The screenplay for Joker, the blockbuster produced by Todd Philips and written by Philips and Scott Silver, is now available for all to read online.
It has a few cut scenes with Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), who is Arthur Fleck’s (Joaquin Phoenix) neighbour. It also features an introduction by the writers, detailing the tone of the film and its connection to the DC Extended Universe and the year.
Sophie was seen walking into her apartment to find Arthur there, a man she hardly knew. As for Arthur, he had been imagining them together in a relationship for a few weeks, in a delusional state, split from reality.
After Arthur realised that Sophie’s feelings for him were all imagined, he left. Fans wondered if he did anything to her or her daughter before we see him in the next shot. Did Arthur kill Sophie? This has been a mystery fans were wondering for a while and it was fuelled by the fact that he was a staggeringly unreliable narrator.
Phillips said that Sophie was alive, after the movie was released, and that scenes cut from the film would have let viewers know it. We can now see what these moments were in the script.
On Page 78, the first moment happens, after Arthur kills Randall. He then takes cash out of his wallet and then leaves the cash along with a note (to watch him on Murray Franklin) on Sophie’s doorstep.
On Page 96, the next moment features Sophie reacting in horror after watching Arthur kill Murray on TV.
Philips revealed that he cut Sophie’s reaction moment specifically because it changes with the film’s motif of always keeping things from Arthur’s perspective. It would have been a moment away from Arthur and away from people he was directly dealing with.
At year’s end, Joker has dominated the box office, becoming the first R-rated movie to gross over US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion). It also earned multiple Golden Globe nominations, including for Best Motion Picture and Best Performance By An Actor In A Drama for star Joaquin Phoenix.