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Why Arthur Fleck Doesn't Kill Sophie In Joker
One of the biggest questions Todd Phillips’ Joker left was whether Arthur Fleck killed his neighbor, Sophie, or not. It was later confirmed that he didn’t, but a new question arose: why didn’t Arthur kill Sophie? As superheroes continue to dominate the film industry, anti-heroes and villains have also begun to take over, though none as successful as the Joker did in the 2019 film Joker, which showed a different version of Batman’s most famous villain.
Joker introduced the audience to Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a stand-up comedian who turns to a life of crime in Gotham City after being constantly rejected by society. Joker addressed themes like mental health, gun control, and the media’s influence on society, which means that it had a much darker tone than other films based on comic book characters. Unsurprisingly, Joker was surrounded by controversy even before its release, with theaters taking special measures to ensure everyone’s safety, though all this only ended up contributing to the film’s box office success. Joker was very well-received by the audience, and was a big topic of discussion for weeks, mostly due to all those ambiguous and unresolved elements in it.
Among those was the fate of Sophie (Zazie Beetz), Arthur’s neighbor who for most of the film was believed to be in a relationship with him. One of the biggest twists in the story was the reveal of some parts of Arthur’s life being all in his head, as was his relationship with Sophie. They did interact in the elevator, but everything after that was just part of Arthur’s imagination. This was revealed when Arthur, distraught after learning that Penny wasn’t his biological mother and that he was heavily abused as a child, entered Sophie’s apartment unannounced. Sophie’s reaction was of fear, and she approached him with caution. Arthur then left, and Sophie didn’t appear again. It was later confirmed that Sophie survived and even showed up again in a deleted scene where she watched Arthur’s murderous appearance on Live With Murray Franklin. But after everything Arthur did, why did he choose to not kill Sophie?
Arthur’s killings weren’t as random as they might seem. He was angry with society and how it had treated him, with his first victims being three drunken Wayne Enterprises businessmen who made fun of him and beat him. After learning the truth about his mother and their past, he killed her at the hospital, and while he prepared to appear on Murray’s show, he was visited by his former colleagues Randall and Gary and murdered Randall for contributing to him being fired – but he spared Gary, as he had treated him well in the past. This was most likely the same reasoning behind letting Sophie live, as she was nice to him when they met in the elevator. In addition to that, and even though she was scared of him when she saw him in her living room, she treated him well, and offered to help him.
Sophie’s behavior towards Arthur was never hostile and she never did him any wrong, which were good reasons for Arthur to let her live, as he did with Gary. Arthur’s actions have been subjected to countless analyses, as most of the events of Joker have been put into question due to Arthur’s mental health, but the reasoning behind him letting Sophie live might not be as complicated as many think.
