Wolverine
James Howlett
Movie
X-Men: Days of Future Past
2014 · 132 min
In a ruined future, Sentinels have exterminated nearly every mutant and the survivors are running a time loop to stay alive one more night. Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine's consciousness back to 1973 to…
Fox X-MenDisney+90%Released
The story
In a ruined future, Sentinels have exterminated nearly every mutant and the survivors are running a time loop to stay alive one more night. Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine's consciousness back to 1973 to stop Mystique assassinating Bolivar Trask, the event that convinced the world it needed the Sentinel programme.
In 1973 Charles Xavier is a drunk who has chemically suppressed his own telepathy to walk, and Magneto is under the Pentagon. The film is a period political thriller with a jailbreak, a Paris peace conference and the best use of super-speed ever put on film, and it also quietly deletes X-Men: The Last Stand from existence.
Key facts
- Release date
- 23 May 2014
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Non-MCU
- Saga
- Fox X-Men
- Runtime
- 132 min
- Certificate
- PG-13
- Director
- Bryan Singer
- Writers
- Simon Kinberg
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- 1973 and a 2023 dystopian future on Earth-10005, resetting the Fox timeline
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Hugh Jackman | Logan / Wolverine |
| James McAvoy | Charles Xavier |
| Michael Fassbender | Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto |
| Jennifer Lawrence | Raven / Mystique |
| Patrick Stewart | Professor X |
| Ian McKellen | Magneto |
| Evan Peters | Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver |
| Peter Dinklage | Bolivar Trask |
Characters
Easter eggs
- The Quicksilver kitchen sequence is scored to Jim Croce's 'Time in a Bottle' and remains the definitive on-screen depiction of super-speed.
- The post-credits scene shows a young En Sabah Nur raising the pyramids while the Four Horsemen watch, setting up X-Men: Apocalypse.
- The JFK assassination is explained as Magneto attempting to curve the bullet because Kennedy was a mutant — the film's boldest gag.
- Chris Claremont and Len Wein, who created much of the material being adapted, cameo as senators at the Paris conference.
- Wolverine wakes in 1973 with bone claws, because his adamantium bonding has not happened yet in this timeline.
- The 2014 extended Rogue Cut restores an entire Anna Paquin subplot that was removed from the theatrical release.
- The final scene resets the timeline so Jean Grey, Cyclops and Rogue are alive at the mansion, erasing X-Men: The Last Stand's deaths.
Trivia
- It adapts Chris Claremont and John Byrne's two-issue 1981 Uncanny X-Men story, one of the most reprinted comics Marvel has published.
- Simon Kinberg used the time-travel premise deliberately to reconcile the continuity contradictions between the original trilogy and X-Men: First Class.
- Evan Peters' Quicksilver reached cinemas months before Aaron Taylor-Johnson's version in Avengers: Age of Ultron, from a separate studio.
- It was Fox's highest-grossing X-Men film until Deadpool 2.
- The Quicksilver sequence was shot at 3,600 frames per second using a Phantom camera, requiring extreme lighting levels on set.
- It brought the original trilogy cast and the First Class cast together for the first time, with both Xaviers and both Magnetos on screen.
- The film's Paris and Washington sequences were shot largely in Montreal, with practical Sentinel props built for reference.
Box office
- Budget
- $200 million
- Worldwide
- $747.9 million
- Domestic
- $233.9 million
Reviews
Critics
90%
X-Men: Days of Future Past combines the best elements of the series to produce a satisfyingly fast-paced outing that presents a dark, easy-to-follow story with plenty of action and eye-popping special effects.
The MarvelGossips verdict
The high point of Fox's X-Men run and the only time the franchise's continuity chaos became a feature. McAvoy's broken Xavier is the best performance in any X-Men film, and the Pentagon break-in is pure delight. It also let the series erase its own mistakes, a licence it went on to abuse badly.
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Frequently asked
Which comic is Days of Future Past based on?
Uncanny X-Men #141-142 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, published in 1981. The comic sends Kitty Pryde's mind back rather than Wolverine's — a change made to keep Hugh Jackman in the lead.
Does it erase X-Men: The Last Stand?
Effectively, yes. The reset timeline restores Jean Grey, Cyclops and Rogue and undoes the events of the 2006 film, which is why the franchise's later entries ignore it entirely.
Why does Wolverine have bone claws in 1973?
His adamantium bonding at Alkali Lake has not occurred yet on that point of the timeline, so his consciousness inhabits a body with only the natural bone claws. Magneto re-bonds his skeleton in the film's third act.
Are these X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday?
Some of the actors are. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cumming and Rebecca Romijn are all in Marvel's confirmed Doomsday cast, playing variants from another universe rather than continuing this timeline.