However, the novelization of the film makes an ambiguous reference to the character while describing Blackgate Prison: Now that the Dent Act had made it all but impossible to cop an insanity plea, it had replaced Arkham Asylum as the preferred location for imprisoning both convicted and suspected felons. It was not revealed to what degree those stories held the truth if any. The Joker, incarnated with chilling authority by the actor, is simply one of the most twisted and mesmerizing creeps in movie history.". [60] Kevin Smith commented on Ledger, calling his "incredible" performance among "the most frightening, smart and well-played villains ever. The Joker is a fictional character who appears in Christopher Nolan's 2008 superhero film The Dark Knight, based upon the DC Comics character and supervillain of the same name. Along with being extremely sadistic through psychological torture, physical pain, and intimidation, the Joker also seemed to have no care for his own safety or survival, such as when he was told Batman to run him over with the Batpod (as well as briefly cursed under his breath when Batman decided to crash the Batpod instead of running him over), and when Batman threw him off the skyscraper to his supposed death and did nothing but laugh (both was due to the Joker believing that he would 'win' by provoking Batman into proving him right by forcing the Dark Knight to commit murder.) Batman Wiki is a FANDOM Comics Community. The Joker then introduced Harvey to his view of the world that his time in Gotham had introduced him to, that people, or "schemers" as he called them, were the truest form of evil in the world, as it was them who laid out the plans of society, including when human lives were expendable. The worst of the worst were sent here, except for the Joker, who, rumor had it, was locked away as Arkham’s sole remaining inmate. Ledger also got to choose the Joker's weapon among different rubber knives, and he worked closely with costume designer Lindy Hemming on deciding the look for the character. [59], Mark Dinning from Empire magazine called Ledger's performance "monumental" and wrote "The Dark Knight is Ledger's movie. [9] "Heath was just ready to do it, he was ready to do something that big. [21], Steve Alexander, Heath Ledger's agent, said the actor had a "pay-or-play" deal on The Dark Knight, "so he felt free to do whatever he wanted to do as the Joker, no matter how crazy." The Joker's hair is stringy, unkempt, and dyed green. "But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish. Joker seemed genuinely upset when Batman didn't kill him, to the point where he admitted his defeat and referred to Batman as "incorruptible" after their last fight. The Joker? [27], Ledger developed the Joker's voice and mannerisms slowly over time and during camera tests. It has a bit of, "Inside. With that act, Joker acknowledged that Batman really was incorruptible but that Harvey was no longer the "White Knight;": Joker had unleashed the scarred man on the city. As a result, two ferries sailed from the harbor that night: one was full of ordinary civilians, and the other was full of criminals. Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro gushed of his impression for Ledger's performance, finding it "really, really edgy and scary". Joker then stated that Harvey was his "ace in the hole" in his plan to show the people of Gotham that everyone was corruptible and thus, undo Harvey's work before his transformation into Two-Face. The Joker then unexpectedly performed a magic trick by making a pencil "disappear," embedded the pencil in the table, and shoved Gambol's man head-first into the pencil where it indeed disappeared inside the man's head, which instantly killed him. Christopher Hooton, writing for The Independent, said that the 'Joker journal' had several stills from Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange, joker cards, photos of hyenas, unhinged clown makeup and the word "chaos" highlighted in green. Suddenly, Batman appeared and fought with Joker. Joker and his men then stole one of the nearby evacuation buses and kidnapped the TV reporter and his crew who were inside. The Joker also mentioned that his suit wasn't cheap and that they ought to know that since they bought it, which meant that he had used the money that he stole at the start of the film and bought his suit. He's laughing red and black and red and black till there's nothing left to laugh. While Batman fights the Joker, the ferry passengers choose not to blow each other up, Batman bluntly informing the Joker that, despite his attempt to prove "that deep down, everyone's as ugly as [him]", the Joker is alone in his corruption and insanity. After he realized that Dent wasn't Batman, Joker broke off his pursuit and attempted to ram the Batpod instead: Batman managed to dodge him and then capsized the Joker’s eighteen-wheeler by use of his cable launchers. It was therefore possible that, while neither story was true, that Joker genuinely believed them both as he told them. That extreme scenario of cruelty, sadism, and precision proved that this Joker was more in the realm of a psychopath/sociopath than insanity as he was neither delusional nor did he lose his grip on reality. Heath Ledger You can almost imagine what he smells like. The Joker then told Rachel another chilling story about where he got his Glasgow Smile: That time, the Joker had a wife who thought that he did not smile much. That act caused Maroni to tell Gordon the Joker's location and found Joker and his craziness "too much" for business. To in order to "give others the fun," Joker then threatened that if someone didn't kill Reese in sixty minutes, he would blow up a hospital. The Joker then escaped with the bank's cash in a yellow school bus, concealed his identity by driving within a convoy of other school buses, and also left the Bank Manager at the mercy of a gas grenade that was stuck in his mouth. Later, the Joker and his gang stormed a fundraiser at Bruce Wayne's Penthouse, using Michael Wuertz as his bargaining chip, in order to kill Harvey in person. In creating the "anarchistic" look of the Joker, Hemming drew inspiration from such Counter-Cultural Pop Culture Artists Pete Doherty, Iggy Pop, and Johnny Rotten. Joker presumably was going to tell Batman the third version of his scar story when he was about to kill him, but he ultimately did not get the chance to do so due to Batman literally shutting him up by using launching his wrist blades at him, who then claimed that Batman knew how Joker got those scars other than the Glasgow scars on his mouth. She tried to present a backstory for the character "that he really doesn't look after himself". [7][8] The actor reflected on his problems with portraying superheroes, saying; "I would just feel stupid and silly. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulated the character's posture, voice, and psychology, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. You can almost imagine what he smells like." "[61] Mark Lee, writing for The Daily Telegraph, commented that Ledger accomplished "a genuinely unsettling, brilliant nuanced portrait of evil". Harvey fell on the floor and his left side was then completely immersed in Turpentine. Nobody was really sure. Costume Designer Lindy Hemming described the Joker's look as reflecting his personality—that "he doesn't care about himself at all"; she avoided designing him as a vagrant but still made him appear to be "scruffier, grungier", so that "when you see him move, he's slightly twitchier or edgy." The Joker's Card at the end of Batman Begins. [9], Application of Heath Ledger's makeup was done with the actor scrunching special facial expressions. Obviously, Joker's extremely poor groomed appearance was linked to his nonexistent care for himself and his life. Real name: The Joker was a quite tall young man (though his hunched posture made him appear slightly shorter than Batman), who was dressed in a custom-tailored purple suit that consisted of an elegant, purple coat and matching pin-stripe pants that were kept up by suspenders rather than a belt. [38][39], Ledger's death affected the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight[40] and also both the production and marketing of Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus; both Nolan and Gilliam celebrated and paid tribute to Ledger's work in these films. [22] As Ledger was cast early in pre-production, Nolan explained that the actor had "months and months" to prepare for the role. "[36] All of Ledger's scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no digital effects to alter Ledger's actual performance posthumously. ", "Heath Ledger is magnificent. "[32], Ledger was allowed to shoot and direct the threat videos the Joker sends out as warnings. [5] The 2005 fantasy film The Brothers Grimm marked a turning point for the actor as director Terry Gilliam gave Ledger (and his co-star, Matt Damon) opportunities to create characters they had not been given before. In the murder tape that he sent to the Media, the Joker viciously mocked Brian Douglas (Batman Impersonator) as well as terrorized him to the point of leaving him absolutely frozen and weeping, as well as taunted his beliefs and his actions. The Joker was even capable of holding his own against Batman and trapped him near the climax of the film (although he had assistance on both occasions when he fought Batman). This is the definitive Joker", calling the performance "a masterpiece". General Information In the film, in respect of the memory of Ledger, the Joker wasn't seen or mentioned. After he gave Harvey a gun, the Joker advised Harvey to break away from the law that failed him and turn to chaos, which the Joker described as the only truly fair system, as the fate of everyone would be only decided by chance, without the interference of the flawed laws of Man. [8] Impressed with Ledger's determination, Nolan cast him in the part. [20] About the Joker's physical appearance, Geoff Boucher wrote for the Los Angeles Times that the character probes the facial scars with his tongue and "walks with shoulders bowed and his chin out and down, like a hyena". Batman ultimately foils the Joker's plan by taking the blame for Dent's crimes. walking into a room full of mobsters and casually using a 'magic trick' that impaled a pencil into one of their heads. Afterward, Joker, still disguised as an Honor Guard, shot his rifle at Mayor Garcia and Lt. Gordon was struck in the back after he willfully leaped in front of Garcia, in order to fake his death to avoid any future attempt by the Joker of attacking him with his family at home. He was able to plan out the events of The Dark Knight and also improvised when he needed to, showing a high level of intellect and knowledge. The Joker embodies themes of chaos, anarchy and obsession: throughout the film, he expresses a desire to upset the social order in Gotham through crime, and defines himself by his conflict with Batman. A psychopathic criminal mastermind and mass murderer with a warped, sadistic sense of humor, the Joker is hired by Gotham City's mob bosses to kill the vigilante Batman (Christian Bale), and also comes into conflict with Batman's allies, Gotham police officer James Gordon (Gary Oldman) … Before he could detonate both ferries, Batman knocked the detonator out of Joker's hand with his shooting wrist-blades, threw him over the edge, and also cited right before he threw him off, in reference to Joker's scar stories, that he knew how he got his other scars. Batman saves Dent, who is disfigured in the explosion, but Rachel is killed. [24] The diary contains scrawling and cuttings inside. With the Dent Act, the insanity plea was thrown out for the most part, with felons who were predominantly imprisoned, rather than institutionalized. Appearances: He was played by late Australian actor Heath Ledger.