Joker: Folie à Deux is a 2024 American jukebox musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay he co-wrote with Scott Silver. Loosely based on DC Comics characters, it is a sequel to Joker (2019). Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as the Joker, with Lady Gaga as his love interest, Lee Quinzel. Zazie Beetz and Leigh Gill also reprise their roles, while Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Steve Coogan and Harry Lawtey join the cast. It is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Joint Effort and was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Joker was conceived as a standalone film, although Warner Bros. intended the film to launch a DC Black film series. Phillips, director of Joker, expressed interest in making a sequel, which was announced in June 2022, with Gaga and Beetz joining later that year. Principal photography took place in New York City, Los Angeles, and Belleville, New Jersey, from December 2022 to April 2023.
Joker: Folie à Deux premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2024, and was released in the United States on October 4. The film was a critical and commercial failure, grossing $206 million on a $190-200 million budget, with projections of a $125-200 million loss for Warner Bros.
In an animated sequence, the Joker is impersonated by his shadow, who acts violently and takes his place to perform his singing number for a TV show, and then abandons him on stage, before three police officers arrive and attack him.
Arthur Fleck is in custody at Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial for the crimes he committed two years prior. His lawyer, Maryanne Stewart, plans to argue that Arthur suffers from dissociative identity disorder and that his Joker personality is responsible for the crimes. At a music therapy session, Arthur meets Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, who claims that she grew up in the same neighborhood he did, had an abusive father who died in a car crash, and was imprisoned after burning down her parents' apartment building. Lee also expresses her admiration for the Joker's crimes and personality.
During a film screening, Lee starts a fire. She and Arthur are caught trying to escape, and Arthur is placed in solitary confinement. Lee visits him to say she is being released to avoid his influence but promises to attend his trial. During an interview with television personality Paddy Meyers, Arthur sings to Lee through the TV screen, deepening her love for him.
On the day of the trial, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent calls witnesses who dismiss Arthur's claims of insanity. During a break, Maryanne reveals that Lee was actually a psychiatry student who grew up in the Upper West Side, and her father, a doctor, is alive. Furthermore, she voluntarily committed herself at Arkham, checked herself out, and never burned down an apartment building. When Arthur confronts Lee, she confesses that her lies were an effort to get close to Arthur but also tells him that she is pregnant from their night together and has moved into his old apartment building to create a home for them.
At the trial the next day, Arthur dismisses Maryanne and represents himself. After bringing Arthur's former co-worker Gary Puddles and neighbor Sophie Dumond to the stand, Dent rests his case. Arthur, visibly affected by Gary's testimony, offers no defense, although, during his speech, he mocks the Arkham guards and indicates that they abuse him. Returning to Arkham, he is taken to the showers by head guard Jackie Sullivan and two guards in retaliation, where he is beaten and brought to his cell partially naked. Ricky, an inmate and friend of Arthur, verbally confronts the guards, resulting in Jackie strangling him to death.
During his closing argument in court the following day, a devastated Arthur renounces his Joker persona, taking full responsibility for his actions. Enraged at this, Lee storms out, and the jury finds Arthur guilty of murder. As the foreperson reads the verdict, a car bomb explodes outside the courthouse, killing and injuring numerous attendees and scarring half of Dent's face.[c] In the chaos, two followers help Arthur escape.
Arthur wanders through Gotham City and encounters Lee outside his old apartment, but she rejects him for renouncing his Joker persona. As she leaves, the police apprehend Arthur and bring him back to Arkham.
The next day, young inmate approaches Arthur and begins telling a joke before repeatedly stabbing Arthur in the abdomen with a shank. As Arthur bleeds to death, Jack, laughing hysterically, carves a smile on his own face.