The Flash: Flashpoint

***The Flash: Flashpoint***is a 2012 superhero film, a sequel to *The Flash*, *The Flash: Rogue War*, and *Justice League: Siege*. It is the eighteenth installment in the DC Cinematic Universe.

It was directed by Ron Howard and stars Stephen Amell, Rick Cosnett, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Katie Cassidy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and John Wesley Shipp.

## Plot

Barry Allen visits the grave of his mother, Nora, who was killed by Eobard Thawne 20 years ago when Allen was 11. Barry awakens the next day in a world where his mother never died and the Justice League was never formed. Captain Cold is Central City's greatest hero and Arthur Curry and Atlantis are at war with Diana and Themyscira. Barry reunites with his mother and realizes he is the only one that remembers the past timeline, and he is slowly losing his speed.

Batman confronts a criminal and pushes him off a building. Green Arrow confronts him and tells him he is trying to put together a group of heroes to stop the war. Batman declines and goes back to the Batcave. Iris West meets with Steve Trevor IV in London. The two discuss information they gathered on the Amazons. Iris stays in Europe to meet with the Resistance while Steve prepares to go back to America to reveal the information they gathered. However, Steve is found by Diana, who uses her Lasso of Truth to find out what Steve has done. Diana takes him prisoner rather than kill him.

The President of the United States reveals to Green Arrow that Trevor sent out a distress signal but was intercepted by a traitor among the heroes. Barry finds the Batcave and is attacked by Batman, who is Thomas Wayne in this timeline - Bruce was shot by the mugger instead of Thomas and Martha. Martha became the Joker while Thomas became Batman. Bruce is able to convince Thomas that he is from another universe. However, Barry's memories begin to realign with this altered timeline and Barry realizes this is not another dimension but an alternate reality. Barry's Flash ring ejects the Reverse-Flash suit, leading Barry to believe his enemy is responsible for this. Barry tries to recreate the experiment that gave him his powers, and it is successful, giving Barry his abilites.

Barry learns that Kal-El was found by the government instead of the Kents and Barry, Thomas, and Oliver join forces to stop the war. They find Kal, weakened and pale, and rescue him. However, he flies off and the three others are attacked by the government and just escape. The president announces Green Arrow's failure to unite the world's superheroes and the U.S. enters into the Atlantean-Amazon war. Barry, Thomas, and Oliver find Green Lantern, Jesse Quick, and Wally West. Thomas asks Green Lantern to use his powers to prevent Barry's memories from changing. The group learns the U.S. failed to attack the Amazons by air and that an Atlantean tidal wave threatens everyone and thing in New Themyscira. Barry convinces Thomas to help him and the team to stop Thawne. Enchantress joins them en route. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are fighting one-on-one until Flash and his team arrive.

The Wally and Jesse use Hal's powers to transform the three of them into the Quick Lantern. Quick Lantern attacks Wonder Woman and appears to be winning until Enchantress reveals herself as the Amazon spy in the Resistance and uses her magic to restore the Quick Lantern to their mortal forms. Diana kills Hal, causing a massive explosion that cripples the opposing forces.

In the wake of the devastation, Thawne in the form of David West appears in front of Flash. The Reverse-Flash reveals that Flash himself created the Flashpoint timeline by traveling back in time to stop him from killing Barry's mother. Barry pulled the entire Speed Force into himself to stop Thawne, transforming the timeline by shattering the history of his allies. Thawne resets Barry's internal vibrations, enabling him to remember this. According to Thawne, these actions transformed him into a living paradox, no longer requiring Barry to exist and allowing him to kill the Flash without erasing his own existence. Thawne continues to taunt Barry with this knowledge until Batman kills him with an Amazonian sword.

As the fight continues, Superman arrives and begins to aid the heroes, first by killing Enchantress. Thomas insists that Barry puts history back to normal to undo the millions of deaths. Meanwhile, Green Arrow detects seismic activity which he claims could destroy the world. Waves start to approach. Now knowing the point of divergence, the Flash restores the timeline. As he enters the timestream, a dying Thomas thanks him for giving his son a second chance and gives Barry a letter addressed to Bruce. Barry then meets with his mother and bids a tearful farewell to her.

Traveling back in time, Barry merges with his earlier self during the attempt to stop Thawne. While traveling through time, Barry realizes he can see three different timelines. A Speed Force representation figure tells him that the world was split into three to weaken them for an impending threat, and must now be reunited to combat it. The universes are then merged, but unbeknownst to Barry and the Speed Force, the mentioned threat intervened and removed 10 years of history from DC characters which created instead a brand new DC Universe.

Barry then wakes up in a similar manner to the beginning of Flashpoint, also retaining all his memories from the alternate timeline. Believing that everything is over, Barry remembers Thomas' letter and gives it to Bruce, who is still the Batman in this timeline. Bruce, deeply touched by his father's sacrifice to ensure his son's life, cries and expresses his gratitude to Barry for informing him of the events that transpired before the timeline was reset. However, Barry learns that things have changed in this reality starting with the fact that Clark is back with Lois, his adoptive are both dead, and Diana is the new God of War after killing Ares and never left Earth.

In a mid-credits scene, Barry returns home, expecting to reunite with Iris, only to be surprised by his wife Patty Spivot.

## Cast

* Stephen Amell as Barry Allen/The Flash
* Rick Cosnett as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
* Gal Gadot as Diana of Themyscira
* Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman
* Katie Cassidy as Iris West
* Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart/Captain Cold
* Henry Cavill as Kal-El/Superman
* Chris Pine as Steve Trevor IV
* Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
* Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen
* Sugar Lyn Beard as Jesse Chambers/Jesse Quick
* Cara Delevingne as June Moone/Enchantress
* Robbie Amell as Wally West/Kid Flash
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Thomas Wayne/Batman
* John Wesley Shipp as Daniel West/Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash
* Shantel VanSanten as Patty Spivot

## Reception

### **Box office**

The film grossed $1,084,939,099 worldwide.

### **Critical reception**

*The Flash: Flashpoint* received positive reviews from critics. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 87% based on 335 reviews and a rating average of 8/10.