X2
United we stand...
An embittered military colonel makes an attempt to start the war against mutants, by targeting Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. However, desperate times breed desperate alliances.
Contents
Cast
Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Marie D'Ancato, John Allerdyce
Timing
Plot Summary
(Write-up largely taken from the Wikipedia entry)
A teleporting mutant by the name of Nightcrawler attempted an assassination of the President of the United States. After a lengthy battle with Secret Service agents, he almost succeeded, but was shot and disappeared, leaving behind a knife with a tag that reads "Mutant Freedom Now!"
During a field trip to the museum, Jean Grey was confronted by Cyclops after she demonstrated her lack of focus. She confessed to him that she has been having bad feelings about the future. In the food court, Bobby, Marie, and John engaged in an alteraction with two other young men. After John set one of the boys' clothes on fire and Bobby extinguished him, Professor Xavier intervened and froze everyone except the students in place. As coverage of the attack on the president was shown on television and mutants blamed it was decided that it was best to leave.
In Alaska, Wolverine finally reached Alkali Lake, the facility used for experiments related to the WEAPON Project. He found nothing but an empty dam and returned, unhappy with the result.
Upon Logan's return to the school, he was immediately asked to "babysit" the children of the school. After some difficulty due to Nightcrawler's powers, Professor Xavier located Nightcrawler with Cerebro and sent Storm and Jean to retrieve him. They found Nightcrawler in a church and he willingly came along with them, explaining that the entire time he was in the White House, he had no control over his actions. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Professor X visited Magneto in his plastic prison to see if he had any part in the attack on the President. While reading Magneto's thoughts, Professor X discovers that a covert government operative, William Stryker, had been extracting information from Magneto. During their conversation, a trap was sprung and Cyclops and Professor X were captured.
At the school, Wolverine awakened to nightmares of his vague memories of the Weapon X project and headed to the kitchen. While conversing with Bobby, a government-sanctioned military invasion of the school began. The soldiers attempted to sedate every mutant they find, but Siryn woke everybody up with one of her sonic screams. Colossus and Wolverine rounded up a number of the students, sending them into the escape tunnels. Wolverine attempted to stay behind to confront the attackers, but was shocked to discover that they were being led by William Stryker, whom he dimly remembered. Stryker, himself surprised to see Wolverine in the mansion, revealed that he knew much about Wolverine and wished for him to come with the military to discuss it. Before Wolverine answered, Bobby was able to create an impenetrable wall of ice between them. The kids - Bobby, Marie and John - persuaded Wolverine to come with them, to protect them. The other staff and students gathered at various points and find places to stay and wonder what had happened, trying to get into contact with each other.
In the meantime, Mystique who had been posing as Senator Robert Kelly since his death mimicked Stryker's assistant Yuriko Oyama in order to obtain information about Magneto's prison. She eventually managed to trick one of his security guards and drugged him, injecting him with liquid iron. When the guard later arrived at the prison, Magneto extracted the metal and Magneto was able to create small balls of metal, which he used to destroy his prison and escape.
Wolverine and the kids headed to Bobby's home in Boston. After an awkward meeting between his parents and Wolverine, Bobby decided to tell his parents (who believed he has been going to an ordinary boarding school) that he was a mutant. His parents were shocked to learn the truth, especially when their son demonstrated his power by freezing a cup of tea. During the discussion, Bobby's disgruntled brother ran upstairs and called the police, telling them that mutants are holding his family hostage. Wolverine meanwhile received a call from Storm and arranged for her to pick them up.
The police arrived as they were attempting to leave, and drew their weapons on Wolverine and his younger companions. A police officer mistook Wolverine's claws for knives and ordered him to drop them. When Wolverine tried to explain and sheathed his claws, the officer shot Wolverine in the head. John became enraged and began using his flame-controlling powers to attack the officers and destroy their cars. Just before his attack turns deadly, Marie grabbed hold of him with her bare hand. John fell to the ground, drained of his powers, which Marie then use to put the fires out. The Blackbird arrived to pick up the kids and Wolverine, now fully recovered thanks to his adamantium skull and healing factor.
During the flight, the Blackbird was targeted by two Air Force F-16s who attempted to force a landing. After the X-Men refused to land, the pilots fired missiles. Storm created a number of tornadoes in order to lose the aircraft. One plane was unable to maintain control and ejected. The other was able to fire two missiles before ejecting. Storm attempted evasive maneuvers, but quickly lost distance. Jean used her powers at an unnaturally high level and was able to destroy one of the missiles. Unfortunately the other detonated directly behind the jet, rupturing the fuselage. In the ensuing depressurization, Marie was pulled out of her seat and out into a free fall. Nightcrawler teleported outside the jet to grab Marie, then teleported back in, saving her life. The jet, still en route to a crash landing, was stopped at the last moment by Magneto, who was standing on the ground.
Magneto had learned that Stryker orchestrated the attack on the President in order to gain approval to attack the school and that he had been experimenting on mutants (including Nightcrawler) at a secret base. Jean Grey read Nightcrawler's mind and determined that Stryker's base was located at Alkali Lake. When Wolverine claimed that there was nothing at Alkali Lake, Jean insisted that the base was inside the dam. Stryker was able to control mutants with a powerful drug that he has used on Nightcrawler, Magneto, and a number of other mutants, including Lady Deathstrike. He had also stolen enough equipment from Xavier's own Cerebro unit to build a second Cerebro and planned to use Professor X to kill all of the mutants in the world. The X-Men and Magneto joined together to stop Stryker.
Stryker gained control over Professor Xavier through his son, Jason Stryker (a former student of the professor), who was able to project powerful visions in the mind, blinding a person to reality. Jason (in the form of a frightened young girl) instructed Professor X to use Cerebro to find all existing mutants and kill them. Magneto, Mystique, and the remaining X-Men Storm, Wolverine and Jean plus Nightcrawler, staged their assault on the facility, by having Mystique infiltrate disguised as Wolverine. Stryker ordered his guards to let "Wolverine" in, as he believed his experiment had finally decided to come home. Somehow Mystique's disguise didn't fool Colonel Stryker and Mystique quickly incapacitated the soldiers and managed to take control of the control room, opening up the main gates so that the X-Men could enter the Alkali Lake Facility. Storm and Nightcrawler paired off, searching for the kidnapped students who were intended as test subjects for the Cerebro plan. Jean Grey joined Magneto and Mystique in order to keep an eye on them as they attempted to bring Professor Xavier back to his senses and rescue him. On their way, they were attacked by a brainwashed Cyclops. Jean stood her ground against Cyclops in order to buy Magneto enough time to get to Dark Cerebro and stop the coming mutant annihilation. Jean withstood Cyclops' optic blast, reflecting it again at an extremely high level and both were propelled backwards, causing damage to the generators that kept the dam from collapsing.
Wolverine ran off on his own to look for Stryker. He found Stryker in an adamantium smelting room along with Lady Deathstrike. A battle of blades ensued with Deathstrike, which ended with Wolverine pumping her full of molten adamantium metal, killing her. Wolverine caught up with Stryker on a landing pad and stabbed him in the stomach. Stryker attempted to bargain with Wolverine, telling him that if he came with him he could tell him about his past. Wolverine refused and strapped the wounded Stryker to the helicopter wheel, saying that if the X-Men died, Stryker would too.
Magneto broke into the new Cerebro and used Mystique, disguised as Stryker, to convince Jason of a "change of plans" - to kill all humans. Magneto escaped on the helicopter, taking John along with him. The X-Men saved Professor X and stop the killing process, but the dam was falling apart. The group, with the rescued students, Charles and Cyclops, escaped the dam only to find the helicopter gone - all seemed lost until the Blackbird appeared, piloted by a panicking Marie. A malfunction aboard the Blackbird prevented it from taking off again and the dam finally burst. The flood drowned Stryker and annihilated the base and Jean Grey left the jet, using her heightened powers to stop the onrushing flood, and raising the jet at the same time. Nightcrawler attempted to grab her but she prevented him from teleporting. She raised the jet just high enough for it to take off as the water floods over her, to the horror of those watching.
Back at the White House the next day, the President prepared to address the country on the perceived mutant threat. Just as he began his speech, the lights flickered and everyone in the room froze except for himself. The X-Men appeared before him and Marie gave him the files from Stryker's private offices while Professor X tells him about the events of the last few days, saying that in the files some humans and mutants tried to start a war and there had been casualties on both sides. Then Professor X gave him an ultimatum: either humans and mutants work together to build peace, or they would destroy each other through war. The mutants left in the same manner they entered. As everyone else in the room returns to motion, the shocked President looks at the files and is uncertain whether to continue his speech.
Returning to the school and rebuilding the damage, the staff and students held a memorial service for Jean and Pyro left permanently to join Magneto's Brotherhood.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
A number of staff and students who were not featured in the movie were considered to be already at the school at the time of the attack:
Emma Frost, Pete Wisdom, Betsy ‘Psylocke’ Braddock and Dr. Hank ‘Beast’ McCoy.
Warren ‘Angel’ Worthington, Alison ‘Dazzler’ Blaire, Lorna ‘Polaris’ Dane and Sam ‘Cannonball’ Guthrie.
Meta
Plotrunners: John, Jules and Bonnie
The events of the X2 movie launched X-Project and are considered canon for the game.
