X-Men: Days of Future Past is a 2014 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men. It is the seventh installment in the X-Men film series and serves as a sequel to both X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: First Class (2011), as well as a follow-up to The Wolverine (2013). Directed by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg, the film features an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Elliot Page, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart. The story, inspired by the 1981 Uncanny X-Men storyline "Days of Future Past" by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, focuses on two time periods, with Logan traveling back in time to 1973 to change history and prevent an event that results in unspeakable destruction for both humans and mutants.

Matthew Vaughn had directed X-Men: First Class and was set to return in Days of Future Past but instead left for Kingsman: The Secret Service and the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. Singer, who had directed the first two X-Men films and produced First Class, returned as director, and brought along most of the crew from those productions. With a budget of $205 million, the film's principal photography began in Montreal, Quebec, in April 2013, and concluded in August, with additional filming and pick-ups taking place in November 2013 and February 2014. Twelve companies handled the visual effects.

X-Men: Days of Future Past premiered in New York City on May 10, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 23, by 20th Century Fox. The film received positive reviews from critics, who deemed it one of the finest in the series. It grossed $746 million, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2014, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. A sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse was released in 2016.

Plot

In a dystopian 2023, robots called Sentinels hunt and kill mutants, as well as humans who either possess the genetic potential to have mutant offspring or try to protect them. In Moscow, they attack X-Men survivors Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Blink, Warpath, Bishop, Iceman, and Sunspot. The mutants sacrifice themselves to buy Kitty enough time to send Bishop's consciousness a few days into the past to warn the others of the coming attack and ensure their survival.

Having averted the attack, the group retreats to a remote Chinese temple and are joined by Storm, Logan, Magneto, and the restored Charles Xavier. Xavier explains that the Sentinel program was originally conceived by Bolivar Trask, a weapons designer whom Mystique assassinated in 1973. In response, the government approved his program and captured, tortured, and experimented on her, using her DNA to create Sentinels capable of adapting to any mutant power. Xavier plans to use Kitty's powers to go back in time to 1973 and prevent Trask's assassination in the hopes of altering the future. However, upon learning that time-traveling too far would kill Xavier, Logan volunteers instead, as his regenerative abilities would allow him to survive.

Awakening in 1973, Logan goes to the X-Mansion, learning from Hank McCoy that the school has been closed for years due to the Vietnam War and that Magneto has been imprisoned for assassinating John F. Kennedy. A young, broken Xavier has turned to alcoholism and uses a serum that allows him to walk, but at the cost of his telepathic abilities. Hoping to reunite with Mystique, Xavier agrees to help Logan. They recruit Quicksilver, a mutant who can run at superhuman speeds, and break Magneto out of the Pentagon, learning that he was in fact attempting to save Kennedy, who was also a mutant.

Mystique discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants and plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords, but Xavier, McCoy, and Logan foil her attempt. Magneto attempts to kill Mystique, believing this would change the future; McCoy fights him, allowing Mystique to escape but publicly exposing them as mutants. Trask takes advantage of this and convinces President Richard Nixon to authorize the Sentinel program.

Magneto retrieves his helmet to shield himself from Xavier's telepathy and secretly takes control of Trask's Sentinel prototypes by infusing them with steel. Returning to the X-Mansion, Xavier abandons the serum and, by reading Logan's mind, communicates with his future self, who inspires him to protect the future between mutants and humans. Xavier uses his mutant-tracking computer Cerebro to find Mystique, and he, McCoy, and Logan travel to Washington, D.C. to stop her from assassinating Trask.

At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, the three search for Mystique. Magneto appears, activates the Sentinels, and barricades the White House by lifting RFK Stadium over it. During the battle, Magneto impales Logan with a rebar and throws him into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and a disguised Mystique retreat to the White House Bunker. However, Magneto rips the bunker out of the building to kill everyone inside. In 2023, the X-Men make their last stand as an onslaught of Sentinels attacks the temple, with Storm, Colossus, Iceman and most of the mutants perishing while trying to buy more time; only Charles, Kitty, an injured Magneto and Wolverine remain. In 1973, Mystique reveals herself and subdues Magneto with a plastic gun, saving Nixon and his cabinet. Before she can kill Trask, Xavier telepathically convinces her to spare him, leading the public to realize that a mutant saved the President and his cabinet. As a result, the Sentinel program is decommissioned, altering the timeline and erasing the dark future of 2023 from history. The mutants in the past depart separately; Trask is later arrested for selling military secrets to foreign governments.

Logan reawakens in 2023 at the X-Mansion to find that Xavier's school is thriving and the X-Men are all alive, including Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Logan asks Xavier for information about modern history from 1973 to the present. Back in 1973, Logan is rescued by Mystique, having disguised herself as Major William Stryker.

In a post-credits scene set in ancient Egypt, a crowd chants to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates rocks to build pyramids as his Four Horsemen observe from afar.

Cast

Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine: A mutant with accelerated healing, heightened animal-like senses, and—in 1973—retractable bone claws; in the future, his skeleton and claws are laced with adamantium in his body, making him virtually invulnerable. His healing factor also slows his aging, allowing him to live above the lifespan of an ordinary human. Jackman noted how Wolverine driving the plot in spite of his gruff personality made for interesting story choices, as "if you want someone to go back to take someone's head off, fantastic, but he's really got to go back and almost act in parts as inspiration, as mentor, as guide, because he can't do it all on his own, which is always his preferred method". James McAvoy / Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X:A mutant pacifist and the world's most powerful telepath. He is also the founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and the leader of the X-Men. Singer described the younger Xavier as "a very different beast from First Classs feckless playboy. He's a wounded animal, bearded, long-haired, filled with rage at the way the world has treated him". Kinberg said the film was intended to be the story of the younger Xavier beginning to "become the Professor Xavier we know" as Wolverine mentored him. Michael Fassbender / Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto:A powerful mutant who can manipulate magnetic fields. While he disagrees with Xavier due to a wish to prove mutant-kind's superiority, they revert to being allies as the older Erik helps the X-Men battle against Sentinels in the future. Jennifer Lawrence as Raven / Mystique:A mutant with shapeshifting ability, and also Xavier's childhood friend and adopted sister. Singer said Mystique "is less innocent, evolved, getting closer to where Mystique was in X2 (2003)". Lawrence had suffered skin irritations from the full body make-up used in First Class, and the process was changed so from the neck down it would be a bodysuit, whose zipper was digitally removed in post-production. As a result, the make-up process was reduced from eight hours to three. The make-up team at Legacy Effects sculpted Mystique's scales digitally, making them shorter in size and placed in a way that they would accentuate Lawrence's face. Halle Berry as Storm:A mutant who can manipulate weather and is one of the most battle-tested and powerful X-Men. Asked if her pregnancy affected her role, Berry replied, "I wasn't in as much as I was meant to be. My ever-growing belly was posing a constant challenge! What I could do was getting more limited so the role that I play is so different from what it could have been, due to my surprise pregnancy". According to Kinberg, Berry had another scene in the film that was cut because of Berry's limited schedule. Anna Paquin as Rogue:A mutant who could absorb the life force and mutant abilities of anyone she touches until taking a cure in The Last Stand. Kinberg wrote a shorter part for Paquin than initially planned because she had little time to be on set. During post-production, Paquin's role was reduced to a cameo after most of her scenes were cut; these scenes were later restored on an alternate version of the film, which was released to home media. According to Kinberg, Rogue was to be rescued by the future Magneto and Xavier to provide the elder characters a mission, "something like Unforgiven (1992)". Eventually, the producers felt it was a subplot that did "not service the main story", and reshot scenes to replace them. However, she was still featured in the film's various promotional materials. Paquin later stated that she still had fun making the film and did not mind that the majority of her scenes had been cut from it. Elliot Page as Kitty Pryde:A mutant who can pass through solid objects. As the youngest member of the X-Men, she plays an important role in their fight for survival. Singer described Pryde as the prime facilitator and that Pryde's phasing ability enables time-travel to happen. Kinberg, when asked why Pryde is not the time-traveler in the film adaptation of the comic-book story, said, "[If] we tried to follow the original and use Kitty, we had a problem because Ellen was 25 years old and she'd be -20 in the First Class era". Peter Dinklage as Dr. Bolivar Trask:A military scientist and the head of Trask Industries who creates a range of robots called Sentinels, designed to find and destroy mutants. Dinklage said Trask "sees what he's doing as a good thing—[his ambition is] definitely blind and he's quite arrogant. He has striven all his life for a certain respect and attention". He also said Trask is opposed by Richard Nixon. Singer said he is a fan of Dinklage and of the television series Game of Thrones (2011-2019) in which Dinklage stars as Tyrion Lannister, which inspired him to cast Dinklage. The actor, who has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, said he was attracted to Trask because the character was not written as a dwarf or defined as such. Nicholas Hoult as Hank / Beast:A mutant with leonine attributes, super-strength, agility, reflexes and enhanced speed. Hoult plays the character in scenes set in 1973 while Kelsey Grammer makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Beast in the future setting. The cameo was added because the writers felt Hoult's Beast was "such a sweet, young character" that audiences would want to learn he survived. Once Grammer learned of this opportunity to return as Beast, a character he had enjoyed playing in The Last Stand, he called Singer asking to get involved, and was flown from New York in secret to avoid drawing attention.