As if The Batman needed to do more to get fans excited, the release of a cut scene featuring Barry Keoghan’s imprisoned Joker created a huge splash among the DC faithful. Suddenly, a character who looked overplayed at best came to life anew, tailor-made for Matt Reeves’ version of Gotham and conveying volumes in five minutes. A sequel featuring the Clown Prince of Crime became very desirable very quickly, despite the colossal collection of memorable Joker performances that came before it.
As it turns out, the scene holds a little detail that might just make that possible. Fans have already picked up on it, and while it may simply be a continuity error, the serendipity may be too great to ignore. Best of all, Batman himself may have helped The Joker do it.
The scene itself deliberately evokes The Silence of the Lambs, which pays dividends when the Easter egg is brought into the equation. Batman seeks out The Joker in Arkham, asking for his perspective on The Riddler’s killings. The lunatic responds – eventually – but not before trying to tease out details of The Dark Knight’s own psychological make-up. He also expresses a twisted connection to Batman, suggesting that they’re a couple and that he even came to Arkham “for their anniversary.” The exchange deliberately echoes the famous cross-examinations between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, with The Joker playing polite monster to Batman’s earnest detective.
That context informs what very well might happen next. Batman begins the conversation by sliding a set of police files through a secure tray for The Joker to look at, in the tradition of Starling’s “Buffalo Bill” files in Silence of the Lambs. When The Joker sends them back, a paperclip is missing, suggesting that he took it to fashion a lockpick out of it. The detail is small enough to be a technical oversight, and since the scene was cut from The Batman’s theatrical release, it could be readily dropped without further thought.
Deliberate or not, however, the missing paperclip ties straight into the scene’s extended riff on Silence of the Lambs. In the older film, Lecter escapes by stealing a ball-point pen, then using its pocket clip to pick the lock on his cuffs. It’s part of a larger – and ingenious – escape plan, but the seeming casualness of the missing item demonstrated how dangerous the character is. Similarly, The Joker has always shown an ability to escape Arkham with ease, regardless of the specific movie or other incarnation. The missing paperclip drives the point home with no further embellishment required.
And the scene may explain even more than that. In Silence of the Lambs, Lecter got the pen from his nemesis Dr. Chilton: portrayed as an arrogant nitwit unable to follow his own rule for the killer’s treatment. The movie ends with a freed Lecter surreptitiously following him to a safe house, presumably dining on his former jailer shortly thereafter. Here, Batman doesn’t even have the luxury of a smug turnkey to blame the situation on. He himself gave The Joker the means of his egress and considering that The Batman takes place comparatively early in the vigilante’s career, it’s the sort of mistake that could haunt him forever.
It also provides an easy springboard into a follow-up. Far from souring on the prospect on yet another appearance from The Clown Prince of Crime, a part two featuring The Joker suddenly looks like a very enticing prospect. That it stemmed from such a tiny detail speaks to the power of the cut scene as a whole. Stranger things have happened from less, and considering The Batman’s sky-high standing among fans at the moment, that little Easter egg could easily springboard into the sequel everyone deserves.
The Batman is currently playing in theaters.
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