X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 film and the third in a series of films based on the Marvel Comics series X-Men following X-Men and X2. It focuses on two storylines: A mutant antigen is created, which the government exploits and uses against the mutant population, resulting in a war between humanity and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The X-Men become the third side of this war. The story behind Jean Grey's powers as the Phoenix and her effects on the X-Men and humanity.

Directed by Brett Ratner. Written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn.

Take a Stand(taglines)

Professor Charles Xavier

[deleted scene] Mutants and humans. They have long struggled to coexist. While some try to unite the world, others try to dominate it. Neither strategy has prevailed. But when conflicts reach an impasse, inevitably something happens to shift the balance forever.
You have more power than you can imagine, Jean. The question is, will you control that power... or let it control you?
[Post-credit scene] Hello, Moira.

Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto

I have been marked once, my dear, and let me assure you... no needle shall ever touch my skin again.
Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you'll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.
In chess, the pawns go first.

Logan / Wolverine

Yeah. We're outnumbered. I'm not gonna lie to you. But we lost Scott. We lost the Professor. If we don't fight now, everything we stood for will fight with them. I'm not gonna let that happen. Are you? [Bobby shakes his head.] Then we stand together... X-Men, all of us.
[After kicking a mutant in the groin] Grow those back.

Bobby Drake / Iceman

[After headbutting Pyro] You never should've left.

Cain Marko / Juggernaut

[to Wolverine, in a deleted scene] I heard your claws can cut through anything. Wanna take a shot?
Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!

Dialogue

Erik: I still don't know why I'm here. Couldn't you just make them say yes?

Charles: Yes, I could, but it's not my way. And I would expect you, of all people, would understand all my feelings about the misuse of power.

Erik: Ah, "power corrupts" and all that. Yes, I know, Charles. When are you going to stop lecturing me?

Charles: When you start listening.

Storm: What the hell was that?

Wolverine: Danger room session.

Storm: You know what I mean.

Wolverine: I'll lighten up Storm–

Storm: Look, you can't just change the rules when you feel like it and I'm trying to teach 'em something.

Wolverine: Well, I taught 'em something.

Storm: It was a defensive exercise.

Wolverine: Yeah, best defense is a good offense or is it the other way around?

Storm: This isn't a game, Logan.

Wolverine: Well alright. You sure fooled me.

Wolverine: Hey, Scott, we were looking for you downstairs and you didn't show.

Cyclops: What do you care?

Wolverine: Well for starters, I had to cover your ass.

Cyclops: I didn't ask you to.

Wolverine: No, you didn't. The Professor did. I was just passing through.

Cyclops: So pass through, Logan.

[He turns away. Logan grabs his arm]

Wolverine: Hey, look. I know how you feel.

Cyclops: Don't.

Wolverine: When Jean died–

Cyclops: I said don't.

Wolverine: Maybe it's time for us to move on.

Cyclops: [walks away, then turns back to Logan] Not everybody heals as fast as you, Logan.

Mutant Theatre Organizer: How should we, as mutants, respond? Here's what I think. This is about getting organized. Bringing our complaints to the right people. We need to put together a committee and talk to the government.

[The mutant crowd began to complain.]

Mutant Theatre Organizer: They don't understand. They don't know what it means to be a mutant. We need to show them, educate them, let them know that we're here to stay.

[The mutants complain further.]

Mutant Theatre Organizer: People, you must listen. They won't take us seriously–

Psylocke: They want to exterminate us!

Mutant Theatre Organizer: This cure is voluntary. Nobody's talking about extermination.–

Magneto: No one ever talks about it.

[The mutant group turns to Magneto and Pyro. They stood up and stumble.]

Magneto: They just do it. And you go on with your lives, ignoring the signs all around you. [both walk to the stage] And then one day, when the air is still and the night is fallen, they come for you.

Mutant Theatre Organizer: [interrupting] Excuse me–

Magneto: Only then do you realize that while you're talking about organizing and committees, the extermination has already begun. Make no mistake, my brothers, they will draw first blood. They will force their cure upon us. The only question is, will you join my brotherhood and fight or await the inevitable genocide. Who will you stand with, the humans or us? [walks away with Pyro following]

[Storm and Professor X talk about the aftermath of Jean's transformation]

Storm: I don't understand. Magneto's a fugitive, we have a mutant in the cabinet, a President who understands us; why are we still hiding?

Professor: We're not hiding. But we still have enemies out there, and I must protect my students. You know that.

Storm: Yes, but we can't be students forever.

Professor: [chuckles] Storm, I hadn't thought of you as my student for years. In fact, I thought that perhaps you might take my place some day.

Storm: [astonished] But Scott–

Professor: Scott's a changed man. He took Jean's death so hard. Yes, things are better out there, but you of all people know how fast the weather can change.

Magneto: Do you remember when we first met? Do you know what I saw when I looked at you? I saw the next stage of evolution both Charles and I dreamt of finding. And I thought to myself "Why would Charles want to turn this goddess into a mortal?" [he shows the cure gun to Jean] I can manipulate the metal in this, but you, you can do anything. Anything you can think of.

[At this, Jean uses her telekinesis to break the gun into pieces, then directs the cure darts towards Magneto and moves them towards him]

Magneto: [afraid] Jean, enough. ENOUGH! [At the last moment, Jean stops, then turns to face Magneto with a sneer]

Jean Grey: [coldly] You sound just like him.

Magneto: Jean, he wanted to hold you back.

Jean Grey: What do you want?

Magneto: I want you to be what you are. As nature intended.

[The Brotherhood of Mutants continues to liberate mutants, checking people on their list but Mystique loses her powers]

Pyro: [reads the list] "Cain Marko. Solitary confinement." and check this out: "Prisoner must be confined at all times. If he builds any momentum, no object can stop him."

Magneto: How fascinating. [opens his cell where Cain's limbs were bounded in the cell.] What do they call you?

Juggernaut: "Juggernaut".

Magneto: I can't imagine why?

Juggernaut: You gonna let me out of here? I need a pee. [Magneto removes his restraints and the Juggernaut jumps out of his cell. Cain's force of his jump awakens one of the prison truck guards, who was unconscious earlier.]

Pyro: Nice helmet.

Juggernaut: Keeps my face pretty.

Magneto: [about Juggernaut] I think he'll make a fine addition to our army.

Pyro: Yeah.

[Mystique sees light from the gun aimed at Magneto.]

Mystique: NO!

[Mystique steps in the way and is struck in the chest with the Cure; falls; Magneto grabs the dart gun; Pyro incinerates the guard; Mystique begins to seizure; hair turns black and blue skin disappears; turns completely human, lays naked in shock and devastation]

Magneto: You saved me. [begins to turn away]

Mystique: [to Magneto; pleadingly] Erik.

Magneto: I'm sorry, my dear. You're not one of us anymore. [walks away; to Pyro] Such a shame. She was so beautiful.

[Everyone regroups at the school after Professor X dies]

Iceman: So what now? What do we do?

Beast: Professor Xavier started this school. Perhaps it's best that it end with him. We have to tell the students that they're going home.

Iceman: Most of us don't have anywhere to go. I can't believe this. I can't believe we're not gonna fight for this school.

[Warren arrives at Xavier's office with his luggage. They all turn to him]

Angel: I'm sorry. I know this is a bad time. I was told that this was a safe place for mutants.

Beast: It was, son.

Storm: [stands up] And it still is. We'll find you a room. [turns to Beast] Hank, tell all the students the school stays open.

Wolverine: I thought you were a diplomat.

Beast: As Churchill said, "There comes a time when all men must"-- Oh, you get the point!

Wolverine: [to Colossus] This is it! Hey make it a strike.

[Colossus throws Wolverine at Magneto but he stops him with his powers]

Magneto: You never learn, do you?

Wolverine: Actually, I do.

[Beast approaches from behind and plunges four doses of "the cure" into Magneto]

Magneto: I'm–

Wolverine: [gets up after Magneto's power releases him] One of them?

The Dark Phoenix: You would die for them?

Wolverine: No, not for them. For you. For you.

(Jean's consciousness manages to resurface)

Jean Grey: Save me.

Wolverine: I love you.

[stabs Jean through the chest and kills her, then cries out.]

About X-Men: The Last Stand

But what if mutants don't want to be "cured"? What if they're happy the way they are, and cherish their differences? Xavier has always tried to encourage that kind of thinking, but Magneto (Ian McKellen), his archenemy in X-Man land, takes a more direct approach. He wages war against Worthington and all those who would foist a "cure" on the mutants. Although Magneto has always been the villain of the series, this time he makes a good point.
So strong is Leech's anti-mutant power that a mutant need only stand near him to lose his or her abilities; maybe the antibody works through pheromones. Meanwhile, Mutant Cure Clinics spring up around the country and are picketed by pro-Mutant militants. Extremists arm themselves with guns that can fire the antibody, and go out to shoot themselves some mutants. Beast, as the administration's Cabinet minister in charge of mutant affairs, is caught in the middle.
There are so many parallels here with current political and social issues that to list them is to define the next presidential campaign. Just writing the previous paragraph, I thought of abortion, gun control, stem cell research, the "gay gene" and the Minutemen. "Curing" mutants is obviously a form of genetic engineering and stirs thoughts of "cures" for many other conditions humans are born with, which could be loosely defined as anything that prevents you from being just like George or Georgette Clooney. The fact is, most people grow accustomed to the hands they've been dealt and rather resent the opportunity to become "normal." (Normal in this context is whatever makes you more like them and less like yourself.)
"X-Men: The Last Stand" raises all of these questions in embryonic form, but doesn't engage them in much detail, because it is often distracted by the need to be an action movie. Consider, for example, the lengths Magneto goes to in order to neutralize young Leech. The kid is being held on Alcatraz? Very well then, Magneto will stand on the Golden Gate Bridge and use his powers of industrial-strength levitation to rip loose a whole span of the bridge and rotate it so that it joins Alcatraz with the mainland and his forces can march on Worthington's fortress.
One of the distractions in all the "X-Men" movies is that the X-Men are always getting involved in local incidents that have little to do with the big picture. They demonstrate their powers during disagreements and courtships, neighborhood emergencies, psychological problems or while showing off. After three movies you'd think they would have learned to coordinate their efforts, so that Storm (Halle Berry), for example, is not suddenly needed to brew up a last-minute storm and save the neighborhood/city/state/world.
My guess is there are just plain too many mutants, and their powers are so various and ill-matched that it's hard to keep them all on the same canvas. The addition of Beast, Angel and Leech, not to mention Multiple Man, Juggernaut and the revived Dr. Jean Grey (reborn as Dark Phoenix) causes a Mutant Jam, because there are too many X-Men with too many powers for a 104-minute movie. There are times when the director, Brett Ratner, seems to be scurrying from one plot line to another like that guy who had to keep all of his plates spinning on top of their poles.
- Roger Ebert, "X-Men: The Last Stand", Rogerebert.com, (May 25, 2006).
The cure is really the villain of the movie. Every single character is going to have an opinion of it. I really understand the point of view of Magneto and of Xavier. I understand why someone like Storm would definitely not take the cure. If you know the comic book, the backstory of Storm is that she was worshipped in her village of Africa and she changed the weather. So, why would she ever take the cure? It didn't make sense.
And then there's Rogue, who can't have contact with humans, you would understand why she would consider taking it. I think it has a lot of contemporary relevance. I think it's something that is an issue that a lot of people deal with. Alienation, prejudice and I think that each person is going to feel differently about it. If you offered gays an opportunity to get a shot and they won't be gay anymore, some gays will be like, "Oh, I'm happy being gay. I wanna be gay." Some people would be like, "I suffered my whole life... okay, make me straight." If they could.
- Brett Ratner in "Director Brett Ratner Breaks Down X-Men: The Last Stand" by Evan Jacobs, Movie Web, 05.23.2006.
I was really looking forward to Singer doing the third one because it wound be an out and out gay fantasia-I was hoping the dude would go for a kind of Brokeback Mutant kind of movie, but he opted to do Superman.
- Kevin Smith, A Complete History of American Comic Books by Shirrel Rhoades p. 66