The Flash (2023)

Barry Allen starts in Central City buying a sandwich when Alfred calls with an emergency. He suits up as the Flash and races to a hospital that is sliding toward a sinkhole. Barry stabilizes the ground-level patients, but the maternity ward dislodges and dozens of infants, a nurse and a dog begin to fall from an upper floor. Running on an empty stomach, Barry breaks into a vending machine, devours snacks to restore his energy, then races to the top of the building and catches every baby, the nurse and the dog before they hit the ground. After the rescue, Batman intercepts a gang transporting a lethal virus; he chases them on a Batcycle, drives the main criminal's vehicle off a bridge and pins a suspect so Wonder Woman can haul him up with her lasso. Barry arrives late to the scene and receives thanks from his fellow heroes.

Later Barry goes to the Central City research lab where he works. Co-workers Patty Spivot and Albert Desmond reprimand him and their boss takes credit in front of the press for a discovery. A reporter, Iris West, recognizes Barry and asks about the upcoming appeal for his father Henry, who has served more than twenty years imprisoned for the murder of Barry's mother, Nora. Barry insists Henry is innocent. While on the phone with Henry, Barry worries that the store security footage meant to establish Henry's alibi fails to show Henry's face clearly. That night Barry returns to his childhood home and recalls the traumatic sequence: as a child on the night of Nora's death, Nora sent Henry for a forgotten can of tomatoes; Henry left the house; when he returned he found Nora stabbed to death with a knife and cradled her body in shock while young Barry witnessed the scene.

Grief overwhelms him and Barry taps the Speed Force in a way he has not before, creating a spinning vortex he calls his "Chronobowl." He surges backward through time to that day, intending a small intervention: he places a can of tomatoes into Nora's shopping cart so she will not forget it and Henry will not have to leave the house. Upon returning to the present, a second, unfamiliar speedster slams into him in the Speed Force and ejects him from his time bubble. Barry wakes up in 2013, but the world around him is not the one he knows; in this altered present Nora is alive and Henry is free. He walks into his parents' home and sits across the table from Nora, tasting the impossible, until he sees his eighteen-year-old self approaching. Barry quietly intercepts his younger self, whom he ushers to his old bedroom and explains that he is a speedster from the future.

The two Barrys travel to the Central City Police Department to recreate the fateful science-lab lightning strike so the younger Barry can gain his powers and restore the timeline's consistency. As 2013-Barry panics and a storm forms, a lightning bolt hits both men. The older Barry discovers he has lost his speed; the younger Barry acquires the Flash's abilities. Trapped in a body without speed, Barry is forced to train briefings and basic restraint on the new 2013-Barry, who initially revels in the novelty of super-speed. Their training is interrupted when news declares that General Zod and an army of Kryptonians have arrived on Earth searching for Superman.

Barry and 2013-Barry attempt to gather the Justice League to confront Zod, but the altered timeline lacks members. Diana Prince cannot be located; Victor Stone has not become Cyborg yet; Arthur Curry does not exist in this reality. With few allies available, the Barrys travel to Wayne Manor to enlist Bruce Wayne. The Bruce they find is older, gaunt and retired from vigilantism; he has lost Alfred and has hung up the cape. After Barry explains the temporal tampering, this Bruce warns that altering a single event ripples through time and causes unpredictable convergence of realities. Barry presses him until Bruce reluctantly agrees to put the cowl back on and help locate Superman.

Using Wayne's resources, Bruce traces a Kryptonian escape pod to a research facility in Siberia. The team infiltrates the compound in the Batwing and discovers that the pod does not contain Kal-El. Instead, they find Kara Zor-El imprisoned in a stasis chamber. Kara, weak from confinement, identifies herself as Kal-El's cousin who was meant to protect him. During the extraction mercenaries shoot at the group; 2013-Barry takes a bullet to the leg and Bruce detonates explosives to cover their retreat. Kara, bathed in sunlight after they escape to open air, re-energizes briefly and fights off their attackers before collapsing.

Back at Wayne Manor, Kara introduces herself properly and explains that she was sent after Kal-El during Krypton's destruction. She distrusts humans for imprisoning and experimenting on her and initially refuses to help. When she witnesses footage or a live execution by Zod and his lieutenant Faora--Zod killing a soldier for failing to capture her--she launches into combat, seeing the Kryptonians slaughter human reinforcements. Barry asks Bruce to help restore his speed so he can stand with Kara against Zod. Bruce rigs equipment to create a controlled lightning strike, but the first attempt fails; the circuits fry and Barry appears hurt. Kara instead flies Barry into a storm above the clouds and holds him aloft so a bolt of lightning hits him full force; once struck, Barry regains his ability to move at super-speed.

United, Barry, 2013-Barry, Kara and Bruce take the fight to Zod. Zod has built a World Engine to terraform Earth into Krypton-like conditions and he and his followers assault human forces. During the course of battle Zod reveals that he intercepted Kal-El's escape pod years earlier and killed Kal-El while attempting to extract the Codex--the genetic key to restoring the Kryptonian race. Zod declares that his pursuit of Kara has been about her: the Codex resides within her blood. Kara engages Zod to protect humanity and to stop him from obtaining the Codex. Zod and his lieutenant Faora overpower Kara; Zod impales her with a weapon and draws blood from her, extracting the Codex directly from her bloodstream. The extraction kills Kara. Bruce reacts by ramming his fighter jet into Zod's ship in a desperate bid to destroy the World Engine; he crashes his Batwing into Zod's aircraft and dies in the impact.

Barry and 2013-Barry watch Kara's body still; Bruce's plane smolders in the distance. Overcome, they run back through the Speed Force to try to undo the deaths. Each attempt the two men make to rewind time and save Kara and Bruce ends with the same result: Kara dies from Zod's extraction of the Codex and Bruce dies in his suicide run against Zod's vessel. The younger Barry fixates on changing the outcome and makes repeated journeys through time, refusing to accept the fixed causal chain. With each new interruption, the barriers between parallel realities begin to fray and alternate timelines overlap. The Speed Force destabilizes and the multiverse begins to conjoin.

An older, brutal speedster emerges from the Speed Force and confronts Barry. He reveals himself as a future version of 2013-Barry who has aged into a relentless figure determined to fix the losses on his Earth. This future Barry--Dark Flash--has been traveling and trying to patch reality. He attacks when he perceives Barry as an obstacle. In the ensuing confrontations the older 2013-Barry becomes violent, attempting to kill Barry to prevent him from undoing the changes. During one clash the elder speedster mortally wounds the younger 2013-Barry. As the older Barry prepares to finish Barry, the young 2013-Barry interposes himself and takes the fatal blow meant for Barry; he dies impaled, and the violent future Barry dissolves, erased by the self-sacrifice of his younger incarnation.

The collapse of alternate realities produces a cacophony of incursions: multiple speedsters and versions of heroes appear in quick succession. Barry encounters alternate Flashes, including an older golden-helmeted speedster Jay Garrick. He glimpses a lineup of Supermen from different universes--Christopher Reeve's, George Reeves' and even an unexpected, brief version played by Nicolas Cage--and an alternate Batman portrayed by Adam West. The presence of these variants represents the multiversal instability, and the interactions are brief and chaotic as timelines snap back into order when Dark Flash collapses.

After the dissolution of the older speedster Barry accepts that he cannot save everyone. He returns to the supermarket on the day of Nora's murder and seeks one final private encounter with his mother. He tells her he is seeing her for the last time, sits with her, embraces the moment and cries. He moves the can of tomatoes on the shelf rather than preventing her death outright: he places the can higher on a shelf where Henry would have to reach for it. Barry then runs forward to his present.

Back in the present-day courtroom, Henry Allen's appeal proceeds. Barry provides enhanced footage from the grocery store that shows Henry stretching up to grab a can of tomatoes, an action that confirms his alibi for the time of Nora's death. The recording persuades the court to overturn Henry's conviction; Henry walks free. After the verdict Barry talks to Iris and they plan a dinner, and then Bruce calls Barry to congratulate him. When the camera pans to meet Bruce in person the man who approaches is not the Bruce Barry previously knew; the timeline adjustments have altered particulars of Bruce Wayne too, and this Bruce bears a different face.

Before the credits, Barry shares a scene with the Justice League's Aquaman, who is drunk and boisterous in a brief moment of levity. The film closes with Barry standing outside the courthouse, watching his father walk free, holding the altered details of a timeline where some losses remain fixed and others are amended. Throughout the events Barry confronts repeated deaths: Nora Allen is killed by an unknown assailant with a knife on that night in 2000; Kal-El is killed when General Zod intercepts his escape pod and slays him while attempting to seize the Codex; Kara Zor-El dies when Zod impales her and extracts the Codex from her blood; Bruce Wayne dies when he deliberately crashes his jet into Zod's craft in an effort to obliterate the World Engine; and the younger 2013-Barry dies after sacrificing himself to stop his older, corrupted self from killing Barry. Each of these deaths occurs through direct, specified actions--stabbing, interception and killing of a pod occupant, impalement and blood extraction, deliberate ramming of aircraft, and an impalement taken to save another--events that Barry witnesses, attempts to undo and ultimately accepts with one small alteration that frees his father. The story ends with that present established: Henry released, Barry reconciling his loss with the single, small change to the past, and Bruce's face altered by the restored yet different timeline.

At the end of The Flash (2023), Barry Allen teams up with his younger self, Batman (Michael Keaton), and Supergirl to fight General Zod and his Kryptonian forces. Despite their efforts, Batman and Supergirl die repeatedly in the battle. The two Barrys use the Speed Force to try to change the outcome but realize Zod's victory is a fixed point in time. The older Barry is attacked by a dark, future version of his younger self, who has become obsessed with saving Supergirl and Batman. In the final confrontation, the younger Barry dies protecting the older Barry, which also causes the older Barry's death. Barry then returns to the past, allowing his mother to die as originally destined but moves a can of tomatoes to create an alibi that frees his father. The film ends with Barry back in the present, his father exonerated, but the timeline altered, as shown by the arrival of a different Bruce Wayne (George Clooney) instead of the one Barry knew.

The ending unfolds scene by scene as follows:

1. Final Battle Against Zod: Barry Allen (the present Flash) and his younger self join forces with Batman (Michael Keaton) and Supergirl to confront General Zod and his Kryptonian army. The battle is intense, with the Flashes fighting on the ground, Batman attacking from the air, and Supergirl confronting Zod directly. Despite their combined efforts, Batman sacrifices himself by kamikaze crashing the Batwing into Zod's shield, and Supergirl is fatally stabbed by Zod, who targets her because she carries the Kryptonian genetic codex.

2. Repeated Attempts to Change Fate: The two Barrys use the Speed Force to rewind time and try to prevent the deaths of Batman and Supergirl. Each attempt ends with the same result: Zod wins, and both heroes die. This cycle reveals that Zod's victory is a fixed point in time that cannot be changed.

3. Dark Flash Reveal and Conflict: Inside the Speed Force's Chrono-Bowl, the older Barry argues with his younger self about the dangers of trying to fix the past. Suddenly, the Dark Flash appears, revealed to be an older, grizzled version of the younger Barry who has spent a lifetime trying to save Supergirl and Batman. This Dark Flash had originally pushed the present Barry out of the Chrono-Bowl, causing him to be stranded in the younger Barry's timeline.

4. Final Confrontation and Deaths: Dark Flash attempts to kill the present Barry to stop him from undoing the timeline changes. The younger Barry sacrifices himself by jumping in front of the attack, dying in the process. Because they are the same person, this also causes the death of the Dark Flash (older younger Barry).

5. Restoring the Timeline: The present Barry returns to the past, allowing his mother, Nora Allen, to die as originally destined. However, he subtly moves a can of tomatoes on a grocery shelf, which causes his father, Henry Allen, to look up at a security camera, providing an alibi that ultimately frees him from wrongful imprisonment.

6. Present Day and New Timeline: Back in the present, Barry attends his father's trial, where Henry is acquitted thanks to the new evidence. Barry then calls Bruce Wayne, who arrives in a black car. However, this Bruce Wayne is not the one Barry knew (played by Ben Affleck) but a different version portrayed by George Clooney, indicating the timeline has been altered.

Fates of Main Characters at the End:

• Barry Allen (Present): Survives, returns to a timeline where his father is free, but the timeline is altered.
• Younger Barry Allen/Dark Flash: Dies protecting the present Barry.
• Batman (Michael Keaton): Dies in the battle against Zod.
• Supergirl (Sasha Calle): Dies in the battle against Zod.
• Henry Allen (Barry's father): Exonerated and freed from prison.
• Nora Allen (Barry's mother): Returns to her original fate of dying, as Barry accepts this loss.

The ending emphasizes the consequences of trying to change fixed points in time and the acceptance of loss, while also setting up a new, altered timeline with potential for future stories.

Yes, The Flash (2023) has a single post-credits scene that occurs at the very end of the credits. In this scene, Barry Allen (The Flash) is seen leaving a bar with a very drunk Arthur Curry (Aquaman). Barry, who remains sober due to his super-speed metabolism, tries to explain to Arthur that while there are multiple versions of Batman across different timelines, Arthur is always the same person in every timeline. Arthur, however, is too intoxicated to fully follow the conversation and eventually passes out, falling face-first into a puddle. Before passing out, Arthur gives Barry one of his Atlantean rings, telling him to pawn it for another drink. Barry then walks away, pocketing the ring.

The 2023 movie The Flash is not considered family-friendly for children and is better suited for older teens and adults due to its content. It is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some strong language, and partial nudity.

Potentially objectionable or upsetting aspects include:

• Violence and intense action: Several fight scenes involving fists, guns, blades, and large-scale battles with destruction; car crashes and collapsing buildings; some bloody close-ups such as a bullet wound and a man stitching himself up; lightning strikes causing injury; and perilous situations involving newborn babies.

• Language: Use of strong profanity including one use of the "f" word and other strong obscenities.

• Sexual content: Mild sexual content including a brief risqué moment and an extended nude scene showing partial nudity.

• Dark and emotional themes: The story involves murder, wrongful imprisonment, and themes of fate and sacrifice, which can feel grim or oppressive at times.

• Frightening or intense scenes: Some scenes may be unsettling or intense for sensitive viewers, including peril to infants and emotionally heavy moments.

Overall, while the film has humor and heartfelt moments, its combination of violence, language, sexual content, and dark themes means it requires extreme caution for children and sensitive viewers.