This 'Heated Rivalry' Star Was Also the Best Part of 2024's Worst Movie

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David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year.

.2025 was a great year for movies and TV shows. We had everything on both the big and small screens, from massive cultural events like Sinners and Adolescence to critically acclaimed darlings that no one expected to be as good as they were, like KPop Demon Hunters and It: Welcome to Derry. However, arguably the biggest surprise of 2025 came at the end of the year with Crave's Heated Rivalry. The Canadian steamy romance show, based on Rachel Reid's best-selling Game Changers series, follows the years-long romance between two NHL rival hockey players. Since its debut in late November, Heated Rivalry became an internet sensation that defied all odds, surpassing its initial intended audience and entering the mainstream — the women of The View talked about it, for crying out loud!

More importantly, Heated Rivalry also turned its two leading actors, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, into rising stars. Young, vigorous, and full of an enthusiasm that we hadn't seen in our young stars in a minute, these two are on everyone's radar, two genuine revelations that are, hopefully, on their way to greater things. However, many of the show's fans might not be aware that Storrie already had something of a breakthrough last year, when he played a small but critical role in what is probably the worst and most disappointing movie of 2024. I'm talking, of course, about Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux, a film so bad that it somehow managed to unite everyone in their sheer hatred for it. But, while Folie à Deux was awful (truly, there's no other way to describe it), Storrie wasn't; in fact, he might just be the infamous movie's one redeeming grace.

'Joker: Folie à Deux' Is Bad, Except for This One Key Player

If you're one of the many who haven't had the misfortune of seeing Joker: Folie à Deux, here's a rundown of what happens. Following the events of the first Joker, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is now incarcerated at Arkham Asylum, awaiting trial. There, he meets and falls for fellow inmate Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Lady Gaga). This newfound love "awakens" the music that's always been inside of him, which is the film's very dumb way of explaining why it's now a musical where Phoenix and Gaga randomly burst into poorly staged and performed songs.

Folie à Deux pulls a switcheroo by having Arthur renounce his Joker persona, instead admitting his mental illness and claiming full responsibility for his actions in the first movie. Throughout the film, a young inmate (Storrie) spies on Arthur. In the now-infamous final scene, he stops Arthur to tell him a joke he "just came up with," before repeatedly stabbing him in the abdomen with a shank, killing him. The inmate then starts laughing maniacally before carving a smile on his face.

The ending launched a thousand think pieces. What does it all mean? Was Arthur never the real Joker? Was he just the inspiration for the real Clown Prince of Crime to rise and challenge the Dark Knight? Is the young inmate the actual Joker? Did I just waste two hours of my life watching Joaquin Phoenix butchering Rod McKuen's "If You Go Away?" The movie doesn't provide an actual answer to any of these questions (except the last one; that's a resounding "yes"), instead leaving the door open to interpretation. Still, the final scene was the most-talked-about part of the movie upon release, and that was even before Storrie became everyone's favorite Russian hockey player. Now, with his newfound success, many of us are looking back and admitting that, flawed as it might be, Storrie absolutely bodies the scene.

Connor Storrie Is so Good That He Almost Saves 'Joker: Folie à Deux's Ending

One of the few good choices that Phillips makes in Folie à Deux is keeping Storrie's character present yet away from the main focus; he doesn't even get a name. In most Arkham scenes, he's merely a blurry figure in the background, unfocused and lurking in the shadows. You can't quite tell who he is, but you can tell he's there. In two more crucial scenes, Phillips makes sure this young inmate stands out: at the start of the movie, the out-of-focus inmate tries to touch Arthur before being stopped, prompting him to bite the guard in a rage. In the second, he stands in proximity when Phillips' camera closes up on Phoenix, longingly looking up at Arthur. There's a very eerie intimacy to the two scenes, as Phillips creates a visual bond between these two characters, strangers to each other yet intrinsically tied by circumstance.

Storrie doesn't speak until the final scene, instead letting his presence do all the work. Here, what is arguably Storrie's biggest asset, his eyes, take center stage. They're very intense, piercing even, and with that overly bright quality that can sometimes make blue eyes seem quite discomforting. He seeks Arthur through the crowd, studying him, not so much learning from him but rather absorbing him. Then, in the climax, as he approaches Arthur to tell his joke, Storrie lets the chaos take over: he fidgets, he shakes, he speaks with the desperation of a man who's done waiting but still wants to savor every moment.

Once the inmate stabs Arthur, Storrie goes back into the blurry background as the camera focuses on Arthur dying. It's a wild choice, considering Phoenix is giving the worst death scene in a movie since Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises. However, Storrie remains consistent, as the inmate laughs and collapses into a wall before using the shank to carve a Glasgow smile on his face. The fact that it's all happening in the background arguably makes the moment less impactful, but it's impressive how much Storrie conveys, and how effortlessly he walks away with the entire scene, considering Phillips' camera is entirely occupied with Phoenix.

Plans for a third Joker movie surely died with Phoenix's Arthur, and honestly, thank God for that. However, with a different, less full-of-himself director and a stronger, less confused screenplay, I admit that the concept of a third movie with Storrie and Gaga as the Joker and Harley Quinn is intriguing enough to earn our attention. After all, you could easily see Folie à Deux as his origin story as much as it is Arthur's last bow. The chances of that happening are as realistic as a Heated Rivalry sweep this upcoming Emmy season, but one can dream. More importantly, Storrie's newfound fame will make more people pay attention to his brief but crucial role in Joker: Folie à Deux. Often, the mark of a great actor is whether they can elevate average material and turn it into something genuinely compelling — the "there are no small roles" of it all. In Folie à Deux, Storrie proves he can do it, stealing the movie from its Oscar-winning star with fewer than five minutes of screentime.

Joker: Folie à Deux is available to stream on Prime Video and HBO Max in the U.S.