New Joaquin Phoenix 'Joker' Footage Is Smoking

New footage from DC's Joker shows Joaquin Phoenix's Joker enjoying a smoke, after seemingly causing some kind of mayhem that has cops rushing into the subway station that Arthur Fleck/Joker is walking out of. Whatever went down in there, Mr. Fleck looks dementedly satisfied about it.

This scene of Fleck making his way out of the subway seems to fit with earlier set photos and videos, which have revealed a sequence in which Fleck and a bunch of other characters dressed like clowns invade the subway, and crowd a train. Photos reveal a progression to the sequence in which Fleck seems to have to hide and evade, until he possibly pops into somewhere private and gets rid of his makeup and duds. There are photos of Phoenix with a jacket and hood up looking very shady (with no makeup) looking like he is leaving the subway station through a side door.

Notes from paparazzi on the scene state that Phoenix's clown is scene running into the station in a clown mask to meet a mob of people in clown masks, holding up signs that read things like: "Kill the Rich", "Blame Wayne", and "Clown4Mayor". We only have speculation to go on, but photos of Fleck reveling in the chaos as the mob of clowns pins down a well-dressed man, seemingly point to this sequence being one of The Joker's first real attempts at anarchistic behavior, stoking a protest into an outright mob eruption, with the city's poor and hard-working class rising up against the wealthy elite. It suggests there will be a definite socio-political angle to Joker, with Phoenix's Arthur Fleck possibly being the metaphorical embodiment of a certain major political figures of today.

DC movie fans who saw Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman Ultimate Cut know how that movie tried to turn the story Batman vs. Superman into a major socio-political metaphor (and a very insightful one, given where political shifts that came immediately afterward), but it also turned out to be a very divisive approach for a lot of fans. Given that socio-political attitudes have only gotten more divisive since Dawn of Justice was released, it will be interesting to see how viewers react to any such commentary in Joker, should it indeed exist. We should all probably brace for the impending "The Joker can/cannot be a political metaphor" arguments that will likely ensue...

Joker will be in theaters on October 4th.