Days of Future Past The x envelope

[Super Jim]

I've written about this in various other threads and thought it's about time it got it's own thread...

How many of you are aware that there is such a thing as...

THE X ENVELOPE?

And before I get into the details of what it is and how it could apply, let's recap what we know about this movie as it applies to the past...

1. I have seen over and over that the year (in the past) will be 1973. Not sure where this was confirmed.

2. There is indication that Singer wants to have Nixon as a character in the movie. Not sure if it will be an actual actor or if it will be old video, similar to what was used in FC.

3. Days of Future Past is normally about a Sentinal controlled dystopian future (or present - depending on how you want to think about it).

Ok, so how does 1973 apply to Nixon?

First, when you think of Nixon what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me it is his "I'm not a crook" speech. So what was that speech about? I bet most of you are not aware that it was November 17th, 1973 when Nixon gave that speech.

The break-in of Watergate was actually in 1972, but the aftermath was mainly in 1973, leading to that famous speech. That speech was mainly to defend himself against allegations, mostly about Watergate (the rest was around tax return issues).

So what was Watergate all about?

It was a break-in to the Democratic National Committee Headquarters on June 17th, 1972. For many years it was believed that, per the order of Nixon, the break-in was to get pictires of documents and to place listening devices.

But, this is where it gets good...

During the election campaign in 1968 the focus was on Vietnam and the peace talks. If LBJ was able to get the peace talks to happen Nixon would have a difficult time getting elected. Alledgely Nixon personally tried to prevent the South Vietnamese from coming to the table. LBJ allegdely got ahold of this information and created a file about all of it.

But in the end Nixon was elected. LBJ had his aid, Walt Rastow, take that file out of the White House so Nixon wouldn't get his hands on it. When Nixon's people couldn't find it, Nixon (allegedly) got worried. He supposedly got information that this file was being held in the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at Watergate.

In the spring of 1973, Rostow found himself in a curious position. As Johnson’s presidency ended in 1969 – and at Johnson’s instruction – Rostow had taken with him the White House file chronicling Nixon’s Vietnam gambit, consisting of scores of “secret” and “top secret” documents.

Rostow had labeled the file

“The ‘X’ Envelope.”!!!!!!!

And recently it has been reveiled that it was this X Envelope that the burglars were after, by the order of Nixon, in the Watergate scandal.

So, if you were Singer and making a film that would have X-men from the 70's and was going to have Nixon in it, wouldn't you want to incorporate this:

X ENVELOPE

concept? Seems too perfect not to use! Of course Singer could make it about anything, and not just Vietnam. It could be any of the following:

- Instructions on building Sentinals
- Instructions on building Mastermold
- Instructions on building an Inhibitor Collar
- The names, powers and places of all mutants

And any other numerous mutant related things.

So, what do you guys think?

 

[Super Jim]

By the way, it was in July of 1994 when this X Envelope was first opened and the process of declassifying the contents started.

But it was only in the past couple of years that the specifics became known to the public.

But again, the point, is that if you were making an X-men movie set in 1973 and there was such a thing as the X Envelope that was at the heart of the biggest issue of Nixon's presidency (Watergate) wouldn't you use it is the movie?

 

[josh8]

Hey Super Jim, really super interesting thoughts! I saw you bring this up in the other thread, but it was really just flying by people's heads. They didn't seem to understand that you trying to figure out the significance of setting the movie in 1973.

I've been thinking a lot about this as well. They obviously picked 1973 specifically. The biggest correlation is the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. This cannot be a coincidence. The politics behind the war are definitely going to factor into this movie.

I didn't know anything about the X Envelope, but it is a great conspiracy story... and the X is just too delicious! And we already know that Nixon is going to be in the story to some degree. I can definitely see Mystique having infiltrated his cabinet or even the DNC. This would be such an interesting plotline... and a natural progression from First Class. Where FC had a Bond-esqe feel to it, the 70s portion of DOFP could be more like a political suspense thriller. I haven't seen Singer's Valkyrie. It received mixed to good reviews, but most agreed that Bryan handled the conspiracy/suspense aspect very well.

 

[Super Jim]

Josh8

Exactly! Finally, someone sees what I see...

How perfect would it be for Mystique to be the one behind the Watergate break-in? Or exactly what you said, that she infiltrates Nixon's cabinet and gets information about this X Envelope that is locked up in the DNC Headquarters.

And the X Envelope could be anything for the purpose of this movie. It could be plans to build the sentinals, or Mastermold, or the inhibitor collar, or a list of all known mutants and their powers, or whatever Singer wanted it to be to make it a pivotal plot point.

If you want to read about this X Envelope, which again was the actual cause of the Watergate scandal, check it out here:

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/03/03/lbjs-x-file-on-nixons-treason/

 

[josh8]

Sorry it took a while for me to follow up!

Thanks for the link. I'll look into it!

 

[Super Jim]

So, recently saw the trailer for X-Men Days of Future Past and saw that Nixon is indeed in the movie, as shown below:

So, I'm starting to really wonder about this X-Envelope idea of mine.

Figured I'd get this to bump to see if others might take a look at the concept.

All I know is if there was such a thing (in real life) called "The X Envelope" and it pertained to Nixon saying "I am not a crook" (which I would make sure to have in the movie), well, I'd find a way to put it in the movie.

 

[Figs]

I like where your head is at and also hope they incorporate this into the film in some way.

It's nice and refreshing to get a new and interesting topic to talk about instead of the majority who keep having lame discussions about who's hand is near Wolverine's head in that picture.

 

[Super Jim]

Thought some might be interested in what this X-Envelope really is, in order to understand how it might possibly be used in the context of the Days of Future Past story:

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/03/03/lbjs-x-file-on-nixons-treason/

 

[Super Jim]

So, does anyone else have speculation as to why they would be using Nixon?