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Joker: Folie à Deux ending explained – full spoilers

Joker: Folie à Deux ending explained – full spoilers

**WARNING: Contains full Joker: Folie à Deux spoilers**

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The first Joker film, released five years ago, may have caused divisiveness, but no one could argue against the fact that it was a huge success. The film won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, passed the $1 billion mark at the box office and earned Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for Best Actor – all while sparking a huge debate.

With that in mind, a sequel became something of a certainty, and it’s now arrived in theaters, albeit with slightly less fanfare than the original. This time it’s a musical of sorts, with Lady Gaga joining the cast as a version of the iconic DC villain Harley Quinn, who appears primarily under the name Lee in this film.

This time, the reaction was rather negative – although our own review gave it 4 stars – and it’s becoming clear that it won’t be nearly as successful at the box office as the first film, while its Oscar chances seem like a pipe dream.

However, the film is still a major release, and one aspect that is sure to get people talking is the rather shocking ending, which occurs after Arthur Fleck is imprisoned for the series of murders he committed during the events before The original will be brought to court.

Wondering how it all ends? Read on to get the ending of Joker: Folie à Deux explained.

Joker: Foil A Deux ending explained – full spoilers

For long stretches, Joker: Folie à Deux is an overall more subdued film than the original film – with conceited musical numbers replacing the earlier film’s brooding violence.

But things come to a head on the final day of Arthur’s trial. When he stands up to make his final statement, he forgoes his Joker persona – which doesn’t go down well with Lee, who storms out – and seems more or less willing to accept a guilty verdict.

Unsurprisingly, exactly one guilty verdict is announced – but at this point things take a more dramatic turn. As the verdict is read by the jury, Arthur begins to exhibit his maniacal giggling again, and within moments a car bomb suddenly explodes outside the courthouse, causing significant damage.

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker: Folie à Deux.
Niko Tavernise

This causes a few things to happen. One of them – which will come as no surprise to DC fans – is that Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent has significant damage to one side of his face, a nod to the comics where he becomes Two Face.

But more relevant to the story at hand: Arthur also uses the explosion to escape and flees the scene. He soon receives help from two of his loyal fans and admirers, but he doesn’t seem to pay much attention to them and sets out on his own to find Lee on the same stairs that became iconic thanks to his infamous dance in the original film.

But this isn’t the romantic reunion Arthur was hoping for. Instead, Lee rejects him and tells him that she is no longer interested after he backs down in the trial and reveals that the Joker personality is not interested Really Part of who he is. She tells him that this was a betrayal and leaves him dejected on the stairs.

Shortly afterwards he is arrested again and, now completely hopeless, sent back to Arkham. But there’s another twist that will make things even worse for Arthur…

Does Joker die in Joker: Folie à Deux?

Back in Arkham, Arthur is told by a guard that there is a visitor there to greet him and follows him into a long corridor. There, another prisoner – referred to as a “young prisoner” and played by Connor Storrie – approaches him and says he wants to tell a joke.

He begins to do just that, but when he gets to the punch line, he takes out a knife and brutally stabs him repeatedly in the stomach, causing him to bleed to death. So Yes, Joker dies. Or at least Arthur Fleck and his version the Joker dies.

At the very end of the film, as Arthur bleeds to death, we can see the young prisoner in the background using his knife to put a smile on his face (in the style of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight) as he begins to cackle. So one Joker has been killed – but it looks like another one has just been born. And so the cycle of violence continues…

Joker: Folie à Deux is now in cinemas.

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