Editorial: My Top 10 Moments In X-Men: Days Of Future Past

After watching this movie multiple times, I have come to realise which scenes were the ones that I most anticipated, and which ones still have some effect on me even after being so familiar with the movie.

If you haven't seen the movie, go out and watch it first before reading further because this is spoiler filled.

Initially I wanted to do a top 5, but I was kidding myself. There were too many cool moments and I had to do a top 10 instead. So, starting from the back;

10) Magneto uproots a stadium

In X-Men: First Class, we saw how Xavier coaxed the full potential out of Magneto. He had to get into that zone (using a sports analogy since we're in a baseball stadium). And what an accurate portrayal by Michael Fassbender - when he got ready to unleash his power, you saw his eyeballs go up as he closed his eyes, and his mouth moved so slightly - almost as if uttering a spell. But we knew what he was doing - he was getting his concentration on to get into the zone!

And then we saw what he did with the stadium, followed by having the Sentinels protecting him no less. What a brilliant move!


9)  Wolverine's plea

Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is a very different one this time. More grounded and with more sense of responsibility. Probably came with age.

With full knowledge of how bleak the future was going to be, and while on the plane to Washington D.C. towards the final fight, he made a plea to the Xavier that had just gotten his powers back and had been without hope just minutes ago, "Use your power. Bring the X-Men together. Guide us, lead us."

This was before the X-Men were ever created. "Storm, Cyclops, ... Jean. Remember those names." He even had Cyclops on his mind, you could tell how desperate the situation was and how important it was that Xavier banded the X-Men together.

And Xavier hesitated a little, feeling the weight of responsibility, he said, "I'll do my best." And immediately, Wolverine's reply was, "You're best is enough. Trust me."

He had me at, "You're best is enough." Chills. Because we all know that's what Xavier did, he gave his best to the school and to the X-Men. And it was enough. Yes, yes, I geeked out.

8) Magneto defeats Wolverine

While Magneto was locating the safe house hidden within the White House, Wolverine rushed towards him with the sole purpose of taking him down. Magneto promptly threw metallic objects at Wolverine until one piece of cement with steel rods finally knocked Wolverine to the ground. He then pulled those steel rods and cruelly inserted them into Wolverine's body so that he could control him.

With Wolverine screaming in pain, Magneto lifted him up off the ground and floated him motionless in the air, as if toying with him. That unforgettable sight - the mighty Wolverine, hero of the movie, helpless - as the master of magnetism, with a slight wave of his hand, dropped Wolverine into the nearby bay. Just like that, Wolverine was out of the fight.


8) The curving bullet

We first saw the ruthlessness of Magneto coming back to him when the team caught up with Mystique, interrupting her assassination of Bolivar Trask. To secure all of mutantkind's future, he knew what must be done and he didn't hesitate for long. He just picked up a gun from the floor and aimed at the one reason that sparked the extinction of mutants, the very same person that he loved, Mystique.

Even as he got taken down by Beast before he could pull the trigger, nothing was going to stop him as he used his power to fire off a single bullet and then guiding it so that it followed Mystique out and down the window. I watched with bated breath the bullet angled and curved and amazingly finding its mark.

Not only that, Magneto then literally pulled Mystique back before she could run off by pulling on the bullet lodged in her leg. How badass was that?


6) Blink and Colossus team-up

When the Sentinels came for the X-Men in the future a second time, you know the futility and the desperation already. Blink, an awesomely cool character portrayed by Fan Bing Bing, was the point guard (if you will) for many tag team moments. In the comics, Colossus and Wolverine were usually the tag team for the "human cannonball" whereby Colossus hurls Wolverine with all his might at a target while Wolverine unleashes his berserker barrage.

Here, in a super cool strategy, Blink opens up a portal for Colossus to jump into which sends him hundreds of feet up in the sky. Using gravity and his body mass, Colossus in full metallic form dive into the ground. But just before he hits the ground hard, Blink opens up another portal which sends Colossus to right in front of a Sentinel. With the full force of gravity he punches the Sentinel and sends it tumbling backwards. Futile, yes, but it's still so damn cool.

I can't remember if the Colossus-Wolverine human cannonball was employed in X-Men: The Last Stand (I think it was), but it couldn't have been better than the Blink-Colossus team-up.

5) The handshake

This may not have had much of an impact to the casual movie-goer but to a comic book nerd like myself, and understanding the history between the two, that single hand-shake carried so much weight and spoke so much about their relationship.

These two arch enemies share a common bond, friendship and respect for each other that was well established in X-Men: First Class. But ultimately it's their different ideologies that drove them apart to become rivals. And if you have read the comics you would have an inkling of how much these two have gone through in their lifetime.

And in another great acting moment, when Warpath announced that the Sentinels have found them yet again, Magneto - with such calm and a haunting expression played by the great Sir Ian McKellen, knew what had to be done and left their hideout with no hesitation, only to return moments later seriously injured.

While lying and dying, he reached out his hand to Xavier and said, "All those years wasted fighting each other, Charles." Xavier took his hand immediately and on his expression you could tell that no words were required nor sufficient that could properly convey Xavier's remorse and agreement.

Yes, I agree. This was a nerdy moment. But a beautiful one nonetheless.


4) Erik's outburst

From the beginning, nay, from First Class, we all felt for Xaiver. How Magneto accidentally deflected a bullet into Xavier's spine and caused him to lose his legs, and then, in this movie, the loss of his telepathic powers.

We were always on Xavier's side. Who could blame us? James McAvoy played so convincingly well; even at the beginning of his conversation with Magneto on the plane when they were sat opposite each other. "I sacrificed my powers so that I could slee...p." You could see the anguish in his eyes, hear it in his voice as the word "sleep" trailed off. McAvoy made us feel for Xavier.

Right up until Magneto, in one fantastic emotional performance played by Michael Fassbender, denied Xavier the satisfaction of his anger, frustration and accusation. Instead, we finally and for the first time, heard Magneto's side of the story. And he faulted Xavier and Beast for hiding and pretending to be somebody they weren't while the rest of the mutants, their "brothers and sisters" were killed off.

Not only did the words impacted the audience, the lighting, the cinematography as Magneto almost crushed and crashed the plane in his fit of outburst, suited the scene perfectly. Another perfect direction by Bryan Singer.


3) Peter Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver

Bryan Singer strategically left out the moniker Quicksilver in this movie. But that didn't stop everyone from calling him just that.

When images of his get-up first spread like wildfire on the internet, Evan Peters' Peter Maximoff has been the butt of a lot of jokes. But when we first saw him in his silver jacket, goggles and headphones, there wasn't a critic in the house. Everyone was enamoured and enthralled by that action sequence that began with him putting on his headphones and running up the wall of the kitchen, where he single-handedly destroyed the police force that came to stop their escape.

But not only that, the whole time Quicksilver was onscreen, he was the coolest dude onscreen. From when the trio first met him at his house, to taping a guard to the wall of the lift, to his impatience and sarcastically slowing himself down to say, "Whiiipplaaaassshh" before zooming off with Magneto in tow and sending all other guards tumbling in the air and then to the ground.

A lot of people were complaining that there weren't enough of Quicksilver in this movie and questioned Bryan Singer for not bringing him along to the final fight. But I thought we had the right amount of dosage, plus it wasn't hard to believe they would leave him out because he was only a kid back then. He didn't even know what they were fighting for or what the future was going to be.

Have no fear though, Quicksilver is already confirmed to make a return in the next sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse.


2) X-Men versus the Sentinels

I'm talking about the first 10 minutes of the movie, of course. No action sequences this year for a comic book movie, or any other year for that matter, has shown a better marriage between CGI and physical performance.

Not only that, the actors themselves all gave an emotional performance as well so that the audience was able to feel the desperation, fighting to survive from extinction. It was dark, it was brutal and it was painful to watch as our heroes were one by one picked up by the Sentinels and destroyed with such ease even after they put up such a strong fight.

That first action scene involving Blink's teleportation wowed everyone, when she sent Warpath, who stood right in front of one Sentinel, to directly above and behind it. That one brilliant direction started the whole sequence of cool CGI action choreography that left me wanting for much more. This alone is enough for me to buy another ticket to re-watch it again.


1) When Charles met Charles

Never before has there been a better scene or advice given by an older self to his younger self in a time-travelling movie.

When young Charles reached into the mind of Wolverine and found his own future, he was able to speak with himself from the future so as to gain a much needed wisdom.

Young Charles at that time was disheartened and fearful of his powers. More importantly, after everything he has just discovered (Wolverine's message from the apocalyptic future), witnessed (the creation of Sentinels), and experienced (Magneto was right about the humans); Xavier has lost all hope.

So that question young Charles asked older Charles in bewilderment, "You still believe?" was an indication to his disbelief that with everything that has happened and was going to happen, the older Charles still believed in a world where humans and mutants lived equally and harmoniously - which was his vision when he first started the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where the X-Men were / will be born.

Patrick Stewart's older Charles immediately explained to his younger self while maintaining composure and filled with compassion that, "Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn't mean they can't be saved."

James McAvoy's performance here was outstanding, so much so that I would lobby for an Academy Award nomination. I believed every expression and every word that he said. Stewart equally, but in a calmer and more controlled performance, finished his advice with a very touching and inspiring fact that, the most human of powers was hope. "Please, we need you to hope again."

They both bring tears to my eyes.

So that concludes my top 10. Hope you had a fun read, as much fun as I had when writing them.

I also realised, a sad thing is that after watching the first time, no repeat viewing will ever bring back that unexplainable feeling of glee of the first viewing, be it marveling at Blink opening up another portal, Quicksilver running through water droplets falling in slow motion, or seeing two Xaviers in one screen shot.

And every time I go back to this movie again in the cinema, I get so jealous of the other people in there because they are experiencing the movie for the very first time. They are having their special moments created. They are in that movie magic.