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The Flash is out and was supposed to serve as a reset for the DCEU (now known as the DCU). But the ending creates far more questions than answers, and in all honesty, it's a lot more confusing. Here's what went down.
The Flash ending explained
Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Flash
In The Flash, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) traps himself in another reality when he attempts to go back in time and save his mother from dying. As a kid, it was on one fateful afternoon when his father was sent to the supermarket to pick up tomatoes for his mom's weekly Sunday dinner spaghetti sauce that she was killed. His solution? Make sure she doesn't forget the tomatoes earlier in the day during her trip to the supermarket. He throws a can of tomatoes into her cart and thinks that this will solve her death. Boy was he wrong.
This actually causes the whole world to change and Barry gets trapped in a reality where he's still a freshman in college and must enlist the help of that younger version of himself and that reality's Batman (Michael Keaton) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle).
During the third-act showdown with General Zod (Michael Shannon), the quartet takes on him and the entire Kryptonian army. It goes well at first, with the two Flashes on the ground, Batman handling the air, and Supergirl taking on Zod, but eventually, it becomes too much and both Batman and Supergirl die.
In this reality, Zod isn't after Superman's blood — it's Supergirl that's important and he's attempting to extract her blood sample. After being beaten down, he plays possum and lures her in before stabbing her and subsequently taking her blood. The freshman-year Barry sees this and races back in time to attempt to help Supergirl defeat him. But after a number of tries, it's clear that the inevitable crux of this universe is that she gets stabbed and Batman dies. No matter how many different attempts they take, both things happen.
That's when one of the film's main themes that Barry can't have it all kicks in. The older, more mature Barry has learned that throughout the 144-minute runtime — after all, he created this mess by trying to meddle with the past and go back to his reality with his hands clean. On the other hand, the younger Barry is adamant that they have to keep trying, even as the multiverse is literally being torn apart.
Amidst the two Barrys arguing, a third, and much older version arises and attempts to kill the OG Barry — calling him the inevitable event causing all of this mayhem. This confrontation leads to insight into a bevy of other dimensions, including some of the film's biggest cameos like Nic Cage and Christopher Reeves as Superman among others, before freshman year Barry sacrifices himself. That causes all of it to
But in the end, Barry gets one last moment with his mother in the supermarket. He interacts with his mother — who takes off his sunglasses and gives a facial look that suggests she knows something iffy is going on — and is able to say “I love you” one last time to her before taking the tomatoes out of the cart and placing it back where it belonged.
Back in his reality, the evidence (the supermarket camera footage) now shows his father's face and validates his alibi, thus setting him free. But as Barry walks out of the courtroom, he gets a call from Bruce Wayne. He elatedly shares that he fixed the past while not messing too much up, which is almost instantly proven wrong when you hear Wayne say, “I'm pulling up now.” It doesn't sound like Ben Affleck, so what Bruce Wayne is it?
Many — including myself — likely expected Keaton to walk out of the car. But it was George Clooney — who played Batman in Batman & Robin — who steps out of the car in a shocking twist. Clearly, Barry didn't nail the plan as much as he thought. And we'll have to wait until the eventual sequel (should it happen) to find out how he's going to fix this.
The Flash will be released on June 16.
