Film / The Flash (2023)

"I completely broke the universe!"

Bruce Wayne: Tell me something. If you get your powers back, you can go anywhere. You can go to another timeline, another universe. Why do you wanna stay... and fight to save this one?
Barry Allen: Because this is the world where my mom lives. I went back in time to save her. I'm not gonna lose her again.

The Flash is a 2023 superhero film directed by Andrés Muschietti, from a screenplay written by Christina Hodson. It is the thirteenth film, the in-universe end of the DC Extended Universe, and the long-awaited solo theatrical film adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name, loosely inspired by the Flashpoint storyline, a quasi-sequel to both Batman and Batman Returns, and a What If? version of Man of Steel all at once.

Some time after Justice League, Barry Allen uses the Speed Force to travel back in time and discover the truth about his mother's death to clear his father's name. In testing the limits of his powers to travel back in time, Flash unintentionally creates a universe where his mother lives, but there are no metahumans to defend the Earth ahead of an impending Kryptonian invasion. With the help of an alternate Bruce Wayne, an imprisoned Kryptonian named Kara Zor-El, and a younger alternate version of himself who has just gained superpowers, it's up to Barry to stop General Zod, restore his timeline and find a way back home.

The film stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash and Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman from an alternate timeline. Alongside Keaton's Batman, Ben Affleck also reprises his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman from the DCEU, with Michael Shannon and Antje Traue returning as Ur-Zod and Faora-Ul respectively. Kiersey Clemons reprises her role as Iris West from Zack Snyder's Justice League while new additions to the cast include Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl, Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth and Ron Livingston as Henry Allen^note replacing Billy Crudup from both versions of Justice League.

A 3-issue Prequel comic book mini-series called The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive was released in late 2022, focusing on Barry's relationship with his mentor Bruce Wayne prior to the events of the movie.

Taking inspiration from the aforementioned Flashpoint, this film is also a Spiritual Successor to the Arrowverse Crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, wherein Miller's Barry met his counterpart (Grant Gustin) from Earth-Prime. The film also draws influence from The Flash: Rebirth (2009) as part of Barry's story. The Flash was released theatrically on June 16, 2023 and digitally on July 18.

Previews: DC Fandome 2021 teaser, first official trailer, second official trailer, final trailer

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The Flash contains examples of:

Tropes # to B

• 20 Minutes into the Past: The alternate timeline Barry ends up on plays out in 2013, around the same time that the events of Man of Steel played out in the DCEU's original timeline.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Zod put his retractable blade to good use against a human general and a distracted Supergirl, after being seemingly pinned down by the latter. And then later on, using the blade to kill her in numerous other occasions throughout the timeline. Likewise, the bits of Kryptonian metal embedded into Alternate Barry's body are sharp enough to help him easily kill Faora in tandem with his speed.
• Adapted Out: Despite his huge role in the source material, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash has no part in any element of the story. Like the animated adaptation of Flashpoint, we don’t even know if he was responsible for the death of Barry’s mother.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Instead of having one Barry Allen who replaces his counterpart and inheriting his memories like the Flashpoint comics, there are two Barrys in the movie.
  • In the comic, Flash tampering with the timeline leads to a reality where Bruce Wayne died as a child - a fate trasferred to Clark Kent in the movie.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Supergirl is near universally depicted with long blonde hair, though some civilian appearances include a brown wig. Sasha Calle retains her dark hair along with a shorter haircut.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The movie dances around this next to the original Flashpoint story.
  • The comic justified retroactive changes to the timeline via "time booms" akin to sonic booms, so changes like Clark's ship landing in Metropolis or Bruce being shot instead of his parents came because the Point of Divergence had a ripple effect further back in the past than could be accounted for (note this was considered a fairly weak explanation). Here, Keatons' Bruce speculates on non-linear time and The Multiverse, suggesting Prime Barrys' actions to prevent Noras' death as "more of an intersection" between the two timelines, with changes going in BOTH directions, past and future. It doesn't necessarily clear everything up, but is a bit more flexible.
  • But in general, the original Flashpoint story was merely an alternate timeline story, not a multiversal one, as in Barry created the new timeline instead of discovering it, while the movie is a lot more ambiguous about how things work.
• Adaptational Wimp: While the Nam-Ek from the original timeline was able to put up a fight against Superman, this version is knocked out with standard explosives, Batman can actually last for a few moments engaged in a fight with him and Barry working together with Alternate Barry defeats him with relative ease.
  • All the Kryptonians not named "Zod". When facing off against a newly-resurrected (and still recovering) Superman, Barry found himself against an opponent that could keep up with him with little issue and that he was utterly powerless against, to the point that his punches bounced with no effect and Clark could damage him by simply moving. Here, while we are told that the Kryptonians are fast, they move no faster than regular people and are tossed around with ease, to the point that Flash has more trouble facing regular humans armed with guns than the Kryptonian army. While an exception could be made for things like Barry using the speed force to phase through a Kryptonian's chest, it doesn't justify him being able to just hit and toss the others around.
• Advertised Extra: Ben Affleck's Batman gets a lot of focus in the trailers, with even his Bat symbol appearing alongside the other heroes' in the final trailer. In the film, he plays a major role in the first act, then disappears after Flash messes with the timeline (with Keaton's Batman taking his place for the rest of the film).
• Aesop Amnesia: Possibly one of the fastest on screen: after accepting to let Nora die, undoing his previous change to the timeline, and a tearful departure done careful to avoid more changes, Barry goes back and is struck by the realization that he can change the past to provide an alibi for his father, and immediately does that.
• Alternate Self:
  • Barry meets a younger version of himself from an alternate timeline that is also portrayed by Ezra Miller.
  • The altered timeline features an alternate Batman from the 1989 and 1992 films in costume. The actual Batman of Barry's universe is way different. This alternate Batman can be considered an alternate version of himself from those films too, since he exists in an Alternate Timeline created by Barry as opposed to another universe like Crisis portrayed those films to be.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Affleck-Batman lamented that despite all of his heroics, Gotham City was still a Wretched Hive. Keaton-Batman managed to make Gotham City the safest city in the world. Unfortunately, he didn't know what to do with his life afterwards.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The way The Multiverse and Time Travel work in this movie are explained by Keaton's Batman using cooked and uncooked spaghetti noodles, but his demonstration is itself ambiguous. Bruce uses two parallel then forking uncooked noodles to signify that changing the past simply leads to a different future. But he says this is flat out wrong, and instead he shows two noodles crossing at a "fulcrum" which is created by Barry's time interference, causing a different past and future as the effect goes both ways. Then he compares different timelines to a plate of cooked spaghetti where noodles both touch each other and may be close or distant to each other, showing how timelines may be similar or different, and taken as a whole, that's the Multiverse. Combined with the movie's dialogue using "universe", world, and "timeline" etc. more or less interchangeably, and the visuals of the multiversal worlds within the "Chronobowl" later, it's unclear if Barry creates an Alternate Timeline out of his own home universe, or is really moving between alternate timelines or Alternate Universes rather than modifying his original universe. The second spaghetti demonstration is also unclear if the other "noodle" has always existed or only came into existence due to the interference, and so if Barry is meant to have somehow landed in the actual Burtonverse from Keaton's movies. The characters don't bother to work the mechanics of it all out, and Bruce says it's just a hot mess, signified by pouring spaghetti sauce onto the noodles.
  • George Clooney's cameo. While the implication appears to be obvious, that Clooney's Bruce Wayne has now replaced Ben Affleck's Bruce in Barry's world just as Keaton's Bruce earlier had, another interpretation would be that after the conclusion of the main plot, Barry somehow found himself stuck in a universe that fused with that of Batman & Robin.
  • While by the end of the movie Henry Allen has been acquitted of his wife's murder, the full truth behind the case is not revealed in this film, leaving it unknown if she was killed by Eobard Thawne like usual, or if her death was caused by an ordinary burglary that got out of hand like Barry postulates.
  • The red sun cell that Kara is kept in is described as "Soviet", despite still being in use and well maintained. Is this due an artifact/aesthetic detail, since it was built during the Cold War and no one refers to it by 2013 terms, or is the universe Barry visits one where the USSR still exists in a Alternate History version of 2013?
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Alternate Barry to Prime Barry has this dynamic, as he is a carefree eighteen year old slacker who won't even do his own laundry.
• Achilles in His Tent: Keaton!Batman was so good that he managed to make Gotham City one of the safest places in the world, so much that they didn't need him. He lets his hair grow long and gets a Beard of Sorrow over losing his Alfred (presumably Michael Gough). It takes the Barrys to bring him back into the fight after seeing General Zod's ship come to Earth.
• Back for the Finale: A variation with Michael Shannon and Antje Traue. Zod was the very first Big Bad of the DC Extended Universe (and with Faora as The Dragon). With The Flash rebooting the original shared cinematic setting that Man of Steel kicked off, Zod and Faora thus fittingly return for its 'finale', as the existing current timeline is overwritten due to this film's events. The film also has Ben Affleck return to play Batman one more time after previously retiring from the role.
• Badass Normal: Compared to his portrayal in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns, it quickly becomes clear that Batman is outmatched by the metahumans during the final battle. Despite that, he repeatedly engages their air defenses with nothing more than machine guns and missiles, and decides to take on Nam-Ek (a giant Kryptonian) one-on-one with nothing more than his reflexes and a handful of bombs. The latter gets him killed, though he manages to knock out Nam-Ek for about a minute by attaching an explosive to his head.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the alternate timeline that Barry's meddling created, General Zod always succeeds in defeating the heroes and destroying humanity in the process of terraforming Earth into a New Krypton. Alternate Barry spends so much time unsuccessfully trying to alter this outcome that not only he eventually becomes an old man, but the reality itself starts crushing itself in the process.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When the Barrys and the Batman reach the containment unit the audience gets fleeting glimpses of the captured Kryptonian, building up a Superman tease, before subverting it by revealing Kara instead of Clark.
  • A double whammy at the end: after fixing the timeline, Barry gets a call from Bruce, who arrives in his car to meet with him. With how the scene builds up, one would assume that this Bruce is actually Michael Keaton's version, not Ben Affleck's. As it turns out, he's neither; this is George Clooney's Bruce Wayne.
• Berserk Button: Happens when Barry's alternate self mentions his mother jokingly. It's enough to make Barry snap at his alternate self, even giving him "The Reason You Suck" Speech in the process.
• Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Barry's father Henry is seen removing the knife from the belly of Nora after she's been stabbed, which likely means he left his fingerprints on the knife, further incriminating him.
• Beta Outfit: It's revealed that Barry first tried to be a hero during the Kryptonian invasion during Man of Steel but only had his powers a few weeks and wasn't able to do much. His costume was a wild mixture of a ski mask and other sporting gear.
• Big Bad: In the alternate timeline, General Zod who is destined to win, no matter what anyone does, not even Barry. The real villain is actually Dark Flash, who is revealed to be a much older Alternate Barry who was growing obsessed with changing the timeline and winning, actual consequences be damned.
• Big Sister Instinct: A cousin version. Kara Zor-El explains to both Barrys that she was sent to Earth along with Kal-El to protect him, and clearly feels guilty that she doesn't know his fate. When Zod reveals to her at the climactic battle that he and his troops abducted the infant Kal to try to retrieve the Codex from him (which he didn't have) and he died in the process, Kara immediately goes into Unstoppable Rage against Zod.
• Big Brother Mentor: Once the older Prime Barry is accidentally Brought Down to Normal after transferring his powers to the younger Alternate Barry, the former acts as this for the latter when teaching him how to use his new abilities.
• Big Damn Heroes: While escaping the facility in Russia, The Flash and Batman are badly outnumbered by heavily armed troops. Batman raises up his hands in apparent surrender, but when he moves it, Kara is revealed to have regained her strength and powers. Cue super-speed asskicking.
• Bittersweet Ending: Barry manages to change the past just enough to clear his dad's name in the unscramble security footage, winning his appeal and freeing him from prison. He's also going to start dating Iris. However, he had to allow his mother to die, and he knows that Kara and the older Batman are irrevocably doomed to die along with the entire Earth of their timeline regardless. And again due to his meddling with time, the younger Batman he's familiar with is still Ret-Gone and replaced by another older version.
• Body Horror: Over the course of the final battle, Alternate Barry winds up having multiple sharp instruments embedded into his body via the use of his phasing power, with a large chunk of Nam-Ek's exploded armor serving as a Blade Below the Shoulder for him at first, before he starts to have more and more items embedded within him to the point of outright Spikes of Villainy. By the time he becomes the Dark Flash, his suit also appears to be a charred mess melded with his body.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: Invoked. When trying to convince Bruce Wayne of his idea to travel back in time to save his mother from death and father from imprisonment, Barry appeals to Bruce's own deceased parents. The argument doesn't work on the original DCEU Bruce, but is implied to be more effective on the Batman of the alternate universe, who touches an old photograph of the Waynes when deciding to help Barry.
• Bookends: Zod was the first Big Bad of the DC Extended Universe. With The Flash rebooting the original cinematic setting that Man of Steel kicked off, an alternate Zod bookends things as the 'final' Big Bad. Even though Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom go next, this is still the end of the original timeline that began with Man of Steel.
• Brick Joke:
  • Upon trying on Barry's suit, Alternate Barry confesses that it's tight, especially around the groin. When he makes a new costume from one of Batman's old suits later on, he tells Barry that his version is more loose, even stretching his leg to demonstrate this.
  • When helping his alternate self gain access to his powers, Barry has his tooth knocked out and has to glue it back on. At the end, when trying to talk to Clooney's Bruce, the tooth falls out.
• Broad Strokes: Elements of the two Tim Burton Batman films (set on Earth-89 of the Arrowverse, and/or Earth-789 in context of DC Comics' multiverse) are given this treatment, mixed in with Man of Steel to create the Alternative Universe or rather timeline that Barry travels to.
• Broken Aesop: The film seems to be about accepting things as they are, but in the finale Barry alters time again, this time to create more evidence around Nora's murder to exonerate Henry Allen, and nothing is seen as wrong with that. Although, the appearance of Clooney's Bruce Wayne suggests that this could be the unintentional result of Barry's second interference.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Played for Black Comedy when the Flash does a ridiculously over-the-top version of this trope when a hospital wing collapses and Flash has to rescue a half-dozen babies, a nurse and a rescue dog who are falling to their deaths while at the same time being imperiled mid-air by various lethal objects. While this is going on, Batman is chasing a carload of villains with neither side caring much about Collateral Damage. Further down the road children start filing out of a school bus, so Batman shoots a device ahead of them that deploys a spike strip, causing the villains to swerve off down a side street to avoid it. The watching kids of course are more thrilled than terrified.

Tropes C to F

• Call-Back:
  • When Prime Barry and Alternate Barry go to meet Batman and are attacked by Keaton Batman, Alternate Barry catches a frying pan hurled at him in a similar way to how Prime Barry caught a Batarang hurled at him in Justice League.
  • Alternate Barry quickly speeds through the Batcave in excitement when entering it for the first time.
  • In the first official trailer, when appearing before the two Barrys in costume, the Michael Keaton version of Bruce reprises his Character Catchphrase from the Tim Burton Batman movie:
    Barry 2: You're... You are...
    Batman: Yeah. I'm Batman.
  • Barry finds the "laughing" silk marble bag once possessed by The Joker in Batman. Apparently Bruce kept it all these years as a souvenir.
  • As explained by Superman before, the "S" in Kara's outfit is brought up in the film as a symbol of hope in Krypton.
  • Then there's Batman's response to Barry's offer to join the new Justice League:
    Batman: You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts.
• The Cameo:
  • Ben Affleck and Jeremy Irons reprise their roles as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Alfred respectively for the beginning action scene, with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman into up to save Batman and Alberto Falcone.
  • Temuera Morrison briefly reprises his role as Thomas Curry (Aquaman's father) when Prime Barry discovers that Aquaman doesn't exist in the altered timeline.
  • During Barry’s glimpses into The Multiverse, we see a CGI recreation of George Reeves as his Superman in a black and white world which is also inhabited by a version of Jay Garrick,^note Despite reports that Jay was played by Teddy Sears, he was actually a CGI creation with a facial likeness provided by Jason Ballantine plus Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater as Superman and Supergirl respectively, CGI and archive audio of Adam West as Batman alongside archive audio of Caesar Romero as the Joker and a Digitally Deaged Nicolas Cage as Superman, fighting a giant spider^Explanation Cage was set to portray Superman in a film entitled Superman Lives, written by Kevin Smith and directed by Tim Burton. Producer Jon Peters stipulated that Superman had to fight a giant spider in the third act..
  • George Clooney appears as the new timeline’s Bruce Wayne.
  • And finally, Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry/Aquaman in The Stinger.
  • Nikolaj Coster-Waldau appears as a random man. The role is uncredited but he has a "special thanks" nod in the credits.
  • Director Andy Muschietti himself appears also as an uncredited random man eating a hot dog in front of the court at the end.
• Central Theme: Some problems simply don't have solutions, no matter how hard you try to solve them.
• Cheap Costume:
  • The alternate Barry's costume is appropriated from one of the older Batman's old suits^*specifically, the one from Returns, spray painted red and the Flash's lightning iconography with caution tape to complete the look.
  • Barry does the Brown Bag Mask version when he first confronts his younger self who's just turned up with a bag of laundry. Barry tackles him to the ground and covers his face with underwear as an improvised mask. It doesn't work as younger Barry unmasks the underwear-wearing looney to find himself staring back at him.
• Class Z: What begins to happen at the end of the film, with Barry's actions causing universes to crash into each other, threatening to destroy all of existence if he does not fix what he has done.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Early on, Barry asks Alfred why he haven't contemplated calling Superman to deal with the Gotham Crisis, only to turn around and see a news report where Superman is concurrently stopping a volcano eruption somewhere in Guatemala.
• Close-Enough Timeline: The timeline that Barry comes back to seems to be broadly the same as the one he left, only now with his father acquitted, and George Clooney's incarnation of Bruce Wayne apparently replacing Ben Affleck's.
• Closest Thing We Got: Having confirmed that Diana and Arthur apparently don't exist in this new world and Victor Stone isn't Cyborg (yet), the best Barry can do to assemble a "new" Justice League to fight Zod is his own counterpart, the older Batman, and Kara Zor-El.
  Barry (Alternate): We're the Justice League.
  Barry: No.
  Barry (Alternate): No?
  Barry: Well, I mean, kinda. We are short one literal goddess... one friendly Terminator and super mermaid. And we could definitely use a Batman.
• Collapsible Helmet: Barrys' new Flash costume has a feature to retract the headpiece into a couple flaps on the back of his neck for a helmetless look.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Kara is only called Supergirl once by Alternate Barry and the name does not stick. The trope is otherwise averted for all the other heroes.
• Composite Character:
  • Supergirl in this film manages to be a composite of 2 Supergirls and 3 Supermen; she has the name and past of Kara Zor-El, the main Supergirl and the appearance of Lara Lane-Kent from the Injustice tie-in comics. Meanwhile, her role as a sun-starved Kryptonian kept in a base who is rescued by the heroes is taken from Flashpoint Superman, while her having been held by the Soviets, not the US government, and presumably landing in Russia, is taken from Red Son Superman. Finally, Kara has the Codex implanted in her bloodstream, fulfilling Clark's role in Man of Steel.
  • The Dark Flash takes from a number of different speedster villains while being an obscure name itself, including, for example, Black Flash, Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar and Future Flash. The closest overall comparison would be the undead appearance of Black Flash, as well as him being an alternate timeline version of Barry much like Future Flash. The aesthetic of sharp metal protruding from his body to make up his costume calls back to the Daniel West version of the Reverse Flash from the New 52 comics.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Iris makes a vague allusion to her and Barry running into each other a few years before the events of this film, referring to the Snyder Cut's introductory scene, where Barry saves Iris from a car wreck.
  • Barry's Justice League costume can be seen as he goes further back in time to stop his mom's death, as well as his fight with Superman, complete with Arthur angrily pointing at him. There is also a brief mention of him being able to reverse time for a few seconds in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
  • On top of this, Boomerang is also seen in Barry's travel back in time, referencing the time Barry quickly defeated him in Suicide Squad (2016).
  • Batman (1989)
    • The original Batsuits from the Burton Films can be seen in the background of the older Batman's armory.
    • While hanging around the Batcave, Alternate Barry stumbles upon the Joker's laughing bag.
    • When Batman leaps out of The Batwing during the trio's infiltration into the Siberian prison, the plane is framed within the moon, casting the image of the Bat-Signal as Bruce opens up his glider cape, evoking the same imagery as when the Batwing momentarily paused in front of the moon after releasing Joker's gas balloons during Batman (1989).
    • During their escape from the Siberian prison, everyone except Batman gets into an elevator before the former asks, "How much do you weigh?"
    • Barry II's suit for the final battle is a jury-rigged version of an "old" Batsuit given to him by Bruce, which (in its unaltered form) looks exactly the same as the armory full of dummy suits seen in the original Keaton films. Specifically, it's a version of his suit from Batman Returns, which opted for an armor-plated abdomen rather than the natural-looking muscles of the 1989 suit.
    • Batman's death after (temporarily) knocking out Nam-Ek and then being held by Barry I during the finale is underscored by a slower version of the first few notes of Danny Elfman's theme from the original film.
• Continuity Snarl: While the DCEU Flash has interacted with a wider DC Multiverse before through the Arrowverse's Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) TV event, specifically interacting with his Earth-Prime counterpart and thus making the DCEU itself part of the Arrowverse's multiverse (later designated as Earth-1), no real attempt is made to link or stay consistent with what that previously established. Both the movie and Crisis use previous live-action DC adaptations for their depictions of alternate universes or timelines to the "main" ones they're respectively showing, but in different and sometimes arguably incompatible ways. In particular, Tim Burton's Batman films were clearly established as a different reality to the DCEU, Earth-89, while the film implies that they happened within the altered DCEU history created by this movie. So thanks to the movie, the appearance of Ezra Miller's Flash in Crisis is now Schrödinger's Canon at best for the wider DCEU, though clearly canon for the Arrowverse (and since he wears his Justice League outfit there, it's another can of worms whether he comes from the theatrical or Snyder cut of that movie).
• Cosmic Retcon: Barry's attempts to utilize the Speed Force have fundamentally transformed his universe. Wonder Woman and Aquaman aren’t around, Victor never became Cyborg (or at least hasn't become Cyborg yet), Bruce Wayne is now a completely different person, and Kara Zor-El landed on Earth instead of her cousin. He caused it again at the end of the climax to fix the timeline.
• Costume Evolution:
  • Barry wears a new suit in the teaser that is markedly different from the suit he had in both versions of Justice League, where it is a streamlined bodysuit with Tron Lines that flare up when running. The prequel comic reveals that the new costume was given to Barry by Batman after his Justice League suit was destroyed during a battle with the supervillain Girder.
  • Michael Keaton's Batman suit◊ is now more heavily armored, with the yellow utility belt turned black.
  • Ben Afflecks' Batman costume is significantly different from previous films as it has different shades of light blue for the suit, cowl and cape^note This is in fact the first theatrical Batman, barring Batman: The Movie, to have Batman in an overt blue costume instead of just grey and black. There is also armor plating laid overtop the suit instead of fused into it.
• Create Your Own Villain: (Alternate) Barry's inexperience with time travel, ignoring the advice of two Bruce Waynes, and other factors cause the Barry native to the universe he is visiting to go down a dark path of trying to Screw Destiny in order to save Kara and Bruce.
• Creative Closing Credits: The end credits play over a therapy dog falling from the collapsing hospital at the beginning, bumping into several objects before finally being saved by Barry.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Kara is able to get a couple of good hits against Zod, due to her rage after learning that Zod killed Kal-El, but Zod is still able to come out on top, even when Kara gets help from Alternate Barry, as he is still a more experienced soldier.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Played for Laughs. Prime Barry is depowered and doesn't realize it until he tries to phase through a wall. His running style is a very distinctive form emulating a gazelle or speed skating, but without Super-Speed and in a small room, he just plods around in an exaggerated, arm-flailing fashion.
• Depower: Due to being caught in Alternate Barry's accident, Prime Barry loses his powers for act 2. He gets them back right before Act 3 when he, with the help of Keaton-Bruce and Kara, recreates the incident that gave him his powers in the first place.
• Detrimental Determination: Even as he can literally see the entire multiverse being destroyed by his efforts, Dark Barry wants to continue trying to alter the timeline until his is saved.
• Different World, Different Movies: In the altered timeline, Eric Stoltz invokedremained in the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future, and presumably the rest of the franchise. In turn Michael J. Fox starred in Footloose, while Kevin Bacon starred in Top Gun. Also the famous cartoon franchise is Looney Toons, and the restaurant is Bananabee's.
• Disposable Woman: Supergirl over and over again!
• Epic Fail: Young Barry's first run winds up in his clothes catching fire, a multi-car pile-up, a semi-truck turning on its side, a lightpole crashing into said truck, and eventually, a city-wide blackout. He also has to run home naked.
• Exact Words: This quote: "Not every problem has a solution. Sometimes, we just have to let go.". The first time we hear it Barry is complaining about the assignment he got of writing all the operations he can think of that give 24 as a solution, which has infinite answers and as such there isn't space enough for them. In this contest, the issue is that the problem doesn't have a singular solution, but too many different approaches and it's pointless to try them all. Later in the movie, Barry says to his younger self to indicate that saving Bruce and Kara is a problem that doesn't have any solutions, and so he should stop. While in both cases the quote is used to dissuade Barry from obsessing about something bigger than himself, the reason in the two cases are diametrically opposite.
• Final Battle: The two Flashes, Supergirl and Batman fight Zod and his army to save Earth. Or not. This battle is doomed to be a Zod victory no matter what happens, due to circumstances and odds stacking way up in Zod's favor. The actual final confrontation is Prime Barry and Alternate Barry against Dark Flash, within the Speedforce.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The trailers already indicated the movie would feature two Barry Allens, but nevertheless: Right before the reveal of Alternate Barry in the first act, Barry's parents asked him questions about school (Barry actually has a job in his own timeline) and Barry's father specifically commented that Barry strangely looks older (Hinting that Barry ended up in a timeline years earlier than he planned to).
  • At one point in the Allen family flashback, Henry jokes that the young Barry's hair is "getting gray", even jokingly putting some flour on Barry's hair. The Dark Flash's identity turns out to be an older Alternate Barry with gray hair.
  • When we first meet Nora Allen, she is listening and singing along to a cover version of the salsa song "Pedro Navaja", by Rubén Blades. which features a woman who dies by being stabbed by a common thug, just as Nora is about to be.
  • Later in the film Barry sings along the chorus of the same song but stops right before the next line.
    ♫ Life gives you surprises
    Surprises life gives you, oh, God!
    When Destiny commands it, not even the bravest man can change it. ♫
  • Alternate Barry (And later on his friends) off-handedly remarked that Eric Stoltz is the star of the Back to the Future movies. In the real world, Michael J. Fox ends up being the star of the franchise instead. Not only that, Alternate Barry's computer has a Looney Toons wallpaper. More subtle hints that the timeline had been twisted far beyond Barry's anticipation.
  • In their argument in the Batcave, Barry snaps at Alternate Barry when the latter disrespectfully mentions their mom, which quickly made him quiet and apologetic. Later, Alternate Barry tells Barry he knew he went back in time to save her.
  • After Barry's nightmare of the Dark Flash, the camera cuts to the first person Barry sees upon waking up: Alternate Barry. It's a subtle hint towards the Dark Flash's true identity.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Barry's mother Nora was killed during a home invasion that happened after his father went to the store to buy tomatoes. Barry gets the idea to prevent this by traveling back in time and changing one tiny thing: ensuring Nora buys the tomatoes beforehand. The end result is a timeline where Nora doesn't only survive, but Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg don't exist, an older version of Batman is around, and Supergirl somehow made her way to Earth instead. The Bruce of this universe explains that by changing this tiny thing, Barry also changed the past.
  • When Barry travels back to fix his interference, instead of ensuring his mom bought the tomatoes, he moves the specific selection that his father was going to get to the top shelf, ensuring that his dad's face could be seen when the video is restored later. This changes the tape and not the intervening years between its original use and the enhanced video version. However, even this small change causes a backward ripple in time, since Barry doesn't recognize the Bruce Wayne that knows him.
• Future Me Scares Me: Alternate Barry is a bit distraught when "our" Barry yells at him for not taking anything seriously. And in a darker sense, Dark Flash, evil, ruthless and demonic-looking, is the much older version of Alternate Barry, driven mad by his attempts to fix history.

Tropes G to L

• Grand Finale: While Blue Beetle & Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom follow this film theatrically, The Flash marks the end of the original DC Extended Universe timeline that launched with Man of Steel in 2013. This is due to Barry's changes to the timeline causing in effect a Soft Reboot. So the DCEU as we've known it up to this point is gone after ten years, fifteen films and one TV series.^note Peacemaker, which is said to be carrying over to the new harder Continuity Reboot called just the DC Universe or DCU, which is functionally unconnected and irrelevant to the Soft Rebooted DCEU via this movie's reality-changing events.
• Growling Gut: Barry is literally growling with hunger early in the film, being dragged to an assignment in Gotham before he could even have his breakfast. Later on he mistook the sound of a collapsing building as his gut:
  Flash: You hear that? That's my stomach!
  [Beat]
  Flash: No no no, it's the collapsing East Wing!
• Hard Truth Aesop: Barry's lesson in this movie is that there are just some fights you can't win, and your only option is to walk away.
• Heroic BSoD: Flashpoint Barry experiences this when he sees a lifeless Kara after she was killed by Zod and extracted the Codex from her.
  Flashpoint Barry: Not supposed… Not supposed to happen…
• Heroic Sacrifice: Happens twice in the film.
  • When Batman’s Batwing was shot down by Zod’s mothership, he chooses to fly towards the mothership in an attempt to destroy it at the cost of his life, but to no avail.
  Batman: I’m going down… But I’m not going alone.
  • When Flashpoint Barry realizes in horror that he would become the Dark Flash and when he sees his future self about to kill Barry, he chooses to sacrifice his life by shielding his Prime self from Dark Flash’s attack which in turn mortally wounds him, ultimately causing his dark future self to vanish from existence.
• Historical In-Joke: One of the changes Barry inadvertently makes to the timeline is Marty McFly is now played by Eric Stoltz. This was actually the case before he was replaced six weeks into filming with the director's original choice of Michael J. Fox after they found a way to work around the schedule of Family Ties (Which his commitment to had prevented him from taking the role in the first place.)
• Homage: Keaton-Batman's death bears a strong resemblance to Darth Vader's death scene. Both feature the protagonist futiletly trying to keep the black-clad figure alive, only for the latter to resign themselves to their fate and reassure the hero that they've already saved them. Then a sadder version of their theme tune plays them out.
• How Do I Shot Web?:
  • While Alternate Barry has little trouble accessing his super speed right after receiving it, he needs to be coached by Prime Barry for the more creative uses of his powers and still has trouble controlling them by the end of the movie.
  • Kara on the other hand seems to instantly know how to control and use her flight, superstrength and heat vision powers after less than a minute in the sunlight, and does not seem surprised to have acquired them either^note This could be due either to her having had the time to experience them before being captured, or Zor-El briefing her beforehand on what she could expect to encounter on Earth.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: As You Know, a constant theme of the franchise. Kara's imprisonment and torture by the planet she assumed would be a safe haven for her and her cousin has understandably caused her to despise humanity and is more than willing to let Zod destroy Earth. Tellingly, Alternate Barry sympathizes and admits that a lot of humans are this, even though he does try to defend us. She does come around to us after witnessing mainline Barry nearly killing himself to get his powers back.
  Kara: They're maybe worth saving to you. But I'm not human; I'm Kryptonian.
• I Hate Past Me: Prime Barry finds the alternate Barry who grew up with his mother still alive a bit too idiotic/cringey for his taste.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kara's ultimate fate at the hands of Zod (at least for the first two times we see).
• Improbable Infant Survival: The opening action scene features babies raining from a collapsing hospital's top floor. All of them survived thanks to the Flash. However, this was averted with the revelation of baby Kal-el's fate.
• In Name Only: Slightly downplayed. Despite the film being an adaptation of Flashpoint (DC Comics), the only major parts it keeps in are Barry resetting time to save his mother, and him going back again to restore history (albeit he changes things slightly to exonerate his father for his mother's death). The Batman he teams up with is a retired Bruce Wayne from another universe and not a vengeful, murderous Thomas Wayne, there's no war between Atlantis and Themyscira threatening to destroy the world (with Zod's invasion taking up that duty instead), Supergirl is the one being held in a government cell (as Clark was murdered by Zod when he was just an infant in this timeline), there's no other superheroes (Vic is still human, Diana is still an urban legend, and Arthur was never born), and when Barry does reset time, George Clooney's iteration of Batman takes the place of the one played by Ben Affleck instead of Bruce still being more-or-less the same. The biggest omission is the role of Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, who's left out entirely and instead replaced by a Dark Flash that was a version of Barry who went insane.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite Clark's absence, General Zod still chooses to invade Earth. In this timeline, though, it's because he's looking for Kara instead of Kal-El. As the film later states, he's not looking for Clark because he already found him.
  • invoked A humorous moment has one of Alternate Barry mention Time Travel like Eric Stoltz in Back to the Future, who was the original Marty McFly before being recast mid production with Michael J. Fox. The curious thing is the movie is treated with the same mainstream recognition as the Fox version of the film, when by most accounts the recast was seen as what made the film the success that it was.
• In the Back: Zod ends up killing Supergirl by stabbing her in the back while she's distracted.
• Ironic Echo: When Barry first met Bruce Wayne in Justice League, he was being offered a position on the titular team, to which Barry replied, "I'm in!" To begin the third act of this movie, Barry forms his own team and asks Keaton's Bruce Wayne to join him, which he offers by saying, "Are you in?".
• Irony: Alternate Barry accuses Prime Barry of doing the exact same things Prime Barry resents the older superheroes for doing—failing to explain things and being generally unfriendly.
• Jump Scare: Barry's nightmare ends with a closeup of the monstrous Dark Flash, who roars right at the camera.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Alternate Barry shows signs of this in the final battle, with his emotionless execution of Faora being the first sign that all is not really well.
• Karma Houdini: ''Exaggerated''. The person who killed Barry's mom is never even revealed, let alone caught.
• Karmic Death: A variation, overlapping with an unknowing Revenge by Proxy: Our timeline's Zod was killed via neck snap, and one of the ways this Zod ultimately kills Kara is by snapping her neck.
• Leitmotif
  • Wonder Woman's appearance naturally heralds the reprise of "Is She With You?"
  • During Christopher Reeve's Superman's and Helen Slater's Supergirl's appearances, there's a brief quotation of John Williams' Superman theme.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Barry admits that the Justice League does not provide adequate access to mental health treatment. Barry's actor Ezra Miller has had several very public difficulties with mental health.
  • Alternate Barry enthuses, "You should have seen that in slow motion!" after a scene where Kara knocks out a mook in slow motion.
• Lighter and Softer: The initial premise is similar to that of Flashpoint, except that Flash's attempt to Set Right What Once Went Wrong here doesn't seem to completely wreck the world (at least at first). Until Zod arrived, the world seemed relatively peaceful while Gotham had become the safest city in the world according to Keaton-Bruce. In comparison, Flashpoint had a Amazon-Atlantean war destroying the world and Gotham was still terrible but now protected by a gun wielding Batman who killed.
• Logo Joke: The opening has us travel through the Speed Force; in keeping with the time travel theme, we zoom through every Warner Bros^note Barring the logo used during the AT&T/WarnerMedia ownership, and ending with the the logo used by Warner Bros. Discovery for the first time and almost every DC logo ever used.

Tropes M to R

• Meaningful Echo:
  • Barry assures Supergirl that, "I've got you" as he carries her out of her prison. She says the same to him while carrying him up into the clouds so lightning can reactivate his powers.
  • Both versions of Batman say "Not this time. Maybe some other time". Ben Affleck's version says it before getting erased from history while Michael Keaton's version says it as he's dying.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Sort of. With his Motor Mouth, Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! and Cowardly Lion characterisation, Alternate Barry Allen evokes some of the more neurotic behavior from both the theatrical Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League, exaggerated due to having a easier life with his mom still alive, while the Prime Barry has had some Character Development that made him calmer and more confident (even though he still struggles socially). As a result Prime Barry ends up getting fed up with Alternate Barry calling him out on his immaturity despite the seriousness of the situation and, noting from personal experience, saying this makes him obnoxious. However Alternate Barry does point out that he has done everything asked of him despite Prime Barry not really answering his questions and dragging him out of his peaceful life into a dangerous situation. He also says they could learn to relax and enjoy how cool being in the Batcave is. Prime Barry seems to take this to heart, later complimenting Alternate Barry's makeshift costume and accept him for what he has the potential to be instead of just what he is now.
• Mental Time Travel: With all the time travel in the Zod fight, the Flashes never run into past versions of themselves and just take their past selves' places.
• Metaphorgotten: The alternate Bruce uses the plate of pasta he's cooking for the alternate Flash to illustrate how multiverse and alternate timelines work:
  • The uncooked spaghetti represent diverging timelines.
  • The plate of cooked, tangled spaghetti represent the multiverse. The points where spaghetti are in contact stand for constants between the alternate universes.
  • Tomato sauce represent the mess Flash's meddling resulted in.
  • Parmesan (which Bruce then adds without any word) is there to spice up the dish.
• Musical Nod: The teaser video from DC Fandome opens with Danny Elfman's "Photos / Beautiful Dreamer" from the original Batman score as the two Barrys arrive at Wayne Manor. Similarly, the film's soundtrack liberally utilizes Elfman's "Batman March" during key moments featuring Keaton's Batman.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The trailer makes it clear that Barry is responsible for the timeline changing, with him outright stating, "I completely broke the universe," at one point.
• My Greatest Failure: It's revealed that Barry first gained his powers mere days/weeks before the Kryptonian invasion in Man of Steel. He actually attempted to help rescue people in Metropolis from the terraforming pulse from the Black Zero but he was still learning his powers, had a rudimentary costume and the gravity physics of the Hostile Terraforming made him less than ideal in that environment. He was only able to save one kid, but not the dad.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Barry's new suit is near-identical to his outfit from the New 52, including the glowing line patterns across the torso.
  • When he begins travelling through time, Barry's suit breifly turns blue and black instead of red. This makes him look like The Flash from the Out Of Time comic arc, in which an anti-heroic Barry from 20 years in the future travels back in time to fix his greatest regrets, ending in him attempting a Kill and Replace on the present-day Flash.
  • The armory kept by Michael Keaton's Bruce contains various nods to Batman's comic designs over the decades. One has a distinctly Golden Age style mask with a pair of Grappling-Hook Pistol holsters (confirmed via Word of God to be a nod to Batman's short-lived use of firearms) and the chest emblem design from the old Adam West show. Another is a gray suit with a blue cape and cowl, based on Batman's classic Silver Age costume. Similarly, the new Batsuit worn by Ben Affleck's iteration of the character incorporates the classic blue and gray color scheme.invoked
  • The Alternate Timeline Barry reappropriates one of Batman's older suits to serve as a temporary superhero outfit. It turns out the cowl is not very flexible, warping and smushing his face if he tries to turn his head. This was an infamous issue across nearly all cinematic Batman costumes, forcing the actors to turn their shoulders and directly face people they are talking to.
  • Alternative Batman tries to crash a ship during a war in this film, similar to how DCAU: Batman did in the Justice League episode Starcrossed. It worked out better for him there.
  • Both Barry's Beta Outfit and his ability to phase visually resemble their Earth-Prime counterparts.
  • Dark Flash is not unlike Savitar, a variation of Barry who went mad with grief failing to change history and instead transformed into a monstrous speedster clad in a bulky suit of armor, just like on The Flash (2014).
  • The new Batplane has a rotating cockpit gimmick that keeps it level during hard rolls, which is actually a gimmick of the Knightsphere from the toyline of Batman: The Animated Series.
• Naked People Are Funny: Upon testing his newfound Super-Speed power with exhilaration, Alternate Barry ends up burning his clothes with the friction, and upon causing a chain car accident, he removes all of what's left of his burning clothes, compounded with the humorous effect of the end of Rossini's William Tell overture playing.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The teaser trailer implies that the Flashes recruit Batman after meeting Supergirl. In the film, they meet Bruce first, and he helps them find Supergirl.
  • The trailers also suggest that the Flashes somehow travel to Earth 89, the universe of Michael Keaton's Batman; this Batman actually resides in the altered timeline in place of Ben Affleck's version, so no actual universe-hopping takes place in the film (unlike on Earth-Prime whose main Flash dealt heavily with it, but more akin to the original Flashpoint comic storyline where Bruce Wayne traded roles with his own father in the altered timeline).
  • The main trailers imply that the prime (Ben Affleck's) Batman somehow participates in the Final Battle. All of his scenes actually take place at the beginning of the film, during the Action Prologue.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Barry's attempt to save his mother breaks the timeline, creating a world without any metahumans and allowing General Zod to conquer Earth.
  • Both Barrys are responsible for Prime Barry losing his powers; it happens because Prime Barry is caught in the accident that empowers Alternate Barry, which only happens because Prime Barry is trying to keep Alternate Barry in his seat to experience the accident while Alternate Barry keeps trying to get up, which only happens because Prime Barry is detailing the accident and freaking out Alternate Barry .
• No-Damage Run: The Alternate Barry tries using Save Scumming via Time Travel to rescue Kara and Bruce while also defeating the Kryptonians. We only see the first handful of attempts fail, and Prime Barry quickly realizes there is no real way to save this world, at least with a true Happy Ending. Almost immediately the Dark Flash returns and reveals himself to be the Alternate Barry driven mad and fused with different materials from presumably thousands of failed attempts.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Alternate Bruce may be the world's greatest detective and, despite having 20+ years of inactivity, physically fit enough to take on a small contingent of guards in Siberia. But here, he is barely able to make a dent in Zod's forces, since he doesn't have the experience fighting metahumans, nor any information on supernatural or alien forces that other Bruces would have access to, since the information may not exist in the first place.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Lampshaded when Barry's reaction to seeing his younger self approaching the house—and realising the implications of that—is to shout "SHIT!", then quickly explain to his startled not-actually-his-parents that he has to leave the room in a hurry to take a shit. More Oh, Crap!'s follow as things go From Bad to Worse.
  • Also Barry in the ending, upon meeting yet another alternate Bruce Wayne whom he couldn't recognize, which possibly means the timeline is still being messed up.
• Offhand Backhand: By Batman of course, who seems not to notice that the villain he captured in the Batman Cold Open is trying to escape again while he's on the phone to Alfred. Batman then casually tosses a batarang over his shoulder which takes him down.
• Once More, with Clarity: Just like Bruce Wayne during Dawn of Justice, flashbacks reveal Barry was in Metropolis during Zod's attack in the original timeline (or at least he raced there to try and help). So, we get to see the climax of Man of Steel replayed from the newly-empowered Barry's perspective on the ground.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: This happens to the usually hyperactive, socially-awkward Barry during the final battle. After spending the entirety of the movie desperate to save his mother and protect the universe where she's still alive, Barry tries to talk down his alternate self from changing the outcome of their fight against Zod, with tears in his eyes. He even confesses that he needs to go back in time and let his mother die again for the future to be restored.
  Barry: She'll always be alive somewhere in time. Always. Just not for us.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Prime timeline Barry is repeatedly annoyed by the immaturity of the Barry Allen who exists in the timeline where Nora Allen wasn't murdered. However, the traumas that matured Prime Barry (his mother's murder, his father's imprisonment, being basically an orphan, gaining super powers) never happened to this Barry. Instead, he's goofy, carefree, untraumatized, and not particularly concerned with what's going on around him.
• Point of Divergence: Barry initially believes this timeline to have been altered by him trying to stop his moms' death, but comes to realize that things had changed long before that event, such as an Aquaman who was never born and a much older Batman. In a conversation with the Keaton Bruce Wayne, they discuss the multiverse and rather than splitting off the timeline Barry had intersected with a vaguely similar but quite different universe. Rather than a point of divergence it is more a point of intersection.
• Precision F-Strike: Employed for The Reveal in the final scene.
  Barry: Who the fuck is this?
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Barry calls out Past Barry for not taking things seriously.
• Required Secondary Powers: Echoing ideas presented in Zack Snyder's Justice League, Barry is unable to move people directly without being extremely careful. While depowered, Barry is moved less than ten feet by an alternate Barry who is less experienced with his powers, and the result was moderate shock and projectile vomiting until he stabilized. His suit is also said to be designed to handle both high levels of air friction and safely dissipate electrical build up through the Tron Lines.
• Retired Badass: How we see the Keaton Batman at first, with long hair and beard. He says there hasn't been crime in Gotham in years, implying he hung it up after whatever equivalent to Batman Returns happened.
• The Reveal:
  • Barry seeks for Bruce Wayne hoping to get his help, only to find that the Michael Keaton version has overwritten the Ben Affleck version. This leads to the discovery that this was more of an Alternate Universe within the Multiverse rather than an Alternate Timeline with a Point of Divergence.
  • Dark Flash, the mysterious speedster who had been haunting Barry throughout the film, is actually an older version of the alternate Barry, who spent the rest of his life reliving the Final Battle over and over again, desperate to find an outcome where Zod is defeated and Batman and Supergirl are spared.

Tropes S to Y

• Same Character, But Different: As revealed, the Keaton Batman we see in this film is not really the same one implied to exist within the Arrowverse's multiverse on Earth-89 due to the film generally just ignoring the Arrowverse, including Barry's prior brush with his main Arrowverse self and the convention of numbering different realities. This Keaton Batman is also not necessarily the same one from his original movies for that matter, instead simply being an alternate version of Batman created by the changes to the timeline. Same goes for Clooney Batman too.
• Schrödinger's Canon: It's unclear which version of Justice League this film is supposed to be a continuation of.
  • Barry mentioned going back in time a few seconds during the events of Justice League, which only happened in the Snyder cut.
  • When Barry looks up the whereabouts of the League Members in the new timeline Martian Manhunter is not mentioned. Martian Manhunter joining the League is a major ending event of the Snyder cut but wasn't present in the theatrical version.
  • Kiersey Clemons returns as Iris West and mentions knowing and interacting with Barry in the past, which is more consistent with the Snyder Cut. On the other hand, Wonder Woman's golden lasso continues to force her compatriots to confess comically embarrassing secrets, in the tradition of the theatrical version. Though neither of these things explicitly contradicts anything in the other version.
• Self-Deprecation: Barry discovers that he's lost his powers when he starts running around the room sluggishly. At a normal speed, his signature running form looks incredibly goofy, which the scene fully plays for laughs.
• Senseless Sacrifice: In an effort to bring down the Kryptonian's main ship, Batman rams his damaged Batplane against it, since the ejection pod was damaged prior. Unfortunately for him, the impact is easily soaked by the ship's shield, making his sacrifice completely pointless. After the two Flashes go back in time they warn him about the shield, so he decides to take down Nam-Ek instead, killing himself again while only managing to knocking-out Nam-Ek for about a minute.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: What Prime Barry's efforts to defeat General Zod amount to. Despite spending most of the movie preparing to defeat Zod - meeting up with Batman, giving Alternate Barry powers and rescuing Supergirl, it ultimately amounts to nothing as Zod's forces win, killing Supergirl and Batman in the process, no matter what the Barrys do, forcing Prime Barry to travel back to undo his original choice and erase this timeline completely.
• Shipless Faster-Than-Light Travel: The Flash can travel through time by running faster than light.
• Shooting Superman: Kara is hit by a LOT of full-auto rifle fire while fighting the Russian prison guards. She doesn't even feel it.
• Shout-Out:
  • When putting on the Flash Ring for the first time, Alternate Barry briefly imitates Black Speech.
  • Present Barry refers to Victor as a "friendly Terminator".
  • Alternate Barry also deals with Nam-Ek by "emperor"-ing him.
• Soft Reboot: Barry's timeline-changing ultimately results in one for the DCEU continuity, the extent of which is left to the viewer's imagination besides Batman being visibly affected. The effect within the movie and across the franchise was going to be more substantial if not for Executive Meddling that opted to go for a "harder" Continuity Reboot called the "DCU" after the current DCEU slate is over. As it stands, the movie is followed by Blue Beetle which is a Standalone Episode through having no explicit DCEU links (just generic DC references), and by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom which is a sequel to Aquaman.
• Spikes of Villainy: The Dark Flash's body is a jagged, charred wreck with spikes coming out of its arms and shoulders. They're the result of continuous misuse of his phasing powers over the years, causing blades or spiky debris to embed to his body.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Very likely a coincidence, but this film zigs on the fate vs. free-will scale where Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse zagged. More specifically, both films brought up, that despite differences in timelines and universes, certain details are going to remain consistent in more often than not; such as the existence of Spider-Man and Batman, their tragic backstories, and such. Where the films differ is how this plays into the narrative.
  • Barry learns that some things are just unfixable, to the point that You Can't Fight Fate, or you'll cause damage to the multiverse's fabric.
  • Miguel thinks he has learned this, but it is a False Cause, and him trying to enforce it on others fuels his antagonism towards Miles, along with being the main mission of the draconian organization he founded.
• Stable Time Loop: Dark Flash knocking Prime Barry out of the Speed Force early in the film sets off the chain of events that empowers Alternate Barry and leads to his eventual transformation into the Dark Flash. This loop only ends once Alternate Barry did a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Prime Barry.
• Stalker Shot:
  • In the Batcave, when Batman asks Prime Barry why he's working hard to save this timeline, he reveals to him that his mother is alive in this timeline and he hasn't revealed this fact to Alternate Barry. After Batman agrees to help Prime Barry restore his lost powers, the camera pans down to reveal Alternate Barry sitting below them and has heard everything Prime Barry just said.
  • Earlier when the two Barry's enter the kitchen at Wayne Manor, they find a pot still on the boil. As they talk, there's a POV shot of them being watched through a partly open door, from which Bruce Wayne then emerges to attack them.
• Standard Snippet: When Alternate Barry tests his newfound Super-Speed power and ends up naked in the middle of the road on a street causing chaos, the end of the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini is played.
• Starter Villain: Batman rogue Alberto Falcone (referred to here as "Al Falcone") is the first villain that the heroes face off against in the Action Prologue.
• The Stinger: Barry tries to explain everything that happened to Arthur Curry, who of course has trouble comprehending that he's a dog in another universe even without him being drunk off his ass. He tells Barry to leave him in the puddle he's collapsed in and buy more beer. Paid with by a priceless Atlantean ring.
• Stepping Stones in the Sky: Barry's first action scene outside a collapsing hospital have him using debris, falling furnitures, and other assorted objects to jump around and catch falling babies in mid-air.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With two Barry Allens, they got to the alternate, younger Barrys' apartment and have to deal with his roommates. Alternate Barry passes the Prime Barry off as his cousin, also named Barry. The absurd similarity is acknowledged but largely brushed off.
• Superheroes Wear Tights: Younger Barry complains about how Prime Barry's supersuit is hurting his dick, and makes a point of showing Prime Barry how the modified Batman outfit he's created is much looser at the crotch.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham:
  • A retroactive inversion and justification for Man of Steel. Like Bruce Wayne in Dawn of Justice, flashbacks reveal Barry too was on the scene at Metropolis during Zod's attack in the original timeline; he raced to the scene to try and help. However, Barry was also newly empowered and inexperienced, so he was only able to save a single civilian before being forced to retreat.
  • Played Straight with the Arrowverse speedsters, going by the Arrowverse treating the DCEU as part of it (which is one-way, as the movie itself does not acknowledge the Arrowverse^note Though there are universes that both the Arrowverse and the DCEU acknowledge as part of the multiverse). Both Jay Garrick and Barry Allen of Earth-Prime have been established as having the ability to sense when someone is using the speed force to time travel, and Jay used this ability to stop Barry from messing with time. Neither of them try to stop Earth-1 Barry from engaging in the same time-travel foolishness that Earth-Prime Barry already tried.
  • The start of the film has Alfred call Barry for help with something Batman is involved with. Barry is already running late for work and Alfred lists that Superman was busy with a volcano erupting and Wonder Woman wasn't answering her phone. Flash ends up handling an issue with a collapsing hospital while Batman is chasing after high tech thieves who stole a bio-weapon and damaged the hospital in their escape. Wonder Woman then shows up to aid Batman when needed.
• Temporal Mutability: Immutability here - Both the Keaton Batman and Kara will die no matter what in the timeline Barry created when preventing his mother's death. Surprisingly Realistic Outcome explains this.
• Throat Light: Briefly seen on the original Barry when he gets himself hit by lightning, with a blue glow coming from his mouth as he screams.
• Time Crash: Barry's decision to save his mother has not only resulted in there being no one strong enough to defeat Zod's forces, but all universes in The Multiverse begin to crash into each other, threatening to destroy all of existence.
• Time Dilation: The Flash can travel to any point in time by running faster than the speed of light.
• Timey-Wimey Ball:
  • Represented literally by the "Chronobowl", a temporal arena setting where the "audience" is made up of various timelines and outcomes, with various "planets" above representing the other "Earths" in the multiverse.
  • Represented metaphorically by Alt-Bruce's plate of spaghetti. And the sauce. (But not the parmesan, that's just garnish.)
• Truth Serums: Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth once again functions as one of these, compelling Bruce and Barry to blurt out uncomfortable secrets while they frantically try to untangle themselves from it.
• Try Not to Die: Batman's only advice when he and the Barrys are surrounded by Russian troops before Supergirl saves the day.
  Flash: What's the play? Batman, what do we do?
  Batman: We try not to die.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • The Earths of Christopher Reeve's Superman and Nicolas Cage's Superman are seen colliding and while they are separated following the death of Alternate Barry (and Cage's Superman is seen mournfully staring into the multiversal tear afterwards), the wider effects of this are never followed up on in any capacity.
  • Likewise, the appearance of Clooney's Wayne leaves the status of Affleck's Wayne uncertain.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Kara Zor-El. Her cousin Kal-El was able to stay toe to toe with General Zod and even defeat him while being the only relevant hero on Earth. Kara with the help of two Flashes and Batman fails, and is defeated by him, not once but countless times. She had only spent a few days absorbing solar energy while Kal-El had been doing it his entire life. At the same time, Kara is older, more world-weary and knows more about Krypton than Clark ever did, so she knows not to attempt to surrender herself.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: As detailed in Required Secondary Powers, when alternate Barry moves the depowered Barry a couple of feet to the side, he ends up vomiting for quite a long time, necessitating Batman to enter the action.
• Weak, but Skilled: Keaton/Batman ends up facing off against Nam-Ek, the Kryptonian Giant Mook previously seen in Man of Steel and gave Clark a really hard time. Keaton/Batman is a Badass Normal and managed to give Nam-Ek a decent fight through complicated batplane maneuvers, and then using his Grappling-Hook Pistol, acrobatics and A LOT of explosives to keep him disoriented. Nam-Ek is seemingly taken down after a bomb to the back of his head, but he soon gets back up and all it takes is one power slam to take Keaton/Batman out of the fight.
• Wham Line: As Supergirl confronts Zod, he reveals that he intercepted baby Kal-El's pod on its way to Earth. When Kara demands Zod tell her what he did to him, he responds with this:
  Zod: The infant did not survive.
• What If?: One of the core conflicts of the movie is a scenario in which the events of Man of Steel play out, but Kara Zor-El was the Kryptonian that came to Earth instead of Kal-El.
• What Year Is This?: A variation; Barry's first question to his alternate self is "How old are you?" He only asks Alternate Barry to confirm the date later, when he realises he's arrived on the same day he got his powers.
• With Catlike Tread
  • When Alternate Barry discovers that he has superpowers, he immediately zooms off to try them out before Prime Barry has time to warn him about Required Secondary Powers. The friction of his running at Super-Speed sets his clothes on fire, and his panicked reaction causes a Disaster Dominoes multi-vehicle accident that results in him literally exposed to the world; stark naked in the middle of the street surrounded by a ring of fire while everything else is blacked out from a power cut. Fortunately he's at least smart enough to get out of there before someone shows up with a camera and blows his Secret Identity before his superhero career has even begun.
  • Then later they climb down a long ladder into a chamber surrounded by laboratories where scientists are laboring away without noticing them...until Alternate Barry stumbles over a series of clang-y objects one after the other. Everyone stares at each other for a long moment until one of the scientists hits the Big Red Button to summon lots of guards with Kalashnikovs to shoot the infiltrators.
• Worf Had the Flu: Kara is Kryptonian and like Clark in Man of Steel she was completely exposed to the yellow sun while Zod and his crew were in Powered Armor that mitigated their overall abilities but stabilized other reactions. Unlike Clark, even in direct sunlight she hadn't built up enough of a "battery" and burns out fairly quickly. In multiple timelines she is killed with Zod’s retractable blade, indicating a combination of advanced Kryptonian weaponry and her not developing true Nigh-Invulnerability quite yet.
• Would Hurt a Child: Or rather, Zod and his Kryptonian crew would dissect a child, which is the fate that befell an infant Clark in the timeline.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Kara in the Prime Timeline of the DCEU?
• You Can't Fight Fate: The main theme of the film.

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♫ Let it go, this too shall pass... ♫

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