The Flash is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Produced by DC Films, Double Dream, and The Disco Factory, and set for distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is intended to be the twelfth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson and stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash alongside Ron Livingston, Michael Keaton, Kiersey Clemons, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue, Sasha Calle, and Ben Affleck. In the film, Allen travels back in time to prevent his mother's murder which brings unintended consequences.
Plot[]
After helping Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince stop a hospital robbery gone wrong in Gotham City and capturing Falcone's son, Barry Allen revisits his childhood home and remembers his youth with his parents Nora and Henry, before Henry's wrongful imprisonment for Nora's murder. Overcome by his emotions, Barry accidentally uses the Speed Force to travel back in time to earlier in the day and informs Bruce about it. Despite Bruce's warnings that time travel can have unintended consequences, Barry goes back to the day of Nora's death and prevents it from happening. As Barry returns to the present, he is knocked out of the Speed Force by another speedster and ends up in an alternate 2013 where his mother is alive. He finds his past self and realizes he has arrived on the day he originally obtained his powers.
Barry and his younger self go to the Central City Police Department, where Barry forces 2013-Barry to be struck by lightning in order to recreate the accident that gave him his powers. Both Barrys end up getting struck by the lightning, giving 2013-Barry his powers, but causing Barry to lose his own powers in the process. As Barry struggles to train 2013-Barry on how to properly use his powers, the two of them see a broadcast by General Zod, who is preparing to invade Earth. The Barrys attempt to assemble the Justice League but are unsuccessful, as in this timeline, they are unable to locate Diana, Victor Stone has not gained his abilities yet, and Arthur Curry was never born. The two travel to Wayne Manor, hoping to find Bruce, but instead find an alternate, older version of him who has retired from crimefighting. Bruce explains the concept of the multiverse, revealing that using time travel to alter history not only affects events after the alteration, but before it as well, explaining why Barry notices changes to the timeline that occurred before his initial point of time travel. The two Barrys convince Bruce to help them find Kal-El.
Using a backdoor connection to NASA within the Batcave computer, Barry and Bruce are able to locate a Kryptonian pod that was reportedly discovered in Soviet Siberia. Upon arrival, they instead find Kal-El's cousin, Kara Zor-El. After rescuing Kara from the facility, Barry asks Bruce to help him get his powers back by recreating the original accident. The first two attempts fail and nearly kill Barry, prompting Kara to fly Barry into the storm and get struck by lightning a third time, successfully reviving his powers. Kara and Bruce join the two Barrys to fight Zod's forces. During the battle with Zod, Kara learns that Zod intercepted an infant Kal-El's escape pod and killed him during a failed attempt to retrieve the Codex needed to repopulate the Kryptonian species, with Zod revealing the Codex was within Kara. The two fight, with Zod overpowering and killing Kara and obtaining the Codex from her blood, while Bruce also sacrifices himself in an unsuccessful attempt to take down a Kryptonian ship.
The two Barrys travel back through time to save their companions, but are unable to change their fates. Barry realizes that they will not be able to save them, but 2013-Barry keeps trying, repeatedly traveling back through time, but always failing. As 2013-Barry travels, the multiverse starts to collapse in on itself. Eventually, the corrupted speedster who originally knocked Barry out of the Speed Force returns and is revealed to be a future version of 2013-Barry, who still believes he can save his world from Zod, and prevent the deaths of Bruce and Kara. He explains the causal loop paradox that led to his own creation, but grows angry when Barry reveals his intention to reverse the changes to the timeline by letting Nora die. Enraged, the dark speedster attempts to kill Barry, but impales 2013-Barry, who sacrifices himself to save Barry and wipes the dark speedster from the timeline.
In the aftermath, Barry undoes the changes he made to the timeline and comes to terms with his mother's death. However, he makes a minor change in the past, creating new evidence in the present day that proves Henry's innocence. After returning to the present and helping to exonerate Henry, Barry is contacted by Bruce, whose appearance has changed once again as a result of Barry's timeline change.
In a post-credit scene, Barry attempts to explain his experiences with time travel to a drunken Arthur Curry, whose existence has been restored, while implying that Barry changed everything back to normal completely this time. Barry tries to bring Curry with him to somewhere, but Curry sleeps in a puddle of water.
Cast[]
- Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/Flash, Barry Allen/The Flash and Dark Flash
- Ian Loh as young Barry Allen
- Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl
- Michael Shannon as General Dru-Zod
- Ron Livingston as Henry Allen and Henry Allen
- Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen and Nora Allen
- Kiersey Clemons as Iris West
- Antje Traue as Faora-Ul
- Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman
- Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman
- Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth
- Gal Gadot as Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
- Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman
- Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Patty Spivot and Patty Spivot
- Rudy Mancuso as Albert Desmond and Albert Desmond
- Sanjeev Bhaskar as David Singh
- Sean Rogers as Gary
- Luke Brandon Field as Al Falcone
- Michael Justus as Nam-Ek
- Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry
- Rosie Ede as Mrs. Curry
- Nicolas Cage as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
- George Clooney as Bruce Wayne
- Jason Ballantine as Jay Garrick/Flash
- Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman
- Christopher Reeve as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
- Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl
- Henry Cavill as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
- George Reeves as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This will be the thirteenth film in the DC Extended Universe
- This is the first theatrical film centering on The Flash.
- This is the first film to feature Supergirl since Supergirl (1984).
- This will be the first DC live action movie to feature multiple versions of Batman in the same movie - Affleck and Keaton both playing the role.
- Michael Keaton will be the oldest actor to don the suit at the age of 71 when the film releases.
- The film will reportedly ignore the events of Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997) and come up with new stories about Michael Keaton's Batman to fill the gap between Batman Returns (1992) and this film.
- Greg Berlanti was at one point attached to direct the film. He subsequently went on to develop The Flash (2014) TV Series.
- Ray Fisher was set to reprise his role in the film but was written out of the film due to his conflict with Walter Hamada.
- In contrast to the infamously troubled production of "Justice League", Ben Affleck said that he had a great time reprising his role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in this film.
- Robert Zemeckis, Sam Raimi, Matthew Vaughn and Marc Webb were the frontrunners for to direct the film, however, Raimi and Webb passed on the project. Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are also under consideration to direct.
- At San Diego Comic Con 2017, it was announced that this film would be a loose adaptation of The Flashpoint storyline.
- The third adaptation based on the Flashpoint storyline after Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) and season 3 of The Flash (2014).
- This is Andy Muschietti's first non horror movie.
- Kiersey Clemons was cast as Iris West in Justice League but her scenes were cut. Her scenes were subsequently reintegrated for Zack Snyder's Justice League.
- Ezra Miller and comic writer Grant Morrison wrote a draft of the script with a darker take on the character but the studio has decided not to move forward with their version.
- With his appearance in this film, Ben Affleck will have played the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman fifth times in live-action films, more than any other actor.
- Ray Fisher was included as Cyborg with a significant role in the film at this point, but was written out of the script in January 2021 in retaliation to his exposure of abuse at DC Films.
- Bradley Cooper, Chris Pine, Ryan Kwanten, Matthew Fox and Scott Porter were linked for the role of Barry Allen/The Flash before Ezra Miller was cast.
- Andy Muschietti recorded and shared the moment he told Sasha Calle that she was going to portray Supergirl in the movie, bringing her to tears. Helen Slater was also recorded when told by producers she had gotten the role, a moment featured in the making of Supergirl (1984).
- Andy Muschietti calls the movie a beautiful human story.
- Sasha Calle is the first Latina to play Supergirl.
- Rita Ora and Lucy Boynton were the frontrunners for Iris West before it went to Kiersey Clemons.
- James Wan was considered by Warner Bros. to direct a film about either Aquaman or The Flash. He ultimately chose to do Aquaman (2018) as he saw it as an opportunity to do something original and unique in the superhero genre.
- This will be Christina Hodson's second DC Extended Universe film that she has worked on after Birds of Prey (2020).
- Julia Roberts and Julianne Moore were considered for the role of Nora Allen.
- Billy Crudup was set to reprise his role as Henry Allen but later dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
- Not only does this film mark Michael Keaton's reprisal as Batman since 30 years, but it's the first ever Flash movie too. Up to this point, The Flash has only ever been part of television.
- This will be the second movie in the DC Extended Universe to be filmed entirely with IMAX cameras by Henry Braham, BSC, after The Suicide Squad (2021).
- Brazilian actresses Bruna Marquezine and Isis Valverde auditioned for the role of Supergirl before Sasha Calle was cast. Bruna will portray Penny in Blue Beetle.
- A rumor reported that Kiersey Clemons was not going to return as Iris West and the studio were going to recast the role. However she will reprise the role in the film.
- John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein who wrote drafts of the script and were slated to helm the project, have moved on.
| Batman |
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| Batman (1943), Batman and Robin (1949), Batman (1966), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), Justice League (2017), Joker (2019), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), The Batman (2022), The Flash (2023), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), The Batman Part II (2026) The Brave and the Bold |
| DC Extended Universe |
|---|
| Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017), Aquaman (2018), Shazam! (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), The Suicide Squad (2021), Black Adam (2022), Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), The Flash (2023), Blue Beetle (2023), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) |