The Flash: How I Hope It Really Ended
I loved the movie, but there is a legal and thematic aspect that could have been handled much, much better
I loved the Flash movie and was not planning on writing anything about it, but there is a legal and thematic aspect that I think could have been handled much, much better.
Spoilers below!
Barry Allen wants to save his mother, who was killed in a random home robbery, and free his father, who was wrongfully convicted for the murder. He thinks he can accomplish both things by travelling back in time, only to learn that this has ripple effects in the timeline that lead to global catastrophe. He ultimately accepts that he cannot save his mother but makes what appears to be a small change in the past to at least free his father in the present day.
Barry then meets the new timeline’s Bruce Wayne in what was probably intended as a fun Easter Egg but was very problematic for me and my family.
First, this undercuts the movie’s theme, which is that Barry has to accept his scars and resist changing the past.
Second, there was an easier way that Barry could have freed his father and that would have been more in keeping with what Barry can do as the Flash.
To save his father, Barry re-arranges tomato cans so that his father’s face can be clearly seen in a store’s surveillance footage at the time of the attack, thus providing corroboration for his father's alibi. The problem is that this change probably would have changed the course of Barry's life significantly.
When Barry’s father denied murdering his wife, police (or a good defense lawyer) would have requested the store’s surveillance footage and confirmed Barry’s father’s alibi. Barry’s father probably would not have been charged with murder or would have had a much better chance of being acquitted at trial. Barry would have grown up with his father and would not have been as motivated to become a police forensic scientist, and thus he would have been less likely to become the Flash, potentially dooming the world.
A better way to end the movie - legally and thematically - would have been for Barry to use his powers to do something that I would love to do in many of my cases.
In real life, many investigations hinge on reconstructing the past with limited information. I often remind witnesses that they were there, not me, and that’s why it’s so important for me to get their best recollections. Here, only two people know what really happened - Barry’s mother, who is dead, and her killer, who has no incentive to come forward. In real life, investigators have to figure things out as best as they can and sometimes get things wrong because they cannot go back in time.
But Barry can. Barry could have gone back to the murder, filmed the murder from a hiding spot, and come back to the present with clear proof as to what happened. This would have been heartbreaking, but it would not change the timeline and would allow him to come forward with evidence that would clear his father and finally catch the real killer.
And that is what I hope Barry did after the last scene of the movie and before the post-credits sequence.
I hope Barry would have realized that he had again irresponsibly changed the timeline in ways that he did not understand. I think he then would have gone back in time to the moment after he moved the tomato cans and moved them back, thus restoring the original timeline. He then hid in a corner of the house, filmed the murder, and left when the robber left. He then returned to the present and cleared his father by providing proof at the appellate hearing, which likely would have involved testifying and revealing his secret identity.
Timeline restored, happy ending, and Barry moves forward with a new career blending his superpowers and forensic analysis skills to solve old cases that can be solved without him breaking the timeline.
But that’s just what I think!
About the Author: I was a federal prosecutor for 11 years and am now a solo practitioner focusing on health care fraud and data analytics. I have long been interested in how legal issues are depicted in popular culture and created a website in the 2000s that reverse-engineered TV shows like the West Wing and Law & Order.