Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Flash.
Time travel is weird and complicated.The Flash,which finally has reached the big screen, tells a story centering on the death of a parent, and how far the love of a child could drive them to try to prevent that loss. When Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) faces losing his father for even longer to the prison bars that have held him since Barry’s mother’s death, he travels back in time to create a reality where he never lost either at all. When this makes him bite off more than he can chew, reality becomes all the more confusing, resulting in more death and destruction, some more permanent than the rest. Who is still gone by the time Barry is able to set things right?
Barry Allen (Prime)
Our main Barry Allen ends the movieThe Flashalive. Surprising, right? While Barry doesn’t always make the smartest decisions, it wasn’t ever a question if he would make it out of his own movie. The question was more about whether he would learn how to accept situations out of his control and if he could learn the consequences of using his powers in ways that carried heavy responsibility. He didn’t learn too much, still changing the future despite watching an entire world be sentenced to death and destruction, but maybe next time!
Barry Allen (Alternate)
After Barry travels back in time to save his mother, he is knocked out of the timestream by another version of himself and into 2013. Despite his initial efforts, he runs into an alternate version of his younger self — a version of Barry who grew up with his Mom. The two Barrys work together with Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) to confront the threat of Zod (Michael Shannon). However, once they get to the point of no return, they have to face the fact that Zod terraforming Earth is something that cannot be undone in this universe, and there is nothing they can do to stop it.
The original Barry is more equipped to face this realization, but the younger, alternate Barry cannot, traveling back so many times that he becomes deformed (this is the Flash that pushes the original Barry into 2013) and different, entangled universes (and cameo filled) start to collide. When the original Barry attempts to stop him, he becomes fatally wounded and dies. It’s only then the universes begin to return to stasis and the original Barry can return to the date of his mother’s death to set everything back to its intended place.
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Nora Allen
Nora Allen’s (Maribel Verdú) death is the driving force behind this story. When she is murdered when Barry is just a child, his father Henry (RonLivingston) is put behind bars. To prevent all of this from happening, Barry travels back in time to make one small change, resulting in Nora surviving and his father never being sent to prison. As a result, an alternate version of himself is able to grow up as a teenager with both of his parents, without being aware of the tragedy that could’ve happened to him. This change, however, caused a ripple effect, allowing the threat of Zod to reemerge. Once Barry finds out through experience that Zod couldn’t be defeated in this universe, he is forced to run back to the day of Nora’s original death and reset things to the way they were to ensure Zod remained defeated and Earth safe. He may still grow up without his mother, but this experience allowed Barry to have a single moment with his Mom as an adult, something he wouldn’t take for granted.
General Zod
General Zodwas the main antagonist in the filmMan of Steeland the reason that Kal-El (Henry Cavill) was sent to Earth. Encoded with information that would allow for the terraformation of a new Krypton (at least, in the original timeline), Zod pursued Clark across the galaxy, causing Clark to rise up and become Superman to protect Earth against the other Kryptonian’s threat. This eventually culminated in a battle across Metropolis where Kal-El was driven to kill Zod due to his persistence and cruelty.
Things happen a lot differently in Barry’s alternate timeline. In this new universe, Zod was able to intercept Kal-El when he was still an infant which allowed him to search for the encoded information, but killing him in the process. When the information wasn’t there, Zod continued to search until he was about to track it down to Earth, with it written in Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle) instead of her cousin. This led to another worldwide conflict, and with the absence of Superman, Zod is victorious. Despite how many times the alternate Barry goes back in time to try, he cannot defeat or kill Zod, his victory is a set event in the timeline for this world that was doomed to die. By the end of the movie, Barry is able to mostly reset the timeline, which reverts Zod back to dead, but while the other timeline existed, Zod remained victorious (and alive).
Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton)
When Barry travels back in time, it changes a lot more than he expected, one of those things included is Bruce Wayne. The speedster is actually quite confused when this alternate Bruce Wayne doesn’t look likehisBruce. This Batman is played byKeaton, the Batman of 1989’sBatmanand 1992’sBatman Returns. It’s uncertain if this alternate universe and Keaton’s other movies exist in the same timeline, but all the same, he’s still at home in this role, and it doesn’t taketoomuch to convince Bruce to help with Barry’s efforts to rescue the timeline that includes his Mother.
However, by the time the heroes reach the final conflict, Bruce sacrifices himself for their cause, flying his air vehicle into Zod’s ship, killing him in the process. When the Barrys run back time the first time, he is able to avoid his first cause of death, but he soon meets another demise. He tells Barry he knows that he’s died before, understanding that they already rewound time at least once, and it’s implied that this Bruce dies every time alternate Barry ran back in time after that, making the tragedy of the alternate timeline that much harder to take.
Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
Kara Zor-El is Kal-El/Clark Kent’s cousin, who was also sent away from Krypton to protect him. In the original timeline, Kara hasn’t appeared, but in the alternate timeline, she is the main Kryptonian presence detectable on the planet. After Barry and Bruce rescue her from Russian forces, she doesn’t care to help humanity, but after learning what happened to Kal-El, she decides to help the “Justice League” to defeat Zod.
When the group confronts Zod’s forces, she moves to confront the General himself. Although she’s a powerful opponent, Kara is also a victim of the fixed point in time, dying every time alternate Barry travels back to find a way for them to win. Over the course of time, this version sees Kara and Bruce die an innumerable amount of times. Understanding that there is no way to save this universe, Barry eventually goes back in time to set things the way they were before, leaving the morbid fate of the alternate universe’s Kara certain and the fate of Kara in the remaining timeline unknown.
Henry Allen
Henry Allen, Barry’s dad, starts the movie off in prison for the murder of his wife, Nora. However, when Barry changes the past so that Nora never dies, Henry’s reality is changed, and he gets to spend the time that Barry missed out on with his father with him in this new alternate timeline. Thankfully, time never fights back against Barry’s changes close to Henry, and by the time Barry is able to correct things, he’s back in prison where he started at the beginning of the film. Barry’s one permanent change does influence Henry’s life, allowing for him to win his appeal and finally be released from behind bars, his innocence proven. The Dead Dad Curse doesn’t strike here.
Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck)
Something interesting happens to the main timeline’s version of Bruce Wayne, played byBen Affleck.Once Barry returns to what he assumes is a restored timeline, Bruce meets Barry in the final scene. Driving up to him amidst their phone call, when the billionaire gets out of his ride and removes his sunglasses, Barry is shocked to find his version gone and Affleck replaced byGeorge Clooney, who famously played the Caped Crusader in the 1997Batman & Robin. While it isn’t clear if this was just a gag or if Clooney will pick up the role either as a cast member or cameo in the future, for now, it seems like Affleck has said goodbye to the role despite never headlining his own Batman film.
Iris West (Kiersey Clemons) is thankfully far from danger this time around. This is her first appearance in an official DCEU film, her scene cut fromJustice League. However, her appearance was restored in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, where Barry saves her, foreshadowing their future love story that the DC films would likely pursue. In this film, she meets with Barry and talks to him about his father’s case, her questions overshadowing her romantic interest in Barry. She doesn’t appear again until after Barry has damaged and restored his universe, apologizing for the way she came off and clarifying that she would like to go on a date with him. Safe – for now!
