X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men. A sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), it is the ninth in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Bryan Singer, and written by Simon Kinberg, and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, and Lucas Till. In the film, the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse is inadvertently revived in 1983 and plans to recreate the world in his own image, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team of mutants.
The film was announced by Singer in December 2013, with Kinberg, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris attached to develop the story. Casting began in October 2014, while principal photography commenced in April 2015 in Montreal and ended in August.
X-Men: Apocalypse premiered in London on May 9, 2016, and was released in the United States on May 27 by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $544 million. A sequel, Dark Phoenix, was released in 2019.
Plot
In 3600 BC, the aged but powerful mutant En Sabah Nur rules ancient Egypt. Following a ceremony in which his consciousness is transferred into another man's body in order to gain his healing factor, he and his four followers, the Horsemen of Apocalypse, are betrayed by conspirators. In the process, his followers are killed and he is entombed alive.
In 1983, Scott Summers manifests his mutant powers to shoot concussive kinetic energy blasts from his eyes, so his older brother Alex takes him to Professor Charles Xavier's educational institute, hoping that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him to control his mutation. Scott meets and befriends Jean Grey upon arriving. In Egypt, En Sabah Nur is awakened by Moira MacTaggert while following a group of worshippers. He meets a mutant who can control weather, Ororo Munroe, and learns about humanity. Determined that humanity has lost its way, he plans to remake the world. Ororo becomes his follower after he enhances her power.
Meanwhile, in Communist Poland, Erik Lehnsherr lives happily with his wife Magda and daughter Nina. During the worldwide disturbances caused by En Sabah Nur's reawakening, Lehnsherr uses his powers to save a coworker during an earthquake, alerting the Milicja Obywatelska. They hold his daughter hostage in the forest to lure him into turning himself in. As tensions rise, Nina heartbrokenly demonstrates her animal communication mutant powers, and the police accidentally kill her and her mother in the ensuing confusion. In despair, Lehnsherr kills the police. In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven, revered as a mutant hero following the attack on Washington, D.C., rescues Kurt Wagner from a cage fight and requests black marketeer Caliban to transport Kurt to America. He reveals Lehnsherr's situation to her, leading Raven to take Kurt and request Xavier to find and rescue Lehnsherr. En Sabah Nur recruits Caliban's assistant Psylocke and another cage fighter Angel, and enhances both of their powers.
En Sabah Nur finds Lehnsherr and takes him back to Auschwitz, showing him the true extent of his powers; Lehnsherr destroys the camp and joins En Sabah Nur. When Xavier contacts Lehnsherr, En Sabah Nur remotely accesses Cerebro and forces Xavier to make countries launch their nuclear arsenals into space to prevent interference. He and his Four Horsemen arrive at the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Alex attempts to stop them but causes an explosion that destroys the mansion. Peter Maximoff, having learned he is Lehnsherr's biological son, arrives and uses his super-speed to evacuate everyone except Alex, whom Hank states was closest to the blast. Colonel William Stryker's forces, believing Xavier to be responsible, capture McCoy, Raven, Peter, and MacTaggert, and take them for interrogation. Scott, Jean, and Kurt secretly follow them and liberate their comrades using Stryker's experiment Weapon X, whose memories Jean partially restores.
Lehnsherr uses his powers to alter the Earth's magnetic field, causing destruction across the planet. En Sabah Nur plans to transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body to gain his psychic powers and thus control every mind on Earth. Xavier sends a telepathic distress call to Jean and the others, who travel to Cairo to battle En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen. They rescue Xavier and flee in a plane. When Angel and Psylocke attack the plane, Kurt teleports his friends away. Psylocke manages to jump safely and escape, but Angel is killed in the plane crash.
Lehnsherr and Ororo turn on En Sabah Nur and keep him occupied physically with Scott's help while Xavier fights him telepathically in the astral plane. Xavier begs Jean to unleash the full strength of her abilities, and she incinerates En Sabah Nur. Xavier restores MacTaggert's memory and they reconcile. Lehnsherr and Jean help reconstruct the school, but Lehnsherr turns down Xavier's offer to stay and help teach; Peter decides not to tell Lehnsherr yet about their relationship. Using confiscated Sentinels, McCoy and Raven train the new X-Men recruits: Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter.
In a post-credits scene, vials of Weapon X's blood are placed in a briefcase belonging to the Essex Corporation.
Cast
James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier: A pacifistic mutant and the world's most powerful telepath, who is the founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and leads the team of mutants known as the X-Men, in order to protect humankind and battle against the deadly enemy within. During the latter part of the film's production, McAvoy shaved his head for the role. Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto: A mutant Auschwitz survivor with the ability to control magnetic fields and manipulate metal, who was once Xavier's closest ally and best friend, until his belief that mankind and mutantkind would never coexist led to their separation. He is globally infamous for attempting to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon on live broadcast 10 years prior. Bill Milner appears in archival footage as a Young Erik. Jennifer Lawrence as Raven / Mystique:A mutant with shapeshifting abilities, globally renowned for saving Nixon's life 10 years prior. She was once Xavier's closest ally and his adoptive sister. Lawrence said, "she hears about what happened to Erik and she wants to seek him out and help him". Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast: A mutant with leonine attributes, prehensile feet and superhuman physical abilities. Hank acts as a teacher in Xavier's school and he builds inventions for troubled students. He also built the X-Jet. Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse: Born in ancient times, and presumably the world's first mutant, he has a variety of destructive superhuman abilities, including telekinesis, telepathy, technopathy, teleportation, force-field generation, and the ability to augment other mutants' abilities, as a result of being able to amass powers when transferring his consciousness from one body to another. Isaac described Nur as the "creative-slash-destructive force of the Earth". He added, "When things start to go awry, or when things seem like they're not moving towards evolution, [En Sabah Nur] destroys those civilizations." Isaac had to go through extensive makeup and prosthetics applications, suit, and wore high-heeled boots to appear taller. The full costume was uncomfortable, particularly in the humid environment of the outdoor scenes, which forced Isaac to go to a cooling tent between takes. Nur's previous old-form (seen at the beginning of the film) was played by Berdj Garabedian, a 70-year-old Canadian real estate agent, and avid silver screen fan in his first credited film role. Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert: A CIA operative who first met and developed feelings for Xavier in X-Men: First Class (2011), where he wiped portions of her memories of him and the X-Men at the end. Simon Kinberg said they are "essentially, strangers" when they meet in this film. Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver: A mutant who can move, think, and perceive at hypersonic speeds, and the son of Magneto. Josh Helman as Col. William Stryker: A military officer who hates mutants and has, in the ten years since Days of Future Past, been developing his own plans for resolving "the mutant problem". Sophie Turner as Jean Grey: A mutant who is scared of her telepathic and telekinetic power, and one of Charles Xavier's most prized students. Turner states that she was cast in the film because of the "dark side" of her character Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones (2011–2019). She compared Jean to Sansa and described being an outcast in the human world who struggles with her power and gift, the same way Sansa, who wanted to live a normal life, felt. Turner learned archery in preparation for the role. Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops: A mutant who fires destructive optic beams and wears a ruby visor or sunglasses to stabilize and contain them, and who is the younger brother of Havok. Sheridan describes Cyclops as "angry and a bit lost". He added, "He's now learning about being a mutant and trying to handle his powers." Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok: A mutant who has the ability to absorb energy and release it with destructive force from his body, and the older brother of Cyclops. Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler: A German teleporting mutant and one of Charles Xavier's new students. Singer said Nightcrawler is a source of comic relief. Ben Hardy as Angel: A mutant with bird-like feathered wings who gains metallic wings that can shoot razor sharp feather-projectiles, similar to his Archangel counterpart in the comics. Hardy practiced indoor skydiving in preparation for his role. Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm: A young mutant orphan who can control weather. Storm is discovered by Apocalypse in Cairo. Shipp partially shaved her head to sport a Mohawk for the role. Lana Condor as Jubilee: A mutant student at Charles's school who has the ability to create psionic energy plasmoids. Discussing her first day on X-Men: Apocalypse, Condor stated, "I was very new and it was my first role. I'd never been on a set before or in front of a camera, so I didn't know what to expect. The first day we shot scenes in an 80s-themed mall with hundreds of extras in 80s gear, plus crew and cameras. It was surreal ... It's a lot easier when you have the costume, as that helps bring everything to life. She has her iconic yellow jacket, which is a staple. It's very bold and confident, like her. A lot of her costumes are super 80s. I also listened to music from the 80s and that helped."Performer: Summer 2016 Olivia Munn as Psylocke: A mutant with psionic abilities. Her abilities include projecting purple psychic energy, usually into the form of an energy blade that can burn through metal. Munn described Psylocke as "very lethal, very powerful and very strong". She practiced sword fighting in preparation for the role.
Additionally, Carolina Bartczak and T.J. McGibbon play Erik's wife Magda and mutant daughter Nina, respectively. Tómas Lemarquis portrays Caliban, a mutant with the ability to sense and track other mutants, and wrestler "Giant" Gustav Claude Ouimet plays The Blob, Angel's opponent in an underground fight club. Monique Ganderton, Warren Scherer, Rochelle Okoye, and Fraser Aitcheson play Apocalypse's prior lieutenants, Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War respectively. Zehra Leverman reprised her role as Quicksilver's mother, Ms. Maximoff.