When I watched Joker (2019) for the first time, I caught a strange anomaly regarding Arthur Fleck’s revolver. In the subway killing scene it shot too many bullets without reloading. I didn’t think much about it at that time. However on my second re-watch I noticed some questionable little details regarding his revolver and how he used it.
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On the subway, He never missed and shot 8 bullets
Movie doesn’t reveal much about Arthur’s past. So we don’t know about his gun wielding abilities. He said to Randall that he was not supposed to have a gun. That’s probably due to his mental condition. When he accidently shot his revolver, he seemed genuinely startled which may indicate his lack of experience with fire arms.
However in the subway killing scene he killed those three Wall Street jerks with unbelievable efficiency. During the first watch through I didn’t realize it because there were many emotions going through my head at the moment. But on the re-watch I paid closed attention to how he did it.
Arthur was this scrawny helpless guy, curling into a ball on the floor of the train, taking a beating from three young business men in one moment. Then suddenly he shot the biggest jerk of the three. He drew and shot that gun too fast, only the last guy had time to react.
Arthur was on his side before he started shooting. Then he shot the first man on the head, above his right eye brow. Single headshot. Victim or the audience did not see that coming.
Second victim got horrified but did not have enough time to react before Arthur double tap him. He got shot near his heart and then slightly below in the gut.
Third victim had enough time to process what’s going on. As soon as he realized the danger, he tried to flee the scene. Apparently Arthur was not in the mood to spare any witnesses. Arthur’s next shot was the most impressive one for me. He pulled out some John Wick kind of maneuver for it. He was on his hand and knees, looking over his shoulder, Left hand stretching backwards holding the gun (He was right handed.). While in that position he shot backward in his third victim’s right thigh. All of the above shots were fired inside a rocky train car. Then the train stopped and victim fled into the platform. Arthur went after the limping victim. When he fired the next shot he was near a steel column of the platform, victim was near another column which was fifth away from Arthur’s. After a quick Google search I found out that normally shallow column station has 4 to 6 meter gap between steel columns. Since Arthur and third victim had 5 columns between them that means they had 4 such gaps. So the distance between them should have been 16 to 24 meters or 52.5 to 78.7 feet. From that distance Arthur shot the young man’s lower back, he managed to hit the center of the body, near the spine. That shot made the poor guy to collapse on the stairs, Arthur quickly closed the distance and shot 3 shots to finish him off.
Improbable bullet count
1 for the first victim (headshot).
2 for the second victim (double tap).
5 for the third victim (1 in leg, 1 in lower back, 3 close quarter shots).
So 8 total bullets.
The question is, can Arthur’s gun hold 8 bullets? According to the experts in the internet, the revolver used in Joker (2019) movie was a colt detective special 3rd generation revolver. That model has 6 bullet capacity. (Edit: According to some sources it is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 aka Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special revolver which has 5 bullet capacity ) Then how did he fire 8 shots from a 6 shot revolver? There are 3 explanations I can think of.
It was a movie mistake.
Creators didn’t pay attention to that detail. But the problem is many people, like myself who were not looking for movie errors caught this one. It is hard to believe it wasn’t caught in movie editing.
Arthur quickly reloaded his gun off the camera.
But here’s the problem. He shot 4 bullets on the train and 4 more on the platform. After the final shot he pulled the trigger 2 more times but the gun was empty. So after 4 shots he had to remove 4 empty shells and put 2 live ones with the remaining unfired 2 bullets. Or for some strange reason he only put 4 bullets every time reloading the gun. Anyway, I don’t think there were enough time to reload.
It was an intentional movie detail
It was an intentional detail to show that Arthur was an unreliable narrator. This is my take on the matter. I think it was a deliberately included detail to show that the subway killings did not happen like we see it in the movie. Just like how he deluded he was funny and good at stand up comedy, but in reality Arthur never had a chance to become a successful comedian. Also he thought he had a supportive girlfriend, but later revealed that she was just a figment of his imagination. What if subway shooting incident also was altered by Arthur’s imagination?
What did really happen in the subway?
Arthur Fleck was an unreliable narrator. We know he is delusional and prone to fantasize. I think what we see in the movie is the warped recollection of Arthur’s memory. That is why he did not miss a single shot, had good accuracy and able to fire 8 bullets without reloading.
If firing 8 bullet was actually a movie mistake, then how can we explain his impressive gun handling skills? There are few possibilities as below.
Arthur shot them in cold-blood and conjured a delusion to justify his actions
Arthur killed those Wall Street guys in cold blood. Before the subway scene he got sacked from his only job because his boss, Hoyt found out that Arthur had carried a gun into his clown gig in a children’s ward of a hospital. Understandably he was in a greatly depressed state. On the train he saw three jerks were harassing a young woman. It made him distressed. That’s why his pseudobulbar affect kicked in. Then he snapped and killed those guys in cold blood. In his delusional mind he created a different story to justify his killings.
Arthur had previous training in firearms.
My issue with this version of The Joker is it seems that Arthur Fleck is a weak, skinny, delusional man who depend on surprise attacks on people to kill them. That tactic alone would not be enough to raise him among Gotham villains to become Batman’s arch nemesis. But what if this scene demonstrates us that he had some kind of prior training and he used it when he shot that three young bullies?
It’s just movie magic, that’s all.
May be I was wrong and over thinking. There was no deep meaning to it. It was done in that way because it looks cooler.
Left arm theory
Did anyone else noticed that Arthur used his left arm to handle his gun even though he was right handed? He used his left arm in the subway killings as well as in killing the talk show host Murray Franklin? But he was right handed. When he wrote in his note book he used his right hand. When he attacked Randall he used right hand to wield pair of scissors. But when he wrote a dark joke he switched his hands and used left hand. Is it a split personality thing? Was his dark side left handed?
How did Arthur get the gun?
After some kids snatched his advertisement sign and beat down him, Randall approached him and gifted him a revolver for protection. I think it is odd because of following reasons.
People in Arthur’s workplace were aware of his mental condition. Hoyt said that Arthur’s coworkers felt uncomfortable around him and thought he was weird. Also, Hoyt gave detectives one of Arthur’s laminated cards which described his neurological condition, pseudobulbar affect. So it’s safe to assume everyone in the clown shop knew about that too.
Randall was a cautious man. He was preparing to throw Arthur under the bus in order to stay out of the trouble. He wasn’t loyal to Arthur. Even Arthur admitted to Randall that he was not allowed to have a gun. Considering all of this, it is hard to believe a man like Randall would have gifted a gun to a known mentally unstable person like Arthur.
I think Arthur actually bought the gun from Randall, what we saw in the movie was one of Arthur’s delusions.
Joker (2019) has so many ambiguous moments and people can interpret them in many ways. It increases the rewatchability of the movie. That is the main thing I like about this movie.
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