X2 (2003)

The X-Men band together to find a mutant assassin who has made an attempt on the President's life, while the Mutant Academy is attacked by military forces.

Director:

Bryan Singer

Writers:

Zak Penn (story), David Hayter (story),

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen

5 wins & 32 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick Stewart	...	Professor Charles Xavier
Hugh Jackman	...	Logan / Wolverine
Ian McKellen	...	Eric Lensherr / Magneto
Halle Berry	...	Ororo Munroe / Storm
Famke Janssen	...	Jean Grey
James Marsden	...	Scott Summers / Cyclops
Anna Paquin	...	Marie / Rogue
Rebecca Romijn	...	Raven Darkholme / Mystique (as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)
Brian Cox	...	William Stryker
Alan Cumming	...	Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
Bruce Davison	...	Senator Kelly
Aaron Stanford	...	John Allerdyce / Pyro
Shawn Ashmore	...	Bobby Drake / Iceman
Kelly Hu	...	Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike
Katie Stuart	...	Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat

Storyline

Several months have passed since The X-Men defeated Magneto and imprisoned him in a seemingly impregnable plastic chamber. One day, a mutant by the name of Nightcrawler infiltrates the White House and attempts to assassinate the president, setting off a chain reaction of anti-mutant measures by the government. Meanwhile, Logan is trying to discover his past. As scientist named William Stryker discovers Professor X's secret school and Cerebro, Magneto's partner, Mystique, is planning to break her leader out of prison. But when Professor X's school is attacked by Stryker's forces, Logan, Rogue, Iceman and a few are lucky to escape. Those who remain meet in Boston, where they form an uneasy alliance with Magneto to stop Stryker and rescue Professor X.

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Plot Keywords:

mutant | school | professor | wolverine | prison | 

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Taglines:

In this world wide conspiracy the only thing you can count on... Is the X factor.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action/violence, some sexuality and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Marvel [United States]

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English German Italian

Release Date:

2 May 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

X-2

Filming Locations:

Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$110,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,581,045 (Spain) (9 May 2003)

Gross:

$214,948,780 (USA) (19 September 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Enterprises, Donners' Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The final scene in Xavier's mansion with Cyclops, Wolverine and Professor X was shot at Shepperton Studios in London, simply because Hugh Jackman was shooting Van Helsing at the time and the producers released him for only one day to do the final shooting of X-Men. The reason Wolverine's hair looks higher than usual in this scene is because Jackman had long hair for Van Helsing and had to wear the Wolverine wig over a lot of hair.

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Goofs

Since Senator Kelly died in the middle of X-Men, his subsequent appearances have been impersonations by Mystique. But any U.S. Senator's personal and political obligations occupy nearly every hour of each day. Given that there is only one Mystique, and that she impersonates several other characters in addition to appearing as herself, "Senator Kelly" must frequently disappear for hours or days at a time. In the real world or even the comic book world, her intermittent use of Kelly's likeness would be quickly uncovered as bogus by his family or staff.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Professor X: [voiceover] Mutants. Since the discovery of their existence they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages. Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain or simply a new species of humanity fighting for their share of the world? Either way it is a historical fact: Sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute.

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Crazy Credits

When the 20th Century Fox logo fades away, the X in the logo stays for a second longer before it also fades away.

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Connections

Referenced in Take (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Mozart's Sonata K545"
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Don Great
Courtesy of Marc Ferrari/Tinseltown Music Library

User Reviews

"Sometimes the mind needs to discover things for itself."

2000's smash hit X-Men certainly deserved a sequel (or two, or three), especially with all the cash it made and how the first one ended. Now the X-Men are back together once again, and this time they've got some new friends, including Nightcrawler and Pyro, and as well as some new enemies like William Stryker and Lady Deathstrike (his personal mutant "assistant"/slave). This time the X-Men find themselves locked in an unlikely alliance with Magneto and Mystique (their nemeses from the first film) against an evil military scientist named William Stryker, whose main goal is to eradicate the world of mutants once and for all.

X2: X-Men United is in many ways an improvement over the first film. It's more psychological, it's longer, there's more action, more mutants, more of Wolverine slicing it up and like the first film it's never boring or drags, right from the get-go X2 is fierce and exciting. In fact, X2 is almost the perfect comic book film… almost. The one little, weak link in X2, for me at least, was Nightcrawler. Now, I like the character of Nightcrawler, but I honestly didn't care that much for Alan Cumming, he came off as a bit weak, and kind of "dorky". The character of Nightcrawler really just seems like a huge convenience to the plot; like the scene where he rescues Rogue in the X-Jet, which was oh so very convenient. But the one thing I liked about Nightcrawler, besides that awesome opening sequence in the White House, was his religious side, which I thought was interesting and made me sympathize with the character a little more.

Pretty much everything in X2 works perfectly fine, which I attribute all that success to the amazing cast (Jackman, McKellen, Stewart, Marsden, Janssen, Berry, Paquin, Cox, Romijn), and the fact that the film was written and directed by the same people who clearly knew what they were doing back in 2000, and here they show us once again they still know what they're doing, and they aren't afraid to up the ante and take it up a notch. If you liked the first X-Men there's really no reason at all why wouldn't enjoy or like X2 as much, or maybe even more than the first film. It still has those surprising moments of humor, and plenty of action, maybe even more so than the original. And like the original, X2 sets itself up for a third film; let's just hope it turns out (at the very least) as good as the first two films, if not better.