so after watching zack snyder's justice league one of the main questions that general audiences
had about the film was the use of the dark side anti-life equation it was mentioned multiple times
and we were given key flash forward sequences to really develop what was coming in a potential
justice league too i'm going to be explaining the dark side anti-life equation in zack snyder's
justice league alongside discussing why it is so important this analysis will contain spoilers so
if you happen to be someone who hasn't seen the film yet then i would recommend watching this
video after you've seen it if you want to see more on the film including video essays in the
coming weeks then don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications also
if you enjoy this video remember to give it a like rating but without further ado
let's dive into the dark side anti-life equation explained for the justice league snyder cut
so darkseid is finally in the dc universe with the long-awaited release of zack snyder's justice
league and with darkseid comes a whole list of plot points tools and other villains to help
him destroy the universe the most core plot to his being is the anti-life equation in the film stefan
wolfe is still very much the main villain who is exiled to earth for failing to deliver enough
worlds to his master darkseid but steffenwolf discovers a way to redeem himself when he learns
the earth contains a secret that darkseid has been searching for a millennia this is the anti-life
equation which is explained in the movie as being somehow carved into the surface of our world
needless to say this catches the attention of darkseid and helps set up the effects of a justice
league 2 which of course a lot of us want to see happen but the movie doesn't really explain what
the anti-life equation is or why darkseid is so intense on locking it up for himself
so what is the anti-life equation on hearing the term the first instinct is to imagine some highly
technical bit of calculus that forces you to sit in an endless lesson where you're just not going
to get it well the interesting thing about this equation is that it completely gets to the core
of the characters and supplies an opposite with the character of darkseid it works with giving
a counterbalance to the themes and sets up the threat of one of dc's most notorious villains
anti-life is a mathematical formula that obliterates free will allowing the mathematician
calculating the result to completely dominates the beings hearing it in its longest form the
anti-life equation is adding up the feelings of loneliness alienation fear despair and self-worth
dividing them by mockery condemnation and misunderstanding times by guilt shame failure
and judgment and ultimately where hope equals folly aka a lack of good sense this would apply to
love equals lies life equals death and self equals darkseid in jack kirby's fourth world setting the
anti-life equation is a formula for total control over the minds of sentient beings that is sought
by darkseid who for this reason sends his forces to earth as he believes part of the equation
exists in the subconsciousness of humanity and the character beautiful dreamer describes the equation
as giving the wielder absolute control over you which she says makes you not really alive
now why does darkseid want the anti-life equation well anti-life has been owned by just about
everyone in the fourth world at some point or another it was first found and contained with
billion dollar baits an obscenely rich pig of a man who held secrets dark rituals in his basement
sonny sumo one of the forever people also had knowledge of the equation early in the forever
people orion darkseid's son raised by high father as part of the new genesis apocalypse truce later
got his hands on it after defeating darkseid who himself came to possess it by creating hundreds
of clones of baits when orion tried to use it to give people happiness and peace he was
horrified at how it hollowed them out and vowed to never use it again it later passed to mr miracle
and portions of it were found all over humanity it was eventually embedded in a spam email
that makari and simeon sent to the entire world giving darkseid control of earth in
the outstanding final crisis his hold on earth was only broken by an extremely angry superman
a recently liberated wonder woman and her lasso of truth binding darkseid and forcing him to
free everyone and barry allen and wally west out racing a radium bullet darkseid's own omega beams
and the black racer to divert all free through time into the dark god of apocalypse anti-life
has been fairly prominent in both dc comics and in the tv and movie form the anti-life equation
was kind of the inciting incidents behind dc's hit zombie book deceased darkseid and dassard
discovered the equation was contained in cyborg's programming then they captured the hero and began
experimenting on him unfortunately they corrupted it in his body causing it to be released into
earth's media streams making anyone who looks at a screen assuming they're not using their
x-ray vision at the time a bloodthirsty zombie it was also darkseid's prime tool in the dc animated
universe leading to arguably the best moment in the best episode of the entire run
when lex luthor traded it to darkseid to get him off earth at the end of justice league unlimited
of course we may never get to see how zack snyder intended the anti-life equation to play out in a
dc eu film but it's clear that darkseid would have been the main villain of snyder's justice
league 3 and likely appearing briefly in justice league 2 had that come to fruition but this seems
as unlikely a prospect today as warner brothers have just downplayed the idea of it happening
the last official movement on this was ava duvenay being tapped to co-write and direct
a new gods movie which would reinvent darkseid and the rest of the new gods for the screen
presumably the anti-life equation will be at the center of that too however there's
also been little movement on that spin-off over the last few years i guess with all of
this information recently only time will tell if we will ever get to see it play out in a movie
but that was my brief video explaining the dark side anti-life equation in the snyder
cuts of justice league i really hope that we do get to see the potential of this plot line
released in the future but with warner brothers coming out and saying that they don't want to
restore the snyder verse then at the minute it looks unlikely however i personally think that
if the snyder cut gets a lot of attention and re-watchability over a longer period of time
then they might consider changing their minds about the direction of their films regardless
i do want to see the anti-life equation brought to the screen at some points and after watching
the snyder cut i really want to see darkseid in a sequel this movie is completely different to the
one we got in theaters four years ago and it's just great to see characters developed and an
actual story being formed in the process which we would expect from a sequel to
but i hope that this did help some of you guys understand the dark side anti-life equation
a bit better and i'm looking forward to hearing what else you picked out in the film surrounding
it so don't forget to let me know down below in the comment section for more videos analyzing
the justice league snyder cuts over the next few weeks then don't forget to subscribe to the
channel and turn on your notifications also if you enjoyed this video remember to leave a like
rating but anyway i hope you guys enjoyed it i've been cortex and as always make some noise