| Joker | |
|---|---|
| Tim Burton'sBatman character | |
 Jack Nicholson as the Joker inBatman | |
| First appearance | Batman (1989) |
| Last appearance | Batman (1989) |
| Based on | |
| Adapted by | |
| Portrayed by | Jack Nicholson Other
|
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Jack Napier |
| Occupation | Mobster Hitman (formerly) |
| Home | Gotham City |
Jack Napier, also known as theJoker, is a fictional character introduced in the 1989superhero filmBatman, directed byTim Burton. Primarily portrayed byJack Nicholson, the character was based on theDC Comics supervillain theJoker.[1] His name is aplay on the wordJackanapes, as well as a reference to the names Jack Nicholson andAlan Napier, the latter having portrayedAlfred Pennyworth in the 1960sBatman TV series and having died the previous year.[2][3] This depiction is notable for being one of the first adaptations of the character to have a distinct first and last name, as well as one of the few instances which show his origins. This iteration of the Joker is apsychopathic gangster who serves as the right-hand man ofGotham City crime boss Carl Grissom until he is disfigured following a confrontation with the vigilanteBatman; his disfigurement drives him insane, and he becomes a costumed criminal mastermind obsessed with "out-doing" the Dark Knight, whom he believes is getting too much press, in addition to seeking revenge against him.
Ever since Nicholson's portrayal in the film, the name Jack Napier has been used by various adaptations of the character, includingBatman: The Animated Series andBatwoman, in which he is respectively voiced and portrayed byMark Hamill and Nathan Dashwood, and theMurphyverse. This interpretation of the character is also responsible for the deaths ofThomas andMartha Wayne, the parents of Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne inBatman.[4][5]
Even as a child, Jack Napier was psychologically unstable, but extremely intelligent, showing an advanced knowledge of chemistry, art and science; he was also in and out of juvenile detention facilities for crimes such as arson, assault, and grand theft auto. Napier was charged withassault with a deadly weapon at age 15.
As a young man, Napier and his accompliceJoe Chill tried to robThomas andMartha Wayne in the alleyway behind the Monarch Theatre, and while Chill seeks to steal Martha's pearl necklace with no desire of harming anyone, Napier murders the couple for his sadistic pleasure, leaving their young sonBruce as the only survivor. Napier prepares to kill Bruce as well, saying to the boy, "Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moon light?" – his favorite thing to say with a maniacal grin right before killing someone. Chill entreats him to run before the police arrive, however, so Napier spares Bruce and leaves, saying in passing, "See ya around, kid."[6]
Years later, Napier moves up in the ranks of theGotham City mafia, eventually becoming the right-hand-man of crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). He carries a deck of playing cards pierced from front to back by an earlier gunshot, and often performs sleight-of-hand with them or tosses them into his hat during idle moments. Napier privately dislikes Grissom, dismissing him as a "tired old man", and carries on an affair with his boss' moll Alicia Hunt (Jerry Hall). Grissom finds out about the affair and sets him up to be killed by Lt. Max Eckhardt (William Hootkins), aGotham City Police Department cop on his payroll. The killing is to occur atAxis Chemicals, one of the mob's front companies, where Grissom sends Napier under the pretense of stealing incriminating documents.
Gotham City PoliceCommissioner James Gordon (Pat Hingle) and the masked vigilanteBatman (Michael Keaton) intervene separately, disrupting the theft. Napier kills Eckhardt and shoots at Batman, who deflects the bullet with one of his gauntlets so that it ricochets back at Napier, wounding him in the face. Reeling from the pain, Napier stumbles and topples over a railing; Batman tries unsuccessfully to pull him up, and he falls into a vat of chemicals. He survives, but the chemicals turn his skin chalk-white, his lips red, and his hair green, while a botched attempt at plastic surgery leaves him with a permanentrictus grin that coincidentally makes him look like theJoker from his cards. Driven insane by his reflection, Napier – now calling himself "Joker" – kills Grissom and takes over his criminal empire.
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Styling himself as "The World’s First Fully-Functioning Homicidal Artist", Joker becomes obsessed with "outdoing" the Dark Knight, whom he believes is stealing the spotlight from him. Aided by his right-hand man Bob (Tracey Walter), Joker massacres the rest of Grissom's associates at a press conference and begins poisoning cosmetic products with "Smylex", a chemical agent that causes its victims to laugh hysterically as they die, leaving their corpses with a permanent smile. He also turns Alicia into one of his "masterpieces" by disfiguring her face and drugging her into submission; she eventually commits suicide, with Joker being unconcerned with her death, instead eyeingVicki Vale (Kim Basinger).
Joker becomes obsessed with her, and attacks her while she meets with her boyfriend, billionaire Bruce Wayne – Batman's alter ego. Believing Wayne to be harmless, Joker taunts him with his signature line and shoots him. Wayne survives, having been wearing makeshift body armor under his jacket, and recognizes Joker as his parents' killer.
Joker announces via television broadcast that he plans to give out $20 million at Gotham City's 200th anniversary parade, and challenges Batman to meet him there. Joker keeps his promise of giving away the money, before releasing an airborne toxic version of Smylex onto the crowd via parade floats, killing dozens of people. Batman arrives in theBatwing and removes the balloons before Joker uses a revolver to shoot the plane out of the sky, causing it to crash on the steps of the Gotham City Cathedral.
Joker kidnaps Vale and takes her to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Batman. As they fight, each admits that he is responsible for the existence of the other. Batman knocks Joker off the roof, but Joker pulls him and Vale after himself and leaves them dangling from a ledge. As Joker attempts to escape via helicopter, Batman fires a cable that ties a heavy stone gargoyle to his ankle. The gargoyle breaks free of its mounting, dragging Joker off the helicopter rope ladder and causing him to fall to his death. Gordon finds Joker's corpse, with an activatedlaugh-box in the pocket of his tailcoat.
Though gone, Joker continues to haunt Wayne and appears in his nightmares, particularly different versions of their confrontation in the cathedral where Joker hints that he knows Batman is Wayne. Wayne himself wrestles with the idea of informing Gordon that Napier was the one who killed his parents but decides against it to avoid the risk of exposing his identity as Batman.
As a result of the Joker's rampage, Wayne funds and opens the Smylex Ward of the Gotham General Hospital to treat the damaged survivors, one of which isKarlo Babić, who was affected by Smylex-laced products smuggled from Central City and rendered comatose. When Babić awakens, he discovers that he can alter his face and voice at will to impersonate anyone. The head of the ward, Dr. Hugh Auslander, who is actually Dr.Hugo Strange using an alias, subsequently manipulates Babić into posing as the Joker to cover his actions while digging up and hiding the actual Joker's corpse to make it look as if the Joker has returned from the dead. Batman and Gordon eventually piece the mystery together and realise that the new Joker is Babić, who subsequently betrays Strange and helps Batman foil his plan to unleash his own Hegemon gas on Gotham and hold the city to ransom.
After Strange is incarcerated and Babić turns himself in, the Joker's body is found and reburied.
Several actors were considered for the role of the Joker before Nicholson was cast.Robin Williams,Tim Curry,Willem Dafoe,[7]Ray Liotta,David Bowie, andJames Woods were all considered. Burton initially wanted to castcharacter actorJohn Glover (who would later appear inBatman & Robin asDr. Jason Woodrue and voicethe Riddler inBatman: The Animated Series). Burton also consideredBrad Dourif;[8][9] but ultimately the studio insisted on using a bankablemovie star.[10]John Lithgow met with Burton about the part, but during their discussion attempted to talk the budding director out of casting him, which would be something he would later regret. Lithgow was also directorJoe Dante's first choice for the role of the Joker when he was attached to direct the film in the early 1980s.[11] Jack Nicholson had been the studio's top choice since 1980.Jon Peters approached Nicholson as far back as 1986, during filming ofThe Witches of Eastwick.Peter Guber took Burton and Nicholson on ahorseback riding excursion inAspen to get the pair acquainted and convince him to take the role. Nicholson's contract featured an "off-the-clock" agreement, specifying the number of hours he could have off, and allowed him to take time off to attendLos Angeles Lakers home games.[12][13][14][15][16]
Nicholson chose to take a lower fee up front in exchange for a higher percentage of the profits of the film, including toys and merchandise. As a result, instead of the $10 million he would normally have received, he made more than $50 million.[17]
As a part of Nicholson's contract, he was allowed to have approval over the makeup designer to create the look of the character. Nicholson choseNick Dudman as his makeup designer. Dudman used an acrylic-based makeup for the bleached white face. Dudman cited the scene in the art gallery where Napier gets splashed with water by Vicki Vale as being the most difficult effect to achieve. To create the smile, Dudman did a regular face cast of Nicholson with a relaxed face, then asked him to do another one while pulling the largest grin he could muster. Dudman attempted to sculpt a smile that was always there but would take full effect when Nicholson smiled in the makeup; he also worked to ensure that the prosthetics wouldn't dilute Nicholson's face.[18][19]
The character's origin in the film of falling into a vat of chemicals was inspired by the then-recent graphic novelBatman: The Killing Joke, written byAlan Moore. However, certain elements of the character's origin were changed, including making him having been a gangster rather than a failed stand-up comedian, and cutting theRed Hood persona from the character. Napier is seen to have always been a criminal, having been responsible for the deaths ofThomas andMartha Wayne, rather thanJoe Chill, who instead serves as his accomplice.[20][21]
In the cancelled fifth film in theseries, titledBatman Unchained, Nicholson was intended to return as the character via hallucinations fromScarecrow's Fear Toxins. The character ofHarley Quinn was also rumored to have been involved in the story, and this adaptation was supposed to be the character's daughter, rather than girlfriend, who was seeking revenge on Batman for the death of her father.[22] However, due to the critical and commercial failure ofBatman & Robin, the project was scrapped.
The Batman series would be rebooted in 2005 by directorChristopher Nolan withBatman Begins. The sequel to the film,The Dark Knight, featured theJoker portrayed by actorHeath Ledger. Ledger died before the film's release, and won theAcademy Award forBest Supporting Actor posthumously.[23][24] Nicholson was among many who praised Ledger's performance.[citation needed]
On April 11, 2024, it was announced that a new novel entitledBatman: Resurrection would be released which would tie-in to theBatman 1989 film. The premise of the novel teased the idea that in the wake of the aftermath of the movie's events, as Batman strove to dismantle the remnants of the Joker's organization, that the Joker himself, might in fact still be alive.[25] However, it is actuallyClayface (Basil Karlo) who impersonates the Joker after undergoing horrific mutation after the exposure of the Smylex compound under the manipulation of the novel's chief antagonistHugo Strange, who is retroactively established as the Joker's scientist at Axis Chemicals, portrayed by Michael Balfour. Strange steals Napier's body so he can start the rumors of the Joker's survival and takes command of the Last Laugh, a criminal gang who modeled themselves after the Joker, by using Karlo. The real Joker had appeared in the novel via flashbacks, including that he had encountered the meekSelina Kyle outside the Flugelheim Museum after Batman's escape with Vicki Vale and was a criminal acquaintance of her employer Max Shreck.
Since the film's release, many different interpretations of the character of the Joker have featured Jack Napier as his real name.[5][26]
Nicholson's portrayal as The Joker was acclaimed by fans and critics alike. For his performance as the character, Nicholson was nominated for theGolden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, but lost toMorgan Freeman inDriving Miss Daisy.[32] Nicholson was also nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role by theBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts but lost toRay McAnally inMy Left Foot.[33] Nicholson's adaptation of the character was placed as the 45th best movie villain of all time on theAmerican Film Institute's list of100 Heroes and Villains;Michael Keaton'sBatman placed as the 46th greatest hero on the same list.[34][35][36][37]
Heath Ledger, who portrayedthe character inChristopher Nolan's 2008 filmThe Dark Knight, cited Nicholson's portrayal as an influence on his interpretation of the character: "This character was too good to turn down. And yes, it would be a crime to attempt to [step in or to] follow Jack Nicholson's footpath that he so heavily stands into my memory of The Joker. I mean, I adore what he did and him in general."[38]Mark Hamill, who voiced the character inBatman: The Animated Series, as well as in theBatman: Arkham video game series, has also cited Nicholson's adaptation of the character as an influence, but was told by show producers to avoid using Nicholson's Joker as a direct source of inspiration.[39][40][41][42]
The character's quote "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" has become synonymous with the character as well as one of the character's most iconic phrases. The quote was nominated for theAmerican Film Institute's100 Movie Quotes list, but did not make the list.[43][44] The quote was the title track for the unreleased song written byPrince for hissoundtrack for the film. The track, titled "Dance with the Devil", was cut by Prince due to the darker tone of the song not fitting in with the rest of the upbeat songs on the soundtrack. It was replaced at the last second with "Batdance". Throughout the music videos for the singles released from the album, Prince was dressed as an amalgam of Nicholson's Joker and Keaton's Batman in a persona he titledGemini. Nicholson's Joker can be heard in soundbytes during songs like "Batdance" and "Partyman".[45][46][47][48][49][50]
Nicholson got the part of the Joker over the likes of Robin Williams, Willem Dafoe, James Woods and David Bowie; he demanded top-billing and a deal that gave him royalties on merchandise.(subscription required)
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