X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past is a 2014 superhero film directed and co-produced by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg from a story he created with Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men, the fifth mainline installment of the X-Men film series, a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: First Class (2011), a follow-up to The Wolverine (2013), and the seventh installment overall. It stars an ensemble cast, including Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Elliot Page,[a] Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart. The story, inspired by the 1981 Uncanny X-Men storyline "Days of Future Past" by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, focuses on two time periods, with Logan traveling back in time to 1973 to change history and prevent an event that results in unspeakable destruction for both humans and mutants.
This article is about the 2014 film. For the comics storyline, see Days of Future Past. For other uses, see Days of Future Past (disambiguation).X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Jane Goldman
- Simon Kinberg
- Matthew Vaughn
- Bryan Singer
- Lauren Shuler Donner
- Simon Kinberg
- Hutch Parker
John Ottman
20th Century Fox
- May 10, 2014 (Javits Center)
- May 23, 2014 (United States)
132 minutes[2]
English
$746 million[4]
Vaughn had directed X-Men: First Class and was set to return in Days of Future Past before leaving for Kingsman: The Secret Service and the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. Thus Singer, who had directed the first two X-Men films, made his return as a director, and brought along most of the crew from those productions. With a budget of $205 million, the film's principal photography began in Montreal, Quebec, in April 2013, and concluded in August the same year, with additional filming and pick-ups taking place in November 2013 and February 2014. Twelve companies handled the visual effects.
X-Men: Days of Future Past premiered in New York City on May 10, 2014, and was theatrically released on May 23 by 20th Century Fox. The film received praise for its story, visual effects, action sequences, acting, and thematic elements. The film earned $746 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2014, as well as the third-highest-grossing film in the series behind Deadpool and Deadpool 2. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, making it the first X-Men film to be nominated for an Oscar. Two sequels titled X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix were released in 2016 and 2019, respectively. A Deadpool spin-off was released also in 2016.
Plot[edit]
In a dystopian 2023, robot Sentinels hunt and kill mutants and humans who either possess the genetic potential to have mutant offspring or try to protect them. In Moscow, they attack X-Men survivors: Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Blink, Warpath, Bishop, Iceman, and Sunspot. The mutants sacrifice themselves to buy Kitty enough time to send Bishop's consciousness a few days into the past to warn the others of the coming attack and ensure their survival.
Having averted the attack, the group retreats to a remote Chinese temple and are joined by Storm, Wolverine, Charles Xavier, and Magneto. Xavier explains that the Sentinels were originally conceived by Bolivar Trask, a weapons designer whom Raven Darkhölme assassinated in 1973. In response, the government captured Raven and experimented on her, using her DNA to create Sentinels capable of adapting to any mutant power. Xavier plans to go back in time to 1973 and prevent Trask's assassination in the hopes of altering the future. However, upon learning time-traveling would kill Charles, Wolverine volunteers instead, as his regenerative abilities would allow him to survive.
Awakening in 1973, Wolverine goes to the X-Mansion, learning from Hank McCoy that the school has been closed for years due to the Vietnam War, and Erik Lehnsherr has been imprisoned for assassinating JFK. A young, broken Xavier turned to alcoholism and frequently uses a serum that allows him to walk, but at the cost of his telepathic abilities. Hoping to reunite with Raven, Xavier agrees to help Wolverine. They recruit Quicksilver, a mutant with superhuman speeds, and break Lehnsherr out of The Pentagon.
Raven discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants and plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords, but Xavier, McCoy, and Logan foil her attempt. Lehnsherr attempts to kill Raven, believing this would change the future. McCoy fights him, allowing Raven to escape but publicly exposing the three as mutants. Trask takes advantage of this and convinces President Nixon to authorize the Sentinel program.
Lehnsherr retrieves his helmet and secretly takes control of Trask's Sentinel prototypes by infusing them with steel. Returning to the X-Mansion, Xavier abandons the serum and by reading Logan's mind, can communicate with his future self, who inspires him to protect the relationship between mutants and humans. After Xavier uses his mutant-tracking computer Cerebro to find Raven, he, McCoy, and Logan travel to Washington, D.C. to stop her from assassinating Trask.
At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, the three search for Raven. Lehnsherr appears, activates the Sentinels, and barricades the White House with the RFK Stadium. During the battle, Lehnsherr impales Logan with a rebar and throws him into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and a disguised Raven retreat to the White House Bunker. However, Lehnsherr rips the bunker out of the building to kill everyone inside. In 2023, the X-Men make their last stand as an onslaught of Sentinels attacks the temple. Many mutants perish while trying to buy more time. In 1973, Raven reveals herself and subdues Lehnsherr with a plastic gun, saving Nixon and his cabinet. She attempts to kill Trask but Xavier telepathically convinces her to spare him, leading the public to realize that a mutant saved the president. As a result, the Sentinel program is decommissioned, altering the timeline and erasing the dark future of 2023 from history. The mutants in the past depart separately; Trask is later arrested for selling military secrets to foreign governments.
Wolverine reawakens in 2023 at the X-Mansion to find that Xavier's school is thriving and the X-Men are all alive, including Rogue, Jean Grey, and Scott Summers. Logan asks Xavier for information about modern history from 1973 to the present. Upon realizing that the Wolverine from the original timeline has returned, Charles assents. Back in 1973, Logan is rescued by Raven, having disguised herself as Major William Stryker. In a post-credits scene set in ancient Egypt, a crowd chants to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates rocks to build pyramids as his Four Horsemen observe from afar.
Additionally, Famke Janssen and James Marsden reprise their roles as Jean Grey and Scott Summers, respectively, in cameo appearances. Lucas Till reprises his role as Havok. Evan Jonigkeit portrays Toad. Gregg Lowe portrays Ink. X-Men comic book writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont appear as United States congressmen. Michael Lerner plays Senator Brickman. Mark Camacho portrays U.S. President Richard Nixon. Zehra Leverman portrays Quicksilver's mother Ms. Maximoff. Singer cameos as a man with a small film camera as Magneto walks away after Mystique's escape in Paris. In a post-credits scene, Brendan Pedder portrays the ancient mutant, En Sabah Nur.[41]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in August 2006 that a continuation of the X-Men main film series would require a renegotiation. New cast members of X-Men: The Last Stand were signed, while the older cast members were not.[42] Donner said, "There is forty years worth of stories. I've always wanted to do Days of Future Past and there are just really a lot of stories yet to be told".[43] She later pitched the idea of a fourth installment of the X-Men franchise to director Bryan Singer, following the completion of the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class.[44] In March 2011, Donner said the film was in "active development at Fox"; she said, "We took the treatment to Fox and they love it ... And X4 leads into X5".[45]
20th Century Fox saw X-Men: First Class as the first film of a new X-Men trilogy.[46] Donner compared the franchise plans to the darker, more mature content of the Harry Potter film series.[47] Early reports said Matthew Vaughn and Singer were returning to direct and produce the sequel, respectively.[48] While still attached to the project as a director, Vaughn said, "First Class is similar to Batman Begins, where you have the fun of introducing the characters and getting to know them, but that takes time. But with the second one, you can just get on with it and have a rollicking good time. That's the main difference between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight".[49] Describing the possible beginning of the film, Vaughn said, "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto".[50] Singer said the film could be set around the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War,[51] and that Wolverine could once again be featured.[52] Singer also talked about "changing history" in an interview with Empire magazine. He said he does not want people to panic about events in the past "erasing" the storylines of the previous X-Men films, as he believes in multiverses, explaining the possibility of certain events can exist equally in the histories of alternate universes.[53]
In 2019, Vaughn revealed that Days of Future Past was originally planned to be the third instalment in the trilogy but the studio decided otherwise which contributed to his decision to leave the project. Speaking with ComingSoon.net he said "That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue, because they didn’t listen to me. My plan was 'First Class,' then second film was new young Wolverine in the 70’s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be 'Days of Future Past.' That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together? When I finished the 'Days of Future Past' script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, 'I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end.' Fox read 'Days of Future Past' and went 'Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!'". He further commented "Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash."[54]
Writing[edit]
Kinberg said the main focus of this film was the future of the X-Men film series. With the use of cast members from the original trilogy and from First Class, they needed to decide the sequels' destination.[16] In preparation for the film, Kinberg studied films about time travel, including Back to the Future, The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Singer originated a philosophy and a set of rules for time travel in the film so the story would be as plausible as possible.[16]
"Days of Future Past" is a storyline in the Marvel Comics comic book The Uncanny X-Men issues #141–142, published in 1981. It deals with a dystopian future in which mutants are incarcerated in internment camps. An adult Kate Pryde transfers her mind into her younger self, the present-day Kitty Pryde, who brings the X-Men to prevent a fatal moment in history that triggers anti-mutant hysteria. This storyline was the basis for the film.[55]
According to Kinberg, as they were writing the script, they thought it was more sensible for Wolverine to travel between time periods instead of Kitty Pryde, because of his ageless look and ability to heal rapidly.[16] He further stated of making Wolverine the time traveler, "We made the decision for a lot of reasons ... he's the protagonist of the franchise, and probably the most beloved character to a mass audience".[56] Kinberg and Vaughn considered Bishop and Cable candidates for the role of time traveler.[9] Kinberg said Rachel Summers was in the first draft of the script; she sent Wolverine back to 1973. The character was later replaced with Kitty Pryde, to whom Kinberg gave a secondary power of sending people's consciousnesses into the past.[57] Angel Salvadore, Juggernaut, Jubilee, Nightcrawler and Psylocke were also considered for the film.[58][59][60][61][62]
Singer was asked how the film integrates the themes of the earlier X-Men films; he said, "It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears. It confronts the notions of hope and second chances. Its characters that are lost trying to find themselves. In X-Men 1 and 2, the characters had come into their own and knew who they were. In this one, they're all lost and they're trying to keep it together".[63]
Pre-production[edit]
In November 2011, Simon Kinberg—co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand and co-producer of X-Men: First Class—was hired to write the film's screenplay.[64] In May 2012, 20th Century Fox announced the film would be released on July 18, 2014.[65] The release was later moved forward to May 23, 2014.[66] In August 2012, the title for the film was confirmed to be X-Men: Days of Future Past. The film is inspired by Chris Claremont and John Byrne's X-Men comic book storyline, "Days of Future Past", which introduced the idea of an alternate future for mutants that grew from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' killing of a senator, leading to a future in which mutants are hunted by Sentinels.[67]
In October 2012, Vaughn left the role of director to focus on Mark Millar's Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).[68] He originally wanted a different First Class sequel helmed by another director with a young Wolverine possibly played by Tom Hardy, before returning to direct Days of Future Past (set in the 1980s) himself.[69][70][71] Singer was later announced as the film's director; it was his third directorial role in the X-Men film series.[72] In preparation for the film, Singer approached James Cameron to discuss time travel, string theory and multiverses.[73] In the same month, Richard Stammers was approached to be the visual effects supervisor, as Singer liked his work in the 2012 film Prometheus.[74]
Singer brought back most of the crew he had in X-Men and X2. In December 2012, two long-absent designers were hired: production designer John Myhre, who had only done X-Men, and costume designer Louise Mingenbach—who also did X2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.[75][76] In February 2013, John Ottman—who aside from X-Men, collaborated on all of Singer's works since the 1995 film The Usual Suspects—was confirmed to work on the music and the editing of the film.[77]