Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Joker.
Arthur Fleck's final moments in Zazie Beetz as Arthur's neighbor and love interest Sophie, and s Conroy as Arthur's mother Penny.
Set in a particularly distraught Arkham Asylum. In these final moments, Arthur laughs at a joke that the viewer is not privy to. Neither is the witnessing psychiatrist, who asks him what's so funny. Grimly, he replies, "you wouldn't get it," before the camera cuts away to a hallway where Arthur, with a bloody pep in his step (literally) stomps down and dances in a victorious haze.
This conspicuous finale may, like a great portion of Arthur's head is not only the grand, fiery riot his late-night murder incited, but the fact that the aspiring and disturbed comedian was able to fathom such an event himself.
Joker: It's All In Arthur's Head
Yes, this theory would infer that the majority of the events in Joker were, in fact, a Joker establishes its own unique set of aesthetic rules. In neither of those cases does the camera or the screen inject a tool to signify the transition between what is fake and what is real; there are no hazy effects, no strange noises, nor any zooms, pans, or fades of any kind. The moments of reality (however many there may be) are seamlessly blended together with those that are clearly not.
That being said, there is simply no telling how much of what Arthur experiences is real. In fact, it can be deducted that almost none of what is shown in its young heir, Bruce (Dante Periera-Olson), the ways in which Arthur operates are obviously confusing, and they could very possibly be imaginary as well.
Arthur Isn't The Real Joker
This theory, in and of itself, has been grappled around by fandom communities ever since the film's opening in October. It further extends that because Arthur doesn't act in any of the familiar ways the Joker has in his various comic book appearances, he is not the real character for most of the film. The only glimpse the audience gets of the character is, in fact, the final scene. The theory argues that the man who we see in Arkham is the real Joker and that he is laughing at Arthur Fleck's story, which has just been played in his head.
If this is true, then Arthur's story is not the origin of the character, and the sick joke would be that the truth behind the Clown Prince of Crime is still shadowed in mystery. Also, if the true Joker actually was the man who appears at the end of the film, then Batman, rather than the roles be reversed.
Film and literature have often resorted to unreliable narrators to add a naturally eerie aesthetic to their production. By applying one of the most mysterious and inherently evil characters in the comic book canon to its frontlines, Todd Phillips has made is exactly the kind of film the Joker would have wanted.
