My ideas for The Flash movie:
For starters, let's go with the basics: The Flash is all about speed. Everything about him
literally is about speed and its related forms. His whole life is about speed. That's the premise of the film, and in the age of technology where everyone wants everything instantly, instant communications, etc, speed is an incredibly relevant concept. Barry Allen is slow, The Flash is fast. That is the movie.
Now I know that people like Wally West because he took over for Barry (and acts like a less jerky Anakin Skywalker) and I don't mean any disrespect to the character because frankly, despite my Barry fandom, I
do like Wally too, but The Flash was never supposed to be about a guy trying to fill a dead guy's boots (which is a cool concept, it works for Wally and Bucky and will probably work for Robin, but honestly, what else were they gonna do with those characters?). It was always supposed to be about
speed. That's what the character is supposed to be about, that's what the book was always supposed to be about (which is a fact I think people have forgotten or are just completely oblivious to with Wally and the legacy aspect so prevelant in the last few years), and that's what the movie needs to be about:
the fastest man alive. And that man is Barry Allen.
Barry Allen is not only the only MAJOR DC character to have his powers because of an
accident, but is the only one who has powers because of his one, major
flaw. Hal Jordan has the Green Lantern ring because he is brave and honest, because of his
good character traits. Barry Allen has super speed because he is lazy/late for everything, and by extension uncommited or easily distracted (a classic attribute of the absent minded professor syndrome), he has powers because of his
character flaws.
The whole reason he is a forensics scientist is because he wants to help people, but he also wants to take his time at it - and chemistry takes time to get right. Had he not been late for work/everything else, he would not have had to work late in the forensics lab to make up for lost time the night he got hit by lightning/electrically charged chemicals (at age 24) and gained superspeed. Barry Allen is essentially
fast because he is
slow. He goes from being the guy everyone is waiting on to the guy waiting for everyone else. In a complex sense, this is like how Jon Osterman became Doctor Manhattan in
Watchmen, because he was a watchmaker and could reassemble things. That is what's so great about Barry Allen, it's not his accomplishments, it's not his emoluments, it's not the fact that he was The Flash longer than anyone else, it's not that he's the iconic Flash that makes him the greatest Flash, Barry Allen is the
definitive Flash because he is the only one who is all about
speed.
He is fast because he is slow. He's all about speed.
Characterization:
Barry Allen is 24 years old and has had his job as a forensics scientist for the Central City Police Department for about a year. He is easy-going, optimistic and humorous, intelligent and inventive, and a bit of a law and order type, but he is also lazy and late for everything; he's slow, this is his major character flaw. Been that way all his life. Barry is easily distracted or uncommitted. He has a super hot reporter girlfriend he met in college. She really likes him, and he her, but she is career driven and doesn't like to be kept waiting, which is unfortunate considering who her boyfriend is.
Structure/Story (beginning):
I'd say start the beginning of the film with the actual scene of the accident, with a tall, young, strawberry blonde haired, blue eyed man that we could otherwise care less about getting hit by lightning alone in his lab, we know nothing about him. (This is how someone who doesn't care about characterization may have done The Flash film for all we know) But right before the lightning strikes the man, a centimeter away from his chest, everything, the lightning, the broken glass falling through the air, it all stops. A voice begins to speak. It's Barry Allen (but we don't know that yet). He says something to the effect of "You know that feeling you get right before something happens, usually life threatening, that will change your life forever? That feeling where your whole life
flashes before your eyes? That's what happened to me on the night of the accident. The night my life changed forever". He could say something like that, and then the camera swirls around his body, still paused in mid air with everything else, and travels toward the lightning almost touching his chest, electrified chemicals swirling around it, and the camera climbs up the lightning and out the window, into the night sky, all the way into the storm cloud from which it came and then the credits could begin here and go on for about 2 minutes.
After the credits sequence, we could see a child reading comics in bed. We find that it is Barry when his mother calls into him, asking him to shut off the lights and stop reading comics so he can get to sleep so he can get to school
early tomorrow.
We also find that this is Barry because he is narrating. They could cut to a series of scenes, one showing Barry in school, alone, because he was late again, where he finishes his papers last and gives them to the teacher where he says something like his grades are better than most everyone's in the class, but he's just so slow. Also cut to child running on track, maybe pan up, we are meant to think it is Barry Allen, but it isn't, the camera then drags all the way to the back of the track revealing Barry Allen, the last to cross the finish line. They could do stuff like that, to establish that he's late for everything, even that early in his life.
Also show him in college, getting his degree in forensics and meeting Iris. He is late for his first date with her because he's lazy, he gets distracted doing something else and keeps putting off getting ready to leave. A series of scenes could be done to convey that he's late for nearly every date he's had with her, every seminar in college, etc.
He eventually gets his job at CCPD, where he is also late, despite making every effort to be on time, for his first day on the job. He is slow and pragmatic and a bit of a doormat for the other cops there, but he is eventually also the best forensic scientist CCPD has, he is dependable and has solved cases for every cop that's laughed at him and they respect him for that.
Because Barry is always late to see Iris and sometimes can't see her at all, he just shows up at her job, and although she loves to see him, this is during her work hours, and it pisses her off because she can't be with him everytime there's a commercial break or see him once shooting has wrapped for the tv station. By the time we get to the few weeks before the accident, Barry's chronic lateness has escalated into this; he has been late so many times to his work that he may lose his job, "best" at it or not, because he's been late so many times, and because he's been late so many times, he has to work late in order to make up for all the lost time, and because of this, he has to keep canceling dates with Iris, which pisses her off because he is not only late whenever he comes to see her but now it's like he doesn't want to see her at all. She sets up another date with him, one last time, and she wants him to be on time. She's thinking that maybe they should take some time away from each other for a little while or until he gets a better handle on his life at least. But Barry cancels this because of work, if he doesn't make up for everything by that night/next day he loses his job, he hopes she understands that, because the police depo doesn't want him to lose his job either. This is the night of the accident that gave him superspeed. We are now taken to the same scene we were at at the beginning of the film, only now we care about the man being hit by lightning and know his background and his wants and life.
Anyway, this ^ is just an idea for what they could maybe do with it to get people interested.
In short, begin with the scene of the accident, then after the credits (if they have them) show his life up until that point in a flashback - which we come to find out he's having as he's about to be hit by the lightning. He is narrating ala Forrest Gump, and the whole flahback sequence of his life up until that point should take about 20 minutes of screen time.
Now here's a couple other random ideas I'd like to point out that might work:
Barry is narrating into his own, personal log/journal or recording, which he keeps as he does tests on himself after he gets his super speed, but we don't know that until later in the film when we see it with him for the first time. I always imagined that Barry Allen, a man of science, would probably keep some sort of private record for himself documenting his super speed. He certainly did enough tests on himself in the comics like when he tested himeslf to make sure that he and Iris could have kids. This could also be played up in the sequel, where in the far future Eobard Thawne has this device which is now/or was a relic in a museum dedicated to The Flash. He listens (or watches) Barry recount the accident that gave him super speed and tries to recreate it, and after several tests, he is successful.
The costume ring is something Barry came up with while in college, a sort of unstable material that expands with contact with air, like an inflatable raft. He could probably make a lot of money if he sold this but he doesn't and instead cans the idea because he's just too lazy to market it. Also, the ring, even when he is Flash, has no lightning logo on it like it's depicted in some versions. I always thought that was kinda stupid considering it might give away his identity.
At some point in the film the "
Ballad of Barry Allen" by Jim's Big Ego should be played. Barry is the only Flash to have song written about him.
The film is a combination of Iron Man, Back to the Future, and CSI. Iron Man for the superheroics, Back to the Future for the time travel, and CSI for Barry's forensics job.
The Flash needs to do more than just run fast. They need to establish that he has complete control over his molecular structure and can literally do
anything fast. Think fast, talk fast, read (and retain what he reads) fast, see fast, he has complete control over his body mass when he runs, etc. He has "speed mode" which he has to kick into when he uses his super speed - this way everything isn't moving super slow to him all the time, only when he wants it to. At first it could be done as a sort of accident.
At first Barry has no intentions of being a superhero. He ends up wearing a suit super hero like stylized suit because (although not complete yet) one, he likes comic books. Always has. Having these powers is so cool to him, of course he's gonna dress up, he's like us - what would you do if you had superpowers? Two, his ordinary clothes, because they're loose fitting, burn and tear when he runs, they aren't exactly protected by the aura around his body that shield him from friction.
One day, Barry ends up stopping one random crime he notices, then another, and all this escalates and one thing needs to another, next thing he knows he's now got a complete costume and is listening to a police scanner and is somewhat of a hometown hero, a celebrity, the city seems to love him. Eventually he ends up giving Iris West the first tv interview with The Flash, but he blurs his face so she can't recognize him.
Also, when Flash speaks, his voice should sound like speed incarnate, sort of electrical and crackley, but we can still understand him, he also talks a little fast. Oh, talking fast - this is a bother to him sometimes, because while he can understand what he's saying, no one else can. He must remember this when he speaks.
The reason for the white circle on his chest is because his life feels complete. Having this speed just "feels right", which will be explained in later films as at the time of his "death" when he runs many hundreds of times faster than the speed of light and turns into a sort of energy when he stops the Anti Monitor, he becomes the lightning bolt/speed that hit himself.
Also, The Flash never walks. He is always seen either running or standing still, never walking. Barry walks, The Flash does not.
There could be a scene in the movie where Barry runs to the track where he'd lose many a race as a child, now as Flash, back in Iowa, and before leaving, he runs the track faster than we can blink and chuckles to himself. If only he knew then what he does now.
Also, at some point in the film, probably one of the first times he turns into The Flash with the suit ejecting from the ring, he puts the suit on but before running off he stops and looks behind him and sees all his civillian clothes on the ground (which he picks up at super-speed).
Still working on the villain, but I want it to be Mirror Master. He can be done scary and can negate the Flash's abilities.
^ These are just some ideas of what they could do with The Flash film. They aren't perfect, and many of them probably need rethinking, but I hope you liked them and would love to hear your thoughts. I know it's a long post and thank anyone who read.
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