Joker: Folie à Deux

Joker: Folie à Deux is a 2024 American jukebox musical legal drama film directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Silver. Based on DC Comics characters, it is the sequel to Joker (2019). Joaquin Phoenix stars as Arthur Fleck / Joker, reprising his role from the first film, alongside Lady Gaga as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel. The supporting cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, and Leigh Gill. In the film, Arthur awaits trial for his crimes at Arkham State Hospital, where he develops a romantic relationship with another inmate, Lee.

Although Joker was intended to be a standalone film, its success at the box-office sparked interest in a sequel. Warner Bros. eventually convinced Phillips and Phoenix to return, with more creative freedom and a significantly greater budget. The film was announced in June 2022, with Gaga and Beetz joining later that year. Principal photography took place in New York City, Los Angeles, and Belleville, New Jersey, from December 2022 to April 2023.

Joker: Folie à Deux premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2024, and was released in the United States on October 4. The film was poorly received by critics and became a box-office bomb, grossing $208 million on a $190–200 million budget. Among its seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations, it won Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and Worst Screen Combo for Phoenix and Gaga.

Plot

In an animated short titled "Me and My Shadow", the Joker is impersonated by his shadow, who acts violently and takes his place to perform a musical number for a TV show, then merges back together with the Joker before three police officers arrive and attack him.

Arthur Fleck is in custody at Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial for the crimes he committed two years prior. His lawyer Maryanne Stewart plans to argue that Arthur suffers from dissociative identity disorder and that his Joker personality is responsible for the crimes. At a music therapy session, Arthur meets Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, who claims that she grew up in the same neighborhood he did, had an abusive father who died in a car crash, and was imprisoned after burning down her parents' apartment building. Lee also expresses her admiration for Joker's crimes and personality. As their relationship develops, they begin imagining life as a stage musical with them in the spotlight through their linked insanity.

During a film screening, Lee starts a fire. She and Arthur are caught trying to escape, and Arthur is placed in solitary confinement. Lee visits him to say she is being released to prevent him from influencing her, but promises to attend his trial. They have sex before she leaves. During an interview with a television personality, Arthur sings to Lee through the TV screen, deepening her love for him.

On the day of the trial, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent calls witnesses who dismiss Arthur's claims of insanity, including his old neighbor Sophie Dumond. During a break, Maryanne reveals that Lee was actually a psychiatry student who grew up on the Upper West Side, and her father, a doctor, is alive. Furthermore, she voluntarily committed herself at Arkham, checked herself out, and never burned down an apartment building. When Arthur confronts Lee, she confesses that her lies were an effort to get close to Arthur but also claims that she is pregnant from their night together and has moved into his old apartment building to create a home for them. Afterwards, he imagines a scenario where they are singing on television before she shoots him dead.

At the trial the next day, Arthur dismisses Maryanne and represents himself. After bringing Arthur's former co-worker Gary Puddles to the stand, Harvey rests his case. Visibly affected by Gary's testimony, Arthur offers no defense. During his speech, he mocks the Arkham guards and indicates that they abuse him. Returning to Arkham, he is taken to the showers by head guard Jackie Sullivan and two guards in retaliation, where he is beaten. An inmate and friend of Arthur's named Ricky verbally confronts the guards, resulting in Jackie garroting him to death. The event visibly devastates Arthur.

During his closing argument in court the following day, Arthur renounces his Joker persona, taking full responsibility for his actions. Enraged at this, Lee walks out, and the jury finds Arthur guilty of murder. As the foreperson reads the verdict, a bomb explodes outside the courthouse, killing and injuring numerous attendees and scarring half of Harvey's face. In the chaos, two followers help Arthur escape, but he abandons them when he realizes they only see him as Joker. Arthur wanders through Gotham City and encounters Lee on the stairs outside his old apartment, but she rejects him for renouncing his Joker persona. As she leaves, the police apprehend Arthur and bring him back to Arkham.

The next day, a guard directs Arthur down an empty hallway to meet a visitor. A young inmate stops Arthur and begins telling a joke before repeatedly stabbing Arthur in the abdomen with a shank. As Arthur falls to the floor and bleeds to death, the inmate, laughing hysterically, carves a smile on his own face. As Arthur lies dying the scenario where Lee shoots him is revisited.

Cast

• Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck / Joker, a mentally ill nihilistic criminal with a clown-inspired persona, formerly an impoverished party clown and aspiring stand-up comedian. Director Todd Phillips said that while the film would venture further into Arthur's psyche, he would not become the "Clown Prince of Crime", as his Joker persona is an unwilling symbol to people who give him the love he always wanted.
• Lady Gaga as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, a patient at Arkham State Hospital who becomes obsessed with Arthur and forms a romantic relationship with him. Describing Lee, Phillips noted how this version of the character is manipulative, amoral and "more grounded", with the film deliberately ignoring much of the character's classic mannerisms and style to fit into the world created in Joker (2019). Gaga felt Lee to be a "study of contradictions", as her love and obsession for Arthur is also admiration and disgust, being both truthful and dishonest, really dangerous yet completely peaceful, deeming Lee a "very nonlinear person" like everyone involved in storytelling and thinking she was the "more real" the "more she could be a contradiction".
• Brendan Gleeson as Jackie Sullivan, an abusive guard at Arkham State Hospital.
• Catherine Keener as Maryanne Stewart, Arthur's lawyer.
• Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, a single mother and Arthur's former neighbor, with whom Arthur imagined being in a romantic relationship in the first film. She confirms here that Arthur never threatened her or her daughter, after the abrupt end to her appearance in the original had led many fans to assume he'd killed one or both of them offscreen.
• Steve Coogan as Paddy Meyers, a popular TV personality who interviews Arthur in Arkham.
• Harry Lawtey as Harvey Dent, the newly elected assistant district attorney who plans to bring Arthur to justice for his crimes. Lawtey avoided watching previous screen portrayals of Harvey Dent and instead developed his own backstory for the character, with Phillips instilling in him the idea that, in the dawn of televised trials, Dent is cynically willing to put Arthur on trial for his own gain. Phillips confirmed that one of the film's shots meant to signal the character's eventual descent into his Two-Face persona from the source material, affirming that he and his crew tried to come up with a realistic answer as to why certain things happen.
• Leigh Gill as Gary Puddles, Arthur's former clown co-worker whose life he spared; his testimonial anguish over seeing Arthur murder Randall is the main impetus towards Arthur's actions at the end of his trial.
• Ken Leung as Dr. Victor Liu, a psychologist who gives his testimony diagnosing Arthur at the trial.
• Jacob Lofland as Ricky Meline, an inmate at Arkham who admires Arthur.
• Bill Smitrovich as Judge Herman Rothwax, a judge who presides over Arthur's trial.
• Sharon Washington as Debra Kane, Arthur's former social worker.

Additionally, Connor Storrie appears as a young Arkham inmate who spies on Arthur throughout the film before murdering him and is implied to become the next Joker, though Phillips did not confirm if this character is the Joker who becomes Batman's archenemy. Tim Dillon appears as an Arkham Asylum guard who asks Arthur to sign his book; Marc Maron's likeness as Gene Ufland is used for the book. Nick Cave is heard in the film's opening animated sequence as the singing voice of Joker's shadow. Archive footage from Joker of both Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin and Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck is used.