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Everything you know will change in a flash...again...

"No matter how fast you run, you can't save everyone. Not the ones who matter to you."
Professor Zoom

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is a movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line and an adaptation of Flashpoint (DC Comics). Voice actors include Justin Chambers (Grey's Anatomy) as the Flash, Kevin McKidd (Rome) as Flashpoint!Batman, C. Thomas Howell (Criminal Minds) as Professor Zoom, Michael B. Jordan (Creed) as Cyborg, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) as Aquaman, Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Sam Lane, and Sam Daly stepping into his dad's shoes as Superman. It also features the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan, Dana Delany as Lois Lane, Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman, and Ron Perlman as Deathstroke.

The film follows Barry Allen has he finds himself trapped in a strange new version of the DC universe he knows - one where Themyscira and Atlantis are on the brink of war and new, darker versions of his fellow Justice Leaguers exist. Teaming up with a grittier Batman, Barry must avert the war and figure out what happened to his world.

The end of the movie also kicked off the DC Animated Movie Universe.

The film was released on July 30, 2013.


Provides examples of:

  • Achilles' Heel: Captain Thunder reverts to a group of powerless children whenever he says "Shazam". Wonder Woman has a lasso that forces people to answer her questions truthfully. During their battle, she binds him and forces him to say the magical word, after which she easily assassinates one of his components.
  • Adaptation Distillation: When the Flash flashes back to a Justice League fight against Starro, Cyborg is included in the League roster despite never participating in a League battle against Starro in the comics. His inclusion in this version of the fight instead of Martian Manhunter prevents questions related to the absence of a character otherwise irrelevant to this film.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Martha Kent is blonde rather than a redhead. Her hair varies Depending on the Artist, but in the original comic, her hair is black.
  • Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The film ends just like the original comic, with the Flash rebooting history into the New 52 timeline. However, the movie omits how this is possible, since in the original comic, this was caused by Pandora tricking the Flash into merging The DCU with the Vertigo and WildStorm universes. Both Pandora and the merger sequence ended up Adapted Out, so there's no explanation given as to why Flash and Batman suddenly have new costumes at the end of the film, besides the implied possibility of For Want Of A Nail.
  • Adaptation Title Change: Was retitled from Flashpoint.
  • Adaptational Badass: Yo-Yo. In the original comic, she is just shown running away from Batman and panicking. Here, she not only gets a very elaborately choreographed fight scene (where she matches Batman move-for-move), but when she loses she keeps her composure for a lot longer despite Batman's threats.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Some characters are more heroic because their stories from the comics are cut down. Citizen Cold is never seen murdering anyone, and Ocean Master wasn't responsible for the war. Also, Slade Wilson/Deathstroke and Lex Luthor (who died at age 10 in the comics), along the entire crew of the Ravager, are trying to stop Aquaman's weapon instead of looking for Slade's daughter.
    • Flashpoint Captain Atom. In the comics, General Nathaniel Adam never went through with the Dilustel experiment and is the devious and harsh director of "Project Six".
  • Adaptational Villainy: Both Flashpoint Aquaman and Wonder Woman, enough to disgust their comic counterparts if anything. Instead of being manipulated into war, the conflict started because Aquaman and Wonder Woman had an affair. When Mera attacked Wonder Woman, the Amazon murdered the Atlantean, mailed her head to her husband and kept her crown as a trophy. There's no indication that Wonder Woman even feels regret over the scale of the destruction and she implies that once Aquaman is dead, she'll begin a genocide against the men of Atlantis.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The final scene in the restored timeline shows Barry in a very different outfit (with apparent Tron Lines) than in the opening sequence (Batman's costume appears matte black versus a dark blue in the beginning). In the original comic this was a jumping point for the New 52 as a Close-Enough Timeline, explaining such changes, but the fact this new timeline isn't exactly the same is otherwise ignored in the film.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Henry Allen, Barry Allen's father. In the comics, Zoom went back in time, killed Barry's mother Nora, and framed Henry for it. This motivates Barry to become a forensics scientist, since he wants to find evidence to clear his father's name and catch the real killer. In this film however, Henry is completely missing and Nora was killed by a random burglar. Zoom's involvement in her death is hinted, but left vague at best.
    • Pandora and the universe merger were written out.
    • Tawny. Apparently giving the S.H.A.Z.A.M. kids a freaking pet tiger was deemed too random and/or awesome.
    • Element Woman and Enchantress played pivotal parts in the comic, with the former helping the heroes after failing to acquire Superman, and the latter being the reason Captain Marvel became weakened, by turning on her allies). Neither of them show up.
    • Other characters from the original comic event who are dropped from the animated film adaptation include Bart Allen, Wally West, Booster Gold and the Flashpoint timeline's counterparts to several characters who weren't that important to the main plot, such as Plastic Man, the Outsider and Traci 13.
  • The Alcoholic: Thomas Wayne/Flashpoint Batman. His Batplane even has a bar aboard.
  • All Your Powers Combined: The Shazam! of the Flashpoint universe is actually a combination of six powerless kids and when they call out "Shazam" they merge into the one superbeing called Captain Thunder.
  • Androcles' Lion: Flashpoint Kal-El is saved from the American government by Cyborg and attempts to return the favour during the final battle, but it's too late and Cyborg dies from his wounds.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Aquaman loses an arm to Superman when he tries to kill Cyborg.
  • Arch-Enemy: Professor Zoom to Flash and Thomas Wayne once they realize he is the one person preventing Barry from correcting the timeline. Also, Flashpoint Wonder Woman and Aquaman are this to each other.
  • Arc Words: In the opening scene, Barry Allen's mother teaches him a variant of the Serenity Prayer (here bowdlerized to remove reference to God). Of course, Barry's always had trouble with this particular lesson, as he tries to change the past despite lacking experience with time travel, thus kickstarting the film's plot.
  • Asshole Victim: FP Batman kills Professor Zoom, but the latter allowed the destruction of the world to happen, knowing that it'll hurt Flash.
  • As You Know: Cyborg explaining the war that's going on to Batman.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight with Aquaman and Wonder Woman, both monarchs of their respective kingdoms.
  • Badass Normal: Several characters, including Flashpoint Batman/Thomas Wayne, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Hal Jordan and Grifter are powerless humans fighting in a war between a demigoddess and a superhuman.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: Batman's Guns Akimbo is an Establishing Character Moment and one of the first indications that something is very off in the FP universe.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Batman doesn't take kindly to mentions of his dead son Bruce Wayne. He breaks one of Barry's fingers and threatens to get out his surgical tools if Barry mentions him again.
    • Aquaman delivers a violent punch to Orm when the latter mentions Mera's name, warning him to never speak of his dead wife again.
  • Berserker Tears: Wonder Woman cries as she executes Aquaman.
  • Big Bad: Professor Zoom is responsible for the timeline shift. While he didn't directly cause it, his taunts are responsible for Barry's actions that did, and he himself is preventing Barry from fixing the timeline and enabling the crisis to reach its logical conclusion.
  • Blatant Lies: Batman's excuse as to why Yo-Yo nearly fell to her death.
    FP Batman: She slipped.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: By far one of the darkest and most violent DC Universe Animated Original Movies along with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. Surprisingly enough it was this even to its source material when it came to the graphic nature of the characters' deaths.
  • Bloody Smile: The Flash reaches an Alternate Universe where it's Bruce Wayne who's shot instead of his parents. In the subsequent flashback, Martha Wayne is shown cradling her son's corpse while holding a hand over her mouth, and then suddenly suffers Sanity Slippage as she starts cackling away with a bloodied smile around her cheeks.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Flashpoint Batman kills Professor Zoom with a single bullet that leaves a grotesque hole in the villain's forehead.
  • Body Horror:
    • Flash's first attempt at getting his powers back results in him suffering third-degree burns. Though most of his body is covered in bandages afterwards, the viewer can still see the wounds around his eyes and lips.
    • Flashpoint Superman is nothing but skin and bones from the lack of sunlight, and severely malnourished.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Alternate Iris's daughter tells Iris about her day: She went to lunch with dad, ate chicken wings, told him about the invasion drill they had...
  • Breaking Speech: Professor Zoom, being the terrifyingly smart sociopath he is, holds a postdoctorate in this. He gives Barry two throughout the film. The second one is particularly devastating.
  • Bullet Time: When Barry gets his powers back, he perceives the entire world slowing down. And in the finale, there are shots of the other warriors slowing down when the two Flashes engage in combat.
  • Butterfly of Doom: Professor Zoom did something to history to get the world to turn out how it did. Flash's objective is to find out what and Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Subverted in that it turns out it was Flash himself who messed up history, just by saving his mother.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Celibate Hero: Barry in the alternate timeline is implied to have never pursued romance, to the point his own mother believes him to be a closeted homosexual.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The gun that was used to murder Bruce Wayne is on display in FP Batman's Batcave. It's the one he later uses to kill Professor Zoom.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: when Cyborg tries to recruit Batman, there is a mention of Captain Atom going missing after trying to get into the war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman. A captive Captain Atom is actually Aquaman's WMD.
  • Close-Enough Timeline: Even though Barry stops himself from screwing up history, his altered costume suggest that the timeline is still slightly different. But since the world is not a war-torn hellhole, he doesn't seem to mind. In the comics, this serves as the beginning of the New 52 timeline, which the film doesn't get into.
  • Coax Them Out of the Closet: Played with. The film takes place in an alternate timeline where Barry Allen is implied to be celibate. When he tries to tell his mother about his secret identity as The Flash, she interrupts him and encourages him to come out of the closet, saying that she will always love him no matter what.
  • Co-Dragons: Ocean Master and Black Manta are the biggest powerhouses in Flashpoint Aquaman's army and are seen accompanying him at all times.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Even if you have no foreknowledge of the cast, from the very instant he appears, you know Professor Zoom's a bad guy, what with his costume inverting Flash's colors and his black-and-red eyes.
  • Composite Character:
  • Continuity Cameo: The naked corpse seen in a tube at the research facility Superman's counterpart is held in is identified in the audio commentary as the Flashpoint timeline's equivalent to Bizarro.
  • Crapsack World: In the Flashpoint timeline, Atlantis and Themyscira are at war, with humanity caught in the middle. While some are trying to stop it, the vast majority of humanity have accepted their inevitable demise. It's made abundantly clear that the war will lead to the end of the world, and the only solution is to change the timeline.
  • Darker and Edgier: By far one of the grimmest and bloodiest of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies ever released. Most of the film takes place in a dystopian timeline where humanity is mere days away from extinction, with several heroes either dead or turned evil.
  • Darkest Hour: By the time Barry awakens in the alternate timeline, Aquaman and Wonder Woman have already ravaged Europe, countless heroes and anti-villains are dead, Cyborg has failed to form a proper Justice League and everyone has pretty much accepted that the world is about to end.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Despite having "Justice League" in the title, this is really Flash's story with the rest of the League being supporting characters.
  • A Deadly Affair: The main reason the setting is such a Crapsack World is that Aquaman's wife caught him in bed with Wonder Woman. Mera was killed in the ensuing confrontation, and Aquaman declared war on the Amazons.
  • Death by Adaptation:
    • Steve Trevor. In the Flashpoint comics it is implied he was made prisoner by the Amazons. In the movie he is personally strangled by Wonder Woman, his Love Interest in many incarnations.
    • Deathstroke dies in an altercation with Black Manta in Europe. In the comics, Sonar heals him, but here, he dies instantly.
    • Aquagirl shows up as part of Aquaman's army, and ends up killed during the final battle. She wasn't even present in the original story.
    • Abin Sur's corpse is shown to be in custody of the U.S. government, when in the original comic event Abin Sur's counterpart in the Flashpoint timeline was still alive as a member of the Green Lantern Corps and only underwent a brief death before being revived as a White Lantern by the Life Entity.
  • Death of a Child:
    • Young Bruce Wayne is seen dead and with blood dripping from his mouth in one flashback.
    • Billy Batson is killed in a Gory Discretion Shot by Wonder Woman in the climactic battle.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Flashpoint Joker/Martha Wayne does not feature apart from a mention and Flashpoint Batman's flashback to Bruce's death.
    • Deathstroke's pirate crew and the Resistance are reduced to brief appearances and get killed not long after making their appearances, when the original comic event took the time to flesh them out before they met their ends.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Thomas Wayne is implied to have crossed this with his son's death and his wife becoming the Joker. He has little interest in the war that is ravaging the world, being driven solely by his desire to locate his insane ex-wife.
  • Determinator:
    • Barry's first attempt to get his superspeed back results in him being covered with third-degree burns. He bandages up and does it again.
    • Flashpoint Aquaman. He receives a beatdown from Flash, has acid doused on his eyes by Batman, is blasted several times by Cyborg and is swallowed by Cerberus, but just refuses to go down. It takes Superman amputating his arm for him to start showing signs of fatigue, and even then he manages to be stabbed twice by Wonder Woman before finally dying.
  • Died on Their Birthday: Nora Allen, mother of The Flash, is killed on her own birthday.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation:
    • Lex Luthor in the original Flashpoint storyline had his counterpart in the Flashpoint timeline die as a child when his father ruthlessly let him get mauled to death by the timeline's equivalent to Krypto. In the animated film, he instead lives to adulthood and assists Deathstroke's pirate crew before Aquaman kills him.
    • Clayface dies from being blown apart by Ocean Master using hydrokinesis on him, whereas the comic storyline had him killed by Aquaman forcing him into the water until he falls apart.
    • Zoom gets killed by Thomas Wayne all the same but in the movie, Zoom gets a hole blown through his head whereas in the comics, Thomas Wayne stabs him through the chest from behind.
  • Dies Wide Open: Billy Batson drops to the ground after being gutted by Diana, with his lifeless eyes staring directly at the screen.
  • Disappeared Dad: Flash's father is never mentioned, nor is the canon explanation that he took the blame for the murder of Barry's mother and was imprisoned for it.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Post-Flashpoint Batman and the Flash are simply the pre-Flashpoint versions of the characters in New 52-based costumes with Batman having a visible upper lip and Flash sporting Tron Lines on his suit rather than the designs used in the other DCAMU installments.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Kevin Conroy and Justin Chambers voiced the post-Flashpoint versions of Batman and the Flash at the end in addition to the pre-Flashpoint incarnations. In the characters' other DCAMU appearances, Batman is voiced by Jason O'Mara and Flash by Christopher Gorham.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Deathstroke, a professional mercenary and assassin, is visibly shaken by the graveyard of ships he and his crew encounter while searching for Aquaman's WMD.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: Even before Aquaman's WMD goes off and destroys the entire Earth, pretty much every notable character in the Flashpoint universe is dead.
  • Evil Is Petty:
    • Professor Zoom is deliberately preventing Flash from fixing history, leading to global devastation and the extinction of humanity, just so he can see the Flash in distress.
    • Aquaman and Woman Woman started the war largely over an affair and Diana beheading a vindictive Mera. Lois calls them out on it, telling them that if they continue, there won't be a world for any of them. Aquaman coldly responds that "surface dwellers" don't belong in this world, and attacks her.
  • Evil Overlord: Flashpoint Aquaman and Wonder Woman are both dictatorial rulers who intend to rid the world from surface dwellers and men, respectively.
  • Expendable Alternate Universe: Anyone Can Die in the Flashpoint Universe because it's not the main universe.
  • Extreme Mêlée Revenge: In a flashback, Thomas Wayne beats Joe Chill to death in retaliation for the death of his son.
  • Eye Lights Out: Cyborg's left eye fades out as he succumbs to his injuries in the final battle.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: In the Flashpoint timeline, the war between Atlantis and the Amazons has reached a the point where most of Europe is in ruins and the war is threatening to envelop the rest of the world as well. Near the end of the movie, Aquaman has rigged a doomsday device in the event he loses. He activates it when he takes a mortal blow, though Barry luckily manages to heal his leg in time to start running and undo the timeline.
  • The Faceless: The face of Nora Allen's killer is obscured by a window when he makes his move near the end of the film.
  • Fantastic Racism: Both Flashpoint Aquaman and Wonder Woman show absolute disdain for everyone who isn't Atlantean or Amazon, respectively.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: The alternate Batman is initially hostile towards Barry but later warms up to him, and eventually no longer gets angry when Bruce is mentioned.
  • First Time in the Sun: Flashpoint Clark Kent comments the sunlight is beautiful, seeing it for the first time after an entire life trapped in a small room being doused with red sun radiation. It makes his heat vision go out of control, however.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Barry saving his mother creates a "time boom" that ever-so-slightly influences events past and present. Bruce Wayne dies instead of his parents, Superman's ship craters Metropolis, and a multitude of other tiny changes snowballs into hell on Earth.
  • Foreshadowing: At the beginning of the film, Thawne makes it perfectly clear that he's ready to die just to hurt and kill Flash. This includes being willing to end the world during the film's climax, just because it'll make Flash's death hurt even more.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look really closely in the scene when Zoom makes his appearance, running by the Rogues, you can see his tiny bombs appearing on Captain Cold and Heatwave exactly at the time he ran past them. He is actually facing the Rogues to plant the bombs rather than facing the Flash.
  • Fusion Dance: The Captain Thunder version of Shazam is actually Billy Batson and his foster siblings combined into a single entity.
  • Gendercide: Flashpoint Wonder Woman speaks of wiping out all the men and implies she intends to enslave all the non-Amazon women. Plus it's mentioned that the Amazon invasion of the UK killed 32 million people... The population of UK is 64 million. Half the population (the male half!) was exterminated! This is only somewhat balanced by the Atlantian's collateral gender-blind genocide.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: Flashpoint Wonder Woman, Queen of the Amazons, and genocidal psychopath to the rest of the world.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: Superman was hidden away by government authorities from crashing into Metropolis instead of being raised by the Kents as a human. He has rudimentary language and social skills, and a childlike ignorance of his powers. He killed soldiers wantonly before being calmed down by the others, and severed Aquaman's arm with his heat vision when he returns in the climax.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: In the Flashpoint timeline, this is what happens to both Thomas and Martha after watching their son die. The former becomes a much grimmer, more violent Batman, while the latter becomes the Joker.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Discussed during the Action Prologue. Barry is Good, since he is a beloved superhero. The Rogues are Bad, since they are described as incompetent criminals driven only by greed. Finally, Thawne is Evil, as he is a diabolical psychopath who plots to devastate Central City purely to spite Barry.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Most of the major injuries are hidden throughout the movie (Black Manta getting shot in the head is blocked by the remains of his helmet, for instance), but several happen offscreen and then the aftermath is plainly visible like Wonder Woman holding up Mera's head after decapitating her. As the movie nears the end a few important ones are shown in very full, grisly detail, culminating in a lingering shot of a bullet hole through someone's brain.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: One of the main reasons for the war and a part of both Wonder Woman's and Mera's motivations when they fought. Even though it was in self-defense on her part, Wonder Woman then beheaded Mera, sent her headless body back to Atlantis, and decided to wear Mera's helmet as a trophy.
  • Hanging Around: The evil version of Wonder Woman from the Bad Future Barry is trapped in kills Steve Trevor by wrapping the Lasso of Truth around his neck and flying up in the air causing it to go taut.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Upon defeat, Aquaman activates his WMD, wiping out everyone in the war so Wonder Woman doesn't win.
  • Heroic Resolve: A badly wounded Barry manages to outrun his past self through sheer determination.
  • Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Invoked, but subverted. Zoom emphasizes to Flash that he could have used his powers to prevent Hitler from leaving art school, yet his "heroic" motive for going back in time, namely saving his own mother's life, was something far more personal and frivolous that still screwed everything up.
  • I Have Many Names: Eobard Thawne is called either his name, Professor Zoom, or Reverse Flash.
  • If I Can't Have You…: Flashpoint Wonder Woman is implied to be trying this through the war since Aquaman rejected her once she killed his wife.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Flash's Rogues. Barry tells to their faces that they are too incompetent to come up with an intelligent plan, and they end up turning to the Justice League to be saved during the film's prologue.
  • Irrevocable Order: Zoom's future-tech bombs are designed so that they cannot be disarmed once they've been activated, as not only does he have no motivation to deactivate them himself, he knows that Wonder Woman could force him to tell her how to disarm them if there were a means to do so.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique:
    • Flashpoint Batman is prone to using it. He threatens to cut off Yo-Yo's tongue if she doesn't give him the information he wants, and later starts breaking Barry Allen's fingers one by one as he questions him in the Batcave.
    • Flashpoint Wonder Woman uses it in her first scene: she sadistically strangles Steve Trevor with the lasso of truth while interrogating him.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Flashpoint Wonder Woman sends Mera's severed head to Aquaman as a "gift", and then wears her helmet as a trophy (though Diana claims she wears it as a "warning").
    • Eobard Thawne's modus operandi. Everything he does is solely motivated by the desire to see Barry suffer, including allowing the end of the world to happen.
  • Killer Yo-Yo: Flashpoint villain Yo-Yo, an Expy of Harley Quinn, fights by using a pair of yo-yos as flails. She is also seen using the strings to strangle her opponent.
  • Laughing Mad: In Flashpoint Joker's only scene, she starts laughing uncontrollably after going insane from seeing her son die in her arms.
  • Living Battery: Aquaman's doomsday weapon is revealed to be powered by Captain Atom.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Martha Wayne, after the death of her beloved son Bruce, becomes the Joker of this timeline.
  • Love Makes You Evil: The war between Atlantis and Themyscira was the result of a love triangle between Aquaman, Mera and Wonder Woman. When the Amazon kills the Queen of Atlantis, a heartbroken Aquaman responds by declaring war on the entire surface world.
  • Love Triangle: In the Flashpoint timeline, Aquaman has a romantic encounter with Wonder Woman which Mera witnesses. Enraged by her husband's infidelity, Mera attacks the Amazon, who kills her in self-defense. The conflict is prolonged during the Atlantean-Amazon War, with Aquaman saying he cannot believe he fell for Diana's charms, while the latter tells him he has never truly loved her.
  • Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Flash believes Professor Zoom has travelled back in time to reshape the timeline into the hellish one he is experiencing now. Subverted in that Flash himself is the one responsible for it, as he accidentally changed the entire reality when he went back in time to save his mom.
  • Making a Splash: Mera, Tempest and Aqualad fight by manipulating water, either by firing high-pressure blasts at their opponents or by creating icy weapons.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Thawne (doubling as The Chessmaster) is willing to do anything and exploit anyone to make Flash suffer. The first instance of this is the opening scene in which he leads a handful of Flash's Rogues Gallery into the Flash Museum as a distraction to set up a handful of bombs meant to raze a portion of the city to the ground. And when he's thwarted anyway, he makes sure to take a moment to take a jab at the Flash.
    Thawne: No matter how fast you run, you can't save everyone.
  • Mêlée à Trois: The final battle. The Atlanteans vs. the Amazons, with Grifter's resistance and Cyborg's team fighting both sides.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Flash's mother's first reaction to her son wanting to confess a secret was to ask if he was gay.
  • Mood Whiplash: When bound by the lasso of truth, Steve Trevor's description of Lois Lane somewhat humorously includes "one of the most beautiful women I've ever met", and Wonder Woman replies with "Until now, you mean." Then she strangles him. Graphically.
  • Mutual Kill: Grifter and an Amazonian Warrior pull a Boom, Headshot! on each other, him with his gun, her with a bow-and-arrow.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Being exposed to sunlight for the first time causes Flashpoint Superman to accidentally incinerate several soldiers with his heat vision. Horrified at what happened, he flies off into space.
    • Injured and walking through streets filled with corpses, Flashpoint Aquaman shows signs of regret at how much death the war has caused. Unfortunately, he is stabbed In the Back by Wonder Woman before he can call off the conflict.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Aqualad/Kaldur'ahm, Tempest/Garth and Aquagirl/Tula are among Aquaman's forces, even with the same basic designs and weapons of Young Justice.
    • Flashpoint Batman flat out calls the group Cyborg is putting together a Suicide Squad.
    • Flash first starts realizing he's in an alternate universe when he hears about the Elongated Kid (as opposed to Miss Alchemy in the comic), a superhero he's never heard of, being murdered. In the DCU that took place in the pre-Flashpoint continuity in the comics leading up to the event (Thawne did it).
    • Hal Jordan tells Aquaman's forces to "Beware my power, asshole!"
  • Never Trust a Trailer: A lot of the trailer is very misleading.
    • "No matter how fast you run, you can't save everyone." is accompanied by a scene of Wonder Woman looking fierce and pointing a futuristic gun at someone. Turns out she's trying to use Captain Cold's freeze gun to disarm a bomb.
    • "World War Three. Maybe I could have stopped it. If I just run a little faster. Faster!" These lines are combined from multiple scenes. The middle sentence refers to normal kid Barry regarding his mother's death - but at the end of the film he had to catch up with his also superspeeding past self to stop him from saving his own mother.
    • Zoom is shown clicking a detonator followed by an explosion, then Flashpoint Batman shielding himself from blinding light - it is actually Wonder Woman throwing the bomb into the sky where it can't cause damage. The last scene is completely unrelated.
    • "War's over. Everybody lost." "No!" had another huge explosion - another explosion high up and didn't cause damage.
    • "You'll be amazed the monsters this world can create" - spoken by Flashpoint Batman, shown with normal Batman and Flash. Flash is shown running into the distance followed by an ominous flash of lightning, and the line brings Clock Roaches and other Eldritch Abominations to mind but it is not a climax scene, Flash is just running away to clear his head (at that time everything was still normal).
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Zoom eventually reveals that Barry broke the time stream when he saved his mother from dying at the hands of (apparently) Zoom in the past. So, basically all the disasters of this timeline are Barry's fault.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The President in the Flashpoint timeline bears more than a passing resemblance to Barack Obama.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
    • The final battle between Barry and Professor Zoom. They are evenly matched, however, Zoom impales Barry on one of his legs, in the process limiting Barry's Super-Speed; this leaves the Flash an easy picking for Zoom.
    • Aquaman vs. Cyborg. Though the latter manages to land several blows, it's quite clear that he is hopelessly outmatched, as the king of Atlantis shrugs them off and keeps coming after him. Aquaman eventually manages to destroy his arm cannon and proceeds to pummel Cyborg to death.
  • No-Sell: Main universe's Superman disposes of one of Zoom's bombs by containing the blast between his hands. Flashpoint Superman catches an exploding missile without flinching.
  • Not Afraid to Die: Professor Zoom has no self-preservation instinct, or at least not much of one. When Barry tries to trap him in the Flash Museum with Barry and the Rogues, relying on his pragmatism to disable the bombs he activated, Thawne just shrugs, content to be blown up along with them if it means Barry's legacy is still damaged. Likewise, in the Bad Future, he's entirely willing to be destroyed along with the rest of the world as long as Barry is too.
  • Off with His Head!: Wonder Woman beheads Mera.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Whilst, the consequences were exceptionally tragic it is implied that one hell of a fight occurred between Flashpoint Wonder Woman and Mera. It starts with Mera attacking Diana in her room, who is sharpening her sword. Mera controls the water from a nearby fountain to use as a weapon, whilst Diana charges with her sword...and when the scene cuts back, the entire room has been wrecked, with some of it being on fire, whilst Diana's bloody sword lies on the ground, with her holding Mera's decapitated head and taking her crown.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Flashpoint Aquaman wishes to rid the world of all "surface dwellers", while Wonder Woman intends to do the same to the male population. Aquaman's doomsday weapon nearly destroys the entire planet before Flash goes back in time to prevent that timeline from coming into existence.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: In this version, it was Bruce who got shot, not Thomas, while Martha went insane upon seeing her son die and became The Joker. In other words, he lost his son and, mentally speaking, his wife.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Flash has to outrun an Earth-destroying nuclear explosion generated by Aquaman overloading Captain Atom in order to travel back in time.
  • Palette Swap: The reporter that reports on Captain Boomerang is basically a palette swap of Cat Grant's model used in Young Justice (2010).
  • Parental Abandonment: In the original timeline, Barry's mother was murdered when he was a child; and his father is never seen.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Both Amazons and Atlanteans are portrayed in this way, and it's part of the Revenge Before Reason's mentality of Flashpoint Aquaman and Wonder Woman.
  • Psychotic Smirk: Flashpoint Wonder Woman when she personally hangs Steve Trevor, ironically her Love Interest in other iterations.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Flashpoint Batman and Professor Zoom. The former is a Blood Knight, while the latter is a sadistic psychopath.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Thawne mocks Barry for not using his powers to stop Hitler or prevent JFK's assassination.
  • Reset Button: Flash is just barely able to push it as the Flashpoint world is destroyed from Aquaman's Doomsday weapon. Meeting himself in the speed force just in time to stop himself from stopping his mother from being killed.
  • Revenge Before Reason:
    • The war between Flashpoint Aquaman and Wonder Woman started because Mera discovered the two of them were having an affair and she went to attack Wonder Woman over this. It resulted in Wonder Woman killing Mera by beheading her with a sword and keeping her crown as a trophy. She then sends her corpse back to a furious and grieving Aquaman. Cue war.
    • Professor Zoom hates Flash so much that he's willing to see the entire world suffer as a consequence.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Subverted. At first, Flash does remember the old timeline. However, the longer he stays in the new one, the more his memories are altered to fit. Combined with the coming apocalypse, this makes fixing things as fast as possible even more pressing.
  • Rock Beats Laser: The Atlanteans march into war with advanced, high-tech armor, laser weapons, and tanks. The Amazons bring a few creatures from Greek Mythology, simple bows and arrows, and hand-to-hand combat. Both sides are relatively equally matched.
  • Rugged Scar:
    • Both Aquaman and Aqualad have a scar across the bridge of their noses.
    • Captain Thunder (Flashpoint Captain Marvel) has a bunch of scars over both his eyes, which are implied to be the result of a previous confrontation against Wonder Woman.
  • Samaritan Syndrome: Once Barry gets his powers back he starts trying to stop the war. Batman notes that if he fixes the timeline he wouldn't have to get involved. Mitigated by the fact his ability to time travel is hampered with another speedster tapping into the speed force and Zoom deliberately lures Barry to Britain believing he was there so that he could see first hand the utter hell this timeline is.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What Flash has to do. Subverted because he does NOT know what caused the timeline to change in the first place. He presumes Thawne has something to do with it, but ultimately finds out that he altered reality himself when he decided to use the Speed Force to save his own mother.
  • Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: After seeing how badly his decision affected the world, Barry resolves to go back in time and stop himself from saving his mother, resulting in a Close-Enough Timeline.
  • Sinister Suffocation: The alternate version of Wonder Woman makes her introduction by ensnaring Steve Trevor's neck in her lasso and slowly flying upwards to hang him. The scene establishes her as a cold-blooded and ruthless tyrant, unlike her heroic counterpart from the original timeline.
  • The Sociopath: Professor Zoom, as lampshaded by Batman, is an insane psychopath who is willing to destroy the entire Earth and even himself if it means Barry will suffer.
  • Small Steps Hero: As Professor Zoom points out, Barry didn't make sure Hitler stayed in art school or tried to stop JFK's assassination, he saved his mother.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Subverted with Lex Luthor. In the Flashpoint comics he was killed at age 10, but in the movie he is still alive in his adulthood and is a member of the crew of the Ravager. However, he has barely five minutes of screentime before being captured and executed by Flashpoint Aquaman.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye:
    • Flash does one to Flashpoint Batman, who promptly lampshades this fact:
      Batman: So I'm finally on the other end of that trick.
    • Flashpoint Batman does it himself during the final battle, after being mortally wounded.
  • The Stinger: In a teaser for Justice League: War, a boom tube opens and an army of Parademons fly out.
  • Stopped Reading Too Soon: When Barry wakes up after preventing himself from interfering with the timeline, he initially sees a "World Faces Armageddon" headline, implying that he failed. As he gets fully awake, the headline is revealed to be "Warning: World Faces Budget Armageddon".
  • The Strategist: Batman is claimed to be the best in the world. So much so that everyone seems to believe that without him, there is 0% chance of stopping the war.
  • Straw Feminist: Flashpoint Wonder Woman fully believes that all the problems of the world are caused by men. This being the same woman who killed 32 million people in her siege and started a war solely because she wanted Aquaman.
  • Stripperiffic: Mera's outfit is little more than a bikini.
  • Suicide Attack: Hal Jordan does one on Abin Sur's ship. Aquaman successfully blocks it by summoning a colossal sea serpent to swallow the ship.
  • Suicide Mission: Pretty much everyone thinks getting involved in Aquaman and Wonder Woman's war is this. Batman even flat-out calls the group Cyborg is putting together a Suicide Squad.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Barry and Flashpoint Batman's first attempt at recreating Barry's Superhero Origin (i.e. a chemical dousing and lightning strike). It is set up to work the first time as it is how The Flash got his powers originally, and The Flash is the only one who knows about his timeline and expects it to work because of that. The music builds up until he gets struck by lightning and doused with chemicals. Then he immediately becomes engulfed in flames, getting full-body third-degree burns in the process. The second attempt succeeds, thankfully.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Thawne condescendingly and joyfully rips into Barry by pointing out the hero could have used his powers to prevent JFK's assassination or Hitler's rise to power, but instead chose to save his own mother and accidentally shattered history, turning the world into a living hell moments away from destruction. Zoom caps off his speech by sarcastically asking who the real villain is.
  • Taking You with Me: Flashpoint Wonder Woman and her Amazons end up defeating Flashpoint Aquaman and his Atlantean army. Rather than let her taste victory, however, Flashpoint Aquaman activates his doomsday weapon, which would kill them all and destroy the world.
  • Terse Talker: Flashpoint Superman seems to have no problem understanding other people, but speaks monosyllabically, as a result of the miserable life he had been living so far.
  • Time Crash: Invoked by Professor Zoom to explain how Flash going back in time to prevent his mother's death affected events preceding it or completely unrelated, including the location of Kal-El's ship landing.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: It's never quite explained how Flash is able to remember both timelines, and still carries Thomas Wayne's letter at the end. Flash even debates this with Batman at the end.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Flashpoint Batman for the good guys. He is the only hero who has zero qualms about killing and is overall a cynic and very bitter man.
  • Token Good Teammate: Doctor Vulko within the Flashpoint Aquaman's forces. He is horrified by Aquaman's fall from grace and even tries to save Captain Atom, but is too late to prevent the nuclear weapon from going off.
  • Tragic Hero: Flashpoint Captain Atom. In his case, his Fatal Flaws apparently were overconfidence of his powers and impulsiveness in his actions. He eventually becomes the weapon of mass destruction of Emperor Aquaman.
  • Undying Loyalty: With the exception of Doctor Vulko, the rest of the Atlanteans follow Aquaman unquestioningly.
  • Unscrupulous Hero: Flashpoint Batman, though when offered the chance for a timeline where he died in Bruce's place, he takes it.
  • Unskilled, but Strong:
    • Captain Thunder is invulnerable to the point of shattering a sword when Wonder Woman attempts to stab him with it, but his less than refined fighting style nevertheless puts him at a severe disadvantage against the Amazon leader. This culminates in a humiliating defeat when Wonder Woman catches one of his punches and ties him with her lasso of truth, which forces him to say the magic word that reverts him into a group of helpless children.
    • Superman spent his entire life in confinement and has little control over his powers, but a single blast of his heat vision amputates Aquaman's arm, causing the monarch to lose the war.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The Flash's Rogues to Professor Zoom. Eobard fully intended to have them perish along with Barry.
  • Villain Has a Point: In the worst way. Zoom's Evil Gloating stings all the harder for Barry because he can't deny the truth in his words.
  • Villainous Rescue: Professor Zoom saves Lois Lane just to be sure that a picture gets taken of him that would inevitably fall into Flash's hands.
  • The Voiceless: Tula, Black Manta and many others are here to provide fantastic action scenes, but don't get a single line of dialogue.
  • Wham Line: Thawne's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to a crippled Barry Allen, where he reveals that what truly caused the timeline to change was the hero traveling back in time to save his own mother.
    Thawne: That's the beauty of it. I didn't do anything. You did.
  • Wham Shot: A flashback shows the alternate night in Crime Alley, adding a new layer of horror and tragedy upon it. While Thomas was beating Joe Chill bloody, Martha held Bruce's body to her, sobbing at his death. Her sobbing then turns to broken laughter when she pulls her hand away from her face, leaving a smear of Bruce's blood on her face in the loose shape of a smile. It implies that not only was Batman born that night, but the Joker as well.
  • World's Strongest Man: Flashpoint Superman is an illustration of why Supes is this. He is mentally and physically broken by all the abuse he was subjected to, just a shadow of what Clark Kent was. He doesn't know how to fight - or how to hold back. So after just a day out of captivity, one burst of his eyebeams takes off Aquaman's arm - and Aquaman here was not even scratched by everything that the good guys threw at him previously.
  • Worth It:
    • Professor Zoom's main goal is to have Flash die in misery. He doesn't mind if he has to die, too.
      Professor Zoom: As you say in this era, "Totally worth it."
    • Also Flashpoint Batman, who believes if his son Bruce is the one to survive the night in the alleyway, then he and his wife dying is worth it.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Wonder Woman personally kills Billy Batson, who in this timeline is one of the Shazam Kids.
    • Joe Chill killed the young Bruce Wayne in the Flashpoint timeline.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Well, you technically can, but doing so will cause ripples of distortion to drastically alter the timeline from the point you changed, with potentially fatal consequences for the rest of the world.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Flashpoint, The Flashpoint Paradox

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Captured Superman

In the Flashpoint universe, Kal-El is caught by the government as a baby and kept weak under red sun rays. But when the other heroes find him, he gets to strut in the sun.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (7 votes)

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Main / CapturedSuperEntity

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