Batmen, superpowered sunlight, and multiversal hijinx.
"The Flash" sprinted through some plot points fast enough for viewers to get left in the
dust.
Here are the explanations you might have missed for those confusing moments.
The theatrical version of "Justice League," which is considered to be DCEU canon by Warner
Bros., is set in 2017.
It's a general assumption that DCEU movies are set in the year they're released, therefore
"The Flash" takes place in 2023.
Most members of the League had made separate appearances in other DCEU media in the time
since the 2017 team-up movie, many of which were without the actual actors reprising their
roles.
While the League appeared in the finale of "Peacemaker," only Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa
returned, with the other characters obscured in shadows.
"You're late, you f***ing d***heads."
A tie-in three-issue comic series, titled "The Flash: Fastest Man Alive," was released
in 2022 to bridge the gap between 2017's "Justice League" and 2023's "The Flash.
The series follows Barry as he struggles to balance his life as a solo superhero in Central
City and his job at the CCPD Crime Lab, occasionally receiving mentorship and assistance from Batman.
While phasing through solid matter is one of Flash's many powers in the comic books,
it was never established in the DCEU movies until "The Flash."
In the film, Barry uses his "phasing" ability to infiltrate rooms, dodge projectiles, and
steal some beer from his neighbors.
When Prime Barry, carrying Young Barry, infiltrates the Central City Police Department by phasing
through a door, a microscopic zoom-in shows how his molecules vibrate to pass through
the molecules of the door.
While "The Flash" never explains how Barry received this new power, in the second issue
of the tie-in comic book prequel, "The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive," Barry finds his entire
body uncontrollably vibrating during a fight against Tarpit.
After a bit of trial and error with this new peculiarity, Barry discovers that if he maintains
his vibrative state whilst interacting with objects, he's able to "phase" through solid
objects.
It's very common now for comic book characters to wear new suits in each franchise entry
without any explanation as to how they got their upgrades.
In "Justice League," Flash donned a make-shift suit of several heat-resistant pieces bolted
together, made from the same material used on space shuttles.
Any other material would burn from the friction caused by Barry's speed.
In "The Flash," Barry sports a new, more sophisticated, and sleeker version of his suit, which includes
a retractable visor to protect his eyes and a Fitbit-like monitor that tracks Barry's
nutrition levels.
Plus, the whole costume fits into a ring that Barry wears when not in use.
This massive upgrade was subsidized by Bruce Wayne.
The origin of the new suit is shown in the first issue of "The Flash: The Fastest Man
Alive" tie-in comic, where Flash faces off against Girder, who damages the former's old
suit.
Bruce gifts the dejected Barry a new suit along with a note of encouragement.
"The Flash" devotes a major part of its run time to Prime Barry trying to get Young Barry
his powers.
Since Prime Barry originally thinks that he's stuck in the past, he needs to power up Young
Barry in order to keep the canonical flow of events intact, including the incident in
his own life where he gets his powers.
This becomes important because if Young Barry doesn't get his powers when Prime Barry does,
then it would render Prime Barry powerless, and, hence, his act of altering his mother's
death would be null and void.
However, Prime Barry wasn't stuck in the past; he was stuck in an alternate timeline and
universe where Barry getting his powers wouldn't have any bearing on Prime Barry's future.
But Prime Barry had no way of knowing this when he attempted to get his younger self
access to the Speed Force.
In "The Flash," the older Bruce Wayne dispels Prime Barry's perception about branching timelines.
He explains that changing a moment in history doesn't just alter what happens after it,
but the entire timeline itself, including the events before, leading to the unintended
creation of an entirely different universe.
The moment in time when Barry saves his mother acts as the fulcrum between his universe and
the alternate universe he ends up in.
Given that this version of Bruce seemingly hasn't interacted with any metahumans before,
it's worth wondering how he's able to articulate the concept of the multiverse so well using
spaghetti strings.
The most plausible answer to this is that Bruce is smart enough to have theoretical
knowledge about the multiverse, among various other topics.
Batman seems to be the only superhero in his alternate universe.
He becomes Prime Barry's last resort after failing to find the other members of the Justice
League, including Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Superman.
When we first see the caped crusader, he has a ragged appearance and is older and retired.
"Yeah, I'm Batman"
While the film doesn't reveal anything about what Batman had been up to in the years since
his retirement, "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti talked with ReelBlend about it,
saying,
"There was a lot to talk about, 'Where do we find Bruce Wayne 30 years after we saw
him for the last time?'
I wanted to find Bruce in a place where people do not expect to find him ... so basically
like a Batman that quit some years ago, for a reason that you won't see in the movie.
But you're gonna see it in the deleted scenes."
While Bruce claims that he retired because he finally managed to make Gotham City "one
of the safest cities in the world," Muschetti further hinted at another possible reason
for Batman's seclusion.
He said Bruce may have made the same mistake as Barry did in "The Flash" by using time
travel to "fix things."
It likely didn't end well, which caused the Dark Knight to hang up his cape permanently.
If that's the case, it might also answer the question of how Batman already had a grasp
on multiversal time travel when he meets Barry.
Kara Zor-El was kept imprisoned and malnourished for years, potentially decades.
When the two Barrys and Batman find her, she's too weak to even walk.
However, it only takes a sunbath for Kara to recover.
As soon as she makes it outside, basking in the sunlight, she defeats the soldiers and
saves her rescuers.
Viewers may wonder how Kara had healed so quickly.
However, Kara possesses the same power that her cousin Superman has: the ability to use
sunlight to heal.
Kryptonians are empowered by solar rays emitted from Earth's sun.
Superman's birth father, Jor-El, explains in "Man of Steel" that it's why Kryptonians
possess superhuman powers on Earth.
"Why am I so different from them?"
"Earth's sun is younger and brighter than Krypton's was."
The healing power was first shown in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."
Superman, fighting Doomsday in space, is weakened by a nuclear explosion launched by the US
government, but recovers quickly after some direct exposure to sunlight.
At one point in the movie, a demonic-looking speedster shows up in the Speed Force and
pushes Barry into an alternate 2013.
At first glance, Flash fans might recognize this mystery character as Dark Flash, who,
in the comics, is an evil version of Barry's nephew and fellow Flash Wally West from the
future.
Towards the end of the film, it is revealed that this darker version of Flash is actually
Young Barry himself from the future, whose blind obsession with preventing the deaths
of Batman and Supergirl at the hands of Zod led him to spend decades going back in time
over and over again at the cost of his own sanity and physical health.
His body is wrapped in Kryptonian blades stabbed into him by Zod and his Kryptonian soldiers,
each blade indicating the number of failed attempts to "fix" the fated deaths of Batman
and Supergirl.
Dark Flash reveals that he pushed Prime Barry into the alternate 2013 to set off a chain
of events that leads to this version of Barry getting his powers and eventually becoming
Dark Flash.
The character becomes a cautionary tale for Young Barry, who is horrified by how much
his obsession has overtaken his mind.
Young Barry sacrifices himself to save Prime Barry from his sinister future self, and,
by extension, erases Dark Flash from existence.
In nearly every version of "The Flash," the death of Nora Allen is a major part of Barry
Allen's backstory.
It influences his heroism and defines his relationship with his father Henry, given
that everyone but Barry believes that Henry killed Nora.
In 2023's "The Flash," Nora's murder and Henry's resulting imprisonment motivate Barry to go
back in time, save both his parents, and, in turn, face the consequences of his actions.
But the film leaves one big question unresolved: Who really killed Nora?
In the comics and The CW show, the murderer is revealed to be the Reverse Flash, Eobard
Thawne, who neither appears nor is mentioned in "The Flash."
Which makes sense, as the movie is already crowded enough with multiple characters and
subplots.
Director Andy Muschietti hinted at a possible story for a sequel, with Thawne as the main
villain.
Muscheitti told The Playlist,
"Well, Reverse Flash is the elephant in the room, right?
[...] It feels like you can't make another movie without addressing the one that, in
all accounts, is the murderer of Barry's mom.
So, it feels like the big villain."
Muschietti went on to name-drop other possible villains for the sequel:
"I have my own favorites, but that's another story — I'd like to see The Turtle at some
point.
The slowest man on Earth.
Gorilla Grodd, of course.
And many more."
When it became clear that Michael Keaton's Batman would be a key part of the multiversal
adventure of "The Flash," fans began theorizing about other cameos from previous DC films
and TV shows.
And indeed, the film features numerous cameos and homages to heroes that came before.
Young Barry's obsessive time-altering in his doomed attempts to save Batman and Supergirl
leads to a multiversal collision, which demands that he go back and undo what started it all:
saving his mother.
The sequence in the Speed Force features Christopher Reeve's Superman from the 1978-1987 "Superman"
movies joined by Helen Slater's Supergirl from 1984's "Supergirl" — both of whom had
been established to be in the same universe but never crossed over, given the poor reception
of "Supergirl."
George Reeves' Superman from the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" series and Adam West's Batman
from the 1960s "Batman" TV show also appear.
The Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, makes an appearance during this sequence, although
he is not portrayed by “The Flash” actor Teddy Sears as was previously thought.
It was confirmed by TVLine that the film just shows Garrick’s likeness and he was not
portrayed by any actor of note.
Most surprisingly, Nicolas Cage appears in a cameo as Superman, finally appearing as
the Man of Steel after getting cast in Tim Burton's unproduced '90s film "Superman Lives."
The sequence also features the laughs of the Joker played by Caesar Romero and Jack Nicholson
through archival footage.
New DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran have big plans to reboot the DCEU as
the DCU, and one of the projects on their proposed slate is "Batman: The Brave and the
Bold" to be directed by "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti.
The announcement had fans guessing who would play Batman in the DCU.
Audiences were more confused than surprised to see George Clooney as Bruce Wayne in the
reset timeline at the end of "The Flash," a consequence of Barry altering the timeline
once again to strengthen his father's alibi and prove his innocence in Nora Allen's murder.
The cameo is clearly intended to be a tongue-in-cheek joke, as Barry's disappointment at the sight
of Clooney's Bruce Wayne is meant to mirror the audience's reaction.
It's highly unlikely the 62–year-old actor would be returning to be the de facto Batman
of the new universe, given that Gunn had replaced the now-40-year-old Henry Cavill in favor
of a younger Superman for his upcoming "Superman: Legacy."
There's also the fact that Clooney's last appearance as the Caped Crusader wasn't exactly
well received by fans and critics.
In fact, Clooney has repeatedly apologized for his portrayal of Batman in the years since
1997's "Batman and Robin."
"You apologized to the crowd at Comic-Con for 'Batman & Robin.'"
"I always apologize for 'Batman & Robin.'"
The future of the DCEU's Barry Allen is definitely unclear, given the various legal issues and
alleged criminal behavior of "The Flash" star Ezra Miller.
There had been a point where the severity of such reports had thrown the fate of the
$200-million movie in uncertainty, given that Miller is essentially the face of the film
and it would be difficult to market it in light of its star's highly-publicized erratic
behavior.
"The Flash" could actually have ended up with the same fate as the "Batgirl" movie, which
was shelved in 2022 as a result of poor response at test screenings and a change in DC Films'
release strategy.
While many fans had called for Miller to be replaced, director Andy Muschietti revealed
that the actor wouldn't be recast for a possible sequel.
All that said, with the DC film universe set to reboot under Gunn and Safran, only two
films from the old DCEU regime are left to be released: "Blue Beetle" and "Aquaman: The
Lost Kingdom."
Gunn retroactively deemed one of those, "Blue Beetle," canon in his upcoming DCU.
Though "The Flash" was anticipated to be Ben Affleck's final outing as Batman, the actor
had reportedly also shot some scenes for "Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom" during the film's reshoots,
presumably just in case the Batman situation wasn't confusing enough for fans.