If you haven't seen Joker: Folie à Deux yet, major spoilers follow.
At the end of Todd Phillips' highly divisive sequel, Arthur Fleck meets a shocking (yet perhaps inevitable) end when he's killed by another Arkham inmate after first taking responsibility for the crimes he committed in the first movie by renouncing his "Joker" persona and confessing during his trial.
The unnamed individual - who the audience is supposed to view as the real Joker - stops Fleck to tell him a joke, delivering a killer punchline with repeated stabs to the abdomen. As Arthur bleeds out, we see the inmate carve a smile onto his face in the background.
While speaking to IGN, star Joaquin Phoenix weighed in on the movie's controversial conclusion, and he feels Arthur's tragic final moments are not without "warmth."
"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."
Writer-director Todd Phillips also shared his thoughts on the ending.
"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."
"But I always think that's such a beautiful moment where it's like Arthur still has hope," he went on. "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. Something nobody ever did for him in the first movie in some ways."
Phillips has already admitted that Arthur was never The Joker, and was simply supposed to serve as an inspiration for the man who would eventually become Batman's nemesis. While this approach does seem to have worked for some, the sequel has been having a nightmare at the box office.
According to the latest updates, Joker 2 took in just $1.3 million in U.S. theatres on Wednesday, and we might be looking at one of the biggest second-weekend drops in quite some time.
From acclaimed writer/director/producer Todd Phillips comes Joker: Folie À Deux, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2019’s Academy Award-winning Joker, which earned more than $1 billion at the global box office and remains the (second) highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.
The new film stars Joaquin Phoenix once again in his Oscar-winning dual role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, opposite Oscar winner Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born). The film also stars Oscar nominees Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Catherine Keener (Get Out, Capote), alongside Zazie Beetz, reprising her role from Joker.
The movie is rated R for “some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity.”
Do you plan on seeing the Joker sequel in theaters, or have the reviews put you off? Let us know in the comments section down below.