X-Men: Days of Future Past - Discussion Thread - SPOILERS

[Guy Gardener]

Are the Sentinels metal or clonemeat and clone bone of Mystique?

If they are augmented clones rather than outright robots, if Rogue touches one of them, they lose their powers and go to sleep, and she gets supercharged with Sentinel/Mystique powers... Although does she get mystiques memories over and over again, or does the clone meat have a life of their own worth transposing, which is just ignorant slavery, blindness and pain... unless the clone meat is controlled by hypnosis rather than a biological computer interface harness?

If the Government was building these types of Sentinels they would never authorize a competing program that was the mutant cure from the third movie since it is in all honesty a significantly more effective antisentinel weapon than it is an antimutant weapon.

 

[Star Wolf]

That's the thing with X-Men mutants, there should be millions of them all over the world but they keep coming up with contrived reasons in the comics to keep there being only hundreds of them (like Decimation) because the writers probably realized having millions of mutants would screw up the non X-Men books too much and would render the Mutant/Human conflict moot.

Because really, if there are millions of them and more mutants always being born...their rise to power is near-inevitable. They just need to wait about 100 years or so and there'll be as many of them as baseline humans.

That reminds me of Wildcards where for every "ace" such as Magneto there would be ten or a hundred "jokers" represented by Beast or Nightcrawler. However in this universe they are not changing as full grown adults but rather as infants so I would say a great number of those potential X-Men would have been euthanized and given today's technology aborted

 

[Tosk]

I hope the scene goes back in, one way or another. Pacing, shmacing. That's what alternate cuts are for. Slap 'em both in the Blu-ray, make everyone happy.

The "ticking clock" of Kitty bleeding has no real tension to it anyway. It's not an actual clock, it's a false countdown...a ticking clock with no hands or numbers on it.

Having them have to go off and bust Rogue out, leaving a bleeding Kitty with less back-up to protect her if the Sentinels arrive, that I want to see. (All this from someone who loved the film, just FYI.)

 

[Mr Light]

I think an extended Xavier/Magneto sequence would have worked better in the opening of the movie rather than in the middle.

 

[Star Wolf]

.

Question remains, however, where would they be rescuing Rogue from (they're in remote China) and from whom? The Sentinels take no prisoners.

Well she did in effect surrender when she took the serum. The governments of the world all still protect their prisoners to some extent

 

[Locutus of Bored]

A.V. Club reports on why Rogue was cut from the film. Looks like I was right about what Rogue would've done if she wasn't cut from the film: She would come to the aid of Kittty after Logan accidentally injures her.

While it's unfortunate she was cut, I think they made the right choice. A lengthy mission for Charles, Erik, and Bobby rescuing Rogue in the future would mess up the pacing of the film, especially considering the meat of the story takes place in 1973. One last adventure for Charles and Erik would've been nice but it's not necessary.

Question remains, however, where would they be rescuing Rogue from (they're in remote China) and from whom? The Sentinels take no prisoners.

The writer goes into more detail about the Rogue deleted scene in the post I linked to earlier about JFK's mutant powers.

The few surviving humans that the Sentinels allowed to remain in power (because they were the humans who assisted in/ordered the genocide of mutants and humans who would give birth to mutants) were experimenting on mutants at the (former) Xavier School in New York.

So it was going to be a contrast between the abandoned Xavier School in 1973 because everyone got drafted or killed or left and Charles gave up, and an Xavier School that's now just a government lab where they experiment on mutants. Then they would restore it to its former glory at the end in the Happy Happy Joy Joy (but kind of bittersweet for Logan) Timeline.

Well she did in effect surrender when she took the serum. The governments of the world all still protect their prisoners to some extent

They left it up in the air whether Rogue actually took the "cure" in X3. She might have changed her mind at the last moment.

Regardless, as was shown with Magneto getting his powers back slightly at the end of X3 and fully by time of The Wolverine, the effects of the cure are only temporary.

So she would have had her powers back again between X3 and the "two years later" end of The Wolverine when shit started to hit the fan and Charles and Magneto teamed up again. If she was a normal human for a while they'd have no reason to hold her. If she chose to remain a mutant, she'd have never submitted herself to their authority.

They must have captured her sometime later in order to experiment on her powers in order to enhance the Sentinels again. Mystique's powers gave them adaptability, her powers gave them the ability to absorb and redirect mutant powers on contact.

 

[Tosk]

They left it up in the air whether Rogue actually took the "cure" in X3. She might have changed her mind at the last moment.

No, she took the cure. She told Bobby, "I'm sorry. I had to." and held hands with him without gloves.

But I think we pretty much all assume the cure wears off after a while, based on Magneto's powers returning, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Man, I totally don't remember that scene at all. I thought they left her story when she was standing in line at the cure center.

Probably an attempt to wipe the movie from my memory that fell short.

 

[Tosk]

Understandable.

I rewatched X3 this weekend, and while DOFP has retroactively made some of it a little more palatable, it's still such a Ratner film. Just really rotten filmmaking decisions made throughout. I'm gonna go ahead and make the controversial call...Ratner just isn't a very good director.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Man, I totally don't remember that scene at all. I thought they left her story when she was standing in line at the cure center.

Probably an attempt to wipe the movie from my memory that fell short.

Don't be hard on yourself. You at least had a partial wipe of the film.

 

[DarthPipes]

A.V. Club reports on why Rogue was cut from the film. Looks like I was right about what Rogue would've done if she wasn't cut from the film: She would come to the aid of Kittty after Logan accidentally injures her.

While it's unfortunate she was cut, I think they made the right choice. A lengthy mission for Charles, Erik, and Bobby rescuing Rogue in the future would mess up the pacing of the film, especially considering the meat of the story takes place in 1973. One last adventure for Charles and Erik would've been nice but it's not necessary.

Question remains, however, where would they be rescuing Rogue from (they're in remote China) and from whom? The Sentinels take no prisoners.

They were right to cut that sequence but they should have had a fully-powered Rogue part of the future team from the beginning.

 

[DWF]

They left it up in the air whether Rogue actually took the "cure" in X3. She might have changed her mind at the last moment.

No, she took the cure. She told Bobby, "I'm sorry. I had to." and held hands with him without gloves.

But I think we pretty much all assume the cure wears off after a while, based on Magneto's powers returning, so it doesn't really matter.

But we saw Rogue at the end of DOFP walking away and hodling hands with Bobby, so I'd say she's still lost her powers.

 

[Skywalker]

They left it up in the air whether Rogue actually took the "cure" in X3. She might have changed her mind at the last moment.

No, she took the cure. She told Bobby, "I'm sorry. I had to." and held hands with him without gloves.

But I think we pretty much all assume the cure wears off after a while, based on Magneto's powers returning, so it doesn't really matter.

But we saw Rogue at the end of DOFP walking away and hodling hands with Bobby, so I'd say she's still lost her powers.

I could have sworn she was wearing gloves when she walked off with Bobby.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I read an early version of the script which had the Rogue sequence. There's no way it can re-inserted into the film and here's why:

Spoiler: Rogue deleted sequence

In the script, Xavier, Magneto & Bobby rescue Rogue from imprisonment at Xavier's Mansion, which has been turned into a place to experiment on mutants while Sentinels oversee everything. You can see a snippet of this scene from the very first trailer for the film. In the scene, Bobby actually dies trying to save Rogue. Xavier, Magneto & Rogue barely manage to escape, but the Xavier Mansion also gets destroyed in the process. There's another moment of this scene in a TV spot - we see Xavier looking out the X-Jet to see something burning, which is the X-Mansion. This is a significant moment in the story since after Rogue returns Kitty learns about Bobby's death and they both mourn his loss together. Before the sequence, Bobby promised Kitty he would come back. It's actually a rather emotional moment in the script.

Singer had to do re-shoots after the Rogue sequence was cut since it heavily affected the story. So while it will be included on the Blu-ray/DVD, I can't imagine it being re-inserted into the film for the reasons above.

 

[JoeZhang]

Is that place a school for losers? Ten years in the future and everyone is still there?

 

[Starbreaker]

A+. The best comic book adaptation I've seen in years. I think it's even better than The Avengers. Emotionally engaging from beginning to end, genuinely funny, and attempts to rewrite the destruction caused by X3.

 

[JarodRussell]

Is that place a school for losers? Ten years in the future and everyone is still there?

It's a school for your mutant abilities. It's not like you ever "finish" that school.

 

[Anwar]

About Rogue and whether or not she was wearing gloves...

Rogue's absorption powers are not always on "activated" mode, it's fully possible for her to control when she's absorbing and when she's not. It's just that the first time these powers manifested it was traumatic for her and thus she assumed they were always "on". It's a psychological problem, not a genetic one. Xavier just thinks it's better for her to learn how to get over this trauma herself instead of just putting some mental commands in her mind.

Frankly, it would have made more sense for the Future Sentinels' powers to be based on Rogue or Sebastian Shaw, not Mystique.

 

[JoeZhang]

Is that place a school for losers? Ten years in the future and everyone is still there?

It's a school for your mutant abilities. It's not like you ever "finish" that school.

thanks Ken.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I read an early version of the script which had the Rogue sequence. There's no way it can re-inserted into the film and here's why:

Spoiler: Rogue deleted sequence

In the script, Xavier, Magneto & Bobby rescue Rogue from imprisonment at Xavier's Mansion, which has been turned into a place to experiment on mutants while Sentinels oversee everything. You can see a snippet of this scene from the very first trailer for the film. In the scene, Bobby actually dies trying to save Rogue. Xavier, Magneto & Rogue barely manage to escape, but the Xavier Mansion also gets destroyed in the process. There's another moment of this scene in a TV spot - we see Xavier looking out the X-Jet to see something burning, which is the X-Mansion. This is a significant moment in the story since after Rogue returns Kitty learns about Bobby's death and they both mourn his loss together. Before the sequence, Bobby promised Kitty he would come back. It's actually a rather emotional moment in the script.

Singer had to do re-shoots after the Rogue sequence was cut since it heavily affected the story. So while it will be included on the Blu-ray/DVD, I can't imagine it being re-inserted into the film for the reasons above.

Spoiler: Reaction

Interesting. I kind of wish that was included after all because, with Bobby's genuine death early on, it actually makes the stakes feel higher and resolves my issue of the deaths not mattering because of the Kitty/Bishop reset.