Awesome / X-Men: Apocalypse

The Movie

Catastrophic explosion? Huge mansion full of students to rescue? This'll only take a second.

• James McAvoy performs the opening narration for the first time in the franchise, which symbolizes that his Professor X is now the same as Patrick Stewart's in the Alternate Timeline. What makes this voice-over even more cool is that it's an Actor Allusion to Children of Dune, which was McAvoy's first starring role^note he played the main protagonist in two of its three episodes and it's conveniently part of the science-fiction genre.
  Professor X: Mutants, born with extraordinary abilities, and yet still, they are children, stumbling in the dark, searching for guidance. A gift can often be a curse. Give someone wings, and they may fly too close to the sun. Give them the power of prophecy, and they may live in fear of the future. Give them the greatest gift of all, powers beyond imagination, and they may think they are meant to rule the world.
• Ancient Egyptians had enough of En Sabah Nur's ruthless rule, so they deemed him a false god and built a giant and clever trap for him and his followers in secret, sealing the pyramid's entrances and making it collapse by destroying its pillars with giant stones. They accomplished all of this without superpowers or modern technology, just clever planning, patience and total discretion. Badass Normal, indeed.
  • Several guards seal the pyramid's entrance from inside, ensuring that even if they don't kill the despot during his most vulnerable transition, they made sure that he and his followers would be trapped as the structure utterly collapses.
  • The (villainous) Heroic Sacrifice of En Sabah Nur's ancient world Four Horsemen counts. They put their last efforts into shielding him during the collapse before being crushed themselves by tons of stones, ensuring his survival for thousands of years. You can't buy that kind of loyalty.
• The opening credits, which make the viewer travel in time through a tunnel from Apocalypse's pyramid in Ancient Egypt to Cerebro's door in the 1980s with various symbols of human history on the way, with a new rendition of John Ottman's X-Men theme that was first introduced in X2: X-Men United. Symbols include the Passion of the Christ (advent of Christianity), Mona Lisa (the Renaissance), a train (the invention of the steam engine), dogfighting planes and an exploding swastika (World War II and the fall of Nazism) and Communism (red star, hammer and sickle).
• Nightcrawler (accidentally) wins his fight with Angel, a mutant who previously held Wolverine's title of "King of the Cage."
• Apocalypse's Super-Empowering of Angel. While the process is quite horrific, Angel's new metal wings are awesome, enabling him to throw sharp metal feathers. Especially with Metallica's "Four Horsemen" aptly playing during the scene.
• Apocalypse takes notice of Charles contacting Erik telepathically and piggybacks on the link to take control of Charles' mind and uses him to hijack Cerebro! From there, he sweeps the world and mentally forces nuclear missiles operators worldwide to launch all of the nuclear weapons-equipped nations' missiles at the same time into space. It truly shows the extent of Xavier's powers (Apocalypse even calls them "extraordinary," "the answer" to his quest for divinity), and it's all breathtakingly set to Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
  Apocalypse: Thank you for letting me in.
  • Apocalypse, while mocking humanity's use of technology, uses the Voice of the Legion to deliver what might be the single most badass A God Am I boast in history.
    Apocalypse: YOU CAN FIRE YOUR ARROWS FROM THE TOWER OF BABEL, BUT YOU CAN NEVER STRIKE GOD!
  • Professor X's intense delivery of "Wreak havoc" just before Havok destroys the Cerebro with his chest beam in an impressive and stunning display of his ability.
• Apocalypse empowers Magneto, who completely destroys the camp of Auschwitz to test his amplified powers.
  • While this happens, Apocalypse pronounces his now iconic Badass Boast/New Era Speech with a Voice of the Legion. None of the different versions in the trailers were this haunting and powerful:
    EVERYTHING THEY'VE BUILT WILL FALL!!! AND FROM THE ASHES OF THEIR WORLD, WE'LL BUILD A BETTER ONE!!!
• The way Magneto uses his ability to seize Charles by his wheelchair and pull it towards him in mid-air is graceful and efficient. There's also something gorgeous and visually striking about the imagery of Archangel's metallic wings shielding the unconscious Xavier, who was once a Broken Bird in Days of Future Past.
• Remember Quicksilver's scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past? This time he saves all of Xavier's students and teachers from the exploding school. He also saves their pets and a pizza, and he noticed the explosion from outside the mansion! He does all this to Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" because hey, it's 1983! He finishes his rescue by surfing in mid-air on a table he kicked out of a window and performs a backflip, with the explosion behind him. Since it all happens in a matter of nanoseconds, it definitely shows how ludicrously fast is.
  • It's not just that he moves fast, he thinks fast, too. Hanging up curtains and drapes to act as improvised safety nets for the people he's throwing out of the building, throwing others so that they land in a pool, prioritizing effectively so that he can rescue as many as possible... The whole scene spells out that it's more than just speed. He is one of the most absurdly powerful characters in the franchise.
  • Special mention must be given to the times when he moonwalks into one room, hitches a ride on the debris of the exploding floor to catch a student in mid-air, and later grabs two students, punts a table through a window, then runs faster than the speed at which the table is falling to hitch a ride on it.
  • Notably the explosion is continuing even as Peter keeps saving people, and it seems to gradually be getting faster, illustrating that Peter is starting to slow down. Yet despite this, and his own dicking around, Peter saves every single person in the building aside from the guy who was caught at the dead center of the explosion — because he's just that good.
• Xavier doesn't give a rat's ass about Apocalypse's new world order and verbally snaps at his captor for taking advantage of Erik's mental state. Charles then continues speaking to his old friend like Apocalypse wasn't there.
  Apocalypse: I've shown him a better way, a better world.
  Charles: (irritated) No, you've just tapped into his rage and pain, that's all you've done.
• There's something so audaciously badass about Charles altering Apocalypse's psychic message to the world—instructing the people to protect each other—and staring the god-like mutant defiantly in the eye as he does, when he probably knows full-well what Apocalypse is capable of. Also, we didn't know until now that Xavier can communicate to every mind on the planet in his/her native language.
  Apocalypse: Those with the greatest power, this Earth will be yours.
  Charles: Those with the greatest power... protect those without. That's my message to the world!
  • He also embeds a secret message to Jean into Apocalypse's global New Era Speech and tells her to focus on the source of the message to find him.
• Cyclops' remark on him, Jean and Nightcrawler breaking the others out of Weapon X. "We had a... little help." This is a shorthand for Jean unleashing a caged Wolverine, who promptly kills Stryker's men one by one inside the base at Alkali Lake. They just stayed out of his way and he steamrolled over all of them, machine guns or not.
  • There's something amazing in the fact that even a hardened veteran like Mystique is afraid of Wolverine. In the original timeline, she dealt a Curb-Stomp Battle to him and only lost the fight because of a cheap shot. Then again: she wasn't facing him in as the mindless monster that he was here.
    • By this point in the new trilogy, she's been fighting for two decades, perhaps long enough to be about the same level as her original trilogy self or better because she has to fight many oppressive humans to liberate her fellow mutants. Yet a glimpse of Wolverine's rampage is enough to frighten her just as much as her inmates. It's clear that the new timeline has made Wolverine stronger just as much as Mystique was.
• Apocalypse turns Cairo into a new gigantic pyramid for his Grand Theft Me ritual. It takes him mere seconds to do it.
• Once empowered by Apocalypse, Magneto's ability is on-par with that of his comic counterpart, and by manipulating the entirety of the world's magnetic field, he can move metal all across the globe, while simultaneously flying and maintaining a powerful magnetic force-field. Before, he was a Person of Mass Destruction. Now, he's practically a Physical God.
• For Australian fans, watching Sydney being disintegrated is cool because Hollywood blockbusters tend to ignore Australia's existence.
• The Final Battle, naturally.
  • Honorable mention goes to Beast. While he can't do anything against Apocalypse, he gives Psylocke a run for her money. He hurls her over a tall building (with room to spare!) after she had tried to strangle him with her psionic whip, smiling smugly. You can tell that Beast got really pissed off at that, and his expression becomes, "Okay, that's it, I'm mad!" and he effortlessly tosses Psylocke away. Badass!
  • A car is thrown at Storm. Psylocke slices it in half in mid-air with her psionic blade while performing a flip. Fierce.
  • How about who brought that car into the fight? Storm uses her wind powers to throw it at Beast, Scott, and Jean. Beast catches the car, and as soon as the other two manage to disrupt Storm's attack, returns it to her.
  • Storm and Cyclops in a Beam-O-War.
  • Nightcrawler battles Angel and teleports Charles to safety just as Apocalypse was on the verge of possessing his body. We even get to see what teleportation looks like from Kurt's perspective—it appears that he has the ability to create a wormhole to instantly travel from one location to another! When their jet is about to crash, Nightcrawler saves the entire X-Men team, easily topping Azazel's mass teleport from X-Men: First Class.
    • Honestly, just the fact that Nightcrawler is even there! This guy just showed up at the school like that morning. He hasn't even met Xavier yet. The only reason he was even around was because Raven needed transportation. Yet here he is willing to risk his life for the new friends he met that took him to the mall and movies.
  • Psylocke and Archangel demonstrate phenomenal teamwork even though they've never fought together before. After he yells out her name while flying towards her, she immediately understands that she has to build momentum and runs towards the edge of the roof. He grabs her arms as she jumps in the air, he heads towards the jet, and then launches her upwards so that she can land on top of the plane.
  • Quicksilver becomes the first to actually hurt Apocalypse, using his Super-Speed to punch him back and forth. Villainous awesomeness for Apocalypse, too, since he manages to slow his perception enough to trap Quicksilver and stop him. He then breaks Peter's leg.
  • Mystique (disguised as Psylocke) slicing Apocalypse's throat. While he quickly recovers, give her props for trying.
  • The psychic battle between Charles and Apocalypse, where the former conjures the image of his school being built from the ground up. Charles sends a few good punches at Apocalypse. Apocalypse then grows into a giant, crushes Charles and beats him to a pulp in his own mind. Charles is lying in his own blood, but still dares to tell Apocalypse that he is alone... and he [Charles] is NOT! Charles knows he can't beat him, but he was buying time for Mystique and Quicksilver (who are the "weaklings" that Apocalypse had threatened to murder), and for Jean to reveal her true nature.
    • Charles didn't start that fight with a sneak attack. He walked right up to Apocalypse and bombarded him with the "noise" of every mind Xavier was telepathically connected to.
      Charles: (angry) You want what I have? You want to feel what I feel? (forces Apocalypse to hear the inner voices of hundreds of people, and the latter collapses) Welcome to my world! (slugs Apocalypse) You're in my house now! (slugs his opponent again)
  • Apocalypse's rebuttal is one of an eons-old, certified badass:
    Apocalypse: (catches Xavier's fist) You will need a bigger house!
  • Magneto's Heel–Face Turn. He sends two i-beams to block Apocalypse's way as the latter is approaching Charles and Jean, forming an X. He then sends waves after waves of metal pieces at Apocalypse, and Cyclops joins in with his eye beam.
    Apocalypse: You betrayed me??!!
    Erik: No. I betrayed them.
  • Beast and Cyclops fighting side-by-side is a real treat because we never got to see that in the franchise before!
  • As Charles is being mentally crushed by Apocalypse, with Magneto and Cyclops pushing their powers to their limits against him and Storm joining them to prevent him from fleeing through his portal, Jean unleashes the Phoenix! Her powers manifest as open, glowing and fiery wings. She then goes on to battle the "First One" mentally and physically at the same time, kicking him out of Charles' mind, strolling out into mid-air and easily stripping Apocalypse of his armor. Magneto then impales him with metal pieces, Cyclops adds in his Eye Beam again, Storm throws her lightning to prevent Apocalypse from getting away, and then the Phoenix disintegrates him.
    • Moreover, it proves that, by reading Wolverine's mind in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Charles has perfectly understood the huge mistakes his future self from the—now Ret-Gone—original trilogy did. Instead of burying the Phoenix deep inside Jean's mind, he helped her to master it, and by doing the opposite of what he did to her in X-Men: The Last Stand, Jean saved Xavier's life instead of vaporizing him.
    • The fact that a bunch of young and inexperienced mutants managed to hold their own and significantly contributed to the defeat of such an ancient, all-powerful entity as Apocalypse.
• There's an amazing shot of Magneto, Jean Grey and Storm levitating downwards and landing on a solid surface at the same time.
• Magneto and Jean putting the ruined Xavier Institute back together as good as new with, apparently, next to no effort. Looks like it's not only Apocalypse who can build things with his mind.
• Before he goes on his way, Erik asks Charles if the thought of someone finally coming for him—and his surrogate children—ever keeps him up at night. Charles' response?

  Charles: I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble.

  • The little smirk Erik gives him afterwards also shows that he knows Charles means every single word of what he just said.
  • Especially awesome because it works on so many levels. He's telling Magneto that he does understand his worries, and will do what he must to protect his children. He's emphasizing with his concern about what the humans might do without letting that fear control him. And he's even giving Magneto a subtle but stern warning that he had better not be one of those "poor fools." All at the same time.
• The younger members of the X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler and Quicksilver) are about to start a Danger Room session against the 1973-era Sentinels in their swanky new uniforms, accompanied by John Ottman's triumphant X-Men theme. Glorious!
• It's fitting that the very last character we see in the conclusion of this 6-film saga^note the original trilogy and the First Class trilogy is the Big Good himself Professor X, and his expression when he's looking at the camera is quite intense. It hints that James McAvoy's Xavier is a touch more aggressive than Patrick Stewart's version in the original timeline. In this movie, he has gone through hell and back, fighting tooth and nail every step of the way, and even when he was at his most vulnerable, he has survived because he is not alone. Charles is the heart and soul of the X-Men who can inspire loyalty in those who haven't known him for long (e.g. Quicksilver, who chose the Professor as his Parental Substitute over his own father). Those who already love him are willing to do anything to protect him—Magneto even pulls a Heel–Face Turn during the Final Battle because his love for Xavier turns out to be stronger than even his deep-seated hatred towards a world which has robbed him of his family twice over. Together as a team, they were able to defeat a "god" who even coveted Charles' telepathy, deeming it to be the most extraordinary gift that Apocalypse had ever seen in a thousand lifetimes. Xavier has gained so much wisdom that he's able to help Jean "tame" the Phoenix, a force of nature, and she obeys him. When Professor X's steely gaze meets the audience's, his message is loud and clear: this is a supremely powerful mutant that you do not want to mess with.
  • This is emphasized with his earlier exchange with Magneto. Even if it was also used in X-Men, it's still no less powerful. Also, Magneto's small smile shows that he sees this new Charles Xavier as a suitable leader of mutantkind.

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