Let’s get one thing straight up top. Yes, Barry Allen does put a baby in a microwave in The Flash. But no, it’s not quite how the insane-looking clip currently doing the rounds on social media is making it look. The video appears to show the title hero laughing maniacally in front of a screaming nurse, before carefully sliding a baby into a microwave and closing the door, as you can see.
This short clip is in fact being played in reverse. In the movie, Barry is actually removing the baby from the microwave and is happy that it’s survived, while the nurse is screaming in shock from her super-speed rescue. You may now be wondering how the baby ends up in the microwave.
These are minor spoilers for the opening scenes of The Flash, but Barry is dealing with an explosion at a hospital that’s sent a maternity ward full of babies (and a nurse and dog) plummeting to a horrible death. Using his superspeed powers, he must save the day, even if he can’t simply pluck the babies from the air one by one without injuring them. To save one, he places it inside a falling microwave, with the appliance acting as a protective heat shield as he carefully brings it to the ground.
It’s worth wondering exactly why The Flash is so adamant that babies need to be put in microwaves to save them, though the reality of the situation is very far from Barry Allen being a sociopathic baby-microwaving monster.
The Flash is now in theaters.
