The Flash: Who Dies And Who Lives In The New DCU Movie?

Contains major spoilers for "The Flash"

Andy Muschietti's "The Flash" has finally bolted into theaters, bringing DC Comics fans the long-awaited multiverse epic that many were hailing as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. While that specific claim is definitely up for debate now that the film is actually being seen by audiences across the globe (its Rotten Tomatoes score is certainly far from glowing), it can't be argued that "The Flash" is a brutal bloodbath with massive casualties that will shape the future of the DC Universe going forward.

From bloodless — yet no less tragic — erasures at the hands of a constantly resetting multiverse to some of the most visceral deaths ever seen in a superhero film, "The Flash" clears the deck and stacks it for the next phase of DC Films. Just in case you need a tally of who died and who made it out of the film unscathed, we've compiled a complete list of the film's fallen heroes and rising stars — including where you might see them on screen next. Of course, massive spoilers are to follow.

In a shocking turn of events, the title character of a superhero movie didn't die! Coming up next time, we'll get to the bottom of whether or not water is still wet!

In all seriousness, maybe there was a slight chance that Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) wouldn't make it to the end of his first solo film. After all, this is technically Barry's fourth appearance in the DC Universe (fifth, if you count "Zack Snyder's Justice League"), so it wouldn't be as though they were killing him before he got to stretch his legs. He's also unfortunately and near-inseparably tied to a continuity in desperate need of a drastic overhaul, as well as an actor whose actions have placed them in understandably poor standing with fans. If you were going into "The Flash" thinking — or perhaps even hoping — that it would be the end of Miller's time in tights, you wouldn't be completely out of line.

Yet, you would still be very wrong. Barry not only survives the events of "The Flash," but emerges as a central figure in the DC Universe. Whether or not this film will fit into James Gunn's rebooted cinematic universe remains to be seen, though if it does, it's hard to imagine just brushing this character aside after such a heroic ending.

Just as quickly as the Dark Knight rose, he fell once more — this time for good.

The Batman of the Flashpoint timeline — and, based on the laughing bag found by the Barrys in the Batcave, Tim Burton's "Batman" films — meets his end a number of times during the quartet's last stand against General Zod (Michael Shannon). He is first killed while trying to take down a Kryptonian spacecraft, only to be brought back to life when the Barrys travel backward. Despite his resurrection and assisted avoidance of his original death, he is killed again shortly afterward by one of Zod's soldiers, Nam-Ek.

Flashpoint Barry is unable to accept any of the casualties they suffer in the battle and continues resetting and retrying to save the world and his friends from the Kryptonian invasion. It can thus be assumed that Michael Keaton's Batman died hundreds — if not thousands — of times. Not that it matters, considering his very existence is erased by original-recipe Barry when he finally resets the timeline to its previous, tomatoless state. With "Batgirl" dutifully banished to the oblivion of unreleased media and Keaton only becoming less and less plausible as a superhuman vigilante, it's probably safe to say that this is the last we'll see of Tim Burton's Batman. It was truly nuts while it lasted.

Like Michael Keaton's Batman, the Flashpoint variant of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) is also murdered numerous times during the infinitely reset battle against the Kryptonians. She seems to primarily meet her end while trying to defeat Zod in one-on-one combat. Though one may expect her to have been able to defeat him just as Henry Cavill's Pre-Flashpoint Superman had, it's worth noting that she had been shielded from the sun ostensibly for the entirety of her life. She likely didn't have the same amount of power as her cousin — a contrast to some iterations of her character in the comics, in which her powers are far stronger from having been stranded in space near the sun during her early years.

Despite the resetting of the timeline, however, it is unknown whether or not this version — or rather, a similar one still played by Calle — remains in the Post-Flashpoint era. There will, however, be at least some iteration of the character in James Gunn's DC Universe, as he has already announced the development of a feature film titled "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow."

If there are any winners in the Flashpoint era, it would be General Zod. After getting his neck snapped by Pre-Flashpoint Superman in "Man of Steel" after a horribly messy attempt at terraforming Earth, the Kryptonian warrior is able to return once more to exact his master plan for world domination.

Though it's curiously glanced over by the plot, it seems as though Zod's victory in the Flashpoint timeline is inevitable, as there are no heroes powerful enough to stop him. As such, he sort of serves in the place of Aquaman and Wonder Woman's nuclear war from the comics, in that it's an apocalyptic event that forces the Flash to see the error of his ways.

Unfortunately for him, Barry resets the timeline. Assuming Michael Shannon is as apathetic about returning to the character as he appears to be, it appears as though this version of Zod has either been snapped or erased.

As if "The Flash" weren't bleak enough, it gives us the DC Universe's first confirmed child murder — or second, if you count that clip of Barry Allen microwaving a baby. When Supergirl finally confronts General Zod, he reveals that the originally searched for the Kryptonian codex within the body of an infant survivor of the dead planet — Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton.

In what turns out to be the trailer's big "what did you do?!" moment, Zod unequivocally confirms that he did, in fact, kill a baby version of Superman in an attempt to find the codex. Of course, in this timeline, the codex was transferred into Supergirl instead, so the baby murder was ultimately pointless. Henry Cavill's unwilling departure from the DC Universe was the firing heard around the multiverse, especially since the noisy comeback tour had kicked off just a month or so earlier in Dwayne Johnson's ill-fated "Black Adam." Nevertheless, his exit leaves the door open for the Post-Flashpoint Kal-El to emerge in James Gunn's "Superman: Legacy."

Oh, Flashpoint Barry. The 18-year-old version of the character we've known and tolerated for years now, who somehow manages to make the "brunch" exchange in "Justice League" seem charming. As the film portrays him, having a relationship with two living and free parents apparently made Barry a helpless child with no appreciation for his family.

That is until he learns that Pre-Flashpoint Barry wants to reset the timeline so that their mom is killed, as she apparently should be. This realization pushed the young Barry to the edges of his sanity, sending him down a grim path the consequences of which he's directly confronted with when the Dark Flash emerges from the Speed Force as a possible future self. Seeing what will happen if he can't accept accountability for himself and his actions, Flashpoint Barry sacrifices himself to kill Dark Flash.

Barry sacrifices his life just so that his benevolent future self can travel back in time to set things right — which is to say, make absolutely certain that his mother Nora (Maribel Verdú) gets stabbed by a vicious home invader. Yay, comics?

Ultimately Barry succeeds, sharing one last, tender moment with her in front of those murderous tomato cans before sending her home to her death. There is a slight chance she might return sometime down the line — after all, we still have yet to learn the identity of her killer. If it turns out to be a speedster of some kind like the Reverse Flash or Professor Zoom, future films may revisit her death through flashbacks. Other than that, Nora Allen is as dead as Pa Kent, the Waynes, and every single version of Uncle Ben endlessly repeating through the Spider-Verse.

While it's apparently crucial that Nora Allen be killed, the timeline doesn't seem to care much about whether or not Barry's dad Henry (Ron Livingston) stays in prison. Thankfully, Barry picks up on this (he and the speed force are close like that), so he just moves around those pesky tomato cans so that his father can unwittingly look into a security camera and confirm his alibi.

In the popular "Flash" series on the CW, a very similar storyline plays out. Much like in the film, Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp) is exonerated after years of selfless dedication from his only child — only to be murdered by a speedster himself on his first night as a free man. Interestingly enough, that very speedster was played by Teddy Sears, who appears in "The Flash" film as a version of Jay Garrick. Hopefully, the cinematic Henry Allen won't share the same fate, especially since it would be refreshing for a DC comics hero to have at least something resembling a normal family.

Now for one of the most tragic yet inevitable casualties of "The Flash's" reset timeline — Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne. One of the founding players in Zack Snyder's deeply flawed but occasionally triumphant take on the DC Universe, Affleck's Batman was often the highlight of any Snyder film he was in. It's no secret that he had long desired to play the character before receiving the offer, and it's been rumored that he was both surprised and hurt by the critical panning of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." Yet even in the poorest reviews, Affleck's performance and fight scenes were often still praised.

Following his rocky DCEU debut, Affleck's own "Batman" film — which he was at one point supposed to direct — dissolved, as the writing on the wall became clearer and clearer that Snyder's vision would need a drastic rework to move forward. Years later, when Gunn was announced as the new head of DC Films, the director stated on Twitter that Affleck was in talks to direct a film in the new slate — only for the actor to publicly shut this notion down. As of now, "The Flash" will be the final time fans see what many of them consider to be the greatest version of Batman on screen. After Barry's reset of the timeline, Affleck's Batman is definitively erased.

If we can't have Ben Affleck or Michael Keaton, at least "The Flash" brings back another shocking Batman — George Clooney's Bruce Wayne, fresh from Joel Schumacher's "Batman & Robin." After Barry manages to exonerate his dad with some nonsensical time travel forensics business, he's greeted on the courthouse steps by a salt-and-pepper Wayne who's seemingly separated from both the Schumacher-verse and the Snyderverse.

We still don't have confirmation if Clooney's appearance is just meant to be a fun cameo or a genuine debut of the new Batman. If the latter is true, that would mean Clooney would presumably be on board for James Gunn's "The Brave and The Bold," a new "Batman" film that would follow the caped crusader and his young, formerly estranged son Damian. Whatever the case, Clooney is currently the Post-Flashpoint Batman, and, frankly, we're just excited to see where that goes.

The last big winner of "The Flash" is the Pre-Flashpoint Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), who — despite being briefly erased from the timeline during the events of the film — gets returned to his former glory seemingly unaltered. He appears in the film's mid-credits scene, in which he drunkenly falls into a deep puddle while Barry attempts to explain the new Bruce Wayne to him.

While the scene is strangely one of the funniest moments in the entire film, its purpose is pretty transparent. Whatever the actual intentions are for this weird, interregnum of the DC cinematic universe, the Warner Bros. top brass really doesn't want audiences getting the impression that these new films don't matter — so they need to do everything they can to convince you that they're all still connected to both the future and the past of the DC universe. If the audience begins to smell a reboot coming, especially before the release of a film (like, for instance, the reportedly troubled "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," due out later this year), that could be disastrous for its box office potential. So, for now, and for the sake of the glorious ticket sales, Pre-Flashpoint Aquaman is here to stay.