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One of the most critical scenes that shows Arthur first unlocking his true self as the Joker came after he shot and killed the three wall street guys on the subway, and he ran into a bathroom. The killings on the subway were inspired by the 1984 “Subway Vigilante” in Manhattan where four men were shot and wounded on a subway. He begins to start dancing while the “Bathroom Dance” score by Guðnadóttir plays. The scene was improvised by Phoenix. 

As previously stated before, the director of the film was none other than Todd Phillips. Like Phoenix, Phillips also won multiple awards for his work on the movie. He has had previous work directing movies like The Hangover franchise, War Dogs, Project X, and others. Phillips described his inspiration for the movie at a press conference at Venice Film Festival posted on Comicbook.com.  

“Marty was doing a ton back then,” Phillips said. “And even things like [1928 silent film] The Man Who Laughs — I mean, we were watching a lot of musicals, Scott [Silver] and I, when we were writing it.” (Bonomolo 2019) 

The film takes place in the city of Gotham in 1981. Gotham is in an economically unstable state that can be contributed by the poor causing riots/protests caused by the upcoming election centered around Thomas Wayne played by Brett Collen and the murder of three wall street guys on a subway. The two are tied together shown as the poor take the murders on the subway as a sign of rebellion against the wealthy and decide that Wayne while running for election is a part of the wealthy. Phillips described where he based the city of Gotham in an article on Cinema Blend.  

“Even though we don’t really say when and where the movie takes place, in my mind, it was always New York City, 1981,” Phillips said. “A very run-down, broken-down city on every level” (Evans 2020).