How Did Barry Lose His Powers in The Flash?

When Barry learns he is capable of traveling back in time, he makes it his mission to save his mother’s life the day before she gets murdered.

However, since Barry refused to listen to Bruce Wayne’s (Ben Affleck) warnings on the consequences of his action to time travel, he is greeted with a worse fate on returning to the past, losing his powers.

But how exactly did Barry lose his powers in The Flash?

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Flash, so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

How Did Barry Lose His Powers in The Flash?

Credit: DC

The moment Barry (Ezra Miller) realized the day he got stuck in the past was on September 29th, the day he supposedly got his powers, he ensured that the future wouldn’t change by dragging his 18-year-old version to the very lab where he got his powers.

See, Barry (canonically and in the film) got his powers when he worked late at the lab as a lightning struck through the windows, through the mixed chemicals on the shelf, that which granted him the powers as the Flash.

In DC’s The Flash, the present Barry helped the younger Barry go to the same place where he got struck, even though the events changed when he made his mother live.

The younger Barry was set to go on his first date with Iris West, but since present Barry knew he would lose his powers, he decided that the younger Barry should get struck by lightning as planned in his lore.

Once the present Barry placed his younger self in the same exact place, the lightning, surely enough, hit the window, the chemicals, but with one significant variant that got in the way.

Instead of the lightning and chemicals striking the younger Barry directly, the combo first hit through the present Barry before it hit his younger self.

This, in turn, caused present Barry to lose his powers, while the younger Barry gained his powers as the Flash.

There was something different about that hit that somehow made the younger Barry a different and smarter version (fast learner) of the present Barry.

While this was not explained in the movie, it is possible that all of present Barry’s knowledge and skills were also transferred into his younger self along with his powers as the Flash.

READ MORE: How Did Flash Get His Powers?

Does Barry Get His Powers Back in The Flash?

Credit: DC

Well, considering the movie IS about Barry learning the consequences behind his actions, of course the present Barry gets his powers back.

At first attempt, Barry strapped himself onto an electric chair that could summon lightning with the same chemicals shelved right beside him. The chair came from the help of Michael Keaton’s Batman in his batcave.

Unfortunately, the first attempt did not go as planned. It merely damaged present Barry more and fried up the electric chair’s controllers, rendering it useless in getting his powers back.

It wasn’t until Supergirl returned that Barry got his powers back.

Supergirl had a different approach. She carried present Barry with her to reach the clouds and get struck directly by lightning. But nothing happened.

When she brought Barry back into the batcave, he was barely moving and breathing. That is, until the younger Barry touched him, their skin making friction, and so the two of them shared the same powers the present Barry lost before.

Surprisingly, this didn’t seem to have taken any weird effect on younger Barry as he still had his own powers intact. And so, that’s how Barry lost and got his powers back in The Flash.