The original movies following the X-Men may have adapted the тιтular mutant heroes into live-action, but they were also full of plot holes that are often ignored. Though the movies featuring the X-Men earned an unfortunate reputation for being inconsistent in terms of quality, they were able to find considerable success at the box office. In a franchise spanning two decades, 13 movies were made based on the mutant heroes of villains of Marvel Comics.
However, the stories that make up Fox’s X-Men movie timeline aren’t without their issues. Many of these are well-documented, but some its most glaring narrative mistakes are actually ignored or overlooked. The X-Men movies actually feature a number of plot holes that are regularly missed or otherwise dismissed, though with the franchise now over, they are destined to remain unresolved inconsistences. With that in mind, here are 10 plot holes everyone ignored in the original X-Men movies.
10
Magneto’s Forgotten Fame
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
As one of the most complex and powerful mutant characters in Marvel history, Magneto’s greatest X-Men movie and TV moments stand out as being especially memorable. However, one of them also creates a significant plot hole that complicates the franchise’s overall narrative. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Magneto puts on an awesome display of power when he lifts an entire stadium into the sky before making a televised address to the world.
However, considering Days of Future Past’s status as a prequel, Magneto’s actions complicate the timeline considerably. Magneto so clearly announcing himself to the world makes the prequels incompatible with the original movies of the franchise, in which the villains – and mutants in general – are not particularly well-known to the public at large. In fact, Magneto openly attends Robert Kelly’s public announcement of a Mutant Registration Act, so his declaration in the prequels makes very little sense.
9
Professor Xavier’s First Class
X-Men: First Class (2011)
The first film in the franchise, 2000’s X-Men, introduced many of Marvel’s most iconic mutants into live-action. In the movie, it is stated that Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm were Charles Xavier’s first students, and have helped him develop his school into the safe haven for mutantkind that it is when Wolverine first arrives. However, the franchise’s prequels swiftly cause a major problem with that backstory.
The cast of X-Men: First Class actually serve as Xavier’s first group of mutants, and are shown helping him establish his school. The movie’s тιтle confirms that its roster of heroes – which does not feature Cyclops, Jean Grey, or Storm – are Xavier’s first class, meaning that the context delivered in the original X-Men movies was not at all correct. There’s no clear explanation for the plot hole other than a mistaken character or a convenient technicality, and it rather seems to be a simple continuity issue.
8
The Stryker Confusion
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
One of the X-Men franchise’s more bizarre plot holes stems from a throwaway scene at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The movie’s time-traveling premise encounters more than a few narrative issues, though its final scene, which sees Mystique posing as William Stryker taking custody of an unconscious Logan, doesn’t initially appear to be a problem. However, the following movie, X-Men: Apocalypse, ignores Mystique’s presence in the scene entirely.
Apocalypse briefly picks up Wolverine’s story when he is shown breaking free from Stryker’s Weapon X facility. It does nothing to explain what Mystique was doing with Logan at the end of Days of Future Past, or how the real Stryker was able to reclaim him for the Weapon X project. The way that the franchise immediately disregarded one of its own sequel teases was beyond bizarre, and created a major but often overlooked plot hole.
7
The Unkillable Mutant Was Unceremoniously Killed First
X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men: First Class introduced several new characters into the live-action franchise, including Armando Muñoz, also known as Darwin. Darwin’s mutant ability is known as adaptive evolution, effectively rendering him unkillable. The movie explains that Darwin is able to instantly adapt to any attack, allowing him to withstand damage that would kill any other person as well as most other mutants. However, First Class then goes on to disregard its own explanation of Darwin’s powers.
Upon meeting Sebastian Shaw, the X-Men are shocked when he unceremoniously kills Darwin by directing an energy blast at him. The moment that the villain kills an apparently unkillable hero was surprising, but it was a cheap mishandling of the character and didn’t make any real sense. Though it’s far from the saddest death in the X-Men movie franchise, it did create an unnecessary plot hole around Darwin’s powers.
6
Bolivar Trask Hunted The Wrong Mutant
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
X-Men: Days of Future Past has come to be considered one of the best movies of the X-Men prequels, but it’s not without its narrative issues and inconsistencies. The movie sees Bolivar Trask creating the Sentinels, robots made with the sole purpose of hunting mutants. Days of Future Past also includes a scene in which Trask explains that he needs Mystique’s DNA in order to make the Sentinels work, as her adaptability is exactly what he is missing.
The plot hole stems from the fact that Trask clearly has the wrong mutant in mind. Mystique’s shape-shifting ability does not allow her to access the abilities of others, meaning she’s not as adaptable as Trask suggests, and isn’t the mutant he needs. In fact, Days of Future Past’s Rogue Cut explains that he actually needed Rogue after all, but even this isn’t entirely accurate. The DNA that would have been best suited to the task was Darwin’s, who never should have been killed in the previous movie in the first place.
5
Cerebro’s Multiple Origins
X-Men: First Class (2011)
One of the most annoying plot holes in the entire X-Men movie franchise is also one of its most inconsequential. In 2000’s X-Men, it is explained that Magneto is aware of Cerebro’s power, as he helped Xavier build the machine. This is again referenced in X2, when William Stryker allows his son to access the machine. However, Cerebro’s origins are not as straightforward as the original movie suggests.
The release of the 2011 prequel, X-Men: First Class, established that Magneto’s involvement in Cerebro’s construction was minimal. The prequel movies show that Hank McCoy actually designed Cerebro, and Magneto’s only contribution was lifting some of the metal panels into place. There’s nothing in First Class to suggest that Magneto had any real understanding of how Cerebro worked or what it could do, rendering the original explanation of its origins especially confusing.
4
Wolverine’s Selective Memory Loss
The Wolverine (2013)
When it comes to the characters of the X-Men franchise, Wolverine’s movie timeline is actually one of the least confusing. Considering the character’s regenerative healing factor and the robust exploration of his origins, his timeline actually makes a considerable amount of sense. That is, until 2013’s The Wolverine, which establishes a subtle but incredibly frustrating plot hole regarding Logan’s memory loss.
Strangely, The Wolverine sees Logan recall details and people from World War II, long before the loss of his memory. It’s an incredibly convenient lapse of his amnesia that makes no logical sense at all in the context of the franchise.
In all previous X-Men movies, Logan’s amnesia was a major part of the character’s story. It was explained in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which offered an explanation of the character’s past and established how he lost his memory. Strangely, The Wolverine sees Logan recall details and people from World War II, long before the loss of his memory. It’s an incredibly convenient lapse of his amnesia that makes no logical sense at all in the context of the franchise.
3
Cyclops’ Inconsistent Age
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
The X-Men franchise adapted some characters far better than others, but one that it struggled with in particular was Cyclops. Not only did the movies never quite capture his leadership abilities or his charisma as a mutant hero, but they also failed to give the character a consistent place in the timeline. With three actors appearing as Cyclops at different points in the timeline, the X-Men franchise’s handling of Scott Summers created a subtle plot hole.
After appearing as a grown man seemingly in his late twenties in X-Men and its two sequels, Cyclops then appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was set in the late 1970s, as a high school-aged teen. Not only does this not match the original movie’s timeline, but subsequent prequel movies made Cyclops slightly older again. This makes his appearance in the original movies seem far too young, as he should have been considerably older by the early ‘00s.
2
Wolverine Regained His Adamantium Claws
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
As Wolverine served as one of the X-Men franchise’s few core characters, it would seem that consistency regarding his story should have been paramount to maintaining the franchise’s narrative integrity. However, another nagging plot hole that appears within the wider narrative stems from the ending of 2013’s The Wolverine, in which Logan loses his adamantium claws. The following movie, Days of Future Past, shows a present-day Logan still in possession of his claws, and there is never any further explanation of how he regained them.
Considering the manipulation of the timeline involved in the franchise, there are many plausible explanations for why Wolverine might have adamantium claws in Days of Future Past. Even so, the fact that the franchise offers no canonical explanation for the development is incredibly frustrating, especially as it’s often lost among other more glaring plot holes. To have shown such a major development in the character’s story only to immediately ignore it makes it all the more difficult to swallow.
1
Mystique’s Death In Dark Phoenix
Dark Phoenix (2019)
The many issues with the X-Men franchise’s timeline did nothing to help the franchise’s popularity, but one of its worst plot holes came towards its conclusion. 2019’s Dark Phoenix was the last movie in the franchise to follow the X-Men, and featured many developments that were considered hugely underwhelming. One of the more shocking aspects of its story was the death of Mystique, who is killed by Jean Grey, after she is possessed by the Phoenix Force.
Considering Dark Phoenix is a prequel, this creates a confusing plot hole that effectively breaks the entire timeline of the franchise. Mystique played a major role in the original trilogy of movies, but her death in Dark Phoenix makes that impossible. It’s one of the most unnecessary and thoughtless plot holes in the X-Men movies, even if it is widely overlooked due to the franchise’s subsequent end.
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