Another X-Men movie, another batch of inconsistencies, continuity problems and outright screw-ups. A lot of people love the X-Men movies – CraveOnline included – but when you watch them all back-to-back it sure seems like the filmmakers themselves didn’t give a damn. Every movie in the franchise contradicts at least one other film in the franchise, in subtle and sometimes distractingly obvious ways. After seven movies the occasional mishap may be forgivable, or even unavoidable, but when we sat down to compile The 20 Biggest Mistakes in the X-Men Movies we were outright shocked by how little thought was evidently put into making these motion pictures make sense.
We’re not looking at little continuity errors like changing hairstyles or how much iron would really need to be in a security guard’s blood for Magneto to escape from prison. We’re also not going to call the movies out on mistakes the characters could have reasonably made themselves, like killing Jean Grey at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand even though Wolverine was literally surrounded by vials of the mutant cure that could have prevented her from killing anyone and saved her own life in the process. We’re not even going to bitch about stuff they left out of the comics. This list is entirely devoted to plot points, explanations and characters that the movies made extremely clear and then completely contradicted later on in the franchise for no good reason.
SPOILER ALERT: This list includes major plot points from throughout the X-Men movies, including a few from X-Men: Days of Future Past.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 20 Biggest Mistakes in the X-Men Movies
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20. Wolverine's Mind Doesn't Heal
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Wolverine is sent back in time because his mind can heal itself and survive the transference of his consciousness. But although Wolverine's brain can heal itself, his mind is another matter: it couldn't restore his memories after the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, after all.
Severity: Not too bad
No-Prize: Wolverine doesn't have to completely repair his broken mind in Days of Future Past, he only has to survive a poorly explained amount of trauma. This isn't too bad in comparison to many of the other problems in the franchise.
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19. Mystique's Powers
In X-Men: Days of Future Past we learn that Bolivar Trask used Mystique's DNA to create Sentinels that mimic the powers of other mutants. But Mystique doesn't have the ability to mimic the powers of other mutants, unless their powers are purely physical like Wolverine's claws.
Severity: Minor
No-Prize: Anyone who could invent the Sentinels in the first place would have to be extremely smart. They probably used Mystique's shape-shifting abilities as the groundwork for technology that could go one step further and mimic the DNA of other mutants, not just their appearance. That, or they used Mystique's powers to later kidnap, study and give the Sentinels the powers of Rogue, who can actually do that.
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18. Mystique's Age
In X-Men: First Class we see Mystique was a teenager in 1962, but after her mutation is turned off in X-Men: The Last Stand - which takes place in "the not so distant future" after the year 2000 - she's cured of her mutation and reverts back into the body of a 35-year-old Rebecca Romjin, even though the character should be about 75 years old.
Severity: Forgivable
No-Prize: X-Men: First Class actually explained that Mystique ages slower than anyone else, which seems designed to reduce the damage of this very plot hole. Although the mutant cure supposedly eliminates all of the effects of someone's mutant abilities, it's possible that Mystique's body works so differently that it reverted her to her physical age, not her literal one.
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17. Kitty Pryde's New Powers
Kitty Pryde (aka "Shadowcat") has the ability to walk through walls. But in X-Men: Days of Future Past we learn that she also has the ability to shunt someone's consciousness back in time using those same abilities. How exactly does that work, and how did she discover she could do that in the first place?
Severity: Merely odd
No-Prize: Lots of mutants in both the comics and the movies have multiple, unrelated powers or "secondary mutations." This could be one of them, but a little more explanation wouldn't have hurt the movie any.
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16. When Professor X Met Magneto
Professor X explains that he met Magneto when he was 17 in the first X-Men, but X-Men: First Class shows that they first met in 1962, when Professor X was in his 20s.
Severity: Meh
No-Prize: Professor X could have finished college in his early teens since he's a genius, but the timeline doesn't even match up in First Class, which also shows Xavier as a ten-year-old in the mid-1940s. It's a pretty minor point, though, and we're willing to let it slide regardless.
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15. Wolverine Is Not Unique
In X2: X-Men United, William Stryker says that he thought Wolverine was unique, but he was wrong... revealing that he has given Lady Deathstrike the same adamantium skeleton and claws he once bestowed upon Wolverine. But in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he already gave those abilities to Deadpool, so his statement doesn't make any damned sense.
Severity: Mediocre
No-Prize: Stryker was only able to give Deadpool an adamantium skeleton by infusing him with Wolverine's healing powers. It's possible that Lady Deathstrike had the same powers without Stryker's genetic meddling, so his statement might actually make a little sense.
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14. Professor X's Age
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Professor X is played by a 35-year-old James McAvoy in the early 1970s, but in X-Men Origins: Wolverine - which takes place in the late 70s, at most nine years later - he's played by the 69-year-old Patrick Stewart, even though the character should be only a few years older.
Severity: Crappy but relatively painless
No-Prize: James McAvoy might conceivably lose all of his hair in just a few years, but there's no way he'd turn into Patrick Stewart that fast... even a Patrick Stewart under a lot of makeup and CGI de-aging software. But we're willing to admit this is pretty minor.
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13. There Are Two Sabretooths
Sabretooth was played by a 42-year-old Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and by a 34-year-old Tyler Mane in X-Men, which takes place at least two decades later. The age discrepancy is a non-issue, since Sabretooth ages just as slowly as Wolverine, but how did he change his hair color and get a whole lot dumber between the two stories?
Severity: Awkward
No-Prize: Sabretooth's transformation was supposedly explained by a tie-in comic book, but unless that comic book was issued to everyone who saw the movies that's not good enough. It's just plain confusing, but the time lapse does allow audiences to draw their own conclusions and assume that something happened to him between Origins and X-Men. Something stupid, but SOMETHING nevertheless.
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12. Beast Invented the Mutant Cure
In X-Men: First Class, Beast tries to invent a cure for physical mutations that doesn't affect a mutant's powers. In X-Men: Days of Future Past we learn that he perfected this cure to the point where it not only cures Professor X's paraplegia but also his powers outright. But then in X-Men: The Last Stand, which takes place decades later, Beast learns of a mutant cure and is astonished... even though he invented the same thing decades ago.
Severity: Annoying
No-Prize: Maybe Beast was just shocked that someone had come up with a cure on their own, and neglected to mention his own research in order to not make a shaky diplomatic situation even more complicated.
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11. There Are Two Bolivar Trasks
Bolivar Trask was played by a 63-year-old Bill Duke in X-Men: The Last Stand, and by a 44-year-old Peter Dinklage in X-Men: The Last Stand, which takes place at least four decades earlier. One is a politician, one is a scientist, and they look absolutely nothing alike.
Severity: Bullpucky
No-Prize: Although the commentary track for X-Men: The Last Stand claims that Bill Duke is playing the same Trask as Peter Dinklage, he's never actually called "Bolivar" in the movie, so he could be a relative or just somebody who just happens to also be named Trask. Duke's role in The Last Stand was minor anyway, but this is still pretty annoying.
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10. Wolverine's Amnesia Timeline
In both X-Men and X2: X-Men United, it's clearly stated that Wolverine has only been suffering from amnesia for 15 years. But in X-Men: Origins we learn that Wolverine lost his memory at Three Mile Island in 1979, about 25 years before the events of either of the other two movies.
Severity: Unnecessary
No-Prize: It's possible that Professor Xavier merely estimated the year in which Wolverine lost his memory and was off by whole decade, but either way, was it really necessary for Wolverine to lose his powers in 1979 just so they could use Three Mile Island as a backdrop? It had no affect on the story whatsoever anyway.
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9. Magneto Didn't Help Build Cerebro
In the original X-Men movies, Professor X explicitly states that Magneto helped him build Cerebro, the machine that boosts mutant telepathy and enables the X-Men to track mutants all over the world. In fact, that's a major plot point. But in X-Men: First Class we learn that Hank McCoy built Cerebro all by himself at CIA headquarters.
Severity: Kinda lame
No-Prize: Magneto may have helped Professor X assemble the version of Cerebro housed in the X-Men mansion. If so, he must have done it off-screen, during the brief, also unexplained period when Professor X and Magneto teamed up to recruit a young Jean Grey in the flashback from X-Men: The Last Stand.
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8. Wolverine's X-Rays
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wolverine is shot twice in the head by adamantium bullets, piercing his metal-coated skull and giving him amnesia. But in the original X-Men they x-ray his whole body and the holes in the adamantium don't show up on any of the x-rays, even the close-ups they show of his completely intact metal skull. His skull may have grown back, but the adamantium wouldn't have, and they would have been able to guess that his amnesia was the result of two mysterious holes in his cranium, and the two bullets that would be clearly visible in the x-rays.
Severity: Short-sighted
No-Prize: The mystery of Wolverine's amnesia hadn't been solved when the first X-Men was filmed, so they probably had no way of predicting that this would be an issue. Even so, the makers of X-Men Origins could have come up with a way to give him amnesia that didn't contradict the previous film, and spared us the headache of trying - and failing - to come up with a reasonable in-continuity solution for this screw up.
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7. Wolverine's Adamantium Claws Grow Back
Wolverine's adamantium claws are sliced off by The Silver Samurai at the end of The Wolverine, leaving him with only bone claws by the end of the film. But in the near future of X-Men: Days of Future Past his adamantium claws are back without any explanation.
Severity: Frustrating
No-Prize: Wolverine was working with Magneto, who may have been able to use his powers to coat Wolverine's claws with adamantium once again, but did he really have to have adamantium claws in the future? He never actually needs them and the only person he stabs would have been equally injured if the claws were made of bone anyhow.
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6. There Are Two Emma Frosts
Emma Frost was played by a 23-year-old Tahyna Tozzi in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and by a 33-year-old January Jones in X-Men: First Class, which takes place over a decade earlier. One is a supervillain, the other a helpless victim.
Severity: Damn it, you guys...
No-Prize: The Emma from X-Men Origins could just be a character who happens to have the same name and the exact same powers as the Emma from First Class, but the filmmakers knew that audiences would recognize the character instantly and completely ignored her introduction just one film later. Screw that.
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5. Moira MacTaggert's Age
In X-Men: First Class, Moira MacTaggert is introduced as a 31-year-old Rose Byrne in 1962, but in X-Men: The Last Stand - which takes place "in the not-so distant future" after the year 2000 - she's played by the 38-year-old Olivia Williams, even though the character should be about 80 years old.
Severity: Bad
No-Prize: The Moira MacTaggert of X-Men: The Last Stand could conceivably be the daughter of the Moira MacTaggert from X-Men: First Class, but we seriously doubt that's what the filmmakers had in mind.
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4. Magneto's Helmet is Half a Century Old
In the original X-Men movie, Professor X doesn't know how Magneto is blocking his telepathic powers. But the helmet that protects Magneto's mind was first introduced in 1962, and Professor X knew all about it in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which takes place in the early 1970s.
Severity: Totally lame
No-Prize: The filmmakers obviously needed the helmet as a plot device to keep Professor X from solving a problem like Magneto in the 1960s, but we can't figure out how to reconcile this goof in the actual continuity of the films.
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3. Wolverine Remembers World War II
As we learned in the first X-Men, Wolverine is an amnesiac, and can't remember anything - as we learned in X-Men Origins: Wolverine - that happened before 1979. But the whole plot of The Wolverine hinges on Wolverine's memories of World War II... which he's not supposed to have.
Severity: Really bad
No-Prize: Somehow he must have got his memories back after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, but heaven knows how. Wouldn't that be kind of a big deal? Isn't that something they should have actually shown us?
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2. Cyclops's Age
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Cyclops is introduced as a teenager in 1979, but in the first X-Men movie - which takes place "in the not-so distant future" after the year 2000 - he's played by the 27-year-old James Marsden, even though the character should be about 50 years old.
Severity: Stupid
No-Prize: We got nothin'. There's no explanation for this that makes any sense whatsoever.
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1. Professor X's Body
In X-Men: The Last Stand, Professor X is vaporized by Jean Grey and wakes up after the credits in the body of a comatose black guy, having apparently downloaded his body into another mind halfway around the planet even though he supposedly can't reach that far without Cerebro, which he wasn't connected to at the time of his death anyway. But in The Wolverine he shows up again in his old body like nothing ever happened.
Severity: Seriously, what the hell
No-Prize: If Professor X hadn't physically shown up in X-Men: Days of Future Past we'd have assumed that he merely projected an image of his old body into Wolverine's mind at the end of The Wolverine, but he did, meaning he somehow got his old disintegrated body back. Maybe cloning was involved or something, but that solution would result in just as many problems as it answers.
