Batman's greatest enemy has arisen from the dead for one final jeer at the Dark Knight. And this time, he's more depraved than ever before.
The Film
- First things first, the teaser trailer itself
. A creepy, flashing red background with a monotonous, deep-voiced narrator accompanied by the occasional sound of the Joker's menacing laughter.- Making things worse was the fact that it was on every Warner Bros. kids' video in summer/fall 2000. Can you imagine being a kid planning on watching Scooby-Doo, only for that trailer to come onscreen and terrify you, especially when it was paired with the Warner Bros. Halloween ad?
- The opening fight with the Jokerz, particularly one moment when Terry faces off with the DeeDee Twins. He's momentarily on his knees and a bit groggy from a blow, and one twin is winding up for a kick to his head. As the scene goes quiet and you see her from Terry's wavering point of view, the utterly sadistic glee on her face and the disturbingly confident graceful movement to her upcoming attack clearly sends the message that this is going to hurt and she regards it as a high point of her life to get this chance to lay the Tomorrow Knight low.
- The first scene with the Joker:Chucko: Batman showed up and we had to ditch, but we were able to save this: The console's memory board. [slides the board to Joker, who is sitting across the table and catches it] I know it's not much, but—Joker: "It's not much"? It's nothing! [smashes the memory board] Losers, all of you. A disgrace to the name "Joker." Why, in my day--Chucko: [uneasily] Bonk...Joker: Ah, brave new world...that has such putzes in it.Bonk: He's got us running around, ripping a lot of geek junk, but no cash! He won't tell us what his plan is, even if he has one! I want out!Joker: [amused, pulls out a gun] If you insist...[The other Jokerz gasp]Bonk: [scared] Hey, man, take it easy! I-I was, I was just kidding![Joker fires, but a flag with the word BANG! pops out of the end of the gun]Joker: So was I! [chuckles and waves the gun. Everyone sighs, even Bonk. Then Joker shoots Joker Gas or the BANG! flag into Bonk's chest.] Oops! No, I wasn't.
- This scene is made even worse by the fact that Joker spends most of it with his face hidden in shadow, with the only parts consistently visible being his signature grin and blood red pupils.
- This is a considerably darker movie by DC Animated Universe standards. Something that really stands out is the attitude that Terry and Bruce have about Joker. For Terry, Joker is similar to how we, the audience, would view him: Scary, sure, but definitely as famous as Batman. But Bruce has absolutely no time for that romanticization of the past.Terry: It's funny. I know about all your other major enemies, but you never mentioned him. He was the biggest, wasn't he?
Bruce: It wasn't a popularity contest. He was a psychopath, a monster.- What truly sets the tone of the movie is just how afraid Bruce is the whole time to the point that he is ready to call his entire partnership with Terry off because he can't handle what Joker might do to Terry if he gets ahold of him. Not even a rogue Superman scares Bruce as much as Joker returning.
- The Joker in general in this film. In most other DCAU interpretations, especially with Mark Hamill voicing him, he's over the top, laughs a lot, and has a quirky air about him. In this movie? Joker is considerably colder, darker, and more cruel than you'd expect. He laughs a lot less than he usually does. Hell, when he first shows up, he doesn't even laugh, and speaks in a low and cold tone of voice for the majority of the scene. Even the very few who weren't shaken by his appearance in Phantasm will very easily be disturbed by him. Given that Hamill's Joker is very easily characterized by how over-the-top and expressive he is, to hear him limiting that to a select few moments is legitimately disturbing.
- That scene where Joker comes out of the floor at Wayne Enterprises and smiles at Bruce. Think about it this way. The nightmares that Bruce must’ve had about Joker that’s enough to drive anybody insane because, let’s be honest, Joker’s face alone could give you nightmares. It’s most certainly not a pretty face. In fact, it’s pretty damn terrifying when in the right circumstances.
- And that's before first-time viewers start considering the implications of Joker's comment that nobody would know him better than "Brucie". The only way that statement makes sense is if Joker is aware of Batman's Secret Identity, which raises all kinds of disturbing possibilities about how Joker learned that particular secret... and what Batman might have been forced to do to make sure his Arch-Enemy didn't share it with anyone else...
- A scene, shown only in storyboards as a bonus on the DVD, shows Terry, after he quits as Batman, following Bruce to the abandoned Arkham Asylum. Bruce enters, slowly walking through the dark and rundown remains of the infernal building, and stops, visibly unnerved, at a grisly, torn-down operating theater with some clownish decorations... (where we know all too well just what happened several decades earlier). As he painfully reminisces what happened in that ungodly hall, he looks up and freaks out at some unseen horror, storming out like a bat out of hell, barely missing Terry. Confused, Terry enters the theater, looks up, and sees a wretched ragdoll made to look like HIS Batsuit, wearing a wicked painted smile, and with two (if we understand the context) utterly chilling words written on it: "I KNOW." Even in its crude format, this scene's images of Arkham Asylum's silent, decaying halls and the Batman puppet are downright terrifying, doubly so when you understand this is a place where such twisted things happened that even the former Batman is scared.
- Not only does this scene work as further foreshadowing that Joker knows Bruce's identity, but it also explains why Bruce, who was in disbelief that Joker was truly back, is now urgently synthesizing the antidote to Joker's toxin. Until then, even if he had been cautious enough to get Terry out of Joker's way, Bruce wasn't fully convinced this Joker was the real deal. But seeing a clearly recent (as indicated by Joker's use of the current Batsuit) threat placed at the site where only FIVE people knew just what had happened, it became frighteningly clear: no matter how it's even possible, this IS Joker...and Bruce Wayne is next.
- Everything involving the flashback. It's possibly the most horrific, vile, and terrifying thing to ever happen in the entirety of the DCAU.
- Batman and Batgirl cautiously enter the abandoned Arkham Asylum, with the echoes of a woman's dissonantly calm voice singing "Hush Little Baby" all through the dark hallways. If this scene came without a prelude to hint that it was Harley who was still her usual self, it would have been very haunting.
- Anything involving Joker, particularly the following quote, which is positively chilling...Joker: We couldn't [adopt] legally, but then we remembered you always had a few spare kids hanging around. So we borrowed one...
- The way Batman just growls "I'll break you in two" at Joker. You know he means it.
- It goes further than just meaning to do it. When Batman is first tied up by Harley's bazooka, he does what you'd expect Batman to do: flip out a knife from a compartment in his glove and start sawing away at the threads. But when "Joker Jr." is revealed and Bruce sees what Joker's done to Tim, he snaps his bonds with a roar of rage and hurls the knife straight at Joker's face. Joker calmly ducks the knife and only now does he start laughing. Because no matter what happened next, Joker won; Batman finally snapped and tried to kill him.
- The score playing during this scene, "Joker Family Portrait", makes it all the worse. It starts off as a light and bouncy, if somewhat morbid, riff on '50s sitcom themes, complete with Mickey Mousing. Then everything stops dead with a sudden low piano chord as Tim is revealed Strapped to an Operating Table. As both he and Joker begin to laugh uncontrollably, the horns play a Dark Reprise of the earlier "family" leitmotif. Worst of all is the high, screaming electric guitar notes, apparently created with the vibrations from a music box.
- A line you'd never want to hear Joker say:Joker: But all too soon, the serums and the shocks took their toll, and the dear lad began to share such secrets with me... secrets that are mine alone to know... Bruce.
- We do kinda know that this line is coming, though, as it's hinted at twice earlier, first when Joker and his gang crash the party at Wayne Enterprises, and Bruce sees him for the first time in 40 years.Bruce: It can't be...Joker: Oh, no. Your old eyes do not deceive you, Brucie! After all, who'd know me better than you?
- And then all our fears are horrifyingly confirmed when Joker invades the Batcave and says the two words to Bruce we never wanted to hear:Joker: Hello... Batman. [Evil Laugh]
- We do kinda know that this line is coming, though, as it's hinted at twice earlier, first when Joker and his gang crash the party at Wayne Enterprises, and Bruce sees him for the first time in 40 years.
- After revealing to Batman that he knows who he really is, Joker says what may be the most sadistic and evil line ever said by ANY incarnation of the character:Joker: It's true, Batsy. I know everything. And kinda like the kid who peeks at his Christmas presents, I must admit it's sadly anti-climactic. Behind all the sturm and Batarangs, you're just a little boy in a playsuit crying for mommy and daddy! It'd be funny it weren't so pathetic... Ah, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway!
- Tim himself after what Joker does to him. Everything about "Little J" is just wrong; the stooped and awkward gait; the permanent (and probably surgical) rictus grin; the psychotic wide-eyed stare, and that laugh! Heck, just take a look for yourself!
- It can't be forgotten that Tim was tortured by Joker and Harley for three weeks. Think about that.
- Barbara is sure to note that those weeks were agonizing for her and Bruce as they searched for Tim. Think about it from their perspective. Their respective child/little brother is at the mercy of one of the worst criminals in all of Gotham. And despite all their connections and skills, no matter how much they tear apart the Gotham underworld to find Tim, they just can't find Tim because Joker has covered his tracks extremely well.
- Joker's Mind Rape of Tim is considered such a monstrous Moral Event Horizon at this point that even Harley Quinn isn't forgiven for helping him with it; she seemingly gets Killed Off for Real for itnote . And despite the implication that she genuinely cared about Tim, she's still particularly terrifying this time around, especially with her cheerfully blasé attitude towards what Joker did to Tim and how enthusiastic she is about trying to murder Batgirl.Harley: Okay, so he roughed the kid up a little! But I'll make it right!
Batgirl: Yeah, you're mother of the stinkin' year.
Harley: [grabs a boulder to bash Batgirl in the head with] You'll see... we'll be one big happy family! - The idea that Harley genuinely wanted a family actually makes her part in the situation even more horrific, if you think about it. She was perfectly willing to help Joker sacrifice an innocent boy's sanity for the sake of having a child of her own and shows no objections to it at all.
- To a lesser extent, this flashback marked the end of Harley's chances at redemption, at least in the Bat Family's eyes. She tried so hard in the original series to go straight but couldn't kick her love for Joker or her paranoia that the world hated her. Batman helped when he could, hearing her out and calming her down when seeing she was tortured at Arkham. After this night, it's implied Harley goes straight without Joker's influence but never resurfaces again, knowing that Batman and Batgirl would never forgive her. There's no apology, no water under the bridge because Tim is permanently traumatized and nothing Harley can do would make up for that. Laser-Guided Karma got to her; Joker recruited her granddaughters, who had inherited "Nana Harley's" murderous intent.
- Barbara's tired tone when she tells Terry they never found Harley's body, "but I doubt she'd be starting trouble now". There's regret, a bit of loathing, and frustration at how the tragedy went that she knew Harley could have been a better person.
- Pay attention to when Batman lets loose his Tranquil Fury and destroys the glass Joker is hiding behind and starts a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. For someone that is so confident in his plan for getting the last laugh on his arch-enemy, Joker actually freaks out and tries to stumble away briefly. Despite the bravado, he knows he pushed too deep, and that if he didn't watch himself carefully for his plans, Batman would genuinely kill him on the spot or at least disable him before he could even attempt anything; even he briefly fears the consequences of what he's wrought after hits that bad.
- The uncut version has Joker get the upper hand on Batman through a surprise knife attack, slashing his chest and stabbing it deep into his leg, enough so that it gets lodged in there and causes Batman to loudly cry out in pain. Made even worse by the fact that this is all but stated to be the reason for Bruce's limp in the present day.
- While it certainly doubles as a moment of awesome for him, the scene where Joker invades the Batcave and gasses Bruce is particularly nightmarish, especially the POV shot from Bruce's eyes, which now provides the "welcoming face" for this page.
- When Terry heads back to the Batcave after being assaulted in the nightclub, he finds the clock smashed, "HA-HA"s spray-painted all over the cave (and it's worse in the uncut version of the film; the paint is blood-red) and, worst of all, something you'd never expect: Bruce on the floor by the Batcomputer with a large smile on his face, apparently dead from Joker Venom.
- Doubles as Tear Jerker when you realize this is a Call-Back to Terry's origin as Batman. He came home to a similar scene one night and found his father inside, brutally murdered. The killer may even have painted/carved a smile on Warren McGinnis' face a la Heath Ledger's Joker (it was meant to look like an attack by a gang of Jokerz). Terry's whispered "Please, God, no…" says it all.
- Fortunately, Bruce is still alive, and is able to point Terry in the direction of the antidote to save him. Regardless, this doesn't make the scene look any less terrifying. To wit: Bruce regains consciousness with a loud gasp, looks at Terry...then starts laughing from the Joker Venom. Bruce manages to tell Terry where the antitoxin is as he keeps laughing and laughing. It's a masterful bit of voice acting from Kevin Conroy, but still terrifying.
- During the nightclub scene, after the Dee-Dees separate Terry and Dana, she immediately gets grabbed by Ghoul, who then proceeds to put a hand over her mouth. During the close-up, you see him lick his lips with an incredibly sadistic grin on his face before he pulls her off to the side and into the crowd. The whole thing reeks of sexual assault.
- One could argue the uncut version is darker, but Bonk's death in the re-edit version has him hit with Joker Venom and dying of laughter as slowly as possible with his teammates looking on in fear.
- The uncut version's pretty bad. Joker pulls out his fake "Bang!" Flag Gun. Bonk breathes a sight of relief. Then he and the audience find out it's a spear gun, and he's Blown Across the Room, dead. The other Jokerz stare at Bonk's corpse as Joker demands allegiance, before the Dee-Dees are ordered to dispose of said corpse.
- As mentioned in the commentary, truly the worst thing about that gun is how it's a double-subversion of the My Little Panzer trope: It has a bright neon-red plastic ring around the muzzle, just like all toy guns are supposed to have to keep police from mistaking them for real guns, needlessly endangering the children playing with them. Yet, in one of Joker's typically cruel violations of all things decent and sacred (in this case, childhood innocence), the gun is not a toy and not safe at all.
- The uncut version's pretty bad. Joker pulls out his fake "Bang!" Flag Gun. Bonk breathes a sight of relief. Then he and the audience find out it's a spear gun, and he's Blown Across the Room, dead. The other Jokerz stare at Bonk's corpse as Joker demands allegiance, before the Dee-Dees are ordered to dispose of said corpse.
- The scene where we see just what Joker did to Robin. And the edited version of it looked even worse. Just... that look on Batman's face as he sees the film.
- The Joker's deep, chilling voice narrating the events in both the cut and uncut versions of the film is truly terrifying, as well as the creepy music that accompanies it.
- "You've lost, Batman. Robin is mine. The last sound you hear will be our laughter." The way Joker says that line is what makes it truly creepy.
- And the blood from both Joker's and Batman's mouths in the uncut version doesn't help, either.
- Even more chilling is Joker's death scene, which varies depending on which version you watch.
- In the edited version, Joker gives Tim the laughing gas gun and tells him to "make [Batman] one of us." However, Batman's voice easily breaks through Tim's mind, and he tosses the gun away and pushes Joker into the very room he tortured Tim in for three agonizing weeks. Joker tries to resist, but Tim is able to overpower him and shoves him again, this time into one of the two tanks of water used to conduct the electric shocks. The Clown Prince of Crime, soaking wet and with an expression of utter fury on his face, tries going after Tim, but he slips and, in his haste to grab something to cushion his fall, accidentally turns on the electrode machine he used to torture Tim, sealing his fate. The scene immediately cuts to the outside of the room (providing us with a Reaction Shot from Barbara), where his horrifying death scream is heard! Nothing says it's Nightmare Fuel for kids like this one! And you thought the film developers were trying to make things any easier. It doesn't.
- The uncut version is even more terrifying: Joker tosses the "Bang!" Flag Spear Gun to Tim, then pulls Batman high as his trophy and says, "Make Daddy proud. Deliver the punchline." Besides his chilling voice, Tim giggles like a maniac and, if you've seen the scene with Bonk, you know what's gonna happen: He pulls the trigger once and the "Bang!" flag pops up. When Batman tries to calm him down with "Tim...", Tim keeps giggling and doesn't calm down very easily, only more slowly than the edited version. The giggling seems to increase in intensity as Tim cannot actually lower the gun, ultimately pointing it back at Batman. The Nightmare Fuel starts getting higher and higher as Joker, the blood still on his mouth, loudly barks out "DO IT!!!" with a horrible smile of triumph on his face. And the creepy music starts escalating up to eleven as Tim laughs more loudly and is about to pull the trigger as if this were the end of Batman. But once the boy finally fires the gun...the projectile doesn't hit Batman at all. Instead, it hits Joker in his chest, sending him flying across the room onto the giant building blocks. Tim couldn't actually stop himself, only having just enough willpower to aim the gun away from Batman at the last possible moment. Gasping weakly, Joker mutters out his ironic last words: "That's not funny... that's not..." The Nightmare Fuel finishes off with his dying gargle as he gets choked up in blood, and then his body falling lifelessly onto the floor as the projectile is driven into his chest. Truly a Family-Unfriendly Death that's less scary than the edited version, but still...
- Robin's disquieting laugh escalating into insanity before gradually fading into broken sobs.
- The Background Music that accompanies this terrifying flashback scene, "Arkham Mayhem," is almost all Nightmare Fuel and part Tear Jerker. Give it a listen...if you dare!
- One change that definitely is worse in the revised version is Joker's urging Tim to pull the trigger. The uncut version is an unambiguous "Make Daddy proud... deliver the punchline" meant to show Tim will kill Batman in the same manner Joker kills Bonk. However, the revised version is an unclear "Make him one of us." While this could mean that Batman will die with a smile on his face, there could be another, more terrifying option: Joker plans to do to Batman what he did to Tim.
- We already have a clear idea what a Jokerized-Batman looks like in the form of "The Batman Who Laughs" and it's... not pretty.
- Barbara's final quote to summarize the story really sells how evil it truly was.Barbara: With his last act of cruelty, the Joker had tainted us all with compromise and deception. I suppose he had the last laugh after all.
- Barbara says it took a year for Tim to regain sanity, thanks to Leslie Thompkins. As we see, he was never the same regardless of the treatment.
- Grand Theft Me is quite chilling in virtually any work of fiction, and this film certainly offers no exception. Joker states that, with time, he will learn to permanently suppress Tim's natural consciousness, effectively causing a Death of Personality.
- Also, as he's using Tim's body, he can impersonate Tim's voice and effectively deceive people—including Tim's own wife—through phone calls.
- Based on how Tim reacts when he throws the electrified ball/claw at Terry, it seems like Joker can be in complete control while still looking and sounding like Tim.
- Worse still, it's implied that Tim's still in control when Terry first confronts him in the factory, only for Joker snatch it from him. He seems to suffer a PTSD attack just beforehand, almost seeming to realize that Joker is in his head before the Clown Prince of Crime takes over again.Tim: Fun and games. Boy Wonder playing the hero. Fighting the bad guys, and no one ever gets... Oh, God. I killed him. I didn't mean to. I tried so hard to forget, but I still hear the shot. Still see his dead smile! Every night, the dreams get stronger. He's there when I sleep, whispering, LAUGHING, telling me I'm just as bad as he is! We're both the same!
Terry: I'm calling an ambulance.
Tim: [collects himself] No, I'm alright. Forgive me, Terry. Old, nasty memories twisting inside me like bad oysters. Nothing really. I'm perfectly fine now.
Terry: How do you know my name?
"Tim": There's nothing about you I don't know, Bat-fake.- When Terry questions Tim about Joker's whereabouts, Tim doesn't argue in the least and honestly states he doesn't know where Joker is. While this at least seems he's confessing to dealing with Joker, his statement takes an uncomfortable turn when he starts incoherently recounting how he stopped doing things like this long ago. The fact he grows more and more detached saying all this makes it clear that something is very wrong.
- Tim knocks off the beakers before making his hideous transformation into Joker via microchip. His voice evolves into that of the Clown Prince of Crime, which makes it all the scarier. Even Bruce is disturbed by it.Bruce: [eyes wide in shock as he watches on the Batcomputer] My... God...
- Joker's Villainous Breakdown. Imagine, if you will, as Joker's usual demeanor is chipped away piece by piece as Terry openly mocks him to try and catch him off-guard. First, he gets snappy, which isn't so bad. Then he screams "YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!" and completely loses it, then manages to swing a table at Terry... a little surprising. Pinning Terry down with the table, standing on top of it, yanking the mask off, and proceeding to strangle Terry, producing one of his most insane laughs ever given, sounding more and more unhinged as he speaks? Downright scary, especially when you get a POV shot from Terry's eyes for a few seconds.Joker: [looking furious and euphoric] C'mon, McGinnis... Laugh it up now! You miserable little punk! LAUGH! IIIIII CAAAAAAN'T HEEEEAAAAAR YOOOOU!
- Harley finds out at the end of the movie that her granddaughters were involved with her ex. She comes under an assumed name with Anger Born of Worry and a bit of guilt, smacking the girls and telling them off for breaking her heart. Even though they're released into her custody, Harley says she hopes the law throws the book at them at their trial. Character Development or Parental Hypocrisy? And if Justice League Unlimited is any hint, her strict parenting didn't reform the girls.
Behind the Scenes/Other
- The fact that, despite voicing Joker for nearly a decade by this point, Mark Hamill actually felt uncomfortable voicing him in this film. Let's put that in perspective. In the original series, Joker repeatedly killed people in droves, abused his girlfriend, stalked a guy for years on end, and created Joker Venom which is basically Nightmare Fuel in gas form. All of which was turned up to eleven in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. And yet what Joker did in this movie unnerved his voice actor.
- Some viewers of this movie might be wondering why the opening credits feel so empty, with nothing but a black screen and flashing text. There exists a deleted version of an abandoned opening title sequence intended to play alongside the remixed opening of the Batman Beyond theme. From start to finish, this opening is Nightmare Fuel as credits pan across blood cells, cranial nerves, and collections of dendrites and neurons. To make it worse, it also reveals a microchip forcefully inserted into a human brain complete with nanowires feeding into it. As it turns out, this is foreshadowing as we are getting an inside look at the Joker's nanochip that was forced inside Tim during the former's torture sequence done to brainwash him. This was likely deemed to be disturbing enough that it had to be cut altogether. It has to be seen to be believed.note
- The Deleted Scene in which Terry follows Bruce to the Joker's gravesite at the old Arkham building. Bruce walks through the desolated hallways, passing by the old cells that were originally occupied by some of the Rogues Gallery (Poison Ivy, Two Face, and Riddler, specifically), before finally reaching the operating theatre. He walks up to the table we will later see "Little J" strapped to, before noticing a shadow above him. He looks up, and a horrified expression crosses his face. Just as Terry reaches the door himself, he has to quickly dive out of the way to avoid being seen by Bruce, who runs out absolutely terrified. As soon as he leaves, Terry enters the theatre himself, glancing around the room before finally looking up and seeing what Bruce saw that got him so spooked: the Joker's corpse, hanging from the rafters, grinning down at him. Someone dug it up and left it there as a chilling message for Bruce. And written on the body's chest, we see that message is just two simple words: I KNOW.
