1. X-Men (2000): In Congress, Senator Robert Kelly attempts to pass a "Mutant Registration Act", which would force mutants to publicly reveal their identities and abilities. Magneto begins his plans to level the playing field between mutants and humans. Meanwhile, a girl named Rogue runs away from her home in Meridian, Mississippi. She meets Wolverine in Canada. Suddenly, both of them are attacked by Sabretooth, a mutant and associate of Magneto. Cyclops and Storm arrive and save Wolverine and Rogue and bring them to the X-Mansion. Professor Charles Xavier runs the facility, and leads a group of mutants who are trying to seek peace with the human race, educate young mutants in the responsible use of their powers, and stop Magneto from starting a war with humanity.
Senator Kelly is abducted by Mystique and Toad, and brought to Magneto, who tests a machine on Kelly that artificially induces mutation. Kelly manages to escape imprisonment with his new abilities. After an accident causes Rogue to use her powers on Wolverine, she is convinced by Mystique (disguised as Bobby Drake, a boy who Rogue begins to romance) that Xavier is angry with her and that she should leave the school. Xavier uses Cerebro to locate Rogue at a train station. Mystique infiltrates Cerebro and sabotages the machine. Wolverine convinces Rogue to stay with Xavier. A fight ensues with Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm against Magneto, Toad and Sabretooth. Rogue is taken by Magneto. Senator Kelly arrives at Xavier's school, but dissolves into a puddle of water when his mutation becomes unstable.
The X-Men learn that Magneto intends to use Rogue's ability on himself so that Rogue can power his machine. Xavier attempts to use Cerebro to locate Rogue, but Mystique's sabotage causes him to fall into a coma. Jean fixes and uses Cerebro to find Magneto's machine on Liberty Island, which Magneto intends to use on the world leaders who are meeting for a summit on nearby Ellis Island. Just as the group arrives at the top of the statue, Magneto and Sabretooth incapacitate the group and continue with their plans. Magneto transfers his powers to Rogue who is forced to use them to start the machine. Wolverine breaks free and initiates a fight with Sabretooth; however, Wolverine is thrown over the side of the statue and Sabretooth redirects himself to the group to finish them off.
Wolverine returns, and Cyclops, with Jean's help, blasts Sabretooth out of the statue. With Jean stabilizing him, Storm uses her abilities to send Wolverine to the top of Magneto's machine. With time running out, Wolverine attempts to stop the machine and save Rogue, but Magneto, now having regained some of his strength, halts Wolverine's claws. Cyclops manages to find a clean shot, wounding Magneto and allowing Wolverine to destroy the machine. Placing his hand to her face, Wolverine succeeds in transferring his regenerative abilities to a dying Rogue. Professor Xavier recovers from his coma, and the group learns that Mystique is still alive when they see her impersonating Senator Kelly on a news broadcast. In an attempt to help Wolverine learn more about his past, Xavier sends him to a military base near Alkali Lake. Xavier visits Magneto in his plastic prison cell, and the two play chess. Magneto warns his friend that he will continue his fight, to which Xavier promises that he (and the X-Men) will always be there to stop him.
2. X2 (2003): Nightcrawler, a teleporting mutant, attempts to assassinate the President in the White House, but he fails and escapes. Wolverine reappears after discovering nothing at Alkali Lake, while Storm and Jean find Nightcrawler with the help of Professor Xavier and Cerebro. Cyclops and Professor X visit Magneto in his plastic prison to see if he had any part in the attack on the President. Reading Magneto's mind, Professor X discovers that a covert government operative, William Stryker, has been extracting information from Magneto. A trap is sprung and Cyclops and Professor X are captured by Stryker and his assistant Yuriko Oyama. A military raid of the X-Mansion begins, with the soldiers sedating every student they find; some escape, while Wolverine encounters Stryker, who makes snide remarks about, but tells Wolverine nothing about his past.
Impersonating Senator Robert Kelly and Yuriko, Mystique gains information about Magneto's prison and provides a means for him to escape. Wolverine, along with Rogue, Iceman and Pyro, heads to Iceman's home in Boston. After a 9-1-1 call by Bobby's brother Ronnie, the police arrive just as the group is about to leave, ensuing into a dispute with Pyro. The X-Jet arrives to pick them all up, and the X-Men team with Magneto and Mystique. Magneto has learned Stryker orchestrated the attack on the President and has been experimenting on mutants, using a drug injected directly into the back of the neck to control them. Jean reads Nightcrawler's mind and determines that Stryker's base is located at Alkali Lake, inside the dam. He has also stolen enough equipment from Xavier's own Cerebro unit to build a second Cerebro, with which he plans to kill all the world's mutants.
Stryker gains control over Professor Xavier through his son, Jason Stryker, who is able to project powerful visions in the mind, blinding a person to reality. Professor X is instructed to use Cerebro to find and kill all existing mutants. Mystique infiltrates Stryker's base using a number of disguises. As the X-Men enter Storm and Nightcrawler pair off, searching for kidnapped students. Jean, Magneto, and Mystique are attacked by a brainwashed Cyclops on their way to rescue Professor X, causing damage to the generators that keep the dam from collapsing. The force of Jean's telekinetic blast awakens Cyclops from his brainwashing. Wolverine finds Stryker in an adamantium smelting room along with Lady Deathstrike. Wolverine and Deathstrike begin fighting, but despite a brief struggle, Wolverine defeats and kills her. Wolverine finds Stryker on a landing pad, while Stryker attempts to bargain Wolverine for his life with stories of his past. Wolverine refuses and leaves him for dead, stabbing him and chaining him to the helicopter wheel.
Mystique, disguised as Stryker, uses Jason to convince Professor X to kill all humans. Magneto and Mystique use Stryker's helicopter to escape Alkali Lake, chaining Stryker to concrete rubble, and are also joined by Pyro. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler teleports Storm inside of Cerebro, where she frees the Professor from his telepathic illusion. A malfunction aboard the X-Jet prevents it from taking off, and the dam finally bursts. The flood gets stronger, drowning Stryker. Jean leaves the jet and creates a telekinetic wall in order to stop the wave, and at the same time raises the jet above the flood waters; all the while surrounded by a corona of fire. Jean activates the X-Jet's primary engines, before releasing the torrent of water down on herself. The X-Men are able to supply the President with files from Stryker's private offices, and Professor X warns him that humans and mutants must work together to build peace, or they will destroy each other through war. The film ends with a voiceover by Jean Grey on the process of evolution (a speech originally made by Professor Xavier in the introduction of the first film). The camera floats over Alkali Lake, showing a vague shape of a Phoenix in the lake.
3. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): A pharmaceutical company called Worthington Labs announces that it has developed an inoculation to permanently suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their powers, offering the so-called "cure" to any mutant who wants it; the cure is derived from a mutant boy named Jimmy. While some mutants are interested in the cure, including the X-Men's Rogue, many others are horrified by the announcement. In response to the news, the X-Men's adversary Magneto begins to raise an army, warning his followers that, like his experiences in the Holocaust, the cure will be forcefully used to exterminate the mutant race.
Cyclops, still heartbroken about the loss of Jean Grey, returns to Alkali Lake, where Jean sacrificed herself to save the X-Men. He hears her voice and begs for it to stop, finally taking off his sunglasses and his eye beam shoots through the water. Jean then appears out of the water to Cyclops, and as the two kiss, Jean changes and appears to kill Cyclops. Sensing trouble, Professor Charles Xavier sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, the two X-Men encounter telekinetically floating rocks, Cyclops' glasses, and an unconscious Jean. Meanwhile Magneto ambushes a military transport and frees Juggernaut, Mystique and Multiple Man, during which Mystique blocks a shot of the mutant cure aimed at Magneto, only to be left behind because she is not "one of them" anymore.
Xavier explains to Wolverine that the majority of Jean's power is seated in her unconscious mind and that, as a result, her powers are largely fueled by instinct, and not under her complete control. In fact, when Jean was a little girl she was so powerful that he had to put telepathic blocks on her mind to help keep her powers under control. Her bottled up powers manifested themselves as an id-like alternate personality called the "Phoenix" — a purely instinctual creature, ruled only by its own violent desires. Initially skeptic, Wolverine becomes more convinced when Jean reawakes, acting strange and aggressive. He asks about Cyclops, but she cannot remember and fears she killed him. Jean pleads with Wolverine to kill her before she harms anybody else, but when he refuses and offers to have Xavier help her, the Phoenix resurfaces and telekinetically slams Wolverine into a wall. She then flees to her childhood home, with Xavier, Wolverine and Storm in pursuit. Magneto, also aware that Jean's powers are loose, meets Xavier at Jean's house. The two men plead for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces, unleashing her devastating power. Furious at being caged within Jean's subconscious for twenty years, she destroys her family's house and engages in a psychic battle with Xavier. She eventually overpowers and disintegrates Xavier before leaving with Magneto.
Following the losses of Xavier and Cyclops, and pained by her inability to get physically close to her boyfriend, Rogue decides to take the mutant cure. The X-Men regroup and confront Magneto's army, which is attacking the pharmaceutical company's laboratory on Alcatraz Island. The battle begins when Magneto moves the Golden Gate Bridge to land at Alcatraz Island, which is being guarded only by a company of soldiers. The Brotherhood's first charge is ineffective as Magneto is unable to destroy the soldiers' plastic weapons. The first group of mutants, which Magneto refers to as "pawns", are hit with the cure cartridges and depowered. His minion, Arclight, destroys the weapons with her shockwave, as the X-Men arrive: Magneto derides them as traitors and orders his army to attack as the X-Men confront them to give Kitty Pryde time to save Jimmy, narrowly defeating Juggernaut. Iceman goes one-on-one with Pyro, where he transforms his entire body into ice, freezes Pyro's hands, and defeats him by delivering a strong headbutt to Pyro's head. Wolverine distracts Magneto while Beast injects him with the cure, nullifying his mutant powers. After this, Wolverine nearly coaxes Jean back to sanity; however, soldiers arrive and fire upon Jean. The Phoenix quickly resurfaces and, in her rage, begins to disintegrate everything and everyone around her, vaporizing the soldiers along with Worthington Labs. While the other X-Men, soldiers and the remnants of Magneto's army flee to safety, Wolverine fights his way to Jean, relying upon his healing abilities to save himself from her destructive power. When he reaches her, the Phoenix coldly snarls at Wolverine being willing to die for the others, to which he retorts that he would only die for her. Momentarily regaining control, Jean begs Wolverine to save her. Wolverine confesses his love for Jean, and reluctantly kills her with his claws.
Despite the X-Men's losses, life goes on. The school will continue without Xavier, with Storm now in control. Rogue returns and tells Iceman she had to take the "cure." The two reconcile and continue their relationship, now able to touch each other. Magneto, now an ordinary man, sits at a chessboard in a park and reaches out toward a metal chess piece that moves slightly, indicating that the mutant cure isn't as permanent as was originally thought.
Following the closing credits, Dr. Moira MacTaggert checks on a comatose patient who greets her with Xavier's voice, implying that he has transferred his mind into this new body.
4. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009): James Logan aka Wolverine and his brother Victor Creed (who will later become Sabretooth) run away together as children in the mid 1850's after Logan kills their biological father who had murdered Logan's adoptive father. After serving together in many wars they are recruited by William Stryker to serve in a special unit made up of mutants. After wiping out an African villiage, Logan quits the unit and goes off to live a life of peace in the Canadian Rockies with his girlfriend later to be known as the Silver Fox.
Six years pass for the both of them until Stryker shows up and asks Logan to come back and be a part of a new Weapon X project. Logan refuses but Creed shows up and murders Logan's girlfriend leaving him wanting revenge against his brother. Logan accepts Strykers offer to be infused with Adamantium so that he can be indestructable and go after his revenge but is double crossed by Stryker and hears him give the order to wipe his memories. Escaping before this can happen, he goes searching for Creed killing anyone who gets in his way.
After reuniting with a few members of his old team, he finds out that Stryker and Creed are actually working together to kidnap mutants and keep them in confinement working on a new project, Weapon XI and that only one person knows where their new base of operations is. Remy LeBeau aka Gambit is the only mutant to escape this place and Logan along with John Wraith go searching for him in New Orleans. They find him in a card game where Logan tries to question him but with less than desireable results. After being blasted through a wall by Gambit, Logan sees Creed standing over the dead body of Wraith and the fight is on. Right when Logan is about to get his revenge and kill Creed, Gambit comes flying in with his staff and blows everyone apart. Creed uses this distraction to escape while Logan and Gambit go at it. After showing Gambit the light (with his claws), Gambit agrees to take Logan to Three Mile Island where the facility is hidden.
Arriving at Three Mile Island by plane, Logan finds many mutant children kept prisoner by Stryker and Creed with the support of the U.S. Government. Logan confronts Stryker while he is at the finishing point of his Weapon XI project and learns the truth that Silver Fox isn't dead but was keeping and eye on him those six years and manipulating him with her mutant power of persuasion. After leaving, Fox confronts Stryker demanding the release of her sister only to be placated and told to wait. Creed comes in and Fox tries to persuade him that Stryker is only using them. Only this doesn't work and she is almost killed by Creed. Logan hears her screams and comes to her rescue almost killing Creed but being convinced by Fox that if he does that then they will be no better then Stryker. She also convinces him that she truly loves him.
Fox and Logan then go to free the children. Fox leads them out of the facility while Logan goes in search of Stryker. In a firefight, Fox is wounded and sends the children on while she goes back to look for Logan. The children make it out of the facility and are met by none other than Charles Xavier who offers them a ride in his helicopter and protection at his school.
While Logan is searching, Stryker activates Weapon XI who is a combination of all the mutants abilities with none of their weaknesses. XI and Logan's fight ranges from the inside to the outer top of a nuclear reactor and it appears Logan is outmatched until Creed shows up to help save him using the line; "No one is allowed to kill you except me..." Back to back they take on XI together until Creed grabs him by the neck, stabs him in the chest and Logan decapitates him with those claws. XI's head and body go falling into the reactor cutting chunks out of it the whole way down. Logan tells Creed that this changes nothing and they go their seperate ways.
After getting to the ground, Logan is saved from the falling debris of the reactor by Gambit. They then go their seperate ways in search for Stryker but Logan comes upon the wounded body of Fox and starts carrying her toward the plane. Stryker intercepts them and shoots Logan in the head with Adamantium bullets which are the only thing that can really "hurt" him. This knocks him out long enough for him to go after Silver Fox but she turns the tables by touching his ankle and telling him to "walk until you bleed... Then keep walking."
Gambit comes back finding Logan regaining consciousness but without any memories. Finding the body of Silver Fox, Gambit asks if Logan knows her but he doesn't. Going their seperate ways, the movie ends here but you should watch through the credits all the way. Stryker is picked up by the MP's with bloody feet for the murder of a general and Logan is last seen in an Asian bar drinking shots and trying to remember who he is. *JA*
By Richard Moody
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