The Flash ending explained

❘ Updated: 2023-06-14T06:09:54

Warner Bros.

The Flash is a hectic DC rollercoaster, following Barry Allen on a mission to save the future from himself – here’s everything you need to know about the movie’s ending.

The movie sees Barry travel back in time to prevent the death of his mother, Nora. He succeeds, but in doing so, finds himself trapped in an alternate universe with another, younger, powerless version of himself, and no Justice League – oh, and General Zod has just decided to terraform the Earth.

We’ll say this for The Flash: for all of its universe-shattering, timeline-hopping moments, you don’t need to be a comic book scholar to keep up with what’s happening. The specifics of how he’s capable of going back and forward in time aren’t important, and moviegoers untrained in the ways of the multiverse shouldn’t feel too lost.

However, a lot happens by the time the credits roll, so here’s all the major beats you need to know in The Flash’s ending. Spoilers to follow, obviously…

The Flash ending explained

Basically, the ending of The Flash is a bit like Back to the Future – the world goes back to normal after traveling back in time and nearly destroying everything… but there’s a twist.

The film’s third act kicks into a higher gear with the recovery of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, from a black site in Serbia. She’s hesitant to help the Barrys at first, having experienced mankind’s cruelty first-hand. However, after seeing Zod’s wanton brutality towards the army, she returns to help Barry (our Barry, not the other one) get his powers again, lifting him high above the clouds so he can be struck by lightning.

Barry Allen, young Barry, and Supergirl in The Flash

Alongside Michael Keaton’s Batman, they fly to the Mojave Desert to face off against Zod and his Kryptonian fleet. Kara immediately seeks out Zod, who tells her that Kal-El had been infused with the genetics codex and sent to Earth in a small pod as a baby – but this isn’t the Man of Steel timeline. He never made it here, because Zod intercepted the pod and tried to harvest his blood. “What did you do?” Kara screams. “The infant did not survive,” he says.

While Kara gives Zod the beatdown of a lifetime (she L2-R2’s him big time, Injustice players), the two Barrys team up to immobilize the enemy side, while Batman flies around in his Batwing providing air support. It takes the younger Barry a while to get the hang of his powers, particularly as his “charge” increases, but they eventually make quite the team, speeding around in a lightning storm of punches and kicks.

Batman and Supergirl die

Alas, it goes wrong: Batman attempts to blow up the largest ship and ends up taking critical damage to his Batwing, disabling his ejection seat and locking him in the aircraft. He dive-bombs into the Kryptonian ship, killing himself in the process. As for Kara, she’s killed in a similar fashion to Jor-El: Zod impales her with his arm spike before harvesting her blood.

Young Barry has an idea: he says they should go back in time to an earlier point in the battle and prevent their deaths. Our Barry thinks it’s too dangerous, but ends up chasing the other Barry into the Speed Force. They basically rewind 10 minutes and avert Batman from taking on the Kryptonian ship, but he goes after the “Space Giant”, who makes light work of the Batwing. Batman is forced to jump out and glide down to the ground, where he tussles with the alien and manages to get the upper-hand by sticking a bomb to his head.

Ezra Miller watching Batman fly into a Kryptonian ship in The Flash

Sadly, he took quite a beating, and he dies as our Barry sits next to him. “We can’t bring you back this time,” he says, and Bruce responds: “You already did.” As they stand over Batman’s dead body, Kara is killed by Zod, so young Barry zips away into the Speed Force again and starts jumping in and out of every possible timeline, a bit like running through all of Doctor Strange’s possible outcomes in Avengers: Infinity War. But there’s no point: they could try it a million times, but “this world dies today.”

Young Barry can’t accept it. “I am The Flash… nobody dies,” he says, but Barry repeats his mother’s mantra: “Not every problem has a solution, sometimes we just have to let it go.” Young Barry is appalled at the idea of letting their mother die, but Barry says she’ll always be alive somewhere in time – they just can’t be with her.

Dark Flash returns

He tries to go back in time again, but before Barry can stop him, he’s attacked by Dark Flash, the monstrous, scaly version of himself inside the Speed Force. “I’ve lived more than you can dream,” he says.

When young Barry returns, he sees the same scar on Dark Flash’s face as he has on his own. It’s then revealed that Dark Flash is young Barry, only far, far in the future. He pushed our Barry out of the speed force into another timeline because he believed he’d finally figured out a way to save their mother, but their reckless, selfish time-traveling causes a multiverse incursion on a scale hitherto undreamt of, treating us to brief glimpses of other superhero variants, including Nicholas Cage and Christopher Reeves as Superman, Helen Slater as Supergirl, and Adam West’s Batman.

In Dark Flash’s eyes, our Barry’s death is the “inevitable intersection” in saving their mom, but young Barry sacrifices himself and kills Dark Flash in the process, turning to dust just as Marty McFly’s photo would have faded away.

Ezra Miller as young Barry Allen in The Flash

Our Barry then makes one last trip back in time to remove the tomatoes from Nora’s shopping trolley, thereby resetting his universe back to its default set-up – but he makes one small change on his way home: he moves the tomatoes to the top shelf, so his dad Henry has an alibi when it comes to his appeal.

As Barry steps outside the court, all seems well with the world: his dad is free, Iris West asks him on a date, and his old pal Bruce Wayne phones him to congratulate him on the hearing… but the voice sounds different. His car pulls up, and he steps out as Barry reacts: “Who the f*ck is this?”

It’s George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne, and Barry is understandably confused. “You’re not Batman,” he tells him, and Bruce asks: “What’s wrong with you?” As he laughs, Barry’s tooth falls out, after he glued it back in earlier in the movie.

So, it’s safe to assume he’s stuck in Clooney’s universe, away from the main canon of the DCEU, where he’ll remain indefinitely. There’s also a post-credits scene with another Justice League member, which you can read more about here.

For more on the The Flash, check out the below articles: