X-Men: First Class is a 2011 action and super-hero film, based on the X-Men team of mutant heroes and serving as prequel to the original X-Men film trilogy.
Synopsis[]
In the early 1960s, during the height of the Cold War, a mutant named Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) meets a fellow mutant named Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender). Despite their vastly different backgrounds -- Charles grew up with a wealthy family, while Erik lost his parents at Auschwitz -- the two become close friends. As the world teeters on the brink of a nuclear war, Charles and Erik with other mutants join forces to save humanity. However, a situation soon tears the friends apart.
Appearances[]
Main article: X-Men: First Class (film)/ Characters
X-Men[]
Division X (CIA)[]
- Moira MacTaggert
- Man in Black
Hellfire Club[]
- Sebastian Shaw
- Emma Frost
- Azazel
- Riptide
- Tempest
Other[]
- Wolverine
- Storm
- Cyclops
- William Stryker Sr.
- Edie Lehnsherr
- John F. Kennedy
- Mrs. Xavier
- Colonel Hendricks
Plot[]
At a Nazi concentration camp in occupied Poland in 1944, scientist Dr. Klaus Schmidt observes young Erik Lensherr bend a metal gate with his mind when the child is separated from his mother. In his office, Schmidt orders Lensherr to similarly move a coin on a desk, and kills his mother when the child cannot. In his grief and anger, Lensherr's magnetic power manifests, killing two guards and destroying the room, to Schmidt's delight.At a mansion in Westchester County, New York, young telepath Charles Xavier meets homeless young shape-shifter Raven. Overjoyed to meet someone else "different", he invites her to live with his family.In 1962, an adult Lensherr is tracking down Schmidt to take revenge. In England, Oxford University graduate Xavier is publishing his thesis on mutation; Raven, now his foster sister, lives with him. In Las Vegas, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert follows U.S. Army Colonel Hendry into the Hellfire Club, where she sees Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, and Azazel. After Shaw threatens Hendry, Azazel disappears with the colonel; minutes later Hendry is in the War Room, advocating that the U.S. install nuclear missiles in Turkey. Shaw later kills Hendry, revealing himself as Schmidt and demonstrating the energy-absorbing mutant power that has de-aged him.MacTaggert, seeking Xavier's advice on mutation, convinces him and Raven to join her at the CIA, where they convince Director McCone mutants exist and Shaw is a threat. The unnamed "Man in Black Suit", another CIA executive, sponsors the mutants and invites them to the CIA's secret "Division X" facility. Xavier locates Shaw, arriving in time to stop Lensherr, who had attacked Shaw, from drowning as Shaw escapes. Xavier brings Lensherr to Division X, where they meet young scientist Hank McCoy, a prehensile-footed mutant who Xavier inadvertently outs as a mutant. McCoy, developing a bond with Raven, promises her he will find a way to normalize their appearance. Xavier uses a mutant-locating device, Cerebro, to find and recruit mutants for training to stop Shaw. He and Lensherr find stripper Angel Salvadore; taxi driver Armando Muñoz, who takes the code name Darwin; Army prisoner Alex Summers, who calls himself Havok; and Sean Cassidy, who dubs himself Banshee. Raven takes the name Mystique.When Frost meets with a Soviet general in the USSR, Xavier and Lensherr capture her. Meanwhile, Azazel, Riptide and Shaw attack Division X, killing everyone but the young mutants and offering them the chance to join him. Angel accepts; when Darwin tries to fight back, Shaw kills him. With the facility destroyed, Xavier takes the mutants to train at his family mansion. McCoy devises protective uniforms and a stealth jet. In Moscow, Shaw compels the general to have the Soviet Union install nuclear missiles in Cuba.During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. President John F. Kennedy institutes a blockade to stop a Soviet freighter from moving the nuclear missiles to Cuba. Shaw, wearing a helmet that foils Xavier's telepathy, accompanies the Soviet fleet to ensure the missiles arrive, trying to trigger World War III and achieve mutant ascendency. Raven goes to seduce Lensherr, who convinces her to embrace her nature as a mutant. Later, McCoy offers Raven his cure for her appearance, but she refuses. The cure backfires on McCoy, rendering him a leonine beast. Though ashamed of his new appearance, he pilots the mutants and MacTaggert to the blockade line. In an ensuing battle with Shaw, Lensherr takes the helmet for himself, allowing Xavier to immobilize Shaw. Despite Xavier's objections, Lensherr kills Shaw by forcing the Nazi coin through his brain.Fearing the mutants, the fleets fire their missiles at them. In a struggle, Xavier keeps Lensherr from destroying the fleets with the missiles, but when MacTaggert fires at Lensherr, a deflected bullet hits Xavier in the spine. Lensherr, remorseful, leaves with Mystique, Angel, Riptide and Azazel. A wheelchair-bound Xavier and the mutants return to the mansion, where he intends to open a school. MacTaggert promises never to reveal his location and they kiss; at the CIA later, she says she has no clear memory of recent events. Lensherr, in a uniform with the helmet and calling himself Magneto, breaks Frost from confinement.
Cast[]
- James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X
- Laurence Belcher as 12-year-old Charles Xavier
- Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
- Bill Milner plays the young Erik Lensherr
- Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw
- Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique
- Morgan Lily as young Raven.
- Rebecca Romijn as older Mystique
- Morgan Lily as young Raven.
- January Jones as Emma Frost
- Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
- Nicholas Hoult as Beast (Cinematic Universe)
- Zoe Kravitz as Angel Salvadore
- Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy/Banshee
- Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok
- Edi Gathegi as Armando Muñoz/Darwin
- Jason Flemyng as Azazel
- Alex Gonzalez as Janos Quested/Riptide
- Beth Goddard as Sharon Xavier
- Oliver Platt as The Man in Black
- Demetri Goritsas as Levene
- Glenn Morshower as Colonel Robert Hendry
- Don Creech as William Stryker Sr.
- Matt Craven as CIA Director John McCone
- Ludger Pistor as Pig Farmer
- Wilfried Hochholdinger as Tailor
- Rade Serbedzija as General Armivolkoff
- James Faulkner as Swiss Bank Manager
- Éva Magyar as Edie Lehnsherr
- Annabelle Wallis as Amy
- Gregory Cox as Dr. Leigh
- Georg Nikoloff as Jakob Lehnsherr
- Arthur Darbinyan as Aral Sea Captain
- Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine (uncredited)
Gallery[]
Main article: X-Men: First Class/Gallery
