Joker: Folie à Deux Ending Explained with Director Todd Phillips

Assistant D.A. Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) is the lead prosecutor in The State of New York vs. Arthur Fleck, which is being televised live. Among the many witnesses called during the trial is Arthur’s former neighbor and object of his infatuation Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz, reprising her role from the 2019 film). Sophie testifies to the hurtful things Penny Fleck would say about her own son, that she mocked his dream of being a stand-up comic and even derided the uncontrollable laughter caused by his neurological condition. This triggers Arthur who then fires Maryanne as his lawyer and declares that he will represent himself.

With his Joker makeup applied (but without green hair), Arthur cross-examines Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill), his one-time friend and fellow party clown. Arthur tears into Gary, saying he’s just another person who underestimated him like his abusers at Arkham – something Jackie and the guards at Arkham, watching the trial on TV, take note of. Then the state and defense both rest without Arthur offering any defense. When Arthur returns to Arkham, Jackie and the other guards beat him up, wash off his makeup, tear off his red suit and apparently rape him (or, at the very least, beat the hell out of him in the shower). Arthur is dragged back to his cell where he lies broken both in body and spirit while hearing Jackie strangle fellow inmate Ricky to death.

Arthur, once again wearing Joker makeup, returns to court the next day where he is allowed to make a statement. He takes the mic and pulls up a stool like a standup comic doing an act. He says he intended to go on a rant blaming everyone for his action but starts welling up and admits he’s fully responsible for what he did. He publicly confesses to also killing his mother, and then declares that there is no Joker to blame for his actions, only Arthur. Lee, who had come to court in her full Harley Quinn look, is repelled by him rejecting Joker and leaves the courtroom, giving him a withering stare.

While the court is in recess, Arthur – his Joker makeup mostly removed – calls Lee’s home and sings to her on her answering machine. The scene then cuts to Lee listening to Arthur’s call as it is recorded. She raises a snub-nosed revolver to her head but the scene cuts back to Arthur. Is this another of his fantasies or did Lee really commit suicide? Back in the courtroom, Arthur is preparing to face his sentencing (the state is seeking the death penalty). Arthur starts to burst into uncontrollable laughter, which sets off a victim’s father who attacks Arthur. Bailiffs break it up and one guard pulls Arthur away from the melee towards the window. That’s when a massive explosion rips through the courthouse, killing many and sending Arthur hurtling toward the jury box. We later find out that one of Joker’s supporters set off a car bomb outside the courthouse.

Arthur comes to a few moments later, rattled but largely uninjured. We see Harvey Dent conscious but almost catatonic from shock, the left side of his face bloodied in a nod to his eventual Two-Face alter ego. Arthur crawls out of the hole that’s been blasted into the side of the courthouse and staggers into the street. Debris is everywhere and the air is thick with ash and dust. Arthur is recognized by a supporter in full Joker cosplay who drags him away to a cab driven by another supporter wearing a clown mask. The two are gleeful that someone blew up the courthouse. They tell Arthur to keep his head down in the backseat as fire engines speed past. Arthur flees the cab once it stops at an intersection, sprinting away from the two supporters who chase after him pleading for him to return.

As evening comes, Arthur arrives back to his former neighborhood. He ascends that steep set of stairs he famously danced on in the first movie. He sees Lee, with a new, shorter hairdo, smoking on the steps. She is distant, cold. He says he escaped and they’re now free to start a new life together. Lee calls him Arthur – the first time she’s ever called him that – and says they were never going anywhere. That all they had was the fantasy and he killed that with his courtroom admission. Arthur, his makeup almost entirely gone now, is teary-eyed and says he can’t live without her, that they’re going to have a baby. “Goodbye, Arthur,” Lee says as she leaves. The cops then arrive to bring him back to Arkham.

Sometime later in Arkham, Arthur is back to being the quiet, broken figure he was in the first half-hour, the spark of life he had from Lee gone. He’s smoking in the rec room watching TV with other inmates when a guard tells him he has a visitor. We don’t know who that visitor is. As Arthur makes his way down the hall following the guard, one “Young Inmate” (as they’re billed in the credits) we’ve seen in the background before approaches him. Young Inmate (Connor Storrie) says he wants to tell Arthur a joke. Can he make it quick?, Arthur asks, as he has a visitor waiting. The inmate says yes and starts telling a joke about a clown and a psychopath in a bar. The clown is sad and alone. The psychopath says he used to love watching the clown on TV. Can he get him something? The clown says if you’re buying then you can get me something. So the psychopath says “I’ll get you what you fucking deserve” and the Young Inmate proceeds to stab Arthur repeatedly in the abdomen with a shiv..

As he clutches his bleeding gut, Arthur imagines Joker and Harley onstage one last time, singing her a few final words as blood pools in his mouth. When he snaps out of it, he collapses, cracking his head against the wall as he falls to the floor and dies. Behind him, we can make out the Young Inmate sitting against the wall. He proceeds to carve a smile into his face using the shiv he used to kill Arthur. Arthur Fleck is dead but, it would seem, the real Joker is born.

Arthur Fleck Was Never Meant to be Batman’s Joker

IGN recently interviewed director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix on the record to talk spoilers about Joker: Folie à Deux. Here’s what they had to say.

Todd Phillips: One of the things that people never understood about the first movie was, “I don't get it. He visits Bruce Wayne and he's 30 years older than Bruce Wayne. What kind of geriatric Joker is going to fight in the future?” I don't know if you've ever saw the script of the first movie. The first film is called Joker. It's not called The Joker, it's called Joker. And the first film under the script always said "An origin story." Never said THE origin story. It was this idea that maybe this isn't THE Joker. Maybe this is the inspiration for the Joker. So, in essence at the end of this movie, the thing you're being left with is “Wait, what is that thing happening behind him? Is that the guy?”

The big thing with Arthur, Joaquin's version of Joker, our version of Joker, he's not a criminal mastermind. It's one of the things we've always said about him, even in the first movie. And if we never made a sequel, it was just like, think what you want about what this guy turns into, but it's never any version of the Joker that we all grew up on. You know what I mean? That's just not who Arthur is. So, it's kind of this idea of when somebody becomes an icon, and we put things on that person as a group, as a society, as a media, as whatever. We put things on that person that maybe they can't live up to.

The Killing Joke: The Death of Arthur Fleck

Todd Phillips: I think Arthur has found peace with the idea, with the struggle that it's okay to be yourself. And that's really what he's always struggled with, you know what I mean? I like to think he died at peace in a way being himself. The kid says to him, "You want to hear a joke?" And even though he thinks maybe it's (Lee) downstairs. We don't even know what's downstairs, but that sort of optimism that Arthur has, that's still in him. He's like, "Well, yeah, okay, of course" because he knows that feeling of wanting to make somebody laugh. So he gives the kid that moment, right?

Obviously it goes bad because, again, everything goes bad for Arthur, but I always think that's such a beautiful moment where it's like Arthur still has hope. I think Joaquin is so beautiful in that scene. It's such a small nothing. I mean, beyond the death thing. That moment where he's looking at the kid and he's kind of giving the kid a polite laugh in the setup. He's showing appreciation for the comedy and appreciation for putting yourself out there. You know what I mean? Something nobody ever did for him in the first movie in some ways.

Joaquin Phoenix: There's a warmth in that scene, which is nice. That's all that I was thinking about that I was after, is here's this young man who's telling me a joke and he's nervous to tell me the joke, I can tell that he's nervous, and I'm going to hear him out. And it's a pretty good setup.

Why Arthur Fleck Rejected Joker in the End

Todd Phillips: What he realizes is basically you can't fight City Hall. Meaning when you're Arthur you're going to always lose, and corruption will always win. Whether it's the corruption of the prison system/guards, the corruption of the judicial system, the corruption of the media, and the way they represent Arthur in that sort of Tom Snyder-esque interview in the beginning with the very brilliant Steve Coogan. The only way to win is to burn it all down in Arthur's head, like just a little "Fuck it all." You know what I mean? Because you just can't win when you're a person like Arthur.

Harley Quinn Becomes the Joker That Arthur Fleck Wouldn’t Allow Himself to Be

Todd Phillips: Basically, yeah. She's basically saying, "Hey, this might not be you." If you notice in the movie, she never says the word Arthur. She only addresses him as Joker until the end on the stairs. She says "Goodbye, Arthur." … It's the only time she's ever said the word Arthur because she's just [like], “That's not him.” It's like somebody, if you got married, if you fell in love with Hulk Hogan, the character, but it's really Terry [Bollea], right? It's a person. And it's like you fall in love with this thing that they represent, but it's not necessarily who they are.

Who Played Joker in That TV Movie?

Todd Phillips: Well, Justin Theroux of course. In fact, I talked to Justin about it. We were going to shoot a trailer at one point. We just ran out of time. Yes, “Ethan Chase,” the actor from the first movie.

Why Joker’s Hair Isn’t Green in the Courtroom Scenes

Todd Phillips: It was a practical thing. And quite frankly, Joaquin and I kind of liked the look of him in a regular suit just with the makeup and not the hair. You can look it up, but believe it or not, people can represent themselves. It can happen. It's famously been done. I mean, Ted Bundy ended up representing himself. It's been done. Arthur just thought it seemed like a cool thing to do, but they would not let you dye your hair. Meaning because the prison wouldn't allow him to have that.

Does Joker: Folie à Deux Have a Post-Credits Scene?

As noted earlier, Joker 2 does not have any scenes during or after the credits. Arthur’s dead, after all!

For more Bat-coverage, discover what Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga told IGN about Joker’s “fantasy of love,” learn what Arthur Fleck would think of Batman, get the details on Lady Gaga’s companion album Harlequin, and also be sure to read our The Penguin: Episode 2 review and oral history of the TV series Gotham.