X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
directed by
Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Summer 2016
Professor Charles Xavier: James McAvoy
En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse: Idris Elba
Magneto: Michael Fassbender
Mystique: Jennifer Lawrence
Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast: Nicholas Hoult
Logan / Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
NEW CLASS
Scott / Cyclops: Timothee Chalamet
Jean Grey: Saoirse Ronan
Kurt / Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-McPhee
Warren / Angel: Austin Butler
Alison / Dazzler: Odeya Rush
SUPPORTING
Ororo / Storm: Letitia Wright
Peter / Quicksilver: Evan Peters
Dr. Moira MacTaggart: Rose Byrne
ADDITIONAL
Alex Summers: Lucas Till
Colonel William Stryker: Josh Helman
Senator Robert Kelly: Brian Geraghty
FULL CAST PHOTO GALLERY
Professor Xavier: James McAvoy
APOCALYPSE & THE FOUR HORSEMEN
En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse: Idris Elba
Magneto: Michael Fassbender
Mystique: Jennifer Lawrence
Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast: Nicholas Hoult
Logan / Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
NEW CLASS
Scott / Cyclops: Timothee Chalamet
Jean Grey: Saoirse Ronan
Kurt / Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-McPhee
Warren / Angel: Austin Butler
Alison / Dazzler: Odeya Rush
SUPPORTING
Ororo / Storm: Letitia Wright
Peter / Quicksilver: Evan Peters
Dr. Moira MacTaggart: Rose Byrne
ADDITIONAL
Alex Summers: Lucas Till
Colonel William Stryker: Josh Helman
Senator Robert Kelly: Brian Geraghty
PLOT TREATMENT CHANGES / NOTES
X-Men: Apocalypse, set in 1983, is intended to kickstart a new set of films centered around the new class of X-Men: CYCLOPS, JEAN GREY, STORM, ANGEL, NIGHTCRAWLER, and DAZZLER in the 1980’s.
Warren Worthington is already a student at the X-Mansion when Scott Summers arrives, along with Jean Grey and Alison Blaire / Dazzler (replacing Jubilee).
- Jean‘s powers make the other students fearful of her. Warren is the popular boy on campus (and rival for Scott), and Allison is pure 80s Dazzler from the comics.
- Instead of the classroom introduction we have on film, we are introduced to high schooler Scott Summers on the cusp of pitching a no-hitter. He’s a natural-born leader. Then, suddenly, his mutant abilities first start to manifest. He runs off the mound and into the locker rooms as the crowd boos. His optic blasts unleash, punching a hole through the wall and nearly through his teammates on the field.
Senator Kelly is a junior senator from New York always on the cable news circuit—it’s an appearance of his on CNN early in the film that provides the exposition for the audience & reminder of the events of Magneto’s attack against the President in 1974.
Logan is with Mystique in East Berlin when she rescues Kurt from the mutant-trafficking ring. There is an extended action sequence with Logan fighting alongside the freed mutants against the guards.
- Through dialogue, we learn that Mystique and Logan have worked together on-and-off since she rescued him from Stryker in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
More time is spent getting to know the new class of mutants—with less focus on Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, & Beast.
- Both Xavier and Magneto are gray / silver (not overdone with aged-makeup, but there’s an effort made to show that it’s been 20 years since X-Men: First Class).
- Hank is always in blue beast form—no mention of serums or pills.
- Mystique hides her blue form from the public to avoid attention. She doesn’t see herself as a hero—not when there are so many mutants around the world that still need help.
The opening sequence is altered from the filmed version:
In ancient Egypt, En Sabah Nur is a ruthless warlord razing villages in search of mutants with his Four Horsemen (comic accurate costumes, albeit with an ancient Egyptian-skew). He has the ability to transfer his consciousness into bodies & collect mutant abilities, extending his life each time.
- After his latest raze, we watch him transfer his mind into the body of a mutant with cellular regeneration powers (body of Idris Elba).
- It’s a ritualistic ceremony but the process is solely-powered by Apocalypse and takes his full concentration which leaves him momentarily powerless—protected only by his Horsemen.
- During the transference, the Horseman betray En Sabah Nur—fearing his power— and entomb him underneath his pyramid.
Apocalypse is first awakened during an archaeological dig. There is Egyptian military onsite with CIA agent Moira MacTaggart due to concern over a cult called the Clan Akkaba. Apocalypse decimates the site with only Moira narrowly escaping.
- Since X-Men: First Class, MacTaggart has become one of the intelligence communities’ foremost minds on mutant policy. The mind-wipe was a temporary setback in her career but only served to intensify her research and field missions.
Alex Summers brings his brother Scott to Xavier Mansion where Scott meets Jean for the first time, and first butts heads with Warren.
Apocalypse later rescues runaway thief Storm as he wanders the streets of Cairo but she turns down his offer to join him, seeing herself as a loner.
He uses the television to “learn” and instead seeks Magneto who is not hiding in Poland but instead is already forming Genosha off the coast of Madagascar with his son, Peter aka Quicksilver.
Magneto & Quicksilver have already come to terms with their father-son relationship in the 9 years since
X-Men: Days of Future Past. Peter is trying to help rehabilitate his father, guiding him towards a life of peace & his newfound family at the commune of Genosha.
Apocalypse seduces Magneto to his cause by taking him to Auschwitz and unlocking his full powers to destroy the camp. Afterwards, Magneto is mentally exhausted & Apocalypse is able to take control of his mind.
Logan meets a young Jean & Scott at the mansion when he arrives with Mystique and Kurt.
The new class of X-Men ditch the mansion to go to the mall in this film version and we see their characters interact & the bonds form in an 80s music-filled montage.
Xavier reaches out to Magneto via Cerebro after seeing news coverage of Auschwitz’s unnatural destruction. Apocalypse connects to his mind to detonate the world’s nuclear arsenal before transporting to the mansion to capture Xavier and take control of Mystique, Logan, and Beast as his remaining horsemen.
David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” is the song for Quicksilver’s rescue sequence (otherwise relatively unchanged, but Apocalypse is fully responsible for Alex’s death and the mansion’s destruction).
- Quicksilver is there to warn the X-Men about Apocalypse, but is too late again.
Apocalypse bonds adamantium to Logan’s skeleton (the ending of
X-Men: Days of Future Past is upheld; Logan never undergoes the Weapon X procedure). Logan wears a suit similar to his classic comics costume as a Horseman.
Apocalypse’s Horsemen are fully under his control with no will of their own: Wolverine, Magneto, Mystique, & Beast
- Each Horseman’s powers are enhanced tenfold.
- The new class of X-Men, led by Scott Summers, will have to save the day.
Apocalypse‘s plan is relatively unchanged—he targets Professor Xavier for his next transference (but with less global destruction). He instructs Magneto to raise his buried pyramid from the sands, and has the Four Horsemen protect the fortress during the transference.
As the city of Cairo begins to evacuate when the transference begins, Storm decides to stop running and join the fight.
Col. Stryker loans a jet and flight suits for MacTaggart and the young X-Men to get to Egypt, but his motives aren’t completely altruistic—shortly after they depart, he deploys a fleet of SENTINELS to kill all the mutants.
In the final battle, Apocalypse kills Mystique—mutantkind’s ‘false hero,’ as he calls her—though she manages to distract the villain long enough for the heroes to unite against him. She dies in Xavier’s arms and he tearfully echoes her words back to herl...“mutant & proud.”
Jean does “let go” and unleash her power on Apocalypse at the end, bringing her arc full-circle (although there is no Phoenix reveal).
At the end...
Magneto goes back to Genosha with Quicksilver, bidding farewell to Xavier (now bald due to Apocalypse’s attempt at transference). Moira MacTaggart’s memories are now fully restored.
The X-Men, in comic-accurate costumes, ready themselves for a Danger Room simulation against Sentinels, with Beast at the controls and drill sergeant Wolverine suited up and ready to begin.
Mid-credits...
Military personnel are scouring the finale battle location site, cleaning up & assessing the damage. Amongst them is the Weapon X team, with William Stryker present too. They collect a blood sample belonging to Wolverine in briefcase labeled WEAPON X (teasing a Laura / Weapon X-23 future appearance in these 80s films).
THE X-MEN WILL RETURN.
olph Lundgren
