Western Animation / Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

"Accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can, and have the wisdom to know the difference..."

— Nora Allen, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

A 2020 movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is the Grand Finale of the DC Animated Movie Universe that started at the end of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

Sometime after the events of Reign of the Supermen, Batman: Hush and Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, Darkseid once again moves on Earth. Superman rallies the Justice League and some allies for a first strike... and fails. The heroes are gruesomely beaten and the Teen Titans are massacred in the following invasion and conquest of Earth. Two years later, Superman, depowered and returned to Earth as a warning, recruits an alcoholic John Constantine and a suicidal Raven for a last ditch attempt to stop Darkseid.

The movie provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Paradoom are CG, which stands out in some scenes where they fight the 2D characters.
• Aborted Arc: Any unfinished story arc or Sequel Hook in the DCAMU not contributing to the war with Darkseid stay unfinished. A world-spanning massacre will do that.
• Adaptational Wimp: A lot of characters are defeated easier than one might expect by Darkseid's forces, but special mention goes to Lady Shiva, who is easily defeated and treated as a joke during her brief fight with the heroes and has the dishonor of being unceremoniously killed by a normal human Mook and not a Paradoom during the Lexcorp tower raid.
• Adapted Out: Although Darkseid's planet Apokolips is the setting of much of the action, none of Darkseid's traditional Fourth World lieutenants appear.^note The inclusion of Desaad in Justice League: War, the presence of "G. Gordon Godfrey" in Reign of the Supermen, and Knockout's passing mention of being from Apokolips in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, imply that the other New Gods exist in this continuity, or used to. Given how the film's cast of characters is already overcrowded, this is practical for story purposes.
• After the End: After the Justice League is defeated by Darkseid, the Earth becomes a hellish battleground in which more than half of the global population has been slaughtered. Lex Luthor hastily offers to allow Earth to become a vassal of Apokolips in exchange for its survival, which Darkseid condescendingly accepts. After this, the world's governments either collapse or ally themselves with Luthor, resulting in a semi-dystopic setting in which you either live or die according to the will of an evil god.
• All for Nothing:
  • Played with. On the one hand, the heroes fight tooth and nail to save Earth from Darkseid... only to learn that it was all pointless, since even though he's gone, his machines still did irreparable damage to the planet. The only solution left, as Constantine decides, is for the Flash go back in time and perform a Cosmic Retcon so that none of this ever happened in the first place. On the other, if they hadn't fought tooth and nail they wouldn't have found the Flash in the first place and therefore wouldn't have been able to perform the cosmic retcon.
  • The deaths of Lady Shiva and Cheetah, both of whom were unceremoniously killed in the storming of Lex Luthor's base. Turns out that Luthor was Lois' mole, meaning that both Shiva and Cheetah essentially died in a conflict that could have been avoided.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Trigon to Darkseid. The pair battle each other twice before the end. In the first battle Trigon does so using Superman as a host, eventually downing Darkseid until a message from Lois Lane breaks Trigon's control over Superman. The interruption gives Darkseid a second wind opportunity to trap Trigon's disembodied spirit. In the second battle Trigon fights Darkseid with his true body. Whereas Darkseid is serious and attempting to go all out, Trigon is having fun and repeatedly gains an advantageous position with each attack.
• Ambiguous Ending: Most of the heroes are dead or crippled and Earth was left near-inhospitable. Because of this, Constantine tells Flash to go back in time and prevent the entire tragedy from ever happening. However, they know that this will reboot the entire timeline, just like what happened in The Flashpoint Paradox, meaning that the resulting reality will be completely different than the one they remember. The movie ends with Flash entering the Speed Force once again, with the surviving heroes watching on as everything fades to white.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • During the fight on Apokolips, a Paradoom rips off Shazam's right leg. He's able to conjure a magical replacement later on.
  • After Cyborg is able to boom tube Shazam out of Apokolips, Darkseid comes in and rips off both of Cyborg's arms.
  • Wonder Woman gets her left arm ripped off by a Paradoom. She is later robotized into a Full-Conversion Cyborg by Darkseid.
• Anyone Can Die: The entire Justice League, save Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, The Flash and John Constantine are slaughtered in the film's opening fight, while many other heroes and anti-villains bite the dust in the final mission to save Earth from Darkseid. By the end of the film, Raven, Superman, The Flash and Batman are the only major characters who are never shown being killed. However, it's subverted with Robin, Starfire, Constantine, Mera, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter and Nightwing, who are all brought back to life by various means.
• Back for the Dead: Many characters from past movies return just to die, including Lois Lane, Zatanna, Aquaman, the Green Lanterns, much of the Titans, and much of the Suicide Squad.
• Badass Boast: Subverted because Etrigan sounds bored out of his skull, fighting people who are no challenge to him whatsoever.
  Etrigan: Etrigan the Slayer is here, woe to you. (sword breaks on his face.) And you. (Etrigan picks up mook and tosses him into another mook) You also.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Despite Superman being one of the main characters and several other heroes being present, nobody is reluctant to kill human soldiers working for Luthor and Darkseid. At the start of the film, it's made clear that Superman is even prepared to destroy Darkseid. This is all justified due to the danger Darkseid poses and how the world is literally days away from destruction if they don't stop him.
• Battle Couple: Lois taking a more action role and Superman being Brought Down to Badass means they fight side-by-side as equals during the Lexcorp raid.
• Beam-O-War: Darkseid's Omega Beams vs Trigon possessed Superman's eye beams. Trigon initially uses only two eyes beams and it's evenly matched, then he overpowers Darkseid with all four eyes' beams.
• Beard of Sorrow: Superman grows a beard after the Time Skip. The unkempt appearance of a man who used to be a symbol of hope highlights how evil appears to have truly won.
• Big Damn Kiss: Damian and Raven kiss just before Flash resets the timeline again.
• Big "NO!": Darkseid's last word as he is pulled by Trigon into nothingness, never to return.
• Blind Jump: Cyborg opens a massive boom tube with no exit destination above Apokolips, trapping the planet (which also explodes) and Darkseid in the nothingness between dimensions where he'll never escape.
• Bloodless Carnage: When Batman puts Damian’s sword through the latter’s leg just before attempting to execute him, no blood can be seen on the blade.
• Blood Knight: Etrigan spends the movie depressed he can't find a decent fight only to beam with joy at the idea of fighting a brainwashed cyborg Wonder Woman. Later, Trigon becomes so enamored with the idea of fighting Darkseid, he doesn't even care that both are about to be trapped between dimensions forever.
• Bloodier and Gorier: This is by far the most violent entry in the series, with dozens of gory deaths, dismemberings, and other mayhem.
• Book Ends: The DC Animated Movie Universe began with the Flash going back in time to change history, though for selfish reasons, and included a Stinger showing Darkseid's Parademons arriving to attack Earth. The universe ends with the Flash doing this again but with more altruistic reasons, and no Stinger at the conclusion. Likewise, this universe's Justice League formed fighting Darkseid and their final adventure involves fighting Darkseid.
• Boom, Headshot!: Lady Shiva gets unceremoniously shot in the head by a sniper.
• Boxing Battler: Lois Lane shows she has some skills during a quasi-organized fight against Harley Quinn, with the justification that she was "an Army brat."
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Batman, Wonder Woman, Mera, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Starfire, and Cyborg are all gravely injured and captured by Darkseid's forces during the prologue and later return as his corrupted minions following the two year Time Skip. All of them are freed from Darkseid's control through various means and rejoin the heroic side during the final act.
• Break the Badass: Batman, who probably has the most indomitable will of all the League, was tortured by Darkseid until he broke.
• Break Them by Talking: Batman tries this against what remains of the heroes, pointing out their previous failures in an attempt to psychologically destabilize them. When Damian tells him that they cannot be picked apart so easily, Batman disowns him and calls him a burden, goading the boy into fighting him alone.
• Brought Down to Badass: After being Depowered by Darkseid, Superman is still capable enough to fight off some of Shiva's assassins.
• The Bus Came Back: Shazam returns after being absent since Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, albeit as little more than a background character.
• Call-Back: To The Flashpoint Paradox.
  • London is displayed in total ruins both here and in Flashpoint.
  • Shazam's face ends up scarred, recalling Captain Thunder's scars in Flashpoint. And both times, "Shazam" becomes the last thing he says before being killed.
  • Superman and his group discovers an emaciated Flash within Darkseid's fortress, similar to how Flash and his group of heroes discovered Superman with a similar appearance in Flashpoint.
  • Just after Diana's battle against the other Cyborg-Furies — Mera among them — has been ended peacefully, Diana and Mera are together in a close-up shot. In Flashpoint the last glimpse of Mera is a close-up of her severed head in Diana's hand after they battled.
• Came Back Wrong: Damian tried to resurrect Nightwing using the Lazarus Pits, but while it succeeded in bringing his body back, his soul didn't come with it.
• The Cameo: Several villains from past movies like Toymaster, Weather Wizard, Giganta etc. appear in the audience of villains watching the Lois and Harley fight. Brick and Zsasz also make cameos sporting their designs from Young Justice (2010) and Batman: Assault on Arkham respectively.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: Most members of the Justice League suffer gruesome deaths during the prologue, with many other heroes and anti-villains also dying later on to emphasize how hopeless the situation is. By the end of the film, the only named characters to survive are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, the Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, John Constantine, Nightwing, Robin, Raven, Starfire, and Mera, and most of them had to be resurrected by various means..
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Batgirl performs surprisingly well against Paradooms, even without kryptonite.
• Cleavage Window: Lady Shiva has one on her costume.
• C-List Fodder: Played with. Many heroes and villains are unceremoniously killed by Paradooms regardless of their importance.
• Combat Compliment: Harley praises a right hook from Lois during their fight.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Paradooms, Darkseid's new warriors, were created by merging Parademons with the DNA of Doomsday from The Death of Superman.
  • The Justice League Furies utilize the same tech that Cyborg-Superman was given in Reign of the Supermen.
  • Wonder Woman is broken free of mind control by using the Lasso of Truth, which also worked to free the possessed from the corrupter demons in Justice League vs Teen Titans.
  • Raven heals a badly burnt Damian like she did in the aforementioned movie.
  • A minor one, but Amanda Waller is revealed to have died from cancer, which she was suffering from in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay.
• Cosmic Retcon: Darkseid has been defeated, but most of the superhero community is dead, most of the survivors are mutilated and traumatized, and the Earth has been irreversibly ravaged (Batman states if the League gets things under control, a billion people will still die). Constantine then convinces Flash to do another Flashpoint, because even if the new timeline isn't perfect, it will still be infinitely preferable to their current state.
• Crack Pairing: An In-Universe example. The film's incarnation of Constantine used to date King Shark.
• Crapsack World: Two years later after Darkseid's invasion, Earth is a wasteland, and half of the planet's population is dead while most of the world’s heroes are either dead or Darkseid’s cybernetic slaves.
• Crazy-Prepared: Batman as usual. Constantine finds out much to his displeasure that Batman had Zatanna enchant him with a compulsion spell that would make him leave the heat of battle in the event that Superman's strategic attack on Apokolips didn't go as planned and a trump card was needed to Set Right What Went Wrong, which eventually pays off in the end.
• Crossover Finale: It's the final instalment in the DCAMU, and shows the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans and Suicide Squad teaming up to fight against Darkseid's invasion on Earth.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • After he is defeated by Darkseid, Superman is inscribed with an S-shaped scar, laced with kryptonite, on his chest that strips him of his superpowers. Darkseid then allows him to return to Earth alone with full knowledge that his choices and the resulting failures have doomed the world. Constantine remarks that he's actually kind of impressed at the degree of sadism.
  • The compulsion spell Zatanna used to make John Constantine run from the battle saved his life, but he was broken from the guilt of thinking he ran and left her to die.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Because Darkseid knew what the Justice League was planning and he upgraded his Parademons to Paradooms, saying Superman's invasion plan ended badly is an understatement. With its best heroes defeated, Earth fell not long after.
  • When the heroes attack the Reapers, regular Parademons kill Batwoman, Batwing and Steel with minimal effort. Though Shazam, Superboy, Black Orchid and Batgirl manage to last a little longer, they too are slaughtered once the Paradooms are sent after them.
  • Constantine convinces Swamp Thing to take out the third Reaper by pointing out the damage it'll do to the Green. Swampy obliterates it, with the Paradooms not even being able to slow him down.
• Darker and Edgier: The film sounds like a perfectly tame Grand Finale where the heroes triumph over evil with flying colors... until you re-read the title and notice the "Dark" in it. While the DC Universe Animated Original Movies have never shied away from violence, bloodletting, and risque content in the past, the scads of brutal deaths in this entry alone make this easily the darkest film in the series.
• Deader than Dead: Raven asks Constantine to make her body "more than dead" if Trigon takes control of her. When Trigon starts to break free, Constantine instead removes the gem containing Trigon.
• Death by Cameo: Several members of the Green Lantern Corps, including Guy Gardner and Arisia, are shown dead during Darkseid's invasion of Oa.
• Death World: Apokolips has always been featured as one, but in this film universe it is taken to an extreme. From what is shown, this incarnation of the familiar-looking wasteland planet seems not to have any population whatsoever now except Darkseid and his manufactured monstrosities. Sending the entire world into the void — or making the whole planet explode, which was the original plan — becomes easy to do when no people exist there to slaughter in a planet-wide genocide.
• Defiant to the End: After the Green Lantern Corps has been decimated by Darkseid, a badly injured John Stewart spends his final moments reciting the Green Lantern oath. Darkseid has Batman boom in a load of magma to destroy the battery and incinerate John just before anything can happen as a final insult.
• Demoted to Extra: Most of the heroes from past DC movies such as Reign of the Supermen, Batman: Bad Blood, Justice League Dark and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract are relegated to silent cameos, and many of them end up dying anyway.
• Devoured by the Horde: Some of the heroes suffer this fate when they get outnumbered by the Paradooms (most notably Batgirl), who start ripping them to pieces.
• Did Not Think This Through: Attacking Apokolips without any actionable intelligence on what they would be facing was lethally stupid of the League and it had catastrophic consequences. It's even worse considering that the assault team included Aquaman, Mera and Martian Manhunter — three heroes deathly vulnerable to fire. Even with Batman's contingency plan to save Constantine it's hard to imagine how blindly assaulting a Death World ruled by a Physical God could have ended any way but badly.
• Dirty Coward: Constantine, who ran away during the Justice League's defeat, even as his lover Zatanna died horribly behind him. It haunts him during the film, and he can't explain it, noting how he's gone up against monsters just as bad and held his ground and he doesn't know why he didn't this time. It turns out that Zatanna used a compulsion spell to make him run away, at Batman's request, just in case everything went wrong.
• The Dragon: Batman is Brainwashed into becoming Darkseid's most loyal and competent servant.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • Hal Jordan and Aquaman are killed off via flashback during the initial failed assault on Apokolips.
  • Most of the Teen Titans (Blue Beetle, Kid Flash, Beast Boy, Bumblebee and Speedy) die in a flashback showing how Darkseid's forces destroyed Titans Tower.
  • Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing and Black Orchid are killed while trying to take down the Earth Reaper in the North Sea, while Steel, Superboy and Shazam all perish in an attempt to destroy the Chinese Earth Reaper.
  • Cheetah is abruptly shot dead right before Lex appears, and unlike Lady Shiva she isn't mourned or even noticed. She doesn't even leave a corpse in the background.
  • Lex is Killed Offscreen, his corpse shown with a Paradoom spike impaled through his chest.
  • Pretty much the entirety of the Suicide Squad serve as cannon fodder for the final battle.
  • Subverted with Constantine, who intentionally releases Trigon with the intent of forming a contract with him and forcing him to fight Darkseid for them. Trigon takes a different option - possess Superman - and then immediately snaps Constantine's neck with no fanfare. Constantine only lives because of Zatanna pulling some strings in the afterlife to let him come back.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After the botched invasion, Constantine spends most of his time drinking his way through entire pubs with Etrigan until Superman and Raven seek him out for help.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Captain Boomerang gives an obvious once over to Lois after she wins her fight against Harley, which creeps her out. Harley kicks him on Lois's behalf.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The ruins of London include the remains of Big Ben (where Constantine and Etrigan are dwelling) and the Millennium Wheel.
• Elite Mook: Darkseid has certainly learned that Parademons were not enough to defeat the Justice League. Thus, he surprises them by unleashing Paradooms, half-Parademon, half-Doomsday, who are actually capable of overwhelming and killing superheroes. Even when Lex Luthor tries to take advantage of their kryptonian DNA by using kryptonite-laced weapons, that only allows the resistance members to barely Hold the Line to detonate Lexcorp tower.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being imprisoned by Raven for a very long time, once finally free Trigon shows a rare moment of genuine love for his daughter, stating how being set free - and given a Worthy Opponent - is the best gift she could have ever given him, and wishes her well before resuming his battle with Darkseid. Raven said earlier that parents can be lousy but still love you.
• Everyone Has Standards: Played for Laughs. Constantine, who used to date King Shark, thinks that the idea of having been Harley Quinn's boyfriend is gross.
• Evil Versus Evil: When things are getting desperate, after some setbacks, Raven and Constantine are able to convince Trigon to fight Darkseid on their behalf.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The entirely of Lois’ team during the Lexcorp siege are super-villains.
• Eye Scream:
  • Energy zaps out of Wonder Woman's optic when Constantine frees her from Darkseid's control. For that matter, the fact that part of her transformation into a cyborg involves replacing her eye with said optic.
  • Batman throws a sword into Darkseid's eye, which his Omega Beams destroy before it can fully penetrate. The backlash burns off the eyelid, though. Later, Superman shoves his thumbs into Darkseid's eyes to keep him from firing his Omega Beams.
• Failed a Spot Check: Swamp Thing has to be told point blank that the giant machines siphoning away Earth's core pose a threat to the Green, even though Swamp Thing does understand what the machines are doing and the harm they'll cause when he actually bothers to pay attention. Constantine lampshades how oblivious he is.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Batman is brainwashed into becoming Darkseid's servant and top enforcer via the Mobius Chair.
  • Superman gets laced with liquid Kryptonite, whose effects remove his powers and leave him with a green "S" symbol tattoo. He is then sent back to Earth to live out the rest of his days reminded of how his failure cost the Earth dearly and how he is powerless to do anything. Oh, and having a huge green kryptonite tattoo on his chest means Clark is in constant pain.
  • Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Mera, Hawkman and Starfire are horrifically roboticised into Metallo-like abominations made to serve as the new Furies.
  • The Flash becomes a living power generator for Apokolips, forced to run in a gyroscope treadmill machine without rest which leaves him in a thin, frail state. He suffers severe PTSD from the experience as a result.
  • Cyborg is stripped down to his Mother Box components and used as a sentient core of Apokolips' computer system that links the planet to the Source Wall.
  • Darkseid is denied his conquest of the universe after coming so close to attaining it, being trapped in another dimension with Trigon kicking his ass forever.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Mera, and Starfire all end up being horribly mutilated by Paradooms and eventually turned into Darkseid's cyborg furies. The majority of their bodies become mostly machine with very little of their original ones left.
• Genre Deconstruction: This movie takes several aspects of heroic fiction to their brutally realistic conclusions.
  • Ordinary humans, and most superhumans, are easily slaughtered by hordes of Superman-level opponents.
  • The sheer brutality and sadism of Darkseid in the comics is not often taken too seriously or downplayed, while this shows what would realistically happen if he actually did defeat the Justice League.
  • Darkseid had been draining the Earth's core for almost two years, that's obviously going to have a negative impact on the world and cause it's destruction no matter what.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Lex Corp guard who witnesses Harley and Boomerang's antics and lets them in without comment.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Constantine tries to use Trigon as the heroes' final weapon against Darkseid. It almost backfires when Trigon possesses Superman, but Darkseid proves to be a Worthy Opponent for the demon. This gives Trigon a personal motive to keep fighting Darkseid despite having nothing to gain.
  • At the end of the movie, so many people have been killed and the Earth has been so thoroughly ruined that Constantine convinces Flash to travel back in time to change the past to prevent all of this from happening, even though it could very possibly result in another Flashpoint.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Thanks to Darkseid expecting them, and using Doomsday-infused Parademons, the Justice League's attack on Apokolips goes south in a hurry at the start of the movie.
• Gorn: And we're talking Mortal Kombat-levels of violence. The film is Bloodier and Gorier than previous DC features, as it begins with a montage of almost all of Earth's heroes being brutally slaughtered by the Paradooms and Darkseid in extremely graphic ways.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • While the film mostly doesn't look away from the violence, some of the messier deaths, those of Zatanna, Batgirl, and Bane getting ripped apart by Paradooms, are obscured by the monsters themselves.
  • When the Suicide Squad hijacks a truck to get into Lexcorp, King Shark eats the pair of Lexcorp guards who were the truck's original drivers, with the camera only showing Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang's clearly disturbed reactions.
• Grand Finale: It's the conclusion of the DCAMU and shows Earth's surviving heroes and villains working together to fight Darkseid.
• Half the Man He Used to Be:
  • Darkseid rips Aquaman in half with his Omega Beams.
  • Starfire is seen ripped in half during a flashback to the attack on Titans Tower with detailed viscera.
  • Black Manta gets torn in half by a Paradoom defending Lexcorp Tower.
• Hammerspace: During her fight with Lois, Harley produces a set of taser knuckledusters from behind her back, each of which is about the size of a defibrillator paddle.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Lex Luthor turns out to be playing both sides, though for justified reasons. He agrees to act as The Quisling to save his life, but acts as The Mole for Lois Lane because his long-term survival prospects under Darkseid's reign don't seem very promising.
• Hero Killer: Darkseid and his Paradooms collectively acquire the biggest on-screen superhero body count of non-comic DC media in the first ten minutes alone and don't stop.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Swamp Thing is destroyed while successfully bringing down the Congolese Earth Reaper.
  • Shazam blows himself up to stop the Paradooms on the Great Wall.
  • In the finale, Cyborg sacrifices himself to destroy the planet of Apokolips and banish Darkseid into a void where he can never again threaten the universe.
  • Trigon of all people does this, grabbing Darkseid as he's trying to escape and falling with him into the void that destroys Apokolips.
• He's Back!: Each of the DC trinity get their own moment after being thoroughly defeated by Darkseid in the prologue.
  • Wonder Woman is able to break free of Darkseid’s control as a cyborg when Constantine uses the Lasso of Truth on her. She then follows up by taking on the rest of the New Furies, by herself.
  • Batman is ordered by Darkseid to kill Damian, who Batman is holding at his mercy, which causes Batman to flash back to when Joe Chill did the same to him after gunning down his parents decades earlier. This is enough to break Darkseid’s brainwashing, giving Batman the free will necessary to throw his son’s sword into Darkseid’s eye.
  • Superman spends most of the film Brought Down to Normal by the liquid Kryptonite in his veins. After Trigon possesses Superman and literally purges the Kryptonite from his body with fire, he regains his powers and gives Darkseid some payback.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Done for humor when Harley tries to use a set of taser knuckledusters on Lois during their fight, and Lois grapples with her and makes her stun herself unconscious.
  • Darkseid using the heroes (Batman, Flash, Cyborg, etc.) as critical systems components was like allowing dormant but serious viruses or bacterium into his systems, just requiring catalysts (reawakening their free will, for one) enabling them to sabotage everything.
• Humans Are Bastards: Swamp Thing holds this opinion to a T as he couldn't care less about how half of Earth's human population was wiped out during Darkseid's invasion, let alone assist in trying to stop it since his allegiance is The Green as he is its protector and therefore sees it as good riddance to a "pest" that is harmful to nature despite Constantine pointing out that humanity was simply minding its own business much like the Green when Darkseid's forces invaded Earth.
• Idiot Hero: Only God and Satan actually working together on her behalf could've made it possible for Harley Quinn to make it through everything she does here.
• I Let You Win: Batman boasts to Damian that he let him win some of their previous sparring matches, and won't hold back now that he serves Darkseid. It's not an idle boast, as Batman's training and armor make him more than a match for Damian.
• Interrupted Suicide: Raven tried to kill herself after the Titans were massacred, but Superman showed up just in time to stop her.
• Intrepid Reporter: Lois refuses Clark's plea to hide somewhere safe, saying she needs to do her job of reporting the story.
• It Has Been an Honor: King Shark's last words, and the only words that aren't "King Shark is a Shark," were telling this to Captain Boomerang.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: When Damian offered Raven to join him to lead the League of Assassins, she turned him down because Trigon would kill Damian if she didn't free him, and after losing her friends she didn't want to take that chance.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Damian's not wrong that the Justice League, who for years have been pulling their punches, might not have the right attitude for fighting a war. "An army without killers is no army at all."
• Killed Offscreen: The Joker and Amanda Waller are among the dead despite not actually appearing in the film. After being broken by Darkseid, Batman kills the Joker, and Waller's terminal illness, first mentioned in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, is confirmed to be cancer here and claimed her.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Constantine's speech to the Flash at the end of the film when he's trying to convince him to do another Flashpoint actually relates to DC's tendency to reboot and retcon canon, which is heavily criticised by fans. Constantine admits that while things will change, with not all of those changes being good and there being a good chance they will just repeat the same mistakes, sometimes a reboot is necessary because sometimes things become too messy to be fixed in any other way.
• Left Hanging: A lot of storylines being built up over the previous films are effectively ended by Darkseid's Invasion and the slaughter of all the heroes. Examples include Donna Troy and Superboy joining the Titans, Jericho's resurrection, and Catwoman promising to one day mend her relationship with Batman.
• Les Collaborateurs: After Darkseid's conquest of Earth, Lex and his company started serving him willingly, working under Batman's orders. Subverted as later it's revealed Lex is using his position to leak information to Lois, which Batman had suspected all along.
• Living Battery: Darkseid forces Flash into a gyroscope treadmill machine where he runs with his Super-Speed without rest, powering Apokolips.
• Locked into Strangeness: Possibly as a result of the liquid kryptonite, Superman ends up with gray temples, which remain even after he gets his powers back.
• Meaningful Echo: After Nightwing dies and using the Lazarus Pit to revive him made him insane, Damian explains to Raven that "[He] had to take the chance." in a sad tone. Later on Apokolips and Damian is killed, Raven uses her powers to revive him and explains to him "[She] had to take the chance." in a relieved tone.
• The Mole: Lois has a contact in Darkseid's organization that has given her enough information to give their resistance a fighting chance. It's later revealed to be Lex Luthor.
• Monster Threat Expiration: Downplayed with Paradooms, because they never stop being a threat, but they are less deadly later on to the point that even normal humans can survive fights against them, thanks to kyrptonite weapons (Or even without them).
• Mythology Gag:
  • Superman preventing Raven from committing suicide, then comforting her during what is almost certainly the darkest hour for both of them is a direct reference to All-Star Superman. In the comic, Superman also prevents a young goth girl from committing suicide, even while he was dying from overdoses of solar radiation.
  • Batman sitting in the Mobius Chair references the "Darkseid War" arc of Justice League, in which each of the League becomes one of the New Gods in question.
  • Harley Quinn briefly uses a pair of electric knuckle-dusters just like the pair Batman once used in front of her.
  • Darkseid trapping Trigon in a sphere made by his Omega Beams is what he also did to Cyborg-Superman (Hank Henshaw) in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey when Henshaw tried to invade and seize control of Apokolips from Darkseid.
  • The Reapers are reminiscent of the Kryptonian World Engine, which would also have eliminated life on Earth.
  • Superman's physical appearance after Darkseid infuses him with kryptonite was confirmed by James Tucker to make him look like Kell-El/Superman X from Legion of Super Heroes (2006).
  • Raven’s more sickly appearance, more specifically her sunken in cheeks, in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, bears a striking resemblance to how she looked in the issues prior to the Terror of Trigon arc in Teen Titans. Fittingly both are the result of Raven losing control of Trigon and her demonic side.
  • Just like in the 2003 show, Raven becomes White Raven though in this case it was after healing Damian.
• Neck Snap:
  • During the invasion of Oa, Kilowog tries to tackle Darkseid, but the villain nonchalantly grabs him by the neck and snaps it.
  • During the attack on the Earth Reapers, while engaging various Paradooms, Superboy is grabbed and has his neck quickly snapped by one of them.
  • Constantine suffers this at the hands of a Trigon-possessed Superman... although he does get better, somewhat to his irritation.
• Never Trust a Title: Borderline case, as while the movie does feature John Constantine, it really isn't about magic or the Justice League Dark team, but the whole universe. On the other hand, "Dark" is a good way to describe the tone.
• No-Sell: Etrigan is immune to pretty much everything. Swords break on his skin, bullets bounce off, and he's leagues stronger than anything still on Earth. Wonder Woman, however, is strong enough to fight him as an equal and her sword (and his own) can cut his skin.
• Not So Stoic: Batman actually cries over Damian's death.
• Off with His Head!: Bane kills a Paradoom by ripping out its head and spine with his bare hands.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Etrigan is so depressed he doesn't bother to rhyme.
• Pet the Dog: In a rare moment for Trigon, after Raven and Constantine liberate him from the Omega Beam prison that Darkseid had entrapped him with earlier, he makes time in the middle of his fight with Darkseid to tell Raven that freeing him was a wonderful gift and wishes her well. Prior to this, instead of just blasting Superman alongside Darkseid, Trigon seemingly aims intentionally at the latter and tells Superman to fall back (albeit peppering it with a threat). He also finishes his screentime with one last one, when he goes along with the Justice League's plan to kill them both by dragging Darkseid into the black hole Cyborg opens rather than escaping alongside him.
• Pietà Plagiarism: Both Batman and Raven hold Damian in this fashion, after the latter's death for Taking the Bullet meant for his father. He gets better.
• Planetary Core Manipulation: Having successfully conquered Earth, Darkseid implants three machines on the planet's surface in order to harvest the minerals on its core. Groups of surviving heroes attack the devices and ultimately fail to destroy them. By the end of the film, 31% of the planet's core has been lost, and Batman estimates that at least a billion people will die before they can restore the planet to its original orbit.
• Planet Looters: Darkseid has all of Earth's resources stripped bare to help rebuild Apokolips following the failed attack by the Justice League, even using machines to drain the planet's molten core. Though he's stopped, the damage to the planet is irreparable.
• Pokémon Speak: King Shark is only able to say "King Shark is a shark!" During his dying moments he reveals that he was able to speak full sentences the entire time, a fact which iritates Captain Boomerang.
• Portal Cut: One of the Paradooms gets cut in half when Lex activates a force field around himself and the Suicide Squad.
• The Power of Love:
  • Clark is able to break free of Trigon's possession when Lois calls in to tell him she's going to die destroying the Boom Tube on Earth.
  • Robin dies after sustaining severe burns from Darkseid's Omega Beams. However, this triggers Raven's transformation into her white form, whose tears of grief bring the boy back to life.
• Pretender Diss: Trigon acknowledges Darkseid as one of the so-called "New Gods"... and in his next breath dismissively notes that he isn't impressed.
• Precision F-Strike: Raven of all people delivers one in response to hearing how long it’ll take John Constantine to teleport them to Damian’s location, probably making it the first time an animated Raven ever swore on screen.
  John Constantine: Ten hours, give or take. Oh and everyone has to stay still while I-
  Raven: Oh, for fuck’s sake. Azarath Metrion Zinthos!
• Profane Last Words:
  • Captain Boomerang's final words after King Shark tells him "It has been an honor to fight be your side"? An incredulous "Are you shitting me?!"
  • Just before Cyborg boom tubes Apokolips to a null dimension where Darkseid can't escape, he gets out his last words: "Suck it, bitches!"
• Punctuated Pounding: When Superman gets his powers back courtesy of Trigon, after two years of subjugation at Darkseid’s hand and the death of Lois, he kindly makes his grievances with Darkseid known.
  Superman: YOU. TOOK. EVERYTHING. FROM. ME. NOW. I’M GONNA MAKE YOU. PAY!
• Pyrrhic Victory: Darkseid is defeated, but at the cost of half the population of Earth dying, practically all heroes dead, and to make things worse, the Earth has lost so much magma that the chances of humanity surviving are incredibly slim. It's enough for Constantine to convince the Flash to do another Cosmic Retcon, even though he knows what could very well happen.
• Quantity vs. Quality: Although vastly deadlier than the Parademons due to being crossbred with Doomsday's genetic material, being rapidly mass produced in enormous numbers made the Paradooms inferior to the individual Doomsday.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: While there are many characters who join the fight against Darkseid, the main five heroes of this film are: a depowered superhero, a half-demon struggling to contain her father in a gem, an alcoholic British sorcerer who abandoned the heroes during the first fight, the leader of a group of assassins, and a formerly rhyming demon who would prefer to be drinking instead of fighting.
• Rape as Drama: Brainwashed Batman reveals that Talia had drugged him in order to conceive Damian, and tells the boy that he is not his son, but a burden.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: With the Earth doomed, Flash races off to create another flashpoint (something he swore he'd never do again,) in the hope that things will turn out better, or at least be salvageable.
  Barry: Everything will change. Again.
  Constantine: And some of those changes may be shite. And we may make the same mistakes again. It won't be perfect. But it'll be long sight better than what we got now.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Brainwashed evil Batman has glowing red eyes, which go away once he turns on Darkseid.
• Red Shirt Army: All the soldiers working for Lex, to maintain his image that he's obeying Batman and Darkseid.
• Reforged into a Minion: After the disastrous first battle against Apokolips, Batman becomes Darkseid's top advisor, Cyborg becomes the sentient core of Apokolips' computer system and Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Mera and Starfire are converted into a cyborg squad of Furies.
• Remember the New Guy?: Wallace West makes his animated debut here, wearing his New 52 Kid Flash suit. While one might wonder where Wally West is, due to Kid Flash's appearance in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Word of God states that the Kid Flash in that movie was actually a young Barry.
• Reset Button: The Flash goes back in time to change history. He knows that his decision will create a reality that is unrecognizable from the original timeline.
• Riddle for the Ages: At the end of the movie, the Flash changes history by making another Flashpoint. What he changed in the past was never disclosed.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: At Constantine's urging, the Flash goes back in time to ensure that Earth never falls to Darkseid, despite his own apprehensions about possibly causing another disaster similar to the infamous Flashpoint. In the end, we see Flash racing and disappearing into the sunset. His quest to alter the past again is not shown.
• Shout-Out:
  • As typical, Harley Quinn quotes popular culture now and then (specifically quotes that originated from Warner Bros. properties).
  • The design and rotations of the gyroscope that Flash is trapped within are the same as the gyroscopes that form the teleport devices in Contact.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The moment the heroes launch an attack on the North Sea and Great Wall Reapers is accompanied by triumphant music, but the scene also shows the deaths of Steel, Batwoman and Batwing, foreshadowing that their mission is actually ill-fated.
• Stalker Shot: While Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are discussing the invasion plan to take down Darkseid on Apokolips with the Justice League and the Teen Titans, the camera zooms in on Cyborg's cybernetic eye and then the scene cuts to Apokolips where everything Cyborg sees and hears is being transmitted to a monitor that is being watched by Darkseid himself. This is the moment where the Justice League lost the fight before it even started.
• Strength Equals Worthiness: Lois recruits the Suicide Squad to her cause by beating Harley Quinn in an MMA match.
• Strong as They Need to Be: The power of Paradooms tends to vary greatly, even within the same scene. Sometimes they are capable of defeating heavyweights like Shazam, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, while other times they have a hard time beating street-level characters.
• Suddenly Speaking: King Shark's last words reveal he could talk all along. Captain Boomerang is not amused.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Darkseid is an almighty god of tyranny who has already subjugated the world and beaten and degraded all who could feasibly beat him. How to beat someone like that? Constantine breaks Raven's chakra to unleash Trigon, the local Satanic Archetype. Cue Trigon whooping Darkseid's ass in Superman's body, briefly getting imprisoned by the Omega Beams after Clark rejects him, and then Trigon mopping the floor with Darkseid's ass again.
• Taking the Bullet: After Batman breaks free from Darkseid's brainwashing, Darkseid fires the Omega Beams at him. Damian jumps in front of his father, getting burnt until his skin is completely ashen.
• Taking You with Me:
  • Some heroes do this when taking out the Paradooms.
    • When Shazam gets overwhelmed by the Paradooms during their fight on the Earth Reapers, he shouts out one final "Shazam" to kill the ones attacking him.
    • When it's clear that they won't be able to boom tube Superman's team back to Earth with the Paradooms attacking the Lexcorp building and they're getting overwhelmed, Lois and her team decide to blow up the building with them inside to kill all the Paradooms in the area.
  • Raven asks Constantine to kill her if it looks like she won't be able to hold Trigon in any more, which would seal him away permanently. When that moment comes, Constantine looks like he'll oblige, but instead knocks off her gem and frees Trigon's essence himself, so he can get Trigon to fight Darkseid.
  • Trigon does this to Darkseid to prevent his escape, as they are flung into the Boom Tube that Cyborg created to send them and entirety of Apokolips into a dimension from which the former two will never be able to escape. Whether he did this to help the heroes or because he relished the prospect of eternally fighting Darkseid is unknown... although his heartfelt farewell and gesture of gratitude to Raven from earlier might mean it was a bit of both.
• Talking in Bed: The movie begins with Zatanna and John having a conversation in bed at their Watchtower bedroom. At first they're under a Modesty Bedsheet, but it quickly shows that Zatanna is wearing only his shirt and John is wearing his boxers to imply they've been intimate.
• Technicolor Eyes: Superman's eyes become green after Darkseid De Powers him by adding liquid Kryptonite in his veins.
• Time Skip: After the opening, the story jumps two years after the botched invasion against Darkseid.
• Uncertain Doom: Some characters, such as Batwing and Batwoman, aren't clearly shown dying, with their fates only implied. Likewise, we never see Wonder Girl's corpse during the siege on Titans Tower.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Mera and Starfire are converted into grotesque cyborgs by Darkseid as his newest squad of Furies.
• Unwitting Pawn: Darkseid takes advantage of Cyborg's merging with Mother Box technology to spy on the Justice League.
• Villain Respect: While Darkseid turned some of the heroes into his Furies and stripped Superman's powers and let him live with his failure, he respects Batman's skills enough to make him his right-hand man - which is saying something considering he has no superpowers.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Whenever Damian gets hurt, Raven will unleash her demonic side to save him. When Luthor threw Damian against a pillar, she easily ripped apart Luthor's mech suit and would have crushed him to death had Superman not stopped her.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Raven vomits after the second time she teleports the group, as the first had already taken a lot out of her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Even with such a massive cast of characters (even only cameos) from all previous DC Animated Movie Universe installments the absences without explanation or mentions of Deadshot, Steve Trevor, Catwoman, the Amazons, and the Atlanteans stand out the most.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Damian, now running the League of Assassins, is only prevented from killing Superman on the spot by Raven. He then proceeds to lecture Superman on how his mistakes cost him his family and teammates.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Etrigan spends most of the movie both depressed and bored out of his skull because everything and everyone he fights poses absolutely no threat to him. He's ecstatic when he gets the chance to fight Wonder Woman, because she can actually kill him. Notably, when she does, he finally rhymes again, noting that it is finally done, his race is run... and it was fun.
  • Trigon considers Darkseid beneath him, perhaps not unjustifiably so, yet the fact that Darkseid can fight him at all is enough for Trigon to sincerely want to battle him to see who is superior. He even thanks Raven for freeing him to do so.
• Your Size May Vary: Darkseid is now inexplicably human-sized, allowing him and Superman to have a one-on-one battle. In the first film he was roughly 15 feet, with Superman being about as tall as his waist.
• Zerg Rush: If one Paradoom isn't enough to take down one powerful hero, then a group of them will do the trick.

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