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X-Men: The Last Stand is the third film adaptation of the Marvel Comics' X-Men superhero comic books. It was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn. The previous two movies were X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003). The movie revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans, and on the mysterious resurrection of Jean Grey, who appeared to have died in X2. The film is loosely based on two X-Men comic book story arcs: writer Chris Claremont's & artist John Byrne's "Dark Phoenix Saga" in The Uncanny X-Men (1980), and writer Joss Whedon's six-issue "Gifted" arc in Astonishing X-Men (2004).

The film was released May 26, 2006 in the United States and Canada, and one or two days earlier in approximately 22 other countries. The film has done very well in the box office and has grossed $45.5 million on its opening day, the third highest box-office gross for an opening day in history. However, the film received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot Summary

A pharmaceutical company announces that it has developed an inoculation to suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their powers and makes them different from humans, offering the cure to any mutant who wants it. While some mutants are interested in the cure, including the X-Men's Rogue, many others are horrified by the announcement. In response to the news, the X-Men's adversary Magneto raises an army, warning his followers that the cure will be forcefully used to eradicate all mutant powers.

Cyclops, haunted by the memory of the dead Jean Grey, returns to the place where Jean had sacrificed herself to save the X-Men. Jean appears to Cyclops, and as the two kiss, Jean changes and appears to kill Cyclops. Sensing trouble, Professor Charles Xavier sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, the two X-Men encounter telekinetically floating rocks, Cyclops' glasses, and an unconscious Jean.

Xavier explains that when Jean sacrificed herself, she unleashed the powerful alternate personality she calls "Phoenix". Wolverine is disgusted to learn that Xavier has kept Jean in check telepathically, but when Jean awakens, he realizes she is not the Jean Grey he knew. Jean pleads with Wolverine to kill her, but when he refuses, the Phoenix surfaces and telekinetically slams Wolverine into a wall. She then escapes to her childhood home.

Magneto, also aware that Jean is now a powerful mutant, meets Xavier at Jean's house. The two men vie for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces, unleashing her power. She destroys her family's house, disintegrates Xavier, and leaves with Magneto. Following the loss of Xavier, the X-Men regroup and confront Magneto's army, which is attacking the pharmaceutical company. During the fight, Beast injects Magneto with the cure, nullifying his mutant powers. After the battle, the Phoenix emerges and begins to destroy everything around her. Momentarily gaining control, Jean begs Wolverine to save her. Telling Jean he loves her, Wolverine reluctantly kills her with his claws.

Despite the X-Men's losses, life goes on. Magneto, now an ordinary man, sits at a chessboard and reaches out toward a metal chess piece that trembles slightly, hinting that the cure may not be as permanent as thought. Following the end credits, Dr. Moira MacTaggert checks on a comatose patient who calls out to her with Xavier's voice. Startled, she replies, "Charles?"

Production

Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films, left the project during preproduction in order to direct the film Superman Returns. He was joined by X2 screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty and composer/editor John Ottman. Matthew Vaughn was hired as the new director for the project. He cast Kelsey Grammer as the Beast and Vinnie Jones as the Juggernaut, but family issues reportedly led him to withdraw before shooting began. Vaughn was replaced by Singer's friend Brett Ratner, who was among those originally considered to direct the first film — and coincidentally was considered by Warner Brothers to direct the 2006 Superman project before it evolved into Superman Returns.

On June 13, 2005, a review of an incomplete early draft of the screenplay posted by Drew McWeeny from Ain't It Cool News sparked controversy from fans, due to certain main characters' storylines; however, that draft was the very first of over two-dozen drafts the film went through and has had numerous changes happen to the storylines.

X-Men: The Last Stand began shooting in August 2005 and ended in January 2006. Much of X-Men: The Last Stand was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. According to associate producer Dave Gordon, "This is the biggest production ever filmed in Canada. It used to be X2, now it's X3." The final battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants was originally scripted to take place in Washington, D.C., but Ratner opted to change the location.

A replica of a section of the Golden Gate Bridge was built for one sequence originally in the middle of the movie, but Ratner decided it would create a more dramatic climax if moved to the end.

65+ year old actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen had their faces completely "de-aged" by complex keyframing (no CGI elements were used, only photographed skin/bone structures). A technique called "digital skin-grafting" was employed to make them look 20 years younger in the first scene flashback.

Angel's wings were initially too heavy for Ben Foster, and were remade from foam.

Many of the actors performed some of their own stunts. The whirlwind wire-stunt performed by Halle Berry during one fight scene reportedly caused Berry to become so nauseated that she vomited. The crew actually had to bring in buckets for her before shooting her scenes.

Casting

New cast members portraying X-Men include veteran TV actor Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Ben Foster (Angel), and Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde, the third actress to play the character). New cast members portraying the Brotherhood of Mutants include Eric Dane (Multiple Man, whose name appears in Stryker's files in X2), former British footballer Vinnie Jones (Juggernaut), Dania Ramirez (Callisto), Ken Leung (Kid Omega), Meiling Melançon (Psylocke), and Omahyra Mota (Arclight, credited as simply Omahyra).

X3cast16.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Top row: McKellen, Stewart, Marsden, Jackman, Janssen, Berry, Paquin, Romijn. Bottom row: Foster, Cudmore, Jones, Grammer, Stanford, Ashmore, Page, Ramirez]]

X-Men

The X-Men is a taskforce from the Xavier Institute, charged with protecting both humans and mutants and trying to prevent a war between the two.

  • Hugh Jackman as Wolverine / Logan: Logan can heal quickly, a talent which led to the painful implantation of a metal coating on his bones and metal claws that emerge from each forearm. He mourns Jean Grey, with whom he is in love.

  • Halle Berry as Storm / Ororo Munroe: She can control the weather and fly. Halle Berry stated during interviews for X2 that she would not return as Storm in the third film unless the character had a significant presence comparable to the comic-book version. Brett Ratner also felt Storm required a larger role and there was little difficulty reaching an agreement.

  • Famke Janssen as Phoenix / Jean Grey: A member of the X-Men who sacrificed herself to save her comrades. She possesses great telekinetic and telepathic powers which threaten to consume her.

  • Anna Paquin as Rogue / Marie: A runaway mutant who has found a home at Xavier's school and love with Bobby Drake. When she touches someone, she steals their memories, their powers, and, if not careful, their life.

  • Kelsey Grammer as Beast / Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy: A former student of Xavier's School who is now the Secretary of Mutant Affairs in the U.S. government. The Beast is covered in blue fur and has a genius level I.Q., and heightened agility. Filmmakers considered using the Beast character since the first X-Men movie, but budget constraints ruled him out; however, Steve Bacic is identified as Hank McCoy when he appears on a television screen in a cameo role in X2.

  • Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde: She can "phase" through objects, which allows her to walk through walls and float through floors.

Brotherhood of Mutants

  • Ian McKellen as Magneto / Eric Lehnsherr: Master of magnetism, Holocaust survivor, and would-be conquerer, Magneto wages war against humanity in the name of mutant superiority, a goal that often pits him against his old friend Charles Xavier.

  • Aaron Stanford as Pyro / John Allerdyce: Former Xavier Institute student Pyro can manipulate fire but cannot create it. He holds a grudge against his former friend Bobby Drake.

  • Eric Dane as Multiple Man / Jamie Madrox: Madrox can split himself into multiple copies of himself. He is a former criminal who joins the Brotherhoood upon being released by them.

Other characters

  • Michael Murphy as Warren Worthington II: He is the Head of Worthington Labs, the corporation developing the cure. He is also Angel's father and wants to rid his son of his mutant abilities.

  • Cameron Bright as Leech / Jimmy: A mutant boy whose power cancels the powers of nearby mutants. His DNA is the basis for the cure. He is later saved and admitted in the Xavier Institute.

Alan Cumming was reportedly uncomfortable with the long hours he had to take with the Nightcrawler makeup, but still planned to return for X-Men: The Last Stand. The part for Nightcrawler was so minimal, however, that the studio felt it was not worthwhile to go through the long and costly makeup process, and the character was cut.Tramountanas, Ibid.: Associate producer Dave Gorder said, "We would have liked to have Nightcrawler back, but there are certain trade-offs you take with the story. Nightcrawler is an expensive character prosthetic makeup-wise and also visual effects-wise, and so you want to have a story-arc that justifies that expense. And you also want to make the actor happy that he has a significant role to don the makeup and the effects and do the stunt work."

The character Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who appears in the film, is not listed in the official press notes' cast list and goes uncredited in the finished film. She is played by actress Olivia Williams. The sergeant directing defensive preparations before the Brotherhood assaults Alcatraz Island is played by Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey, a former U.S. Marine Corps non-commissioned officer who became a military adviser for films and frequent military character actor. X-Men co-creator Stan Lee and writer Chris Claremont have cameos in the film's opening scene as neighbors in Jean Grey's old neighborhood. Respectively, they are credited as "Waterhose man" and "Lawnmower man".

Reception

X-Men: The Last Stand grossed $45.5 million domestically for the third-highest opening day after Dead Man's Chest ($55 million) and Revenge of the Sith ($50 million). It is ranked fourth among film debuts having generated an estimated $122.9 million domestically during its four-day Memorial Day opening weekend. The website The Numbers notes that the film's weekend gross "equals the record for the fewest number of days taken to earn $100 million, joining four other movies that achieved the feat in three days." However, the film suffered a significant drop of 66.9% in its second weekend,when its box office take fell to $34.0 million. As of July 10, 2006, the film has grossed $231.4 million in North America and $436.8 million globally (3rd highest of 2006). It is also the 5th highest grossing comic book adaptation of all time, and the highest grossing of the X-Men series. It became the first film of 2006, and the 67th film in history, to pass the $200 million mark at the North American box office on the weekend of June 9, 2006. And it is the first X-Men movie to pass 200 million outside of the United States. X-Men: The Last Stand is one of the few third installments in a series that out grossed its predecessors, The Return of the King (film) being another example.

Reviews of the film have generally been mixed, with the film review website Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a 57% approval rating. The film review aggregate site Metacritic also reported mixed reviews with a score of 58/100. Ebert & Roeper gave the film two thumbs up, with Ebert stating "I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse of mutant powers, and I especially liked the way it introduces all of those political issues and lets them fight it out with the special effects." Some film critics, however, considered the third film to be of lesser quality than the previous two. Justin Chang from Variety said the film is "a wham-bam sequel noticeably lacking in the pop gravitas, moody atmospherics and emotional weight that made the first two Marvel comicbook * adaptations so rousingly successful." Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "A risk-taking script with genuine consequences elevates this ... above the lackluster direction of Brett Ratner, whose competent mechanics move the story efficiently but with very little soul." Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer, said, "Director Brett Ratner can't make chicken a la king out of chicken droppings, and that's what writers Simon Kinberg ( State of the Union) and Zak Penn (Elektra) supply."

Possible sequels and spin-offs

Fox Films Entertainment Chairman Tom Rothman stated The Last Stand is the end of a trilogy, but not necessarily the end of the X-Men film series: "These three movies work as a trilogy. These characters in this relationship, it's the culmination of that saga. It's the culmination and the resolution of those relationships laid out in the first two movies". Earlier, in a February 14, 2006 interview, Ratner said, "We wanted to make sure the audiences knew that this was a trilogy. Even though they weren't made together like Lord of the Rings, this is really closure for the X-Men series...This is the last stand for sure". In the same interview, a 20th Century Fox spokesperson confirmed The Last Stand is the final foreseeable installment for the X-Men team.

Executive producer Avi Arad stated in an interview that Marvel would take its time to decide what to do with future X-Men films, but is focusing on the spin-offs. A Wolverine spin-off and a Magneto spin-off have been announced and are in the scripting stages. Another possible movie based on the character of Emma Frost — a mutant telepath who can transform her skin into an organic diamond substance and X-Men comics regular — is also being developed. Three Kings director David O. Russell was contacted about creating a story for the character. A possible film based on the students at the school has also been mentioned.

Comparison with the comics

X-Men: The Last Stand draws much of its plot and characters from the source comic books; however, while some of the X-Men characters and details remain similar, a number of comic book elements are altered for the adaptation.

The film's plot concerning the emergence of the Phoenix draws from Chris Claremont's 1980 "Dark Phoenix Saga" in The Uncanny X-Men. Whereas in the film, the Phoenix is Jean Grey's evil "split personality", in the comics, the Phoenix is a fiery, Phoenix-like alien entity and force of nature that bonds with Jean. The cure for mutant powers, its creator Kavita Rao, and the ethical problems associated with it first appear in Joss Whedon's 2004 "Gifted" story arc in Astonishing X-Men.

X-Men: The Last Stand is the first X-Men adaptation to feature the five original X-Men -- Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Jean Grey on the team; however, the characters' backstories and positions within the team are altered. Other characters are translated even more loosely. Many of the Brotherhood shown in the film, for instance, including Spike, Psylocke and Multiple Man, are not Brotherhood villains in the comics. The mutant named Kid Omega resembles a character named Quill in the comics, rather than the hyper-intelligent comic book Kid. In the film, Psylocke has a red dagger tattooed above her left eye, and she is able to hide in shadows; this is a reference to a period during which Psylocke was connected to a substance called the "Crimson Dawn", which gives her powers beyond her innate mutant abilities of telepathy and telekinesis that manifests as a psionic knife/katana. Brotherhood member Callisto is depicted with superhuman speed and the ability to sense mutants' power levels. In the comics, Callisto is the leader of the Morlocks and has neither ability, instead, possessing acute senses. In the comics, Juggernaut is Xavier's human step-brother who acquires power when he finds a mystical stone; in X-Men: The Last Stand, however, Juggernaut is a mutant, and there is no mention of a relationship with the professor. Whereas he is usually gruff and violent in the comics, his line "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" alludes not to the comics, but to a video (The Juggernaut Bitch!!) in which the video's creators talk over footage from the X-Men animated series.

Familiar details from the X-Men mythos permeate the film. The X-Men are shown training in the trademark Danger Room, a training complex within the X-Mansion. A giant, mutant-hunting Sentinel robot appears as a hologram inside the Danger Room. The fastball special, in which Colossus throws Wolverine toward an opponent, appears in the film twice, the targets being Magneto and a Sentinel. Beast's line "Oh my stars and garters!" appears frequently in the comics. One of the president's advisers is named Trask, an allusion to Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels. Kitty Pryde's run through the pharmaceutical complex while being chased by the Juggernaut mirrors the character's similar flight from an alien in Uncanny X-Men #143. Finally, Wolverine's killing Jean Grey bears some similarity to his killing love interest Mariko Yashida to spare her a painful death from poison in Wolverine #57, as well as a scene in New X-Men, in which he kills Jean to spare her from a more painful death burning up in the Sun.

Adaptations

Novelization

The novelization of the film, written by comic book writer Chris Claremont, was released on May 16, 2006.

The novelization of the movie differs significantly from the film. In the novel, young Jean Grey discovers her powers after an accident that takes her best friend's life. Angel officially joins the X-Men and travels with them to Alcatraz Island instead of going on his own. Storm spares Callisto's life, which is more in line with Professor Xavier's views on violence. Rogue decides to keep her powers in the end, and Beast stays at the school as a teacher. Iceman takes an unconscious Pyro away from Alcatraz. The attack on Alcatraz is referred to as M-Day, a reference to the "Decimation of mutantkind" storyline in the comic books. Moira MacTaggert visits Magneto in the park, presumably offering an antidote to the cure, which he refuses because as the book says: "He couldn't go back. That path had brought nothing but grief, to those he cared for, those who trusted him, to himself. This was better." This suggests that in the novel Magneto turns over a new leaf before discovering a slight return of his powers. Unlike the film, the novel does not allude to Xavier's resurrection.

The novel also makes a reference to X3 scriptwriter Zak Penn, whose name is given to a sergeant in the middle of the novel, and possibly to X-Men writer Stan Lee as Mr. Lee, one of Jean's neighbours portrayed by Stan Lee in the film.

Video game

Games publisher Activision released The Official Game, the official video game tie-in to the film across all major videogame platforms on May 16, 2006. The various editions of the game bridge the events of the films X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand and feature many of both films' prominent characters. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Alan Cumming, Eric Dane, Shawn Ashmore and Tyler Mane reprise their film roles in this game. Sentinels, Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth and Silver Samurai also appear in the game. It also provides an explanation to Nightcrawler's absence.

Footnotes

External links

2006 films | Science fiction films | Sequel films | X-Men films | Films with bonus scenes after the credits | American films | English-language films | Films shot in Super 35

X-Men: Der letzte Widerstand | X-men: La última decisión | X-Men l'affrontement final | X-Men: Conflitto finale | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-MEN ファイナルディシジョン | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men: Ultima înfruntare | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men – viimeinen kohtaaminen | X-Men: The Last Stand

 

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