Joker: Folie à Deux's director Todd Phillips explains the shocking ending

If you haven’t seen the latest Joker film, then this article is not for you because it will spoil your movie-watching experience since it explains the ending of the Joaquin Phoenix starrer. 

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga came together for the first time for Joker: Folie à Deux which is helmed by Todd Phillips. The film opened to a good response but has since fizzled out. Each following day has been sad for the makers with fans majorly disappointed with the story. The film takes off from where the first film ended. 

Joker: Folie à Deux: Explaining the tragic ending

The film ends with Joker’s death. The murder trial at the centre of the film ended explosively when a bomb detonated, destroying the courtroom. Arthur Fleck chose to defend himself and confessed that the Joker was not a split personality. He said that he was aware of everything he’d done and said he was guilty of the murders he committed.

As the ending got trolled, Todd Phillips told Entertainment Tonight, “He realised that everything is so corrupt, it’s never going to change, and the only way to fix it is to burn it all down.” Read WION's review of the film here

The director further explained, “When those guards kill that kid in the [hospital] he realizes that dressing up in makeup, putting on this thing, it’s not changing anything. In some ways, he’s accepted the fact that he’s always been Arthur Fleck; he’s never been this thing that’s been put upon him, this idea that Gotham people put on him, that he represents.” He added, “He’s an unwitting icon. This thing was placed on him, and he doesn’t want to live as a fake anymore — he wants to be who he is.”

Todd also clarifies that the scenes between Harley Quinn and Joker in Joker: Folie à Deux were not a part of the latter’s imagination. The director said it was not a figment of Arthur’s imagination but that’s “Actually, really happening.”