The story of the terroristic madman known as the Joker from The Dark Knight.
Origin and Early Life
No one knows who the Joker really was, and little could ever be confirmed about his early life before he turned to a life of crime. Despite his capture, no traces could be found on his fingerprints, dental records, or DNA matches against the GCPD's databases.
The Joker's testimony, while normally quite true when it came to carrying out threats, seemed at times contradictory, and he was known to give conflicting accounts at times when describing past events in his life, more specifically how he got the scars of his characteristic Glasgow smile. Therefore, there is nothing indicating that anything from his past is true.
One of his anecdotes told of his supposed extremely abusive and intoxicated father, stating that after attacking his mother with a knife, the blade was next turned on the young man, creating his mutilated smile. The fact that the Joker later referenced his father and his hatred of him to a party guest while crashing Harvey Dent's party implies that at the very least, he did have an extremely poor relationship with his father.
Another story he told was when his gambling wife told him not to worry so much and that he should smile more. This advice went overhead when she had her face carved up by enforcers of loan sharks, and the couple discovered that they didn't have enough money to pay for surgery. In a desperate effort to assure his wife that he did not care about the damage to her appearance, he took a razor to his cheeks to make his Glasgow smile match hers, but the disturbing image instead caused his wife to leave him, damaging his psyche.
It is not revealed to what degree these stories hold truth if any. The Joker himself may be unaware of his true origins. Some psychological profiles of the Joker indicate that he is insane to such an extent that he reinvents both his psyche and history daily. It is therefore possible that, if neither story is true, he genuinely believed both as he told them.
In a report filed by the GCPD, there were three theories presented for Joker's identity and origin. The first was that Joker was an escaped patient from Arkham Asylum. However, that theory was debunked on the basis that his identity had no place within any records. The second theory was that Joker was a former employee of the Harley Brothers Circus, which was documented to have connections with the mob. It was reasonable to theorize that Joker was a disgruntled former employee that had bad business with the mob. The third theory presented was that Joker was a former soldier who suffered from acute PTSD, which explained his unusually cool demeanor and familiarity with weapons, as well as his devastating effectiveness in various forms of combat. It also explains why his cunning rivals and possibly surpasses that of even Batman.
Criminal Beginnings
The Joker's "calling card".
Shortly after the death of Ra's al Ghul, Batman discussed with Lt. James Gordon the effect that he had made on Gotham City since his appearance. Gordon then revealed that a criminal with a "taste for the theatrical" had recently committed a double homicide and an armed robbery, and left behind a Joker playing card as a "calling card". Gordon also warned that just as escalation occurred in terms of a Police Force against crime, so might the scale and style of criminality change in reaction to Batman's appearance.
Sometime later, Joker orchestrated the theft of a large shipment of ammonium nitrate from the Gotham Docks. The explosive chemical was saved for storage in the Gotham General Hospital and on two passenger ferries sometime later. In addition, Joker also frequently attended the various heists and crimes that his gang committed while disguised as one of the accomplices, which was believed to be at least partially where he got his name from.
Gotham National Bank Robbery
Joker as Bozo.
| “ | If you're good at something, never do it for free. | „ |
| ~ The Joker. |
Several months later, a group of bank robbers under the direction of the Joker, robbed the Gotham National Bank which was used as a money-laundering front for Gotham's gangs. The clown mask-wearing robbers whittled down their own numbers within minutes in a series of calculated betrayals. Finally, only "Bozo" remained, who revealed himself as the Joker to the Gotham Bank Manager, who had earlier confronted the robbers with a shotgun. In addition, largely because he couldn't resist appearing on-camera, Joker also deliberately unmasked himself in front of a surveillance camera and posed.
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.
"Kill the Batman"
Dealing with the Mob
Joker presenting his "calling card" to the mob.
| “ | Why so serious? | „ |
| ~ The Joker mocking Gambol. |
Shortly following the bank robbery, Salvatore Maroni mentioned the Joker's recent theft of mob-owned cash to his fellow crime leaders at a business meeting, who dismissed him as a threat and said that he was a "nobody" who wore "a cheap purple suit and make-up," despite the amount of money stolen. The Joker overheard that comment and the plan presented to the Mob by corrupt Chinese accountant Lau and arrived unannounced at the meeting while he faked a laugh, as he saw their "so-called plan" as a bad joke. The mobsters were at first unwilling to hear him out, and Gambol, one of the crime lords who seemed to take the most dislike for the Joker, sent one of his men to take him out by force.
The Joker stated that he wouldn't kill Batman because he was simply too much “fun” and Batman wouldn't kill him because of his “moral obligation.” In the film, instead of trying to kill Batman, the Joker attempted to show Gotham and subsequently Batman that anyone could be as bad as him under the right circumstances.
The Joker unexpectedly performed a magic trick by making a pencil "disappear," embedded the pencil in the table, and shoved one of Gambol's men head-first into the pencil where it indeed disappeared inside the man's head, instantly killing him. 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 had stolen at the start of the film to buy his suit. Joker proposed that it was Batman's interference that had resulted in idealistic leaders like Harvey Dent rising in popularity, and offered his services to kill him for half of all the money that Lau, an illegitimate Chinese accountant, took away from Gotham for safekeeping. Joker also warned the Mob that Lau would betray them if he was arrested, and claimed to know a squealer when he saw one. While the Bratva mobster, the Chechen and Maroni were interested, Gambol, angered by the Joker's lack of respect, attempted to attack him, which forced the Joker to reveal his insurance policy: several grenades hidden under his coat rigged to blow, which allowed him to make a quick escape. Frustrated, Gambol proceeded to put a bounty on the Joker: $500,000 dead or $1 million alive so he could "teach him some manners first."
Assassination of Gambol
The Joker later took revenge that night by having his men come to Gambol and claimed that they had killed the Joker. In a bit of unintended tragic irony that regarded the fate of his actor, the Joker's 'dead' body was brought inside in a garbage bag before he attacked Gambol and proceeded to tell him the origin of his mouth scars as a way of psychological torture and intimidation. Then, when Gambol was the most terrified and shaken, the Joker proceeded to kill him with one of his knives. Then with the remains of Gambol's men overpowered and at his mercy, Joker took a pool cue, broke it in half, made it spear-like, said that there was only one spot open at the moment to join his "team", threw the piece of a sharp stick in the middle of Gambol's scared men, and had his gang, which was made up mostly of mentally ill and unstable vicious crooks that had escaped from Arkham Asylum who seemed to have taken the Joker as their leader, made Gambol's men fight to the death with the stick until only one was left, and advised them to "make it fast".
Assault on Gotham
Proposing an Ultimatum
| “ | Harvey, Harvey, Harvey Dent. Oh, 'scuse me. I wanna drive! | „ |
| ~ Joker to his unconscious truck driver. |
Joker in the video featured on GCN when he killed a man who was costumed as Batman.
Joker eventually, realized that Batman had retrieved Lau from Hong Kong and that the police had struck a deal with him to testify against them. Sal Maroni and the Chechen relented and finally hired the Joker to kill Batman in return for half the mob's money. The Joker first kidnapped a Batman impersonator, filmed his murder, and hung the body, complete with white make-up and Joker scars, outside the Mayor's Office. In the murder tape that he sent to the media, the Joker viciously mocked Brian Douglas (a Batman impersonator who was arrested along with Scarecrow by the real Batman at the beginning of the film), as well as terrorizing him to the point of leaving him absolutely frozen and weeping and taunting his beliefs and his actions.
Then when he has finished humiliating and terrifying him, the Joker proceeded to give Gotham an ultimatum: Batman must take off his mask and turn himself over to the authorities and every day that Batman refused to do so, he would murder innocent people day after day.
The Joker's Game
Joker getting kneed in the groin by Rachel Dawes during Harvey Dent's fundraiser at Bruce Wayne's penthouse in Gotham City.
As a result of Batman not turning himself in, the first major victims were Janet Surrillo, the judge that presided over Dent's indictments, and then former GCPD Commissioner Loeb, the former via a car-bomb and the latter by inserting acid into the Commissioner's scotch, respectively.
Later, the Joker and his gang stormed a fundraiser at Bruce Wayne's Penthouse to kill Harvey Dent. When Joker was unable to get the guests to inform him of Dent's location, he decided to settle for killing off the guests. Joker then attempted to threaten an unintimidated guest (whom he noted bore a resemblance to his own hated father), before he eventually attempted to kill Rachel Dawes.
Dawes attempted to drive Joker away, with a knee to the crotch, but he laughed it off and became more interested in killing her for her having "some fight in her." Joker was then confronted by Batman. The Joker only managed to escape by throwing Rachel Dawes out a window, who Batman then leaped after and saved. That encounter also led him to initially suspect that Batman's true identity was Harvey Dent.
Attack on Mayor Anthony Garcia
Joker attempts to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia.
The killings then continued with two innocents and an attempt on the Mayor's life at a memorial for the murdered Loeb. The Joker appeared in public without makeup, impersonated one of the guards, and had most of his gang impersonate the rest of the Honor Guards. In order to further ensure that the GCPD was kept on its toes, Joker also placed a sniper rifle on the window sill of the apartment room, as well as a timer to release the blinds for the GCPD sharpshooters to shoot at anyone hapless enough to be caught in the trap.
Afterward, Joker, still disguised as an Honor Guard, shot his rifle at the Mayor, and 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. As a result of that, Batman told Dent to call a press conference so he could reveal his identity and stop the killings. In a surprise move, Dent instead claimed to be the Batman himself and was subsequently arrested.
First Standoff with Batman
While Dent being transported to the GCPD, the Joker and his gang attacked the caravan of police vehicles to kill Dent with his weapons. Batman soon arrived to stop the assault but stayed his hand at killing the Joker. The Joker prepared to unmask Batman, but Lt. Gordon, newly resurrected from his hoaxed death, stepped behind him, aimed his shotgun at his back, and said: "We got you, you son of a bitch." The Joker was successfully jailed at MCU, and as a direct result, Lt. James Gordon was promoted to Commissioner by the Mayor. Joker also did a sarcastic clap for the newly-promoted Commissioner.
Interrogation and Gotham Bombings
| “ | I don't wanna kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off Mob Dealers? No, no. You... complete me. | „ |
| ~ Joker to Batman during his interrogation. |
Joker being interrogated by Batman about his captive's whereabouts. This scene is known as "The Bat and The Freak".
With the Joker in custody, Gordon and Batman believed his madness was over but became alarmed when informed that Harvey Dent had gone missing. Desperate, Gordon let Batman interrogate the Joker for information, but the Joker seemed unshaken by the pain. Instead, he gleefully told Batman his view of people as selfish and violent, only needing a little pressure before descending into madness and murdering everyone around them. He also admitted he could never kill Batman, considering him his only equal. Dent's kidnapping was part of a test, to see if Batman would save him or Rachel, whom the Joker could tell Batman cared for.
The Joker willingly told him where both were located, and Batman headed over to Rachel's while Gordon and his men headed over to Dent's, unaware that they were heading over to save the opposite person. After most of the police were gone, the Joker took his guard hostage and escaped by detonating a phone-activated bomb he surgically planted in the stomach of one of his men who was arrested with him, with Lau in tow. After failing to save Rachel and learning about the Joker's escape and Dent's near survival from getting the left side of his face burned away (with Batman's help), Gordon came to the realization that it was a setup and that that Joker planned to be caught to obtain Lau and kill him.
In the hospital, Dent was driven to madness regarding the loss of Rachel and blamed Batman, Gordon, and the Joker, feeling that Gordon's trust in the cops was part of the reason she died. That act caused Sal Maroni to tell Gordon the Joker's location, now finding him and his craziness "too much" for business. The Joker later met the Chechen in a container ship with Lau and was given his reward: half of the Mob's smuggled money, which he casually burned along with Lau. Joker then betrayed the Chechen and took control of his men. He declared that Gotham deserved a new breed of criminal - one unmotivated by money or power, but who committed crime purely for fun. That corresponded with something that Alfred said to Bruce Wayne earlier in the film:"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
The Joker then made a call to a news program where Coleman Reese was threatening to go public on the news with information about Batman's identity. He was interrupted by the Joker who stated that he had changed his mind and believed that Gotham would be too boring without Batman. To "give others the fun," joker threatened that if someone didn't kill Reese in sixty minutes, he would blow up a hospital. Gordon then abandoned his ambush on the Joker to focus on evacuating all of the city's hospitals.
Enter Two-Face
| “ | Introduce a little anarchy-upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, it's "fair". | „ |
| ~ Joker persuading the disfigured Harvey Dent. |
Two-Face deciding to kill or spare Joker.
During the mass evacuation, the Joker disguised himself as a nurse (still wearing his trademark face paint) and entered the hospital room of Harvey Dent. He first apologized to Dent and maintained that he was not responsible for Rachel’s death as he lacked any idea for the repercussions of his actions (despite clearly having moral agency), while the restrained Dent attempted in vain to kill him. The Joker introduced the former D.A. to his view of the world that his time in Gotham had introduced him to, that people, or the "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.
To prove his argument, Joker pointed out that if his threats were aimed at 'gangbangers' or "soldiers", then people wouldn't really care as society trained them to see the death of such people as acceptable. Thus, Joker turned the disillusioned Dent against society and against the "schemers" who put his and Rachel’s lives in danger, namely the corrupt cops who kidnapped them, as well as the "schemers" who viewed Rachel's life to be expendable, namely Batman and Gordon. After he gave Dent a gun, the Joker advised him to break away from the law that failed him and turn to chaos, which he 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. Dent responded by flipping a coin to decide the Joker's fate, which gave him the same chance that Rachel had. Soon after Dent left, Joker detonated the hospital and skipped merrily away (pausing and hitting his detonator when most of the bombs temporarily failed to blow). He and his men then stole one of the nearby evacuation buses and kidnapped the TV reporter and his crew inside.
Gotham Under His Rule
The Social Experiment
| “ | Tonight you are all going to be part of a social experiment. For the magic of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, I am ready right now to blow you all sky high. Each of you has a remote to blow off the other boat. At midnight I blow you all up. If however one of you presses the button, I'll let that boat live. So whose it going to be? Harvey Dent's most wanted scumbag collection? Or the sweet and innocent civilians? Oh, and you might wanna decide quickly because the people on the other boat may not be quite so noble. | „ |
| ~ Joker |
The Joker declared that he would rule the streets and that anyone left in Gotham would be subjected to his rule. Joker told people that they could leave, but that he would have a surprise for them in the tunnel and on the bridge, which people then avoided, used two ferries instead: one ship full of ordinary civilians and one of the criminals, as Gordon feared the Joker would want to recruit them. However, the Joker had loaded each of the ferries with explosives, in the hopes of showing everyone how evil and corrupt they could be. Joker gave the passengers of each ship the detonator to the bombs to the other and offered both a chance at survival if they detonated the other ferry. If they didn't choose by midnight, the Joker would then blow up both ships thinking that one of the groups would go through with it.
Batman discovered not only the Joker's location at an unfinished skyscraper but that the majority of his "gang" were actually hostages who were wearing clown-masks with unloaded guns that were taped to their hands and that the people dressed as the hostages were the actual criminals. Batman was forced to fight not only the Joker's men, but the SWAT teams (who tried to stop him from interfering) as well in order to save the hostages.
Final Standoff and Arrest
| “ | I took Gotham's "White Knight" and I brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard. You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push! (laughs maniacally) | „ |
| ~ Joker's last words before his arrest. |
Batman finally confronted the Joker, which led to an intense fight between the two vigilantes (with the Joker using a metal bar and a knife). But, despite Batman's advanced technology and actual martial arts skill, Joker managed to get the upper-hand with his sheer unpredictability and his own smarts, and pinned Batman under a piece of scaffolding. He gleefully waited as the ferry's deadline neared, and was visibly disappointed when both groups of passengers refused to kill the other to save themselves. The civilians voted to blow up the other ferry but could not bring themselves to actually do so, while one of the convicts on the other ferry stepped forward, took the detonator, threw it out a window, and said that the cops should have done that from the start. As the deadline passed, Batman asked the Joker if he was trying to prove that everyone was as ugly as him deep down, and bluntly informed him that he was alone in both his corruption and insanity. Before Joker could detonate both ferries, Batman hit him with his shooting wrist-blades and threw him over the edge. The Joker started to laugh, no longer caring that his theory proved false as he fell down to die, but Batman refused to kill him, caught him with his Grapple Gun, and left him hanging for the police to capture, much to the Joker's menacing rage.
With that act, the Joker acknowledged that Batman really was incorruptible, but that Dent was no longer the "White Knight". He unleashed the scarred man onto the city. Joker stated that Dent was his "ace in the hole" in his plan to show the people of Gotham that everyone was corruptible, thus undoing Dent's work before his transformation into Two-Face. Batman then angrily left a laughing Joker to dangle while he pursued Harvey Dent. A SWAT team pointed their guns at the Joker and he was promptly arrested. Because of the actor playing the Joker's death, it is unknown what happened to him afterward. However, once could argue that because Joker showed a clear understanding of his actions despite being insane, he got a life or even death sentence.
Joker's Fate
Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker, died under mysterious circumstances due to a drug overdose before the movie was released but luckily, after the filming of the film was done, or at least his part. Out of respect for him, the filmmakers did not even mention the Joker whatsoever in the following film, The Dark Knight Rises. Thus, it was unknown what happened to the Joker after he was arrested. But according to the original script of the third movie, it was likely stated that the Joker was imprisoned far away from Gotham City (possibly Guantanamo Bay), and was never heard from again. Another likely scenario was that he died by the time of Bane's revolution, possibly by Bane, because the Joker wanted anarchy in Gotham whereas Bane wanted to destroy it.
Even after death, the Joker’s murder came true when Mayor Garcia was killed in at Gotham Stadium during Bane’s so-called liberation of Gotham.
The novelization of 'The Dark Knight Rises' placed Joker as possibly the one and only prisoner of Arkham Asylum, (the way Rudolf Hess was in Spandau Prison) or perhaps he had escaped. Nobody was really sure.