Warning: Spoilers for “Joker” below.
Fans of “The Dark Knight” may not love the new “Joker” film. It’s a lot darker. It’s not as cartoonish. There’s no Batman. But there is one slight reference to Heath Ledger’s Joker character toward the end of the film, one that you might miss if you blink.
What happens: Toward the end of the film, Arthur Fleck gets himself arrested. We won’t get into how since, you know, spoilers and violent material. The cop car carries him away. He sits in the back seat, leaning his head against the window. Chaos erupts outside the car as violent clown protesters try to burn the city.
The scene is an eerie callback to “The Dark Knight” when Heath Ledger’s Joker uses a cop car to escape from police. Unlike Fleck, Joker in “TDK” opens the window and leans outside of it, letting his hair blow in the wind.
- “The shot is a wonderful reversal of ‘The Dark Knight’s’ iconic ‘Cop Car Scene,’ in which Heath Ledger’s Joker turns the tables on his police captors, and escapes custody in a police car, while leaning out the rear window with his head tilted up to the sky, tasting the sweet, wild, freedom of his chaotic malevolence,” according to ComicBook.com.
Why it matters: The scene is likely a result of Phoenix and Ledger, who now have both played Joker, being friends. Ledger died in 2008 before “TDK” was released.
- “The best part about this reference is that Ledger and Phoenix were actually friends in real life,” according to ComicBook.com. “Both found their careers opening up in big ways during the early 2000s, and they knew and respected one another for their respective acting talents. So, this moment from Phoenix in Joker could arguably be seen as a nice, touching ode to his late friend, which would make it all the more sweet.”