All it takes is one bad day.
Warner Bros. Pictures has released the first trailer for Joker, the upcoming film based on the classic DC Comics supervillain directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker/Arthur Fleck.
Set in 1981, Joker is a standalone film separate from the DC Extended Universe film series that focuses on Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian disregarded by society, who is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City.
The two-minute, 25-second trailer opens with a woman asking Arthur, "Does it help to have someone to talk to?" Arthur pauses for a moment then gives a small smile in response.
"My mother always tell me to smile and put on a happy face," remarks Arthur in a voiceover as we see him bathing his elderly mother, Penny Fleck (Frances Conroy). "She told me I have a purpose, to bring laughter and joy to the world."
We see Arthur writing jokes in a notebook and dressed as a clown as a sign-spinner, only to have a gang of teens steal his sign and run off with it. He runs after them down an alley, but one of the teens smacks him hard in the face with the sign, destroying it in the process.
"Is it just me or is it getting crazier out there?" he continues in the voiceover.
Jimmy Durante's song "Smile" starts playing as we see Arthur dancing with his mother in their small living room and see him hanging out in a doughnut shop with Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), a single mother who serves as Arthur's love interest.
Next, we see Arthur riding in an elevator at Arkham State Hospital along with a patient having a raging fit while strapped to a gurney. This is followed by brief glimpses of Arthur laughing like The Joker while at a comedy club and while riding the subway in his clown costume.
"What's so funny?" asks a man in a business suit as he pulls off Arthur's clown wig and then punches him to the floor.
"Gotham's lost its way," remarks Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) while appearing on the Good Morning, Gotham TV show. "What kind of coward would do something that cold-blooded? Someone who hides behind a mask?"
"I used to think that my life was a tragedy..." Arthur remarks in a voiceover as we see fleeting glimpses of him losing his grip more and more, along with Robert De Niro as a late night TV talk show host. "...but now I realize it's a comedy."
We then see Arthur dressed in more traditional Joker attire, a purple suit with an orange vest and long green hair, albeit wearing clown makeup instead of his skin bleached by chemicals. At this point, he seems to have fully embraced his insanity, becoming the Joker that menaces Gotham City for years to come.
If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can view it below thanks to the official Warner Bros. Pictures account on YouTube...
Joker is scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 4, 2019.