X2 (also marketed as X2: X-Men United, and internationally as X-Men 2) is a 2003 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter, from a story by Singer, Hayter and Zak Penn. The film is based on the X-Men superhero team appearing in Marvel Comics. It is the sequel to X-Men (2000), as well as the second installment in the X-Men film series, and features an ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, and Anna Paquin. The plot, inspired by the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, concerns the genocidal Colonel William Stryker leading an assault on Professor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-tracking computer, Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them, forcing the X-Men to team up with the Brotherhood of Mutants to stop Stryker and save the mutant race.
Plot[]
At the White House, brainwashed teleporting mutant Nightcrawler attacks the President of the United States, wounding many agents; he is shot and retreats. Meanwhile, Logan explores an abandoned military installation at Alkali Lake in Alberta for clues to his past, but finds nothing. Jean Grey has been having premonitions and struggles to concentrate as her powers become increasingly difficult to control. Later, Logan returns to Professor Xavier's school for mutants, and Xavier tracks Nightcrawler using Cerebro. Xavier and Cyclops go to question the imprisoned Magneto about the attack, while Grey and Storm retrieve Nightcrawler. Military scientist Colonel William Stryker approaches the President and receives approval to investigate Xavier's mansion for their ties to mutants in the wake of the recent attack. Stryker's forces invade the school and abduct some of the students. Colossus leads the remaining students to safety while Logan, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro escape, and Stryker's assistant Yuriko Oyama captures Cyclops and Xavier. During the attack, Logan confronts Stryker, who addresses him as "Wolverine" and seems to know about his past.
The shape-shifting Mystique gathers information about Magneto's prison and helps him escape while also discovering schematics for a second Cerebro. Logan, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro visit Iceman's parents and brother in Boston. Iceman's parents do not accept that he is a mutant. His brother secretly goes upstairs and calls the police to their house. The police arrive and surround the house. An impulsive officer shoots Logan in the head after feeling threatened by his claws, Pyro refuses to surrender and takes matters into his own hands by attacking and fending off the police with his pyrokinesis. Logan regenerates from the gunshot shortly before Storm, Grey, and Nightcrawler arrive in their jet to pick up the group. The X-Jet is attacked by fighter jets while flying back to the mansion and is shot down, but Magneto saves them from crashing. Magneto explains to the group that Stryker has built the second Cerebro to use it and Xavier to telepathically kill every mutant on the planet. Stryker's son, Jason, is a mutant with mind-controlling powers, whom Stryker will use to force Xavier to do this. Stryker had also previously used Jason's powers to orchestrate Nightcrawler's attack as a pretense to gain approval to invade Xavier's mansion. Magneto also tells Logan that Stryker was the man who grafted adamantium onto his bones and is responsible for his amnesia. Grey reads Nightcrawler's mind and determines that Stryker's base is underground in a dam at Alkali Lake.
Disguised as Logan, Mystique infiltrates Stryker's base, letting the rest of the mutants in while she and Magneto head to disable Cerebro before the brainwashed Xavier can activate it. Storm and Nightcrawler rescue the captured students, and Grey fights a mind-controlled Cyclops; their battle frees Cyclops but damages the dam, which begins to rupture. Logan finds Stryker in an adamantium smelting lab and remembers it as where he received his adamantium skeleton. Logan fights and kills Yuriko, then chases Stryker to a helicopter pad and chains him to the helicopter's wheel. Magneto stops Cerebro and, using Mystique impersonating Stryker to command Jason, has Xavier redirect its powers on humans. The two subsequently use Stryker's helicopter to escape, accompanied by Pyro, who has been swayed to Magneto's views. Nightcrawler teleports Storm inside Cerebro, where she creates a snowstorm to break Jason's concentration and free Xavier from his control.
The X-Men flee the dam as water engulfs it, killing Stryker, but the X-Jet loses all power and struggles to take flight as the flood water rushes towards them. Grey sneaks off the jet and telepathically wishes the team goodbye. She holds back the water and raises the jet above it as flames erupt from her body, until she lets go and allows the flood to crash down upon her. The X-Men give Stryker's files to the President, and Xavier warns him that humans and mutants must work together to build peace. Back at the school, Xavier, Cyclops, and Logan remember Grey, and Xavier begins to hold a class. Meanwhile, a Phoenix-like shape rises from the flooded Alkali Lake.
Cast[]
- Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier
- Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine
- Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
- Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm
- Famke Janssen as Jean Grey
- James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops
- Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique
- Brian Cox as Colonel William Stryker
- Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
- Bruce Davison as Senator Robert Kelly
- Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake / Iceman
- Aaron Stanford as John Allerdyce / Pyro
- Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama / Deathstrike
- Anna Paquin as Marie / Rogue
Release[]
The film premiered in London on April 24, 2003, and then had the widest release ever, opening on May 2, 2003, in 93 markets, on 7,316 screens overseas and in 3,741 theaters in the United States and Canada.
Reception[]
X2 opened May 2, 2003, accumulating $85.6 million on its opening weekend in 3,749 theaters in the United States and Canada. Overseas, it grossed $69.27 million in its first five days, including previews. The film exceeded Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in terms of number of screenings. X2 would hold this record until the following year, when it was taken by Shrek 2. It surpassed Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones for having the highest opening weekend for a 20th Century Fox film. For two weeks, it stayed in the number 1 spot before being displaced by The Matrix Reloaded. X2, The Matrix Reloaded, Finding Nemo, Bruce Almighty and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl all became the first five films to cross the $200-million mark at the box office in one summer season. The film grossed $214.9 million in the United States and Canada, the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2003, earning $192.8 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $407.7 million, the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2003. It earned $107 million in its first five days when released on DVD.
Chapters[]
- Main Titles
- Security Breach
- Alkali Lake
- The Field Trip
- Stryker's War
- Logan's Return
- One Final Talk
- The Mutant Connection
- Mutant Intruder
- Nightcrawler
- Sleepless
- Magneto's Visitor
- The War Has Begun
- The Invaders
- Out of the Past
- Grace
- Stryker's Prisoner
- The Drake Home
- Too Much Iron
- This Mutant Problem
- Faith & Anger
- Dangerous Mutants
- Air Attack
- Stryker's Plan
- What Do You Want?
- The Mutant Inside
- Time to Find Our Friends
- Lover's Quarrel
- Point of Origin
- Two of a Kind
- Change of Plans
- An Animal
- To Stop Cerebro
- The Big Chill
- Escape
- The Only Way
- The President's Opportunity
- Left Behind
- Evolution Leaps Forward
- End Titles
The 2003 superhero film X2 made its debut on ITV1 in the UK on November 8, 2006.