It's Time To Talk About Those Flash Scenes In Zack Snyder's Justice League
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Contains spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League
More than three years separate the release of the theatrical cut of Justice League and Zack Snyder's director's cut, which recently debuted on HBO Max. There's another staggering amount of time to account for as well: There are two more hours in the director's cut of Justice League compared with the theatrical. Snyder's version of Justice League is literally twice the film Joss Whedon's was.
With two hours of new footage comes a lot of scenes that either have a completely different context or didn't turn up in the theatrical version of Justice League at all. And while there's rightly been a lot of focus on Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and the vindication of Fisher's performance finally being seen in full, there's another character we really need to focus on: Barry Allen, aka The Flash (Ezra Miller).
Most of what we saw of The Flash in the theatrical cut of Justice League was him cracking jokes at Batman (Ben Affleck), developing a friendship with Cyborg, and making his father, Henry Allen (Billy Crudup), proud. Snyder's cut of the film tells so much more of Barry Allen's story that he may as well be a completely different character.
However, there are two sequences in specific which we have to focus on because, although we likely won't ever see Snyder's Justice League sequel ideas in the DCEU at this point, there are still elements from the Snyder Cut which we think remain not only relevant for The Flash but critically important to understanding his present and his future.
Barry has a meet-cute with Iris West and some dogs
One of the first things Snyder's cut adds to Barry's story is the depths to which we see his own self-doubt play out in his personal and professional life. While we know that Barry is intelligent and specialized enough to work in a crime lab, the place we see him seeking employment is a pet care store. And while there's no denying the importance of and skill involved in proper pet care, it's clearly not Barry's natural calling.
Watching Barry show up late for a job he clearly doesn't really want tells us a lot about his character. First of all, the lateness reveals that superspeed can't fix being scattershot. Secondly, the choice of job tells us that Barry doesn't think he deserves his dream job. But mostly, we see Barry being nice to dogs, and nothing says "good guy" like good dog energy.
The other big moment in this scene is the introduction of Iris West (Kiersey Clemons). Within moments of meeting each other, Barry and Iris (who are in love in both the comics and The CW's The Flash series) have intense chemistry. Also, Barry reveals his superspeed to Iris when he saves her life, even though he could have sped away without her knowing.
Is it a little creepy that Barry stares at Iris in slow motion while he saves her from being crushed to death in a car collision? Yes, it's fair to say the way Barry rescues Iris is a little awkward. But, then again, Barry is an awkward guy. More importantly, with a The Flash movie on the horizon and Clemons still set to reprise her role as Iris West, this is one of the most important Justice League scenes because it actually gives us a glimpse of what Barry and Iris' relationship will be like.
Time travel can save the world, but it has consequences
Arguably the most important scene for The Flash in Snyder's cut of Justice League isn't his introduction with Iris West but the way he ultimately pulls victory from the jaws of defeat. Since our heroes aren't simply fighting off Steppenwolf but also the oncoming threat of Darkseid, the final showdown is significantly more intense. In fact, the Justice League loses! The mother boxes join together, our heroes are killed, and the world is decimated in an instant — except for The Flash.
Since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we have been aware that the DCEU incarnation of Barry Allen, like so many of his multiverse counterparts, has the power to travel backwards in time and alter the path of history. In Batman v Superman, Barry appears to Bruce, telling him that it's all about Lois and that Bruce was right about "him" (the "him" being Superman).
In Snyder's Justice League, Barry Allen reverses time, helps Cyborg connect with the mother boxes, and, let's be honest, basically saves the planet. However, there are a few things to account for before celebrating this moment.
Barry does bring up this ability earlier in the film but points out that it causes weird things to happen. In fact, it's entirely possible that his awareness of being able to travel in time is linked with Ezra Miller's appearance in the Crisis crossover event on The CW. On The CW, Grant Gustin's Barry Allen learns pretty quickly that changing the timeline has unpredictable consequences. For all we know, Ezra Miller's Flash may face similar challenges — assuming they haven't already!
While we likely won't see the Justice League sequels Snyder intended, setting up Barry's time travel ability will likely be invaluable to the DCEU moving forward — especially with multiple Bat Men set to appear in The Flash movie.
You can watch Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max right now.