“Joker: Folie à Deux” ending reveals the true identity of the Joker in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment
There's more to that last shot than you might initially think.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux.
The Joker was... uh... just Arthur, all along.
Director Todd Phillips' sequel Joker: Folie à Deux ends on a pointedly tragic note (for more on that, read our full ending explainer), but its final frame also contains confirmation of a new, chilling beginning — and the identity of the real Joker.
His relationship with Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) falls apart after his confessing to the crimes he committed in the first film (and confirming that his "Joker" isn't real and was merely a persona) at the end of an elaborate trial. Spearheaded by Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), the court case ends with Arthur being found guilty, and the film concludes with a shot of Arthur dying on the floor from stab wounds sustained from a fellow patient at Arkham State Hospital.
Throughout the film, the camera often lingers on the young man who eventually stabs Arthur. He has virtually no lines across the rest of the project until he approaches Arthur to tell him a joke — one that bears similarity to the quip Arthur told Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) before shooting him on live TV near the end of the prior installment.
The punchline is, in both cases, death, but what happens next is vastly different. Whereas Arthur went on to live a fantasy and serve as an ideal revolutionary hero for many in Gotham City, it's confirmed that he was never actually the Joker, as we see the inmate laughing and turning the knife on himself, plastering a permanent Joker smile on his face while his inspiration dies before him.
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It was sort of telling that something like this might happen at the end of the sequel. While neither film has adhered absolutely to the Batman source material, a child version of Bruce Wayne (who, in the comics and films, goes on to become the caped superhero) appeared in the first movie, albeit at least four decades younger than Arthur. That generation gap raised some eyebrows, as Joker is often depicted as an adult at the same time as Batman. Another confusing remixing of lore is the fact that Joker's smile was never really carved into Arthur's face but rather repeatedly painted on via makeup or slathered across his cheeks with human blood.
Either way, Folie à Deux signals the dawn of a new era for the real Joker who killed Arthur, while our anti-hero ended up as but a mere societal outcast, a jester for humiliation the whole time.
Joker: Folie à Deux is now playing in theaters.
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