The Flash: Rise of the Rogues

The Flash: Rise of the Rogues (originally titled The Flash Returns) is a 2022 live action comic book film directed by Jon Favreau, and is the sequel to the 2018 blockbuster, The Flash. Garrett Hedlund returns as Barry Allen/ The Flash, along with Evan Rachel Wood, Rosario Dawson, Corey Stoll, and Skyler Samuels. Joining the cast is Liev Schreiber, James Badge Dale, and Ben Foster.

Cast

• Garrett Hedlund as Barry Allen/ The Flash
• Evan Rachel Wood as Iris West
• Liev Schreiber as Leonard Snart/ Captain Cold
• James Badge Dale as James Jesse/ The Trickster
• Ben Foster as Eobard Thawne
• Rosario Dawson as Sgt. Angela Rojas
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dr. Silas Stone
• Corey Stoll as Captain Darryl Frye
• Skyler Samuels as Patty Spivot

Plot

The film opens in Crowley Penitentiary in Fawcett City. Inmate Leonard Snart reads a letter from his old boss, telling him of an important heist in Central City where the total pay could be up to $8 million. Snart then decides that he must find a way to escape. After a little while, he decides that he will need the assistance of fellow inmate, James Jesse, who has a severe case of social anxiety disorder, needing to take medication for it every day. Snart comes up with a plan to get out when Jesse is escorted to take his medication. Jesse agrees to the plan, but only if they split the proceeds from the heist 50/50. Snart grudgingly agrees to James's demands, knowing that he has no choice, and they proceed with their escape plan. Everything goes according to plan for a while, until the two are caught by a guard. Jesse then uses an illusion to disorient the guard, and Snart then knocks him unconcious. Snart tells Jesse that he is very impressed, and the two men finally escape.

In Central City, Barry Allen arrives with his CSI squad, including his assistant Patty Spivot, at the scene of a murder. Barry thoroughly inspects the scene, and tells Sgt. Angela Rojas that there are two different strands of blood, and that someone must have been with the victim and is now gone. Rojas confirms Barry's theory by telling him that witnesses believe that they saw a man leave with a screaming girl with him. Barry asks Angela to hold off onlookers, and then subtly slips away into a nearby alley, following the blood trail. Once he gets a good idea as to where the murderer took his hostage, he changes into his Flash suit and speeds off.

The Flash follows the blood trail to a train station, and spots a suspicious looking man with a very large bag that he is clearly having difficulties carrying. However, the train soon leaves, forcing the Flash to run alongside it on the tracks. He almost catches up to where the killer is seated on the train, but must move in order to avoid another oncoming train. By the time he catches up again, the killer realizes that the Flash is on his tail, and tries moving to another cart. The Flash finally gets onto the train, but the killer threatens to shoot his hostage if the Flash comes any further. However, as soon as the killer turns to get onto the next cart, the Flash is already behind him. He takes his gun away within a split second, and punches the killer to the ground before freeing the hostage from the suitcase.

Iris West is then shown at a carnival waiting for Barry, and a strange man is shown watching her from afar. After she talks on the phone with her brother, Rudy, she notices the man staring at her. She is obviously freaked out by him, and tries getting away from his vantage point, and all of a sudden bumps into Barry. He asks her why she is so shaken, and she turns around but sees that the man is no longer there. She decides against telling Barry about him, and says that her jumpiness is from having just gotten off of a roller coaster. Barry and Iris then get on the ferris wheel, where he tells her that he has never felt more secure about his personal and professional life, both professional lives, and he tells her that she is the reason for that. He then pulls out an engagement ring and proposes to her. She happily accepts and kisses him, while the mysterious man who was watching Iris before is shown watching from a distance.

Leonard Snart is then shown in a phone booth trying to get hold of his employer to get information on the deal, but to no avail. James is then shown to be getting on Snart's nerves to the point of Snart nearly punching him in the face, but all of a sudden, a random cell phone on a cafe table nearby begins ringing. Snart is confused at first, but eventually answers it. To his delight, it is his employer on the phone, who gives him the details of the heist: to break into S.T.A.R. Labs and steal prototype projects to sell on the black market. 

Snart and Jesse manage to break into the lab thanks to Snart carefully calculating every move that they make. After looking around for a while and taking as much equipment as they can, Snart comes across a gun that catches his eye. However, security soon arrives and almost catches them due to Snart being distracted by the gun. As Jesse tries to escape, Snart takes the gun and fires at the security guards, revealing the gun to emit ice. Snart is amazed, and decides to take the weapon for himself. 

The next morning, the police, with Barry and Angela among them, are at the scene of the robbery. While Angela questions Dr. Silas Stone, the head of S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry notices the ice left on the scene and stops the coroner so he can take a look at the bodies of the dead security guards. He notices how cold their body temperature is, and interrupts Angela to ask Dr. Stone about the objects stolen from the lab, particularly anything having to do with ice. Dr. Stone is noticeably hiding something, but Angela is annoyed that Barry is questioning witnesses and pulls him aside to tell him to let her do her job. Barry tells Angela about the ice and the cold body temperature of the dead guards.  

Iris, meanwhile, shows up at the crime scene to cover it for the news. Captain Frye tells her that they will not be answering questions for the press, and she walks away in disappointment. Barry catches up to her and tells her that there is something odd about the robbery, but will not say on the record. She understands, and then he tells her about the ice at the scene and about the guards. He suggests that it had something to do with what the robbers stole, but they could not get an answer out of Dr. Stone or anyone else who works there.  

Snart and Jesse then go to meet with Snart's employer, who congratulates them on a job well done. Snart shows him the objects that they stole, and asks for his take up the heist upfront. His employer is hesitant but soon agrees, and pays him $2 million. Snart gets angry and reminds him that he was promised $8 million. His employer reminds him that he said the pay would be "up to $8 million" but never actually guaranteed the full amount. Snart gets angry, but tries to keep himself collected. However, Jesse loses his temper and begins shooting everyone in the room. Snart's employer pulls a gun out, but Snart decides to protect Jesse and pulls out the ice gun and points it at his employer. He asks Snart to put the gun down and be reasonable, but Snart tells him that he believes he is being reasonable. He explains to his employer that they are living in a different world now. The people with money no longer control things, the people with the most power control things, and thanks to his new weapon, he has more power than his employer. His employer begs for his life, but Snart fires the gun and kills him. Jesse laughs and asks what the plan is now, and Snart tells him that Central City is now theirs for the taking. 

Barry is then shown going over evidence from the S.T.A.R. Labs robbery with Patty, who asks why he is so interested in this robbery in particular. Barry tries to come up with an excuse for why he is interested without giving away his secret, but simply says that these robbers are clearly dangerous. Angela then texts Barry and tells him to turn on the news. Barry turns it on and sees Iris covering a story of a mysterious villain holding hostages in a building until the city pays him $5 million. If they interfere, he has a bomb ready to explode the second a door in the building opens. Barry leaves, but tells Patty to stay behind when she asks if she should go as well. As soon as he leaves, he speeds away to change into the Flash.  

The villain holding the hostages is revealed to the audience to be Jesse, who has a new, flamboyant costume. It is also revealed that the hostage situation is merely a distraction while Snart robs a bank across town, with the police's attention on the hostages, along with the Flash's attention as well.  

The Flash arrives at the scene and converses with Angela discretely. Angela tells him that the bomb squad has confirmed that there is indeed a bomb ready to explode precisely five seconds after any door to the building opens. The Flash tells her that he could get them all out in less than five seconds. After hesitation, Angela tells him to go for it, and he rushes to get all of the hostages out in time. He manages to do so, barely, and even gets Jesse out. He hands Jesse over to the police, but is confused about why he is so calm and not worried at all about his plan failing. As this is going on, Snart completes a successful bank robbery with very little police interference, and he simply just shoots the ones who do interfere with his new weapon.  

With Jesse in police custody, Angela tells Barry who he is, and that he had been imprisoned in Fawcett City for the last seven years for armed robbery, until breaking out just a few weeks prior, along with a fellow inmate. Barry asks who the other inmate was, but before she can answer, the walls of the police station break down after being hit by ice. Snart enters and breaks Jesse out, which was why Jesse was not worried. As they leave, Jesse gloats about this amazing "trick", but the two are cut off by the Flash. He tells them that they are not going anywhere. However, Snart shoots him, and he is only just barely able to evade the shot, but still gets severely injured, and cannot run after them as they leave the police station completely untouched.  

Angela and Iris both help Barry tend to his injuries back at his apartment, and Barry is clearly frustrated at not being able to do anything about the two men escaping. Iris tells him that there was nothing that he could have done, as he was incapacitated. He tells her that he should have been faster, and now both of them are on the loose. Angela gets a call from the station, and then tells both Barry and Iris that when Jesse was holding the hostages, Snart robbed a bank of close to $10 million and killed several police officers in the process. Barry gets even more frustrated that they fell for the plan to be distracted by Jesse while Snart committed the real crime. Angela tells Barry that they need to find a way to disarm Snart, and Barry deduces that they'd need to get answers from Dr. Stone, as he invented the gun.  

As Iris leaves the apartment, she accidentally bumps into a man, who is revealed to the audience to be the same man who was watching her at the carnival earlier. She apologizes, and he recognizes her as Iris West, the reporter who covered the hostage situation. She is flattered that he recognizes her, but tells him that she actually has to be somewhere and leaves. As she leaves, he smiles and remarks to himself that he also has to be somewhere.  

More to come...