Revisiting one of Marvel’s more complicated movies provided me with a fascinating reminder that one of the most famous and iconic X-Men heroes of all time was killed in some seriously brutal fashions twice in the same movie – a movie that closed with said character still notably alive. The X-Men movie timeline is one of the more elaborate in superhero history, which works to its benefit and detriment at different points. With the various universe and timeline tweaks made across the course of its history, the Fox X-Men universe is more complex than many of its peers, even still today.

With ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s ending saving the Fox X-Men universe from destruction and making it part of the MCU multiverse’s timeline, things are in many ways at their most complex regarding the franchise’s overarching story, especially since the story brought in a new variant of Wolverine to justify bringing Hugh Jackman back after his death as the hero in Logan. However, this 2024 decision was by no means the first time the X-Men universe reversed a brutal fate for one of its most iconic characters, as 11 years ago, one Marvel story pulled this off twice in the same movie.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past Kills Iceman In Brutal Ways Twice In Its 2 Hour Run

With a runtime of 2 hours and 13 minutes, Iceman dies around once per hour in X-Men: Days Of Future Past – something that’s perhaps fitting given he is killed at the beginning of the movie, and then towards its very end. Iceman’s first death comes in the very opening scenes of the time-traveling superhero story, with Bobby being a member of a team featuring him, Bishop, Shadowcat, Colossus, Sunspot, Warpath and Blink that are shown being decimated by the mutant-hunting Sentinels, providing just enough time for Shadowcat’s powers to work on Bishop in a way that becomes clear later.

As it stands, all that’s clear in the initial scene is that all the characters – bar Shadowcat and Bishop – face a series of creative and intense deaths. While nobody has an easy time with their fate, Iceman’s death is notably brutal, with a Sentinel using Sunspot’s powers to melt him, crush his neck, and pop off his head, which it does before then stomping and shattering Iceman’s still-ice cranium. Given the movie’s Iceman was the only member of this group to consistently have been around since the 2000 original, this dire death was all the more notable.

While Iceman’s death is quickly reversed, Bobby certainly isn’t out of the woods at this point. When the Sentinels attack the remaining heroes left in the future at the end of the movie, Iceman once again steps up to the plate, and dies in one of two equally awful ways, depending on what version of the movie you have – with the initial release showing him stepping out to be melted by the Sentinel’s energy beams, and the 2014 Rogue Cut showing him facing a similar but tweaked fate so Magneto and Rogue can escape.

Why X-Men: Days Of Future Past Gives Iceman Such Brutal Endings

By the time of X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Iceman had been a prominent part of the X-Men movie franchise since its first film – and a character who audiences saw grow up, given he was introduced in X-Men as a kid. While this alone makes his deaths all the more notable and disconcerting, they also serve to potentially explain why his deaths are so intensive. As a character that audiences are most likely to recognize, it makes a twisted form of sense to thus kill Bobby in such a violent fashion, since this can best play on viewers’ bond with the iconic hero.

The nature of Bobby’s powers also – for better or worse – lend themselves to him having some particularly unpleasant deaths. While solely flesh and blood heroes can’t have too bad a fate without sabotaging the rating of the movie in question, showing an ice body shattering or being melted isn’t quite so gory, meaning it can be used to drive home the stakes without risking being deemed too adult. Similarly, since it’s harder to show a character who’s currently entirely made up of ice is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, more vicious approaches – like shattering them – also are arguably the easiest way to convey this.

How Iceman Still Survives X-Men: Days Of Future Past Despite Dying Twice

Mercifully, Iceman’s dual deaths in X-Men: Days Of Future Past are both undone by the movie’s ending, with the film’s closing scenes showing a version of the character smiling at Wolverine in the halls of the X-Mansion, now converted into a lively school. The first of these deaths is undone almost immediately after Iceman’s frosty skull is shattered, with it being revealed that Shadowcat sent Bishop’s consciousness back in time to warn the group of where the Sentinels were, meaning they never had to cross paths with them in the first place, and the original timeline we see is reversed.

The second of these death reversals is similar, albeit on a grander scale, with Wolverine’s mind having been sent back in time to prevent the series of events that led to the Sentinels devastating mutantkind. As such, Iceman’s second death is undone in the final scenes of the movie, with Wolverine’s mission having proved successful after the altered timeline has the Sentinels almost wipe out all the humans present at their first demonstration, and has Mystique seemingly act to save the President’s life (to all those unaware of Professor X’s hand in proceedings).

With that said, X-Men: Days Of Future Past manages a challenging feat in the movie by making the deaths of Iceman and his fellow heroes still matter, since their sacrifices are for the explicit purpose of trying to help build a better future – be that in the initial short-term plan, or the much more important later major changes to the X-Men movie timeline. As such, Iceman being brutally annihilated helps to make his ending all the sweeter, even if it took some vaguely traumatizing turns to get there in the first place.

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