Headscratchers / X-Men: Apocalypse

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"Weapon X's prison"

• If Wolverine was free inside that metal crate, what was stopping him from using his adamantium claws to cut his way out?
  • The crate was probably adamantium too.
  • Some Kind of Force Field.
  • Maybe the walls are just too thick for him to cut all the way through?
  • The thing on his head?

"Nina"

• Why the Adaptation Name Change from Anya to Nina for Magneto's dead daughter?
  • Either to avoid possible confusion, 'cause Anya is older than Pietro in the comics and here it's reversed (who knows how many children this Erik has out there?) or, which is fairly possible, somebody in production mistook the names he/she thought similar and nobody else cared.

The Horsemen's motivation

• So... were they brainwashed? Were they just following Apocalypse because they thought a murderous weirdo with a messiah complex seemed like a good guy to hang out with, or had his power boost also converted them to his cause? And if they were brainwashed, why did Storm suddenly change sides?
  • Since they get little motivation apart from Magneto, it's not clear to most. It's played more as More than Mind Control. Apocalypse hunts down useful mutants that are psychologically vulnerable to him. He gives them power and presents himself as a loving, empowering, parental figure. Much like Charles does.
  • Well, Storm was a petty thief on the streets of Cairo. It makes sense for her to want to follow this God-like figure who unleashed her true potential and made her feel like a goddess. Angel was an embittered young man who, given that he was being forced into mutant cage-fights, has no reason to feel kindly towards humans and would embrace the chance to lash out against them. Psylocke was made to realize that she was being used as a bodyguard/weapon by Caliban and that siding with Apocalypse would allow her to break free.
  • In the case of Angel it was more specifically triggered by Apocalypse giving him back his wings. Which is pretty much how it happened in the books, too.^note between Apocalypse and the Black Vortex, Warren has established to be rather petty, and happy to jump at a Deal with the Devil without thinking the consequences through first if it gets him what he wants.
  • Okay, but then why did Storm change sides? She stood by and watched as he annihilated a whole city — the city where she lived, and where she was explicitly shown to have friends living — and then suddenly decided that nope, Apocalypse wasn't worth helping halfway through the big mutant battle that followed.
    • After Apocalypse looks on Angel's corpse and derides him as "useless", the film cuts to a reaction shot from Storm, implying that she realized in that moment Apocalypse viewed his Horsemen (and by extension, her) as dispensable pawns, a revelation that no doubt played a role in her Heel–Face Turn.
    • And Storm had also idolized Raven for years. When she meets Apocalypse, she talks about how much she wants to be like her. The start of the Heel–Face Turn comes when she sees Raven sacrificing herself to save Hank. She sees the woman she looked up to putting her life at risk to save someone else. Coupling that with Apocalypse's attitude to Angel (mentioned above) probably acted as a huge wake-up call for her.
    • The movie's Blu-Ray has a deleted scene between Storm and Xavier where Xavier notes Storm "is not like them" and not a killer. Storm makes it clear her own family and village cast her out when she got her powers.
  Storm: They thought I was a curse upon the Earth.
  Xavier: And you intend to prove them right?
  • Here is what Singer said months ago.
    He has various abilities and powers, one of them, like [Apocalypse actor Oscar Isaac said during the Comic-Con panel], is the power of persuasion, and part of why that's necessary is he needs other followers to be his Horsemen, and some of them would be hard to persuade - Magneto, Erik being the hardest. It's interesting, what's a little bit, hopefully, complex in the movie, or even ambiguous, is how much he's persuading his followers with a superhuman ability or just he's like any cult leader who is really good at convincing people to follow him, so we don't really ever make that explicit. It's not like he's putting people under a spell, but he is superhumanly persuasive.
    • Translation: We figured making it explicit mind control would complicate things and make fight scenes less intense because the heroes would have to hold back, but we also knew if we made all these beloved characters complete monsters, we'd get a shitstorm, so we just kind of ignored it.

Jubilee's age

• Shouldn't Jubilee be in her 40s or 50s in the original trilogy? There is a theory going around that the reason Jubilee is a teen in the 1980s is because of the time tampering. Maybe her parents decide to have her early, but that would mean the parents were old when Jubilee was conceived in the original timeline.
  • And a lot of these mutants were born in this new timeline BEFORE the timeline split even though they shouldn't have been born yet. Best to just go with it.
  • It's weird. At first watching this film, when they were being vague about how long it had been since Cuba, I thought they were bringing in a comic-book style rolling timeline, with the previous film always having happened "a few years ago". But then they specified that it was ten years since Magneto's attack on Nixon, so that theory went out the window. Much of it can be brushed off with mutants just aging really well, but not Jubilee. Just to complicate things, they made it clear that Cyclops was about 17, while his brother Havok had been a teenager 20 years earlier. Their parents did not really look old enough to have a son in his late 30s. So, wild dumb theory time: In the original timeline a whole bunch of mutant children got kidnapped by... somebody (let's say Mr Sinister), and he stuck them in stasis. Eventually, after about 15 years, the X-Men (who really have aged really well) managed to rescue them, and they resumed their lives as if nothing had happened.
  • Jubilee's appearance during the original trilogy comprised of uncredited cameos (same with Psylocke). So they can be easily ignored.

All is Revealed

• Before Apocalypse gets his ass disintegrated by Jean, the dude whispers this one line to himself. Question is, what the hell was he rambling about? Visions of the future? Dark Phoenix? A possible revival?
  • Just marveling at the reveal of the Phoenix's awesome power probably. For a guy who is obsessed with finding the strong, to see something like that is a really big deal.
  • Yeah, I think the same as the troper above. With the added symbolism of the guy who thinks himself a god being obliterated by an entity that is literally divine in nature.
  • Pretty much what the above two said. Apocalypse is obsessed with the idea that only the strongest can survive. He's just encountered the person who truly is "the strongest" and he's in awe.

So how did Wolverine end up at Stryker's base?

• ... when we clearly so at the end of the last film that it was MYSTIQUE who pulled him out and supposedly saved him?
  • Seems that was a Red Herring that went nowhere. Mystique probably just stole Stryker's identity temporarily to get him out of the water. After that, Logan probably moved on with his life (but always wondering about the 2-3 days which he doesn't remember) and ended up in Stryker's hands again.
  • Stryker wasn't dead, merely incapacitated. She may have stolen his identity long enough to make sure Logan didn't drown, but had to abandon her rescue attempts when the real Stryker showed back up.
    • To quote Terminator Genisys: Time has momentum. Some things want to happen.
• On a similar note why didn't Professor X and Beast look for him to at least tell he succeeded and the good guys won?
  • Because they know that he's not the Logan they knew and talked to anymore (until 2023 that is). It'd be telling a random stranger "the good guys won," when he doesn't even know who the good guys were or what they were fighting about.
  • 10 years have passed since the last movie and Wolverine was shown to have very recently gone through the surgery. Put two and two together.

How come Moira didn't remember Charles at all?

• In this film, she acts as though she has never met Charles (or Alex, Hank or Raven) before, which is attributed to the memory wipe Charles gave her. But from the ending of First Class, it seemed like Charles simply erased her memories of her time at the Mansion and on the mission in Cuba. She claims during her debriefing at the end of that film that she's lost her memories of the time after she left the CIA compound (which means she should still remember all the events that occurred before then, which includes meeting Charles). Moreover, she's also clearly aware in that film (or made aware by her superiors at any rate) that Charles wiped her memories. So her reaction to seeing him in this film should be quiet different.
  • It's never actually said in First Class what she does and doesn't remember. Charles wanted to keep her and the mansion safe, so erasing everything seems the most likely option. Charles may also have wiped her superiors' minds too, to avoid them coming calling. It's a big wipe but still possible.
  • During the debriefing, Moira is specifically asked about her time "after leaving the compound", which implies that she remembered everything that happened before. But even assuming that Charles wiped her memory of the entire time they spent together, her superiors at the CIA clearly remember everything that happened and they even tell Moira that Charles erased her memories. So at the very least, Moira should know about Charles Xavier and the fact that he wiped her memories. And Charles didn't wipe her superiors' minds at any point because, over a decade later, as seen in Days of Future Past, he suspects that Logan is a CIA agent snooping on him, which suggests that he knows that they know all about him. Not to mention, Bolivar Trask is clearly aware that Xavier is a mutant.
  • For that matter, why didn't Charles just use his mind powers to make Bolivar Trask stop the sentinel program in the last movie? Generally, the writers don't like to overuse Charles's powers it seems.
  • And Charles doesn't want to control people. He wants to believe people can choose to do the right thing, not force them to. Besides, some in the know would probably be suspicious if Trask — who's been pushing the Sentinels for years — does a 180 apropos of nothing. Especially when there's a known mutant psychic out there.
  • The only logical way to explain the goof is that Charles eventually went back and erased all of Moira's memories. He did say he'd looked her up on Cerebro more than once. So presumably Charles decided that Moira wasn't safe unless she remembered nothing at all.

Nightcrawler's parentage

• Is Kurt still Mystique's son in this version? If you didn't read the comics (or watch cartoons) you could be forgiven for thinking these two just happen to look similar, given their interactions in this film (or X2). Also no one brings up the fact he has the same powers as Azazel, his dad in the comics.
  • The movie didn't really dive into Kurt's history, so it is unknown at the moment. It is possible that Mystique and Azazel are still Nightcrawler's biological parents. Nothing in the movie really disproves it. Something similar happened in Days of Future Past where Erik and Peter's relationship wasn't touched on, but in this movie we find out Quicksilver is indeed Magneto's son. I wouldn't be surprised to see a later movie actually explore it.
    • In the gag reel Jennifer Lawrence claims Nightcrawler is indeed her and Azazel's son, but it's clearly a joke.
  • Technically, the last movie alluded to Erik and Peter's relationship when Peter mentioned that his mom knew someone who could control metal, complete with Erik giving a double take, but it was just a quick joke.
  • Since roughly twenty years pass between First Class and Apocalypse that is enough time for Raven to get pregnant and have Kurt be the age he is if a future movie wanted to delve into that. But I'd lean more towards no in this continuity. Mostly because it's quite a different story than Magneto/Quicksilver - Erik simply not realizing he'd conceived another child. Raven would have had to carry the baby to term and give birth to him - and there can't exactly be too many blue-skinned babies around even in a world of mutants. But Raven gives no indication that she suspects Kurt could be her son - and didn't in the original trilogy either - so we can just assume that they're not related. Kurt's skin is designed to look different from Raven's - where hers is more scaly.

Weapon X's weapons

• Why weren't Stryker's men using their cool energy/sonic guns to pacify Logan, and instead keep shooting him with completely useless machine guns.
  • Better question: Why didn't any of the gunmen pick another option such as fleeing the scene or putting their hands up in surrender?
  • For the first, because it's their job to contain him and that's what they're trying to do, for the other, do you honestly think anyone on that base thought for half a second that a psycho-murderous-rage-beast that Wolverine was would accept a surrender? He's just a whirling ball of metal claws and contentious hair.
  • They didn't have time to get them for whatever armory they have in their base. As to why they aren't armed with this weapons from the get-go... It could be that they have very limited number of them (this is pretty high-tech, after all), and the people who went with Stryker to get Raven and co. returned them to armory after using them. Remember, they weren't expecting any mutant trouble - for all they knew, all the mutants present in the base were safely contained.
  • It's a decent handwave, but still runs into the Idiot Ball. Three known, hostile mutants on base plus the EXTREMELY hostile mutant that's been there the whole time, and you don't make any contingency plans?
  • Or couldn't he have just put a bomb in Wolverine's helmet?
  • The guy has a healing factor, besides, by this point he has an adamantium skull, so a bomb would only piss him off.
  • He is already pissed and it's not like it's about killing him, just give him a concussion like all the other time someone kidnapped Wolverine.

To the Rescue

• What about the mansion made Quicksilver rush in and save everyone? How did he know the explosion was happening?
  • Could have felt a tremor. But really he zoomed into the house and likely started seeing the initial explosion. Once he got downstairs he saw the source and knew what he had to do.
  • He saw the explosion coming from the ground. You briefly see it once he arrives.

Apocalypse's Hosts

• When Apocalypse transfers his consciousness, is the host's mind destroyed or merely suppressed?
  • Destroyed most likely. If they were merely suppressed, Xavier would probably feel them during their Battle in the Center of the Mind.
  • Possibly a middle ground. Word of God says he speaks with Voice of the Legion because the "souls" of the mutants he absorbed are somewhat still inside of him.

Angel vs Blob

• How the heck did Angel beat Blob in a one-on-one fight? It annoys me greatly that they left that off-screen, as if the fight would be too boring to show.
  • Contrary to the comics, his wings seemed built more from fighting. He has talons on the tips so he can deliver very deep cuts to a person. Blood loss likely did in Blob.
  • Movie Blob is just a guy with super strength who became fat. Wolverine could stagger him with a regular punch in Origins.
    • We know he's especially vulnerable to blows to the head, a part of his body that's not very well protected. And Angel is uniquely well situated to deliver blows from above.
  • Angel's strength is that he's quick. If he's undefeated in several fights, he's presumably gotten very good at swooping down on opponents and flying away before they can hit back. The cage is electrified as well - so Angel could easily get Blob to run at him and fly out of the way, leaving the cage wall to do most of the work.

Mystique in Human Form in the Cell

• When she's locked up in Alkali Lake with Quicksilver, Beast, and Moira, why was she in human form? I assume that cell was suppressing their powers, since it had the same lights as when they were in the helicopter. Wouldn't she revert back to her blue form?
  • The cells don't suppress their powers. It prevents escape from teleporters and acts like Magneto's helmet to telepaths (to a point). Other than that it's just some special electrified fence.
  • You may have been confused by Hank reverting to his blue self. He makes a mention of keeping his mutation in check with a serum, which presumably he didn't get a chance to take in all the chaos of the day.

Why was Magneto allowed to just walk away?!

• Let's pretend that the death-toll from the events of this film was "only" 3 million people, 1,000 times the number of deaths from 9/11 (in truth? Probably a lot higher than that, given the amount of property damage seen). Why was the aftermath completely ignored? Why didn't Moira try to bring him in? Why isn't Xavier being pressured to turn him over? Why is the population-of-a-rather-large-city-sized-death-toll completely ignored?
  • Perhaps it didn't fall under jurisdiction of a single government and the UN was relatively weak in this particular universe?
  • Given the news cast at the end of the film, it's likely that Xavier & co told everyone that the mass destruction was caused by Apocalypse directly, rather than Magneto acting on Apocalypse's behalf. Moira, the only member of the team who might be inclined to contradict that story, wasn't directly involved in the big fight and possibly never learned the specific details.
  • And they did it... why? It was already a stretch in the last movie for Charles to let Erik go, but at least there he "just" caused huge property damage and murdered dozens of people. This time... words fail me. At what point will Charles wake up? What the fuck else does Erik need to commit that will finally constitute "strike 3"? And yeah, he helped kill Apocalypse, good for him, the jury could maybe take this into account and alleviate his death sentence to a life imprisonment. But how can Charles just dismiss it all? Hell, how can Erik himself dismiss it all and walk out all good and sunny, and if he can, then what is he but a sociopathic monster, and why shouldn't he be treated as such? Are they really, honestly, saying: "Well, he was very-very sad and angry after losing his family, so we can't judge him"? And now what, he's fine? He'll start over and this time will try really-really hard not to flip into genocidal rage the moment some tragedy strikes him? How can Charles even preach coexistence between humans and mutants, when he's willing to absolve a mutant from responsibility to humans?
  • It's unclear how much the Horsemen were being brainwashed even to us, and Charles is an incurable optimist. He believed that Erik was not in control of himself and thus wasn't culpable. Erik believed he was, which is why he left.
  • IIRC, Magneto himself wasn’t even brainwashed by Apocalypse — even to the degree the other “Horsemen” were, since all the others were shown to behave brainwashed after their Super-Empowering, while Magneto never got a transfusion like that (he was deemed to already be too strong).
  • No, actually it's very clear to us that they weren't brainwashed, seeing how two of them just turned on Apocalypse when they felt like it (not that they looked like puppets before). And even before meeting Apocalypse, Erik was prepared to murder an entire factory full of people, who were only tangentially responsible for his plight. I don't think any brainwashing was necessary. "Erik believed he was" - so, he's the worst mass murderer in the history, he knows that, and he just... leaves. And Charles doesn't read his mind on this or something. So the fate of that world is in the hands of a sociopath and a moron. Happy ending indeed.
  • That's a poor counter argument since Warren in the comics was able to break freed of Apocalypse's brainwashing on his own. Apocalypse's plan also clashes with Erik's views. As he believes that non-powerful mutants like Mystique are not worth a damn and he plans on mind controlling everyone that survives the Chaos. This goes completely against mutant rights.
  • Honestly Xavier shouldn't have let Magneto go just based on the people he killed in cold blood after his daughter was killed. Sure, you can understand his motivation, but someone willing to do that should not be allowed to walk free.
  • Could be because by the end of the movie Magneto was so insanely powerful that plastic or concrete prison from the previous movies wouldn't hold him anymore. He essentially became a one man nuclear superpower. If he didn't agree to willingly go to prison (and he definitely wouldn't) Xavier would have to keep him telepathically incapacitated 24/7 at best and X-Men would have another planet-threatening battle at worst. Plus the only reason the world still exists is Magneto letting go of his revenge to save his friends. Xavier figured letting Magneto off the hook this time and staying on good terms with him is better than risking more deaths in an attempt to take him down and destroy their relationship beyond repair. Plus, since Magneto has spent the last decade living peacefully, only briefly reverting to his old ways because of his family's death, and turned against Apocalypse (who was a living embodiment of Lensherr's mutant supremacist philosophy), it's not unreasonable to assume he isn't leaving the mansion only to start another anti-human campaign. And just because Charles didn't say it, doesn't mean he won't watch Erik very closely from now on. It's super humans' equivalent of Realpolitik.
  • Charles' power is also that he can see into your mind and understand and feel exactly what you feel. So it's not that surprising that he has way too much empathy for people, and is overly willing to give them a 2nd chance. It's definitely not the right decision, but just because Professor X did it, doesn't mean it has to be the right thing to do.
  • I get that, don't get me wrong. But... Magneto's on chance #4 at this point. Besides, it's not just that Xavier lets him go, it's that no one treats it like a big deal.
  • He helped taking down the guy that destroyed all the countries' nuclear warheads and investigation can show that he was on his way to reform in Poland until his family was killed. It's more of a truce than an amnesty because no one feels like killing him and capturing him would get casualties.
  • What casualties? He was right there, with Charles, sans helmet. A perfect opportunity to incapacitate him and tell that "I'm terribly sorry, Erik, and yes, sure, your help was invaluable, but that stunt you pulled beforehand? Yeah, that was way too much. You're a monster, now I finally see it, and your brief relapse doesn't change that sad fact. You have to answer for your crimes before the world."
  • Unless he wants to be his jailer for life now that Magneto can reach metal from the Earth's core no prison can hold him. Also Xavier has no intention to let his frenemy being sent in jail where guys like Trask are waiting to cut him up, especially when the government never charged the latter for butchering a bunch of mutants, just treason.
  • Why can't they just kill him? For the love of God why don't they ever just kill him in any movie?
  • Because in spite of everything he's done, he was still Charles' friend and he couldn't bring himself to kill him.
  • Then he should've become his jailer for life. That or lobotomize him, or kill him. I wouldn't imagine I'd need to repeat this, but, Three. Million. People. At least. Do those mean nothing to the characters or the filmmakers? Is that really something they can just dismiss for any reason, except, MAYBE, direct mind control? How is Charles any better than Apocalypse then?
  • Xavier BLEW UP A BUNCH OF SUBMARINES KILLING PEOPLE in this movie under Apocalypse's power enhancement influence. And you're saying that is a MAYBE Magneto was under a mental influence? Seriously? Speaking of which why has no one here address that elephant in the room that Xavier is a murderer like Erik? Why do you think he is in any position to judge him since he was in the same position himself?
  • You did not in all seriousness just equalized killing several dozen people while definitely being mind controlled with killing Three. Million. People. At least. while MAYBE being influenced. Yes, MAYBE. Again, nothing indicates that he was. He turned on Apoc the moment he felt like it. And even then, ok, let's assume Charles is also guilty, how does this absolve Eric? Mind you I never said Charles should judge him - that'd be up to people. You know, people? Those who actually suffered from Eric's action and who, disturbingly, never seem to get the say about their fate in these stories? Charles' responsibility was only to detain Eric and deliver him to his trial, and then perhaps surrender himself as well. Hell, maybe they would make it his penance to be Eric's jailer, that would make for some poetic justice.
  • First off, submarines have HUNDREDS of people on them not dozens. Using Erik turning on Apocalypse as a counter argument is awful as already pointed out, that happened with Angel in the original horsemen storyline who's story arc was mirrored by Magneto in the film. Also other horsemen like Wolverine, Gambit, turned on Apocalypse after being established that they were drugged. Every Apocalypse story has a horsemen turning against him. A more recent comparison would be Bucky from the Winter Solider. Not a good argument at all considering this is a trope. And there wasn't any indication? Are you serious? They showed you brainwashing Storm and for you think he didn't do that Magneto? Magneto who was originally calling Apocalypse out on his BS about being God and then suddenly just believes him after a power boost like with Storm. That never strike you as odd? Also read "The Horsemen's motivation" section.
  • I have. The conclusion there is that no mind control was involved - just persuasion, incitement of existing grudges, and bribes. What's your point?
  • Read it more closely. Singer says he has "superhuman" persuasion ability, aka More than Mind Control. Yeah, he incited existing grudges and gave bribes of power but their judgement is clearly impaired. Just like in the storyline with Warren and the other horsemen, where he promised them vengeance and power while they were under the influence of a drug. Even the scene with Xavier, Apocalypse is bribing him with power("I've never felt power like this before").
  • Charles let him go because he's Charles: He gives people, at least the ones he knows personally, infinite chances, and his word is final.
  • For the sake of not going into a pointless argument of whether supplement materials matter in such cases, let's suppose Erik was indeed not (entirely) himself. Mind you, that's still just a possibility, not a certainty. How does that absolve him from a trial? What right does Charles have to waive his responsibility to the world? How is he any better than Apocalypse if "his word is final" and that word is to let a bitter, violent, openly misanthropic and questionably stable Person of Mass Destruction go free?
  • You can see, why X-Men never seem to achieve any progress for mutant-human relations.

"Let's ditch Jubilee."

• Is there any particular reason why Jubilee doesn't go with Jean, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler to Stryker's base?
  • She and the other students were still unconscious, and didn't wake up again until after Stryker's chopper took off. There was no time for Jean, Scott, and Kurt (who weren't in range because they ran back to the wreckage of the mansion) to wait for her to come around again.
  • But why wasn't she with them to hide from Stryker's goons instead of knocked out? She was with them in the car when the explosion happened, after all.
  • Because they didn't run off to hide. Scott ran back to the mansion after learning Havok was at the center of the explosion, and Jean and Kurt went with him. Jubilee stayed with the others. At that point the chopper arrived, Jean realized something was wrong, and prompted Scott and Kurt to hide. There was no time for her to warn everyone else, and it also would have been pointless because the rest of the students were all out in the open, while Jean, Scott, and Kurt were sheltered by the wreckage of the school.
  • In addition to the above I do not think she was a priority she has no combat powers like the 3 of them and would be no help.
  • Her powers are blowing shit up. Which sounds like a combat power which could help in a fight.

Apocalypse's Transfers

• How does Apocalypse accumulate powers by transferring his consciousness into new bodies? i.e., how do his old powers get transferred with him? Mutant powers come from mutated DNA; they're not all just in your mind. When he hops to a new body, he should have only the power that the new body has. If you somehow took Nightcrawler's consciousness and stuffed it into a new body, that body wouldn't suddenly turn blue and grow a tail.
  • Given that the new body is changed during the transfer (it turns blue and the skin creases up), it's possible the transference process somehow includes the accumulated DNA from his previous hosts, not just his consciousness.
    • He probably rewrote their DNA in the process of moving his consciousness into them.

Stryker arriving at the X-Mansion within minutes of Apocalypse's attack

• Stryker seems to arrive at the X-Mansion within minutes (definitely less than half an hour at most) of Apocalypse's attack on the world's Superpowers using Cerebro. Now, it actually does make sense that a cautious hardliner like Stryker would covertly have a strike team on standby near the Mansion ready to act if Charles (who is openly known as one of the most powerful mutants on the planet) steps out of line. What doesn't make sense is that Stryker is present to lead said strike team personally, as he had no way of knowing ahead of time about the attack, and should by all accounts be spending most of his time in Canada several hours away.
  • From an out of universe perspective, it's a bit of Rule of Symbolism (or something like it). Having Stryker show up at the attack is an immediate Oh, Crap! moment for both the mutants and the audience, and works better than if a bunch of faceless goons had brought them to the base and he had met them there. In-universe, we can just say he got lucky and happened to be close enough to join the strike team before they reached the mansion.
  • It's Stryker, he probably wanted to do it since Magneto killed the Polish officers.
  • Let's be honest, he's wanted to do it for much longer than that. Magneto resurfacing was just a convenient excuse.
  • And perhaps the house was already on his radar after Jean's little episode in the night? Considering she caused a miniature earthquake with her powers, it's not unreasonable to assume that someone reported it.
  • Stryker was willing to go there since the first mutant earthquake the night before, Apocalypse's awakeing, the one that Jean dreamt.
  • Probably Stryker's been monitoring the house for a long time just waiting for any excuse to raid it. Apocalypse's stunt with the world's nuclear reserves probably had him salivating.

Apocalypse and Storm's TV

• When Ororo takes Apocalypse back to her hideout, he touches her TV and instantly learns modern languages and is brought up to speed on current events. Whuhh? Even if he has some electromagnetic power that would let him interface with technology, he's an ancient Egyptian and has no concept of electric machinery, let alone network television; he had no way of knowing his powers would work that way. The movieverse seems to be steering clear of the Celestials and him having had access to their advanced technology over the years, so the whole TV thing just seems like a convenient way to bring Apocalypse up to speed with the world.
  • A bit of WMG, but with the reports the next core X-Men film will be going into space, it's possible that we may be getting introduced to the Shi'ar, Badoon, or other cosmic civilization Fox has the rights to. If that's the case, they might be connected to Apocalypse, and assume the role in the XCU that the Celestials played in the books. So maybe Apocalypse understood enough about the technology he was using in the past to adapt to the technology of the 1980s.
    • Further WMG, but given Fox also owns the film rights to Kang The Conqueror, a character who has a role in Apocalypse's comic backstory, it wouldn't be difficult to retcon it and say he was the origin of Apocalypse's technology in ancient Egypt (assuming Fox would want to bring his character into the X-Men universe).
    • I'm not under the impression Apocalypse fully understands modern technology. He is intelligent enough to understand that machines are some kind of human-made, non-mutant medium to achieve things, and he is content with that for what he needs to know, but he probably couldn't build a TV set like he built his pyramid. When he first saw Storm's TV, he composed somewhat of a "dunno what is this thing, but eh, it seems to serve to transfer information - just what I need" face before going for it. About how did he learn all that information about the world through the TV, he probably has some power which allows him to tap into radio waves and navigate through them like we search through internet.
  • Judging by the pyramid he uses to Body Surf, Apocalypse had some very advanced technology at his disposal in ancient Egypt.
  • The Celestials are out because Marvel Studios has those film rights to them (hence Eson the Searcher showing up via hologram flashback in Guardians of the Galaxy) and Fox doesn't.^note While there are some cases of film rights being shared between Marvel and Fox, on account of some characters like Quicksilver being equally associated with the X-Men and the Avengers, the Celestials aren't specifically associated with either X-Men or Fantastic Four, the two franchises Fox has the rights to. If there's any one franchise they're most associated with, it's Thor. But yeah, the pyramid that Apocalypse used for his transference ritual was clearly technological, so some other alien race could (and likely will, if later movies go there) be a stand-in for them. Fox has both the X-Men and Fantastic Four film rights, which gives them plenty of aliens to work with. Though I'm guessing that after the FF reboot bombed so hard last year, they'll keep the Kree, Skrulls, Negative Zone residents and Galactus far away from any X-Men film just to avoid linking the franchises. The Shi'ar would thus be the most likely candidates, though the Badoon might considered far enough removed from the Fantastic Four to be considered safe.
  • I was also under the impression that the pyramid was clearly alien technology, but they didn't want to mention it directly as to not introduce yet another element into the movie.
  • He had a Cypher-like mutant as a host. With his enhancing power he could learn and understand any language in a matter of seconds, including wave frequency.

Mystique not killing Apocalypse

• So, Mystique gets a clear shot at Apocalypse, so she... slightly cuts his neck, and then just stands there while he heals it. Raven, honey, could you have, maybe, aimed to take his head completely off? Or, if you missed, try again? I understand, that she's likely not proficient with a sword, but it didn't look like she was even trying very hard.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. Decapitation is not nearly as easy as some movies make it look, considering there are bones in the neck to get around. A strong, heavy blade plus strength on the executioner's part are necessary; a blade simply being sharp isn't enough. Mystique most likely knew this and thought slitting Big Blue's throat would have sufficed; she didn't know he had a healing factor and was stunned when she realized he wasn't dying.
  • Plus you're assuming Mystique even knows how to use a sword properly.
  • He's also wearing that big collar thing — that's going to offer some protection and might just deflect the katana before it does any damage. His throat, however, is exposed and, as pointed out, none of them know he has Wolverine-level healing. That cut would have killed anyone else.
  • I had a problem with that too, but the only realistic manner in which she could kill him any further in that situation was to either decapitate him or at least shove the sword into his brain through an eye socket — both of which would be hard to manage in a PG-13 flick. Though maybe she could yell to those capable of it to quickly(!) incinerate / atomize his body.
  • Apocalypse has a purple force field surrounding him all the time, why would she have guessed she needs to ram a sword through a guy two heads over her and try by a way more telegraphed hit than pretending to slice Pietro?
  • About her reaction, it's not that jarring. She probably was stunned with the "What the hell? He has this power too?" revelation.

Magneto and Storm's Powers

• Magneto has a human magnetic field disruptor/generator going as the X-Men get to Cairo. Storm is able to manipulate weather like she would without Magneto. Wouldn't Magneto's actions disrupt, if not negate, Storm's powers?
  • Magneto was using the Earth's magnetic fields in a very careful, patterned way. If this did disrupt Storm's powers, she would have figured out how to compensate by the time the X-Men arrived.

Adventures in Poland

• This is more of a headscratcher for movie production: the less-than-stellar use of Polish was skewered pretty heavily. It's one thing for Michael Fassbender to have a more difficult time, but the lines delivered by his coworkers were criticized, too, for not only being badly structured but also spoken in such a way that they were incomprehensible to speakers of Polish. Why not just get a few Polish extras? I mean, the movie was obviously going to be shown in Poland, it just seems embarrassing to work so hard on every other detail and be lax on an extremely important part of Erik's life.
  • You mean like Hollywood has been turning every single piece of Russian writing they ever showed into an incoherent mess, even though a teenager would've been able to proofread that shit? Welcome to the club.

France is a nuclear power too, you know

• During the "launching of all nuclear weapons in the world" scene, military men twice report that "all nuclear powers have launched their nukes" and then list those nuclear powers : the US, Russia, China, the UK, Israel, India... but not once France. Why mention Israel (which has never officially admitted to having developed nuclear weapons) but not France, which is an official nuclear power since 1960 ? France is even one of the five nations officially listed as a "nuclear weapon state" (NWS) by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
  • It's not uncommon to say "All the X," and then only give a partial list of examples, especially in media.

Launching of all nuclear weapons in the world

• What about the warheads in storage? Surely they must have meant "all the ready-to-launch missiles," not the whole arsenal.
  • He was most likely referring to the atomic weapons who where available right now, because 'reloading' needs some time with missiles and by the time they reloaded he planned to be already advanced enough in his plan so that they can't stop him any longer.
  • It's also possible that Apocalypse had other soldiers and technicians sabotage or destroy the nukes that weren't ready to launch. We see him make the subs destroy each other so it wouldn't be surprising.

Sneaking into Alkali Lake

• After Stryker and his team kidnap Raven, Pietro, Moira, and Hank and contain them in his helicopter, we see Scott, Jean, and Kurt sneak on as well to save them. Then Kurt and Jean say (I can't remember the exact wording) that their powers aren't working because of some special shield that coats the cage. That's all well and good, but how then did the three of them sneak into the military base if their powers were canceled out? We literally see them go from sitting in the copter to sneaking around the base with no explanation. I feel like a scene was dropped in editing.
  • Considering the unconscious mutants STAYED unconscious, it was probably meant as a telepathic shield only; the fact that it worked on Nightcrawler was an unexpected boon. Striker probably shut it off before unloading the captives, and Jean was able to mind-shield the trio.
  • And the helicopter Jean and co get into doesn't have any captives - so the soldiers don't know they've stowed away and therefore don't need to unload it. More simply they could have just hidden and waited until the way was clear before getting out the normal way.

Egyptians long con

• The Egyptians built Apocalypse's pyramid by having slides that can hit all the pillars so it can collapse on itself on cue. That means the architects, the builders and the guards were in on it for all the construction of this pyramid. Now let's forget there is an end credit that shows that Apocalypse built the pyramid himself; why was that considered the best course of action? Just poison the guy and his horsemen at that point.
  • You'd only need the architect to be in on it, and for the builders to not have a full understanding of how construction works (which probably would not be so hard in ancient Egypt). And the after credits scene just shows Apocalypse building a pyramid. This one was likely built (at least partially) on his instructions while he was away doing other things.
  • There are two slides that aim directly through all the support pillars and they place huge rocks on top of said slides, you don't need architects to ask why sending blocks through pillars is a bad idea. And the pyramid has the same golden top that can transfer his body, that doesn't seem like one of those buy-by-bulk items.
  • And the Egyptian civilization lasted for thousands of years, so another pyramid being built isn't that far-fetched. If Apocalypse ruled over an empire, it's not unreasonable to think he'd have slaves do everything for him once he's got some.
  • No, but the Egyptian being able to build that technomagic pyramidhead that transfers body is a little above their field even if you give them a thousand of years. So either the pyramid fell down and he decided for some reason to let slave build another one with the magic top for years instead of doing it himself in minute or the Egyptians can build solar powered transferring machine and just decides to never write about it and decided that every branch from the technological tree can stay to the bronze age.
  • Egyptians didn't have to build the entire pyramid. They probably just laid the foundation and did other crude job and Apocalypse only took care about the hi-tech parts that were above their level. That or he just couldn't imagine his subjects trying to kill their 'god' like this.
  • I think what En Sabah did during the end credit was finishing the pyramid, not building it. He is shown telekinetically constructing the structure over foundations which have already been planted there. He probably didn't suspect his people to rebel against it and much less them to do it that way, so he basically helped unknowingly to build a sabotaged pyramid.

Magneto killing or incapacitating the Polish army before the murders?

• Why didn't Magneto stop the arrow in the first place from killing his family. Also, why was he so passive with the army of people who wanted to arrest him in the first place?
  • 1) The arrow does not have a metal head. The police explicitly said they didn't bring anything metal with them. So not only could he not stop the arrow, but there was nothing at hand for him to resist that many people with until he noticed Nina had her necklace.
    2) Erik pretty much explained this to Xavier: He was trying to do things Charles' way. Maybe he hoped something could be worked out. Maybe he was just trying to prevent exactly what happened by avoiding a fight that would spill over to his family. Resistance would only make things worse, and as we saw when his daughter got upset and used her powers, it did.
  • And maybe y'know he didn't want to traumatize his daughter by using his powers to attack a bunch of policemen. He's about to go with them when her powers start going haywire.

Quicksilver's inconsistent powers

• Even if we forgive that Peter arrived at the mansion just as it was about to blow up and somehow sensed there was something wrong to the point that he got everyone out of the blast zone, how did he not kill those kids himself? The previous movie was explicitly clear in pointing out that people and objects he's carrying are fully subject to his momentum and other basic laws of physics. That's why he braces people's heads before taking them anywhere...except here, where he's just grabbing kids and throwing them to "safety" without a single snapped neck in sight.
  • As far as him sensing something going wrong, at the far end of the shots before he goes in and after he brings out Hank, you can see the explosion coming out of the ground, so that's how he knew something was wrong.
  • Also since his perceptions are much faster than anyone else's (He was already in Bullet Time on his way to the mansion) He may have noticed the initial shockwave (which you actually can see in time-lapse photography of explosions) before anyone else.
  • Granted, we are never told how exactly Quicksilver himself is protected from the effects of his powers, but it's possible he has some protective force field that runs through his body when he moves at super speeds. Maybe over the last decade he learned how to spread this force field to other people and objects he touches at super speed.
    • Alternatively, it's a single power; His superspeed is a result of being able to naturally create a (sublight) warp bubble that he, his tape player and the people he rescue all reside in i.e. he's a humanoid USS Enterprise, fitting for his color preferences.
  • Except after he and Mystique confront Magneto, he braces her head before leaving...
  • Maybe he was nervous over the situation and wasn't so sure he could move Mystique safely otherwise?
  • He didn't kill those kids himself nor needed to brace their heads because he was simply throwing them around to the Earth's gravity, not pushing them forward with his own massive momentum like he did later with Raven to reach Magneto. The kids would be badly shaken for being tossed around by a supersonic bullet, but he compensated that by throwing them into soft surfaces (pools, makeshift elastic beds, etc).

When did Magneto make time to sire Quicksilver?

• Yes, we know their relationship comes from the comics, but within the context of the films, Magneto spent his post-Auschwitz life traveling Europe and South America hunting down Nazi fugitives. Where does his fling with Ms. Maximoff fit into that? If he had any reason to visit the United States in the 50's, or if she was working/studying abroad, it's never revealed. It actually makes sense to discover that the writers originally wanted a young Juggernaut to break Mags out of the Pentagon in Days of Future Past; Quicksilver was only added after the character was introduced to the MCU.
  • Magneto mentions in the first film that he first saw the Statue of Liberty in 1949, and that he had some hopes for America "America was going to be the land of tolerance, of peace." He probably spent some time in America and might have even tried to put his past behind him, had a fling with Quicksilver's mother, got her pregnant, and then left at some point to follow a lead on Shaw. After the mid-1950s, he left America and his time was devoted to hunting Shaw throughout Europe and later South America.
  • Quicksilver is 27 in 1983 which means he was born in 1956, right around the time McCarthyism was starting to die down. The increased political repression and witch hunts may have been the deciding factor for him, seeing that America was no better than anywhere else he decides that there will be no peace and starts his plan for revenge on Shaw, but makes sure to say goodbye to his girlfriend first...

Did Mystique forgive Magneto?

• In Days of Future Past it looked like Mystique was done with Magneto after he tried to kill her. While she didn't kill him letting Xavier have his way with Magneto after stealing his helmet certainly seemed there were still a lot of hard feelings there. Here she starts looking for Magneto as soon as she thinks he killed everyone at the factor (Apocalypse's doing, but nobody knows that yet). Her intentions for doing so are murky at best. She never really elaborates to either Beast or Xavier her reasons. She seems sympathetic and possibly still has lingering affection for him, but at the same time she still has hard feelings for Charles trying to micromanage her life to the point where she says the mansion was never her home. That makes it hard to believe she wouldn't still hold resentment toward Magneto for trying to kill her regardless of whatever their past romantic/sexual relationship was. Are we supposed to interpret she forgave Magneto and still has feelings for him or is it something else going on there?
  • Frankly, it seemed to me she just was 'Oh, Crap!, now he is going to start another anti-human campaign and all the progress in human-mutant relationship over the last decade will go to hell. Better do something about it right now.'
  • That's presumably why she goes to Charles, rather than tracking Erik down herself.
  • Honestly, I think it was pity. It has been 10 years since Days of Future Past and she knows he tried to start over. But now everything's been taken from him again. He betrayed her, but he was still her family, she says so during the climax.

Why does Apocalypse need Magneto?

• In the comics, Apocalypse can only control the atoms in his own body. However, in this movie he clearly has control over all matter, as we see him quickly and efficiently build himself a new pyramid in Cairo. But why does he need Magneto then? Magneto can only control metal, so Apocalypse should be able to do everything he can do, and more.
  • Magneto is better and more efficient at tearing things apart by messing with the earth's magnetic field, and that's what he spends most of the last act doing.
  • Apocalypse is shown to tear down Cairo and build a massive pyramid in a matter of minutes, that's more effective than anything Magneto does in this movie or the previous ones. It's true that Apocalypse doesn't seem to be able to use his power over long distances like Magneto can, but on the other hand he has the power to teleport anywhere he wants to. So he would be able to demolish all of world's metropolises in one day.
    • Were we watching completely different movies? Magneto was shown effortlessly destroying multiple landmarks around the world at the same time by (in Apocalypse' world) "reaching into the Earth's core" itself. If Apocalypse wants to do the same, he would have to take over Magneto's body, or teleport to and destroy one place at a time, which is a lot more time consuming.
  • Apocalypse's goal isn't just to tear down cities. He's busy trying to steal Xavier's body, so he's letting Magneto do the global destruction thing, because he can do it on a vaster scale all at once.
  • And given that Magneto is one of the most powerful known mutants in the world - information he's bound to have got from absorbing the TV in Storm's den - he might have guessed that it was wiser to have him on his side rather than risking a power struggle with another mutant.
  • Possibly as another body once Xavier runs out. In fact, why couldn't that be his main reason for collecting all his Horsemen?

The mutant Horsemen and the Biblical Horsemen

• It's strongly implied in the movie that Apocalypse's four Horsemen were the inspiration for the Horsemen mentioned in the Bible. However, unlike in the comics, neither the original Egyptian Horsemen or the new 1983 ones have powers related to pestilence, famine, war, or death. It seems Apocalypse simply chooses four powerful mutants regardless of their powers. So how exactly did they inspire the Biblical Horsemen, who represent those four types of catastrophes?
  • The powers of the horsemen don't necessarily coincide. For example, in the comics Archangel's modifications may make him a better killer, but it's not much different than Wolverine's adamantium making his claws more lethal, and there's nothing intrinsically death-themed about it beyond the evocative nature of the name "Archangel." Additionally, all of Apocalypse's horsemen become much more violent and willing to use their powers to kill, not just Warren. Now perhaps the Horsemen who served him at the time the biblical stories were passed down did have the appropriate power set, but it's never been established they had to fit a particular theme (that said, it's easy to see how Storm's control of weather would be appropriate for Pestilence). In the case of Magneto, his major theme in the films is the belief that a war is coming between mutants and humans, and this combined with his rage and desire for vengeance easily fits as War.
  • The Biblical Horsemen all kill too, it's a question of how they kill... In the comics, the first Horsemen we saw were closely related to their namesake disasters. Pestilence was carrying a swarm of diseases, and could infect anyone by touch. Famine had the mutant power to make people starve. And War was a former soldier who could cause destructive explosions by clapping his hands. And Warren Worthington was not yet named "Archangel", he only took that name after he'd broken free of Apocalypse's influence. Before Apocalypse made him his Horseman, he was just "Angel", and as a Horseman he was always called Death. And the skull mask he wore then, together with his wings, certainly evoked the image of the Angel of Death, thus making him an iconic Death. As for whether the Horsemen who served him at the time the Biblical stories had the appropriate power set, note that in the movie Apocalypse is buried over three thousand before the Book of Revelations was written. There were no new Horsemen around between 3600 BC and 1983 AD, so it's the memory of the Egyptian Horsemen, if anything, that would've inspired the writer of the Book of Revelations.
  • Moira suggests that the Bible got the idea from Apocalypse. So they might simply have been the powers of his original four. In the film's continuity anyway.
  • Fun Fact: the Horseman of Pestilence is a relatively modern invention. Originally the first Horseman was Conquest. I guess with War it seemed kind of redundant. With this in mind you could claim that they do vaguely match. Magneto is Conquest in his campaign of mutant authority. Storm is Famine, since she grew up poor and starved. Psylocke is War, a warrior with nothing else to do but serve and fight. Angel is Death.
  • The more accurate answer is that Moira (and / or the film itself) is just plain wrong, which is sort-of justifiable since she's ex-CIA and not a true Bible scholar. In fact even in the film it's just that Apocalypse likes having four strong mutants by his side as his Co-Dragons and it's the heroes who infer a connection to the Bible, which is highly unlikely to be correct since the only mention of the Horsemen in the Bible is in the Book of Revelation which was written thousands of years after Apocalypse was imprisoned and have wildly different roles than being glorified mooks to some powerful-but-killable mutant maniac. Apocalypse never really calls them that himself and if he does, it's either coincidence or he's just well-versed on the Bible following his encounter with the television and invoking it himself to further his God Guise.

Calling the police on the man who saved a factory worker from death

• I get the factory workers were scared, but hasn't it occurred to them that Eric may not be such a bad man? If Eric was truly evil, he would have let that guy die. They didn't wonder why a human-hating terrorist would risk his freedom to save a human, or have a family with one? Also, it's not far-fetched for other mutants to have similar powers, so for all they know, their fellow worker could be an entirely different person with similar powers to Magneto.
  • His face is still recognizable when compared to the newspaper print. And as far as the public was concerned, the Magneto in 1973 was still considered a dangerous mutant in hiding.
  • You know, even if maybe he is not a bad man, he still tried to take over the world Also he was in the Pentagon because he presumably shot Kennedy. If Mengele comes out of hiding to save a guy's life, it doesn't change that he escaped justice for a bunch of crime against humanity.
    • Though this Mengele tried to decapitate the other side of the Cold War. So why would the Polish care?
    • Right, because when Magneto made his big speech about mutant supremacy, he added, "Except the Communists, you guys are cool, we'll just leave you alone"? I don't remember that bit.
  • I'm of two minds on this one. 1) Magneto is a bad guy and there could be a sizable reward for turning him in. 2) Magneto did in fact save a fellow steel worker from either being crushed or laminated *in molten steel*.
  • It's possible that I missed some dialogue, but was it confirmed that they intentionally turned him in, as opposed to just letting the police know there was a mutant around and what he did? They could have done so with no ill will toward him (letting them know in case anything weird happens, possibly even recommending him for a commendation, whatever), and the police could have figured out who he was from there.
  • This is Communist Poland. There likely was at least one person in that factory who was a representative of the ruling Party whose job was to report on everyone who works there and keep things in line, which means it was also their job to report that "by the way, I think one of our workers is actually a notorious international terrorist in hiding...also, he probably isn't a Communist." And if that guy(s) didn't, someone else might have. Magneto blames everyone in the factory, but really it only takes one.

How did Jean Grey become English in the alternate timeline?

• X-Men: Days of Future Past revealed that the original X-Men are in the same universe as the First Class movies, but they take place in two divergent timelines, which split because of the choice Mystique made in 1973. Now, this creates some problems with various characters' ages, but they can be handwaved either by saying that mutants age differently than humans, or simply by accepting that the characters are actually younger or older than what the actors portraying them look like. However, it's not as easy to explain why Jean Grey in this movie has an English accent all of sudden? She appears to be about 18 in 1983, so by the time the timeline split she would've already been 8. Did Mystique's actions in 1973 somehow cause a butterfly effect that made her parents move to the UK?
  • She didn't. Sophie Turner for the most part affected an American accent, with the occasional Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping.
  • Her accent is clearly American. But if you want to ignore the meta reason that it's an English actress doing an American accent, it's not unreasonable to think that Jean has picked up some English pronunciations from studying with Charles. She is one of his prize students and she's young enough that she could imitate his voice without realizing it.
    • Especially as it's likely their studies involved telepathic communication, which could easily make picking up some mannerisms or an accent more likely.

Quicksilver and Magneto

• How does Magneto not already know that Quicksilver is his son? Remember, in X-Men: Days of Future Past Quicksilver said to him "You know, my mom once knew a guy who could [control metal]." Did he really not make any connections upon hearing those words?
  • Magneto either doesn't remember (it was a decade before and his mind was quickly occupied with more important things) or he suspects it and has never confirmed it. He does seem to be kind of leading Quicksilver when he asks him why he's there.
  • I would like to know why Quicksilver didn't tell Magneto that he was his son. Why is it a bad idea to tell him? That reveal could change Eric's life forever (in a good way).
  • It's not a bad idea. Quicksilver just got cold feet about it and decided he wasn't ready.
  • Also he probably didn't want to be a Replacement Goldfish, I mean Magneto just talked about how his family is dead.
    • Not only that, but it had to hurt a little to know that he did settle down and start a family but never even thought to check back on Peter's family after walking out on them.
  • I thought in said scene that Magneto had at least slight idea who Quiksilver might be, but he wanted to hear his reason to be there instead of doing some teary family re-encounter.
• What does Quicksilver's mother do for a living that she can afford to have a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet game in her son's basement? No one had those except arcades and stores in 1983, and they depended on customers constantly paying for game time. With the maintenance and licensing fees, this would be like trying to have a Coke vending machine at home, all to yourself.
  • Quicksilver stole it. He stole everything in that basement.

A younger William Stryker

• Shouldn't Stryker be older since he was a middle-aged man in 'Origins'? This Stryker looks like he is either 29 or 30 years old in the 1980s. The only explanation I could think of is that this version took well care of his body, and could be a lot older than he appears.
  • You're hanging up on Stryker when Xavier, Magneto, Moira, Beast, Havok, and Mystique have hardly aged a day since the 1960s?
    • Mystique can look however old she wants, that's nothing new. And we've known for years now that Moira was still going to look like a woman in her mid-thirties by 2006. It's really only an issue with Xavier and Beast, since it's fairly common knowledge what Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer looked like in 1983.
  • If he was in Vietnam in the 70s then he could be early to mid twenties in Days of Future Past - which would put him in his thirties here. Entirely possible he didn't age as much. Since he's still in the military, he's bound to be fitter and healthier than the average person. Channing Tatum for one doesn't look that much different at thirty-six than he did at twenty-six.
  • And the aging thing really isn't that farfetched. For one here's Amy Adams◊ in the film Junebug at the age of 29. Here she is in late 2016◊ promoting the film Arrival at the age of 42. She certainly doesn't look as if twelve years have passed. Some people just age better than others - whether through good genes, healthy living or the occasional bit of cosmetic surgery.

I seek powerful mutants!

• Okay, Apocalypse is a guy obsessed with strength. He believes the strong should rule. As such, he seeks to gather strong mutants to serve as his horsemen of the apocalypse. The first one he finds is Storm, who he encounters basically by accident. But that's okay, she's a strong mutant with weather-control powers, which he can boost even further to become incredibly powerful. Storm refers him to Caliban, who has knowledge about a great multitude of mutants. There, he encounters Psylocke. She creates swords out of psychic energy. Okay, that's quite a step back from Storm. Even with Apocalypse's power-boost, she doesn't really seem to rank among the upper percentile of mutants. However, now he has Caliban's vast knowledge of mutants throughout the world at his disposal. And Psylocke instantly knows what guy to go for! Angel! The guy whose one and only superpower is wings. Like, really? That's your idea of one of the most powerful mutants in the world? Even with the power boost, he's not exactly impressive.
  • First of all Angel was nearest to him since he was already in Germany (remember Psylocke, not Caliban, was the one who recommended checking that club). Second of all, even if Angel's power isn't that impressive, he's still proven that he's pretty strong as an individual in the fight club. Third of all he's probably most likely to prioritize mutants who've experienced intense personal hardship and are thus susceptible to his brand of manipulation.
  • Two things: First Angel also has a handful of lesser super powers that make his having wings actually work and second flight is a fairly rare power in the movie universe. Aside from Angel, only Jean, Storm and Magneto are capable of it (since Banshee and Angel Salvadore are dead now).

Stryker's attack on the Academy

• Why didn't Cyclops destroy the helicopters so that Stryker and company couldn't kidnap Mystique, Beast, Quicksilver, and Moira? Once they were discovered, Nightcrawler could just teleport them away.
  • Because that would have killed them since they were on the chopper.
  • Also because he's at this point still terrified about using his powers in any way. Probably because of the possibility of events like the one listed in the above bullet point.

Days of Forgone Conclusion Past

• I don't mean to fall into questioning the most basic of all prequel problems, but I'm trying to make sure I'm not missing something- is there any reason to believe Cyclops, Jean, Xavier and any other character clearly alive in the good future at the end of Days of Future Past aren't clearly going to make it out of this movie alive?
  • This troper will humor you: perhaps the mutants you're referencing (and Wolverine meets at the end of DOFP) aren't actually the same people? Imposters? Clones? SKRULLS?!? The possibilities (however far-fetched and unlikely) are LIMITLESS!!!

Quicksilver fighting Apocalypse unarmed?

• Why doesn't Quicksilver use a weapon, like a knife, when fighting Apocalypse? He could have stabbed him multiple times in a splitsecond, doing way more damage than just using his fists.
  • Because he's not an experienced fighter and has been relying on his speed all his life. He broke in and out of the Pentagon quite easily in the 70s so it wouldn't be out of character for him to assume he could handle Apocalypse using just his speed.

What Kind Of Crazy Pyramid Did Apocalypse Build?

• What kind of ruler would have his giant pyramid be constructed with a self-destruct system that can be activated by two regular normal humans attacking a pair of narrow wooden supports? What would've happened in 10-20 years if those wooden beams holding up the giant stone pillars designed to careen through most of the pyramid's load-bearing struts got rotted away from exposure to the elements? What purpose does such a self-destruct system actually serve?
  • I think it's pretty obvious that it was purposefully built this way as a trap for him. He was the pharaoh, he didn't build the pyramid himself, and the people who did conspired against him.

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