Directed by George Kane, Apocalypse Clown is a sci-fi comedy film revolving around a dystopian world filled with clowns who face an electricity blackout due to a solar flare. Apocalypse Clown centers around Bobo, a heartbroken clown, and the love of his life, Jenny Malone, embarking on their journey to find the reason behind this blackout. However, on this journey, they make some amazing clown friends, but not every one of them has good intentions. One of them was a veteran clown, the great Alphonso, who became a great obstacle in their journey. Let’s find out if Bobo and Jenny manage to find the transmitter and defeat Alphonso.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
The film opens with Bobo the Clown performing in a class full of kids. The students weren’t laughing at the clown’s jokes at all, so the teacher asked Bobo to leave. Bobo was so angered that, in a fit of rage, he drank a glass of methadone without realizing what it was. As he left the class, he fell unconscious on the floor. He woke up in a hospital bed and found the TV news buzzing about the death of Jean Ducoque, a veteran clown and a clown teacher. The journalist was seen interviewing another clown, The Great Alphonso, who didn’t seem very sad about Ducoque’s death. He kept on boasting about his own skills instead of mourning. Bobo turned off the TV and got out of the hospital. In the meantime, we learned about the journalist Jenny Malone, the daughter of a famous news correspondent. Jenny had accidentally hooked up with Bobo at a birthday party, and ever since everyone learned about this, she stopped getting good stories to cover. Her boss kept on giving her events regarding clowns, which irritated Jenny. Her boss recently gave her the assignment to attend a clown funeral to cover the death story of Jean Decoque.
How Did Jean Ducoque Die?
In this universe of Apocalypse Clown, clowns are not as neglected as they are in the real world. Rather, they were trained to make clowns and given their due respect, which is something our world could learn a thing or two from. But with the advancement of technology and the prevalence of smartphones, people are slowly forgetting about clowns. Clowns like Funzo, the scary clown, or Pepe, the mime artist, were trying to establish themselves as renowned clowns, but they failed in that endeavor. Jean Decoque was the clown educator who, one day, while teaching, asked Pepe to perform something. As Pepe acted out a sequence of getting trapped inside a box, Decoque didn’t like it and started scolding him. But tragically, he fell to the ground after losing his senses and ultimately lost his life. At his funeral, every one of his students attended, as well as Jenny Malone. As Bobo and Jenny stumbled upon each other, Bobo tried to impress her, but Jenny was clear from the very beginning that she didn’t want to catch up with him.
Did Jenny Find The Transmitter?
Funzo, the scary clown, had a duel with two statue clowns in a park. In a fit of rage, Funzo bit one of them, cutting his ear off. Following the altercation, those two statues started chasing Funzo and even arrived at the funeral of Ducoque. But Funzo managed to lock them up inside a cell, leaving some rats inside. Funzo fled the place, taking Bobo and Pepe along. Even Jenny got out of the place with them, but upon coming outside, they found the whole city was facing an electricity blackout, almost giving the impression of a post-apocalyptic situation. Jenny wanted to know what the reason behind this situation could be, but there was not a single TV, phone, or anything else working through which she could get some information or let other people know about it.
In the meantime, the Great Alphonso tried to draw everyone’s attention to him. Grabbing the opportunity of the electricity blackout, he thought to take the lead over the clown community and become the one and only entertainer. He took Jenny along and went to meet a former band member, Tim, who had a very old transmitter in his house. Jenny went to Tim’s house and got a detailed theory behind the solar flare, which might be causing the electricity blackout. Jenny demanded his transmitter in order to produce radio waves to send messages. She assured Tim that if he wanted to save the world from this crisis, then he should join Jenny, especially for the sake of his pet dog. But as Jenny and Alphonso got into the car with the transmitter, they accidentally ran over Tim’s dog, killing her.
Tim later joined Funzo, Pepe, and Bobo, who were so frustrated by this entire situation that they thought of leaving their clown identities and choosing new means of living. Funzo had come to the realization that her real name was actually Janet. After a tragic incident in her past, she created a new identity, “Funzo.” Together with Tim, the three clowns decided to follow Alphonso.
How Did The Great Alphonso Die?
A ruckus took place at the funeral of Jean Ducoque, followed by those two statue clowns’ arrival. In the midst of this, Alphonso had injured his eye. So he took Jenny with him as a guide, but he had other intentions as well. He wanted to promote himself through Jenny and earn some fame. As he brought Jenny along with the transmitter, he managed to gather some local children and start performing at a circus. He was almost forcing Jenny to be his assistant, while Jenny, in order to grab the transmitter, was bound to comply with him. But not for long, as Bobo and his team had shown up there to rescue Jenny from Alphonso. Alphonso gathered some feral children who were not into subtle fun but into violent stuff. Taking it as an opportunity, Funzo, Bobo, and Pepe came up with the idea of performing a stunt so that they could distract the children while they managed to get hold of the transmitter.
Meanwhile, Jenny tried to distract Alphonso by getting him drunk, but as the children started laughing at Bobo and his mates, Alphonso suspected something was wrong. He came out of his camp and started fighting with Bobo, but accidentally, the circus caught fire. Funzo was severely injured, but she was alive. In the midst, those two statue clowns also arrived at the spot, but this time, instead of running away, Funzo bit that statue clown, cutting his other ear off. Bobo defeated Alphonso and even drowned him in an acid tank, killing him. Finally, the transmitter was in the possession of Jenny, who tried to report the blackout incident and also explained a conspiracy theory behind the solar flare. However, in the midst of the reporting, everyone’s phone started to ring, suggesting that the blackout was fixed and everything soon went back to normal.
During Apocalypse Clown‘s ending, the reporting by Jenny Malone went viral. Journalists from all over the country started mocking her video and even saying that she couldn’t live up to the expectations of being the daughter of celebrated news correspondent Deborah Malone. Jenny was so frustrated by all this that she asked Bobo to bury the dead body of Alphonso in her mother’s grave. But even though Jenny teamed up with Bobo, she didn’t want to go back to him. Bobo was heartbroken, but at least he got some amazing friends in Pepe and Funzo. Together, the three of them formed a group, calling it “Clown Pedo.”
What Actually Caused The Blackout?
Nobody quite clearly understood what was the reason behind this electricity blackout until a news correspondent reported news that it was actually a true event from country singer Garth Brook’s concert a few years ago. In one of the concerts of the country singer, a massive power surge caused a temporary electricity blackout, leaving his fans in the dark. Taking inspiration from the event, Apocalypse Clown brought forth the reason why the blackout took place. In the concluding part of the film, we see the news correspondent reporting the incident of Garth Brook’s wrecked concert, where a massive power surge caused a localized electricity blackout. Solar flare also might have been the cause, but the conspiracy theory that Tim came up with was utter gibberish and had no point. As Jenny, being a journalist, shared this theory only to get fifteen minutes of fame, she became the subject of mockery. People began to talk about how utterly disappointed Jenny’s mother would have been if she were alive.
Final Words
Apocalypse Clown portrays a world where a sudden electricity blackout caused a great deal of problems because nowadays, people’s lives have been centered on their devices, such as computers, cell phones, and all. Therefore, the innocent laughter that people used to derive from the circus by enjoying the funny stunts by a clown has been lost to the growing technology. People are now laughing at reels and sharing memes all the time. This film tries to portray a dystopian world where these failed clowns try to bring back that laughter during a mass crisis. Though, at some point, the film doesn’t make much sense, the overall theme and commentary of the film are heart-melting and nostalgic. The film ends with a hopeless clown, Bobo, finding hope in his life with the friends he made on his journey. Probably, while Jenny would be moving on from her failure as a journalist, these three clowns would celebrate their joy of defeating Alphonso and getting back to their lives with a new motivation.
