FAQ for
X-Men (2000) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for X-Men can be found here.

X-Men is based on the Marvel Comic book series, also titled X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962. The story line and screenplay for the movie were written by David Hayter, Tom DeSanto, and Bryan Singer. The success of the movie led to five sequels: X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), and The Wolverine (2013). A sixth sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past, is due for release in 2014.

When her first kiss puts her boyfriend in a coma, Marie recognizes that she's a mutant and takes off on a journey away from those she loves, lest she harm them with her touch. Now calling herself Rogue (Anna Paquin), she meets Logan, another mutant who goes by the name Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). When their camper gets in an accident, they end up at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, a cover school for mutant children in Westchester, New York. There they are introduced to the director, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who leads a group of mutants called the X-Men -- Doctor Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Scott Summers aka Cyclops (James Marsden), and Ororo Monroe aka Storm (Halle Berry). Unfortunately, they come in direct conflict with the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Xavier's old friend Eric Lensherr, who now calls himself Magneto (Ian McKellen). Magneto and his followers -- Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), Toad (Ray Park), and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) -- are cooking up a plan to turn the world's leaders, all of whom are meeting for a summit on nearby Ellis Island, into mutants as a means of insuring the acceptance of mutantkind by humans.

Cyclops can't control his optic blasts when his eyes are open or uncovered by the lens (in his combat visor) or lenses (the Oakley sunglasses) that he normally wears. The original history of the character according to Marvel canon has always maintained that Summers lost the ability to control the beams when he and his brother survived a fall - the impact resulted in brain damage that permanently disrupted the control Summers would have had. When he was young, a doctor/scientist developed "ruby quartz" lenses that contain the beams, and Scott was required to wear them continuously. Toad, using his tongue, snatches Summers' combat visor, causing Scott to release a quick blast before he realizes what happened and closes his eyes. Scott is then forced to keep his eyes closed for the remainder of the scene, leaving him all but helpless.

Jean stabilizes Wolverine telekinetically, while Storm blows him to the top of Magneto's machine. Cyclops gets off a blast that knocks Magneto away from the machine, allowing Wolverine to rescue Rogue, who is near death. Holding Rogue near to him, Wolverine transfers his regenerative ability into her, bringing himself near death, too. He wakes up in Jean's laboratory, lying next to Professor Xavier, who has recovered from his coma. When wolverine is fully recovered, he decides to relocate to an abandoned military compound near Alkali Lake in the Canadian Rockies in hopes of learning more about his past. Just before he leaves, a news broadcast shows what can only be Mystique impersonating Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), who publicly announces withdrawal of his support for the Mutant Registration Act. In the final scene, Xavier is playing chess in Magneto's plastic prison cell. Magneto warns Xavier that the war is still coming and he intends to fight it. 'And I will always be there, old friend,' Xavier assures him.

It is unknown whether Toad was killed by Storm's attack. Toad was hit by lightning and then hurled screaming into the air, splashing in the water. As he still made sound while falling, the electricity of the lightning was probably not lethal. Provided that Toad fell from one of the stories within the foundation of the Statue of Liberty (where the exhibition is located), his plunge was at least 65 ft (20 m), and could have been as high as 154 (47 m) ft. A fall onto a water surface from such heights can be lethal, but is not necessarily so. Besides, Toad is a mutant with a physique capable of jumping enormous heights and dropping onto other people without harm to himself, so he could have survived the fall into the water. This, of course, does not rule out the possibility that he passed out and drowned. A set was constructed (and not used) inside Stryker's underground bunker for X2, which was meant to be the stage for a fight between Nightcrawler and Toad, so the filmmakers probably intended for Toad to have survived his fall.

Sabretooth is hit by Cyclops' optic blast, sent through the wall of the Statue of Liberty, and sent plummeting into the roof of a boat and likely into the water below. It is unclear whether or not he is dead. Given that he can survive falls from great heights, this wouldn't be a concern, his healing abilities would be able to mend any broken bones. However if he was knocked unconscious either by the optic blast or the impact from the fall, he could have drowned. He doesn't appear in the two sequels to this film and is never mentioned again. If he did survive, it's possible he went rogue and chose not to re-join with the Brotherhood. In the novelization of X2, it is briefly mentioned that he is the subject of an international manhunt.

Yes, Wolverine can die. His healing factor has grown over the years to the point where he was able to survive being caught in an atomic blast and having all the soft tissue incinerated from his body, yet within a short amount of time he was back to normal. His healing factor also prevents his growing old, since his cells don't age, therefore don't die. The comics also have him as being the victim of a gang of black market organ harvests, who removed all his internal organs, by reaching from under his ribcage rather than through it, and he was able to regrown his heart, lungs, liver, ect, before he was able to die. It is unknown if he can drown. While it is believed that decapitation can kill him, this is nearly impossible due to his adamantium skeleton. Also if he was decapitated his head would have to be removed from the vacinity of his body. Deadpool, a character who was surgically given wolverine's healing power, can and has survived decapitation, but needs to have his original head put back on his body for the neck to heal to two sections of him back together. Since his healing ability is based off of Wolverine's, one can assume that Wolverine might have this ability as well. His healing ability also makes Wolverine immune to death from any type of disease, poison, or toxin, though a srong enough dose can make him sick until his healing kicks in.

Since Wolverines healing factor prevents the adamantium in his body from poisoning him, one way that could kill him is if he came into contact with someone like the character Leech. Leech's mutant power is that he can make other mutant's powers not work. It is reasonable to believe that if you used Leech to take away Wolverine's healing power, then he would be prone to death from anything that doesn't involve getting through his skeleton. Other factors that have occurred throughout the comics can also turn off Wolverine's healing factor. According to "X-Men", Rogue's powers could also kill Wolverine, by extracting life energy and his powers out of his body. Magneto could probably kill him by meddling with the adamantium in his body.

In the comic series called Gaurdians of the Galaxy, which is set about 1000 years into a possible future, the skeleton of Wolverine appears, but Wolverine himself is dead. In this future, Dr. Doom turned Wolverine's skeleton into a robot into which he transferred his own brain. There was a continuation of the Origins story called Wolverine: The End which take place approx. 200 years in the future. Wolverine has aged to the point of being considered an old man (looking about 65-70) His healing factor no longer works as good as it used to, and the adamantium has even begun to break down, most notable the center claw on his left hand is actually broken.

Dougray Scott, Aaron Eckhart, Viggo Mortensen were all considered. Bryan Singer talked to Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and Edward Norton, while Fox was interested in Keanu Reeves.

He was brought in to work on the screenplay (as a script doctor), but all of his work was thrown out, except for two pieces of dialogue: Storm's line to Toad, and Wolverine calling Cyclops a dick.

According to Whedon, the exchange was: "It's me." "Prove it." "You're a dick." He also wrote Storm's line, "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else."