Spoiler alert! The following post discusses important plot points and the ending of “The Flash” (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
Fans psyched for the DC superhero movie “The Flash” expected the two Flashes but probably not the three Supermen and four Batmen.
Much like “Spider-Man: Across the Universe” and its many Spider-people, “The Flash” goes into DC movie history to fill the multiverse that speedster Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) views in a time-travel effort to save his mom. He runs so fast that he creates a “chronoball” around him where he can see his life through various timelines and, later on when there’s a crisis on infinite earths, familiar heroes from alternate worlds.
You got all that? If not, buckle up, because we’re breaking down the multiversal madness:
What happens at the end of ‘The Flash’?
Barry succeeds in going back in time and keeping his mom Nora (Maribel Verdú) from being murdered and his dad Henry (Ron Livingston) from going to jail for her death. But when in the chronoball, he’s attacked by a decrepit Dark Flash figure and pushed into an Earth that’s not his own. There, he meets his 18-year-old self (also Miller) and the two Barrys partner with that world’s retired Batman (Michael Keaton) and a rescued Supergirl (Sasha Calle) to fight off a deadly invasion from General Zod (Michael Shannon).
During the climactic battle, Batman dies and Zod murders Supergirl. Young Barry goes back in time to try again and fix it but both heroes still perish. Main Barry tries to convince young Barry that it’s this world’s time to die and there’s nothing they can do because they’ve reached an “inevitable intersection,” but young Barry persists in an infinite loop, coming back time and again with more and more damage and scars. Ultimately, it’s revealed that young Barry is Dark Flash, and it’s young Barry who finally sacrifices himself (thereby also killing Dark Flash) to make sure main Barry lives. He goes back, says goodbye to his mom, and makes sure everything is put back in time where it belongs. (Or does he? More on that in a bit.)
Are there any major superhero cameos in ‘The Flash’?
So many, and longtime comic-book fans will get a kick out of the stars reborn in a love letter to DC Universe past. Young Barry’s actions cause chaos and Earths begin to collide together, and we get a glimpse at these different worlds and who inhabits them.
On one is a black-and-white world of the 1950s Superman TV series and we see George Reeves’ hero. Another features the Technicolor landscape of the ‘60s Batman show with Adam West as the Caped Crusader. Christopher Reeve’s Superman (from the 1970s and ‘80s movies) and Helen Slater’s Supergirl (from the 1984 film) live on the same Earth and watch as these other worlds collide. The most bizarre of them all: Nicolas Cage’s Superman battling a gigantic spider, a nod to Tim Burton’s scrapped “Superman Lives” movie.
‘The Flash’ movie review:Ezra Miller’s DC adventure puts a superhero spin on ‘Back to the Future’
Who’s the Batman at the end of ‘The Flash’?
Barry returns home at the end of the movie but he’s made one small change that has seemingly altered his status quo again. While back in time, Barry moves the canned tomatoes in a grocery store from the bottom shelf to the top, ensuring that his dad looks up at the security camera. This new evidence frees Henry from prison and gives Barry a happy ending. However, Barry has to deal with one last apparent butterfly effect: He gets a call that his pal Bruce Wayne is meeting him at the courthouse, but it’s not the Bruce he knows (Ben Affleck) or the Bruce he just met (Keaton). “Who the (expletive) is this?” Barry asks as George Clooney’s dapper Bruce (from 1997’s much-maligned “Batman & Robin”) arrives to greet him.
Barry stammers for a moment and finally gets out, “You’re not Batman.” This unrecognizable new Bruce looks at Barry like he’s got two heads: “What’s wrong with you?” Barry tries to smile and his front tooth pops out (a gag from earlier in the movie where he lost it and super-glued it back) as the credits start to roll. While this might seem to set up that Clooney’s back as the new main Batman, a rumor that arose earlier this year on Twitter, new DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has said “absolutely not” and that a “new actor” would be the Dark Knight going forward.
Ranked:All of the big-screen Batmen (from George Clooney to Robert Pattinson)
Is there a ‘Flash’ post-credits scene?
Yep, though the lighthearted sequence is a bit anticlimactic compared to everything that preceded it. Barry is seen carrying an extremely drunk Aquaman (Jason Momoa) outside a bar near his Central City apartment and trying to explain the multiversal shenanigans he’s witnessed. “They were all Batman, they were all Bruce Wayne, but each of them was a different person,” Barry says to his seafaring friend − who’s totally not getting it, though Barry mentions that every Aquaman is “lovable, furry, loyal, motivated by bacon.”
Aquaman falls into a puddle. “Arthur, I live right here,” Barry says, and Aquaman responds, “Hey, I live right here,” hilariously patting the water. He gives Barry some Atlantean treasure and starts singing a sailor song as Barry walks off and says to a passerby, “He’s fine.”
