The Flash (2023)

In The Flash (2023), Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) finds himself acting as the “janitor” for the Justice League, cleaning up mess after mess while struggling with the trauma of his mother’s unsolved murder and his father’s wrongful imprisonment. Discovering that he can tap into the Speed Force to travel back in time, Barry ignores Batman’s (Ben Affleck) warnings about the fragility of the timeline. He travels to the past to perform one small act—placing a can of tomatoes in his mother’s grocery cart—to ensure her survival, inadvertently shattering the fabric of reality.

Barry ends up stranded in an alternate 2013 where his mother is alive, but he is forced to team up with a younger, powerless version of himself. This timeline is defenseless because the “Age of Heroes” never happened: there is no Wonder Woman, Aquaman, or Cyborg. When the kryptonian tyrant General Zod (Michael Shannon) arrives to terraform Earth, the two Barrys seek out the only Batman available—a retired, reclusive version of Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton)—to help them find Superman.

Instead of Kal-El, the trio rescues Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle), a weary and brutalized Kryptonian held captive in a Siberian black site. As the “Batmen” and the “Supergirl” join forces with the two Flashes to stop Zod’s invasion, the battle becomes a tragic loop. No matter how many times they fight, Kara and Bruce are destined to die. The younger Barry becomes obsessed with “fixing” the encounter, repeatedly rewinding time and transforming into a monstrous, corrupted version of himself known as the Dark Flash.

The climax takes place within the Chronobowl, where the Multiverse begins to collide and collapse, showing glimpses of various DC realities (including cameos of past Supermen and Batmen). Barry realizes that his attempt to save his mother is a “canonical event” that cannot be changed without destroying the universe. In a heartbreaking moment, he returns to the past once more to undo his changes, sharing one final, tearful goodbye with his mother before accepting her death to save existence.

The film concludes with Barry returning to the present, having made one tiny adjustment to the evidence in his father’s case to secure his freedom. However, he quickly realizes the timeline is still not quite right when he meets Bruce Wayne, who is now portrayed by George Clooney. Barry is left to navigate a world that is familiar yet fundamentally altered, highlighting the permanent consequences of his journey through the Multiverse.