X-men Days Of Future Past Poster
Kizzy Burnworth
In a dystopian 2023, robot Sentinels hunt and kill mutants and humans who either possess the genetic potential to have mutant offspring or try to protect them. In Moscow, they attack X-Men survivors: Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Blink, Warpath, Bishop, Iceman, and Sunspot. The mutants sacrifice themselves to buy Kitty enough time to send Bishop's consciousness a few days into the past to warn the others of the coming attack and ensure their survival.
Having averted the attack, the group retreats to a remote Chinese temple and are joined by Storm, Wolverine, Charles Xavier, and Magneto. Xavier explains that the Sentinels were originally conceived by Bolivar Trask, a weapons designer whom Raven Darkhlme assassinated in 1973. In response, the government captured Raven and experimented on her, using her DNA to create Sentinels capable of adapting to any mutant power. Xavier plans to go back in time to 1973 and prevent Trask's assassination in the hopes of altering the future. However, upon learning time-traveling that far would kill Charles, Wolverine volunteers instead, as his regenerative abilities would allow him to survive.
Awakening in 1973, Wolverine goes to the X-Mansion, learning from Hank McCoy that the school has been closed for years due to the Vietnam War, and Erik Lehnsherr has been imprisoned for assassinating JFK. A young, broken Xavier turned to alcoholism and frequently uses a serum that allows him to walk, but at the cost of his telepathic abilities. Hoping to reunite with Raven, Xavier agrees to help Wolverine. They recruit Quicksilver, a mutant with superhuman speeds, and break Lehnsherr out of The Pentagon.
Raven discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants and plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords, but Xavier, McCoy, and Logan foil her attempt. Lehnsherr attempts to kill Raven, believing this would change the future. McCoy fights him, allowing Raven to escape but publicly exposing the three as mutants. Trask takes advantage of this and convinces President Nixon to authorize the Sentinel program.
Lehnsherr retrieves his helmet and secretly takes control of Trask's Sentinel prototypes by infusing them with steel. Returning to the X-Mansion, Xavier abandons the serum and by reading Logan's mind, can communicate with his future self, who inspires him to protect the relationship between mutants and humans. After Xavier uses his mutant-tracking computer Cerebro to find Raven, he, McCoy, and Logan travel to Washington, D.C. to stop her from assassinating Trask.
At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, the three search for Raven. Lehnsherr appears, activates the Sentinels, and barricades the White House with the RFK Stadium. During the battle, Lehnsherr impales Logan with a rebar and throws him into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and a disguised Raven retreat to the White House Bunker. However, Lehnsherr rips the bunker out of the building to kill everyone inside. In 2023, the X-Men make their last stand as an onslaught of Sentinels attacks the temple. Many mutants perish while trying to buy more time. In 1973, Raven reveals herself and subdues Lehnsherr with a plastic gun, saving Nixon and his cabinet. She attempts to kill Trask but Xavier telepathically convinces her to spare him, leading the public to realize that a mutant saved the president. As a result, the Sentinel program is decommissioned, altering the timeline and erasing the dark future of 2023 from history. The mutants in the past depart separately; Trask is later arrested for selling military secrets to foreign governments.
Wolverine reawakens in 2023 at the X-Mansion to find that Xavier's school is thriving and the X-Men are all alive, including Rogue, Jean Grey, and Scott Summers. Logan asks Xavier for information about modern history from 1973 to the present. Upon realizing that the Wolverine from the original timeline has returned, Charles assents. Back in 1973, Logan is rescued by Raven, having disguised herself as Major William Stryker. In a post-credits scene set in ancient Egypt, a crowd chants to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates rocks to build pyramids as his Four Horsemen observe from afar.
Additionally, Famke Janssen and James Marsden reprise their roles as Jean Grey and Scott Summers, respectively, in cameo appearances. Lucas Till reprises his role as Havok. Evan Jonigkeit portrays Toad. Gregg Lowe portrays Ink. X-Men comic book writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont appear as United States congressmen. Michael Lerner plays Senator Brickman. Mark Camacho portrays U.S. President Richard Nixon. Zehra Leverman portrays Quicksilver's mother Ms. Maximoff. Singer cameos as a man with a small film camera as Magneto walks away after Mystique's escape in Paris. In a post-credits scene, Brendan Pedder portrays the ancient mutant, En Sabah Nur.[41]
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in August 2006 that a continuation of the X-Men main film series would require a renegotiation. New cast members of X-Men: The Last Stand were signed, while the older cast members were not.[42] Donner said, "There is forty years worth of stories. I've always wanted to do Days of Future Past and there are just really a lot of stories yet to be told".[43] She later pitched the idea of a fourth installment of the X-Men franchise to director Bryan Singer, following the completion of the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class.[44] In March 2011, Donner said the film was in "active development at Fox"; she said, "We took the treatment to Fox and they love it ... And X4 leads into X5".[45]
20th Century Fox saw X-Men: First Class as the first film of a new X-Men trilogy.[46] Donner compared the franchise plans to the darker, more mature content of the Harry Potter film series.[47] Early reports said Matthew Vaughn and Singer were returning to direct and produce the sequel, respectively.[48] While still attached to the project as a director, Vaughn said, "First Class is similar to Batman Begins, where you have the fun of introducing the characters and getting to know them, but that takes time. But with the second one, you can just get on with it and have a rollicking good time. That's the main difference between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight".[49] Describing the possible beginning of the film, Vaughn said, "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto".[50] Singer said the film could be set around the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War,[51] and that Wolverine could once again be featured.[52] Singer also talked about "changing history" in an interview with Empire magazine. He said he does not want people to panic about events in the past "erasing" the storylines of the previous X-Men films, as he believes in multiverses, explaining the possibility of certain events can exist equally in the histories of alternate universes.[53]
Kinberg said the main focus of this film was the future of the X-Men film series. With the use of cast members from the original trilogy and from First Class, they needed to decide the sequels' destination.[16] In preparation for the film, Kinberg studied films about time travel, including Back to the Future, The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Singer originated a philosophy and a set of rules for time travel in the film so the story would be as plausible as possible.[16]
According to Kinberg, as they were writing the script, they thought it was more sensible for Wolverine to travel between time periods instead of Kitty Pryde, because of his ageless look and ability to heal rapidly.[16] He further stated of making Wolverine the time traveler, "We made the decision for a lot of reasons ... he's the protagonist of the franchise, and probably the most beloved character to a mass audience".[56] Kinberg and Vaughn considered Bishop and Cable candidates for the role of time traveler.[9] Kinberg said Rachel Summers was in the first draft of the script; she sent Wolverine back to 1973. The character was later replaced with Kitty Pryde, to whom Kinberg gave a secondary power of sending people's consciousnesses into the past.[57] Angel Salvadore, Juggernaut, Jubilee, Nightcrawler and Psylocke were also considered for the film.[58][59][60][61][62]
Singer was asked how the film integrates the themes of the earlier X-Men films; he said, "It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears. It confronts the notions of hope and second chances. Its characters that are lost trying to find themselves. In X-Men 1 and 2, the characters had come into their own and knew who they were. In this one, they're all lost and they're trying to keep it together".[63]
In October 2012, Vaughn left the role of director to focus on Mark Millar's Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).[68] He originally wanted a different First Class sequel helmed by another director with a young Wolverine possibly played by Tom Hardy, before returning to direct Days of Future Past (set in the 1980s) himself.[69][70][71] Singer was later announced as the film's director; it was his third directorial role in the X-Men film series.[72] In preparation for the film, Singer approached James Cameron to discuss time travel, string theory and multiverses.[73] In the same month, Richard Stammers was approached to be the visual effects supervisor, as Singer liked his work in the 2012 film Prometheus.[74]
I decided that the next time I got myself involved in a movie that had a huge amount of attention already that I would use Twitter. As a way of connecting with fans, principally. And also as a way of clearing up misunderstandings so that people know. You know, they may hear that an actor is cast or hear somebody is going to be in it, but until I say it's so, that's the confirmation.[78]
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