>Gotham City, 1981
>Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is an introverted, mentally unstable aspiring standup comedian who moves back in with his ailing domineering mother Penny Fleck (Frances Conroy) to care for her.
>Arthur has a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably in moments of stress.
>Arthur has weekly sessions with a social worker who encourages him to keep a journal. However, Arthur fills it only with tasteless jokes, psychotic ramblings and pornographic magazine cutouts.
>Arthur befriends his neighbor Sophie Dumont (Zazie Beetz), a single mother who works as a bank teller and supports Resist, a movement against Gotham’s oppressive elite. Arthur misconstructs her kindness for affection and believes them to be dating.
>Penny was once a housekeeper for Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), who is now running for Mayor. She asks Arthur to deliver him a letter, but Arthur continuously fails to contact Thomas.
>Arthur later learns that Thomas has cut the funding for the city’s mental health programs, through which Arthur meets the social worker and gets his medication. Without it, Arthur further spirals into insanity.
>Arthur works as a clown, where he is constantly harassed and humiliated by both passersby and his own co-workers.
>After a local gang assaults Arthur, one of his co-workers gives him a gun for protection.
>While performing at a kids party, the gun falls out of his bag and scares the children. The parents call Arthur’s boss to complain and he is fired.
>Arthur learns another co-worker, Randall (Glenn Fleshler) put the gun in his bag to get him fired.
>On the subway ride back home, Arthur stumbles upon three drunken stockbrokers harassing a woman and has a laughing fit, inadvertently allowing the woman to escape.
>The stockbrokers think Arthur is laughing at them, beat him up, Arthur snaps and shoots them dead, then flees home.
"JOKER" FULL SPOILERS
Looks like you forgot something there OP
And that's to make a thread about something people actually care about
Sounds good
I would do the whole "$0.01 has been deposited into your account" thing but everyone knows DC and WB can't afford to pay for shills
People are either going to hate or love this, because is loser power fantasy, but this sounds to close to the gamers rise up meme to be real
How does Thomas Wayne cut the funding for mental health if he's only running for mayor? Does he actually win during the movie?
Please kill yourself, mousecuck
Re-election
There's actually more to the plot but like spoiler tags OP doesn't give enough of a shit
>Arthur invites Sophie to watch him perform, but he bombs and has a laughing fit on stage.
>While having coffee afterwards, Sophie comforts him, and Arthur confesses that he once tried to carve a smile into his face as a child. Sophie starts to realize Arthur is unbalanced.
>Meanwhile, the Resist movement grows more radical, and adopts the clown as a symbol after reports indicate a man dressed as a clown murdered the three stockbrokers.
>Arthur reads the letter Penny wanted to deliver to Thomas, which claims Arthur is Thomas’ and Penny’s son born of a love affair many years prior.
>Arthur goes to Wayne Manor and tries to bond with Thomas’ young son, Bruce Wayne (Dante Pereira-Olsen), before the family’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Douglas Hodge) pulls Bruce away.
>While Arthur is away, Penny has a maniac episode and is institutionalized at Arkham Asylum and required to stay there for week.
>A tape of Arthur’s standup is sent to a popular talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), who viciously mocks Arthur and nicknames him “Joker”.
>Arthur is identified as a suspect in the stockbrokers’ murders and questioned by two detective, Garrity (Bill Camp) and Burke (Shea Whigham), but dodges their questions.
>Arthur manages to sneak into Wayne Manor during a fundraiser and approaches Thomas in the bathroom claiming to be his son.
>Thomas balks at the mention of Penny’s name and tells Arthur that he is still horrified by what she did. He also reveals that Arthur is adopted and thus not his son.
>Arthur has a laughing fit. Thomas thinks Arthur is mocking him and has him thrown away.
>Arthur goes to Arkham and manages to steal Penny’s medical files from an orderly to discover the truth.
>Arthur learns that Penny and her boyfriend adopted Arthur when he was three years old and subjected him to extensive physical, mental, psychological and sexual abuse that left him permanently brain-damaged, hence his laughing fits.
>dude, batman is the REAL villain
>dude, joker is the REAL victim here
dude, this shit is going to suck
>Penny was reported to the authorities and briefly locked up in Arkham, losing her job at Wayne Manor, but was cleared due to her own mental issues and by blaming everything on her boyfriend.
>Arthur visits Sophie to advice and catches her having sex with his boyfriend. He accuses her of cheating and flees.
>Horrified and enraged, Arthur returns to Arkham and smothers his mother with a pillow. >Arthur then confronts Sophie and her daughter Gigi at the playground and calls Sophie a slut.
>Garrity and Burke question Arthur about his mother’s death, but he once again evades him.
>Murray Franklin invites Arthur to come on to the show to roast him some more. Arthur sees this as an opportunity and dresses up as a clown to rile up the Resist movement as he dances to “Bennie & The Jets” by Elton John.
>Randall visits Arthur to offer his condolences. Arthur stabs him through the eye and slams his head on the wall, killing him. He then leaves Sophie a message to watch Murray’s show.
>Garrity and Burke catch Arthur as he is leaving the apartment in costume and chase after him all the way to a subway filled with Resist protesters in clown masks.
>Burke accidentally shoots one of the protesters and the crowd viciously beats the two detectives while Arthur escapes.
>At the show, Murray’s producers advise against letting Arthur on air dressed as a clown, but Murray thinks it’ll boost ratings and lets Arthur stay in costume.
>Arthur insists on being called “Joker” despite Murray not even remembering giving him that name.
>Arthur frequently calls Murray out on his abusive behavior and ultimately confesses to killing the stockbrokers before shooting Murray on the head in national television.
You know it's kind of getting old seeing the "government/businesses/wealthy are bad" shit pushed so much.
>Arthur makes a speech, rallying Resist to stand against the rich.
>Sophie is horrified and holds Gigi as she cries at Arthur's brutality.
>Arthur is arrested just as riots break out across the city to the sound of “Send in the Clowns” by Judy Collins.
>One of the rioters ambushes the Wayne and rips out Martha Wayne’s pearl necklace before gunning Thomas and her down in front of young Bruce.
>Another rioter crashes into the police cruiser transporting Arthur, killing everyone inside and severely wounding Arthur.
>Unable to run, Arthur grabs a piece of broken glass and carves a smile on his face.
>Cut to Arthur, clean-shave and with a stitched-up smile, locked up in Arkham. He refuses to answers questions and laughs at a joke only “Arthur and him” would get.
>On his way out, Arthur, completely deranged, hears Murray’s show's theme song (“This is the Life” by Frank Sinatra) and happily dances to it as he walks back to his cell.
Him being the protagonist doesn’t mean he’s the good guy, dumbass. He makes it clear in the script leaks he considers himself a terrible person by the time he kills De Niro, but hates everyone else just as much.
He's saying modern audiences are too stupid to pick upon that.
So, is there a source to the leak, or is it just an autist posting this shit over and over?
Probably both
(“This is the Life” by Frank Sinatra)
Is not a song that exists
>It's not just a story Joker just made up
Weak shit.
If it helps, from what we saw of him killing De Niro he acts like peak Alan Moore Joker.
He confesses that he doesn’t give a crap about politics or resist, he talks about how he killed the wall street guys just because he thought they were awful, then confesses he now thinks everyone is awful and everyone deserves what’s coming to them.
De Niro calls him out on it, says that’s no excuse for murder, Joker protests that he’s terrible aswell, kills him, and puts on a big, happy, in-the-spotlight show while covered in blood and gore.
Eh, the message can be fine. It just doesn't make much sense for a fucking Joker origin given that that's pretty much everything Bruce is.
>Arthur visits Sophie to advice and catches her having sex with his boyfriend. He accuses her of cheating and flees.
Fuck how could Arthur's boyfriend betray him like that.
Tags are for fags
So what exactly is the point of making a villain origin film that has literally nothing to do with the comics or the current DC universe and will have no impact on anything going forward?
But it's true. A movie about a campy supervillain doesn't seem like the best place to push it though.
What's the difference between psychological and mental abuse
speaking of the Joker. will anything happen with the three Jokers storyline stuff or is that just abandoned territory?
I genuinely forgot this movie existed.
Soon™
>all Arthur wanted was a clown pound
I don't think they're separately defined, but psychological abuse could refer to abuse through deliberate psychological manipulation which is not necessarily the same thing as abuse which causes mental harm.
You can cause physical harm with psychological manipulation, for instance by inducing conversion disorder.
Thanks, I hate it.
>implying he's the one living in a society
>catwoman
>villain
Just leave
Does he say the shitty meme or not?
She is, is that as a pussy haver she gets a pass.
You mean, "Let's make grinning a thing!" ?
Go rewatch your old obsolete batman cartoons and don't come back
No, it's
>Let's put a laugh on that giraffe!
mte
seems like political commentary mixed with a horror film but that feels like a bad comedy more than anything
Yeah but the modern version of this plot/trope seems to now be pushed by entitled burnouts wanting handouts from said government
She's a thief, a criminal. Just because Batman gives her a pass because she has a pussy and is willing to put out that doesn't make her any less of a villain.
>Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen)
how did he go from creepy sex pervert senator in TDKR to tommy wayne?
>>Arthur reads the letter Penny wanted to deliver to Thomas, which claims Arthur is Thomas’ and Penny’s son born of a love affair many years prior.
lol
Thomas Wayne is a pervert.
He's a rich white man.
WAYNE MAN BAD
What's the point of anything?