Joker (Joker 2019 screenplay book) (2025)

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Arthur Fleck, later known as Joker, is the titular main protagonist of the official screenplay book of the 2019 psychological thriller film of the same name. Loosely based on his mainstream counterpart from The Killing Joke, he is a mentally unstable, impoverished clown-for-hire and an aspiring/failed stand-up comedian who lives in the poorer parts of Gotham City during the early 1980s. After experiencing a lack of success and respect and having learned of his tragic past, he lost sanity and became a psychotic nihilist, who seeks to vent his anger out on the world by unleashing chaos, which made him a symbol of an anarchistic uprising against the corrupt wealthy and elite of Gotham.

He was portrayed in the film by Joaquin Phoenix, who also played Commodus in Gladiator and Napoleon Bonaparte in Napoleon. In the Japanese dub, he is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata, who also voiced Suikotsu in Inuyasha, Vinsmoke Sanji, Inuppe and Demaro Black in One Piece and Máscara da Morte de Câncer in Saint Seiya: Legends of Sanctuary.

Personality[]

Initially, Arthur is a deeply disturbed and broken man who is in a near constant state of anguish and clinical depression who still tried his best to be kind towards others. While he claims to enjoy certain things in life, it isn't clear if he is serious, as he once told his mother he was "never happy for a single minute of his life."

Ever since that he was born, however, Arthur Fleck was an altruistic and good man who didn't want others to suffer as he does, and always wanted to bring laughter and joy to the entire world, aiming to do so by becoming an famous comedian. However, he was often physically and mentally abused by his mother and her boyfriend due to being the estranged son of a billionaire, something Arthur later takes as hatred toward the rich and the powerful. As a result of being abused, Arthur dives deeply into depression, borderline personality disorder and pathological laughter created by the abuse.

Despite his mental health, Arthur would have never thought of giving up on his goal to be a popular comedian, and, when he goes to achieve this goal, he takes the job of a clown for a talent agency. As he was abused again by a group of teenagers, Arthur developed a hatred towards society. Hence, Arthur's fragile sanity began to be broken, and he was still not giving up and found some joy in his mother and Sophie Dumond, until he wound up being humiliated by society again, this time by his beloved TV idol Murray Franklin.

When he shot the bullies, he ran to a public restroom and for the first time in his life, he experiences something unfamiliar to him: contentment. All the weight of the world, the expectations, moral obligations, all the put downs and times life had crushed him where alleviated. For the first time in his entire life, Arthur felt like he was in control and had achieved something meaningful. However, this was also one of several breaking points for Arthur and one of several lines he would cross, from that moment on he begins to develop a sociopathic persona, who lacks empathy, lacks remorse, is manipulative, violent, cold, aggressive and relentless.

As satisfaction and happiness introduced themselves to him, he dances triumphantly as he experienced all these new, wonderful, pleasant sensations. He waved his arms and swayed his head in euphoric delight. The pent-up blood cravings had manifested and were quenched. "Killing felt GOOD" Arthur thought, and this satisfaction would need to be refuelled again. Arthur always loved taking care of his mother, until he learned that she wasn't his real mother and realized she had always been horrible, false and negligent towards him, which moved Arthur to kill her, though the deed pained him. Upon meeting his estranged "father", Arthur was in denial of how his father was denying his existence, yet showed joy with meeting Bruce Wayne, his supposed estranged brother.

After a complete mental breakdown, Arthur lost the capacity to fear anything and having scraped rock bottom for so long, he realized the only new direction to take is up as his life couldn't get any worse. He developed a totally nihilistic outlook on life and therefore decided to go with the flow rather than change anything.

As Joker, Arthur loved being completely freed from his depressed life he used to have, liking to think that his life is a comedy now rather than a tragedy, and, he later developed himself to become the leader of the Clowns after killing his TV idol in front of a horrified crowd, yet, he was already inside of his insanity, so he burst out in crazy laughter, which is commonly regarded as his first true and honest laugh in the film. Having triumphantly danced on a stair case, he finally basked in the embracing warmth of happiness and the sensation of pleasure which was new and wonderful to him. Once he accepts his new life as Joker, he expresses no remorse or regrets for any of his murders and actually seems to take pride in them and frequently made jokes about the people he killed. He also revels in the destruction and chaos he causes in Gotham, calling it "beautiful".

However even after his breakdown he had some moral standards as he allowed Gary to leave unscathed. He spared Sophie and her daughter as well because they never wronged him. After killing Murray, Arthur shoots Murray’s corpse a second time but didn’t shot Ms. Ruth or anybody else in the area despite the fact he easily could have done so since he still had bullets in his gun.

Arthur also had a soft spot for children. He didn’t fight back against the teenagers who attacked him due to their youth. He enjoyed entertaining sick children at a hospital and a young child on a bus. He spared Sophie and her daughter and stopped himself from killing Alfred when he saw a young Bruce Wayne watching in horror.

However, despite his moral standards, Arthur has committed many terrible crimes to get his point across. Also, as with most versions of the Joker, his mental illness makes it hard to tell which events of the film did happen. For example, while Franklin was a bit rude towards Arthur on his show, it is possible that it was part of the program. Therefore, it is possible that Arthur's decision on who to kill or not stems from a warped morality.

Skills and Abilities[]

• Peak Human Condition: Despite receiving very little to no physical training at all, Arthur is in peak human condition as evidenced in multiple occasions in the movie when he performed feats such as: Cracking the thick glass in a telephone booth with a single headbutt, destroying a metal punch clock with a few punches, stabbing a man in the eye before he could react, sprinting a very far distance without showing a single sign of fatigue and getting hit by a speeding taxi and then getting up like nothing happened.
• Pain Tolerance: Arthur has a high tolerance for pain. This is seen when he was hit by a taxi and kept on running. He even quickly recovered from being hit by a speeding car. However despite of that, there times that Arthur can feel pain, this is demonstrated when Thomas Wayne punched him in the face, Arthur shows traces of pain. Also, unlike many versions of the Joker, he does not appear to enjoy his own pain. This indicates that, like his other counterparts, his illness makes it easier to endure pain.
• Intelligence: Initially Arthur was a rather simple-minded man and very clumsy, but as time progressed he became increasingly cunning and shrewd. However, due to his mental illness, Arthur often misspells words and shows many signs of being very impulsive.
• Fearlessness: While Arthur initially had severe anxiety issues, he eventually "burned out" and became totally numbed to anything remotely frightening. This may be due to his new outlook on life as he sees his existence as a meaningless comedy.
• Combat Skills: Surprisingly, Athur's lithe, wiry physique doesn't stop Arthur from having aggressive outbursts and combined with his unpredictability, he can occasionally return punishment to anyone who crosses him.
• Marksmanship: Arthur has some skill using a gun. This is seen when he performed two close-range headshots in quick succession while on the ground. He even shot someone in the leg while they were running away from him from a few feet away.

Arsenal[]

• 38-caliber: Joker's main weapon was a large calibur pistol he got from Randall. It was the gun he used to kill the Wall Street Trio as well as Murray. It was confiscated when he was initially arrested by the GCPD.
• Scissors: Joker used a pair of scissors to murder Randall.
• Pillow: Joker killed his mother Peggy by smothering her with a pillow.

Kill Count[]

Directly[]

• Three Wayne Enterprises employees (shot dead)
• Penny Fleck (smothered to death with pillow)
• Randall (brutally stabbed in the neck and then the right eye with scissors, head smashed against a wall multiple times)
• Murray Franklin (shot in the head and then in the chest post-mortem)

Indirectly[]

• Thomas and Martha Wayne
• Many other unnamed victims

Trivia[]

• This is one of the few Joker incarnations to be truly sympathetic with others being his The Killing Joke, Flashpoint, and Telltale incarnations. This incarnation is indeed easily considered the most tragic of all as he's one of the few versions that have a fleshed out backstory that makes him sympathetic.
  • Likewise this is one of the very few incarnations of the Joker depicted as having mercy demonstrated when he spares Gary for treating him well. Thus, he's one of the few versions that don't go out of their way to kill others for the sake of chaos. That said, if a sequel does get made, it's possible that he would become less merciful over time.
  • Since the Joker: Folie A Deux script book has not been published (at least yet), this version of Arthur Fleck never meets Harley Quinn (at least not the Lee Quinn version) and could possibly become Batman's future nemesis.
  • In an early version of the script, Arthur Fleck, after killing Murray Franklin, was supposed to have a Glasgow smile on his face, like Heath Ledger's Joker.