16 Curious Facts About the Screenplay of the Acclaimed Movie “Joker”

In less than a week since its launch, joker, one of the most anticipated films of the year, reached extremely high public ratings. While on IMDb the feature film reached a note of 9, on the RottenTomatoes website its public approval reached the mark of 90%. However, in addition to a peculiar atmosphere and plot and a masterful performance by Joaquin Phoenix, this production has many details that are, to say the least, curious.

We, from awesome.clubwe were able to attend the premiere of the film, and we created a list with several references and easter eggs that could easily go unnoticed by most viewers. Be warned that this post contains spoilers.so if you haven’t watched this production in the cinema yet and don’t want to gain some information beforehand, we recommend that you save this post to read it only after seeing the film.

This movie is actually the opposite of the comics. It lacks the main element of this genre — the superheroes, who are responsible for saving the day. In it, the main character only becomes a controversial subject, and there is also no figure of a supervillain.

Thus, Arthur Fleck is just an individual who tries to fit into society until the last moment, going crazy after all his efforts prove in vain. It is worth remembering that the protests in his defense only became interesting for the Joker when people rebelled and rescued him from the police. He just needed an audience that saw him as more than just a failure. Thus, we can say that Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is not yet a fully formed villain, as was, for example, the Joker played by Heath Ledger in a previous production. In the end, this is just an authorial film about a man oppressed by society.

The entire scenario of the film indicates that its events unfold in the past, but it is not specified when. However, in one of the scenes it is possible to discover the exact date on which the film takes place if you pay attention to the movie posters. Excalibur and The Two Faces of Zorrowhich were both released in 1981. Other than that, true fans of Batman comics know that Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered shortly after leaving a session of The Two Faces of Zorro.

By the way, some critics believe that the film’s production decided to place the story in the past so that it would be easier to deal with somewhat sensitive social issues, contrary to what would be the case if the script was set today.

Many movie fans noticed that this version of joker has something in common with director Martin Scorsese’s films, Taxi Driver — Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy🇧🇷 Of course, it’s not about the similarity of the scripts, but about certain details. For example, Robert De Niro acted in all 3 films. In addition, in The King of Comedyhe also brings to life a popular TV show host, who was also a failed comedian and ends up committing crimes, just like the Joker.

Regarding the long Taxi Driver — Taxi Driver, it is possible to notice that both this film and Joker take place in an atmosphere of a decaying city, and in both there is a scene in which the protagonists boast about having a gun. Other than that, both characters are lonely, write in diaries and have an aversion to the society that oppressed them so much. They even wear clothes that are the same color—dark burgundy.

Certainly, by inviting Robert De Niro to the film, the director demonstrates that he did not “copy” details from the scripts of Scorsese’s films, but paid homage to these classics.

Arthur Fleck is always holding a cigarette. Certainly, this heavy smoking habit demonstrates your constant inner tension and instability. In this way, it is clear to us that the Joker lives in constant depression, and the cigarette smoke in the scenes still works as a veil isolating him from the rest of the world.

In the middle of the film there is a very strange scene, in which Arthur enters a refrigerator. This takes place after his rather emotional conversation with Thomas Wayne, where the Joker yells that he just wants some human warmth and Wayne pushes him away. After that, the protagonist understands that there is no point in expecting to receive sensitivity from the people around him, and he locks himself in the refrigerator as a way of becoming a “cold” person.

By the way, many viewers noticed that the refrigerator, which Arthur enters, cannot be opened from the inside. So it’s entirely possible that the events that follow (starting with the unexpected invitation to participate in the TV show) could just be fantasies in his unstable head.

“People expect you to behave as if you weren’t…”

Arthur keeps a diary in which he often describes how he feels, as well as writing down his joke ideas for his performance. At the beginning of the film he writes with his right hand, from the middle of the film he uses his left hand to take notes, which now have a completely different content.

Firstly, the dance is inspired by the Ray Bolger number. The Old Soft Shoe, in an American television program from the year 1957. Then, we can identify a curious detail: at the beginning of the film Arthur limps and walks hunched over after the scene of aggression, in a miserable way. This shows us how depressed and downtrodden he is. But then later, when he has a gun in his hand, he breaks free and starts to break free to dance. And even after that, when he transforms into the Joker, he dances constantly, as a way of demonstrating that he is free from social constraints.

The protagonist often dresses in shades of yellow: he has a mustard sweatshirt and a yellow vest. Also, the scene in the sanitarium is recorded using a yellow filter. In this way, with the help of this color, the director wants to demonstrate that the protagonist is clearly mentally unstable, since this color can be used to indicate psychological illnesses.

The scene where Arthur goes to Murray Franklin’s TV show in Joker makeup and then shoots the host with a pistol was inspired by the comics. The dark Knight, by Frank Miller. In them, the Joker also goes on a TV show, but not only kills the presenter, but also the audience.

After murdering live TV presenter Murray, Arthur says, “You earned it.” Later, a criminal said the same to Thomas Wayne when he killed him and his wife in a dark alley. Thus, this phrase became a motto for all those who rebel against the system in Gotham.

In one scene, Arthur attends a movie screening. Modern times by Charlie Chaplin. This event has a deep meaning, as he not only shares his clown shoes with the character played by the renowned comedian actor, but also a difficult and cruel fate. In Modern timesthe protagonist also tries to oppose the system and ends up becoming a victim of it.

The future Batman in the movie joker is played by actor Dante Pereira-Olson. But before that, he had starred in the movie You Were Never Really Here acting as the protagonist lived by Joaquin Phoenix in his childhood. This gives special meaning to the scene where Arthur looks at Bruce in jokeralmost with a look of tenderness.

The Joker’s caseworker’s name is Debra Kane. This is a clear reference to Bob Kane, one of the creators of the Batman comics. Interestingly, in the 1995 comics the social worker was albino.

By the way, in the film there is another easter egg related to names: the protagonist is called Arthur Fleck, which made many viewers interpret this name as a reference to actor Ben Affleck, who acted as Batman in 3 DC film productions.

In 1984, 37-year-old electrician Bernhard Goetz was riding the New York subway when 4 African-American teenagers approached him in the train. One of them asked him: “Everything ok?”, to which Bernhard casually replied: “Yes”. Then the teenager asked him for 5 dollars, and in response the electrician took a revolver out of his pocket and shot all 4 young people. Luckily all the victims survived, but one of them ended up with severe brain damage. This story was heavily publicized in the media at the time, however, surprisingly, many New Yorkers showed support for Bernhard Goetz.

At the end of the film, Arthur tells his therapist a joke that she doesn’t understand. It is possible that with this joke the protagonist wants to refer to everything that happened in the film: he just summed up all the events in his head.

However, there is also a version that this joke alludes to an anecdote told by the Joker at the end of the comic. Batman: The Killing Joke🇧🇷 In short, it sounds something like this: once upon a time there were 2 boys in a psychiatric hospital. And one night they decided they wanted to run away. They went to the roof, and there they realized that the only escape option was to jump to the neighboring house. The first jumped off with ease. However, her friend hesitated, was very afraid. Then the first one said to the second one: “I brought a flashlight with me, I will turn it on and you can come to me by following its light”. The second, in response, shook his head and said, “Do you think I’m crazy? You’ll turn it off when I’m halfway there.”

It is also possible that this story demonstrates the connection between the Joker and Batman.

Let’s start…