Warning: SPOILERS for Zack Snyder's Justice League
The timeline of Zack Snyder's Knightmare was a total mystery when it first appeared in Batman v Superman, but the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League adds entirely new scenes, finally explaining the events that caused Batman's apocalypse... and Darkseid's total victory over planet Earth.
From the first glimpses of the Knightmare future in Batman v Superman, audiences struggled to make sense of just what Snyder had truly revealed. Was this dark, post-apocalyptic wasteland a warning? A future Bruce Wayne would help to create? Or a nightmare he would now have to prevent from ever taking place? The release of Zack Snyder's Justice League may still leave some questions to be answered in the future, but at least a concrete timeline of events can now be grasped. And it not only confirms what caused the DCEU Knightmare, but what 'plan' of Batman's is actually teased in Justice League's final scenes.
Cyborg's Vision: The Death of The Justice League
Fans didn't need to see the movie to witness one of its biggest twists, with a teaser trailer showing exactly how Darkseid kills the Justice League. But the entire vision delivered to Cyborg through the mystical Mother Box pulls no punches. King Aquaman is killed by Darkseid's Omega Beams. The villain breaks Superman by turning Lois Lane to ash. And while Wonder Woman's cause of death isn't explicitly stated, Darkseid proudly lording over her funeral leaves little doubt he is also to thank. Together, these scenes show exactly how the heroes failed to fight off Darkseid, being either killed or corrupted, leaving him to usher in the Knightmare future seen in Batman v Superman.
Zack Snyder has admitted that his original Justice League plan has changed from its earlier stages, but the basic idea remains intact. After succeeding in fighting off Darkseid's lieutenant Steppenwolf in the first team-up movie, the DC supervillain--either by himself, or with help--divides and eliminates Earth's greatest heroes and demigods. Thankfully, that isn't the only piece of the Knightmare timeline locked into place by Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Batman & Joker's Knightmare Team-Up
After the main story of Justice League is concluded, audiences are delivered a bombshell: the heroes did not prevent the dark future from transpiring, after all. As Batman leads his ragtag group of wasteland survivors, it's made clear that the vision offered to Cyborg as a desperate warning was exactly that. While the film doesn't explain why the Mother Box mixed with a Kryptonian computer can give knowledge of the future, it apparently did. The heroes fell, Superman was turned, and Batman united a vengeful Mera, Deathstroke, Flash, and Cyborg to form a final resistance. And it wouldn't be the end of the world without Batman forced to team up with Joker.
Where the original Batman v Superman sequence showed the end of Bruce Wayne's story, and the scenes from Justice League mentioned above show how it all went wrong, Snyder concludes the film with a scene set somewhere between the two. The only new scene filmed for Zack Snyder's Justice League at all, this Knightmare coda would seem to be a crucial piece of the puzzle. For one thing, it helps explain the Joker card Easter Egg from Batman v Superman, marking a truce between Batman and Joker. But with the team of heroes ambushed by an Anti-Life corrupted Superman, most viewers will view the scene as Mera, Cyborg, Deathstroke, and Joker's last. But not Barry Allen's...
Flash's Knightmare Time Travel To BvS
Although Justice League doesn't confirm when the Knightmare Flash's time travel takes place, time before or after this point in the timeline, dialogue in the scene (combined with Barry Allen's debut in Batman v Superman) gives fans enough to make an educated guess. As DCEU fans will remember, the original Knightmare sequence was capped off by the surprising arrival of The Flash, literally reaching out to Bruce through a hole torn in space-time. His warning still haunts Bruce well into the events of Justice League, with the cryptic claim that "Lois Lane is the key" seen as something more, and something darker than the key to Superman's heart and humanity.
Dialogue in Justice League's coda is limited, but it's clear Batman has a plan to reverse the arrival of Darkseid, his victory over Earth's heroes, and the Knightmare that was born soon after. That plan is known to those who followed every rumor, report, and eventually confirmed plot beat. After Flash unlocked time travel in Justice League, Bruce would help to create his Knightmare suit, and a cosmic treadmill (Flash's means of traveling through time in the comics) to send Barry back in time with a message. A message audiences saw Bruce receive in Batman v Superman, technically making the first Knightmare cameo one of the last, in chronological terms.
BvS Knightmare: The Death of Batman (and The World)
The last scene in Justice League sets the stage for Barry Allen's trip through time to start the cycle all over again, but audiences don't need to wonder how the story ends for Batman. While the Knightmare scenes in Justice League are technically a continuation of Batman's story, Snyder's previous movie made Bruce's fate perfectly clear. Having attempted to rewrite reality and sending Flash back through time, Batman is left alone to lead his remaining troops. When his mission to acquire kryptonite turns into a betrayal and subsequent slaughter, Bruce faces Superman for one last time.
At the time Batman v Superman hit theaters, audiences assumed that when the evil Knightmare Superman spoke his final words, that "She was my world, and you took her from me," he was referring to his mother. The planned Lois Lane/Bruce Wayne romance adds a new wrinkle to that assumption, but either way, Superman got his revenge. Removing the cowl and putting a hand through Bruce's chest, Superman killed his final threat. The Knightmare vision in Zack Snyder's Justice League shows different scenes along the timeline, but as Superman hovers over the ruins of the Hall of Justice (and a dead Green Lantern), the cowl in his hand confirms the Bat is dead. And with him, all hope that Darkseid's domination of Earth could be stopped. But could the timeline still be reversed?
--
Different theories of time travel suggest Zack Snyder has several ways of answering that question, should he get the chance to make his sequel (or sequels). But until any new twists are added, or the fates of Mera, Cyborg, Deathstroke, and Joker are revisited, the Knightmare timeline of the DCEU has finally been explained.
