Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One Ending, Explained

When Justice League Dark: Apokolips closed out the DC Animated Movie Universe in 2020, fans had no clue what would come next. Thanks to Barry Allen running off another Flashpoint, reality was eventually rebooted. This gave way to the Tomorrowverse, beginning with Superman: Man of Tomorrow.

Four years later, Warner Bros. Animation follows the Arrowverse by detailing Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One. This first chapter takes influence from the iconic 1985 DC Comics event, where an antimatter wave swept through the DC Multiverse, annihilating many worlds. In the animated movie adaptation, the Monitor gathers heroes to stop this mass extinction event, giving way to a shocking ending that promises the journey is far from over.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on May 7, 2024: The Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy is inching closer to its conclusion. Part 2 is now officially available for DC fans to sink their teeth into. The third and final film will be released on July 16, leaving fans to go back and ponder the first two installments before the epic finale.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Makes Amazo an Important Player

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Amazo wasn’t important to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths event in DC Comics. However, fans were understandably confused when the opening act of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One focused so heavily on this android. The movie makes major changes from the original story by turning Amazo into a robot that can absorb metahuman energy, including the essence of aliens like Superman and Martian Manhunter. As this war on Earth-1 proceeds, Barry brings Amazo’s creator, Professor Ivo, into the field. The Flash discovers that Ivo is sick with a disease that makes him age rapidly, leading him to develop the robot to help with his illness and prolong human life.

Little did Ivo know, however, that the villainous Lex Luthor would co-opt the robot, making Amazo think once they had metahuman energy, they could work on curing mankind’s diseases. Much to his dismay, Ivo can’t break Amazo’s directive, but he does override Lex’s orders and gets the robot to dispel the energy into him. Sadly, while Amazo hopes this will save his maker, the act kills Ivo. Batman then goads Amazo to discern the truth: Lex infected Ivo, so the scientist would make the robot and unwittingly provide him with a powerful weapon.

An incensed Amazo attacks Lex, but The Flash gets in the way just when he’s about to kill him. Barry clarifies that Ivo wouldn’t want the robot to become a murderous monster. As Lex is carted off to jail, the Dark Knight decides to start the Justice League with the Man of Steel and Earth-1’s other heroes. In due time, they try to celebrate Barry and Iris’ wedding, but Harbinger interrupts to take select heroes to a unique base. It doesn’t feel like the Amazo arc means anything, but it is an integral precursor regarding what’s to come.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Uses the Speed Force As Salvation

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During the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One, The Monitor reveals himself at the base, confirming he has gathered a think tank. Harbinger reveals herself as Supergirl, while the heroes meet alternate versions of themselves. For example, Superman encounters a Superman variant whose Lois died and who ends up with Wonder Woman, combining ideas from the “Kingdom Come” and “New 52” versions of the character. Batman, on the other hand, meets an older Dick Grayson, leaving him wondering if he should be skeptical about his version of Dick becoming Robin at some point in the future. As the multitude of heroes try to figure out how to stop an incoming antimatter wave — one the Monitor thinks is natural — they end up at loggerheads.

The heroes have no clue how to create a shield against the antimatter wave. However, Barry Allen has been practicing using the Speed Force to bend space and time, allowing him to appear in different dimensions. This allows him to visit the alternate universe of Earth-3, where he sees the antimatter wave kill the evil Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate. The science squad quickly learns that they can harness Barry’s vibrational ability, which he uses to breach dimensions and head to other worlds.

The Justice League’s plan is to build giant towers, which will tap into the Speed Force to create vibrations and sync up with each other. Once one tower is kickstarted, like a tuning fork, the others vibrate, allowing these worlds to phase through the wave. Unfortunately, plans go awry when the wave somehow speeds up. None of the geniuses — from Doctor Light to Batman to Mister Terrific to Blue Beetle — can understand why this phenomenon seems sentient, vindictive and so unforgiving. It decimates another Earth, leaving the heroes desperate, defeated, and debilitated.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Slows Down Time for the Best

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As the antimatter wave consumes Earth-1, a panicked Barry buys more time for his fellow heroes. He runs fast enough to create a time pocket inside the planet. There, Barry — already stretched to his limit — and Iris grow old together. Notably, they also have time to build the tower and get it fully functional, which they couldn’t have done in the present. The key cog is none other than Amazo. Barry powers Amazo up via the Cosmic Treadmill, learning that kinetic energy and the Speed Force are the perfect batteries for the robot.

After Iris dies, Barry uses the robot and his treadmill to activate the tower in real-time. Unfortunately, it destroys Amazo and knocks Barry out. But the main thing is, it works. One tower activates, triggering the others. The heroes are stunned as all this happens in a millisecond, although time dilation means Barry was gone for decades. The Earths with the towers activate, allowing them to bypass the wave. It feels like the heroes have won, only for Crisis on Infinite Earths toend this first entry hopelessly, not unlike the earth-shattering ending of the MCU film, Avengers: Infinity War.

Heroes like Dawnstar start to disintegrate, leading Supergirl to call Brainiac-5 in the future. Unfortunately, Supergirl learns that Brainiac’s universe is disappearing, too. This compounds the fact that no one knows what is going on. Even the Monitor, from a previous conversation with the Spectre, is still clueless about who is behind the wave.

Crisis on Infinite Earths Has a Mystery Before the Beginning

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Throughout the movie, Barry experiences memories crashing into his mind. They appear to be from the reset in his Flashpoint. He also meets a beggar, who is clearly John Constantine—the same person who got him to reboot time in Apokolips War. Fans will recall Constantine disappearing and being punished in Constantine: The House of Mystery by the Spectre for pushing Barry into the Flashpoint. Constantine is turned into a remix of Pariah, doomed to roam various worlds and soak in the suffering he caused.

The Spectre warns Barry he will face the same judgment, but the Speed Force has delayed his fate. He has a chance to right these wrongs “before the beginning,” which leads to Barry going through time. Flash ends up at the lab accident that gave him powers in the past before going further back through history. He arrives in the Warworld era, where fans see Warlord with an enslaved Bruce Wayne.

The Flash quickly gives Bruce a message to save reality, nodding to the SnyderVerse when Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen did the same to Ben Affleck’s Batman. The movie ends with The Flash disintegrating, followed by Supergirl and the others, leaving fans wondering the exact nature of this “chronal anomaly” that Brainiac-5 has spoken of. Ultimately, the Spectre, not the Monitor, knows what’s going on, setting the stage for the rest of the trilogy to explore what chain of events and sacrifices are being knocked over.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One and Part Two are now available on Digital. Part Three will debut on July 16.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One

The Anti-Monitor (the Monitor’s evil counterpart) is released in the DC Multiverse and begins to destroy the different Earths that compose it. The Monitor attempts to recruit heroes from across the Multiverse, but is murdered.

Release Date

January 9, 2024

Director

Jeff Wamester

Cast

Alexandra Daddario , Matt Bomer , Jensen Ackles

Runtime

1 Hour 33 Minutes

Writers

James Krieg , George Perez , Marv Wolfman

Producer

Kimberly S. Moreau, James Krieg

Production Company

Warner Bros.