Flash (2023) Rewritten

The Goal

I will re-write the script of The Flash by making subtle changes to the details of events. I will only alter the film based on logic and 1 major change: Barry Allen acts with intelligence. I will keep continuity with the other films in the DCEU that were established to be canon with the original film. I will work within the confines of the original’s ideas and established rules. For example, I’m not going to just say the Speed Force can’t do something the film obviously shows it can do. I will also attempt to put as many fun story beats and cameos from the original into the new version to show that such goals could have been achieved through logical means.

This has been a fun project and a weird experience. I found myself in the shoes of Barry Allen as I created my own alternate universe of the film. Now, all I have to decide is whether or not to continue this idea to completion and write every line of the script or to do something else with these ideas.

Definitions and Establishing Rules

Barry – Our Barry, the Flash, and the protagonist of the story

Terry – Teen Barry from the alternate universe created by Barry during the story

Allen/Dark Flash – a version of Barry who has spent his whole life trying to fix everything.

Barryverse – the universe Barry is from

Terryverse – the universe Terry is from

Bruce – the Batman in the Barryverse. Played by Ben Affleck in the film.

Wayen – the Batman in the Terryverse. Played by Michael Keaton in the film. He is much older than Bruce, so he does not fight directly.

Timeline – A version of a singular universe where changes exist within certain boundaries.

Universe – A different version of reality where differences past, present, and future can exist.

Timelines and Universes Explained Further

Alternate timelines means, in a specific point in Space-Time, in Timeline Version 1 Bob steps on a rose while walking their dog and in Timeline Version 2 Bob doesn’t step on a rose while walking their dog. Alternate universes means, in a specific point in Space-Time, in Universe 1 Bob steps on a rose while walking their dog and in Universe 2 Rachel eats a rose for nutrients while petting a wild chameleon.

(keep in mind that these are made up rules and do not need to be accurate to the comics)

When a Speedster has enough internal energy built up from using their powers, they can enter the dimension of the Speed Force which is represented by the Chrono Ball. In this dimension, the Speedster can warp space and time to change events. When they exit the Speed Force after making changes, the Speedster will either arrive in an alternate timeline or an alternate universe based on the change.

Landing in an alternate timeline or alternate universe depends on the effect of the change on the Speedster making the change. For example, saving Barry’s mom means that Barry doesn’t get powers which means Barry can’t enter the Speed Force to save his mom. The existence of such a paradox dictates that making such a change leads to entering an alternate universe. Whereas saving Barry’s dad by moving the cans doesn’t affect Barry getting his powers, so this creates an alternate timeline.

There are certain events that need to happen in order for a timeline to still be itself even with changes. For example, if a+b+c=d, then it doesn’t matter if I do c+b+a or b+c+a or any other order. They will always equal d. But if I were to do a-b+c, I can no longer say it equals d. In fact, I can, with certainty, say that it will not equal d. Reordering the variables is creating alternate timelines whereas changing the operation (+ to -) is creating an alternate universe.

Kara Zor-El

Decades before the movie began, the planet Krypton was going to die. The Kryptonian government sent out their most esteemed General, Zod, to take a crew into the universe and find either a new home for the Kryptonians or a way to save their planet. Jor-El, a scientist, was convinced Zod’s mission would be a failure and reasoned they had enough time before the planet died to build two small escape pods. The plan would be to send his infant son, Kal-El, as well as his brother’s young daughter, Kara Zor-El, to a planet with a yellow sun where they would become stronger. Jor-El also put the genetic code information of all Kryptonians into his son so that Krypton could be born anew at some point in the future. Kara was told by her father to take care of her young cousin when they landed.

The two pods were barely finished in time and flew away just as the planet began to explode. Sadly, debris from the exploding planet collided with Kal-El’s ship and sent it off course. Kara could do nothing but watch as she was just a little girl, and the ship had no manual controls. While she was crying for her cousin, desperate for a way to save him, the ship placed her in stasis and continued its journey.

The pod landed on the planet Earth in the country of Russia. The Russian government noticed something entering their airspace, and immediately sent troops to uncover the mystery. They found an unconscious young girl inside an alien vessel and took both to an underground facility. They eventually figured out the girl was also an alien, and her cells would allow her to absorb sun radiation to gain untold strength. They built a prison and laboratory in Siberia specifically to make sure she did not see the sun until they wanted her to.

For almost 20 years, the Russians ran countless experiments on Kara. They also put her through rigorous training to attempt to turn her into a potential weapon for the Russian government. They educated her as well. Because of this, Kara has combat training, a Russia-centric academic knowledge of Earth, and can speak multiple languages including English, Russian, French, and Kryptonian.

Since all Kara knows of General Zod is the government propaganda from when she was a child, she assumes General Zod is a good man who will help her find her cousin. It is only after learning the truth that she is willing to fight him.

Dark Flash

Before the movie began, there was a version of Barry, that I call Allen, that discovered he could change things in the past to make the present better. He went back in time to try saving his mom. When he tried to return to the present, he noticed that the scenes playing in the Chrono Ball suddenly went dark shortly after his 18th birthday. He exited the Chrono Ball and discovered that General Zod attacked the planet and successfully terraformed it.

Allen went back to try all sorts of different changes, but each one resulted in winding up in a different universe. In one universe, he encountered a completely different looking version of himself fighting against parademons alongside Batman. This was the version of Barry that tried to go back in time to warn Bruce about finding Lois to save Superman in the Batman v Superman film.

Allen continued to travel the multiverse for an unknown amount of time but could never find a way to save his mother in his universe. Eventually, he had saved countless versions of reality but still found himself feeling empty and hollow. Allen reflected on his life and decided to make one final change.

Using all his knowledge and experience, Allen entered the Chrono Ball the moment the past version of him was returning to the present after putting the can of tomatoes into his mother’s cart in the past. Allen, the superior speedster, punches Barry out of the Chrono Ball over a week before Zod attacks, and right before a storm will hit that can give Terry super speed. Allen then uses his mastery of the Speed Force to prevent Barry from returning to the Chrono Ball to force him to stay in the Terryverse and learn the futility of trying to save everyone much earlier.

At the end of Barry’s journey, Allen reveals himself and explains his actions to Barry and Terry. Barry asks how it’s possible for Allen to still exist if Barry is a past version of him in the same timeline. Allen says that, even after all his travels, he’s still not entirely certain how this works. What he does know is that the Speed Force provides speedsters with infinite energy, and it’s difficult for any human to truly grasp the infinite. “In all my travels across the multiverse, I’ve never found an instruction manual for the Speed Force. What I do know is that I found a way to save Terry’s world and a way to save you from following in my footsteps. I think that’s finally enough for me.”

Allen then leaves the Terryverse. We don’t know where he goes.

Outline

1. Barry’s alarm goes off and he speeds out of the apartment

2. The Flash zooms around Central City helping everyone he sees

3. The Flash takes off his costume to return to being Barry and stops in at a breakfast place to get food before work. He checks his energy monitor and sees he’s running on empty

4. Right after placing his order, he gets an alert from Batman saying he needs him at a hospital in Gotham. Barry sees the guy is taking way too long on his sandwich, so he enters the bathroom and changes into the Flash. Flash vibrates through the bathroom door, grabs a pastry from behind the counter, leaves some money where he took it from, and runs to Gotham.

5. Flash arrives at the hospital (Batman sent coordinates) and speeds around using tools from his utility belt to rescue anybody near the collapsing structure. Then he goes through the entire building, floor by floor, until he finds the nurse with the babies about to fall out. Using his tools again, Flash gets all of them to the ground safely.

6. Flash then goes to the base of the building and rebuilds enough of it to keep the entire building from falling down. Rescue complete.

7. Flash leaves Flash Time and calls Batman to see where he is. Batman gives him the details and Flash zooms over. He enters the car, removes the keys, and takes the virus from the bad guys and leaves it with Batman. He leaves Flash Time, has a quick chat with Batman where Batman notices Flash is running low on energy. Flash waves off his concerns and realizes he’s going to be late for work and speeds off.

8. Flash phases back into the bathroom and changes back into Barry. Barry exits the door and goes back to wait on his sandwich.

9. At work, Barry is collecting some files together when his boss calls him into his office. Barry starts talking about going over the cold cases because he thinks they missed some things. Boss fires Barry citing the past few months where Barry has been routinely late to work, late on finishing assignments, and has constantly harassed him about going over cold case files instead of doing his actual job. Boss makes a comment about not knowing what changed the last few months.

10. Barry leaves job and becomes Flash to go save some more people.

11. During a lunch break, Iris West sees Barry and comes over to talk to him. He gets nervous when she goes all reporter mode about him and his dad’s upcoming hearing and leaves awkwardly.

12. At his apartment that night, Barry is shoveling food into his face and loads up the recovered footage of the security camera the day his mom was murdered that could prove his dad had an alibi. Using the latest tech from Wayne Enterprises, the footage is now crystal clear, but Barry’s dad never looks up at the camera, so his face can’t be confirmed.

a. Note: let’s assume that literally everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Let’s even assume that the Reverse Flash came back just to get Barry’s dad locked up in prison since it wouldn’t change the timeline. In this context, Reverse Flash is less evil incarnate and more so a butt hurt fanboy with way too much time on his hands who just wants to screw with Barry to cause as much pain as possible without hopping universes.

13. During the call with his dad where Barry reveals there’s still no hope, Barry puts on the Flash suit and goes back to look at their old house. Barry’s dad accepts his fate and tells his son that he should live his life and forget about him.

14. Feeling powerless about saving his dad and having just gone through another anniversary of his mom’s murder not too long ago (hint as to what triggered the change in behavior), Barry recalls a moment he had with his mom about a math problem.

15. Kid Barry complains about a prompt on his math assignment to come up with as many formulas as he can that result in the answer 24. Kid Barry complains that there are way too many solutions to the problem. His mom agrees with him and points out that Kid Barry could probably spend the rest of his life listing out all the answers. Or he could simply give all that he can give and be done with the assignment so he could do all sorts of other things in life.

a. Note: The assignment actually says, “How many calculations can you think of that have an answer of 24?” Technically, despite being really smart, Kid Barry missed the true problem and thus missed the obvious solution. It wasn’t to list all the possible solutions, but to simply state how many he could think of. If he can think of 3, the answer is 3. If he can think of 548, the answer is 548. If he can think of “a bajillion” solutions, the answer is a bajillion.

16. Back in the present, Barry thinks about the phrase “give all you can give” again and zooms over to the Bat Cave to talk with Bruce.

17. Bruce and Barry talk about the events at the end of Justice League and how Barry was able to change something in the past. Barry says he wants Bruce’s input on the idea of travelling further back to save his mom. They discuss the butterfly effect and Bruce points out that the only reason Barry got his powers was because of him being at the crime lab that specific night and he was only there because of what happened to his mom. (re-use the line of “nothing broken with you”). Barry insists he would be okay living in a world without powers if it means his mom is alive and Bruce points out that that’s exactly what would happen. Saving his mom creates a paradox, so the only way it could happen is if Barry hopped to another universe and abandoned this one; his real one.

18. Barry concedes the argument and asks Bruce to hang out, but Bruce turns him down because he has Batman stuff to do; alone. He once again tells Barry to stop living in the past, “take it from a lonely old man filled with regret. Living in the past stops you from living your life.” Bruce asks Barry why he doesn’t have someone else to be with and Barry mentions how he kind of blew it with Iris earlier that day. Barry’s eyes light up with an idea as Batman speeds off in the Batmobile.

19. Barry leaves the Bat Cave at super speed and pushes himself to go faster and faster until he manages to enter the Chrono Ball. He runs all the way back to his earlier meeting with Iris and exits the Chrono Ball.

20. In the past, Barry doesn’t just get awkward and weird with Iris and instead communicates being uncomfortable with her going reporter mode and how he would really just like a friend. He invites her to his apartment later that night and she accepts.

21. Barry re-enters the Chrono Ball and runs back to the moment Bruce leaves in the Batmobile. Barry runs back to his apartment and sees Iris about to ring the doorbell (right on time), so he runs up to his room, cleans it at super speed, changes clothes, and leaves Flash time to let her up.

22. Iris tries to talk with Barry and even drops a few hints that she knows he’s the Flash, but Barry is too distracted by his discovery. He also keeps getting alerts on some sort of device and speeding off to handle small issues in super speed. Iris eventually leaves and tells him she understands why he’s so distracted.

23. Barry returns to looking at the useless footage of his dad and his leg starts twitching. He says to himself, “Give all you can give.” Barry suits up and enters the Chrono Ball to go back and save his mom by putting a can of tomatoes in her cart. He tries running back to the present, but the Dark Flash punches him out of the Chrono Ball shortly after Barry’s 18th birthday.

a. Note: it is actually Terry’s 18th birthday, but that character hasn’t been introduced yet so…

24. Barry ends up in the parking lot of some random apartment building. He immediately tries to re-enter the Chrono Ball, but nothing is working. Barry winds up back at the same apartment building where he sees a younger version of himself getting in the car (this young version will be called Terry). He follows, using super speed to stay unseen, Terry all the way to Terry’s parents’ house.

25. Barry observes the whole family having dinner together before checking the newspaper and confirming the wrong date. He mutters to himself that this doesn’t make any sense because, when he time traveled to talk with Iris, he didn’t see a younger version of himself. Barry runs to a library and does some research (in a disguise at normal speed) and discovers there are all kinds of details about the world that don’t match up. Barry realizes he must be in another universe.

26. Barry decides the best course of action is to talk with Terry to try and figure out why Barry’s change didn’t work this time. Terry is, of course, initially freaked out to see another him, but he quickly gets over it because he’s kind of an idiot and is also somewhat high. Barry realizes that he and Terry’s lives are too divergent to be useful, so Barry tries again to just return to the Chrono Ball so he can try a different change, but it still doesn’t work.

27. Barry is in Terry’s room considering his options when Terry makes a comment about how the storm will ruin his day and Barry realizes today is when the storm hit that gave him his speed. He convinces Terry to try getting super speed and, together, they might be able to get Barry back into the Chrono Ball to try saving his mom again.

28. Barry breaks into the crime lab with Terry, puts him in the right position, and gets Terry struck by lightning. Barry then runs Terry back to Terry’s apartment for Terry to recover.

29. The next day, Barry trains Terry on how to use super speed in the hopes of expediting Terry’s progress so they can work together to get into the Chrono Ball and defeat the Dark Flash. Training montage. (lasts at least a week, which we can show by having them change clothes)

30. Barry and Terry go to a bar for food after an intense training session where Terry was finally getting close to about 50% of Barry’s top speed. At the bar, a message comes on the TV from General Zod. Barry initially freaks out, but then remembers that since this is a different universe altogether, he can change whatever he wants to make the world a better place. He tells Terry about the Justice League and how they can save thousands of lives from Zod by finding them earlier than when they formed in Barry’s universe.

31. Barry tries to find the Justice League, but the only one he finds evidence of is Batman. Barry is excited by this as his Batman is the one who united the League in the Barryverse. They both run to Wayne Manor and find Bruce Wayne (from here on, referred to as Wayne) and explain everything to him.

32. Wayne agrees to help immediately and goes into detective mode. He points out that if this “Superman” Barry is talking about has been here since he was a baby, but Zod has just now shown up, there might be something that drew Zod here. Wayne uses his satellites and discovers a signal went out into space several days ago. He traces the signal, finds a Siberian black site, and reasons that must be where Superman is.

33. While Terry modifies a bat suit to be more like the Flash suit Barry wears, Wayne mentions that he’s envious of Barry’s abilities to go back in time and change things. Wayne talks about how that would have made things easier. Barry points out that, in this universe, Batman and Bruce Wayne helped make Gotham one of the safest cities on the planet. Wayne says that the sacrifices he made to do so still left him a lonely old man filled with regret.

a. Note: That line echoes what Bruce says to Barry during their chat.

34. Barry and Terry break into the Siberian prison with ease. Barry searches the whole building while Terry tries to keep up. Terry finds a cell with a mysterious woman inside and phases her out of the cell. Barry finds a suit with the Superman logo and tons of evidence of experimentation, but no Superman. Barry and Terry meet outside, away from the prison, where Terry shows the mysterious woman. Barry yells at him for relocating a person, but the woman doesn’t seem hurt. She actually seems to be healing by being in the sun. Barry realizes that the kryptonian Zod is looking for is the woman. They take her and the suit back to the Bat Cave

a. Note: this is confirmation that Kryptonians, even weakened, are strong enough to withstand relocation by a Speedster. At least at the slower speeds that Terry can reach.

35. The woman wakes up and reveals her backstory as Kara Zor-El from Krypton (details included in the above notes section). She thanks Barry and Terry for rescuing her. Barry explains the situation and Kara agrees to help if and only if they can do so without hurting the Kryptonians as they are the last of her people.

36. They have a strategy session on how to handle Zod. Barry uses his speed to scout ahead, and Kara translates all the Kryptonian language for him. Barry mentions trying to find the Kryptonite to weaken the soldiers, but Kara is against the idea because of the risk. She insists that General Zod is an honorable man and will surrender once all the weapons have been disabled. Terry agrees with her to try and get her to notice him, so Barry gives in.

a. Note: Wayne has an interesting look on his face when Kryptonite is mentioned.

b. Note: Barry literally runs to the ships, memorizes the symbols, runs back to the Bat Cave, and writes the symbols down so Kara can translate.

37. They all mentally prepare for battle. Bruce is working on the computer and sets something up with the Bat Plane so he can fly it remotely. Barry helps. Terry and Kara talk outside. Terry mentions how he’s nervous and worried that he can’t help Barry or anyone even with his training. Kara talks about her training under the Russians to turn her into a weapon and how she feels like a failure for not protecting her infant cousin. They have a moment of connection.

38. Barry and Terry speed over to the battleground. Kara starts flying there alongside the Bat Plane (piloted remotely). Barry and Terry use their knowledge to disable the Kryptonian ships and weaponry (including the world engines). By the time Kara shows up in front of Zod, the battle is already over.

39. Zod reveals that he is not the honorable man the Kryptonian government made him out to be. He was chosen not because of his moral character but because of his singular loyalty to Krypton. He killed baby Kal-El to get the DNA data they needed. Now all he has to do is conquer this planet to raise a new Krypton even stronger than the first. He commands his troops to use their powers to destroy everything by hand.

40. Barry and Terry try to stop the Kryptonians but cannot because Barry refuses to kill and hasn’t taught Terry those techniques. Without super strength and since relocating doesn’t affect Kryptonians, the two speedsters can’t do anything to stop Zod from personally beating Kara to death.

41. After a quick mourning session over Kara’s body, Terry starts sparking violently and takes off. Barry runs after him yelling to stop, but Terry keeps pushing it. They both manage to enter the Chrono Ball. Terry is very excited by this, but Barry is confused and concerned.

42. They discuss their options and decide to go back and insist at the strategy meeting to get the kryptonite. However, when they pop out of the sphere, they wind up in front of 2 more versions of themselves (Barry 2 and Terry 2) as well as Kara and yet another different Batman (George Clooney version). They tell the alt-versions to get the kryptonite and return to the Chrono Ball.

43. Barry comes up with a plan to get the kryptonite later and only bring it out right before Zod attacks during the meeting. He reasons that every Batman has a contingency plan and that Wayne probably tracked down the Kryptonite already while they were working on the Bat Plane earlier. Barry disables the Kryptonian tech while Terry retrieves the kryptonite. They then use the kryptonite to de-power Zod and his troops. Day saved.

44. With everything okay (and Zod in a kryptonite-filled prison), Barry celebrates with his new friends. Terry invites everyone to his parents’ house for dinner and they have a grand old celebration since they saved the world. Barry has a heart-to-heart conversation with Terry’s mom and reveals why he’s still a little sad.

45. It turns out, Barry has realized that there are certain events he won’t be able to change, and that includes saving his mom’s life. Terry’s mom comforts him and mentions that all that can be expected of him is to give all he can give. Barry mentions that’s what he’s been trying to do, and Terry’s mom corrects his interpretation of the phrase. She explains that it doesn’t mean to sacrifice your life to save everyone just because you have powers. It means to be willing to accept things you cannot change in your life and to focus on what is in the present moment and the future of your life.

a. Note: I need to clean up what the mom says to make it more pithy (or at least more eloquent)

46. At that moment, Dark Flash appears, and everyone freaks out.

a. Note: maybe have a quick fight scene where Dark Flash disables everyone without any issue.

47. Dark Flash removes his costume and reveals himself to be a super old version of Barry (from now on called Allen). Allen tells his story (detailed in the notes above). Barry finally fully grasps what Bruce and Wayne meant by a “lonely old man filled with regret”.

48. Barry says goodbye to everyone and returns to the Chrono Ball. He gets an idea in his head, however, and returns to the grocery store in the past. This time, he sees the past version of his dad who has come to get the tomatoes. Barry looks at the security camera and smiles.

49. Back in the present, Barry attends his dad’s hearing. Now, the unglitched security footage shows Barry’s dad looking up to get the tomatoes which gives him an alibi and sets him free. Barry is all happy and goes up to Iris to apologize for being so weird. He points out that, now that his dad is free, he won’t be so distracted and can take her out on a proper date.

a. Note: this is the Barryverse, not an alternate universe. Since the footage was corrupted anyways, nothing would have changed if Barry’s dad looks up versus not looking up. Plus, by changing the end of the world in Justice League, we know that changing something in the past that prevents the motivation of running back in time to fix it doesn’t immediately mean you go to another universe, so Barry can save his dad while remaining in the same universe; just an alternate timeline.

50. Iris says something clever to heavily imply she knows that Barry is the Flash.

51. The End.

52. Post Credits Scene

a. Barry, Bruce, Arthur, and Diana are all in the Batcave. Barry has obviously just finished telling his whole story to the disbelief of everyone. Arthur tells Diana to “do her lasso trick” and Barry once again confirms his story under oath. Bruce turns to his computer and starts looking out into space with his satellites as Barry proclaims how happy Clark will be if it turns out there’s a Kara Zor-El out there somewhere.

b. Note: This also explains why Clark isn’t there. They didn’t want to get his hopes up.