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Scene Map 42
# PG SLUGLINE
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Scene Map
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# PG SLUGLINE
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INT. DEPT. OF HEALTH, OFFICE - MORNING CLOSE ON ARTHUR (30's), tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. He's trying to get it under control. His greasy, black hair hanging down over his forehead. He's wearing an old, faded green cardigan sweater, a threadbare gray scarf, thin
2
EXT. GOTHAM SQUARE, MIDTOWN - AFTERNOON - DAYS LATER CLOSE ON ARTHUR, NOW DRESSED UP AS A CLOWN, painted white face... Wide red smile outlined in black around his mouth... Bulbous red nose... Bald cap with two patches of frizzy green hair sticking out over the ears, little bowler hat... Too-
3
EXT. CORNER, ALLEY - GOTHAM SQUARE - CONTINUOUS The five boys are booking it down the busy street laughing and whooping it up. At the last second they take a sharp right turn down an alley-- Arthur almost overshoots the corner, slip-sliding in his
4
EXT. THE BRONX, STREET - SUNSET The bus pulls away, sun almost gone. Arthur heads slowly limping down the litter-covered streets. Garbage is piled along the sidewalks, the air thick with smog creates a haze over everything.
5
INT. MOM'S BEDROOM, APARTMENT - NIGHT Arthur sets the food down in front of his mother lying in bed. The TV's on, playing the local news. PENNY He must not be getting my letters.
6
INT. TALK SHOW SET, STAGE - STUDIO 4B - CONTINUOUS SPOTLIGHT ON SHIMMERING MULTICOLORED CURTAINS PARTING, AND OUT DANCES MURRAY FRANKLIN (late 60's) doing an old soft shoe to the jazzy tune Ellis Drane is playing him out to. Audience cheering and applauding loudly for him. Murray takes a little
7
INT. MOM'S BEDROOM, APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Arthur looks over at his mother lying next to him, her eyes glued to the TV, hears the studio audience applauding, blue light flickering over her face-- CUT TO:
8
INT. HA-HA'S TALENT BOOKING, LOCKER ROOM - DAY The cramped locker room of a small talent booking agency. This is where Arthur works. They "rent out" talent for parties and events. Clowns, magicians, male strippers. Arthur takes off his shirt in front of his open locker,
9
INT. FRONT OFFICE, HA-HA'S TALENT BOOKING - DAY Arthur still half-dressed, walks into the cramped office. His boss, HOYT VAUGHN (60's) sits behind a metal desk. The office is a complete mess, newspapers and files litter the desk. A giant ashtray filled with cigarette butts. A calendar
10
EXT. BACK ALLEY, OUTSIDE HA-HA'S - DAY WE'RE AT THE FAR END OF AN ALLEY, about halfway down, catch a glimpse of Arthur still half-dressed on the other side of a dumpster. From this vantage, all we can see is him furiously KICKING and STOMPING on something... or somebody.
11
INT. MOM'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NIGHT ARTHUR'S GIVING HIS MOM A BATH, being careful with her as he shampoos her hair. 20. He fills an empty plastic container with some bath water.
12
INT. HA-HA'S TALENT BOOKING, LOCKER ROOM - DAY Arthur is putting on his make-up, using the small mirror in his locker. Behind him a couple other clowns are eating their lunch at a small table, not paying Arthur any attention. Arthur pauses half-finished, and stares at himself for a
13
EXT. PHONE BOOTH, GOTHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL - DUSK Arthur's in a cramped graffiti-covered phone booth on a busy street corner outside Gotham General, trash piled high. He's in his street clothes, clown-face still painted on, green wig still on his head.
14
EXT. SUBWAY PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS The platform is empty, the Wall Street guy is running toward the stairs-- Arthur follows, blood still dripping from his nose-- Behind them, the train pulls away--
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INT. STAIRWAY, HA-HA'S TALENT BOOKING - MORNING Arthur walks down the stairs, brown shopping bag under his arm. Behind him, Randall follows him into the stairway-- RANDALL
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INT. MOM'S APARTMENT, KITCHEN - MORNING CLOSE ON A COUPLE OF PILLS BOTTLES, THEY'RE NEARLY EMPTY NOW. PENNY (OS) Happy, look Thomas Wayne is on TV. ARTHUR
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INT. DEPT. OF HEALTH, OFFICE - DAY Arthur sits across from the same Social Worker from the opening scene. Same depressing office. He takes a drag from his cigarette-- ARTHUR
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INT. COMEDY CLUB, BACKSTAGE HALLWAY - NIGHT ARTHUR'S POV, slowly walking down the hall-- as if in slow motion-- toward a set of stairs leading up to the back of the stage, spotlight bleeding through the curtain, other wannabe comics looking at him as he passes--
19
EXT. COMEDY CLUB, CHINATOWN STREET - NIGHT Arthur and Sophie walking out of the club after the show. They walk past a newsstand-- a wall of Chinese language newspapers mixed with local papers and tabloids, screaming headlines about the three Wall Street Guys gunned down on the
20
INT. MOM'S BEDROOM, APARTMENT - EARLY MORNING ARTHUR'S SITTING IN A CHAIR in his mother's room watching her sleep. He has clearly been up all night. Still wearing the same clothes. He's holding her letter in his hand as the sun is just
21
INT. METRO TRAIN (MOVING) - COUNTRYSIDE, OUTSIDE GOTHAM - AFTERNOON PUSHING PAST ROWS AND ROWS OF WHITE BUSINESSMEN, many of them reading one of Gotham's two tabloids. On the cover of one, a detailed sketch of Arthur's clown face, headlined, "KILLER
22
EXT. THE BRONX, STREETS - NIGHT ARTHUR'S BACK IN HIS PART OF TOWN, garbage everywhere here. The neighborhood at night is alive. Loud kids on the street corners... A drunk seemingly fights no one... Sirens wailing...
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INT. HOSPITAL ROOM (SHARED), CITY HOSPITAL - NIGHT PENNY LIES IN BED UNCONSCIOUS, HOOKED UP TO MACHINES. Arthur sits bedside, distraught. Sophie is next to him... rubbing his back. SOPHIE
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INT. MOM'S APARTMENT, BEDROOM - NIGHT FROM ABOVE, looking down on Arthur hunched over, lying on his side in his mother's bed, his left arm below frame-- hard to tell if he's in pain or beating off. He reaches out his right arm to where his mother slept, the
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INT. WAYNE HALL, THEATER - CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS - DUSK ANGLE ON MOVIE SCREEN PLAYING "MODERN TIMES", FACE OF A ROMAN NUMERAL CLOCK FILLS THE FRAME, and up fades the forward... "Modern Times". A story of industry, of individual
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INT. SECOND LEVEL, BALCONY - WAYNE HALL - NIGHT ARTHUR MAKING HIS WAY THROUGH THE SHADOWS ALONG THE BACK WALL OF THE BALCONY, a birds-eye-view, looking around for Thomas Wayne in the sold-out black-tie audience-- He catches bits of the silent movie projected down on stage
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INT. BEDROOM, MOM'S APARTMENT - MORNING Sunshine peeking through bedroom windows. Arthur's eyes are open, he's been awake all night, he still hasn't slept. 63. Phone starts ringing in the kitchen, he lets the machine pick
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INT. HALLWAY, ARKHAM STATE HOSPITAL - MORNING Arthur running down the hallway, files in his hands. Frantic. Unaware he is not being chased. Turns a corner and runs down another long hallway-- Gets to a stairwell door and runs in.
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EXT. THE BRONX, STEEP STAIRWAY - NIGHT IT'S POURING RAIN. Arthur walks up the long, steep concrete stairway up toward his building-- INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, ELEVATOR - NIGHT
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INT. BLUE CURTAIN, HOSPITAL ROOM (SHARED) - CONTINUOUS Other side of the blue divider curtain. We see Arthur's feet shifting a little. SLOWLY WE PULL OUT, backing out of the room. Leaving behind whatever Arthur's doing to his mother on the other side of
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INT. MOM'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NEXT AFTERNOON ARTHUR'S LEANING OVER THE BATHROOM SINK, water running. He's wearing rust colored pants and a white "beater" T-shirt. "Rock n' Roll (Part 1)" blaring from a transistor radio. Arthur lifts his head. He's dyed his hair green like his old
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INT. MOM'S BEDROOM, APARTMENT - LATE AFTERNOON (Over the following, we don't see Arthur's face. We don't reveal his finished "look" just yet.) CLOSE PICKING UP HIS NOTEBOOK, fanning through the pages-- INT. LIVING ROOM, MOM'S APARTMENT - LATE AFTERNOON
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EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREET, THE BRONX - CONTINUOUS Joker running like his hair is on fire past guys hanging out on the sidewalk, glances behind to see if the two cops are chasing after him-- Doesn't see them yet, looks back forward and--
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EXT. NCB STUDIOS, FRANKLIN THEATER - MIDTOWN - DUSK WIDE SHOT, excited line of ticket holders waiting to get into "Live with Murray Franklin!" The poster marquee box near the door reads: "TONIGHT'S GUESTS. Lance Reynolds. Dr. Sally Friedman. And Special Guest."
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INT. DRESSING ROOM, FRANKLIN THEATER - CONTINUOUS Joker's sitting on a small couch in the cramped dressing room, watching the local news on a TV that's mounted up on the wall, live shots from the subway station where Burke shot the protestor, footage of the City Hall rally, clashes with
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INT. BACKSTAGE, BEHIND CURTAIN - STUDIO 4B - NIGHT JOKER'S BACKSTAGE AT THE EDGE OF THE CURTAIN, trying to watch the show through a slim gap. Behind him there's a monitor on a cart playing the live feed. He moves the curtain aside to get a better look-- Glimpses
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INT. DIRECTOR'S BOOTH, STUDIO 4B - CONTINUOUS Dead silence in the booth, everybody's just staring at the monitors. TECHNICAL DIRECTOR (looks to the director)
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INT. DIRECTOR'S BOOTH, STUDIO 4B - CONTINUOUS The director stares at the monitor. DIRECTOR Did he just confess to killing the Wall Street Three?
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INT. TALK SHOW SET, STAGE - STUDIO 4B - CONTINUOUS Back on set, we can tell by the way Murray's now interviewing Joker, talking to him slower, more thoughtfully, that he thinks this is gonna get him an Emmy... Maybe even a Peabody. 94.
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INT. SOPHIE'S APARTMENT, LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Sophie screams and jumps to her feet horrified! Waking up GiGi who starts to cry when she sees what's on television-- ANGLE ON TELEVISION, Joker gets up and walks right up to the camera. Blood sprayed over his white painted face. Hear the
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INT. GOTHAM SQUAD CAR (MOVING), GOTHAM STREETS - NIGHT DEAD SILENCE. JOKER GAZING OUT THE WINDOW, at all the violence and madness in the city. We only see it in the reflection of the glass... the fires burning... the mob crowding the streets. Joker's handcuffed in the back of the
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EXT. MOVIE THEATER, STREET - UPTOWN - NIGHT A LIMOUSINE ON FIRE SLOWLY ROLLS THROUGH FRAME as if in slow- motion, we pan with it to-- A WELL-HEELED CROWD LETTING OUT OF A MOVIE THEATER, coming upon the car on fire, realizing the violence has reached

Joker

A mentally ill loner, driven to the brink of madness by societal neglect and abuse, transforms into a murderous villain who becomes the symbol of a growing anti-establishment movement.

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Overview

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Unique Selling Point

This screenplay stands out for its deep psychological exploration of a character often seen as a villain, providing a nuanced perspective on mental health and societal issues. It combines elements of tragedy and dark humor, making it compelling for audiences interested in character-driven narratives that challenge conventional storytelling.

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Claude
 Recommend
GPT4
 Highly Recommend
Average Score: 8.9
Story Facts

Genres: Drama, Thriller, Comedy

Setting: Contemporary, Gotham City

Themes: Mental Illness and Isolation, Violence and Chaos in Society, Identity and Self-Discovery, Social Inequality and Class Divide, Comedy and Tragedy

Conflict & Stakes: The primary conflicts in this story revolve around Arthur's descent into madness, his search for identity and purpose, and the societal tensions and violence that arise as a result of his actions. The stakes include Arthur's personal well-being, his relationships, and the stability of Gotham City.

Mood: Dark, gritty, and unsettling

Standout Features:

  • Character Transformation: Arthur's transformation into the Joker is a standout feature that explores the nature of identity and madness.
  • Social Commentary: The film's exploration of societal inequality and the consequences of neglect and abuse adds depth and relevance.
  • Performance: Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the Joker is a standout feature that has garnered critical acclaim and awards recognition.

Comparable Scripts: Joker (2019), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), The King of Comedy (1982), American Psycho (2000)

Script Level Analysis

Writer Exec

This section delivers a top-level assessment of the screenplay’s strengths and weaknesses — covering overall quality (P/C/R/HR), character development, emotional impact, thematic depth, narrative inconsistencies, and the story’s core philosophical conflict. It helps identify what’s resonating, what needs refinement, and how the script aligns with professional standards.

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Overall Score: 8.00
Story Critique
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Characters

Explores the depth, clarity, and arc of the main and supporting characters.

Emotional Analysis

Breaks down the emotional journey of the audience across the script.

Goals and Philosophical Conflict
Evaluates character motivations, obstacles, and sources of tension throughout the plot.
Themes
Analysis of the themes of the screenplay and how well they’re expressed.
Logic & Inconsistencies
Highlights any contradictions, plot holes, or logic gaps that may confuse viewers.

Scene Analysis

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Writer Exec

This section looks at the extra spark — your story’s voice, style, world, and the moments that really stick. These insights might not change the bones of the script, but they can make it more original, more immersive, and way more memorable. It’s where things get fun, weird, and wonderfully you.

Unique Voice
Assesses the distinctiveness and personality of the writer's voice.
Writer's Craft
Analyzes the writing to help the writer be aware of their skill and improve.
Memorable Lines
Spotlights standout dialogue lines with emotional or thematic power.
Tropes
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World Building
Evaluates the depth, consistency, and immersion of the story's world.
Correlations
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Loglines
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