‘Snyder Cut’: Barry’s Time Travel and All Other Endings Explained

After much anticipation, Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally hit our screens this past week.

The wait for this movie has been a long one, and the 4-hour extravaganza definitely made it worth it. It was jam-packed with many different themes, including grief, loss, friendship, unity, teamwork, and, of course, impending disaster.

Considering there are six Justice League members with their own respective stories, and the threat from Apokolips has only been temporarily neutralized, there were several different endings in the movie. Let’s explore what each of them means.

1. Barry Allen/Flash’s Time Travel and How It Saved the World

In the sixth chapter, “Something Darker”, we see the Justice League’s final struggle to prevent The Unity of Mother Boxes from synchronizing and creating an explosion of massive proportions.

The League decides that Cyborg/Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) will connect himself to the Mother Boxes. Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) will then run at an extremely high speed to generate a giant electrical charge that will enable Victor to destroy The Unity.

Unfortunately, the charge is interrupted by a parademon at a crucial moment, and the Unity synchronizes. The worst-case scenario becomes a reality—a gigantic explosion occurs and swallows up all the Justice League members besides Barry.

At this point, Barry is faced with immense pressure: he is the only one who can reverse what just happened. Earlier in the film, when he describes his abilities to Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), Barry mentions that he has to ensure he doesn’t surpass the speed of light while running, as this does “weird things” to time. It is now up to him to break this rule.

When he runs faster than the speed of light, Barry can reverse time. This is the first time we see him demonstrate this ability in the DCEU. As he zips by at over 300,000 meters per second, Barry manages to reverse what just happened in the last few seconds—he undoes the explosion and effectively brings the rest of the Justice League back from the dead.

Now that we’ve seen Barry travel back in time and change events, it seems pretty plausible that the 2022 solo Barry Allen movie, Flashpoint, will involve time travel as well. Speculation suggests that Barry will travel back in time to prevent his mother from getting murdered, and his father will get wrongfully imprisoned for the crime. This would have a ripple effect and create an alternate timeline where the rest of the Justice League members’ lives and identities are different.

2. What’s next for the Justice League and Its Members?

I Bought the Bank [Ending] | Justice League

The movie ends with Bruce visiting Wayne Manor, which had fallen into disuse, and making plans to use it as the new Justice League headquarters (called Justice Hall in the comics). The movies hint heavily at possible new additions to the League in the future when Bruce and Wonder Woman/Diana (Gal Gadot) agree that there will be “room for more” chairs at the table.

Some of these new members have already been shown to us.

Ryan Choi (Zheng Kai), the now deceased Silas Stone’s right hand man, has been promoted to Director of Nanotechnology at Star Labs. Going by the comics, we already know that Ryan Choi goes on to become the superhero The Atom, who becomes part of the League.

Another one is Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix), who makes a visit to Bruce at the end of the movie. He offers his help to fight Darkseid’s inevitable invasion of Earth, which makes it likely that he might end up in the Justice League.

We were also given a fleeting introduction to one of the Green Lanterns, Kilowog. His dead body is shown during Cyborg’s premonition of the Knightmare timeline, so he presumably joins the fight against Darkseid in the future.

3. Bruce Wayne and His Premonitions of the Knightmare Timeline

Bruce continues to carry out his responsibility to Gotham as Batman while also looking at the world’s larger upcoming needs.

Bruce is tensed for what’s next, as he seems to know that Darkseid will eventually invade Earth himself after his underling Steppenwolf failed at the mission (a scene that is shown to us explicitly). He continues to have premonitions of the Knightmare timeline, where the evil Darkseid rules over a desolate, post-apocalyptic Earth.

In this premonition, we see that Aquaman and Wonder Woman have been killed at the hands of Darkseid, and Batman has joined forces with Cyborg and two unlikely allies—Mera (Amber Heard) and Joker (Jared Leto)—to continue the fight.

We also see that Superman (Henry Cavill) unfortunately seems to have gone over to the dark side (pun intended) after the death of his sweetheart Lois Lane (Amy Adams).

I. Wonder Woman

After having spent a century living among men, Diana seems to be ready to visit her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and the rest of her Amazon sisters. The movie ends with her looking for a way back to Themyscira.

II. Aquaman

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is another Justice League member keen to visit his family after partaking in all the action. The movie ends with him setting off to see his father.

III. Superman

Now that he’s come back to life, Superman goes back to living his old double life as reporter Clark Kent while saving the day as Superman when needed.

IV. Cyborg

After spending much of the movie grieving the loss of his old life and body, Victor finally accepts his new reality, and decides to make the most of it. He goes from dark and brooding to hopeful and optimistic.

V. The Flash

Barry Allen’s (Ezra Miller) life sees significant progress at the end of the movie. He finally lands a legit job at a crime lab and gets his “foot in the door”, as his overjoyed father says.

4. Lex Luthor and Deathstroke’s Plans

Another ending we see is Lex Luthor’s (Jesse Eisenberg) escape from the Arkham Home for the Emotionally Troubled, and what he’s planning next. The multibillionaire supervillain is shown hanging out on a luxury yacht, where Slade Wilson a.k.a Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) visits him.

Deathstroke has a personal grudge against Batman, so he offers his services to Lex for free to help kill him. The two villains then drink a toast to their murderous plan.

If we go by the comics, this could be the start of the Legion of Doom—the villainous organization that can be considered the evil counterpart of the Justice League. Looks like Batman’s list.

5. About Justice League Snyder Cut

Co-produced by Warner Bros. and DC Films, Justice League Snyder Cut is the fifth film of the DC Extended Universe and based on the DC Comics superhero team. As the theatrical release, Zack Snyder’s Justice League features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League follows the Justice League—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—as they attempt to save the world from the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons.

Although fans have asked for Snyderverse to continue Warner Bros has no such plans.