.—which had promised him a standalone DCEU Joker film—let Phillips proceed with Joker, going as far as to ask his music manager Irving Azoff to get the project canceled. Masters added that Leto's irritation was what caused him to end his association with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), as he believed "his agents should have told him about the Phillips project earlier and fought harder for his version of Joker". However, sources associated with Leto deny that he attempted to get Joker canceled and left CAA because of it.