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X2: X-Men United

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  • Accidental Aesop: Make sure your devices are properly secured to prevent them from being hacked, especially if you've already suffered an attack. After Mystique tampers with Cerebro in the previous film, Xavier doesn't seem to have upped the security, meaning Stryker is able to hack it again.
  • Adorkable: Nightcrawler loves to give (often interrupted) long-winded introduction speeches, playfully spies on secret meetings, and awkwardly flirts with Storm.
  • Allegedly Optimistic Ending: The US Government has learned about Stryker's crimes and is growing to accept mutants, but the Inferred Holocaust caused by Dark Cerebro has affected the entire world, and thanks to Stryker's first use of Dark Cerebro, every single mutant on the planet has in effect been outed. Nothing is preventing any other nation to declare an all out war against mutantkind; in fact, this is exactly what happens five films later, with the invention of the Sentinels.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Regarding Ronny's motive for selling out his brother: Was it simply prejudice against him being a mutant? Or — because he did it after Bobby showed a display of his powers and said "I can do much more than that" — was he actually jealous of Bobby for being a mutant and having cool powers?
    • Did Jean commit her Heroic Sacrifice because she genuinely thought it was the only way to save her friends? Or was she Driven to Suicide because she felt the Phoenix inside her was about to take over her body? A few hints across the movie point to the latter interpretation, such as Jean claiming early on that she was losing control over her powers and could feel that something terrible was about to happen; or how she disables Nightcrawler shortly before her death, preventing him from coming back to save her.
    • Was Jason's mother an innocent victim of his psychic attacks, or a bigoted Abusive Parent who provoked him?
    • How much control over his own actions does Jason have? Stryker's lobotomy has clearly rendered Jason entirely docile and obedient to his father, but he still retains enough of his faculties to use his powers to control Xavier's mind, and must have some capacity to do things Stryker didn't tell him to do since he used another illusion to trick Storm and Nightcrawler when they entered Cerebro. For that matter, it's ambiguous if he actually understand what Stryker is having him do — is he helping him commit mass genocide because he doesn't know any better, or is he going along willingly because he's just that loyal to him, or perhaps even because he shares his father's hatred of mutants and Xavier?
  • Anvilicious: The scene with Bobby informing his normal family that he's a mutant isn't exactly subtle about its pro-gay message. Many having pointed out that it's no different to coming out as gay (and it shouldn't be, as Ian McKellen, who grew up gay in a time when it was much less accepted, consulted on the dialog).
  • Creepy Awesome: Nightcrawler looks like a fearsome blue devil and tears through Secret Service Agents like nobody's business, is there any question why he's so popular?
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Despite little characterization beyond being Magneto's lackey, Rebecca Romijn's take on Mystique got more praise as the years went by, as many prefer the Dark Action Girl persona to her Adaptational Heroism in the prequel trilogy.
    • Yuriko has barely any role in this film beyond acting as Stryker's mind-controlled bodyguard, but her incredible fight scene with Wolverine and her tragic death made her very popular. There were even plans to bring her back in the sequel, though it was canned when Bryan Singer declined to direct it. Fans would have to settle for a small Continuity Nod in X-Men: Days of Future Past, when a Sentinel briefly uses her power to impale Sunspot. Her popularity also led to her surviving in the official game, which shows she was a pupil of the Silver Samurai. She eventually made her return to film in Deadpool & Wolverine as part of Cassandra Nova’s army in the Void.
  • Even Better Sequel: The first film was a solid endeavor, depicting a lot of colorful characters while looking to find the emotional core behind each one. This film builds on that to have a stronger story, expanded roster, and better realized action sequences (compare how slow Wolverine vs. Sabertooth feels compared to the slash and stab fest of Wolverine vs. Lady Deathstrike).
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The Phoenix appearing in Alkali Lake is treated optimistically, with triumphant music to boot. However, the sequel reveals she is a complete psychopath who overrode Jean's original personality.
    • After X-Men: First Class had established that Charles and Raven grew up together as foster siblings, it's rather cruel of Mystique not to warn Professor X that Stryker was planning on attacking the school. Although she and Xavier are estranged beyond repair by this point, you'd think that Mystique would still be concerned about the safety of fellow mutants (especially those who are children) even if she had stopped caring about Charles like a brother.
    • Near the end, Stryker's grave warning is, "One day, someone will finish what I've started!", and mutant genocide actually does become reality in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The colonel wasn't making an empty threat at all; he was plainly aware of Trask Industries' progress on the Sentinels, and he knew it was only matter of time before the robots were sophisticated enough to slay even the most powerful mutants.
    • When Bobby informs Logan that there is no beer at the school, it's obviously because Professor X doesn't want to encourage underage drinking, but there is an additional reason for the alcohol-free environment: X-Men: Days of Future Past reveals that Xavier was a drunkard in between 1963 and 1973, so naturally his older, wiser self doesn't want to be tempted by drink and risk a relapse. Plus, if one of the students were to get drunk, a loss of control of their powers (or a misuse of them due to compromised judgment) could be more than slightly dangerous.
    • Lady Deathstrike dies when Wolverine injects her with a load of liquid adamantium, and she falls with an audible clank. Come 2014 in Death of Wolverine, Logan gets spilled on by a vat of liquid adamantium, covering him from head to toe.
    • Logan adds a whole new layer of this. "Someone will finish what I've started," Stryker says. In Logan, we find out that he probably meant Zander Rice, who actually succeeds in wiping out the mutant gene.
    • You know that cool scene in the beginning, when Xavier makes his entrance by freezing everyone? In Logan it's not so cool when one of the seizures Charles is now prone to sends out uncontrollable psychic waves that lock down everyone within his (very wide) range to the point of not even being able to breathe. We find out that the first time this happened, the X-Men and many and many other innocent people were wiped out, hence Logan beginning with Logan, Caliban, and an Xavier addled by a combination of his disease and the medications that prevent similar flare-ups being all that's left of the X-Men. Two throwaway moments in this film foreshadow how the entire X-Men saga ends as a "Shaggy Dog" Story, if not a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story, provided no one changes history DOFP style again.
    • The movie presents Stryker's motivation for his hatred of mutants as being a Freudian Excuse brought on by Jason using his powers to drive Stryker's wife to suicide. However, from what can be seen from the prequels, Stryker's hatred of mutants (along with his participation in efforts to exterminate them) has been there since at least the Vietnam War and might even be passed down from his own father. In fact, Jason's homicidal disdain towards his parents quite possibly have been the product of his father's anti-mutant bigotry rather than the other way around.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: An imprisoned Magneto warmly greets Professor X with, "Charles Xavier, have you come to rescue me?" As it turns out, Charles did indeed rescue Erik Lehnsherr from drowning in X-Men: First Class, and this is how their friendship began. Despite the danger Erik was in in 1962, both men still look back on the memory with some fondness. Also, depending on whether a similar scene occured in the revised timeline after X-Men: Days of Future Past, Erik could also be referring to the time Charles rescued him from another Tailor-Made Prison in that film.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Magneto asks Wolverine "Once again, you think it's all about you." In the pre-Deadpool (2016) era, Logan would go on to become the main figure on all of the movie posters besides X-Men: First Class and is the closest thing the franchise has to a main Protagonist. Deadpool & Wolverine would reveal that everything really is about him and he's in fact an "anchor being", which means that upon his death the universe itself slowly begins to die.
    • The odd pairing of Azazel and Riptide as Shaw's henchmen in X-Men: First Class, considering the Ship Tease between the similarly-powered Nightcrawler and Storm in this film.
    • One of the guards present during Magneto's breakout looks a lot like Michael Fassbender. Magneto also gets heat for his actions from a mutant student for the second time. And in a jet scene, no less! Slightly harsher given he nearly paid the ultimate price in this film...
    • When introducing Logan to his parents, Bobby hastily introduces him as a professor at Xavier's school, with Logan going along with the lie by claiming that he teaches art. This is funny enough, but it gets even more hilarious after X-Men: Days of Future Past reveals that in the revised timeline Logan really did become a teacher at the school at some point, albeit as a history professor instead.
    • Bobby confessing to his parents about being a mutant is played very much like a coming-out scene. Ian McKellen actually provided some coaching to make the comparison that much more realistic. In 2015, Iceman came out as gay in the comics.
    • After Bobby hands over his mother's '70s-era clothing to Rogue, she replies, "Groovy." A young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class would use the word groovy in his geeky pick-up lines, and most of X-Men: Days of Future Past takes place in 1973.
    • The reason why Stryker can tell that "Wolverine" is an impostor is because the former had a scuffle with Mystique in 1973 when she freed mutant soldiers who were meant to be transported to Trask Industries. Stryker had witnessed firsthand her shape-shifting abilities.
    • In X-Men: Apocalypse, an adolescent Scott steals one of Professor X's vintage cars to drive himself and three of his classmates to the mall, so Logan "borrowing" Cyclops's sports car without the latter's permission becomes karmic in retrospect.
    • Pyro leaves Professor X's side and joins Magneto's (whom John shares a lot more in common with) near the end of this movie. In X-Men: Apocalypse, this imbalance gets corrected when Quicksilver, Erik's estranged son, chooses Xavier as his mentor after the climax instead of his father because Peter's personality is closer to Charles's.
    • When Mystique browses through Stryker's list, it can be seen that it includes Kenuichio Harada. It's later revealed in The Wolverine that Harada is not a mutant.
    • Wolverine is shown to be visibly annoyed when the song "Bye Bye Bye" is accidentally played in Cyclops' car. Come Deadpool & Wolverine, that same song is played when Deadpool uses the adamantium skeleton of Wolverine as an Improvised Weapon against the TVA agents trying to arrest him. Keep in mind, this is the skeleton of Wolverine from the critical acclaimed Logan, which Deadpool intentionally dishonors for laughs. It seems that Wolverine has premonition of what the song will be associated with.
  • Ho Yay:
    • So, so much between Wolverine and Stryker, thanks to the subplot of Stryker being the key to his lost memories. When they first see each other after years and are they separated by a wall of ice from Iceman, the two invoke a Window Love moment with the other's shadow on the ice. When Mystique is attempting to seduce Wolverine, she first takes on the form of Jean, then Storm, then Rogue, then Stryker, as she says "what do you really want?" Also, Stryker speaks of thinking Wolvering was one of a kind before admitting he was wrong, as he sics Lady Deathstrike on him; the implication she's a Replacement Goldfish for Wolverine is hard to ignore.
    • Unshaved Mouse found a lot between Wolverine and Iceman in their scene in the kitchen. Without context — Iceman blows on Wolverine's Dr. Pepper bottle to cool it down.
    "Actually, between this and the “coming out” scene later, the movie seems to be leaning pretty hard into the “Bobby is gay” metaphor..."
  • Inferred Holocaust:
    • Someone must have been killed by Dark Cerebro affecting the whole world (people having surgery, in traffic, landing planes, etc. And then there's mutants whose powers went out of control. We see Mystique uncontrollably cycling through different forms; think what Pyro's abilities would do, if he had a flame going when the effect hit, or anyone too close to Siryn). Towards the end, Professor X does mention something about "casualties on both sides," which could be a way of acknowledging this, but it is left ambiguous.
    • Storm sets off a bunch of tornadoes in the New England countryside while trying to lose the military jets going after her. This isn't too bad as none of the funnel clouds reached the ground where they could do a lot of damage. What is this trope is the jet pilots immediately bailing as soon as their planes start to stall, allow the jets to crash who knows where.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Jason Stryker is aiding in attempted genocide, but he doesn't really have a choice in the matter. The poor kid was raised by an anti-mutant extremist who was heavily implied to be abusive towards him due to his status as a mutant. Even worse, his own father ended up lobotomizing him to turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. Charles especially feels bad for him, and wishes he had a better life.
  • Love to Hate: Stryker's portrayal by Brian Cox is widely regarded as not only the best among the three actors in the entire series. For a human being with no powers or even fight scenes, he performs some pretty impressive feats like brainwashing several mutants, orchestrating attacks on the White House and the X-Mansion, and nearly wiping out the entirety of mutantkind by manipulating Professor X with a copy of Cerebro. Also unlike in the original God Loves, Man Kills comic where Stryker murdered his own wife and newborn son because the latter was a deformed mutant, this version has a tragic backstory where his wife was Driven to Suicide by his son's Mind Rape abilities, making his genocidal goals a bit more understandable even if it doesn't excuse his actions.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Well, now they know, Bobby, just let it go" is what some fans like to say to Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman regarding his interaction with his family, when they are shocked and uncomfortable about having a mutant son.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Stryker's plan to wipe out all mutants on the planet certainly qualifies.
    • Magneto crosses the line when he is trusted with stopping this by the X-Men and does... by reversing it to wipe out all humans on the planet, leaving his old friend Xavier to die in the process.
    • Stryker's son Jason crossed it in the past by mentally tormenting his mother until she killed herself, and even after being lobotomized and placed under mind control in the present, he still shows repressed sadistic pleasure in manipulating Xavier's mind. Mitigated in the video game, where it's revealed that he had a Split Personality and only the evil side is culpable of all this.
    • Ronny, as a lesser extent, qualifies when he sells out his brother and his friends.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Kitty only has about a minute of screentime, but the scene where she uses her intangibility to escape from Stryker's men is magnificent to watch.
  • Plot-Irrelevant Powers: One deleted scene from the theatrical cut of the film features Jubilee investigating a particularly inflammatory exhibit on mutants at the museum, resulting in her powers flaring up enough to make lightning crackle between her hands in an extreme close-up. Though Jubilee does appear in the theatrical cut, her powers never become important and are never seen again, which would have left viewers wondering why the film placed such emphasis on the reveal of her powers when nothing was done with them note  - which was probably the reason why this scene was deleted in the first place.
  • Rainbow Lens: After Bobby, surrounded by his mutant friends, tells his parents he's a mutant, his mother asks him when he first knew, blames herself, and asks him if he's tried not being a mutant while his brother storms out of the room and calls the police.
  • Signature Scene:
    • Nightcrawler subduing the entire security force in the White House by himself is one of the most impressive action scenes in the series; especially for one that doesn't involve Wolverine.
    • Wolverine's duel with Lady Deathstrike, due to being far more violent than any other fight in the series, as well as its tragic ending.
    • Jean Grey's sacrifice, if only because it sparked endless debates over whether her death was necessary or not.
  • Trans Audience Interpretation: Jason Stryker's mental projection of himself in other people's heads always takes the form of a little girl who has the same mis-matched colored eyes of his real self: that being a gaunt, sickly man who is suffering the lobotomization that his father forced onto him. It's not too much of a stretch to see this as a metaphor for Jason being transgender, especially given that William saw Jason's mutation as a "disease" that needed curing.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans of God Loves, Man Kills were not happy with William Stryker's Sinister Minister qualities being Adapted Out in favor of making him a General Ripper. The fact that comics Stryker would go on to be a significantly more action-heavy Big Bad to resemble the Stryker from this film likely did little to ease their minds.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • While the previous film is criticized for not expanding on Logan and Sabretooth's rivalry from the comics, this one faces the same issues with Wolverine's lack of interaction with Lady Deathstrike. Yuriko has barely any characterization, being brainwashed for the entirety of the film and completely cold and apathetic towards everything as a result.
    • Cyclops. The main leader of the X-Men is taken out a few minutes into the film and doesn't come back until near the end. He doesn't even get to do anything heroic, as he is brainwashed by Stryker and accidentally destroys the Alkali Lake dam, triggering the events which ultimately cost him his girlfriend's life.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Professor X's "mind battle" with Jason Stryker. Many have pointed out that it could have been so much more than just a calm walk through X-Mansion.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Pyro snapping and fireballing the cops at the Drakes' house. It's meant to be a sign that he's about to make a Face–Heel Turn. But in the span of about twelve hours, he got flushed out of his own school and had to flee armed soldiers in the middle of the night while several other students were captured, the cops were called on him and his friends when they didn't do anything wrong, and Logan was just shot in the head in front of them; Pyro doesn't know about his healing ability, so he'd obviously think he was dead and they could be next. It's not only fairly understandable the kid would snap, his actions are borderline self defense.
  • The Woobie: Bobby becomes one in this film. When he's reunited with his parents, he has to confess his secret, and the whole ordeal implies he'll be estranged from them for a while. What's more is that he can't have any intimacy with his girlfriend.

X2: Wolverine's Revenge video game:

  • Complete Monster: The Professor, real name Truett Hudson, is a mastermind behind the Weapon X project, an experiment designed to create the perfect killing machine. To this end, the Professor experiments on a least a dozen people, turning them into mindless feral mutants, before he gets his hands on Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth, and Logan, aka Wolverine. Kidnapping the two, the Professor commits a number of painful experiments on them, wiping their minds and turning them into perfect soldiers. When Logan escapes and confronts the Professor, the latter informs him that he injected all Weapon X subjects with the Shiva Virus, which would kill them in a few years, leading to Logan starting to search for the cure several years later.

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