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* TheToothHurts: Played with. Erik pulls out a Swiss bank manager's ''metal dentures'', throwing him into agonizing pain.
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Before the mind-reading Charles Xavier was known as Professor X, he lived a privileged existence as a young brilliant Oxford graduate specialising in genetics, living with his shapeshifting adopted sister Raven. Before he took the name Magneto, the metal-controlling Erik Lensherr was a vengeful young Holocaust survivor bent on hunting down the depraved Nazi doctor who experimented on him and murdered his mother in the concentration camp, Dr Klaus Schmidt. The year is 1962, and CIA agent Moira [=McTaggart=] finds that Schmidt -- now going by the name Sebastian Shaw -- is working alongside mutants in a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the American and Russian governments; when she enlists Charles to help her in hunting down Shaw, Charles and Erik are unexpectedly drawn together. As they become close friends, the two of them work together to build a team of mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop Shaw and avert the greatest threat to humanity the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opens, which begins the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
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Before the mind-reading Charles Xavier (JamesMcAvoy) was known as Professor X, he lived a privileged existence as a young brilliant Oxford graduate specialising in genetics, living with his shapeshifting adopted sister Raven. Before he took the name Magneto, the metal-controlling Erik Lensherr (MichaelFassbender) was a vengeful young Holocaust survivor bent on hunting down the depraved Nazi doctor who experimented on him and murdered his mother in the concentration camp, Dr Klaus Schmidt. The year is 1962, and CIA agent Moira [=McTaggart=] finds that Schmidt -- now going by the name Sebastian Shaw -- is working alongside mutants in a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the American and Russian governments; when she enlists Charles to help her in hunting down Shaw, Charles and Erik are unexpectedly drawn together. As they become close friends, the two of them work together to build a team of mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop Shaw and avert the greatest threat to humanity the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opens, which begins the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
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* CastingGag: In the comics, Magneto (DependingOnTheWriter) is half German-speaking Hungarian Jewish on his father's side and half {{Roma}} on his mother's. Michael Fassbender is half German Jewish on his father's side and half [[IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] (from Ireland, to boot) on his mother's.
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* CastingGag: In the comics, Magneto (DependingOnTheWriter) is half German-speaking Hungarian Jewish on his father's side and half {{Roma}} on his mother's. Michael Fassbender MichaelFassbender is half German Jewish on his father's side and half [[IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] (from Ireland, to boot) on his mother's.
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* FakeNationality: British Jason Flemying as the Russian Azazel, Scottish James [=McAvoy=] as English Xavier and German-born Irish raised Michael Fassbender as German Magneto. Australian Rose Byrne and British Nicholas Hoult as Americans Moira [=McTaggart=] and Beast.
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* FakeNationality: British Jason Flemying as the Russian Azazel, Scottish James [=McAvoy=] as English Xavier and German-born Irish raised Michael Fassbender MichaelFassbender as German Magneto. Australian Rose Byrne and British Nicholas Hoult as Americans Moira [=McTaggart=] and Beast.
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** Also, Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravitz.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] and Michael Fassbender.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] and Michael Fassbender.
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** Also, Michael Fassbender MichaelFassbender and Zoe Kravitz.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] andMichael Fassbender.MichaelFassbender.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] and
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not mystique
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* HoneyTrap: Mystique does this with the Russian general.
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* HoneyTrap: Mystique Emma Frost does this with the Russian general.
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* SlasherSmile: Shaw gives one when [[spoiler: he thinks he's convinced Erik to join him.]]
** YMMV on this one, but Erik's smile when he successfully moves the massive satellite dish is somewhat manic. Maybe if we didn't [[ForegoneConclusion already know he'd become a bad guy]] it wouldn't come across as this, but his realisation of just how much power he truly has is somewhat disturbing.
** YMMV on this one, but Erik's smile when he successfully moves the massive satellite dish is somewhat manic. Maybe if we didn't [[ForegoneConclusion already know he'd become a bad guy]] it wouldn't come across as this, but his realisation of just how much power he truly has is somewhat disturbing.
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* RansackedRoom: After Beast transforms into his blue furry form.
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* AttackPatternAlpha
* CoolPlane: The Blackbird, of course.
* EvolutionaryLevels: All over the place, usually invoked by Shaw.
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* HollywoodNerd: {{Averted}} with James [=McAvoy=] (Xavier), but played straight with Nick Hoult (Hank [=MacCoy=]).
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelessly used technobabble to pick up women back in Oxford.
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelessly used technobabble to pick up women back in Oxford.
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* HollywoodNerd: {{Averted}} with James [=McAvoy=] (Xavier), but played straight with Nick Hoult (Hank [=MacCoy=]).
[=McCoy=]).
* HoneyTrap: Mystique does this with the Russian general.
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelesslyused technobabble uses {{technobabble}} to pick up women back in at Oxford.
* HoneyTrap: Mystique does this with the Russian general.
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelessly
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* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: To some extent. Sexism is still present, but the racism of the era is glossed over.
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* HeyItsThatGuy: {{Twilight}} fans may be surprised to find that Laurent is Darwin
** And fans of RedAlert will notice that RayWise is still in the U.S. government, taking the strategic fight to the Soviets [[WildMassGuessing (maybe the storylines co-exist in an alternate reality [as the RedAlert universe is shown to have psychics and mutants], and before he became ''President'' Dugan, he served as United States Secretary of State.)]]
** And fans of RedAlert will notice that RayWise is still in the U.S. government, taking the strategic fight to the Soviets [[WildMassGuessing (maybe the storylines co-exist in an alternate reality [as the RedAlert universe is shown to have psychics and mutants], and before he became ''President'' Dugan, he served as United States Secretary of State.)]]
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* HeyItsThatGuy: HeyItsThatGuy:
** {{Twilight}} fans may be surprised to find that Laurent is Darwin
** And fans of RedAlert will notice thatRayWise Ray Wise is still in the U.S. government, taking the strategic fight to the Soviets [[WildMassGuessing (maybe the storylines co-exist in an alternate reality [as the RedAlert universe is shown to have psychics and mutants], and before he became ''President'' Dugan, he served as United States Secretary of State.)]]
** {{Twilight}} fans may be surprised to find that Laurent is Darwin
** And fans of RedAlert will notice that
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* ThePowerOfLove: When Charles is helping all of the mutants train, the most effective memory to focus Erik's powers is Channukah with his mother, before TheHolocaust
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* ThePowerOfLove: When Charles is helping all of the mutants train, the most effective memory to focus Erik's powers is Channukah with his mother, before TheHolocaustThe Holocaust
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** ''JamesBond''... with superheroes!
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** ''JamesBond''... with superheroes!The 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' movie meets JamesBond.
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-->'''Charles:''' No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son, William, who you were thinking about, which is very nice.
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-->'''Charles:''' No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son, William, [[{{X2}} William]], who you were thinking about, which is very nice.
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* CanonDiscontinuity: The movie steps on the toes of almost all the previous movies. For example, Xavier has his spinal injury much younger than he apparently did in either ''Wolverine'' or ''Last Stand'', and Magneto has his break with Xavier in the 60s before most of the characters from the other movies are even born, despite the scene in ''The Last Stand'' of him visiting young Jean Grey along with an noticeably elderly and mobile Xavier (not to mention Xavier getting his injury still with hair, while all his previous younger appearances had him bald and mobile).
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* CanonDiscontinuity: The movie steps on the toes of almost all the previous movies.movies (Matthew Vaughn admitted that while basically an UltimateUniverse, he only used the first two films as continuity references). For example, Xavier has his spinal injury much younger than he apparently did in either ''Wolverine'' or ''Last Stand'', and Magneto has his break with Xavier in the 60s before most of the characters from the other movies are even born, despite the scene in ''The Last Stand'' of him visiting young Jean Grey along with an noticeably elderly and mobile Xavier (not to mention Xavier getting his injury still with hair, while all his previous younger appearances had him bald and mobile).
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*** You know what they say.. A Diamond is Forever.
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** Even more egregiously, [[spoiler: Angel joins an AmbiguouslyBrown person who can control wind and a literally red teleporter. The only other two people on Team Evil are the white BigBad and his white {{Dragon}}.]]
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* EigenPlot: [[TropesAreNotBad A relatively well-done version]]. Xavier or Magneto probably could have found the Hellfire Club's submarine on their own, but Banshee can do it more easily by using his MakeMeWannaShout power as sonar. Beast's power isn't an obvious counter to Azazel's, but he's agile and strong enough to hold off Azazel, who is beaten when Mystique tricks him by turning into Shaw. Banshee and Havok team up to fight Angel.
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* PlotTailoredToTheParty: [[TropesAreNotBad A relatively well-done version]]. Xavier or Magneto probably could have found the Hellfire Club's submarine on their own, but Banshee can do it more easily by using his MakeMeWannaShout power as sonar. Beast's power isn't an obvious counter to Azazel's, but he's agile and strong enough to hold off Azazel, who is beaten when Mystique tricks him by turning into Shaw. Banshee and Havok team up to fight Angel.
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No, it was. And they specifically call her Emma in the movie.
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** To say nothing of Emma Frost, who has a fairly significant role in ''Wolverine'' as a teenager, is now an adult a good thirty years earlier, in a completely different role, playing for the opposite side. Suffice to say that Xavier makes no comment about the resemblance when he sees her in ''Wolverine''.
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** And fans of RedAlert will notice that RayWise is still in the U.S. government, taking the strategic fight to the Soviets [[WildMassGuessing (maybe the storylines co-exist in an alternate reality [as the RedAlert universe is shown to have psychics and mutants], and before he became ''President'' Dugan, he served as United States Secretary of State.)]]
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The character in Wolverine is never I Ded as Emma Frost, it could easily be another mutant who happens to have a similar power.
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** To say nothing of Emma Frost, who has a fairly significant role in ''Wolverine'' as a teenager, is now an adult a good thirty years earlier, in a completely different role, playing for the opposite side. Suffice to say that Xavier makes no comment about the resemblance when he sees her in ''Wolverine''.
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** To say nothing of Emma Frost, who has a fairly significant role in ''Wolverine'' as a teenager, is now an adult a good thirty years earlier, in a completely different role, playing for the opposite side. Suffice to say that Xavier makes no comment about the resemblance when he sees her in ''Wolverine''.
** There is ''one'' thing that inexplicably matches up, however; if Banshee was a teenager in the mid-sixties, it makes sense that Siryn, who is canonically his daughter, appears in the original trilogy.
** There is ''one'' thing that inexplicably matches up, however; if Banshee was a teenager in the mid-sixties, it makes sense that Siryn, who is canonically his daughter, appears in the original trilogy.
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** Implied with Hank, and subverted with his relationship with Alex, who acts this way toward them, despite both being superpowered.
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* PowerPerversionPotential: Charles uses his telepathy to help him pick up chicks, though it's limited to "guessing" their drink orders and other harmless things. Mystique also shapeshifts into an older woman in her efforts to seduce Erik.
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** Also, Xavier shouts this when [[spoiler: Magneto pushes the coin through Sebastian Shaw's forehead. Justified because every pain sensation Shaw would have felt was passing through Xavier's brain.]]
** Keeping in mind [[spoiler: the pain would only apply to the skull - brain tissue doesn't register mechanical pain.]]
** Keeping in mind [[spoiler: the pain would only apply to the skull - brain tissue doesn't register mechanical pain.]]
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** Also, Xavier shouts this when [[spoiler: Magneto pushes the coin through Sebastian Shaw's forehead. Justified because every pain sensation Shaw would have felt was passing through Xavier's brain.]]\n** Keeping in mind [[spoiler: the pain would only apply to the skull - brain tissue doesn't register mechanical pain.]]
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-->'''Professor X:''' Next thing you know, I'll be going bald!
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*** It is possible the two could have, at least temporarily, resolved their differences long enough to build Cerebro in the mansion together. This could also explain why they're still somewhat chummy at the opening of X3.
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*** It is possible the two could have, at least temporarily, resolved their differences long enough to build Cerebro in the mansion together. This could also explain why they're still somewhat chummy at the opening of X3.''X3''.
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* ComingOutStory: Charles accidently outs Hank as a mutant.
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* ComingOutStory: Charles accidently accidentally outs Hank as a mutant.
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* DrunkenMaster: Although Charles Xavier doesn't gain any abilities from becoming drunk, his being drunk certainly doesn't hamper his abilites either, given his inebriated meeting with Moira [=MacTaggert=]. Does seem to hamper his skill with pick-up lines, though.
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* DrunkenMaster: Although Charles Xavier doesn't gain any abilities from becoming drunk, his being drunk certainly doesn't hamper his abilites abilities either, given his inebriated meeting with Moira [=MacTaggert=]. Does seem to hamper his skill with pick-up lines, though.
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* EarlyBirdCameo: Wolverine appears for a very brief scene and only gets one line. (however, it's one of the funniest lines in the movie)
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* EarlyBirdCameo: Wolverine appears for a very brief scene and only gets one line. (however, it's one of the funniest lines in the movie)movie).
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-->"I'd give anything to just be normal.''
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* DullSurprise: "What the hell did you put in my drink."
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* HotterAndSexier
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* AmnesiaMissedASpot: [[spoiler: At the end, Xavier wipes [=MacTaggert's=] memory to keep the mutants safe from the [=CIA=]. All [=MacTaggert=] remembers is a few glimpses of leaves and Xavier kissing her.]]
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* AmnesiaMissedASpot: [[spoiler: At the end, Xavier (at least apparently) wipes [=MacTaggert's=] memory to keep the mutants safe from the [=CIA=]. All [=MacTaggert=] remembers is a few glimpses of leaves and Xavier kissing her.]]
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this one better?
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->''[[{{Tagline}} "Their powers would make them different. But destiny would make them allies."]]''
A prequel to the Film/{{X-Men}} series set in [[TheSixties 1962]] [[AlternateHistory during the]] [[ColdWar Cuban Missile Crisis]].
A prequel to the Film/{{X-Men}} series set in [[TheSixties 1962]] [[AlternateHistory during the]] [[ColdWar Cuban Missile Crisis]].
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* MonochromeCast: [[spoiler:Angel makes a FaceHeelTurn and Darwin dies before the first half of the movie, which takes out our two [[TokenMinority TokenMinorities]]. This leaves an 99%, glaringly, blindingly, obvious white-as-snow cast.]]
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* MonochromeCast: MonochromeCasting: [[spoiler:Angel makes a FaceHeelTurn and Darwin dies before the first half of the movie, which takes out our two [[TokenMinority TokenMinorities]].Token Minorities]]. This leaves an 99%, glaringly, blindingly, obvious white-as-snow cast.]]
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The line doesn\'t actually appear in the movie. If someone else has a good idea for a header quote, they can add it.
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->''"A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it."''
-->'''Charles Xavier'''
-->'''Charles Xavier'''
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* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Seriously, Erik's accent is all over the place. Although, considering his background, this could be justified.
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* PlayingBothSides: Sebastian Shaw cunningly manipulates both the USA and the USSR, exploiting the vices and vanity of their military elite to provoke WorldWarIII.
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* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Sebastian Shaw solemnly claims that he wouldn't hurt other mutants. [[spoiler:Then he kills Darwin]].
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Please don\'t spoiler tag the trope name.
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* [[spoiler:BlackDudeDiesFirst: Darwin is the first mutant to die (and the only person on the team who dies), which is all the more ridiculous because his powers are all about survival.]]
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* [[spoiler:BlackDudeDiesFirst: Darwin BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Darwin is the first mutant to die (and the only person on the team who dies), which is all the more ridiculous because his powers are all about survival.]]
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Put a better quote if you like
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xmenfirstclass_185.jpg]]
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xmenfirstclass_185.jpg]]
->''"A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it."''
-->'''Charles Xavier'''
Before the mind-reading Charles Xavier was known as Professor X, he lived a privileged existence as a young brilliant Oxford graduate specialising in genetics, living with his shapeshifting adopted sister Raven. Before he took the name Magneto, the metal-controlling Erik Lensherr was a vengeful young Holocaust survivor bent on hunting down the depraved Nazi doctor who experimented on him and murdered his mother in the concentration camp, Dr Klaus Schmidt. The year is 1962, and CIA agent Moira [=McTaggart=] finds that Schmidt -- now going by the name Sebastian Shaw -- is working alongside mutants in a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the American and Russian governments; when she enlists Charles to help her in hunting down Shaw, Charles and Erik are unexpectedly drawn together. As they become close friends, the two of them work together to build a team of mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop Shaw and avert the greatest threat to humanity the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opens, which begins the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
Inspired to some degree by the "X-Men: First Class" comic book series (though [[SuggestedBy by no means a faithful adaptation]]), this film also incorporates elements of the originally planned but now scrapped film ''X-Men Origins: Magneto'' [[hottip:*: though director Matthew Vaughn denies that the script for ''Magneto'' had anything to do with this, which means Magneto was always part of this film's script; in that case, scrapping that film probably made sense, as it would have been a bit redundant]].
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* {{Adorkable}}: Charles and Hank, the former when he uses his nerdy knowledge to woo girls at bars and the latter when he's flustering over Raven.
* AgentMulder: Oliver Platt's character, who becomes the ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* AllTheOtherReindeer: Angel's motivation for joining Shaw.
-->'''Angel''': We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The secret CIA base, rarely noticed even within the company, gets successfully invaded. [[spoiler:''Twice''.]]
* AlmostKiss: Between Hank and Raven. [[MomentKiller Erik walks in and kills the mood]].
* AmnesiaMissedASpot: [[spoiler: At the end, Xavier wipes [=MacTaggert's=] memory to keep the mutants safe from the [=CIA=]. All [=MacTaggert=] remembers is a few glimpses of leaves and Xavier kissing her.]]
* AndIMustScream: The death of [[spoiler:Sebastian Shaw. He's held immobile while a coin is pushed slowly through his skull. Xavier, who's psychically linked to Shaw in order to hold him immobile, does the screaming instead.]]
* AntiHero: Magneto is a Type IV [[spoiler:before JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and becoming a full-fledged VillainProtagonist.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Sebastian Shaw plans a class 3a (humans die in a nuclear holocaust, mutants inherit the Earth).
* {{Badass}}: Erik and his execution of his revenge plot (and the sub lift, of course) qualify. In fact, this ''is'' an X-Men movie, so standard BadassCrew tropes probably apply.
* BadassBookworm: Xavier and Hank.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Sebastian Shaw, as well as his goons Azazel and Riptide.
* BadassLonghair: Riptide
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Pretty well sums up Erik's backstory. Well, Being Tortured And Seeing Your Family And Friends And Everyone You Know Killed Makes You Crazy, at least.
* BettyAndVeronica: While Mystique [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend may]] or [[LikeBrotherAndSister may not]] have feelings for Charles, her attention soon turns to sensible Hank (who prefers her human form) and enigmatic Magneto (who prefers her mutant form).
** And on the Charles' part, he seems to have a choice between the blonde (in human form) Mystique, and brunette Moira. Note that Mystique, who is the Veronica, is his childhood friend, normally a Betty characteristic.
* BigNo:
** When young Magneto wrecks Schmidt's lab in the beginning of the film in anger and grief over the murder of his mother, he lets out an extremely long "Nein."
** Also, Xavier shouts this when [[spoiler: Magneto pushes the coin through Sebastian Shaw's forehead. Justified because every pain sensation Shaw would have felt was passing through Xavier's brain.]]
** Keeping in mind [[spoiler: the pain would only apply to the skull - brain tissue doesn't register mechanical pain.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Initially between [[IJustWantToBeNormal Hank and Mystique]] before the latter begins to accept her real appearance.
* [[spoiler:BlackDudeDiesFirst: Darwin is the first mutant to die (and the only person on the team who dies), which is all the more ridiculous because his powers are all about survival.]]
* BodyHorror: [[TransformationSequence When Hank [=McCoy=] turns into Beast.]]
* BilingualBonus: The Soviet Captain refers to an officer on the bridge as "''zampolit''", which is translated as comrade. The enthusiasm at which the crew later drag him off to the brig becomes understandable if one knows that ''zampolit'' is how [[ThePoliticalOfficer soviet political officers]] were addressed.
* BreakTheCutie: Charles Xavier. When the movie starts he's a friendly, happy-go-lucky, idealistic Oxford grad whose only interests are protecting his sister, drinking yards of beer and picking up coeds. His initial reaction to meeting other mutants is a puppyish eagerness to find others like him, as well as a gung-ho enthusiasm to [[TheyFightCrime work with a superhuman team to fight evil.]] During the climax [[spoiler: he gets smacked around in a variety of ways including telepathically experiencing Shaw's gruesome death at Erik's hands and getting shot in the spine... and having the US government, his best friend, and his adopted-sister figure all turn against him. By the end of the movie [[HumansAreBastards his government is trying to hunt him down,]] his [[FaceHeelTurn best friend is preparing for a war against humans]] and he's crippled for life in a wheelchair.]] We know from future installments that he never quite abandons his ideals, but he's frighteningly subdued and obviously much more cautious about who knows his secrets.
* BroadStrokes: They've outright said that they're giving story a much higher priority than continuity.
* [[ButYourWingsAreBeautiful But Your Feet Are Beautiful]]: Mystique towards Hank. Unfortunately for her, Hank doesn't embrace Mystique's true form and prefers her "human" form instead. In contrast, Magneto prefers Mystique's true form.
* ButNotTooBlack: Angel Salvador, who is played by multi-generational mixed race actress Zoe Kravitz. Kravitz' mother is Lisa Bonet (Black father and White mother), and her father is Lenny Kravitz (Jewish father and Black mother).
* BullyingADragon: Subverted. Some viewers might think that young Erik is going to kill Shaw in their first scene together, but as we later learn, it would have been impossible for him to do so at the time thanks to Shaw's energy-absorbing powers.
* CallForward:
-->'''Military Official:''' I've seen this before at a magic show. Are you going to ask us to think of a number between one and ten now?
-->'''Charles:''' No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son, William, who you were thinking about, which is very nice.
** And this gem:
-->'''Professor X:''' Next thing you know, I'll be going bald!
** Magneto rejects Mystique's human disguises and tells her she looks perfect in her mutant form. In ''X3'', when she is hit with the cure and reverts to her human form, Magneto abandons her - saying "She used to be so beautiful."
** Xavier's pick-up line, '[Mutation] has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet,' comes directly from the voice-over at the beginning of the first X-men movie.
* TheCameo:
** [[spoiler:Wolverine, and given that PG-13 movies have [[PrecisionFStrike only one "fuck" to use]], they definitely chose the right place to use it. HughJackman himself said he accepted to be the only one to swear in the movie!]]
** Also Rebecca Romijn, the original Mystique.
** A blink-and-you'll-miss-it case: One of the mutants shown during the first test run of Cerebro appears to be a very young Storm, and another looks like Cyclops.
* CanonDiscontinuity: The movie steps on the toes of almost all the previous movies. For example, Xavier has his spinal injury much younger than he apparently did in either ''Wolverine'' or ''Last Stand'', and Magneto has his break with Xavier in the 60s before most of the characters from the other movies are even born, despite the scene in ''The Last Stand'' of him visiting young Jean Grey along with an noticeably elderly and mobile Xavier (not to mention Xavier getting his injury still with hair, while all his previous younger appearances had him bald and mobile).
** Xavier also initially gets Cerebro from the CIA and Beast rather than building it himself with Magneto, though that Cerebro is destroyed in Shaw's attack on the CIA, and a new one located at the mansion would have been needed anyway.
*** It is possible the two could have, at least temporarily, resolved their differences long enough to build Cerebro in the mansion together. This could also explain why they're still somewhat chummy at the opening of X3.
** The first movie is also contradicted when Xavier first meets Magneto, which he claimed happened when he was 17, while Hank's transformation into Beast happens years before his cameo in the bar scene in ''X2: X-Men United''.
** Magneto obtains the helmet from Shaw and Xavier is fully aware of how it blocks telepathy, in ''X-Men'', Xavier is shocked at Magneto's helmet being able to block his telepathy.
** And regarding the Cerebro montage, Cyclops is a teenager in ''Wolverine'' and in his late 30's/early 40's in the original trilogy, which, if one does the math, would put him at infancy or at most, toddler age in the early 1960's, not the pre-teen we see playing ball. Ditto for the girl made to resemble Storm, who looks like she's a teenager in this film.
* CareBearStare: Xavier uses his telepathy to help Erik recall a happy memory from long ago in order to unlock the full potential of his powers.
* CastingGag: In the comics, Magneto (DependingOnTheWriter) is half German-speaking Hungarian Jewish on his father's side and half {{Roma}} on his mother's. Michael Fassbender is half German Jewish on his father's side and half [[IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] (from Ireland, to boot) on his mother's.
* CatchAndReturn: Magneto catches and then reverses a barrage of missiles. Sebastian Shaw's ability to absorb and release energy is also a form of this.
* ChainedToABed: Emma Frost, chained by the bed's ''metal railings''. No points for guessing who did it and how.
* ChekhovsSkill: Almost doubles as FridgeBrilliance:
-->[''Erik asks Charles to help him train by shooting him point-blank'']\\
'''Erik:''' You know I can deflect it!
* ChessMotifs: It's subtle, but when Erik and Charles are playing chess the evening before the big battle, the one move we see is his king capturing Charles' queen, foreshadowing Raven joining him at the end of the film. And the chess game is almost directly followed by scenes showing that Erik is able to understand Raven, while Charles is...not.
* ChestBlaster: Havok's "training wheels" are designed as one.
* ComingOutStory: Charles accidently outs Hank as a mutant.
-->'''Charles:''' Why didn't you say? [[OhCrap ...Because you don't know.]] I am so, so terribly sorry.
-->'''Hank:''' [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything You didn't ask, so I didn't tell.]]
* ComplimentBackfire: Erik tries to compliment Hank's Beast form, but Hank takes it as sarcasm. Erik is remarkably understanding about the mistake.
* CodeName: This film tells us where some of them came from.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Magneto interrogates a bank President by using his magnetic powers to pull out his dental fillings. Later he cracks Emma Frost's diamond body with a [[BeyondTheImpossible bed frame]]...in such a way that [[spoiler: a gentle tap would shatter her if she turned back before having time to heal]].
* ColdWar: The setting of the movie and the source of the main plot.
* ContinuityCameo: Rebecca Romijn showing up as an "older" Mystique.
* ContinuityNod: The first scene with Erik in the camp is mostly identical to the first scene of X-Men, even down to some of the shots.
* ContinuitySnarl: See CanonDiscontinuity above. At the very least this movie takes a BroadStrokes approach to the other movies in the series, especially ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine''. Most of the differences could theoretically be reconciled ([[FanWank Maybe the Xavier at the end of Origins was a psychic projection]]! [[WildMassGuessing Maybe Hank was wearing an image inducer in his cameo in X2]]!) But if you just saw the movies, the only reason you'd assume they were meant to be in the same continuity is HughJackman, the Romjin cameo, and the references to Stryker.
** But the Cerebro Mutant Tracker feature on the Blu-Ray appears to [[http://media.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/35849/2011-09-08_2335.png ignore the continuity holes...]]
* CooldownHug: Invoked when Xavier finds Erik in the ocean trying to sink Shaw's ship.
* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:Or, Cradling Your Cripple. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job breaking him, Erik.]]]]
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Played with. It's the BigBad who creates the villain, not TheHero. {{Lampshaded}} [[spoiler:in Shaw's final monologue, and in Erik's references to himself as Frankenstein's monster.]]
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler:{{Inverted}}. It happens two times, and both times it's a villain.]]
* CunningLinguist: Erik is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish. This is consistent with the comics, where he has been shown speaking French, and knowing Spanish isn't much of a stretch for someone like him.
* CurbStompBattle: Shaw and his cronies' first attack on the students.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Mystique as a little girl when Charles first meets her.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The movie beats ''X2'' to the title of the most dramatic, heart-wrenching, and pessimistic in the series.
* DartboardOfHate: Magneto, as an adult, tosses the coin into the "forehead" of a sketch of Dr. Schmidt.
* DeadpanSnarker: Banshee. "Aw, ''I'' wanted to be called Mystique."
* DeathByOriginStory: Erik's mother.
* DefenceMechanismSuperpower: Darwin's power is... pretty much this trope alone.
* DefiedTrope: Jason Flemyng pointed out in an interview that he tried to avoid the cliche shot of the villain looking over the shoulder at their tail, as it always looks like the villain has ''just'' realised they had a tail for the first time.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: "This, gentlemen, is why the CIA is no place for a woman!"
* DescriptionPorn: Hank does this with Cerebro.
* DiabolicalMastermind: Sebastian Shaw, who (mutant powers aside) wouldn't be terribly out of place as a JamesBond villain.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Sebastian ''honestly'' believes that he can convince Erik to join him, despite being ''directly'' responsible for [[YouKilledMyFather the death of his mother]] and knowing that he has spent his entire life hunting him down. Eric even lampshades it in the end, [[spoiler:stating that while he believes mutants ''are'' superior after all, there is absolutely no way he will ''ever'' forgive Shaw.]]
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: [[spoiler:Magneto and Mystique of a Type 4 example.]]
* DieOrFly: Erik [[SinkOrSwimMentor takes this approach]] during Banshee's flying attempts (though given that Banshee's costume contained metal, he could easily have caught him if it didn't work). Later, Alex Summers grasps his energy-blasting ability ''just as he needs to''.
* DirtyCommunists: Subverted. Although many ColdWar cliches are in place, Russians are not portrayed as intrinsically evil or [[TakeOverTheWorld bent on world domination]]. They plan to install their missiles in Cuba not as a part of some EvilPlan to destroy capitalism, but as a counterweight to US missiles in Turkey (not to mention that both countries are being bullied and manipulated by the Hellfire Club). And, most importantly, the final act shows that Soviet sailors are NotSoDifferent from their American counterparts.
* DirtyHarriet: In order to infiltrate a Hellfire Club private party, Moira [=McTaggert=] strips to her lingerie and pretends to be one of the call-girls. Done fairly well as it's shown that she's not all that comfortable with it and is ''acutely'' aware of how vulnerable she is.
* DoubleEntendre: "We'll show you ours, if you show us yours." Referring to mutant powers, but could easily have another meaning as it takes place within a strip club. Xavier wasn't exactly a ShrinkingViolet with the ladies, after all.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:World War III between the humans is averted, but now an even bigger conflict looms on the horizon between them and the mutants. Charles is inadvertently crippled during a skirmish between Erik and Moira, the former going to become the leader of the mutant revolution with Raven at his side, and the latter being reluctantly mind-wiped by Charles to protect his future students, tarnishing her reputation within the CIA.]]
* DrinkOrder: It's subtle, but every time they're in a bar, Charles orders a cola, rather than alcohol, for Mystique, because he doesn't want her [[GlamourFailure "slipping up"]] and exposing her true form.
* DrunkenMaster: Although Charles Xavier doesn't gain any abilities from becoming drunk, his being drunk certainly doesn't hamper his abilites either, given his inebriated meeting with Moira [=MacTaggert=]. Does seem to hamper his skill with pick-up lines, though.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Wolverine appears for a very brief scene and only gets one line. (however, it's one of the funniest lines in the movie)
** Blink and you'll miss her, but when Charles uses Cerebro to look for mutants for the first time, a young girl version of Storm can be seen.
* EigenPlot: [[TropesAreNotBad A relatively well-done version]]. Xavier or Magneto probably could have found the Hellfire Club's submarine on their own, but Banshee can do it more easily by using his MakeMeWannaShout power as sonar. Beast's power isn't an obvious counter to Azazel's, but he's agile and strong enough to hold off Azazel, who is beaten when Mystique tricks him by turning into Shaw. Banshee and Havok team up to fight Angel.
* EpicFail: Banshee's first flight... is ''not''.
* EpicFlail: Erik tries to sink Shaw's ship with its own anchor.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Magneto is obsessed with taking revenge for his murdered mother.
** The whole "tortured in a Nazi concentration camp" thing didn't necessarily help either, though.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: After completing his FaceHeelTurn, Magneto dons his iconic EvilOverlord costume that [[MythologyGag he wore in the first issues of the comic book]]. Also, Mystique performs an [[IncrediblyLamePun Evil Costume Ditch]] after siding with Magneto.
* EvilIsStylish: Shaw and his goons.
* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Shaw's nice enough to explain his energy-absorbing powers to Colonel Hendry (and the audience), even noting how they make him ageless, [[spoiler:before promptly using them to turn Hendry into a human firecracker]].
* EyeScream: Azazel holds the point of his tail at a victim's eye.
* FaceHeelTurn: Angel, and later followed by Magneto and Mystique.
* FakeAmerican:
* FakeNationality: British Jason Flemying as the Russian Azazel, Scottish James [=McAvoy=] as English Xavier and German-born Irish raised Michael Fassbender as German Magneto. Australian Rose Byrne and British Nicholas Hoult as Americans Moira [=McTaggart=] and Beast.
* FakeDefector: Darwin. [[KilledOffForReal Shaw does NOT take the deception well.]]
* FallenHero: Erik Lensherr/Magneto gets a more heroic treatment than usual, making him more of this trope than of the typical AntiVillain fare.
* FanserviceExtra: In addition to ''every'' major female character showing some skin at one point or another, the other girls in the LingerieScene at the Hellfire Club.
* FantasticRacism: [[UpToEleven Taken to new heights]]; [[spoiler:Shaw wants to start a nuclear war that will wipe out humanity, while humans respond to knowledge of the mutants' existence and powers by trying to kill the people who just averted said war.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Shaw is impeccably polite even when he's going to kill your mom. Even when he's killing people who have slighted him, it's more on principle than any outright anger.
* FemmeFatale: Emma Frost. Mystique [[StartOfDarkness starts to blossom into one]].
* FieryRedhead: Notice how Mystique, blue with red hair, goes blonde in her public form.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: One of Shaw's abilities. Emma Frost in diamond form gains diamond-sharp fingers.
* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Professor X
** TheLancer: Magneto
** TheBigGuy: Havok
** TheSmartGuy (GeniusBruiser): Beast
** TheChick: Mystique
** TheBumblebee: Banshee
** [[spoiler: SacrificialLamb]]: Darwin
** [[spoiler: SixthRangerTraitor]]: Angel
* ForegoneConclusion:
** Magneto and Mystique's {{Face Heel Turn}}s.
** Even more painful is the fact that people who read the comics are quite aware that [[spoiler:the subplot with Hank's serum [[GoneHorriblyWrong will go horribly wrong]],]] and that Charles is going to be crippled by the end of the movie. It's almost like a Foregone TraumaCongaLine.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** [[spoiler:When we first see Erik as an adult, he is staring at a picture of Shaw while handling a coin and uses his powers to [[DartboardOfHate slam the coin into the picture's forehead]]. This is how he kills Shaw in the end... but much slower.]]
** Charles compares Hank to Jekyll and Hyde. [[spoiler:Hank goes on to develop a serum which accidentally makes him even more beastly.]]
** Right before the attack on the CIA base, Havok beats Darwin at a pinball game. Darwin declares,[[spoiler: "Jesus man, you are killing me!" Later, Shaw uses energy absorbed from Havok's blasts to kill Darwin.]]
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Combined with BrickJoke. The first woman Charles tried to pick up shows up again at his graduation ceremony - then she sees Moira approaching him, and leaves in a huff.
* FutureShadowing: Charles Xavier is hilariously fond of the hair he [[BaldOfAwesome loses by the time of the other films]].
* GeniusBruiser: Beast. The film involves him learning to embrace the latter part.
* GenreShift: The film incorporates many elements of the SpyFiction genre. See XMeetsY below.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Sebastian Shaw wanted to awaken Erik's powers and turn him into a PersonOfMassDestruction. Serves him right.
* GrewASpine: Raven.
* TheGump: Mutants caused the Cuban Missile Crisis.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Magneto hates Shaw and wants to kill him, but he eventually embraces Shaw's beliefs about mutant supremacy. It's even spelled out through the villain '''[[ArtifactOfAttraction even wearing the helmet]]''' '''[[IconicLogo Magneto always wears]]'''.
** Justified at the crucial moment because he separates revenge from his ideals, which is why he's able to compliment Shaw's vision while still hating the man to his core. Shaw the man wronged him terribly but Shaw the visionary is inspirational.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Professor X and Magneto, believe it or not.
* HeyItsThatGuy: {{Twilight}} fans may be surprised to find that Laurent is Darwin
* HighHeelFaceTurn: Inverted--[[spoiler:Both female mutants working with Xavier have turned to the dark side by the time the movie is over, and aside from Magneto, are the only ones to do so.]]
* HollywoodNerd: {{Averted}} with James [=McAvoy=] (Xavier), but played straight with Nick Hoult (Hank [=MacCoy=]).
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelessly used technobabble to pick up women back in Oxford.
* HopeSpot: For a second, you're led to believe that [[spoiler:Darwin]] might just survive. Some fans posit that he did.
* HomoeroticSubtext:* [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Please]] [[EditWar stick to the]] [[HoYay/{{X-Men}} main page.]]
* HumansAreBastards: Mutants are ''not'' well-treated in this film, to the point where Xavier's attempts to justify keeping the peace with normals basically boil down to "okay, they suck, but as the SuperiorSpecies, can't we set a good example?" Of course, it ''was'' the [=60s=], which was just plain bigoted in general.
** Subverted by the fact that the film's BigBad (Sebastian Shaw) is a mutant.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Shaw says "[[ApeShallNeverKillApe We don't hurt our own kind]]." A few scenes later, he kills Darwin.]]
** Charles uses "mutant and proud" as part of his pick-up lines, which are basically a very erudite variation on "you have pretty (insert trait here)", in the presence of his adopted sister, who has been actively discouraged by Charles from taking any pride in her mutation.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Hank's and initially Mystique's reaction to their mutant forms.
-->"I'd give anything to just be normal.''
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim[=/=]YouKillItYouBoughtIt: [[spoiler:Erik kills Shaw and becomes the new face of the mutant revolution.]]
* ILoveNuclearPower: It's said that nuclear radiation probably sped up mutation. [[spoiler:Shaw takes this as gospel, and decides to start a nuclear war in order to accelerate mutant development.]]
* ImHavingSoulPains: [[spoiler:Erik killing Shaw by slowly pushing a coin through his head]] with Charles feeling all of the pain from it because he's in [[spoiler:Mr. Shaw]]'s head, keeping him from [[spoiler:moving or using his powers]] - and he can't let go because he might [[spoiler:attack Erik or even loose his powers to fry the surrounding area for who knows how far]]. That scream was more than just agony over the moral decision of a friend.
* IdiotBall: Really, Charles? You're really going to tell a Holocaust survivor to spare people because they were "just following orders"? At least he has the sense to immediately [[OhCrap realise]] what [[ThatCameOutWrong just came out of his mouth]]...
* {{Immortality}}: [[BigBad Sebastian Shaw]], whose energy-absorbing powers keep him young... somehow.
** Also Mystique[=/=]Raven to a point, who ages at a very low rate due to the ability of her cells to alter their function, which makes more sense than Shaw's immortality in the framework of the established rules of the universe.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: When Havoc starts to practice controlling his powers, he first ends up shooting everything EXCEPT his intended target. While he really was trying to aim, he couldn't control the sheer force of his powers yet.
* ImprovisedTraining: Xavier uses whatever he can find on or near his estate to train young mutants.
* InNameOnly: Azazel in comics - semi-demonic, millenia old dude with more powers than you can shake a stick at. Azazel in movies -red-skinned Russian Nightcrawler. That said, in the comics, Azazel ''is'' Nightcrawler's father.
* InstantDeathBullet: Magneto's mother.
* IronicEcho:
** "First, I'm going to count to three. Then, you're[[spoiler:/I'm]] going to move the coin."
** "Mutant and proud."
** "Just following orders."
* ItGotWorse: After Erik's "I agree with everything you say" moment with Sebastian Shaw (which would have been a WhamLine if we [[ForegoneConclusion didn't already know]] that he [[FallenHero would turn evil]]), everything just goes downhill.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Captains of both American and Soviet warships bid farewell to their crews with this line.
* ItsPersonal: Erik wants revenge on Shaw/Schmidt [[YouKilledMyFather for killing his mother]]. One of the reasons it feels like Erik is the hero of the film.
* {{Jerkass}}: Although the CIA staff in general acts like jerks most of the time, the worst is William Stryker Sr. What makes him most deserving of this trope is that the CIA Director, himself sexist and a hot headed jerk, actually calls out against Stryker twice, first in regards to his decision to keep Emma Frost detained (since the law requires that they hand her over), and the second when Stryker decides to have the American and Soviet navies [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill bombard]] the Cuban shore to eliminate the mutants specifically because one of their human agents was present as well. Both times, he dismissed him, stating that he's not handing her over because the law doesn't apply to mutants, and in the latter case insensitively stated that the agent was "collateral damage."
* JerkJock: Havok seems to be this to Beast.
* JustFollowingOrders: The Nazis that Erik confronts trot out this line as an excuse for their actions. Charles later makes the mistake of echoing it while trying to calm Erik down. Definitely an OhCrap moment for the audience when he says it.
-->'''Erik:''' [[ShutUpKirk I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: About half of the Hellfire Club get off scot-free in the end. William Stryker Sr. also faces no consequences for unlawful actions (keeping Emma Frost in a secret prison - in the '60s that wasn't accepted practice...how times change) and the unethical and horribly unwise decision to have both the Soviets and the Americans bombard the Cuban shore to get rid of mutants despite one of their own human agents being located there (both actions are things that even John [=McCone=], who was a certified jerk, called him out on). However, this may change if there are sequels to First Class.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Erik kills Shaw by telemagnetically pushing a coin through his brain. It was the very same coin that Erik was commanded to move as a child to prevent Schmidt from killing his mother; Erik failed and Shaw shot his mother. Erik even gives an IronicEcho of what Schmidt said to motivate him at the time.]]
* KarmicTransformation: Hank's transformation into Beast is tragic, but he brought it on himself.
* KickTheSonOfABitch[=/=]PayEvilUntoEvil: Erik cruelly disposes of/tortures Nazis and their sympathizers in the first act.
* TheLancer: Erik to Charles for much of the film. Havok to Beast somewhat.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Charles [[spoiler: uses a kiss goodbye to wipe out Moira's memories the last few weeks, and of where he and the newly formed X-Men are]]. This is notably against his current philosophy in the comics, but very much in keeping with his modus operandi in the comics produced in the early 1960s.
* LeftHanging: What happened to all the other mutants between this film and the rest of them? Given the forty year gap between this and the principal films, anything could have gone down. Room for a sequel, of course.
* LightIsNotGood: Emma Frost, ([[MsFanservice scantily]]) clad in white and able to turn her body into a mass of shining diamonds, is not a ''good'' girl.
* LingerieScene: Moira's Hellfire Club infiltration technique. And Emma Frost in most of her scenes.
* LondonEnglandSyndrome: ''Moscow, Russia''.
* LoveTriangle: Raven and Hank hit it off almost instantly, but the moment he refuses to accept his mutant form (and ''her'' mutant form) drives her to attempt to seduce Magneto, who prefers her appearance just the way it is.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Charles cites this when Raven, feeling insecure about her looks, asks if he would date her...although it falls a little flat coming right after he's answered the question with 'of course' in reference to her human form, before she clarifies that she means in her real form.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: [[spoiler:After witnessing the mutants in action, this is the joint plan of the American and Soviet fleets to deal with them. And also Magneto's retort.]]
* MadDoctor: Well, the film does start in a [[TruthInTelevision Nazi]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele camp]].
* MakeMeWannaShout: Banshee. In an unusual variation, this includes [[IBelieveICanFly the power of flight]], by bouncing sound waves off the ground back into a wingsuit.
* ManipulativeBastard: Sebastian Shaw. First he ruthlessly manipulates young Erik's feelings to awaken his powers, then he exploits the vices of both Soviet and American generals. Although he's not as good at it as he might seem - he ultimately has to resort to threats to get both the NATO and the Soviet generals put their missiles where he wants them (Turkey and Cuba, respectively).
* ManlyTears: Magneto and Xavier shed them during particularly heart-wrenching moments. See EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas.
* MasterRace: How Sebastian Shaw and Magneto see mutants as a whole.
* MeaningfulEcho: Mystique encountering Charles in a kitchen in her true form like when they first met. However, this time around, it is to show how they've both changed and are starting to grow apart in ideals.
** Also, shortly after they first meet, when Erik's about to go off on his own again, Charles tells him, "Shaw's got friends. You could use some!" Later, after Shaw's attack on the CIA when Charles wants to send the new mutant recruits home, Erik tells him "Shaw's got his army, we need ours."
* MentalAffair: Emma Frost uses a JediMindTrick on a Russian General to make him ''think'' he's having sex with her while she's actually sitting on his couch watching him make love to empty air on the bed. Charles thought that was a nice trick.
* MentorArchetype: [[EvilMentor Sebastian Shaw to Magneto]]. [[CoolTeacher Professor X to the team]]. [[MentorShip Magneto to Mystique]].
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: After circumstances force them to leave the CIA facility, the kids realize that they have to get their act together and learn to use and control their powers and work as a team.
* MismatchedEyes: The first girl Charles tries to hit on.
* MonochromeCast: [[spoiler:Angel makes a FaceHeelTurn and Darwin dies before the first half of the movie, which takes out our two [[TokenMinority TokenMinorities]]. This leaves an 99%, glaringly, blindingly, obvious white-as-snow cast.]]
* MookHorrorShow: What the CIA agents and guards experience when their compound is assaulted by the Hellfire Club.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: The Swiss banker Erik interrogates.
* TheMountainsOfIllinois: As explained [[http://parquepatriciosailatan.tumblr.com/post/6621793930/i-saw-the-new-x-men-and-i-was-the-only-person-laughing here]], Vila Gessell is a beach, instead of the mountainous place depicted here.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Sebastian Shaw's supremacist ideology is basically mutant Nazism. No wonder that he collaborated with [[ThoseWackyNazis actual Nazis]], and his vision of the future, glimpsed by Xavier, involves a lot of PuttingOnTheReich.
* NaziGold: Erik lays his hands on some Nazi gold and even {{troll}}s a Swiss bank manager with it.
* NaziHunter: Erik/Magneto spends the first twenty minutes or so of his screentime tracking down and killing Nazis. In fact, his reason for joining the X-Men is so that he can find and kill Sebastian Shaw, the mutant Nazi who killed his mother.
* NerdsAreSexy: Charles is quite successful at picking up women by using his knowledge of genetics to basically say "you have pretty eyes/hair."
* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:Darwin]] is vaporized immediately by the blast he took, and one of his teammates even said, "We can't even bury him."
* NobodyTouchesTheHair: Said by Charles when Hank suggests Cerebro would work better if he were bald.
* NotSoDifferent:
** Magneto and Shaw. {{Lampshaded}} in their final confrontation. Shaw is what Magneto would be if he was guided by power rather than ideals.
** In a good sense, American and Soviet sailors. Despite their ideological differences, both have a strong sense of honour and discipline, and both are obviously reluctant to shoot first and provoke WorldWarIII. Particularly obvious in their ItHasBeenAnHonor moment.
*** Not only that - pretty much ''every'' scene with the American navy is almost immediately mirrored by a scene with the Soviets (or vice versa) showing them having the same reaction or feelings. If anything, the Soviets are more reluctant to fight; as a nation that saw far more of the horrors of war during WWII than the US did, this is perhaps realistic.
* NotQuiteFlight: Banshee.
* NuclearNasty: Also doubles up as something of a ChekhovsGun. Xavier mentions the theory that the nuclear age may have accelerated the development of the mutant gene. [[spoiler:Shaw's plan to create a nuclear apocalypse]] would therefore have [[TheSameButMore a much stronger effect]] on [[spoiler:survivors]]... assuming that there would ''be'' any.
* ObviouslyEvil: Azazel, who looks as demonic as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the name would suggest]].
* OhCrap:
** The faces of the Nazis in Argentina when Erik revealed his numbered tattoo.
** Charles' face when he outs Hank.
** Frequently by humans when they see mutant powers in action.
** [[spoiler:The look on Shaw's face when he realizes that Magneto isn't going to join him right after letting his guard down.]]
** For any audience member who knows [[ThoseWackyNazis what made it famous]], the moment when the last line in [[spoiler:Charles's 'please don't kill those people' speech to Eric is [[JustFollowingOrders "they were just following orders."]]]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: The more evil Magneto becomes, the more Irish his accent.
** [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent Apparently Magneto's accent was partially deliberate.]]
** Nicholas Hoult slips here and there as well.
* {{Oxbridge}}: In this treatment, Xavier is an Oxford graduate. Scenes of the city and university buildings were actually shot on location.
* PeriodPiece: 1962. [[TotallyRadical Groovy]].
* PersonOfMassDestruction: All of the mutants to a degree, but explicitly emphasized as [[BigBad Sebastian Shaw's]] primary power--he can absorb energy... ''all kinds'' of energy. This makes him effectively bullet-proof, [[MoreDakka rocket and grenade-proof,]] [[ImplacableMan and can even absorb the energy of your punches, no matter how strong you are.]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld He also states that he is effectively immortal.]] [[spoiler:Finally, he can absorb enough energy to simulate a nuclear bomb blast... and presumably come out the other side unharmed.]]
* PietaPlagiarism: [[spoiler:Erik cradling a wounded Charles on the beach.]]
* PiggybackingOnHitler: Played with. Sebastian Shaw, alias Klaus Schmidt, jumped on the Nazi bandwagon mainly because it would further his research of mutation; however, he holds one of Nazism's tenets (MasterRace and all that stuff) in very high esteem, and later [[ANaziByAnyOtherName adapts the ideology for mutant use]].
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Spoken verbatim by Charles when a newly self-confident Mystique walks in on him while she's entirely naked. Amusing, given that this is the first time the character's constant nudity has been alluded to in the series.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: In the comics, Sebastian Shaw's power is absorbing kinetic energy and turning it into physical strength and stamina, but he's still at least somewhat vulnerable to physical attacks, and his power has limits. He generally relies on {{Mook}}s and other mutants to do his dirty work. In this movie he can absorb ''all kinds of energy'', including Havok's blasts and [[spoiler:nuclear radiation]], and if he has limits they're set high enough to make him a credible threat to Magneto.
* PowerLimiter: Erik observes that Mystique's physical strength is effectively halved because she is concentrating on [[IJustWantToBeNormal maintaining a human appearance.]] A bit of FridgeBrilliance regarding her tendency to 'decloak' for her SheFu scenes in the original movies.
* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler: During a montage of Charles and Erik finding and recruiting other mutants, their search bring them into a small, dingy bar where [[{{Wolverine}} one man]] has no interest in their offer. Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.]]
* PresentDayPast: For a movie nominally set in the early sixties, people sure don't seem to pay much attention to race. By contrast, sexism is alive and well, even amongst the good guys.
** When frustrated, Havok is heard to mutter, "Whatever..."
** [[spoiler:The MacrossMissileMassacre fired at the end of the movie includes Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles, which entered service in 1977 and 1983 respectively.]]
** Moira and Raven are often seen in miniskirts, which weren't designed until 1965, i.e. three years in film's future. To name just a few hairstyle and clothing anachronisms.
** Some of the US sailors are wielding M16's, which were not officially adopted until the following year.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: [[spoiler:That coin did make a pretty smooth journey through Shaw's head. Scarier when you realize that Erik is probably [[IDidWhatIHadToDo very aware of the fact]] that he's causing [[{{Synchronization}} excruciating sympathy pain]] for Charles.]]
* PstandardPsychicPstance: Seems to be a personal favorite for Charles.
* PsychoactivePowers: Erik's control of his abilities is directly linked to his emotions. See TranquilFury below.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: How the CIA view the first generation of young X-Men.
* ReadyForLovemaking: Erik walks into his room and finds a naked Mystique lying in his bed. When he says, "Maybe in a few years," she responds by shifting her appearance to that of an adult woman.
* RealityRetcon: Did you know [[ColdWar the Cuban Missile Crisis]] was caused by and averted by mutants?
* RedOniBlueOni: Erik and Charles.
* {{Retcon}}
* {{Retraux}}: Everything has very '60s/'70s sensibilities, from Emma Frost's BondGirl costumes to the BBC science documentaryesque credits sequence.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Erik's initial mission was to hunt down and kill Shaw and his Nazi underlings.
* RomanceOnTheSet:
** Between Jennifer Lawrence and Nick Hoult.
** Also, Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravitz.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] and Michael Fassbender.
* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: Emma Frost reveals a lot more skin than, say, Moira and Raven. Angel, the stripper/prostitute, is the only one to defect to Shaw's side. (not to mention Raven herself, as after defecting to Magneto's side she goes into the fully nude version seen in the other films)
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Charles and Erik display this, both in their physique as well as their philosophies and methods.
* SexyBack: Angel favors backless dresses for her wings.
* ShapeshifterSwansong: [[spoiler:Invoked when Darwin's body goes through one state after another to adapt to Shaw's energy cherry-bomb about to go off inside him. His body ultimately gives out. [[NeverFoundTheBody Or did it...?]] The comic book version of Darwin survived having his entire body destroyed, and eventually generated a new one.]]
* ShootingSuperman: Magneto isn't ''bulletproof'', but he can deflect any metal projectile he knows is coming. [[spoiler:At least one character who really should have known better tries to shoot him. Though it's not as if she had any better options, and just the distraction required to deflect them accomplished her goal. With the unfortunate side effect of Xavier being crippled in the process.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Many {{homage}}s to old SpyFiction, most obviously early ''JamesBond'' movies.
** A neon sign at a bar says "Marv's Beer," a reference to writer Marv Wolfman.
** The Oxford pub, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_%28comic%29 The Eagle]]. Which doubles as a reference to the reference to the Eagle Awards (named after the magazine) which the X-Men won in the 1970s and 1980s.
** The neon sign at the bar where they find Angel is "Atomic" -- which is a reference to how mutants were called "Children of the Atom" in the comics. Also an example of ShownTheirWork, since Las Vegas in the 60's and 70's was famous for the nearby nuclear tests, and everything was named after the famous atom; drinks, shows, and nightclubs.
** A memory-erasing kiss? Xavier must be taking lessons from [[{{Superman}} another superhero]]...
** When Hank first demonstrates his power, he ends up [[Film/{{Spider-Man}} hanging upside-down, right at Raven's eye level]]. Lampshaded, when Raven exclaims: "You're amazing!"
** Erik's "StringTheory and DartboardOfHate" scene is incredibly similar to a scene in ''Film/KickAss'', also directed by Matthew Vaughn.
** When the POV shifts to show what Xavier sees when he's looking through another person's eyes, the effects are staggeringly similar to the ones used in DarkCity when Rufus [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] after getting administered with the scientist's ability-enhancing serum. Right down to perspective morphs and a silvery fringe around the frame.
** Erik's magnetism-using gestures run the gamut from [[TheMatrix Neo]] to [[StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi.]]
** 'Beast, open the bomb bay doors!'
* ShutUpHannibal: An interesting variation: Magneto responds to Shaw's HannibalLecture by saying that he agrees with him, but he rejects his WeCanRuleTogether offer because [[spoiler: "[[OhCrap Unfortunately,]] [[PreMortemOneLiner you killed]] [[YouKilledMyFather my mother"]]. ]]
* ShutUpKirk: [[spoiler:Magneto gives a very good one to Xavier after the latter tries a NurembergDefence. Seriously, Charles, what were you ''expecting'' from a Holocaust survivor?]]
* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: KevinBacon is barely noticable in the promotional materials, despite playing the BigBad.
* TheSixties: Many iconic features of the period including the Cuban Missile crisis, the slang and the occasional ''JamesBond'' ShoutOut. Lots of elements are very recognizable to anyone who's studied design or architecture. Mies' Barcelona chair is used appropriately for once!
* SlippingAMickey: Subverted: The NATO general responds to the Hellfire Club's first display of mutant powers with "What the hell did you put in my drink?!", thinking that he must be hallucinating.
* SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay: How kid Xavier pierces kid Mystique's disguise at the beginning of the film. Well, that and the telepathy.
* SovietSuperscience: The telepathy blocking helmet that stymies Xavier in every movie is apparently of Russian make.
* StartOfDarkness: Magneto and even more so Mystique.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: In-universe. Sebastian Shaw carries a mutant supremacy message that Magneto [[ForegoneConclusion ultimately embraces.]]
* StringTheory: Erik has a minor one on the wall before going to the [[SwissBankAccount banker]].
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Angel (who was originally a stripper) and of course Emma Frost.
* SwissBankAccount: Where Sebastian Shaw keeps his [[NaziGold ill-gotten gains]].
* TakeOverTheWorld: Shaw's ultimate goal.
* TeleFrag: Azazel uses the "100 feet up" variant quite a bit.
* ThatCameOutWrong: The loud-and-clear message of Xavier's OhCrap face after "they were just following orders". PlayedForDrama.
* ThatManIsDead: The film ends with Erik outright proclaiming that he prefers his new moniker: Magneto.
* ThePowerOfLove: When Charles is helping all of the mutants train, the most effective memory to focus Erik's powers is Channukah with his mother, before TheHolocaust
* TheVoiceless: Riptide has no dialogue in the film and Azazel has only a few words although it doesn't stop either from being Badass.
* TookALevelInBadass: The mutant kids after their training. [[spoiler:Plus several levels for Hank after he injects himself with his serum.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Sort of. The trailers did show virtually every single scene from the climax--but edited them so as not to show exactly what was happening.
* TrainingMontage: When Xavier trains mutant youngsters to properly use their powers.
* TranslationConvention: Averted for the most part: All the scenes with the Nazis/the Swiss bankteller/former German soldiers as well as the scenes with the Russians are spoken in German, French, Spanish, and Russian where approriate, with subtitles in English. A couple scenes use the technique of starting in foreign language, then shifting to English for the last few (and most dramatically important) lines.
** Unfortunately, the foreign lines are usually spoken with an atrocious pronunciation.
* TragicKeepsake: Erik's Nazi coin.
* TranquilFury: Erik's powers are manifested through anger, until Charles helps by telling him "true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity."
* TheUbermensch: Sebastian Shaw's ideal of a mutant.
* TooDumbToFool: In a deleted extension of the scene in Soviet Russia where the team is infiltrating, the search dog that the checkpoint guards have still sensed that something was amiss in the seemingly empty truck. Charles says that the reason is this pertaining to his telepathic power on dogs.
* TypeCasting: Edi Gathegi played a taxi driver before in {{Crank}}
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Raven for Xavier. Xavier does a lot of flirting with other women, and Raven is clearly jealous. It's hard to tell whether she actually had strong romantic feelings for him, or if she just wants to establish that she's worthy of romantic interest, but either way he says that he [[LikeBrotherAndSister can't see her as anything but a sister]] and [[{{Protectorate}} someone to protect]].
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Erik until, well, the Holocaust and the death of his mother. And Raven, who is still rather innocent for the majority of the film and is absolutely horrified when she sees [[spoiler:Charles get shot]].
* [[VerbThis Verb to This]]: Shaw to [[spoiler:Darwin, before killing him. Specifically: "adapt to this."]]
* VillainProtagonist: Magneto.
* VisionaryVillain: Sebastian Shaw. Then, Magneto.
* WeCanRuleTogether:
** Shaw offers this to Magneto. Then Magneto offers it to Charles.
** When Shaw introduces himself to the kids this is his main pitch.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: The plot focuses on Charles' and Magneto's friendship and fallout.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Energy]]: Sebastian Shaw supercharged himself with the energy of an overloaded nuclear reactor. [[spoiler:Is that energy still stored in his dead body? Does it have a risk of going boom?]]
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Averted with Magneto. Instead of having naturally white hair like his comic book counterpart, he's classic TallDarkAndHandsome.
* WideEyedIdealist: While Charles isn't exactly naive, his idealism is accentuated by the fact that everyone else seems to have a far more pessimistic approach to mutant/human relations. Though, it's suggested that this is at least partly because he hasn't faced persecution in the same way.
* WilliamTelling: When Charles and Hank stand beside the target mannequin during Alex's target practice. They do back off a bit before it starts...
* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler:When he confronts the First Class, Shaw kills one of them in the conflict. Who does he kill? The guy whose power is that ''he gains the traits he needs to survive in any situation''.]]
* WorldWarIII: Shaw is trying to provoke a classic WWIII scenario involving a small nuclear tussle between the US and the Soviet Union.
* XMeetsY:
** ''JamesBond''... with superheroes!
** Perhaps it's more ''Series/TheAvengers'' meets ''ComicBook/TheAvengers''.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Erik hates Nazis, but ultimately embraces mutant racism which doesn't seem much better. Goes hand in hand with HeWhoFightsMonsters and IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Charles says this almost word for word to Magneto.
* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Mother]]: [[spoiler:Shaw should have known that Magneto was never going to let this go.]]
* YoungerAndHipper: "It's a very groovy mutation."
----
->''"A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it."''
-->'''Charles Xavier'''
Before the mind-reading Charles Xavier was known as Professor X, he lived a privileged existence as a young brilliant Oxford graduate specialising in genetics, living with his shapeshifting adopted sister Raven. Before he took the name Magneto, the metal-controlling Erik Lensherr was a vengeful young Holocaust survivor bent on hunting down the depraved Nazi doctor who experimented on him and murdered his mother in the concentration camp, Dr Klaus Schmidt. The year is 1962, and CIA agent Moira [=McTaggart=] finds that Schmidt -- now going by the name Sebastian Shaw -- is working alongside mutants in a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the American and Russian governments; when she enlists Charles to help her in hunting down Shaw, Charles and Erik are unexpectedly drawn together. As they become close friends, the two of them work together to build a team of mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop Shaw and avert the greatest threat to humanity the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opens, which begins the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.
Inspired to some degree by the "X-Men: First Class" comic book series (though [[SuggestedBy by no means a faithful adaptation]]), this film also incorporates elements of the originally planned but now scrapped film ''X-Men Origins: Magneto'' [[hottip:*: though director Matthew Vaughn denies that the script for ''Magneto'' had anything to do with this, which means Magneto was always part of this film's script; in that case, scrapping that film probably made sense, as it would have been a bit redundant]].
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* {{Adorkable}}: Charles and Hank, the former when he uses his nerdy knowledge to woo girls at bars and the latter when he's flustering over Raven.
* AgentMulder: Oliver Platt's character, who becomes the ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* AllTheOtherReindeer: Angel's motivation for joining Shaw.
-->'''Angel''': We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The secret CIA base, rarely noticed even within the company, gets successfully invaded. [[spoiler:''Twice''.]]
* AlmostKiss: Between Hank and Raven. [[MomentKiller Erik walks in and kills the mood]].
* AmnesiaMissedASpot: [[spoiler: At the end, Xavier wipes [=MacTaggert's=] memory to keep the mutants safe from the [=CIA=]. All [=MacTaggert=] remembers is a few glimpses of leaves and Xavier kissing her.]]
* AndIMustScream: The death of [[spoiler:Sebastian Shaw. He's held immobile while a coin is pushed slowly through his skull. Xavier, who's psychically linked to Shaw in order to hold him immobile, does the screaming instead.]]
* AntiHero: Magneto is a Type IV [[spoiler:before JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and becoming a full-fledged VillainProtagonist.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Sebastian Shaw plans a class 3a (humans die in a nuclear holocaust, mutants inherit the Earth).
* {{Badass}}: Erik and his execution of his revenge plot (and the sub lift, of course) qualify. In fact, this ''is'' an X-Men movie, so standard BadassCrew tropes probably apply.
* BadassBookworm: Xavier and Hank.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Sebastian Shaw, as well as his goons Azazel and Riptide.
* BadassLonghair: Riptide
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Pretty well sums up Erik's backstory. Well, Being Tortured And Seeing Your Family And Friends And Everyone You Know Killed Makes You Crazy, at least.
* BettyAndVeronica: While Mystique [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend may]] or [[LikeBrotherAndSister may not]] have feelings for Charles, her attention soon turns to sensible Hank (who prefers her human form) and enigmatic Magneto (who prefers her mutant form).
** And on the Charles' part, he seems to have a choice between the blonde (in human form) Mystique, and brunette Moira. Note that Mystique, who is the Veronica, is his childhood friend, normally a Betty characteristic.
* BigNo:
** When young Magneto wrecks Schmidt's lab in the beginning of the film in anger and grief over the murder of his mother, he lets out an extremely long "Nein."
** Also, Xavier shouts this when [[spoiler: Magneto pushes the coin through Sebastian Shaw's forehead. Justified because every pain sensation Shaw would have felt was passing through Xavier's brain.]]
** Keeping in mind [[spoiler: the pain would only apply to the skull - brain tissue doesn't register mechanical pain.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Initially between [[IJustWantToBeNormal Hank and Mystique]] before the latter begins to accept her real appearance.
* [[spoiler:BlackDudeDiesFirst: Darwin is the first mutant to die (and the only person on the team who dies), which is all the more ridiculous because his powers are all about survival.]]
* BodyHorror: [[TransformationSequence When Hank [=McCoy=] turns into Beast.]]
* BilingualBonus: The Soviet Captain refers to an officer on the bridge as "''zampolit''", which is translated as comrade. The enthusiasm at which the crew later drag him off to the brig becomes understandable if one knows that ''zampolit'' is how [[ThePoliticalOfficer soviet political officers]] were addressed.
* BreakTheCutie: Charles Xavier. When the movie starts he's a friendly, happy-go-lucky, idealistic Oxford grad whose only interests are protecting his sister, drinking yards of beer and picking up coeds. His initial reaction to meeting other mutants is a puppyish eagerness to find others like him, as well as a gung-ho enthusiasm to [[TheyFightCrime work with a superhuman team to fight evil.]] During the climax [[spoiler: he gets smacked around in a variety of ways including telepathically experiencing Shaw's gruesome death at Erik's hands and getting shot in the spine... and having the US government, his best friend, and his adopted-sister figure all turn against him. By the end of the movie [[HumansAreBastards his government is trying to hunt him down,]] his [[FaceHeelTurn best friend is preparing for a war against humans]] and he's crippled for life in a wheelchair.]] We know from future installments that he never quite abandons his ideals, but he's frighteningly subdued and obviously much more cautious about who knows his secrets.
* BroadStrokes: They've outright said that they're giving story a much higher priority than continuity.
* [[ButYourWingsAreBeautiful But Your Feet Are Beautiful]]: Mystique towards Hank. Unfortunately for her, Hank doesn't embrace Mystique's true form and prefers her "human" form instead. In contrast, Magneto prefers Mystique's true form.
* ButNotTooBlack: Angel Salvador, who is played by multi-generational mixed race actress Zoe Kravitz. Kravitz' mother is Lisa Bonet (Black father and White mother), and her father is Lenny Kravitz (Jewish father and Black mother).
* BullyingADragon: Subverted. Some viewers might think that young Erik is going to kill Shaw in their first scene together, but as we later learn, it would have been impossible for him to do so at the time thanks to Shaw's energy-absorbing powers.
* CallForward:
-->'''Military Official:''' I've seen this before at a magic show. Are you going to ask us to think of a number between one and ten now?
-->'''Charles:''' No, Agent Stryker, although I could ask you about your son, William, who you were thinking about, which is very nice.
** And this gem:
-->'''Professor X:''' Next thing you know, I'll be going bald!
** Magneto rejects Mystique's human disguises and tells her she looks perfect in her mutant form. In ''X3'', when she is hit with the cure and reverts to her human form, Magneto abandons her - saying "She used to be so beautiful."
** Xavier's pick-up line, '[Mutation] has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet,' comes directly from the voice-over at the beginning of the first X-men movie.
* TheCameo:
** [[spoiler:Wolverine, and given that PG-13 movies have [[PrecisionFStrike only one "fuck" to use]], they definitely chose the right place to use it. HughJackman himself said he accepted to be the only one to swear in the movie!]]
** Also Rebecca Romijn, the original Mystique.
** A blink-and-you'll-miss-it case: One of the mutants shown during the first test run of Cerebro appears to be a very young Storm, and another looks like Cyclops.
* CanonDiscontinuity: The movie steps on the toes of almost all the previous movies. For example, Xavier has his spinal injury much younger than he apparently did in either ''Wolverine'' or ''Last Stand'', and Magneto has his break with Xavier in the 60s before most of the characters from the other movies are even born, despite the scene in ''The Last Stand'' of him visiting young Jean Grey along with an noticeably elderly and mobile Xavier (not to mention Xavier getting his injury still with hair, while all his previous younger appearances had him bald and mobile).
** Xavier also initially gets Cerebro from the CIA and Beast rather than building it himself with Magneto, though that Cerebro is destroyed in Shaw's attack on the CIA, and a new one located at the mansion would have been needed anyway.
*** It is possible the two could have, at least temporarily, resolved their differences long enough to build Cerebro in the mansion together. This could also explain why they're still somewhat chummy at the opening of X3.
** The first movie is also contradicted when Xavier first meets Magneto, which he claimed happened when he was 17, while Hank's transformation into Beast happens years before his cameo in the bar scene in ''X2: X-Men United''.
** Magneto obtains the helmet from Shaw and Xavier is fully aware of how it blocks telepathy, in ''X-Men'', Xavier is shocked at Magneto's helmet being able to block his telepathy.
** And regarding the Cerebro montage, Cyclops is a teenager in ''Wolverine'' and in his late 30's/early 40's in the original trilogy, which, if one does the math, would put him at infancy or at most, toddler age in the early 1960's, not the pre-teen we see playing ball. Ditto for the girl made to resemble Storm, who looks like she's a teenager in this film.
* CareBearStare: Xavier uses his telepathy to help Erik recall a happy memory from long ago in order to unlock the full potential of his powers.
* CastingGag: In the comics, Magneto (DependingOnTheWriter) is half German-speaking Hungarian Jewish on his father's side and half {{Roma}} on his mother's. Michael Fassbender is half German Jewish on his father's side and half [[IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] (from Ireland, to boot) on his mother's.
* CatchAndReturn: Magneto catches and then reverses a barrage of missiles. Sebastian Shaw's ability to absorb and release energy is also a form of this.
* ChainedToABed: Emma Frost, chained by the bed's ''metal railings''. No points for guessing who did it and how.
* ChekhovsSkill: Almost doubles as FridgeBrilliance:
-->[''Erik asks Charles to help him train by shooting him point-blank'']\\
'''Erik:''' You know I can deflect it!
* ChessMotifs: It's subtle, but when Erik and Charles are playing chess the evening before the big battle, the one move we see is his king capturing Charles' queen, foreshadowing Raven joining him at the end of the film. And the chess game is almost directly followed by scenes showing that Erik is able to understand Raven, while Charles is...not.
* ChestBlaster: Havok's "training wheels" are designed as one.
* ComingOutStory: Charles accidently outs Hank as a mutant.
-->'''Charles:''' Why didn't you say? [[OhCrap ...Because you don't know.]] I am so, so terribly sorry.
-->'''Hank:''' [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything You didn't ask, so I didn't tell.]]
* ComplimentBackfire: Erik tries to compliment Hank's Beast form, but Hank takes it as sarcasm. Erik is remarkably understanding about the mistake.
* CodeName: This film tells us where some of them came from.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Magneto interrogates a bank President by using his magnetic powers to pull out his dental fillings. Later he cracks Emma Frost's diamond body with a [[BeyondTheImpossible bed frame]]...in such a way that [[spoiler: a gentle tap would shatter her if she turned back before having time to heal]].
* ColdWar: The setting of the movie and the source of the main plot.
* ContinuityCameo: Rebecca Romijn showing up as an "older" Mystique.
* ContinuityNod: The first scene with Erik in the camp is mostly identical to the first scene of X-Men, even down to some of the shots.
* ContinuitySnarl: See CanonDiscontinuity above. At the very least this movie takes a BroadStrokes approach to the other movies in the series, especially ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine''. Most of the differences could theoretically be reconciled ([[FanWank Maybe the Xavier at the end of Origins was a psychic projection]]! [[WildMassGuessing Maybe Hank was wearing an image inducer in his cameo in X2]]!) But if you just saw the movies, the only reason you'd assume they were meant to be in the same continuity is HughJackman, the Romjin cameo, and the references to Stryker.
** But the Cerebro Mutant Tracker feature on the Blu-Ray appears to [[http://media.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/35849/2011-09-08_2335.png ignore the continuity holes...]]
* CooldownHug: Invoked when Xavier finds Erik in the ocean trying to sink Shaw's ship.
* CradlingYourKill: [[spoiler:Or, Cradling Your Cripple. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job breaking him, Erik.]]]]
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Played with. It's the BigBad who creates the villain, not TheHero. {{Lampshaded}} [[spoiler:in Shaw's final monologue, and in Erik's references to himself as Frankenstein's monster.]]
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler:{{Inverted}}. It happens two times, and both times it's a villain.]]
* CunningLinguist: Erik is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish. This is consistent with the comics, where he has been shown speaking French, and knowing Spanish isn't much of a stretch for someone like him.
* CurbStompBattle: Shaw and his cronies' first attack on the students.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Mystique as a little girl when Charles first meets her.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The movie beats ''X2'' to the title of the most dramatic, heart-wrenching, and pessimistic in the series.
* DartboardOfHate: Magneto, as an adult, tosses the coin into the "forehead" of a sketch of Dr. Schmidt.
* DeadpanSnarker: Banshee. "Aw, ''I'' wanted to be called Mystique."
* DeathByOriginStory: Erik's mother.
* DefenceMechanismSuperpower: Darwin's power is... pretty much this trope alone.
* DefiedTrope: Jason Flemyng pointed out in an interview that he tried to avoid the cliche shot of the villain looking over the shoulder at their tail, as it always looks like the villain has ''just'' realised they had a tail for the first time.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: "This, gentlemen, is why the CIA is no place for a woman!"
* DescriptionPorn: Hank does this with Cerebro.
* DiabolicalMastermind: Sebastian Shaw, who (mutant powers aside) wouldn't be terribly out of place as a JamesBond villain.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Sebastian ''honestly'' believes that he can convince Erik to join him, despite being ''directly'' responsible for [[YouKilledMyFather the death of his mother]] and knowing that he has spent his entire life hunting him down. Eric even lampshades it in the end, [[spoiler:stating that while he believes mutants ''are'' superior after all, there is absolutely no way he will ''ever'' forgive Shaw.]]
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: [[spoiler:Magneto and Mystique of a Type 4 example.]]
* DieOrFly: Erik [[SinkOrSwimMentor takes this approach]] during Banshee's flying attempts (though given that Banshee's costume contained metal, he could easily have caught him if it didn't work). Later, Alex Summers grasps his energy-blasting ability ''just as he needs to''.
* DirtyCommunists: Subverted. Although many ColdWar cliches are in place, Russians are not portrayed as intrinsically evil or [[TakeOverTheWorld bent on world domination]]. They plan to install their missiles in Cuba not as a part of some EvilPlan to destroy capitalism, but as a counterweight to US missiles in Turkey (not to mention that both countries are being bullied and manipulated by the Hellfire Club). And, most importantly, the final act shows that Soviet sailors are NotSoDifferent from their American counterparts.
* DirtyHarriet: In order to infiltrate a Hellfire Club private party, Moira [=McTaggert=] strips to her lingerie and pretends to be one of the call-girls. Done fairly well as it's shown that she's not all that comfortable with it and is ''acutely'' aware of how vulnerable she is.
* DoubleEntendre: "We'll show you ours, if you show us yours." Referring to mutant powers, but could easily have another meaning as it takes place within a strip club. Xavier wasn't exactly a ShrinkingViolet with the ladies, after all.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:World War III between the humans is averted, but now an even bigger conflict looms on the horizon between them and the mutants. Charles is inadvertently crippled during a skirmish between Erik and Moira, the former going to become the leader of the mutant revolution with Raven at his side, and the latter being reluctantly mind-wiped by Charles to protect his future students, tarnishing her reputation within the CIA.]]
* DrinkOrder: It's subtle, but every time they're in a bar, Charles orders a cola, rather than alcohol, for Mystique, because he doesn't want her [[GlamourFailure "slipping up"]] and exposing her true form.
* DrunkenMaster: Although Charles Xavier doesn't gain any abilities from becoming drunk, his being drunk certainly doesn't hamper his abilites either, given his inebriated meeting with Moira [=MacTaggert=]. Does seem to hamper his skill with pick-up lines, though.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Wolverine appears for a very brief scene and only gets one line. (however, it's one of the funniest lines in the movie)
** Blink and you'll miss her, but when Charles uses Cerebro to look for mutants for the first time, a young girl version of Storm can be seen.
* EigenPlot: [[TropesAreNotBad A relatively well-done version]]. Xavier or Magneto probably could have found the Hellfire Club's submarine on their own, but Banshee can do it more easily by using his MakeMeWannaShout power as sonar. Beast's power isn't an obvious counter to Azazel's, but he's agile and strong enough to hold off Azazel, who is beaten when Mystique tricks him by turning into Shaw. Banshee and Havok team up to fight Angel.
* EpicFail: Banshee's first flight... is ''not''.
* EpicFlail: Erik tries to sink Shaw's ship with its own anchor.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Magneto is obsessed with taking revenge for his murdered mother.
** The whole "tortured in a Nazi concentration camp" thing didn't necessarily help either, though.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: After completing his FaceHeelTurn, Magneto dons his iconic EvilOverlord costume that [[MythologyGag he wore in the first issues of the comic book]]. Also, Mystique performs an [[IncrediblyLamePun Evil Costume Ditch]] after siding with Magneto.
* EvilIsStylish: Shaw and his goons.
* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Shaw's nice enough to explain his energy-absorbing powers to Colonel Hendry (and the audience), even noting how they make him ageless, [[spoiler:before promptly using them to turn Hendry into a human firecracker]].
* EyeScream: Azazel holds the point of his tail at a victim's eye.
* FaceHeelTurn: Angel, and later followed by Magneto and Mystique.
* FakeAmerican:
* FakeNationality: British Jason Flemying as the Russian Azazel, Scottish James [=McAvoy=] as English Xavier and German-born Irish raised Michael Fassbender as German Magneto. Australian Rose Byrne and British Nicholas Hoult as Americans Moira [=McTaggart=] and Beast.
* FakeDefector: Darwin. [[KilledOffForReal Shaw does NOT take the deception well.]]
* FallenHero: Erik Lensherr/Magneto gets a more heroic treatment than usual, making him more of this trope than of the typical AntiVillain fare.
* FanserviceExtra: In addition to ''every'' major female character showing some skin at one point or another, the other girls in the LingerieScene at the Hellfire Club.
* FantasticRacism: [[UpToEleven Taken to new heights]]; [[spoiler:Shaw wants to start a nuclear war that will wipe out humanity, while humans respond to knowledge of the mutants' existence and powers by trying to kill the people who just averted said war.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Shaw is impeccably polite even when he's going to kill your mom. Even when he's killing people who have slighted him, it's more on principle than any outright anger.
* FemmeFatale: Emma Frost. Mystique [[StartOfDarkness starts to blossom into one]].
* FieryRedhead: Notice how Mystique, blue with red hair, goes blonde in her public form.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: One of Shaw's abilities. Emma Frost in diamond form gains diamond-sharp fingers.
* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Professor X
** TheLancer: Magneto
** TheBigGuy: Havok
** TheSmartGuy (GeniusBruiser): Beast
** TheChick: Mystique
** TheBumblebee: Banshee
** [[spoiler: SacrificialLamb]]: Darwin
** [[spoiler: SixthRangerTraitor]]: Angel
* ForegoneConclusion:
** Magneto and Mystique's {{Face Heel Turn}}s.
** Even more painful is the fact that people who read the comics are quite aware that [[spoiler:the subplot with Hank's serum [[GoneHorriblyWrong will go horribly wrong]],]] and that Charles is going to be crippled by the end of the movie. It's almost like a Foregone TraumaCongaLine.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** [[spoiler:When we first see Erik as an adult, he is staring at a picture of Shaw while handling a coin and uses his powers to [[DartboardOfHate slam the coin into the picture's forehead]]. This is how he kills Shaw in the end... but much slower.]]
** Charles compares Hank to Jekyll and Hyde. [[spoiler:Hank goes on to develop a serum which accidentally makes him even more beastly.]]
** Right before the attack on the CIA base, Havok beats Darwin at a pinball game. Darwin declares,[[spoiler: "Jesus man, you are killing me!" Later, Shaw uses energy absorbed from Havok's blasts to kill Darwin.]]
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Combined with BrickJoke. The first woman Charles tried to pick up shows up again at his graduation ceremony - then she sees Moira approaching him, and leaves in a huff.
* FutureShadowing: Charles Xavier is hilariously fond of the hair he [[BaldOfAwesome loses by the time of the other films]].
* GeniusBruiser: Beast. The film involves him learning to embrace the latter part.
* GenreShift: The film incorporates many elements of the SpyFiction genre. See XMeetsY below.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Sebastian Shaw wanted to awaken Erik's powers and turn him into a PersonOfMassDestruction. Serves him right.
* GrewASpine: Raven.
* TheGump: Mutants caused the Cuban Missile Crisis.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Magneto hates Shaw and wants to kill him, but he eventually embraces Shaw's beliefs about mutant supremacy. It's even spelled out through the villain '''[[ArtifactOfAttraction even wearing the helmet]]''' '''[[IconicLogo Magneto always wears]]'''.
** Justified at the crucial moment because he separates revenge from his ideals, which is why he's able to compliment Shaw's vision while still hating the man to his core. Shaw the man wronged him terribly but Shaw the visionary is inspirational.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Professor X and Magneto, believe it or not.
* HeyItsThatGuy: {{Twilight}} fans may be surprised to find that Laurent is Darwin
* HighHeelFaceTurn: Inverted--[[spoiler:Both female mutants working with Xavier have turned to the dark side by the time the movie is over, and aside from Magneto, are the only ones to do so.]]
* HollywoodNerd: {{Averted}} with James [=McAvoy=] (Xavier), but played straight with Nick Hoult (Hank [=MacCoy=]).
* HotScientist: Charles Xavier, a very rare male version of the trope. He shamelessly used technobabble to pick up women back in Oxford.
* HopeSpot: For a second, you're led to believe that [[spoiler:Darwin]] might just survive. Some fans posit that he did.
* HomoeroticSubtext:* [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Please]] [[EditWar stick to the]] [[HoYay/{{X-Men}} main page.]]
* HumansAreBastards: Mutants are ''not'' well-treated in this film, to the point where Xavier's attempts to justify keeping the peace with normals basically boil down to "okay, they suck, but as the SuperiorSpecies, can't we set a good example?" Of course, it ''was'' the [=60s=], which was just plain bigoted in general.
** Subverted by the fact that the film's BigBad (Sebastian Shaw) is a mutant.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Shaw says "[[ApeShallNeverKillApe We don't hurt our own kind]]." A few scenes later, he kills Darwin.]]
** Charles uses "mutant and proud" as part of his pick-up lines, which are basically a very erudite variation on "you have pretty (insert trait here)", in the presence of his adopted sister, who has been actively discouraged by Charles from taking any pride in her mutation.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Hank's and initially Mystique's reaction to their mutant forms.
-->"I'd give anything to just be normal.''
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim[=/=]YouKillItYouBoughtIt: [[spoiler:Erik kills Shaw and becomes the new face of the mutant revolution.]]
* ILoveNuclearPower: It's said that nuclear radiation probably sped up mutation. [[spoiler:Shaw takes this as gospel, and decides to start a nuclear war in order to accelerate mutant development.]]
* ImHavingSoulPains: [[spoiler:Erik killing Shaw by slowly pushing a coin through his head]] with Charles feeling all of the pain from it because he's in [[spoiler:Mr. Shaw]]'s head, keeping him from [[spoiler:moving or using his powers]] - and he can't let go because he might [[spoiler:attack Erik or even loose his powers to fry the surrounding area for who knows how far]]. That scream was more than just agony over the moral decision of a friend.
* IdiotBall: Really, Charles? You're really going to tell a Holocaust survivor to spare people because they were "just following orders"? At least he has the sense to immediately [[OhCrap realise]] what [[ThatCameOutWrong just came out of his mouth]]...
* {{Immortality}}: [[BigBad Sebastian Shaw]], whose energy-absorbing powers keep him young... somehow.
** Also Mystique[=/=]Raven to a point, who ages at a very low rate due to the ability of her cells to alter their function, which makes more sense than Shaw's immortality in the framework of the established rules of the universe.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: When Havoc starts to practice controlling his powers, he first ends up shooting everything EXCEPT his intended target. While he really was trying to aim, he couldn't control the sheer force of his powers yet.
* ImprovisedTraining: Xavier uses whatever he can find on or near his estate to train young mutants.
* InNameOnly: Azazel in comics - semi-demonic, millenia old dude with more powers than you can shake a stick at. Azazel in movies -red-skinned Russian Nightcrawler. That said, in the comics, Azazel ''is'' Nightcrawler's father.
* InstantDeathBullet: Magneto's mother.
* IronicEcho:
** "First, I'm going to count to three. Then, you're[[spoiler:/I'm]] going to move the coin."
** "Mutant and proud."
** "Just following orders."
* ItGotWorse: After Erik's "I agree with everything you say" moment with Sebastian Shaw (which would have been a WhamLine if we [[ForegoneConclusion didn't already know]] that he [[FallenHero would turn evil]]), everything just goes downhill.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Captains of both American and Soviet warships bid farewell to their crews with this line.
* ItsPersonal: Erik wants revenge on Shaw/Schmidt [[YouKilledMyFather for killing his mother]]. One of the reasons it feels like Erik is the hero of the film.
* {{Jerkass}}: Although the CIA staff in general acts like jerks most of the time, the worst is William Stryker Sr. What makes him most deserving of this trope is that the CIA Director, himself sexist and a hot headed jerk, actually calls out against Stryker twice, first in regards to his decision to keep Emma Frost detained (since the law requires that they hand her over), and the second when Stryker decides to have the American and Soviet navies [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill bombard]] the Cuban shore to eliminate the mutants specifically because one of their human agents was present as well. Both times, he dismissed him, stating that he's not handing her over because the law doesn't apply to mutants, and in the latter case insensitively stated that the agent was "collateral damage."
* JerkJock: Havok seems to be this to Beast.
* JustFollowingOrders: The Nazis that Erik confronts trot out this line as an excuse for their actions. Charles later makes the mistake of echoing it while trying to calm Erik down. Definitely an OhCrap moment for the audience when he says it.
-->'''Erik:''' [[ShutUpKirk I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: About half of the Hellfire Club get off scot-free in the end. William Stryker Sr. also faces no consequences for unlawful actions (keeping Emma Frost in a secret prison - in the '60s that wasn't accepted practice...how times change) and the unethical and horribly unwise decision to have both the Soviets and the Americans bombard the Cuban shore to get rid of mutants despite one of their own human agents being located there (both actions are things that even John [=McCone=], who was a certified jerk, called him out on). However, this may change if there are sequels to First Class.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Erik kills Shaw by telemagnetically pushing a coin through his brain. It was the very same coin that Erik was commanded to move as a child to prevent Schmidt from killing his mother; Erik failed and Shaw shot his mother. Erik even gives an IronicEcho of what Schmidt said to motivate him at the time.]]
* KarmicTransformation: Hank's transformation into Beast is tragic, but he brought it on himself.
* KickTheSonOfABitch[=/=]PayEvilUntoEvil: Erik cruelly disposes of/tortures Nazis and their sympathizers in the first act.
* TheLancer: Erik to Charles for much of the film. Havok to Beast somewhat.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Charles [[spoiler: uses a kiss goodbye to wipe out Moira's memories the last few weeks, and of where he and the newly formed X-Men are]]. This is notably against his current philosophy in the comics, but very much in keeping with his modus operandi in the comics produced in the early 1960s.
* LeftHanging: What happened to all the other mutants between this film and the rest of them? Given the forty year gap between this and the principal films, anything could have gone down. Room for a sequel, of course.
* LightIsNotGood: Emma Frost, ([[MsFanservice scantily]]) clad in white and able to turn her body into a mass of shining diamonds, is not a ''good'' girl.
* LingerieScene: Moira's Hellfire Club infiltration technique. And Emma Frost in most of her scenes.
* LondonEnglandSyndrome: ''Moscow, Russia''.
* LoveTriangle: Raven and Hank hit it off almost instantly, but the moment he refuses to accept his mutant form (and ''her'' mutant form) drives her to attempt to seduce Magneto, who prefers her appearance just the way it is.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Charles cites this when Raven, feeling insecure about her looks, asks if he would date her...although it falls a little flat coming right after he's answered the question with 'of course' in reference to her human form, before she clarifies that she means in her real form.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: [[spoiler:After witnessing the mutants in action, this is the joint plan of the American and Soviet fleets to deal with them. And also Magneto's retort.]]
* MadDoctor: Well, the film does start in a [[TruthInTelevision Nazi]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele camp]].
* MakeMeWannaShout: Banshee. In an unusual variation, this includes [[IBelieveICanFly the power of flight]], by bouncing sound waves off the ground back into a wingsuit.
* ManipulativeBastard: Sebastian Shaw. First he ruthlessly manipulates young Erik's feelings to awaken his powers, then he exploits the vices of both Soviet and American generals. Although he's not as good at it as he might seem - he ultimately has to resort to threats to get both the NATO and the Soviet generals put their missiles where he wants them (Turkey and Cuba, respectively).
* ManlyTears: Magneto and Xavier shed them during particularly heart-wrenching moments. See EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas.
* MasterRace: How Sebastian Shaw and Magneto see mutants as a whole.
* MeaningfulEcho: Mystique encountering Charles in a kitchen in her true form like when they first met. However, this time around, it is to show how they've both changed and are starting to grow apart in ideals.
** Also, shortly after they first meet, when Erik's about to go off on his own again, Charles tells him, "Shaw's got friends. You could use some!" Later, after Shaw's attack on the CIA when Charles wants to send the new mutant recruits home, Erik tells him "Shaw's got his army, we need ours."
* MentalAffair: Emma Frost uses a JediMindTrick on a Russian General to make him ''think'' he's having sex with her while she's actually sitting on his couch watching him make love to empty air on the bed. Charles thought that was a nice trick.
* MentorArchetype: [[EvilMentor Sebastian Shaw to Magneto]]. [[CoolTeacher Professor X to the team]]. [[MentorShip Magneto to Mystique]].
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: After circumstances force them to leave the CIA facility, the kids realize that they have to get their act together and learn to use and control their powers and work as a team.
* MismatchedEyes: The first girl Charles tries to hit on.
* MonochromeCast: [[spoiler:Angel makes a FaceHeelTurn and Darwin dies before the first half of the movie, which takes out our two [[TokenMinority TokenMinorities]]. This leaves an 99%, glaringly, blindingly, obvious white-as-snow cast.]]
* MookHorrorShow: What the CIA agents and guards experience when their compound is assaulted by the Hellfire Club.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: The Swiss banker Erik interrogates.
* TheMountainsOfIllinois: As explained [[http://parquepatriciosailatan.tumblr.com/post/6621793930/i-saw-the-new-x-men-and-i-was-the-only-person-laughing here]], Vila Gessell is a beach, instead of the mountainous place depicted here.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Sebastian Shaw's supremacist ideology is basically mutant Nazism. No wonder that he collaborated with [[ThoseWackyNazis actual Nazis]], and his vision of the future, glimpsed by Xavier, involves a lot of PuttingOnTheReich.
* NaziGold: Erik lays his hands on some Nazi gold and even {{troll}}s a Swiss bank manager with it.
* NaziHunter: Erik/Magneto spends the first twenty minutes or so of his screentime tracking down and killing Nazis. In fact, his reason for joining the X-Men is so that he can find and kill Sebastian Shaw, the mutant Nazi who killed his mother.
* NerdsAreSexy: Charles is quite successful at picking up women by using his knowledge of genetics to basically say "you have pretty eyes/hair."
* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:Darwin]] is vaporized immediately by the blast he took, and one of his teammates even said, "We can't even bury him."
* NobodyTouchesTheHair: Said by Charles when Hank suggests Cerebro would work better if he were bald.
* NotSoDifferent:
** Magneto and Shaw. {{Lampshaded}} in their final confrontation. Shaw is what Magneto would be if he was guided by power rather than ideals.
** In a good sense, American and Soviet sailors. Despite their ideological differences, both have a strong sense of honour and discipline, and both are obviously reluctant to shoot first and provoke WorldWarIII. Particularly obvious in their ItHasBeenAnHonor moment.
*** Not only that - pretty much ''every'' scene with the American navy is almost immediately mirrored by a scene with the Soviets (or vice versa) showing them having the same reaction or feelings. If anything, the Soviets are more reluctant to fight; as a nation that saw far more of the horrors of war during WWII than the US did, this is perhaps realistic.
* NotQuiteFlight: Banshee.
* NuclearNasty: Also doubles up as something of a ChekhovsGun. Xavier mentions the theory that the nuclear age may have accelerated the development of the mutant gene. [[spoiler:Shaw's plan to create a nuclear apocalypse]] would therefore have [[TheSameButMore a much stronger effect]] on [[spoiler:survivors]]... assuming that there would ''be'' any.
* ObviouslyEvil: Azazel, who looks as demonic as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the name would suggest]].
* OhCrap:
** The faces of the Nazis in Argentina when Erik revealed his numbered tattoo.
** Charles' face when he outs Hank.
** Frequently by humans when they see mutant powers in action.
** [[spoiler:The look on Shaw's face when he realizes that Magneto isn't going to join him right after letting his guard down.]]
** For any audience member who knows [[ThoseWackyNazis what made it famous]], the moment when the last line in [[spoiler:Charles's 'please don't kill those people' speech to Eric is [[JustFollowingOrders "they were just following orders."]]]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: The more evil Magneto becomes, the more Irish his accent.
** [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent Apparently Magneto's accent was partially deliberate.]]
** Nicholas Hoult slips here and there as well.
* {{Oxbridge}}: In this treatment, Xavier is an Oxford graduate. Scenes of the city and university buildings were actually shot on location.
* PeriodPiece: 1962. [[TotallyRadical Groovy]].
* PersonOfMassDestruction: All of the mutants to a degree, but explicitly emphasized as [[BigBad Sebastian Shaw's]] primary power--he can absorb energy... ''all kinds'' of energy. This makes him effectively bullet-proof, [[MoreDakka rocket and grenade-proof,]] [[ImplacableMan and can even absorb the energy of your punches, no matter how strong you are.]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld He also states that he is effectively immortal.]] [[spoiler:Finally, he can absorb enough energy to simulate a nuclear bomb blast... and presumably come out the other side unharmed.]]
* PietaPlagiarism: [[spoiler:Erik cradling a wounded Charles on the beach.]]
* PiggybackingOnHitler: Played with. Sebastian Shaw, alias Klaus Schmidt, jumped on the Nazi bandwagon mainly because it would further his research of mutation; however, he holds one of Nazism's tenets (MasterRace and all that stuff) in very high esteem, and later [[ANaziByAnyOtherName adapts the ideology for mutant use]].
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Spoken verbatim by Charles when a newly self-confident Mystique walks in on him while she's entirely naked. Amusing, given that this is the first time the character's constant nudity has been alluded to in the series.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: In the comics, Sebastian Shaw's power is absorbing kinetic energy and turning it into physical strength and stamina, but he's still at least somewhat vulnerable to physical attacks, and his power has limits. He generally relies on {{Mook}}s and other mutants to do his dirty work. In this movie he can absorb ''all kinds of energy'', including Havok's blasts and [[spoiler:nuclear radiation]], and if he has limits they're set high enough to make him a credible threat to Magneto.
* PowerLimiter: Erik observes that Mystique's physical strength is effectively halved because she is concentrating on [[IJustWantToBeNormal maintaining a human appearance.]] A bit of FridgeBrilliance regarding her tendency to 'decloak' for her SheFu scenes in the original movies.
* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler: During a montage of Charles and Erik finding and recruiting other mutants, their search bring them into a small, dingy bar where [[{{Wolverine}} one man]] has no interest in their offer. Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.]]
* PresentDayPast: For a movie nominally set in the early sixties, people sure don't seem to pay much attention to race. By contrast, sexism is alive and well, even amongst the good guys.
** When frustrated, Havok is heard to mutter, "Whatever..."
** [[spoiler:The MacrossMissileMassacre fired at the end of the movie includes Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles, which entered service in 1977 and 1983 respectively.]]
** Moira and Raven are often seen in miniskirts, which weren't designed until 1965, i.e. three years in film's future. To name just a few hairstyle and clothing anachronisms.
** Some of the US sailors are wielding M16's, which were not officially adopted until the following year.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: [[spoiler:That coin did make a pretty smooth journey through Shaw's head. Scarier when you realize that Erik is probably [[IDidWhatIHadToDo very aware of the fact]] that he's causing [[{{Synchronization}} excruciating sympathy pain]] for Charles.]]
* PstandardPsychicPstance: Seems to be a personal favorite for Charles.
* PsychoactivePowers: Erik's control of his abilities is directly linked to his emotions. See TranquilFury below.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: How the CIA view the first generation of young X-Men.
* ReadyForLovemaking: Erik walks into his room and finds a naked Mystique lying in his bed. When he says, "Maybe in a few years," she responds by shifting her appearance to that of an adult woman.
* RealityRetcon: Did you know [[ColdWar the Cuban Missile Crisis]] was caused by and averted by mutants?
* RedOniBlueOni: Erik and Charles.
* {{Retcon}}
* {{Retraux}}: Everything has very '60s/'70s sensibilities, from Emma Frost's BondGirl costumes to the BBC science documentaryesque credits sequence.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Erik's initial mission was to hunt down and kill Shaw and his Nazi underlings.
* RomanceOnTheSet:
** Between Jennifer Lawrence and Nick Hoult.
** Also, Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravitz.
** Apparently, James [=McAvoy=] and Michael Fassbender.
* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: Emma Frost reveals a lot more skin than, say, Moira and Raven. Angel, the stripper/prostitute, is the only one to defect to Shaw's side. (not to mention Raven herself, as after defecting to Magneto's side she goes into the fully nude version seen in the other films)
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Charles and Erik display this, both in their physique as well as their philosophies and methods.
* SexyBack: Angel favors backless dresses for her wings.
* ShapeshifterSwansong: [[spoiler:Invoked when Darwin's body goes through one state after another to adapt to Shaw's energy cherry-bomb about to go off inside him. His body ultimately gives out. [[NeverFoundTheBody Or did it...?]] The comic book version of Darwin survived having his entire body destroyed, and eventually generated a new one.]]
* ShootingSuperman: Magneto isn't ''bulletproof'', but he can deflect any metal projectile he knows is coming. [[spoiler:At least one character who really should have known better tries to shoot him. Though it's not as if she had any better options, and just the distraction required to deflect them accomplished her goal. With the unfortunate side effect of Xavier being crippled in the process.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Many {{homage}}s to old SpyFiction, most obviously early ''JamesBond'' movies.
** A neon sign at a bar says "Marv's Beer," a reference to writer Marv Wolfman.
** The Oxford pub, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_%28comic%29 The Eagle]]. Which doubles as a reference to the reference to the Eagle Awards (named after the magazine) which the X-Men won in the 1970s and 1980s.
** The neon sign at the bar where they find Angel is "Atomic" -- which is a reference to how mutants were called "Children of the Atom" in the comics. Also an example of ShownTheirWork, since Las Vegas in the 60's and 70's was famous for the nearby nuclear tests, and everything was named after the famous atom; drinks, shows, and nightclubs.
** A memory-erasing kiss? Xavier must be taking lessons from [[{{Superman}} another superhero]]...
** When Hank first demonstrates his power, he ends up [[Film/{{Spider-Man}} hanging upside-down, right at Raven's eye level]]. Lampshaded, when Raven exclaims: "You're amazing!"
** Erik's "StringTheory and DartboardOfHate" scene is incredibly similar to a scene in ''Film/KickAss'', also directed by Matthew Vaughn.
** When the POV shifts to show what Xavier sees when he's looking through another person's eyes, the effects are staggeringly similar to the ones used in DarkCity when Rufus [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] after getting administered with the scientist's ability-enhancing serum. Right down to perspective morphs and a silvery fringe around the frame.
** Erik's magnetism-using gestures run the gamut from [[TheMatrix Neo]] to [[StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi.]]
** 'Beast, open the bomb bay doors!'
* ShutUpHannibal: An interesting variation: Magneto responds to Shaw's HannibalLecture by saying that he agrees with him, but he rejects his WeCanRuleTogether offer because [[spoiler: "[[OhCrap Unfortunately,]] [[PreMortemOneLiner you killed]] [[YouKilledMyFather my mother"]]. ]]
* ShutUpKirk: [[spoiler:Magneto gives a very good one to Xavier after the latter tries a NurembergDefence. Seriously, Charles, what were you ''expecting'' from a Holocaust survivor?]]
* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: KevinBacon is barely noticable in the promotional materials, despite playing the BigBad.
* TheSixties: Many iconic features of the period including the Cuban Missile crisis, the slang and the occasional ''JamesBond'' ShoutOut. Lots of elements are very recognizable to anyone who's studied design or architecture. Mies' Barcelona chair is used appropriately for once!
* SlippingAMickey: Subverted: The NATO general responds to the Hellfire Club's first display of mutant powers with "What the hell did you put in my drink?!", thinking that he must be hallucinating.
* SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay: How kid Xavier pierces kid Mystique's disguise at the beginning of the film. Well, that and the telepathy.
* SovietSuperscience: The telepathy blocking helmet that stymies Xavier in every movie is apparently of Russian make.
* StartOfDarkness: Magneto and even more so Mystique.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: In-universe. Sebastian Shaw carries a mutant supremacy message that Magneto [[ForegoneConclusion ultimately embraces.]]
* StringTheory: Erik has a minor one on the wall before going to the [[SwissBankAccount banker]].
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Angel (who was originally a stripper) and of course Emma Frost.
* SwissBankAccount: Where Sebastian Shaw keeps his [[NaziGold ill-gotten gains]].
* TakeOverTheWorld: Shaw's ultimate goal.
* TeleFrag: Azazel uses the "100 feet up" variant quite a bit.
* ThatCameOutWrong: The loud-and-clear message of Xavier's OhCrap face after "they were just following orders". PlayedForDrama.
* ThatManIsDead: The film ends with Erik outright proclaiming that he prefers his new moniker: Magneto.
* ThePowerOfLove: When Charles is helping all of the mutants train, the most effective memory to focus Erik's powers is Channukah with his mother, before TheHolocaust
* TheVoiceless: Riptide has no dialogue in the film and Azazel has only a few words although it doesn't stop either from being Badass.
* TookALevelInBadass: The mutant kids after their training. [[spoiler:Plus several levels for Hank after he injects himself with his serum.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Sort of. The trailers did show virtually every single scene from the climax--but edited them so as not to show exactly what was happening.
* TrainingMontage: When Xavier trains mutant youngsters to properly use their powers.
* TranslationConvention: Averted for the most part: All the scenes with the Nazis/the Swiss bankteller/former German soldiers as well as the scenes with the Russians are spoken in German, French, Spanish, and Russian where approriate, with subtitles in English. A couple scenes use the technique of starting in foreign language, then shifting to English for the last few (and most dramatically important) lines.
** Unfortunately, the foreign lines are usually spoken with an atrocious pronunciation.
* TragicKeepsake: Erik's Nazi coin.
* TranquilFury: Erik's powers are manifested through anger, until Charles helps by telling him "true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity."
* TheUbermensch: Sebastian Shaw's ideal of a mutant.
* TooDumbToFool: In a deleted extension of the scene in Soviet Russia where the team is infiltrating, the search dog that the checkpoint guards have still sensed that something was amiss in the seemingly empty truck. Charles says that the reason is this pertaining to his telepathic power on dogs.
* TypeCasting: Edi Gathegi played a taxi driver before in {{Crank}}
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Raven for Xavier. Xavier does a lot of flirting with other women, and Raven is clearly jealous. It's hard to tell whether she actually had strong romantic feelings for him, or if she just wants to establish that she's worthy of romantic interest, but either way he says that he [[LikeBrotherAndSister can't see her as anything but a sister]] and [[{{Protectorate}} someone to protect]].
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Erik until, well, the Holocaust and the death of his mother. And Raven, who is still rather innocent for the majority of the film and is absolutely horrified when she sees [[spoiler:Charles get shot]].
* [[VerbThis Verb to This]]: Shaw to [[spoiler:Darwin, before killing him. Specifically: "adapt to this."]]
* VillainProtagonist: Magneto.
* VisionaryVillain: Sebastian Shaw. Then, Magneto.
* WeCanRuleTogether:
** Shaw offers this to Magneto. Then Magneto offers it to Charles.
** When Shaw introduces himself to the kids this is his main pitch.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: The plot focuses on Charles' and Magneto's friendship and fallout.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Energy]]: Sebastian Shaw supercharged himself with the energy of an overloaded nuclear reactor. [[spoiler:Is that energy still stored in his dead body? Does it have a risk of going boom?]]
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Averted with Magneto. Instead of having naturally white hair like his comic book counterpart, he's classic TallDarkAndHandsome.
* WideEyedIdealist: While Charles isn't exactly naive, his idealism is accentuated by the fact that everyone else seems to have a far more pessimistic approach to mutant/human relations. Though, it's suggested that this is at least partly because he hasn't faced persecution in the same way.
* WilliamTelling: When Charles and Hank stand beside the target mannequin during Alex's target practice. They do back off a bit before it starts...
* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler:When he confronts the First Class, Shaw kills one of them in the conflict. Who does he kill? The guy whose power is that ''he gains the traits he needs to survive in any situation''.]]
* WorldWarIII: Shaw is trying to provoke a classic WWIII scenario involving a small nuclear tussle between the US and the Soviet Union.
* XMeetsY:
** ''JamesBond''... with superheroes!
** Perhaps it's more ''Series/TheAvengers'' meets ''ComicBook/TheAvengers''.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Erik hates Nazis, but ultimately embraces mutant racism which doesn't seem much better. Goes hand in hand with HeWhoFightsMonsters and IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Charles says this almost word for word to Magneto.
* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Mother]]: [[spoiler:Shaw should have known that Magneto was never going to let this go.]]
* YoungerAndHipper: "It's a very groovy mutation."
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