X-Men (film)
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| X-Men | |
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| Directed by | Bryan Singer |
| Produced by | Bill Todman, Jr. Ralph Winter Avi Arad Bryan Singer Joel Simon Richard Donner Tom DeSanto Lauren Shuler Donner |
| Written by | Comic Book: Stan Lee Jack Kirby Story: Tom DeSanto Bryan Singer Screenplay: David Hayter |
| Starring | Patrick Stewart Hugh Jackman Ian McKellen Halle Berry Famke Janssen James Marsden Bruce Davison Rebecca Romijn-Stamos Ray Park Tyler Mane Anna Paquin |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
| Cinematography | Newton Thomas Sigel |
| Editing by | Steven Rosenblum Kevin Sitt John Wright |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | July 14, 2000 |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Followed by | X2: X-Men United |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
X-Men is a 2000 American action movie, featuring a group of comic book superheroes called the X-Men. It formed a major part of the current revival in comic-book adaptation movies.
The movie was directed by Bryan Singer and explores the ideas of prejudice and discrimination in the United States. The screenplay was written by David Hayter (who has a cameo appearance in the film as a police officer in the Statue of Liberty area). A sequel, X2: X-Men United, was released in 2003 and a third film, X-Men: The Last Stand, was released in 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Background
Mutants (Homo sapiens superior) are the next evolutionary step in the chain of humanity. Some children are born with an X-gene (a unique mutagenic genome). This usually manifests itself at puberty and (most of the time) grants individuals special powers. These mutants are almost universally feared and loathed by the rest of mankind.
Professor Charles Xavier (the world's most powerful telepath) takes gifted individuals and teaches them to control their powers for the good of mankind in his school for gifted youngsters. Opposition to them includes United States Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison), a McCarthyesque politician trying to pass legislation crafted to expose the dangers of mutants, and Erik Lehnsherr (also known as Magneto), a mutant who blames humanity for the death of his family at the hands of the Nazis.
Though they were formerly friends, Lehnsherr and Professor Xavier have different aims. Xavier is trying to convince humanity to accept mutants and put an end to prejudice against his kind. Lehnsherr, believing that homo sapiens and homo superior can never coexist peacefully, aims to teach humanity that mutants are the heirs to the future. Toward this end, Magneto builds and tests a machine that develops humans into mutants.
[edit] The Runaways
Marie D'Ancanto is a teenage girl who accidentally puts her boyfriend into a three-week coma when she kisses him and her mutation is triggered: she drains people's life forces. She runs away to northern Alberta, taking the alias Rogue, and meets mysterious brawler Logan / Wolverine, who makes a living out of cagefighting. She discovers he has retractable metal claws in his hands, and hides inside his trailer as he leaves the city. Wolverine and Rogue are ambushed by Sabretooth, who incapacitates Wolverine. He is about to finish him off when they are saved by Storm and Cyclops. Storm and Cyclops bring the two to the Xavier Institute in North Salem, New York. There, Wolverine and Rogue are introduced to a team of mutant superheroes known as the X-Men.
[edit] At the X-Mansion
When Wolverine regains consciousness, he is being treated by Dr. Jean Grey. He is introduced to Professor Charles Xavier, the owner of the school and X-Men leader. Rogue is able to adapt to life in Xavier's school, and is at peace. Wolverine immediately takes a liking to Jean, and she reawakens some of his past as she attempts to read his mind -- Wolverine can't remember anything past fifteen years ago, when his skeleton was bonded with adamantium and the claws were attached to his body.
Meanwhile, Senator Kelly is abducted by Mystique and Toad. His true captor is revealed to be Magneto, who uses a machine on Kelly and turns him into an adaptive mutant able to polymerize his body. Kelly escapes imprisonment in Magneto's stronghold by squeezing himself through the bars of his cell and washes up on a beach.
Rogue sneaks into Logan's bedroom at the Xavier Institute one night, prompted by the noises he makes while having nightmares about the implanting of his adamantium skeleton. Waking up in a blind rage, he accidentally impales Marie on his claws. She touches him, using her power to imprint his healing ability and save herself. The strain of the experience causes Logan to have a seizure. Xavier reveals that Rogue's power also means that she takes the power of any mutant she touches, not just their life force.
[edit] Train Station
Mystique, posing as Iceman, a fellow mutant and Rogue's crush (other than Logan), infiltrates the Institute. She poisons Xavier's Cerebro machine and tricks Rogue into thinking that Xavier is angry at her, causing her to run away. Xavier thinks that Magneto lured Rogue out of the safety of the School so Logan would go after her. He sends Storm and Cyclops to find Rogue, but Wolverine sneaks off anyway.
Logan convinces Rogue to come back to Xavier's mansion with him, but then Magneto appears, easily repelling Logan's defense (his adamantium skeleton makes him helpless against Magneto) and abducts Marie. The other X-Men and the Brotherhood battle briefly; Cyclops is incapacitated when his battle visor is snatched by Toad's tongue, Sabretooth strangles Storm, who retaliates with a lightning blast but may still be unconscious from the strain, and Xavier and Magneto engage in a battle of wills where the Professor uses his telepathy to control Sabretooth and Toad and stop Magneto from controlling the guns the police have brought to the scene. (Magneto seizes them all and points them at their owners.) Despite the valiant efforts of Xavier's team, the villains escape with Rogue in their captivity.
[edit] Magneto's Plan
Senator Kelly, slowly dying from this unnatural mutation, brings himself to the Xavier Institute (instead of a hospital because he fears he may be shunned as a mutant) and tells Xavier of Magneto's machine. He then dies as a result of his unnatural mutation. The X-Men realize that Magneto's machine does not mutate; it kills.
The X-Men find out that Magneto wants to transfer his power to Rogue (using her power as an amplifying force) and place her in his mutation machine. A UN summit is taking place in the nearby Ellis Island, and by turning the world's leaders into mutants, Lehnsherr reckons to solve the mutant problems by force. Since Magneto was nearly killed using the machine to mutate Sen. Kelly, he will pour all of his power into Rogue, and she will be trapped in the machine, generating the deadly wave until her body burns out.
[edit] Liberty Island
Xavier uses the sabotaged Cerebro to locate Rogue and is rendered comatose, due to the poison which Mystique planted inside. Jean Grey restores Cerebro and uses it herself, nearly killing herself in the process, but finding out that Rogue is imprisoned in the flame of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. The X-Men set up a battle plan in which they will land on Liberty Island, and climb their way up to the top of the Statue, and save Rogue. They arrive at the scene in a specialized jet and soon find themselves battling the Brotherhood again. Mystique poses as Wolverine and attempts to kill Cyclops, but the real Wolverine stops her. After a fierce duel, she pretends to be Storm in order to lure him off and kill him, but Logan sees through the ruse. He stabs her in the stomach. Toad, meanwhile, kicks Cyclops into a glass display, and throws Storm onto the second floor of the Museum. Jean stops him midair with her powers, but he shoots slime at her face, and she starts to suffocate as the slime took the shape of her face. Cyclopes uses his eyebeams to destroy the slime and save Jean. Toad then leaps up to the second floor and knocks Storm down an elevator shaft. Storm survives and uses a fierce wind to blow Toad off the ground and through a window. Toad uses his tongue to hold onto a hand rail, but Storm kills him by hitting him with a lightning bolt and knocking him into the water.
After battling and defeating both Toad and Mystique, the X-Men locate Rogue and the mutation device at the top of the Statue of Liberty. They are promptly captured by Magneto. Wolverine frees himself, engages in a lengthy battle with Sabretooth and frees his partners. All four work together to free Rogue; Logan is levitated to the mutation device by Storm and Jean Grey, allowing him an opportunity to destroy the machine. Magneto uses his powers to freeze Logan so he can't stop the machine, but Cyclops blasts Magneto with an optic blast, enabling Logan to slash the machine to pieces. Rogue is near death when Logan saves her by touching her, thus using her life-draining powers to transfer his healing powers to her.
[edit] Epilogue
Professor Xavier recovers from his coma. Senator Kelly reappears on the news as a more mutant-friendly politician. Careful scrutiny of the news footage by Xavier and the X-Men reveal that Kelly is actually Mystique in disguise. Wolverine journeys to Canada, to find answers to his origins, but promises to return. The film ends with Xavier playing chess with Magneto in a completely plastic jail cell. Magneto tells his old friend that he will continue fighting "by any means necessary", while Xavier replies he'll always be ready to meet the threats.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Featured Mutants
[edit] The X-Men
Head and founder of the X-Men and the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Prof. X is famous for his dream of peaceful coexistence between mutantkind and mankind. Although he is restricted to a wheelchair it does not stop him from being a very powerful mutant. Along with Magneto, he is the inventor of the Cerebro supercomputer, which further amplifies his abilities.
Powers: Very powerful psychic abilities. He can even "freeze" a great number of people.
Wolverine is a loner and makes a living by winning bar scraps. He had been indoctrinated into a living weapon program. He has a tough personality. His cover as a mutant is blown when his beaten contestant is about to jump him and Logan reacts by nearly cutting his throat with his claws; he is barred and drives away (with Rogue in the back). He takes Rogue away from the city and finds out they are both mutants. There he falls in love with Jean Grey, making Cyclops his rival.
Powers: Wolverine heals at an exceptionally rapid rate, curing most wounds in a matter of seconds. He also has enhanced strength, stamina and sensory accuity. As part of the living weapon program, he was implanted with retractable metal "claws" which sheath in his forearms and an indestructable metal skeleton.
Seen saving Wolverine and Rogue from a truck explosion and are taken to safety to X-Mansion where they live. Is the second leader of the X-Men behind Xavier, and is the teams field leader when they are out on missions. He is in love with Jean Grey and has a relationship with her.
Powers: Constantly produces a strong red beam of force from his eyes, which is only held in check by specialised ruby-quartz sunglasses.
Girlfriend of Cyclops and works as the doctor of X-Mansion. In X men 2 Wolverine had some competition with Cyclops for her, but Jean rejected Wolverine and chose Cyclops.
Powers: Has the powers of telepathy and telekinesis.
Seen saving Wolverine and Rogue from a truck explosion and are taken to safety to X-Mansion where they live. She has become bitter with other people's despise for mutants, and says she hates humans sometimes.
Powers: Can control the weather.
A beautiful seventeen-year-old girl, forced to leave her family in Mississippi after putting her boyfriend in a coma by kissing him. She travels to a snow-filled city where she meets Wolverine.
Powers: If she has contact with another human or mutant she can absorb their powers for a time, if she holds on longer, she can take their life. These powers prevent Rogue and Iceman from having a more intimate relationship.
Rogue's boyfriend at X-Mansion. His family doesn't know he's a mutant.
Powers: Can change tempreatures to subzero degrees and use the moisture in the air to create ice.
[edit] The Brotherhood
The leader of the Brotherhood, Holocaust survivor, and primary user of the mutation-generating machine. He and Charles were allies once—he even helped build Cerebro—however, his belief that humans and mutants could never co-exist lead to their separation.
Powers: Can manipulate metal of any form due to being able to create and control magnetic fields.
Magneto's loyal second-in-command, she is an agile fighter and expert with technology. She survived the attack at the Statue of Liberty, and subsequently infiltrated the White House as Senator Kelly.
Powers: Can shapeshift into any human, as well as imitate their voice accurately. She can take on other objects that have human forms, such as the Statue of Liberty replica.
- Toad:
A very agile fighter, with a menacing streak (at least with the X-Men).[1] He is first seen spraypainting an unknown machine, possibly the mutator. It is unknown whether he survived Storm's lightning shock.
Powers: Increased jumping ability, comparable to that of a toad's, as well as a long, prehensile tongue.
Attacked Wolverine and Rogue in Canada before being stopped by Storm and Cyclops.
Powers: Feline-like abilities, enhanced strength and agility, as well as claws extending past each finger.
[edit] Making the film
According to Joss Whedon, who made an early draft of the screenplay, only two parts of his draft made it into the final film. The first is the exchange between Wolverine and Cyclops ("It's me." "Prove it!" "You're a dick."); the other is Storm's, "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else." Whedon was disappointed with Halle Berry's over-dramatic delivery of the latter line, which he imagined as an offhand, casual comment.[2]
Wolverine's claws required a full silicone cast of Hugh Jackman's arm, and 700 versions for Jackman and his stunt doubles.[3]
The scene at the train station where the young boy smiles at Cyclops, and Cyclops smiles back was unplanned. The boy was a huge fan of the X-Men, and Cyclops was his favorite. The scene originally called for Cyclops to look at the train schedule, however, according to Bryan Singer, the boy could not stop smiling at James Marsden (the actor playing Cyclops). Finally, during one shot, Marsden just looked back at him and smiled, much to the boy's delight. Bryan Singer liked the idea so much, he kept it in the film, and told the actress playing the boy's mother to react the way she did.
The relatively unspectacular scene where the X-Men leave the X-Jet and hop over a wall to step into the Statue of Liberty caused much hilarity. The reason was that the actors Berry, Janssen, Marsden and Jackman wore such tight fitting costumes that they simply could not make the jump over the small ledge. Another problem was that they were supposed to hold their breath to avoid clouding in the cold weather, a point which Berry forgot at least once. This can be all seen on the blooper reel of the DVD X-Men 1.5.
During the film, as Logan mocks the X-Men's black uniforms, Cyclops replies: "What would you prefer? Yellow spandex?" This is a reference to Wolverine's blue-and-yellow uniform. from the comics.
At one point in the film, Toad grabs an iron pole and proceeds to twirl it around in a fashion not unlike that of Gambit. In actual fact this was in reference to the Star Wars character Darth Maul, whom actor Park had portrayed in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
When appearing at Wondercon 2006 to promote Superman Returns (2006), Bryan Singer mentioned that he originally approached composer John Williams to compose the score for X-Men, but Williams was too busy composing the score for Saving Private Ryan (1998). [1]
In the scene when Senator Kelly emerges from the water at the beach a hot dog vendor that can be seen. The vendor is Stan Lee, the original creator of X-Men. George Buza, the voice of Beast in the X-Men animated series, has a cameo as the truck driver who brought Anna Paquin's Rogue to the bar at the beginning of the film.
[edit] Reactions and box office
The film went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2000, taking in more than $296 million worldwide and becoming the 8th highest grossing film, domestically, of that year. The film is also widely credited as being the patriarch of the current "Comic Book Movie Age" that Hollywood is currently experiencing with releases such as, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, The Punisher, Constantine, Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, The Hulk, Superman Returns, Ghost Rider, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Some fans were not entirely pleased with the first large scale adaptation of the X-Men. Many fans complained about the change in costumes and the overall depiction of Rogue as frightened, naive, and defenseless - even with her powers. Another overall complaint was that the other X-Men, featured so prominently in the comic books, were relegated to playing second fiddle against Wolverine. Many fans felt that Cyclops in particular, the field leader of the X-Men, and his long-term romance with Jean Grey were minimalized to emphasize Wolverine's role in the group, and Wolverine's infatuation with Jean.
[edit] Trivia
- Although Wolverine is 5'3" in the comic books, Hugh Jackman is 6'3", forcing the other actors to wear platform shoes and stand on risers to compensate. [2]
- Ray Park and Tyler Mane who play Toad and Sabretooth in the movie were signed up for two movies, as is standard in franchise production, but were not in X2 or X3. It is unknown if they will reprise their roles in any future X-Men films.
- A blooper available on the Internet and also in the DVD release as a hidden Easter Egg features a take of Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey running inside the Statue of Liberty; however, instead of Wolverine following them, the fourth member of the group was someone wearing a Spider-Man costume. When the other three realize this, they (and the crew) burst out laughing.
- Originally Toad was supposed to wear his goggles throughout the whole movie, but he only wears them at the first part he is in.
- The audio commentary service RiffTrax features a downloadable audio commentary for the film featuring former Mystery Science Theater 3000 writers/co-stars Michael J. Nelson and Bill Corbett. [3]
[edit] Prequels and sequels
X-Men was followed up by two sequels, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Currently, there are two prequels in planning: Wolverine and Magneto.
[edit] References
- ^ This was explained in a documentary included on the X-Men DVD.
- ^ Nazzaro, Joe (2002). Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Television (ISBN 1-84023-383-4)
- ^ Abel, Kris (2006-10-26). Making Wolverine's Claws. CTV. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
[edit] External links
- X-Men Movies hype at the SuperHeroHype!
- TheXverse.com: X-Men Movie News
- X-Men at Rotten Tomatoes
- X-Men at Box Office Mojo
- X-Men on Marvel.com
| Marvel Comics films | |
|---|---|
| Single films | Captain America (1991) | Ghost Rider (2007) | Howard the Duck (1986) |
| Franchises |
Blade: Blade (1998) | Blade II (2002) | Blade: Trinity (2004) |
| In development | Iron Man (2008) | The Incredible Hulk (2008) | Ant-Man (2008) | Wolverine | Luke Cage | Deathlok | Gargoyle | Magneto | Namor | The Punisher 2 |
